Day: January 25, 2022

North Korean agencies are fighting with the military and one another over cargo space on trains that are now once again bringing in goods from China, after two years of closed borders left a vast shortage of supplies, officials told RFA.

In January 2020, Pyongyang and Beijing stopped bilateral trade in an effort to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move effectively cut North Korea off from the rest of the world and devastated its economy.

Rail freight briefly resumed on Nov. 1, 2021, but was shut down again a week later due to surges of confirmed cases in China. Pyongyang and Beijing reopened the border to rail freight only last week.

Government agencies under the control of North Korea’s Cabinet are working to bring in necessities for the country’s citizens and rebuild its economy. But the military, which is not controlled by the Cabinet, needs its own resources and is taking up most of the space there is on the freight trains to bring them in.

“The sudden reopening has led to a growing conflict between government administrative agencies,” a trading company official from the northwestern province of North Pyongan, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Korean Service Jan. 23.

“The allocation of the cargo compartments is under the direct control of the Central Party, and it looks like priority is given to the Second Economy Committee,” the source said, referring to trading companies affiliated with the military.

Trading companies for the ministries under the Cabinet are classified under the First Economy Committee.

“In the end, the trading companies affiliated with the Cabinet offices are likely to lose space to the military’s needs,” the source said. “The non-military-affiliated trading companies urgently need to bring in daily necessities for the people to survive, but they have not been able to do anything because they have been pushed to lower priorities.”

Cabinet officials are unhappy that the Central Committee would give all the space to the more privileged organizations like the military and the Party, while still telling them they are responsible for reviving the country’s moribund economy, the source said.

Some of the officials are even griping that the central government does not care about its citizens and only restarted trade to help the privileged elite and the military, according to the source.

“It’s not like in the past, where both you and I share power. Now the more powerful one can just say, ‘All 15 cargo compartments are mine,’ Regular companies can do nothing,” the source said.

On the morning of Jan. 17, a train with more than 10 cars crossed the Yalu River from the North Korean border city of Sinuiju, headed for China’s Dandong on the other side, an official from another trading company in the capital Pyongyang told RFA.

“Most of the cargo spaces on the train were designated for the Second Economy Committee,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“They want to supply materials for the military … ahead of the Lunar New Year on Feb. 1. The authorities are only interested in munitions, so it will be impossible for them to recover the people’s economy, which since the pandemic has been severely deteriorated,” the second source said.

Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that he has invited Myanmar junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to an upcoming summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) provided he implements conditions to end the political crisis in his country.

Hun Sen, who is serving a term as chair of the 10-member bloc, made the comments during a video call with Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob, according to a statement posted on the Cambodian leader’s Facebook page. Min Aung Hlaing must first act on promises he made to end violence in his country at an emergency ASEAN meeting in April last year after leading a military coup two months earlier, the statement said.

“Hun Sen said that he had invited His Excellency Min Aung Hlaing to the ASEAN summit if there is progress in implementing the unanimously agreed upon five-point consensus, but if not, [Myanmar will] send non-political representatives to the ASEAN meeting instead,” the statement said.

The prime minister said that ASEAN has “a lot of work to do” and cannot allow itself to “become a slave to Myanmar” by becoming too focused on the latter’s internal politics, the statement said.

Following the meeting, Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary of State Kao Kim Hourn told government mouthpiece Fresh News that Hun Sen will hold a video conference with Min Aung Hlaing on Wednesday to discuss what developments the junta has made on the five-point consensus.

On Tuesday’s call, Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob stressed to Hun Sen the need for urgent de-escalation of violence in Myanmar, inclusive political dialogue, and the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, according to a statement released by Malaysia’s Ministry of Defense. He also called for an ASEAN envoy to be granted full access to all parties concerned as part of a bid to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

But the ministry said that Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob had remained firm on his country’s earlier stance to refrain from inviting representatives of the junta to ASEAN meetings until the military regime had lived up to its commitments.

Earlier visit to Myanmar

Earlier this month, Hun Sen met with Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar to discuss international and regional issues, marking the first visit by a foreign leader to the country since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, despite protests over what is seen as his support for the military regime and its repressive policies.

Following the meeting, the two sides released a statement that sought to highlight that the inclusion of a special envoy in talks to deescalate “tension” in Myanmar was an important step in meeting ASEAN’s five-point consensus. The junta has failed to implement any of the steps and ASEAN had declined to invite its delegations to several high-profile meetings, including its annual summit.

During his Jan. 7-8 visit, Hun Sen also failed to meet with any of Myanmar’s prodemocracy leaders, including jailed National League for Democracy (NLD) chief Aung San Suu Kyi — another condition of the five-points — in a move that observers say shows the prime minister intends to treat the junta with kid gloves as chair of ASEAN.

Since deposing the democratically elected NLD in February, junta forces have killed nearly 1,500 civilians and arrested more than 8,780 — mostly during nonviolent protests of military rule — and are engaged in multiple offensives against ethnic armed groups and anti-junta militias.

In the weeks since Hun Sen’s visit, Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to four years in detention and the military has deployed air strikes during clashes that have displaced thousands of civilians.

Approach criticized

Hun Sen’s video conference with Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob on Tuesday came days after he lashed out at Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah in a phone call with Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo for being “arrogant” by criticizing Phnom Penh’s strategy to deal with Myanmar. Abdullah had earlier told reporters that Hun Sen should have consulted with other leaders from ASEAN before going to Myanmar to meet with Min Aung Hlaing.

The visit also prompted criticism from the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), which was later rejected by Cambodia’s National Assembly in a statement attacking the group’s chair Charles Santiago.

On Tuesday, the APHR urged Cambodia to “prioritize its efforts on finding the solutions needed to address the tragic crisis engulfing Myanmar,” citing what it said are “more urgent humanitarian and human rights needs” in the country.

“Now what is needed is for the ASEAN chair to work closely with the rest of its members to hold the junta leader accountable towards the Five-Point Consensus that he himself also agreed to,” Santiago said in a statement.

“Amidst all of this, let’s not forget the people of Myanmar, who continue to be subjected to the terror and violence of this junta, and yet bravely continue to voice their rejection of the military.”

Reporting by RFA’s Myanmar Service, Khmer Service, and Iskandar Zulkarnain for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Lao government officials have cleared a Chinese firm to dig for rare earths on farm and grazing land in a northeastern province of the country, with compensation for displaced villagers not yet settled, Lao sources say.

An agreement signed Jan. 21 by the Lao Ministry of Plans and Development gives the Tong Lee Seung Industrial Development Company permission to excavate a 3 square kilometer area in Xieng Khouang province’s Phaxay district. Another 25 square kilometers of area land may now also be explored, the agreement says.

Much of the land concerned is already in use for farming and grazing cattle, though, sources say.

“We don’t know yet what will be done about the villagers’ land,” a Lao official told RFA on Jan. 24, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the project. “The Chinese are still conducting a survey and haven’t begun excavating yet.”

Another Lao official told RFA, however, that company representatives are now negotiating compensation for villagers who will lose valuable land to the project, but that the number of affected families is still unclear.

“They are still in talks with the local villagers, and when the survey is finished in 12 months, they will sign a separate contract to do excavations,” he said.

One affected villager said that the Chinese company’s project has now encroached on 6 hectares of his grazing land. “I don’t know whether I will get compensation for this or not, but the project will negatively impact more local families in the future, especially those who raise cattle for a living,” he said.

Another villager agreed that though some villagers will now lose farmland to the project, those most seriously affected will lose grazing land. “We don’t know what minerals the Chinese will be digging for, and we don’t know who to talk to about compensation,” he said.

Attempts to reach the Tong Lee Seung Company for comment were unsuccessful this week, but an official from the Lao Ministry of Minerals and Mines told RFA that his ministry will soon draft a new decree to control the excavation of rare earth minerals in Laos in order to protect villagers from the projects’ negative impacts.

“The decree will come out this year after we finish drafting it. We are still waiting for a government meeting on this issue, and the process will start after that,” he said.

Rare earth minerals are important in the production of high-end technology such as cell phones, computers, and satellite and aerospace technology, with much of the international trade in the minerals controlled by China.

Laos last year also signed agreements with 19 companies to explore for minerals such as gold and silver in provinces across the country, according to Lao government sources.

Foreign-invested farming, mining, and development projects in Laos have sparked friction over cases of environmental pollution and land often taken without proper compensation, leaving villagers fearing retaliation if they speak out.

China is Laos’ largest foreign investor and aid provider, and its second-largest trade partner after Thailand.

Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Written in English by Richard Finney.

An elderly Muslim Uyghur woman serving a long jail sentence for participating in religious gatherings in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region is being held in a women’s prison in the town of Sanji (in Chinese, Changji), detention center officials said.

Helchem Pazil, 78, is one of five women from the same family in Korla (in Chinese, Kuerle) who have been imprisoned for religious activities in which they participated in 2013, according to a verdict issued in April 2019 and recently seen by RFA.

They all were retroactively sentenced after China criminalized such activities in 2018 when it issued de-extremification regulations targeting Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, purportedly, to prevent extremist violations and ensure social stability.

RFA reported Monday that Helchem’s daughters, Melikizat and Patigul Memet, are incarcerated in the same prison, serving sentences of 20 and seven years, respectively.

Melikizat was convicted of providing a venue for religious observance and taking part in it, while Patigul was convicted of “collectively bringing social disorder” by attending the services.

Another daughter, Zahire Memet, and a daughter-in-law, Bostan Ibrahim, were convicted of “disturbing public order and inciting ethnic hatred” and for “hearing and providing a venue for illegal religious preaching,” according to the verdict, though it is not clear where they are serving their sentences.

The verdict did not mention the length of the sentence given to Helchem by the Korla Municipal Court.

A day after RFA confirmed that Melikizat and Patigul were being held at the Sanji Women’s Prison, calls to the detention center confirmed that that Helchem Pazil was serving her lengthy sentence there as well, though she was placed in a different cell block. Melikizat is housed in cell block No. 3, while Patigul is in cell block No. 6.

After RFA gave the prison official Helchem’s national identification number, the person confirmed the woman’s age and said she was serving a 17-year sentence.

“She is in cell block No. 4,” the official said.

Prior to her arrest, Helchem, a widow with a primary school education, lived in Korla’s Chilanbagh Street neighborhood, according to information in the verdict.

She spent her days taking care of her seven children and grandchildren, said Halchigul Memet, whom the document says led the women in religious discussions and is now living in exile. She spoke to RFA from Turkey.

Helchem was charged with inciting ethnic discrimination, disturbing public order, providing a venue for religious preaching, and attending religious gatherings in a second-floor room of a hotel in Korla’s old bazaar.

Halchigul also told RFA that Helchem visited Turkey in 2015 or 2016 while performing the hajj, a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which every adult Muslim who can must make at least once in his or her lifetime.

Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

The decision by Myanmar’s ruling junta to charge more than 2,000 former government officials and election workers with voter fraud is just another form of political revenge against the National League for Democracy-led government the military overthrew early last year, analysts and observers say.

The plan announced on Jan. 14 by Khin Maung Oo, a member of the new Election Commission set up by Myanmar’s military rulers, already affects 422 people held under arrest and will include 2,489 others, including the chairmen of state and divisional election commissions.

Among those already charged are former president Win Myint and former state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, Khin Maung Oo said. Both are now serving prison terms following conviction on other charges widely regarded as politically motivated.

Khin Maung Oo did not give details of the charges against the 422 persons already serving jail terms or awaiting trial from detention.

Myanmar’s military overthrew the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy on Feb. 1, 2021, saying voter fraud had led to the party’s landslide victory in the country’s November 2020 election.

The junta has yet to provide evidence for its claims, however, and has violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to democratic rule, killing at least 1,493 protesters and other civilians, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

One former chairman of a district election commission confirmed to RFA he has been charged for failing to provide proper oversight of the election.

“They say that we exercised weak oversight, but we actually toured the townships ourselves to oversee the proceedings. So how can they say we didn’t provide proper supervision?” he asked.

An NLD polling station representative who worked in the capital Naypyidaw during the election said he had carried out his work within the correct legal framework. He said that he had escaped after learning that other polling officials were being arrested and has been on the run ever since.

“They want to disband the NLD and are chasing all party-affiliated people,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “About a month after the coup, some were already under arrest and others had died.”

Another party member who was arrested and later freed said the junta had moved to arrest chairmen and members of township-level election sub-commissions who were close to NLD executives, while those without these personal connections were only fined and then released.

Civilians in supporting roles

Commission secretaries placed in charge of voting booths during the election were often former army officers, however, with the civilians now being charged serving only in supporting roles, said one former commission member now also under indictment.

“The secretaries did the actual work, and now they are the ones who are accusing us of irregularities,” he said.

Though some shortcomings could be seen in the November 2020 voting, no level of fraud could be found that would have changed the final election results, said Sai Ye Kyaw Swa Myint, director of the People’s Movement for Elections, which oversaw the November election.

“The legal framework needs to be reconsidered, as we have suggested, rather than prosecuting thousands of people for any wrongdoing under the election law,” he said. “Taking legal actions like this will not produce better elections.”

The prosecutions now under way are aimed only at removing the NLD and everyone associated with the party from the political scene, said political analyst Than Soe Naing.

“In my view, the 2020 election was full of fraud. But they are making widespread arrests not only of NLD members but also those in charge of the election process itself, so they can suggest to the world that the fraud in the election was a coordinated effort,” he said.

In fact, those now being accused are honest people, Than Soe Naing said, adding that he feels sorry both for the country and for the NLD.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Cambodian prosecutors played several videos of Kem Sokha’s past speeches as evidence against him in his treason case on Tuesday, as defense attorneys for the former leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party criticized the court for allowing the long-delayed trial to extend for so long.

The short videos played during the hearing at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court showed Kem Sokha, 68, speaking as opposition leader in Cambodia and abroad, including a demonstration in the capital’s Freedom Park, where he called for a higher minimum wage for in Kampong Cham province.

Prosecutors in the trial, which resumed on Jan. 19 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, showed videos of the speeches to try to prove that Kem Sokha colluded with the United States to seize power in Cambodia after the 2013 election.

A group of about 50 of Kem Sokha’s supported waited outside the courthouse while the trial was in session, though there were no incidents.

The court agreed to a request from deputy prosecutor Plang Sophal that the trial be resumed on Feb. 2. Kem Sokha’s defense team opposed the delay and urged the court to speed up the trial by holding hearings more than once a week.

“The case has been delayed for nearly two years,” Ang Udom, one of Kem Sokha’s defense lawyers, told RFA. “Kem Sokha’s right to a fair trial has been violated.

“We are disappointed with the court. We want the process to be sped up. We want the case to be finished at the soonest,” he said.

Kem Sokha was arrested in September 2017 over an alleged plot backed by the United States to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for more than 35 years. Kem Sokha spent a year in jail before being released under court supervision.

After his arrest, Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in a move that allowed Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party 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.

When his trial resumed on Jan. 19, Kem Sokha called for the treason charges against him to be dropped. He and his supporters say the charges are politically motivated.

Ang Udom said that the prosecutor had mocked the defense team by saying that if a speedy end to the trial was the goal, then the ex-politician should just confess.

“This is wrong. It is against all the law. He didn’t commit any crime. There is no justice. It is fake [and] cannot be accepted,” Ang Udom said.

Ang Udom said he would not try to negotiate a plea bargain because his client did not commit a crime. His innocence might also keep Kem Sokha from accepting a post-conviction amnesty from King Norodom Sihamoni, Ang Udom said, although he added that he could not speak for the former CNRP leader on the matter.

Neither the Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman nor government attorney Ky Tech could not be reached for comment.

Soeung Sengkaruna, spokesman of the human rights organization Adhoc, who has been monitoring the trial, said that the prosecution should not try to force Kem Sokha to plead guilty without any real evidence against him.

“This shows that the court prosecutor is incapable of convicting Kem Sokha so they are pushing him to confess,” he said.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen may not allow Kem Sokha to be freed any time soon since the autocratic leader is grooming his son, Hun Manet, to take over, social and political commentator Kim Sok said.

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