Day: March 2, 2022

A North Korean greenhouse project promised to provide citizens of a rural province with more vegetables than they could ever eat. But two years later, the food is bypassing their mouths and being shipped to the capital Pyongyang to be served to the country’s elites, sources told RFA.

Authorities started the greenhouse farm project, the first of its kind in North Korea, in Jungphyong village, which is part of Kyongsong county in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong. The farm sits on 490 acres of land and includes about 300 greenhouses.

“The authorities loudly propagated that the residents of North Hamgyong and Kyongsong county would greatly benefit from the greenhouse construction project, but the vegetables ended up not being for people like us,” a resident of the county told RFA’s Korean Service.

“Last week, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that the Jungphyong Vegetable Greenhouse Farm had produced about 10,000 tons of fresh produce, including cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and crown daisy,” said the source. Crown daisy is a popular leafy vegetable.

The newspaper report said that the vegetables were delivered to the people of the province last year, according to the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“But in actuality, ordinary residents of Kyongsong county have never been given a single vegetable grown from those greenhouses,” he said.

The dismay is all the greater because authorities relied on residents of the county to build the project.

“They worked for over a year. Not many people complained because they had the hope that they would be able to eat their fill of vegetables in the very near future,” the source said.

“None of the vegetables went to the province. I heard from a friend who works at the greenhouse farm that most of the vegetables were selected as a No. 9 product and loaded onto the train to Pyongyang,” he said, using the government designation for items intended for use by the Kim family.

The Jungphyong Vegetable Greenhouse Farm was a pilot program. Now that it has been consistently producing, the government has plans to expand the program.

Another greenhouse farm is already under construction in nearby South Hamgyong province’s Hamju county, another Kyongsong resident told RFA.

“The residents of Hamju county have been mobilized for the construction work. Even when they complete their new greenhouse farm, they will never have a chance to eat any of the veggies,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“When they were building the greenhouse farm up here in Jungphyong, the local housewives supported the construction effort, even sending in homemade soil for use in the farms. Despite their personal sacrifices, the housewives never received any vegetables,” she said.

High-ranking officials who live nearby instead call up the farm and take the vegetables as they please, the second source said.

“They never lifted a shovel, but they are taking full advantage of the farms. Even in the middle of winter, a car will come to their house every few days loaded with fresh cucumbers, crown daisy and lettuce from the greenhouses,” she said.

“Occasionally, if you pass in front of a greenhouse farm, you will see vehicles with license plates from powerful organizations. … As with everything in North Korea, the greenhouse farm wasn’t really for the local people as they said. It is only for the privileged and the elite,” the second source said.

The authorities have plans to expand greenhouse farms to other provinces.

“Following North and South Hamgyong, they are talking up how they will have these greenhouse farms in every province in the near future. No matter how many they build, what will change? For ordinary folks like us, vegetables are still a pie in the sky dream,” she said.

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

The Mekong River Delta along Vietnam’s southern coast will show increased levels of salinity this March due to upstream dams on the river and high seas during the dry season, the Vietnamese government said of a recurring problem that has worsened in recent years.

The intrusion of salty seawater into the freshwater Mekong Delta, a 65,000 sq km (25,100 sq mile) region that is home to more than 20 percent of Vietnam’s 98 million people, threatens the survival of crops, marine life and farmed seafood.

The General Directorate of Water Resources (GDWR), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, told local media Monday that high sea levels in March will cause increased salinization of four grams per liter as far as 35 to 50 kilometers (20-30 miles) inland along the delta’s estuaries, possibly reaching as far as the Vam Co River, or about 55 to 65 km (35-40 miles) inland.

Salinization levels will, however, likely decrease starting in April, GDWR said.

Based on monitoring upstream water flows, GDWR determined that March would likely show the highest sea levels during the dry season, local outlet BNews quoted Luong Van Anh, deputy general director of GDWR, as saying.

Upstream water flow at an area near the town of Kratie in eastern Cambodia, as well as at Tan Chau and Chau Doc in Vietnam’s southwestern An Giang province, decreased this month, the DDWR said.

Also on Monday, Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said that water levels of the Mekong River’s main water flows have been changing slowly and are about 0.1-1.0 meters (4 inches to 4 feet) lower than the avarage levels over the past few years. 

On Feb. 7, Vietnam’s Southern Institute of Water Resources Research (SIWRR) said that the Mekong Delta had been suffering from early salinity instrusion since the begining of the dry season as China had been limiting water discharge from its upstream hydropower plants. 

According to SIWRR, China’s decision to cut water discharge from its storage reservoirs to generate electricity has been one of the key causes of the salinity levels.

The institute also said water flows would quickly decrease soon as water discharge from storage resevoirs in the basin continued to be limited. 

Water flow during the current dry season, between November 2021 and April 2022, depends heavily on the operation of upstream hydropower plants, the institute said. 

Salinity intrusion is an increasingly serious issue caused by climate change and upstream water resource management, Vo Tong Xuan, director of Can Tho Univerity in the country’s south, told local media.

He also said that if China could not be forced to discharge water, Vietnam should use its own fresh water resources to reduce the risks of salinization. 

The Mekong River’s water levels were alarmingly low last year, and reduced water flow from China’s upstream dams was partly to blame, the Mekong River Commission (MRC), which includes representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, said in June 2021.

The MRC therefore called on China to share all its data on water flows.

China is reported to have built 11 major hydro-power dams along the Mekong River. According to environmental experts, the dams not only affect the river’s flows but also reduce the flows of fertile silt and fish downstream as well as overall biodiversity.

Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

A retired Uyghur postal worker in China’s Xinjiang region who had been released from an internment camp because of health problems was rearrested in 2020 and sentenced to another 10 years in prison for participating in “illegal religious activities,” her daughter, who lives in the U.S., and officials in the region said.

Ba’imhan Mamut, a retired postal worker in Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) prefecture, was first detained in 2017 and spent two years in a camp before her release, said her daughter Nurbia, who declined to be identified by her full name for safety reasons.

Nurbia said she lost contact with both of her parents in 2017. Ba’imhan Mamut’s identity card listed her last address as 297 Qingfeng Street in Saybagh district in Urumqi (Wulumuqi).
Previously, Ba’imhan lived for many years in Hotan while she worked for the prefectural post and telecommunications bureau, Nurbia said.

Nurbia found out through her network of contacts on social media inside China that her mother had been taken to an internment camp in 2017 and later released while in critical condition. She was told her mother and other detainees were stripped of their socks and shoes while being held in cold cells.

“I later learned that my mother was taken to a concentration camp and learned that it was a camp in Hotan,” Nurbia told RFA. “I don’t know which one exactly.”

China has held up to 1.8 million predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in a network of government-run detention camps since 2017, saying that they are vocational training centers meant to prevent religious extremism and terrorism in Xinjiang.

Nurbia said she believes that her mother’s health may have been affected by the conditions inside the camp.

“She was later released due her health condition, particularly not being able to stand or walk,” Nurbia said. “I learned that even the detainees in camps were not given socks let alone shoes.”

Ba’imhan Mamut had been treated for a health problem following her release in 2019, but authorities picked her up again in 2020 and sentenced her to 10 years in prison in 2021, Nurbia said.

Her mother is serving her sentence at a women’s prison in Kashgar (Kashi), Nurbia said.

RFA has reported that Uyghurs held in “re-education” camps who become ill are treated under the supervision of local police and returned to the camp once they have recovered.

When RFA contacted police in Urumqi’s Saybagh district for more information about Ba’imhan, staff said that they needed a written request for her whereabouts and refused to provide information over the phone.

“If you want to search for information on her, you have to bring a government notice from your relevant government office, then I can help you search for the information,” he said.

A security official at the Hotan post office said that he was unaware of Ba’imhan’s condition.

“It has been a year since she has been in prison,” he said.

A police officer from the Qingfeng Road police station in Urumqi told RFA to contact authorities in Hotan for information about Ba’imhan after learning that the woman was originally from that prefecture. He said that people taken to re-education centers have since been handed over to police in their original hometowns.

An officer from a police station near the Hotan prefectural post office confirmed that Ba’imhan had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for “involvement in illegal religious activities,” but said he did not know where she was being detained.

“She is over 60 years old,” he said. “She has been sentenced to 10 years for her crime of religious extremism.”

Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Sa-nguan Monlakhon, a former Thai soldier, despises bullies.

That is why he wants to sign up to join the international brigade of Ukraine’s military, after the country’s president said he would welcome citizens from across the globe to join the Ukrainian people’s armed resistance against invading Russian forces.

“I want to join the force because of my democratic ideology. I hate bullying,” the 44-year-old ex- soldier who was formerly stationed in Thailand’s troubled far-southern border region, told BenarNews, referring in this case to Russia as the bully.

“I have six years of experience fighting the [separatist] insurgency in the Deep South as a ranger – lots of experience. …To take over the former territory of the USSR is a declaration of war that no one agrees with.”

Sa-nguan is among scores of Thai citizens who have phoned the Ukrainian Embassy in Bangkok, including around 40 who have shown up there to express interest in volunteering to join the former Soviet republic’s armed resistance against the invasion, according to an embassy official.

Sa-nguan, a native of Nong Bualampoo province in northeastern Thailand, quit his combat job 10 years ago because he had young children and his wife was worried for his safety.

“Now I’m single again. So I came here to apply for a position,” he said, referring to standing in line outside the Ukrainian embassy to sign up to fight alongside the Ukrainian army.

However, the Thai government is perturbed by this kind of show of solidarity with Ukraine because it is concerned about its own citizens’ safety.

“There is a lot of concern if there will be Thai people traveling to fight in Ukraine. [We are] afraid they will be harmed, [in] which [case] we have to take care of them,” Tanee Sangrat, spokesman for the Thai foreign ministry, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Hundreds of Thai citizens have also sent the embassy emails to apply to sign up for the international section of Ukraine’s territorial armed forces, according to a Facebook group created about the endeavor.    

This was after the Ukrainian Embassy here posted a notice on its premises appealing to foreign volunteers to enlist in the international legion of the territorial defense force.

Before it was taken down, the sign said “all volunteers with military experience who want to join the defense of Ukraine, Europe and world can come fight side by side with the Ukrainians ….”

On Feb. 27, three days after Russia launched the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that any world citizen who wanted to join the fight against “an unjustified criminal and cynical intrusion” was welcome in Ukraine, according to a statement from the Ukraine Crisis Media Center that cited the country’s Ministry of Defense.

A Thai official working at the Ukrainian Embassy in Thailand said there were many inquiries about the embassy notice.

“As many as a hundred called in about it Wednesday,” the official at the embassy told BenarNews on the condition of anonymity as she was concerned for her safety.  

The embassy source said there were no details on how applicants should go about arranging their trip to Ukraine.

“The Embassy does not know the details about qualification, compensation, or schedule because … no detailed directions are available yet,” she said.

“Initially, we asked applicants to submit a passport copy and their CV [curriculum vitae]. If they could eventually go, they would have to pay about U.S. $1,000 for the journey.”

Not everyone wants to fight, though, because participating in a war is a dangerous proposition, and, some believe, morally wrong.

For instance, in Ukraine, the Russian attack has killed more than 2,000 civilians and destroyed hospitals, kindergartens and homes, according to the country’s emergency service, news agencies reported. Among the casualties were 21 dead children and 55 wounded ones, according to Ukraine’s ombudswoman, Reuters reported.

On the other side, Moscow says nearly 500 Russian troops have been killed during the invasion of Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported.

A Thai man who wished only to be identified as M. for security reasons, said he was applying to serve in Ukraine, but in a humanitarian capacity. He said he had had taken a few military training courses but had never enlisted and would never take up arms.

“I feel pity of the people there. Ukrainian people have to pay for the price of the governments,” M. told BenarNews.

“They don’t deserve this. I want to help them with humanitarian work.”

He acknowledged, though, that his family is worried about his plan and does not want him to take risks.

“If I make it [through the crisis] I will take it as a good change in my life,” he said.

“If not, I take the risk of becoming a prisoner of war.”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

In July 2016, when Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of Vingroup and the richest man in Vietnam, was asked if he would recommend investing in Ukraine, his reply was candid: “To be honest, I don’t think you should invest in Ukraine.”

In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor last week, his comments seem prescient. Vuong, who went to Ukraine 30 years ago as a student and made his first dollars in the city of Kharkiv, gave his reason: “They [Ukraine] are stuck in a conundrum that sees no solution in the near future unless they go with Russia. If they decided to go with the European Union, Russia would never leave them alone.”

“But they can’t lean towards Russia as long as this regime is still in power. In short, the situation in Ukraine at the moment is very complicated.”

Vietnam’s so-called “red capitalists” seemed highly aware of the precariousness in Ukraine yet officialdom, including senior diplomats, were caught off-guard when President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale offensive on Ukraine on Feb. 24 – an action that has caused bloodshed, mass displacement and international outrage.

It’s also placed countries in Southeast Asia in a diplomatic bind. Individual governments, and the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, face a mounting challenge in balancing relations among the world’s superpowers.

While Southeast Asia’s economic ties with Russia are comparatively small, how countries respond diplomatically to the Russian aggression could also have implications for their relations with China, which has steered clear of direct criticism of Moscow. Russia is also an important source of military hardware for a number of countries in the region.

There already been stark differences in how the 10 members of ASEAN have responded to the Russian invasion of its neighbor.

“With Singapore’s decision to impose economic sanctions against Russia and Indonesia’s condemnation of Russia’s military assaults in Ukraine, ASEAN may now find it difficult to come up with a clear and united framework when dealing with Russia,” said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo.

Vietnam’s dilemma

In ASEAN, Vietnam has the strongest historic ties with Russia and perhaps the most at stake in how the Ukraine conflict plays out.

A Vietnamese government senior analyst said: “We didn’t believe it when there were clear warnings in Western media and in our talks with international partners about an imminent attack.”

“Perhaps there was some denialism on our part, because this conflict would have put us in a very difficult position,” said the analyst, who wished to stay anonymous as he was not authorized to speak to foreign media.

Vietnam joined other Southeast Asian countries in issuing a statement on the situation in Ukraine that not only did not condemn Russia’s aggression but also did not even mention Russia.

At the United Nations General Assembly special session on Ukraine on Tuesday, Vietnamese Ambassador Dang Hoang Giang stuck to well-rehearsed calls for restraint, dialogue, and long-term solutions to differences – although some interpreted his reference to how “wars and conflicts often stem from outdated doctrines” as implicit criticism of Putin.

The Vietnamese analyst, however, noted: “We can’t afford to offend Russia as there will be post-war dilemmas to consider.”

‘Of Western making’

Among ASEAN countries, Singapore and Indonesia have separately condemned the Russian invasion – and on Monday the Philippines joined them in expressing “explicit condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine” – a change of tack after the country’s Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had said that “it’s none of our business to meddle in whatever they’re doing in Europe.”

Others in Southeast Asia view the Ukraine conflict through a similar lens.

Kasit Piromya, Thailand’s former foreign minister and former ambassador to Moscow, said: “ASEAN should not be involved.  It was European affairs and of Western making.”

“All could have been prevented from the beginning if the U.S. did not keep on pushing NATO towards the Russian borders and took into consideration the Russian call for its security concern,” he told RFA.

“Now Putin is being pushed into a corner and his eventual and final reaction will be unpredictable.  The Russian nuclear forces being put on the alert cannot be taken lightly.”

“Biden and Putin have to speak to one another as soon as possible,” Kasit said.

Cambodia, the current of ASEAN, says it is staying neutral and urging a negotiated settlement. But on Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen also said he opposes Europe sending weapons to Ukraine.

“Sending weapons will worsen the war,” he said.

ASEAN reality

One of the main arguments that the U.S. and its allies use to rally support from other countries in condemning Russia is that they should oppose great powers’ unilateral actions to invade or coerce relatively smaller states.

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in his speech Monday when announcing sanctions against Russia: “Unless we, as a country, stand up for principles that are the very foundation for the independence and sovereignty of smaller nations, our own right to exist and prosper as a nation may similarly be called into question.”

Nagy said that reflected Singapore’s lack of strong and deep economic relations with China, and its need for “to work with like-minded countries to have a strong and coherent approach to secure the rules-based order.”

But for many smaller countries in Southeast Asia, the response to the Ukraine crisis may boil down to their own calculations of the regional reality where another super power – China – is looming large.

Just a month ago, on the sidelines of the Beijing Winter Olympics, China and Russia issued a joint statement confirming the mutual support and the deepening of diplomatic ties between them.

“The response to the ongoing Ukrainian conflict depends on the economic relationship that each Southeast Asian country has, as well as how they view China’s reaction if Southeast Asian countries take a strong stance vis-a-vis Russia,” said Nagy.

“Many in Southeast Asia may not want to directly criticize Russia for fear that it may anger or promote China to be more aggressive towards its island positions in Southeast Asia,” he added.

Several ASEAN countries, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, have territorial disputes of various extents with China in the South China Sea.

Future of relationship

Russia and Ukraine both have weak economic relations with countries in ASEAN.

Russia only accounted for 0.53 percent of ASEAN’s overall goods trade by value in 2020, and Ukraine only 0.1 percent, according to ASEANstats, the bloc’s data portal. The two countries’ direct investment into ASEAN is even smaller.

The real value of Russia’s relations with some of ASEAN countries lies in the defense and security domain. Russia is the biggest arms supplier in Southeast Asia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

But Nagy said that the future of Russia-ASEAN relations depends largely on “the success or failure of Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.”

If the West is successful in pressuring the Putin regime to step back through economic statecraft and a much more consolidated and coherent approach, “it may put Russia in a weaker position moving forward,” he said.

Some analysts believe that with Putin still in the presidency, ASEAN-Russia relationship will turn sour.

“In the days to come, ASEAN, as a bloc in United Nations, would have to reject Russia outright,” said Phar Kim Beng, founder of Strategic Pan Indo-Pacific Arena (SPIPA), a think tank, adding:  “Otherwise, many Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and South Koreans would not find ASEAN a trustworthy place for foreign direct investment and tourism.”

“Any countries that are still supportive of Russia, would not only have their reputation tarnished, but their citizens’ lives trapped in Ukraine in serious peril,” Phar said.

For those ASEAN countries which choose to navigate between superpowers, the balancing act after the latest developments in Ukraine will be even more difficult to maintain, said Huynh Tam Sang, a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Vietnam.

“The Russia-ASEAN relationship will be put to the test following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s potential attendance at ASEAN-related summits scheduled to take place in December this year,” Sang said.

One year after dozens of opposition politicians and pro-democracy activists were put behind bars for “subversion” after taking part in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020, Hongkongers in exile say the mass arrests, which were widely condemned by the international community, struck a “devastating blow” to the city.

The Jan. 6 raid by police enforcing a national security law banning public criticism or organized action against the government targeted 55 people, with 47 placed on notice to report to their local police station on Feb. 28, 2021.

Thirty-three arrestees said goodbye to their loved ones, sent messages of defiance or encouragement to the people of Hong Kong, and have remained behind bars awaiting trial ever since.

“I felt the most for those who were fathers with very young children,” former opposition lawmaker Ted Hui told RFA. “I never thought that [one day] children would suddenly not be able to see their fathers for a long time, overnight.”

“As a dad myself, those feelings ran very deep.”

U.K.-based former pro-democracy lawmaker Nathan Law said he misses Joshua Wong, his comrade during the 2014 Occupy Central movement.

“Naturally, Joshua is the one I miss the most, but also the rest of the team, including Lester Shum and Gwyneth Ho,” Law said. “We all shared a very deep, revolutionary friendship, and we have all supported each other for a long time on the road to democracy.”

Exiled localist activist Timothy Lee said he still remembers going with fellow activist Frankie Fung to report to the Hung Hom police station on Feb. 28, 2021.

“If I were to see him again, I think I would probably burst into tears and be unable to speak,” Lee said. “What the primary election did for Hongkongers was to make us realize the true nature of the … CCP regime.”

“It silenced us.”

‘Conquer fear through action’

Hui agreed.

“The 47 arrests were an all-out declaration of war by the CCP against the people of Hong Kong … the message was very clear,” he said. “We must remember that day on which the people of Hong Kong also lost their freedom.”

U.S.-based activist Sunny Cheung was part of a campaign getting people to turn out and vote in the primary, titled “Conquer fear through action.”

“Everyone found the courage to overcome the fear ushered in by the national security law,” he said. “That’s how I felt during the primary, that it wasn’t easy for the people of Hong Kong.”

“Looking back now, it’s very moving to me, that so many people were willing to come out.”

Some 610,000 people turned out to vote in the primary, selecting 30 candidates out of a slate of 52 to fight seats for pro-democracy camp in a general election that was postponed by the government, which then rewrote the rules to ensure only supporters of the CCP could run.

“In hindsight, that was the last democratic election in which citizens could participate directly,” Hui, now in exile in the U.K., said. “It’s sad.”

There were comments at the time from pro-China pundits that the primary could be in breach of the law. But nothing happened for several months.

Then, just when everyone thought the matter closed, 1,000 national security police were deployed to make a series of arrests of 55 activists on suspicion of “subversion,” for taking part in the primary.

Of those arrested on Jan. 6, 2021, 47 have been on remand for up to a year, awaiting trial for “subversion” under Beijing’s draconian law.

Hui said he had barely left Hong Kong when the arrests started happening.

“I had barely been gone a month from Hong Kong, and all of my fellow party members and comrades-in-arms had been arrested,” Hui said. “My mood suddenly plummeted.”

“Don’t forget that some of the people who took part in the primary were very moderate in outlook, people who had never really taken on the government,” he said. “So it’s unimaginable what could happen next in Hong Kong, if even they are suffering.”

Those who took part in the democratic primary spanned the political spectrum from radical protesters to the most moderate pro-democracy figures, and included disabled and other grassroots activists.

Dearth of information

Cheung said there is now a dearth of information coming from the opposition camp on his social media feed.

“Hong Kong is in a state of information vacuum,” Cheung said. “Now that all of the politicians have been arrested, you log onto Facebook, and the feed has gone very quiet.”

“All of those politicians would make statements in real time to let the public know if something was happening, or to let them make up their own minds,” he said. “It was an unprecedented crackdown, in which everyone was arrested, even the most moderate.”

“It was a devastating blow.”

Cheung said he remembers watching dozens of former fellow activists and well-known opposition figures report to dozens of police stations across Hong Kong on Feb. 28, 2021, knowing they were very likely going to be locked up that day.

“I was constantly watching differing livestreams, watching the last moments before these people went into the police stations, their words, their facial expressions, their body language,” he said. “The messages they wanted to send to the people of Hong Kong.”

‘I miss them so much’

Many remember the footage of newly married democracy activist Lester Shum and his wife saying goodbye outside the police station, before he was jailed on remand, or former district councilor and former journalist Gwyneth Ho leaning her head of the shoulder of grassroots activist Eddie Chu and smiling into the camera.

Forty-seven of those who went into police stations that day were formally charged with “conspiracy to subvert state power,” and brought to court for a string of marathon bail hearings lasting several days, from which the media were excluded.

Thirty-three were jailed on remand, while the 14 who were granted bail have been silent ever since.

Cheung said the loss to Hong Kong was immediate and irreparable.

“The crucial thing was that they added to public discussion, gave a point of view, and did political analysis,” he said. “Without them, there won’t be the same insight when it comes to monitoring what the government is doing.”

“I miss them so much,” Cheung said. “I think of them every day … I would love to tell them that they are not alone.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.