Day: March 8, 2022

Myanmar’s military killed at least five elderly people, a mother, and her two young sons on Tuesday after shelling a village in Sagaing region’s embattled Yinmabin township, sources said, marking a 10th day of troop raids in the area that have caused nearly two dozen civilian deaths.

The morning attack by around 200 troops on Yinmabin’s Letpandaw village follows one of the deadliest months on record for residents of Sagaing region since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup and began a nationwide crackdown, killing hundreds of civilians and jailing thousands more, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Sources told RFA’s Myanmar Service that elderly residents of Letpandaw and nearby Kanthar village had been taking shelter in a monastery between the two settlements following several military raids in the surrounding area when the shells hit on Tuesday.

“[The troops] entered our village using an unexpected route through the betel leaf plantations that surround it,” said a woman from Letpandaw, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Those who could flee the village escaped, but those in the monastery couldn’t run away. There were many elderly people there. Then the artillery shells hit the monastery, killing a 93-year-old grandmother, a 30-year-old mother, and her two sons. The rest were people over the age of 70.”

The mother of the two boys — aged 7 and 9 — was identified as Moe Moe Win. Her mother, Thein Hla, who was in her 70s, was also killed in the shelling. The other victims were identified as Letpandaw’s Daw Tin Nyunt, 93, U Than Maung, who was in his 70s; U Thein Maung, 70; and U Ohn Hlaing, 70. All of the victims lived in Kanthar village.

Residents told RFA that another five elderly villagers who had taken shelter at the monastery are receiving emergency medical treatment for gunshot wounds.

They said that following the attack on Letpandaw the military set up hidden positions in the surrounding betel plantations, established a base of operations in the monastery, and conducted a raid on Kanthar village in the afternoon. Troops also fired shells at nearby Shan and Theegone villages and are preparing to launch attacks on additional settlements in Yinmabin and neighboring Kanni township, they added.

Ko Khant, the spokesman for the local branch of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group in Sagaing’s North Yamar township, told RFA that clashes broke out between his fighters and the military near Letpandaw on Tuesday morning as troops advanced toward the village.

“A small battle erupted between us and them and other local defense forces,” he said. “Currently, the enemy has set up camp near Letpandaw.”

Ko Khant said that around 10,000 people from surrounding villages had fled the area.

Residents of nearby Aung Chanthar village told RFA that junta forces had also set fire to makeshift tents erected by refugees on the outskirts of Letpandaw as they marched forward.

10 days of fighting

At least 21 people have been killed in Yinmabin since Feb. 26, when the military began raiding several villages in the area, aided by airstrikes. In addition to the eight killed Tuesday, the dead include nine from Chinpon village, two from Thabyay Aye village, and two from Mogaung village, sources told RFA.

The army first used helicopters to conduct airstrikes on Chinpon village on Feb. 26 before dropping soldiers who raided the settlement over the course of the following two days, they said.

A resident of Chinpon told RFA that bodies of nine civilians were discovered in the village on Feb. 28, after troops left and launched a combined ground and air attack on Thabyay Aye village, about six miles away.

“I buried the bodies that very day. The dead included eight men and one woman,” said the resident, who also declined to be named.

“We are facing so many difficulties. We do not dare to go back to the village and are hiding in the woods. The sun is hot, and another junta offensive is on the way. Nearby Thabyay Aye village has been reduced to ashes. The whole population of the region is fleeing their homes now.”

Junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun told RFA that the military had raided Chinpon to clear out PDF fighters who were training there.

“They are training terrorist groups called PDFs,” he said. “Security forces entered the village to provide security. There will be casualties during such incursions, and we also suffered some injuries.”

Residents of Thabyay Aye told RFA that troops shot and killed a 40-year-old man as he fled and set a fire that killed a 70-year-old woman as they raided the village on Feb. 28.

One source said that villagers who fled the attack are sheltering in the jungle with few supplies or medicine, and that several people have become sick from drinking unclean water.

On March 2, troops raided Kany township’s Mogaung village — located around 2 miles from Thabyay Aye — and set fire to several homes before leaving the following day, locals said.

After returning to the village, residents said they discovered two handcuffed and badly burned bodies, but the victims have yet to be identified.

Deadly month in Sagaing

Sagaing has put up some of the strongest resistance to junta rule since the coup more than a year ago and the military has responded with a brutal offensive in recent weeks.

According to an investigation by RFA, the military killed at least 47 civilians accused of supporting anti-junta paramilitary groups in seven Sagaing townships during the month of February alone. Residents said that most victims had been tortured before being shot in the head and set on fire, and that several women victims had been raped.

RFA documented nearly 50 clashes between junta troops and the PDF last month in Sagaing’s 35 townships.

Boh Naga, the leader of the PDF in Pale township, where some of the fiercest fighting has occurred, told RFA that the exact death toll in his area during February is unclear because “the soldiers who entered the villages were mostly drunk and tortured and killed whoever they saw.”

“When soldiers enter a village, they never leave without torturing someone or destroying something,” he said, adding that only those who are pro-junta are left unharmed. “The death toll is hard to imagine, and it is very difficult to keep records.”

A resident of Sagaing’s Taze township, who did not want to be named, said soldiers who raid villages regularly shoot civilians and steal valuables before setting homes on fire.

“They take whatever they fancy and then take the loot to their nearest camp,” he said. “After that, they torture people and burn down their houses. That was what happened in our village. If someone dies because of torture, [the soldiers] give an excuse, saying the person had been supporting Boh Nagar.”

Attempts by RFA to reach spokesman Zaw Min Tun for a response to the claims went unanswered.

According to Data For Myanmar, a research group that documents the effects of conflict on communities, a total of 3,126 houses were destroyed by arson in Sagaing in the 13 months following the military coup. The group reported that 1,739 of them were destroyed in February alone.

Aung Myo Min, human rights minister for the shadow National Unity Government, told RFA that troops in Sagaing act as if they have been “issued a license to rape and kill civilians.”

“They might be thinking that by committing these atrocities, people become scared of them, and the front line will be broken,” he said.

“Instead, the people’s resentment has soared, and their hatred of the junta has only grown stronger.”

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military has arrested more than 9,500 civilians since last year’s coup and killed 1,623.

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

Cambodia Minister of Interior Sar Kheng will lead a meeting of governmental officials on Wednesday in an effort to resolve the long-standing NagaWorld Casino labor dispute, a move that worker rights groups applauded as a positive step.

The Phnom Penh Post reported Tuesday that the ministers of the health, labor and justice departments and the heads of the Phnom Penh city government, municipal court and the national police will attend the meeting, according to a March 4 invitation letter.

Thousands of NagaWorld workers walked off their jobs in mid-December, demanding higher wages and the reinstatement of 11 jailed union leaders and workers and 365 others they say were unjustly fired from the hotel and casino, which is owned by a Hong Kong-based company believed to have connections to family members of Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Cambodian authorities have called the strike “illegal” and alleged that it is supported by foreign donors as a plot to topple the government. But a series of mass arrests in recent weeks have been attributed to alleged violations of pandemic health regulations in Cambodia’s capital. Activists said the charges were trumped up to break up the strike.

The news of the meeting provides hope that the 11 leaders and workers will be released soon, Khun Tharo, program manager for Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“I think this is the time to resolve the labor dispute. If the authorities can act neutrally, this can be a mutual concession. I think we can end it here,” he said.

A group of women also protested Tuesday in front of the Prey Sar prison, where the 11 detained unionists are being held. They released balloons and shouted that the arrested union leaders, most of whom are female, should be released immediately. 

Ou Tep Pallin, the vice president of the Cambodian Food and Service Workers’ Federation, called on authorities to release the 11, eight of whom are union officials before they start talking about resolving the labor dispute.

“I would like the casino’s management to talk with the union leaders after their release. They must be released first before we can resume talking,” she told RFA. 

Elsewhere in the city, more than 400 people from 17 NGOs gathered to mark the International Women’s Day.

Cambodian women who operate informal businesses face many challenges, Vorn Pov, president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association NGO, who attended the event, told RFA.

He said that authorities have not given any social support to about 75 percent of roughly 2 million women in informal business.

“The government hasn’t helped women who are working as street venders. I urge the government to support them,” he said.

He also mentioned that he believes the government is harassing the striking NagaWorld workers.

The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association issued a statement Tuesday saying a report compiled by the NGO shows that women in Cambodia continue to suffer abuses, like rape, domestic violence and human trafficking. The NGO said it received 243 complaints of those abuses over the past two years.

Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. 

After being stranded in China two years during the coronavirus pandemic and running up heavy debts, two North Korean women took their own lives early this year, sources in China told RFA.

The pair of textile workers, toiling in China to earn cash for leader Kim Jong Un’s government, had worked at two different clothing factories in the city of Donggang, close to the North Korean border, a Chinese citizen of Korean descent told RFA’s Korean Service March 5.

“They had money problems and were in hopeless situations,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The source, who works as an interpreter at one of the factories, said she had heard the news from a mechanic who worked with the North Korean women.

“When these women were dispatched to China before the coronavirus pandemic, they paid bribes of about U.S. $1,500 to an official in a human resources company. Some of them even borrowed money from loan sharks to raise the money for the bribes. They have to pay the principal back after a year, with $70 to $100 per month in interest,” the source said.

Cash-strapped North Korea sends workers to China and Russia to earn foreign currency for the ruling party. The companies that employ them pay much higher salaries than what they could ever earn in North Korea, but their North Korean handlers collect the lion’s share, leaving them with only a fraction.

But that pittance is still larger than what they could hope to earn in their home country, which is why some North Koreans will take out loans to bribe officials to secure their spot in a Chinese factory.

The source said that workers typically sign contracts stating that they will earn 2,000 yuan, about $300 per month, but they are actually paid only 300 yuan, or about $50, per month.

The handling company promises to give the remainder of their salary when they return home. China and North Korea have closed their border since the start of the pandemic in January 2020.

The source said one of the women died in late January. She was 26 and worked at a sewing factory. She heard her parents back home were suffering due to her debt, the source said.

The hiring company told the authorities that the woman had died of a chronic disease, and they scattered her ashes in the Yalu River that runs between North Korea and China, the source said.

The second woman, 27, died last month at her apartment and worked at another clothing factory in Donggang, another Chinese citizen of Korean descent from Dandong, across the Yalu River from North Korea’s Sinuiju, told RFA.

“However, the North Korean manpower company which the woman belonged to reported to their home country that she had died due to her own accident. This false report made her fellow workers angry,” said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“This worker got engaged to a man while she was still in North Korea and she applied for an overseas dispatch to raise money for her dowry, but, was unable to return home for over two years. She kept asking the manager several times to send her home,” said the second source.

Instead, the manager humiliated the worker in front of her peers, the source said.

“They criticized her longing for home as an ideological error, saying that earning foreign currency for the country is an act of patriotism. She was pessimistic about her situation and after she had spent all the money she had saved on hospital treatment for a back problem,” the second source said.

“Fellow workers are outraged by the attitude of the North Korean manpower company for distorting and covering up how their coworker died. … She was in so much pain that she chose to die on her own and could not return to her homeland even after death as her body was cremated and scattered in the Yalu River,” the second source said.

The source said that the ashes of North Korean workers are usually stored after cremation when they die. However, the remains of the workers who killed themselves were not stored, as part of the coverup.

There are an estimated 20,000 to 80,000 North Koreans working in China according to the U.S. State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Person’s Report.

North Korean labor exports were supposed to have stopped when United Nations nuclear sanctions froze the issuance of work visas and mandated the repatriation of North Korean nationals working abroad by the end of 2019.

But Pyongyang sometimes dispatches workers to China and Russia on short-term student or visitor visas to get around sanctions.

Suicide prevention help in the United States is available from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 00-273-TALK (8255). For additional resources visit: SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.

For help in South Korea, call the Ministry of Health & Welfare Call Center at 129 or Lifeline Korea at 1588-9191.

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

Two reports released by officials in Xinjiang — one by the region’s highest court, the other by a group of prosecutors — show China’s strategy for constraining the Uyghur population is shifting from so-called “re-education camps” to prison.

The reports, which were published on March 3 on Tengritagh (Tianshan), the official website of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government, are largely a dry recitation of judicial statistics for the year. But scholars and analysts say the numbers represent a shift in strategy to use more official but still corrupt means to prosecute Uyghurs and other members of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

Public prosecutors, who collectively are known as the Procuratorate, detained nearly convicted more than 44,600 people in 28,490 cases involving about 12,900 different crimes, according to a work report read by Li Yongjun, who is the head of the XUAR People’s Procuratorate, at the fifth session of the 13th People’s Congress of the XUAR on Jan. 24.

Li noted that “the construction of a safe Xinjiang was effectively promoted.”

In a readout of the 2021 work report, Chief Justice Bahargul Semet said that the region’s courts handled 668,900 cases. Of those, 606,200 were closed to public review. The top-level Supreme Court, meanwhile, took up 5,820 cases — 5,271 of which were closed.

German researcher Adrian Zenz, who has documented China’s abuses against the Uyghurs, said the number of cases and investigations in Xinjiang courts has nearly doubled since 2018.

That, and the fact that Uyghur-language translations are also increasing during trials, shows that, “Beijing’s oppression in the region is shifting from mainly re-education to sentencing large numbers of Uyghurs to prison terms,” Zenz said.

“Uyghurs are not released from the camps, but instead shifted into prisons,” he said.

“Xinjiang continues to hide how many ‘criminals’ are sentenced each year,” he said. “It stopped reporting this figure in 2018. This unfortunately indicates that the state is concealing its strategy of shifting Uyghurs from re-education camps to prisons to the outside world.”

Teng Biao, an academic lawyer and visiting professor at the University of Chicago, who is an expert on China’s judicial and legal systems, told RFA that that courts have become a tool of repression in Xinjiang.

‘Numbers are shocking’

Ilshat Hassan, a U.S.-based analyst and vice chair of the World Uyghur Congress’s executive committee, said he was shocked by the numbers of cases mentioned in the two court reports.

“This [new information] confirms these numbers, because there are so many people who still have yet to be sentenced, who are being detained indefinitely,” he said. “They have committed no crime that would see them sentenced.

“Even those Uyghurs who have been sentenced have committed no crime,” he said. “As a matter of fact, China is extralegally detaining Uyghurs in concentration camps. These numbers [in the 2021 work reports] represent just one small fraction of reality. Even so, the numbers are shocking.”

Hassan suggested that the figures are a testament to the increased repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang in 2021, noting that many of the cases were related to “counter-terrorism” and “stability maintenance,” which are indicators of repression.

“The numbers are very large, which shows the scope of the genocide,” he said. “We cannot see any clear details about these cases, because China is keeping them secret. What we do know is that many Uyghurs have disappeared or gone into concentration camps without having gone to trial, without anything from the courts.”

In her readout, justice Bahargul said that courts operated by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a state-owned economic and paramilitary organization, handled 80,800 cases, 71,000 of which are now closed.

The corps, which also is known as Bingtuan, has been sanctioned by the U.S. for its involvement in human rights violations against Uyghurs.

That the Bingtuan tried such a high number of cases on behalf of the XUAR’s Supreme Court shows the significance of the role that the XPCC is playing in repressing the Uyghurs, Hassan said.

“In particular, the Bingtuan is responsible for a large number of these [cases],” he said. “The Bingtuan is being used in the repression of the Uyghurs in carrying out a genocide against them.”

China is believed to have held 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017. Beijing has said that the camps are vocational training centers and has denied widespread and documented allegations that it has mistreated Muslims living in the region.

The report from the People’s Court also noted the rise in court cases handled online.

Hassan of the World Uyghur Congress said there are problems with putting the legal process online.

“Looking at this in theory, the judge and the accused will not meet one another face-to-face,” he said. “That will have an influence on the judge’s verdict in the case.”

“In China, in a context where there is no independent law, the verdict of the judge or the court is simply not taken into account in a large number of cases, and instead the word of the government organs or party organs behind them is what actually counts,” he said. “This situation is widespread in China.”

In her readout, Bahargul said the political role of the courts is to strictly and firmly rule by law and to maintain stability by paying close attention to ethnic separatism, religious extremism, and other acts of violence and terrorism, and always to ensure a high-pressure environment.

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

Public anger is growing in Myanmar over cuts to electric power ordered by the country’s military junta, with residents now stockpiling firewood and candles in what they call the worst power outage in over a decade.

In a statement Sunday, the junta’s Ministry of Power and Energy predicted 24-hour outages in some parts of the country from March 12 to 18 due to pipeline repairs at the Shwe offshore gas field. No details were immediately available on what areas would be affected.

In Myanmar’s former capital Yangon, however, power is already being cut off twice in every 24-hour period, with homes sometimes left dark for six hours each day, sources in the country say.

“Power is not there all the time, and I have to ask myself every day whether I should use my electric cooker or not,” one Yangon housewife told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“What would happen if the power goes out before the rice is fully cooked?” she asked.

“I’ve now decided to cook with charcoal, but the prices for charcoal and other commodities are rising so quickly now, and there is a huge problem with water supplies. In our neighborhood, a lot of people are going back to using manual water pumps again.”

In Amarapura township in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region, electricity is available for only eight hours each day, according to local sources, with one resident comparing the present situation to earlier periods of military rule.

“We have lived under junta rule in the past, and now we’re living under junta rule again,” the resident said, also speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation by the authorities.

“In between, the people’s government had kept the prices of electricity and petrol to a minimum, and everything was affordable,” the source said, referring to the period of civilian rule under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi that came to an end in a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021.

“But now, whether you pay your bills or not, you will have to face these power cuts,” he said. “A decent standard of living is possible only if you have adequate electricity.”

‘This is not a good sign’

The city of Monywa in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region has meanwhile suffered frequent power cuts since January, and is now experiencing outages twice a day for three hours at a time, local sources say.

Residents are stockpiling batteries and power inverters — devices used for converting direct current from batteries and fuel cells to alternating current — for use over the next weeks, one woman said.

“This is not a good sign. People feel like they are moving back to the way things were in the past. And there will be more power outages soon when summer comes, and we will suffer even more,” she said.

In southeastern Myanmar’s Mon state, the owner of a garment factory employing around 100 workers said his factory is now powered mainly by a generator.

“It is costing me between 70,000 to 80,000 kyats [U.S. $39.44-45.07] a day to get power,” he said, speaking like RFA’s other sources on condition of anonymity. “The government’s electricity supply comes on for only about six hours a day, but our business runs for 24 hours a day.

“For now, we can use our generator, but if there are going to be 24-hour outages, we won’t be able to run the generator for that long, and all of us are going to suffer,” he said.

Offices in the former capital and commercial center Yangon also cannot function without electricity, and the price of diesel fuel needed to run their generators is going up, said Soe Tun, a businessman based in the city,

“But we never thought of developing other resources like solar energy, so if the power goes out, we will have to rely on the generators,” he said. “We are also running rice mills in Yangon with generators now.”

Myanmar’s capital city Naypyidaw, where the country’s military junta is based, has meanwhile suffered no outages at all following the overthrow of civilian rule, but both junta supporters and opponents alike are facing power cuts in the rest of the country, said Sai Kyi Zin Soe, a political analyst in Yangon.

“When the power is cut, communities that support the military, those who do not, and those in between will all face the same hardships. That is obvious,” he said.

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

Ukraine is setting up a foreign legion, and thousands have reportedly volunteered from countries across the world. But recruiting fighters in Southeast Asia may prove difficult for Kyiv.

“I lived in the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine, for two decades. I love Ukraine and the Ukrainians, I want to support their just cause,” said Pham Van Hai, a Vietnamese army veteran from the southern province of Vung Tau who has volunteered to join the foreign legion in Ukraine.

Hai, who studied at the Kyiv Institute of Civil Aviation in the 1980s, has sent a couple of petitions to the Vietnamese government asking to be allowed to leave for Ukraine.

“I will pay my own air ticket and all expenses, I only need their permission,” he told RFA, adding: “No reply yet but I suspect they won’t give it to me.”

Vietnam had endured many wars in the past, and tens of thousands of Vietnamese were among the Indochinese contingent fighting in the French foreign legion in World War I and World War II.

Hai is one of dozens Vietnamese citizens who have been communicating online to express their willingness to fight for Ukraine – notwithstanding the growing death toll and destruction following the Russian invasion. The actual number of Vietnamese volunteers is unknown as their action may be illegal under Vietnam’s Criminal Code.

Article 425 of the code stipulates that “any person who works as a mercenary to fight against a nation or sovereign territory shall face a penalty of 5 to 15 years’ imprisonment.”

In fact, there are differences between mercenaries, who are contracted to fight but are not formally part of the military of the state they are fighting for; and legionnaires who are recruited as members of a state’s armed forces although they are not its citizens.

Regardless of those distinctions, Russia has warned that all foreigners who want to fight for Ukraine are “not combatants under international humanitarian law and not entitled to prisoner of war status” but will be treated as criminals.

On March 3, the Russian Ministry of Defense said: “We urge citizens of foreign countries planning to go to fight for the Kyiv nationalist regime to think twice before the trip.”

Ukraine’s international legion

The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Feb. 27 said his country was establishing an “international legion” for foreigners who want to fight for the nation and appealed to international volunteers to join.

By March 7, “more than 20,000 people from 52 countries have already volunteered to fight in Ukraine,” according to Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Kuleba, however, did not say how many of them had already arrived in Ukraine. Nor did he name their home countries.

Ukrainian embassies and consulates across the world have been actively rallying support, and a website was launched to provide detailed step-by-step instructions on how to join the international legion.

People with combat experience are encouraged to join what Ukraine calls “the resistance against the Russian occupants and fight for global security.”

According to media reports, volunteers are already arriving in Ukraine, mostly from European countries such as Lithuania, the Netherlands, the U.K. and France.

Ukraine received more than 3,000 applications from U.S. citizens who want to join the fight against Russia, according to a defense official at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, D.C. The U.S. State Department’s travel advisory still formally advises all Americans not to travel to Ukraine.

Southeast Asia’s response

Zelenskyy’s appeal was also heard in Southeast Asia, where some citizens want to join the Ukrainian defense legion although governments are generally against the idea.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday said his government “will not allow anyone to go to Ukraine.”

Speaking at a hospital inauguration ceremony, Hun Sen urged Cambodian citizens to “not pour gasoline on the fire”

“I will not allow our people to die in Ukraine. Our constitution does not allow that,” the prime minister said.

“The only ones who can go abroad for [such] missions are our Blue Helmet troops, but it’s under the auspices of humanitarianism of the United Nations,” he added.

Singapore is taking a similar stance with Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan saying on Feb. 28 that “Singapore cannot support the promotion or organization of armed groups, whatever their justification, into other countries.”

Balakrishnan reminded Singaporean people that “your duty is to Singapore,” and “to defend our national interests.”

Thailand seems to be the only country that doesn’t hold its citizens back.

Thai government spokeswoman Ratchada Thanadirek was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that “there is no law preventing Thai citizens from joining foreign volunteer forces.”

“But people should consider the potential grave danger as Russian forces pound Ukrainian cities with heavy weapons,” she was quoted as warning the Thais.

Hundreds of Thai citizens have sent the Ukrainian embassy emails to apply to sign up for the international legion, according to a Facebook group created about the endeavor.   

A Ukrainian embassy official told BenarNews last week that scores of Thai citizens had phoned the embassy in Bangkok, and around 40 of them had shown up there to express interest in volunteering.