Day: November 10, 2021

Myanmar’s military regime has been snubbed once again on the international stage, this time by the organizers of the United Nations climate change conference, who turned its five-person delegation away at the door to the summit in Glasgow, Scotland, this week.

The move to bar the delegation comes just a month after reports that the U.N. credentialing committee delayed acceptance of the junta’s appointed envoy to the General Assembly as part of a U.S.-China-brokered deal that would have the representative of Myanmar’s deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) government “take a low profile” until a formal decision is made later this year.

Sources close to the military government recently told RFA’s Myanmar Service that Hla Maung Thein, the junta’s director general of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, had planned to send a five-member delegation to the Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 conference, known as COP26. The group was to be led by Ambassador Tun Aung Kyaw of the Myanmar Embassy in London.

However, Myanmar pro-democracy groups learned of the plan and protested the junta’s inclusion, which they said would allow it to raise its international profile despite its violent repression at home of opponents to its Feb. 1 coup.

Kyaw Swa Tun, a third secretary at the Myanmar Embassy in Washington, told RFA that the delegation had been denied entry to the 192-member nation conference when it arrived in Glasgow.

“The military council was trying to get [global] recognition. A delegation of five people, led by the junta’s Ambassador Tun Aung Kyaw and Councilor Chit Win, traveled to Glasgow,” he said.

“At the U.N. there is a group that accepts nominations and there’s another group that deals with credentials. At the time of the nomination of the five, travel expenses were paid by the U.N. nominating group. However, the credentials group rejected their nomination and so they were not allowed to attend the meeting and had to return home from Scotland.”

It was not immediately clear which group or individual objected to the junta’s participation at the COP26. Junta representatives were even barred from taking part in the conference virtually.

RFA learned that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) had paid for the travel expenses of at least three of the five delegates when the junta was initially invited.

RFA was unable to contact the UNFCCC for comment on the decision to block the junta from attending the conference.

Nine months after the Feb. 1 coup, the junta’s security forces have killed 1,252 civilians and arrested at least 7,091, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Many of the deaths and arrests have occurred during crackdowns on anti-junta protests.

The junta claims it unseated the NLD government because the party had engineered its victory in the 2020 election through widespread voter fraud, though international observers rated the vote legitimate. Military leaders have yet to present evidence backing up their allegation, and protests against the regime continue.

‘A victory for the people of Myanmar’

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) said it had also attempted to send a delegation to COP26 but was rejected.

“As we all know, our government was formed on behalf of the people, so I think U.N. officials should recognize our government’s representation and allow us to attend such major conferences,” NUG Deputy Foreign Minister Moe Zaw Oo told RFA.

“Otherwise, our country will miss a lot of opportunities because of non-participation at meetings on important issues,” he added, saying that the NUG would continue its efforts to represent Myanmar on the world stage.

Moe Zaw Oo said the decision to ban the junta from attending the climate conference was “a victory for the people of Myanmar.”

“They are trying to attend U.N. meetings, but U.N. officials and host countries are also working to prevent them from being represented,” he said.

“It will teach them the lesson that an organization that does not represent the people will not be allowed to attend such meetings.”

Arkar Myo Htet, an NLD lawmaker, said refusing the junta representation at COP26 was a blow to the military regime.

“It is a blessing for our uprising and our people that the junta was not allowed to attend such an important conference,” he said.

“This shows that the global community stands with our people. … The military is slowly failing in the international arena.”

Attempts by RFA to reach junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment regarding the delegation were not successful.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

A married couple trying to sell tofu said they were assaulted by police Wednesday when they began filming a raid of a temporary wet market in the southern Vietnamese province of An Giang.

According to Nguyen Hoang Nam and his wife Lam Thi Nguyen Trinh, residents of My Phu hamlet, which is part of Vinh Chau commune, the incident began when they initially attempted to cross a bridge to reach the commune’s large marketplace on the other side of a canal.

Authorities had shut down the bridge as part of a lockdown imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Local sellers set up a smaller, temporary market on their side of the bridge in response.

The couple said they interpreted a recent announcement that Vietnam would lower restrictions as an invitation to cross back over the bridge to the larger marketplace. But they were blocked once again from crossing.

“Before the government said that anyone who was fully vaccinated would be allowed to cross the bridge. But after we got our two shots, they asked for us to submit a travel permit,” Nguyen Hoang Nam, a resident of An Giang, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

“This morning I told them that the prime minister issued Directive 128, which lifts movement restrictions as the country transitions to a strategy of living together with the pandemic. It’s supposed to facilitate trade. So, I asked them why they are putting up the checkpoint to block movement again.”

Nam said that when the police still would not allow him to cross the bridge, he and others returned to the site of the temporary market and set up shop there only to be confronted by the officers once again, he said.

“They snatched our stuff like robbers. This is suppression, not an act for the people,” Nam said.

“If they really think for the people, they should have let us do business and only block the affected areas. This is a deliberate crack-down to push people into economic exhaustion,” he said.

Vietnam was relatively successful in containing the pandemic in 2020 and the first few months of 2021, but it has been struggling with a fourth wave that began in April. As confirmed cases climb, authorities have instituted and extended temporary lockdowns in the provinces and cities.

Nam and Trinh had been running a small tofu stand at the temporary market over the past few days. When the police came to shut down the market, officers asked the couple to move.

Trinh told RFA that her husband began filming while they argued with the police about their right to cross the bridge.

“They got out of their police car to ask him to stop filming. My husband responded that he had the right to film and asked on what grounds they forbid him to do so. Then they came closer and snatched my husband’s phone,” she said.

“I saw it all when I was frying tofu. I got angry and I stood up and grabbed the collar of the guy who snatched my husband’s phone and demanded he return it. I told them they had no right to take it because my husband hadn’t done anything wrong,” Trinh said.

After that, another officer jumped onto Nam and held him by his neck, pushing his head to the ground and crushing his body against the pavement, she said.

Trinh said she also was pushed down when she tried to get Nam’s phone back. She said she suffered a scratch to the knee.

Nam said that the police let him go after he banged his head on the ground and the police became aware that a crowd of townspeople were witnessing the confrontation.

RFA attempted to contact the Vinh Chau Commune People’s Committee to verify the incident, but repeated calls went unanswered.

To date, 94 percent of the province’s population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 30 percent are fully vaccinated.

As of Wednesday, Vietnam has confirmed 984,805 cases of the coronavirus, with more than 15,000 appearing in An Giang province.

Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Cambodian Navy Commander Tea Vinh and Defense Ministry Director-General Chau Phirun on Wednesday.

A press release announcing their designation under the Magnitsky Act accused the pair of conspiring to illegally profit from the refurbishment of Ream Naval Base, near Sihanoukville.

Ongoing construction work at the base has been a frequent subject of speculation since a 2019 article in the Wall Street Journal claimed a secret treaty had been signed granting the Chinese navy use of the base for 30 years. A spokesperson for the Cambodian government denounced the story as “fake news.”

Suspicions have remained however, thanks to admissions by officials that the project has the support of the Chinese government. It has become a sore point in U.S.-Cambodia relations, and the imposition of sanctions is likely to add to the tensions.

Wednesday’s press release accused Phirun of having, “conspired to profit from activities regarding the construction and updating of Ream Naval Base facilities.”

“Additionally, Chau, Tea, and other Cambodian government officials likely conspired to inflate the cost of facilities at Ream Naval Base and personally benefit from the proceeds,” it continued. “Tea and Chau planned to share funds skimmed from the Ream Naval Base project.”

The press release offered no evidence to substantiate the allegations and the Treasury’s press office did not respond to an email seeking comment on the matter.

Cambodia’s government and the sanctioned individuals could not immediately be reached for comment after the announcement which came during the night in Asia.

This is not the first time corruption allegations have been leveled at Phirun, who heads up the Defense Ministry’s Material and Technical Services Department.

In March 2007, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered Phirun to return more than 200 hectares (495 acres) of land that he had allegedly stolen. He handed them to the government under threat of being fired.

Three years later, in January 2010, the prime minister once again named him during a speech at the Defense Ministry, identifying him as one of several corrupt generals.

In May of the same year, 22 teachers alleged that in 1991 Phirun had held them against their will. He only released them, they claimed, after the teachers thumb-printed contracts surrendering six hectares (15 acres) of land in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district to Phirun and the wife of Tea Vinh’s brother, Defense Minister Tea Banh.

Phirun was part of a delegation that travelled with Banh to China in 2019 to sign a mutual cooperation agreement to increase the scale of the Cambodian and Chinese militaries’ joint exercises.

Vinh has received his share of controversial press coverage, too. In 2007, he was named alongside his brother Banh in a report by anti-corruption NGO Global Witness. Customs officials told investigators that the brothers’ wives employed the services of Hak Mao, an officer with the Cambodian army’s Brigade 70, to transport illicit timber. Mao was arrested for allegedly obstructing a narcotics investigation at his home in 2012, although he was subsequently released without charge.

“Both these men have a history of involvement in illegal timber exports,” the 2007 report said of Banh and Vinh.

The brothers were the subject of an investigation by environmental news website Mongabay in October of this year, alleging that Vinh “is actively orchestrating a fire sale of land” throughout Koh Kong province, which neighbors Sihanouk province where Ream Naval Base is located.

In addition to his duties with the Defense Ministry, Phirun is the co-owner of Impex Royal (Cambodia) Co Ltd with Russian citizen Alexander Borisenko.

Cambodian Ministry of Commerce records show that the company was registered in 2010. However, a Cambodian company of the same name existed prior to that with Borisenko at its head, according to a 2003 report by Baltic news portal Delfi and a 2007 decision by the Moscow Arbitration Court. The Delfi report described how Impex Royal, under the supervision of Borisenko, allegedly imported a military helicopter to Sudan in violation of EU sanctions in force at the time.

In 2018, Phirun became a founding director of another Cambodian company, Rain Cam Rich Co Ltd. Among the eight other co-directors was a Chinese man named Wang Molin. Molin shares his name with an executive from the Chinese state-owned Jiangling Motors Corporation Group (JMCG). Along with Phirun, Molin presided over an official meeting between the JCMG and Phirun’s department at the Defense Ministry, according to a May 2018 post to the ministry’s Facebook page.

That a senior official in a procurement role seemingly entered into a private business arrangement with an executive of a company seemingly courting the official’s department raises questions of conflict of interest.

Tuesday’s designation will freeze any asserts Vinh and Phirun have in the U.S., and prohibit all American citizens and companies from doing business with them. The State Department also issued complementary travel bans prohibiting entry to the U.S. for Phirun, his sons Chau Phirith and Chau Puleak, Vinh, his daughter Tier Leakhena, his son Tea Sokha, and Vinh’s wife Kan Chantrea.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in a 16-page opinion issued on Oct. 25 has spoken out against what it calls the “arbitrary” arrest and detention of Vietnamese journalist and dissident Pham Doan Trang, who had written books criticizing Vietnam’s government and been interviewed by Radio Free Asia and the BBC. Arrested on Oct. 6, 2020 at her home in Ho Chi Minh City, Trang was later charged with “making, storing, distributing, or disseminating information documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. RFA’s Giang Nguyen interviewed human rights lawyer Kurtuluş Baştimar, who filed the petition on behalf of Pham Doan Trang with the UN Working Group.

RFA: We spoke back in July when you were in the process of submitting this petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in the case of Pham Doan Trang. And now we have this decision by the Working Group calling Trang’s deprivation of liberty “arbitrary.” When did you receive this decision, and what was your reaction?

Baştimar: I am so happy to have learned of this decision, as it is really important for international human rights law. I received this decision on Monday [Oct. 25]. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention transmitted the decision to me after they sent it to the Vietnamese government. My reaction is that the decision clearly states that the arrest and the detention of Pham Doan Trang was arbitrary under international law, because when we look at Paragraph 64 of the decision it says the Vietnamese government.

As you know, the U.N. Working group considers five categories, and each category involves different articles. In the first category, the UN working group decided that under Category One, Article Nine of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Trang’s civil and political rights were violated, as I said, because her arrest and detention was carried out without an arrest warrant and Trang was not informed about the charges against her. And that’s how Article 9, Subparagraph One and Subparagraph Two were violated.

The government justified the absence of an arrest warrant by stating that the arrest had been approved by the People’s Procuracy. But the UNWGAD says the People’s Procuracy is not an independent judicial authority. And this is really important because indirectly it means that even if an arrest warrant was approved by the People’s Procuracy, this would not matter either because the judicial authority in question is not independent. 

The UN working group also decided that Trang has been unable to challenge her detention before the court. And that’s why her right to effective remedy under Article 2, Subparagraph Three of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has been also violated. That means that since the first arrest and detention of Trang, she has not been allowed to challenge her detention.

There is also another important and crucial part: The UN also decided that Trang has been placed outside of the protection of the law. That means her right to be recognized as a person before the law, under Article 16 of the Covenant, has also been violated. So, you know, this is really, really important. If a person cannot be regarded as a person before the law, that is the minimum level of human rights that must be protected. But it was also violated, and especially in Paragraph 68, the UN Working Group stated once again stated that the Vietnamese government cannot deprive the liberty of an individual based on Article 88 or amended Article 117 (of Vietnam’s Penal Code), because these articles are really broad and vague.

The UN also stated in this decision that a law must be clear and precise: so that when Vietnamese individuals read this law, they can understand it and regulate their behavior accordingly. But when they look at the law—namely Article 88 or 117 amended—they cannot understand what kind of action could be categorized as ‘conducting propaganda’ or ‘defaming the government.’ And they do not know this because the limits of the law are not clearly identified.

RFA: So what this all means is that we have a decision by the Working Group finding Pham Doan Trang’s detention ‘arbitrary?’

Baştimar: This decision is an international decision and was given by a supranational body, namely the UN Working Group. This means the Vietnamese government cannot judge, try, or continue to arrest and detain Pham Doan Trang. Because even if her detention has a basis or is legal under domestic law, this is not sufficient reason for a person to be arrested or detained. Arrest and detention must also be in line with international law. This has been stated many times by the United Nations Human Rights Committee as well. 

The Vietnamese government should now respect this international decision because many of its domestic law processes as well as international laws have been violated [during Trang’s arrest and detetion.] This international decision clearly states that the deprivation of Pham Doan Trang’s liberty is arbitrary under international law. That’s why she must be released immediately and unconditionally.

RFA: You mentioned that the Working Group stated that no trial should be held for Trang. We also know that the Vietnamese government tends to disregard such rulings, as it has in the past. We fully expect that they will continue with the trial. What mechanism does the Working Group have to hold the government accountable to those covenants that it has signed?

Baştimar: Basically you are right. We know that the Vietnamese government tries to ignore these decisions. They continue to rely on their own domestic laws and their domestic law processes. But that doesn’t mean that they have a right to continue to ignore these decisions.

When we look at the impact of these decisions, we see the Vietnamese government decided to amend Article 88. So we know there is huge pressure and a huge impact resulting from those decisions in every country—for example including in Turkey and in other countries as well. These decisions cannot be regarded as having a vague impact or no impact at all. 

When it comes to the process of following up on those decisions after the trial process or at any other stage, the UN Working Group has now initiated follow-up procedures, which means the Vietnamese government will be monitored, and will be asked to provide information on whether or not Pham Doan Trang has been released, and whether she has been remedied or not. All of this information will be tracked by the UN Working Group. 

But if the Vietnamese government continues to not implement the Working Group’s decision, they will be invited to the United Nations Human Rights Council, where they will be questioned. And they will be asked to provide the reason why they did not implement this decision.

But I know that in the case of Pham Doan Trang, this decision will have a huge impact because we know from domestic lawyers in Vietnam that she was accused on [a charge that can carry a penalty of] 20 years of prison, but this has now been decreased to three years. 

So every step we have taken at the level of international law has a great impact on domestic law and the domestic trial process. But I agree with you, that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention must start to have a body or process that can impose sanctions in case the decision is ignored.

RFA: Obviously, you’ll be following this case now, but what other steps will be taken by yourself and other advocates for Pham Doan Trang? What’s next, given this decision?

Bastimar: I will continue to follow the case and the decision and the situation of Pham Doan Trang in Vietnam. But I have already spoken to some international human rights bodies and other entities who will support us. I will also try to connect with parliamentarians in Europe.

We don’t want to intervene, and we are not intervening, in the domestic affairs of Vietnam, and we are not issuing any orders to the Vietnamese courts. We are just kindly asking the government to respect international law and the international decision that our client should be released, and we will continue to fight for the rights of Pham Doan Trang until she is released.

Thai authorities have arrested and deported to Cambodia two activists from the banned political opposition after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered one of them arrested over a poem criticizing the strongman ruler, two other party activists said Wednesday.

Thai authorities apprehended Voeun Veasna and Voeung Samnang while they were returning to their apartment on Nov. 8 and demanded money to bail them out, the two other activists told RFA.

On Oct. 9, Voeun Veasna used his Facebook account under the name Kranhoung Preylang to post a poem titled “Hun Sen is a Traitor” on the prime minister’s Facebook page. The poem criticized Sen for amending Cambodia’s constitution, thereby “destroying the country.”

The poem also accused Hun Sen of allowing Cambodia’s forests to be destroyed during his rule.

Hun Sen quickly responded to Voeun Veasna’s poem, calling it an expression of “extremist theory,” and called for his arrest, according to a Khmer Times report.

The 35-year-old activist affiliated with the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) had been living in exile in neighboring Thailand.

Not much is known about Voeung Samnang, whose arrest Hun Sen did not order.

Oeur Narith, a fellow CNRP activist who is seeking asylum in Thailand, said he had been working with the United Nations and human rights groups to raise the bail money, but in the meantime Thai authorities had secretly deported the pair back to Cambodia.

“We tried our best, but they were deported quietly. It is unfortunate today that they have already sent them back,” Oeur Narith said.

Despite their arrest, Oeur Narith, who is wanted in Cambodia for incitement, said he would not be discouraged from continuing to support the opposition party.

“I have sacrificed my freedom and have been detained a few times,” he said. “I will continue to stand up for the country and not be selfish.”

The second CNRP activist who confirmed the arrests and deportations requested anonymity because that person is still working with the U.S. to ensure the safety of Voeun Veasna and Voeung Samnang.

Thai officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but on Tuesday, Thai Police Lt. Gen. Pakpumpipat Sajapand, deputy chief of police’s immigration bureau, told RFA-affiliated BenarNews by phone: “[We] do not have information on the people.”

RFA could not reach Cambodia’s national police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun for comment.

One rights activist blasted the move by the Thai government.

“The Thai authorities action to send these two recognized refugees back to Thailand is outrageous and unacceptable, and is a complete betrayal of Bangkok’s obligation to protect refugees,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division.

“By sending these two men back to face certain persecution, and quite likely abuses and torture in custody, the Thai government has shown it values horse trading with people’s lives over upholding its rights obligations,” he said.

Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November 2017, two months after arresting its president Kem Sokha over an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Scores of supporters of the group have since been incarcerated, awaiting a tortuous legal process made slower by COVID-19 restrictions.

The move came amid a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the country’s political opposition, independent media, and NGOs that allowed the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in a July 2018 election and drew U.S. sanctions and the suspension of trade privileges with the European Union.

Thailand has historically served as a haven for refugees from neighboring countries, but has also repatriated people at risk of jailing or mistreatment.

In January 2019, Truong Duy Nhat, who had been a weekly contributor to RFA’s Vietnamese Service and was seeking political asylum in Thailand, was arrested by Thai Royal Police and handed over to Vietnamese police, who took him across the border into Laos, and from there back to Vietnam, where he is serving 10 years in jail on a land-fraud charge.

And in December 2018, Thailand deported to Cambodia the president of a construction workers union who had helped produce a documentary about sex trafficking for Russian state-owned TV network Russia Today (RT).

Rath Rott Mony spent two years in prison and paid a fine of 70 million riels (U.S. $17,200) in fines for “incitement” after his repatriation from Thailand, where he had fled to seek asylum.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

North Korea is cracking down on the use of unauthorized printers to prevent citizens from publishing anti-state materials, but sources told RFA that confiscation of the high-cost printing machines is ruining small businesses.

North Korea permits only state-controlled media and severely limits access to the internet, but to control the potential distribution of underground print media, authorities force all printer owners to register the equipment with the government.

“Printers are especially regulated by the government and are often randomly inspected,” a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service.

“During this crackdown, members of the Publishing Guidance Bureau came out and checked the printers against the documents they printed,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

Printers in photo studios and print shops are owned and operated by the people running those businesses, which are permitted because they provide an essential service to the public. But printer ownership comes with frequent inspections.

“The printers owned by the government institutions are black and white document printers, but in the photo studios, they can print high-quality color photos. These kinds of printers can print books, certificates, and other important documents, so they are inspected often,” the source said.

“But all printers that have not been registered or that have different serial numbers from their registration documents are confiscated,” said the source.

Registering a printer is a long and drawn-out process and getting approval to own one is very difficult, according to the source.

“Sometimes when printers break down, the owner will secretly purchase the same model and use it as if it was the one that broke. That seems why these inspections have started,” the source said.

“The photo studios that have lost their printers during this crackdown have nobody to complain to. They are not only out of U.S. $500 to $600, the confiscation means they cannot print photos for people and their livelihood is cut off.”

Printers these days are more regulated than computers are, another resident of North Hamgyong told RFA.

“Many companies and people will freely sell computers to anyone with the money to buy them, but they cannot do that with printers,” said the second source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“Printers are very strictly controlled. To buy one, you must apply for permission from the social security department, the state security department, and the publishing guidance bureau. After that, you must register the printer and obtain an operator’s license if you want to print anything,” the second source said.

Although there are many companies that import products from China and other countries, only the Ogasan Trading Corporation, a state-owned company that generates cash for the ruling Korean Workers’ Party’s Propaganda and Agitation Department, has the right to import and sell printers to the public, according to the second source.

“Use of computers and digital cameras continues to increase in North Korea, but there are few places where people can print documents and photos,” the second source said.

“Because of the fear that private printers can crank out any number of anti-party or anti-government publications, capitalist books, propaganda leaflets, and counterfeit money, printers are a pretty high-profile crackdown target.

RFA reported in September 2020 that North Korean authorities arrested a man who worked at a publishing company and used a digital printer make realistic-looking counterfeit bills.

The deteriorating economic situation over the course of the coronavirus pandemic resulted in many desperate North Koreans attempting the same crime.

RFA reported in July of this year that the country began a major crackdown on counterfeiters, labeling them as “traitors who are aligned with external enemies.” 

Examples of anti-regime writings produced inside North Korea are exceedingly rare, but in recent years, people who’ve escaped the North to settle in South Korea have used balloons to send leaflets critical of the regime across the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

The leaflet campaign angered North Korea and let to South Korea enacting a law banning the balloon launches.

Authorities are so serious about anti-governmental statements that after graffiti appeared on the wall of a marketplace, they tried to identify the culprit by forcing the whole county to submit handwriting samples, RFA reported in September 2020.

Translated by Claire Lee for RFA’s Korean Service. Written in English by Eugene Whong.