Day: January 27, 2022

Myanmar’s junta has condemned more than 100 people to death in the Yangon region alone since it seized power a year ago.

None of the people sentenced were given the right to defend themselves. Of the 101 people documented by RFA’s Myanmar Service, 50 were convicted in secretive military tribunals where they were denied access to legal representation, while the rest were sentenced in absentia.

Those convicted hailed mostly from the Yangon townships of North Okkalapa, South Dagon, North Dagon, Hlaingtharyar, Dagon Port and Shwepyithar, where martial law has been in place amid resistance to military rule.

Two of the more well-known prisoners facing the death penalty are Phyo Zeyar Thaw, a lawmaker with the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) party, and activist Ko Jimmy, a leader of the 88 Generation Student group. Both were sentenced for violating the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law, according to a Jan. 21 announcement by the junta.

Bo Bo Oo, a former NLD lawmaker from Yangon’s Dallah township, told RFA that not only were the two men sentenced without legal representation, but photos suggested they were tortured during interrogation.

“We could say they are two of the worst cases of arbitrary arrests and torture of civilians in the country since the coup,” he said.

“Both were given maximum sentences. By closely looking at the pictures [released by the junta] of the two, we could surmise they had been severely tortured during interrogation. Arresting and torturing people anytime, anywhere, is a threat to civilization. 

Bo Bo Oo said the junta is cracking down on those who oppose it and sending a message to imposing maximum penalties including death.

Ko Jimmy’s wife, Nila Thein, who is also a well-known 88 Generation Student, told RFA that she would not negotiate with the junta over her husband’s sentence and would continue to fight for democracy.

A high court lawyer in Yangon, who spoke on condition of anonymity, criticized the military council for terrifying the public with the threat of executions.

“Their judiciary has no justice and no independence. So, I’m not going to say their verdicts are right,” he said. “There have been no executions since the [last] military takeover in 1988. The junta is trying to intimidate the population.”

‘Serious rights violations’

Aung Myo Min, human rights minister for the country’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), called the death sentences “serious human rights violations.”

“[The death penalty] is a legal procedure that must be approved by the president and the present sentences are not even in accordance with the laws of the country,” he said.

“They are arresting anyone they like and then handing out death sentences, and these are very serious [violations of Myanmar’s laws].”

NUG Minister for Defense Naing Htoo Aung called the junta’s death sentences “unacceptable.”

“The people of Myanmar and the entire world understand the true situation,” he said. “The entire [legal] process is unfair.”

Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Thursday.

Since orchestrating a coup on Feb. 1 last year, security forces have arrested nearly 8,800 civilians and killed close to 1,500 — mostly during nonviolent protests of junta rule, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association of Political Prisoners.

Earlier this week, the Swedish Embassy in Yangon issued a statement calling for the abolishment of the death penalty in Myanmar and the unconditional release of all political prisoners.

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

Tibetans looking for work in their region’s state sector must first renounce all ties to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as a condition of employment, an official Chinese announcement says.

The directive sent on Tuesday to all provinces and municipalities of the Tibet Autonomous Region says that workers employed in Tibetan government offices, schools or hospitals must be “trustworthy and reliable citizens” and remain loyal to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

They must also renounce the Dalai Lama and his followers, the directive says, referring to the group of supporters that has formed around the exiled spiritual leader over the years as a “clique.”

Speaking to RFA, a source in Tibet said that China’s new order further restricts the rights of Tibetans living under rule by Beijing and violates China’s own laws.

“Whether it’s for new employment, admission to schools, or promotion in your current job, your basic rights are denied if you don’t fulfill the conditions mandated by the Chinese government,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for reasons of security.

“The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China clearly states that all citizens are equal before the law, so this new announcement denies Tibetans their basic rights. It is sad that the Chinese government’s need to control Tibetans living in Tibet is based on the strength of Tibetans’ loyalty and devotion to the Dalai Lama,” he said.

Tenzin Lekshey, spokesperson for Tibet’s India-based exile government, the Central Tibetan Administration, called China’s new order “a futile attempt by the Chinese government to force Tibetans inside Tibet to renounce the Dalai Lama and not respect their faith.”

“Instead, the Chinese government should fulfill the aspirations of the Tibetan people to resolve the issue of Tibet,” Lekshey said.

“The Chinese government has implemented many such strategies in the past,” added Gonpo Dhondup, president of the India-based Tibetan Youth Congress. “However, the loyalty and devotion felt by the Tibetans for the Dalai Lama has never faded.

“The Tibetan Youth Congress strongly condemns these policies imposed by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is widely reviled by Chinese leaders as a separatist intent on splitting Tibet, a formerly independent nation that was invaded and incorporated into China by force in 1950, from Beijing’s control.

The Dalai Lama, who now lives in exile in India, says only that he seeks a greater autonomy for Tibet as a part of China, with guaranteed protections for Tibet’s language, culture and religion.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on Tibet and Tibetan regions of western China, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment and extrajudicial killings.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Lao workers can now officially return to Thailand after a pause due to COVID-19, but pre-employment approvals and steep fees may force many laborers to continue to try to enter the country illegally, according to sources in both countries.

Although the border has been closed, many workers still move across it in hopes of finding work that pays more than they can make in Laos. Lao authorities watch the border closely, but they can’t catch all migrants, as some get help from traffickers and employers in Thailand, said an official with the Lao Ministry of Labor and Social Services.

“Thai employers sometimes call former workers on the telephone, asking them to return to Thailand,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. “But if Lao workers want to go to Thailand without the consent of those employers, they won’t be able to go.

“Middlemen are also sometimes hired to take Lao workers to Thailand. They know all the ways to get them in,” he said.

Many Lao workers now try to enter without permission because of the high costs involved in obtaining visas and paying for the two required COVID-19 tests, a Lao man working for a job recruiting company said. The 7 to 14-day quarantine periods required before they can cross the border are another deterrent, the man said.

“The fees they are charged to go to Thailand legally are very high, with the offices that find work for them charging around 30,000 bhat [U.S. $900] each, so the money they can make in one month by working in Thailand is less than what they will have paid to go there,” he said.

By contrast, entering illegally with the help of middlemen costs each worker only around 7,000 to 9,000 bhat, he said.

“They are both male and female, mostly aged around 17, who are trying to find jobs,” said an official in Thailand’s Ubon Rachathani province, bordering Laos. “They are going in and out illegally, because Thailand has not officially opened its border gates yet.”

On Dec. 23, Lao authorities proposed to authorities in Thailand that the cost of two-year visa fees for Lao workers be reduced from 2,000 bhat  ($60) to 500 bhat ($15), and that Lao workers testing negative for COVID-19 be allowed to begin work without entering quarantine.

They also urged Thai authorities to strictly patrol the two countries’ common border to deter illegal entry and prevent migrants from becoming the victims of human trafficking or violence.

Thai borders to reopen

Thailand said it will reopen its borders, starting next week, to migrant workers from Cambodia and other neighboring countries for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the Thai government announced Thursday.

Thailand Labor Minister Suchart Chomklin said that 446 workers from Cambodia will be the first batch to be allowed in for employers in Chon Buri and Ayudhya province on Feb.1.

Late last year, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with private employers to import about 400,000 workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to fix labor shortages.

”The 446 will travel to Thailand’s Sakaeo province [opposite to Cambodia’s Poi Pet] and will be quarantined at the companies’ centers at least 7 days,” Suchart told reporters Thursday.

Unvaccinated workers or those with incomplete jabs will be administered the vaccine, another official at the department of employment said, adding that the fee for quarantine, including transportation costs, is 8,500 baht ($255) for each worker.

”We are still working on the arrangement with Laos and Myanmar. When finished, we will allow [labor] imports from those countries,” Suchart said.

Reported by RFA’s Lao Service, with additional reporting by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Written in English by Richard Finney.

China denied Thursday that it has any interest in recovering the wreckage of the crashed U.S. F-35C fighter jet that may contain sensitive technological information.

“We have no interest in their aircraft,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters, adding that Beijing urged “the country concerned to do things that are conducive to regional peace and stability, rather than flex muscles in the region.”

The U.S. Navy said earlier that it was working to recover the F-35C Lightning II fighter jet, a $100-million, state-of-the-art stealth aircraft, which crashed in the South China Sea on Monday.

The single-engine fighter skidded over the side while attempting to land on the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier during a training session and tumbled into the sea.

The pilot safely ejected and was recovered by a U.S. military helicopter.

Seven servicemen were injured in the accident that happened during a joint operation conducted by the USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln strike groups in the South China Sea. All the injured are in a stable condition.

The U.S. Navy is making recovery operations arrangements for the F-35C aircraft. A former U.S. Navy officer told RFA it could take anything from three weeks to four months to locate and haul the plane from the depths of the ocean.

 China is likely to be watching closely.

“They are interested but the announcement suggests they will not attempt to recover it if the U.S. chooses to do so,” said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii. 

“They don’t want to risk a confrontation or increase the already extensive Sino-U.S. frictions.”

Challenging task

“However, they will monitor the U.S. recovery and if they can do it surreptitiously, they will examine it with a submersible to gather what information they can,” said Schuster, who is also a former U.S. Navy captain.

“It is my belief that they have about 30-60 percent of what they need to know about the F-35 from their cyber-espionage efforts.  A good thorough survey would add to that,” he said.

 Some Chinese analysts believe that there’s another dimension to the crash.

“While China, and any other country, would certainly be interested in a closer look at the F-35 there is another issue that must be considered. That question is whether the plane was lost in China’s territorial waters,” asked Andy Mok, a well-known, Beijing-based commentator.

“If so, the U.S. will be in an awkward position as China would be entirely within its rights to not return it,” said Mok.

China insists that it holds “historical rights” to most of the South China Sea, and draws straight baselines around four groups of islands there to claim expansive territorial seas that are deemed illegal by international law.

Schuster said the recovery process could be protracted.

“I would think 20-60 days, depending on weather, currents, underwater conditions and PRC (China’s) activity.” 

“Under ideal conditions, you are looking at 10-20 days from finding to lifting.  Strong and unpredictable underwater currents, bad weather and other challenges or work interruptions add to the time.  Worse case, 90-120 days, if the monsoon hits,” he told RFA.

“The U.S. has demonstrated the capability to recover aircraft from 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) and the South China Sea’s deepest point is 16,000-feet (4,876-meters) deep. So, the challenge is to find it, then send the equipment to lift it off the bottom and bring it to the surface,” Schuster explained.

“China will be watching in any case, to learn what they can; about the plane perhaps but definitely about how to recover a 70,000-pound (35-ton) aircraft from several thousand feet.” 

From Beijing, the views are more dismissive.

“This incident is only the latest in a string of mishaps that only raise more questions about U.S. military readiness,” said Mok, the security analyst.

The 7th Fleet spokeswoman Cmdr. Hayley Sims told the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes on Wednesday that the U.S. Navy is currently investigating the F-35C crash together with four other serious “Class A” mishaps involving aircraft assigned to the USS Carl Vinson carrier that occurred between Nov. 22 and Dec. 31.

A “Class A mishap” is an incident either involving loss of life or permanent disability, or the complete loss of an aircraft or property damage of $2.5 million or more, according to the U.S. Navy.

All five incidents remain under investigation, said Sims.

International Olympics Committee (IOC) chairman Thomas Bach is being used by China’s ruling Communist Party (CCP) as a conduit to quieten international concern and outrage over the treatment of tennis star Peng Shuai, ahead of the Feb. 4-22 Winter Games hosted by Beijing, analysts said on Thursday.

The IOC said on Wednesday it had a conversation with Peng last week and plans to meet her in Beijing during next month’s Winter Olympics, according to reports in The Guardian and other news media.

Concerns were raised about Peng’s safety after she disappeared from public view after accusing a former vice premier of sexual assault.

While Peng has since retracted her comments and claimed her account of the affair with Zhang Gaoli didn’t include allegations of assault, rights groups and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) have said those statements were likely staged and scripted by the CCP, in a bid to play down concerns ahead of the Olympics.

Earlier this week, Australian Open organizers banned, then allowed, spectators wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan “Where is Peng Shuai?” after an international outcry accusing them of capitulating to the event’s Chinese sponsors.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the organization is keeping tabs on Peng’s whereabouts and has been assured that the meeting will go ahead with the assistance of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

But pressed to guarantee that Peng is genuinely free from coercion and psychological pressure, he declined. “I obviously can’t answer that because I don’t really know,” he said.

Bach meanwhile told a conference call on Wednesday that “the most important human right is physical integrity,” The Guardian reported.

‘Marionette for the CCP’

France-based commentator Wang Longmeng said Bach is basically a “marionette” for the CCP.

“The Peng Shuai incident has been a black swan event for the CCP, and was largely responsible for a chain of events leading to a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics by the international community,” Wang told RFA.

“Why didn’t Peng directly contact the WTA or her peers who expressed concern?” he said. “Instead, we have Bach playing the role of go-between between Peng and the international community.”

“Bach is the CCP’s puppet,” he said.

He said the meeting would likely go ahead under the close supervision of CCP officials and state security police.

“Both sides will once more follow their script,” he said. “I’m very worried that, when the international pressure to boycott the Winter Olympics dies down, the CCP may make Peng Shuai disappear for a long time.”

Yang Weidong, son of Xue Yinxian, a former whistleblowing member of the Chinese national team, said the CCP has long since infiltrated the IOC, citing the involvement of Chinese Olympic Committee and IOC member Li Lingwei in the first video call between Bach and Peng.

“When I saw Bach talking to Peng Shuai for the first time in the video call, Li Lingwei was present,” Yang told RFA. “She is the vice-chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee … and a member of the IOC.”

“As long as the IOC’s affairs have something to do with China, there will be infiltration,” he said. “Even IOC members are under China’s influence.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Hong Kong’s national security police arrested 160 people during 2021 under a draconian law that launched a citywide crackdown on political opposition and public dissent, charging more than 100 of them, Hong Kong’s chief of police said on Thursday.

And the crackdown will continue this year, with a focus on “anti-terrorism,” police commissioner Raymond Siu told a news briefing.

“We have now gotten public order back to stability, but there are still a small number of anti-China and anti-Hong Kong rioters who have gone underground,” Siu said.

“Police will continue to take the initiative to launch investigations based on intelligence,” he said.

He dismissed concerns that the national security raid that led to the closure of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper had damaged press freedom.

“Press freedom is guaranteed under the Basic Law, but it is not absolute; it is based on legal responsibilities and obligations,” Siu said.

“Many of the people making noises about a political crackdown on the media are sitting in the same boat [as the pro-democracy outlets that have been denounced in pro-Beijing media],” Siu said. “Young people are getting innocently embroiled in all of that.”

Police have arrested more than 10,270 people in connection with the 2019 protest movement, more than 4,000 of whom are students, and 1,754 are under 18, of whom 496 have been charged, Siu said.

Siu accused protesters and pro-democracy activists of “harming young people and destroying many families.”

Electing a new chief executive

His warnings of an ongoing crackdown came as the city started the process to select the new chief executive under tightened electoral rules designed to ensure that only “patriots” approved by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can run in elections or hold public office.

Candidates must garner more than 750 votes, more than the 689 won by former chief executive Leung Chun-ying in 2012, to win, and nominations are limited to one per member of the 1,500-member Election Committee.

A poll must be held even if there is only one validly nominated candidate, and the nomination period has been shortened to two weeks, Electoral Affairs Commission chairman Barnabas Fung told a news briefing.

“We ensure that the election is conducted openly, fairly and honestly. It’s legal [to have a shorter, 14-day nomination period], so we don’t think there’s anything wrong with it,” he said.

Incumbent Carrie Lam has so far avoided commenting on whether her name will be on the slate.

“I haven’t thought about it; I am having to fight the pandemic on a daily basis, so haven’t thought about anything else much,” she told reporters on Thursday.

Opinion pollster Chung Kim-wah said the elections is really there for show, a question of “going through the motions.”

“There used to be small number of people on the Election Committee, but now that it’s been revised, there’s nobody,” Chung told RFA. “Everyone understands that this election is pretty meaningless.”

“It will be whoever Beijing wants it to be.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.