Day: March 14, 2022

Cambodia’s vastly overcrowded prisons may violate international laws against cruel and inhuman punishment, as inmates lack sufficient sleeping spaces and access to clean water and fresh air, according to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

The committee met on March 11 in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss a report on how Cambodia implements the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to hear responses from Cambodian officials.

The body of independent experts monitors implementation of the multilateral treaty. Governments must submit regular reports on how civil and political rights of individuals — including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights, and rights to due process and a fair trial — are being implemented.

Cambodia’s prison population has doubled since 2015, with 38,977 inmates in facilities that can hold up to 8,804, meaning that the prisons are operating at 343% capacity, said the report issued in September 2021. The report covers the period from June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021.

“The situation in prisons is perilous to the point that the conditions may constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment given the levels of mental and physical pain experienced by prisoners, the lack of sleeping space, the inadequacy of the water and sanitation, and the limited access to fresh air and health care,” the report said.

The document also referred to allegations of several suspicious deaths of Cambodians while they were in custody, many of which were neither reported nor investigated.

The Cambodian delegation at Friday’s meeting included representatives of the Cambodia Human Rights Committee, Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Interior, and the Permanent Mission of Cambodia to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Chin Malin, secretary of state of Cambodia’s Justice Ministry, said his country has worked hard to resolve the issue of overcrowded prisons, including by reducing a backlog of court cases, suspending sentences and releasing some Cambodians held in pretrial detention.

Authorities use pretrial detention — which for serious felonies can last for 24 months — because of a lack of legal personnel and the case backlog, Cambodian officials said.

Authorities have released detainees who committed minor offenses, expedited vaccinations and limited visitations to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus within prisons, the officials said.

But a committee expert cited data suggesting that the average prison occupancy in 2020 was beyond 300% of capacity, with overuse of incarceration as one of the underlying causes.

The expert, whose name was not given in a U.N. summary of the meeting, requested more information on what Cambodia was doing to reduce prison overcrowding.

The expert also noted that 30-40% of all detainees were awaiting trials and that there had been frequent allegations that their due process rights were being disregarded. The person wanted to know if Cambodian officials had developed guidelines for judges to use in their decisions on pretrial detention.

Water shortages

Another committee expert asked for more information on the number of deaths in prisons from epidemiological outbreaks, the availability and access to COVID-19 testing, and the rate at which detainees have been vaccinated.

Experts also raised questions about people who suffered from drug addiction being detained and forced to undergo medical treatment under Cambodian law and reports of homeless people detained against their will in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

Cambodian officials said the General Department of Prisons was investigating cases of torture and that the government was reviewing its laws to try to prevent the practice. Some officials who have been identified as torturing inmates have been charged and placed in pretrial detention, the delegation said.

Nuth Savana, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Prisons, told RFA that the prison overcrowding has been reduced since last year. The department reported a decrease of 2,000 prisoners this year from the nearly 39,000 inmates that were behind bars in 2021.

Nuth Savana said his department was also working to address the problem of water shortages in detention facilities, saying that more wells are being dug at prisons.

“[Concerning] prisons that face the problem, we are working with the International Committee of the Red Cross to create filtered water systems, such as in Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchey and Siem Reap provinces,” he said. “We’ve dug more wells.”

Prisons in Kampong Cham and Kampong Chhnang provinces have filtered water system installed, he said.

“We have prioritized the lack of water first,” Nuth Savana said. “As I said, the problem of water shortages is an old report.”

Ny Sokha, a human rights defender and president of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, said overcrowding continues to be a problem because the government has not paid much attention to it.

The situation is still serious enough that it affects the detainees physically and psychologically, he said.

Ny Sokha, who was himself a prisoner of conscience, also said the congestion could be due to an increase in the number of drug users who have been incarcerated.

“If we cannot solve the problem of overcrowded prisons, it can affect prisoners’ health and their mental state, so that when they are released, they cannot be good human resources,” he said. “They become sick and suffer from debilitating diseases, so it’s not good for them or for our society.”

The U.N. Human Rights Committee is scheduled to hold another public meeting on Friday and plans to issue its concluding observations and recommendations on Cambodia by March 25.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Ultranationalist Buddhist clergymen, including outspoken monk Wirathu, are throwing their support behind the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia in its fight against prodemocracy paramilitaries in Myanmar’s Sagaing region, including by undergoing weapons training clad in saffron robes, residents said Monday.

Members of the prodemocracy People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group have demonstrated some of the fiercest resistance to junta troops and their militia-backed offensive in Sagaing since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. The military is better equipped and has embarked on a scorched earth campaign in the region with the help of the Pyu Saw Htee, but residents say that a new tool has been added to its arsenal: hardline monks from the Ma Ba Tha group.

A video recently went viral on social media in Myanmar purportedly showing members of the Ma Ba Tha on a “tour” of several pro-junta villages in Sagaing in support of forming Pyu Saw Htee units. The video appears to show the monks helping to train people and delivering Buddhist sermons.

In one clip, Ma Ba Tha leaders known as “sayadaws” — including Wah Thawa, Wira Raza, and Pandita — appear to be holding guns in their hands and telling residents that the PDFs are killing people and setting fire to villages. One monk is heard to say, “Wirathu himself visited the villages yesterday and raised the morale of residents.”

Sources told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the footage was filmed on Feb. 27 at the Yadanar Kan Myint Htei Monastery during a Pyu Saw Htee training camp graduation ceremony in Taze township’s Kabe village. They confirmed that pro-junta monks have been “carrying guns” and “taking part in some of the fighting” in the region.

An eyewitness from Taze’s Kyunle village told RFA that the Pyu Saw Htee groups were “led by Ma Ba Tha monks” and that “Wirathu is involved.”

“There are Pyu Saw Htee and Ma Ba Tha monks,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“These monks are not local monks. All the local monks are gone. They have fled to safety. Some villagers said they saw Wirathu. [Such actions are] totally against the rules observed by the [Buddhist clergy] and we condemn it.”

According to the eyewitness, nearly half of the 350 houses in Kyunle are pro-military and mostly Pyu Saw Htee. Residents who do not support the Pyu Saw Htee have “fled their homes,” he added.

Another resident of the area who declined to be named said the armed monks had summoned Taze’s inhabitants to the Yadanar Kan Myint Htei Monastery and Kyunle’s Lay Thar Monastery and told them not to accept the PDF.

“Since the local monks fled the Yadanar Kan Myint Htei Monastery, they took over the place and tried to turn the villagers against the PDFs,” he said, adding that “all the monks” at the Lay Thar Monastery are junta supporters.

Pro-military ‘from the beginning’

Tayza Nanda, an abbot of the pro-democracy Spring Revolutionary Monk Network in Taze, told RFA that the Ma Ba Tha sayadaws are working in the region with the support of the military.

“These monks have been backed by the military from the beginning,” he said. “What they are saying and doing now is all in line with Wirathu’s preaching and now they are taking up arms. They are [junta chief Sen. Gen.] Min Aung Hlaing’s followers who support evil.

“Real monks can’t even preach to those who carry weapons, let alone carry arms themselves,” Tayza Nanda added.

RFA could not independently confirm allegations that Wirathu is involved with the Pyu Saw Htee. Attempts to contact Wirathu went unanswered Monday.

Junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun confirmed to RFA that militia groups had been formed “to protect these villages from PDF attacks.”

“Since the PDFs are threatening villages that do not support them, we have formed militia groups there to provide security for these villages,” he said. “We have not provided monks with weapons. There is no reason to do that.”

Zaw Min Tun noted that he had never “said a word before about the PDF-supporting monks who reside there and are carrying arms,” without providing details about his claims.

A member of the Taze PDF told RFA that on March 6 his group attacked a Pyu Saw Htee unit led by sayadaw Wah Thawa in Kabe village, and that the unit “fled with many wounded.”

“Wah Thawa is no longer in the area. He has fled to Kanbalu. Wah Thawa, who was seen in the footage with a pistol and bullet-proof vest, was the leader,” he said. “Monks hold even more authority in rural areas than village administrators, so [the junta] tried to use the monks to do their organizing of Pyu Saw Htee units.”

The Taze PDF member said the Pyu Saw Htee and the Ma Ba Tha group attacked small villages in the area, including Kyunle and Kabe, and had “forced the locals to join them.”

Using religion for political gain

Rajadhamma, an abbot with the Buddhist Mandalay Sangha Union, said Wirathu had cultivated close ties in the past with the monk leaders of the Pyu Saw Htee group in Sagaing — Wah Thawa, Wira Raza and Pandita.

“All three of them used to live close to Wirathu in the past. We can even say that they are the actual leaders of this group,” he said. “Now they are taking weapons training for killing others. Holding guns and learning how to shoot is completely inappropriate for our religion.”

Ultranationalist Buddhist monk Wirathu was charged by the deposed National League for Democracy government with sedition in May 2019, but the charges were dropped by the junta in September 2021 and he was set free. He is currently touring towns in Mandalay and Bago regions, and witnesses say the military has provided him security.

Political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA that reports of the Ma Ba Tha’s involvement with the Pyu Saw Htee suggest the militia is using religion for political gain in Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country.

“The majority of people in our country are Buddhists and they all love and respect the monks, so [the military is trying] to use the monks for their benefit,” he said. “We have never heard about an entire group of monks taking up arms training.”

Myanmar’s military has killed at least 1,672 civilians since the coup and arrested nearly 9,625 others — mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests.

According to a report issued last week by Data for Myanmar, a research group that documents the impact of conflict on communities, pro-junta forces have burned more than 6,700 houses to the ground in 186 locations in nine regions and states since the military coup. Last month, the group said most of the junta-sponsored arson had occurred in Sagaing region.

Last month, a post went viral on social media that allegedly showed a leaked document from the junta’s Northwest Military Command ordering the delivery of more than 2,000 weapons to 77 pro-junta militia groups and calling for the formation of more militia units in remote villages in Sagaing. RFA was unable to independently confirm the authenticity of the document.

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

The thousands of North Korean workers dispatched to Russia to earn foreign cash for the Kim Jong Un regime had it tough even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They are paid in rubles for their labor at garment factories, restaurants and construction sites, but Pyongyang takes more than half of their earnings–and only accepts dollars. The collapse of the ruble since Vladimir Putin launched his war on Ukraine has made the migrant workers’ take-home pay close to worthless.

A Uyghur farmer jailed for moving his pregnant wife from their hometown in Xinjiang to prevent authorities from forcing her to have an abortion died in 2020 while serving an eight-year prison sentence, a Uyghur with knowledge of the situation and local police officials confirmed to RFA this month.

Abdureshid Obul from Lenger village in Keriye (in Chinese Yutian) county, saved his wife from the forced abortion by moving from Hotan (Hetian) prefecture in the summer of 2012, according to a Uyghur from the same county who now lives abroad.

Abdureshid and his wife returned a year after the birth. Upon their return, village police detained and interrogated him for a week. He was released after he underwent “political re-education” and paid a 20,000 yuan (U.S. $3,150) for violating the government’s family planning policy, the source said.

Ethnic minority families that lived in rural areas were limited to two children under the government’s policy.

Abdureshid and his wife had three children when she was pregnant with the fourth child, a son.

In 2017, as Chinese officials ratcheted up a crackdown on Uyghurs, detaining hundreds of thousands of members of the mostly Muslim community for “religious extremism,” authorities reconsidered Abdureshid’s action to be a crime requiring harsher punishment, the source said.

Although Abdureshid had paid the fine, authorities sent him again to an internment camp, said the source, who asked not to be named so that he could speak freely.

The source said there had been a sudden surge that year in the enforcement of the family planning policy.

Abdureshid spent two years in the camp, before being sentenced to eight years in prison for relocating to avoid the forced abortion, which the government said was an antigovernment action, an example of religious extremism, and a disruption of the social order, according to the source.

He died in Keriye Prison after serving only one year of his sentence, and authorities handed his body over to his family, he said.

Chinese government officials in Keriye county contacted by RFA confirmed that Abdureshid died while in prison.

When asked about residents who recently died while in jail, a Saybagh hamlet police officer, who did not give his name, mentioned Abdureshid by name and confirmed information provided by the Uyghur in exile.

“He was sentenced to eight years in prison for violating the family planning policy,” the policeman said. “It’s been two years since he died of an illness.”

Abdureshid was about 50 years old at the time of his death, he said.

Authorities in Xinjiang have inconsistently applied the family planning policy, sometimes cracking down on violators and sometimes giving them a pass. But in recent years, forced abortions have reached record numbers among Uyghurs in the region, observers say.

As part of the crackdown that began in 2017, the Chinese government implemented population control measures for Uyghurs, including forced sterilizations and abortions.

Uyghur and other Turkic minority women who have been detained in Xinjiang’s vast network of internment camps but later released have reported being raped, tortured and forced to undergo sterilization surgery.

Such population control measures, among other repressive policies in Xinjiang, were cited by some Western parliaments and the United States as evidence that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs.

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

A court in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh Monday released on bail eight union leaders who represent the striking workers of the NagaWorld Casino, providing hope that the months-long labor dispute is heading toward a resolution, a released union member told RFA.

The decision by the Phnom Penh municipal court reverses the appellate court’s decision last week to deny bail on the grounds that the labor leaders were still under investigation.

Ry Sovandy, one of the eight who was released Monday, told RFA’s Khmer Service that the group plans to continue advocating for the rights of their coworkers and their union, despite their time in jail.

“Our stance is that the union has to be reinstated and the workers who want to work should be allowed to return,” she said. “Our position is purely based on the willingness of the workers. We will not accept any condition that leads to a dissolution of the union or only allows one party, the NagaWorld company, to win in this dispute.”

Thousands of NagaWorld workers walked off their jobs in mid-December, demanding higher wages and the reinstatement of the eight jailed union leaders, three other jailed 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 Cambodian 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 eight leaders of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld released Monday are: Ry Sovandy, Hay Sopheap, Khleang Soben, Sun Srey Pich, Touch Serey Meas, former union member Sok Narith, union secretary Chhim Sokhon, and union president Chhim Sithor.

They had been detained for 74 days, accused of inciting social unrest.

The three other jailed workers are still being held in Phnom Penh Prison for obstructing the implementation of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The newly released leaders called on the court to drop all charges against them and to release the remaining three so that negotiations with NagaWorld can proceed.

The release came two days after the eight wrote separate letters to Minister of Labor and Vocational Training Ith Sam Heng, stating that they wanted to be released on bail to continue talks that will allow the workers to return to their jobs, Ry Sovandy said.

While imprisoned, Ry Sovandy said that she and the seven other union leaders faced a number of difficulties, but she said the group was especially disheartened over the abuse the strikers, many of whom are women, suffered at the hands of authorities. She commended the workers for persisting despite the harassment.

“I hope the Labor Ministry will continue to intervene to end this dispute between the company and the union. And I think it is unjust if the charges against us are not dropped because we have not incited anyone to commit crimes,” Ry Sovandy said.  

In their bail request letter, the eight called for all employees on strike to be allowed to return to work. They said they would appeal to workers who were laid off to stay home during negotiations until a legal settlement is in place. They also called for the company not to retaliate against the striking employees.

The Phnom Penh-based Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights applauded the decision to release the eight unionists on bail, but Deputy Director Am Sam Ath said they should be completely freed before they enter negotiations.

“They did nothing wrong. The charges against them should be dropped,” he said. “They might still be under judicial pressure if they negotiate while still out on bail. Drop all the charges so that they can participate in transparent negotiations, which is the only way to reach a fair solution that respects integrity.”

Authorities on Monday again arrested a large group of demonstrating NagaWorld employees. The 162 arrested this time were forced onto waiting buses and taken to detention in a COVID-19 quarantine center in a Phnom Penh suburb.
Interior Minister Sar Kheng led a March 9 meeting to resolve the labor dispute, with the participation of ministers of several ministries such as the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and officials from Phnom Penh. The results of the closed-door meeting were not announced. 

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

A Tibetan tour guide working in western Tibet’s Shigatse municipality was detained by Chinese police this month as authorities ramp up efforts to limit contacts between local residents and foreign visitors to the tightly controlled Himalayan region, Tibetan sources said.

Pasang Norbu, a resident of Shigatse’s Gampa (in Chinese, Gangba) county in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), was taken into custody on March 11 and beaten by police who accused him of running an illegal business, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA.

“Pasang Norbu’s business is legally registered by the official tourism administration in the TAR, and he even paid 18,000 yuan [U.S. $2,827.79] for a permit to run it,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his contacts in the region.

Police had ignored his permit, though, and had warned him twice to shut his business down, the source said.

A middle-school graduate aged in his 20s, Norbu was described by sources in Tibet as “a very decent person and always friendly with everyone,” RFA’s source in exile said. “He owns seven tour bikes, all in very good condition, and his family’s livelihood depends on his tour guide service.

“He has a mother named Tsamchoe and his 13-year-old sister Choedon is still in school,” the source added.

No information was immediately available regarding Norbu’s whereabouts in detention or present condition.

Pema Gyal, a researcher at London-based Tibet Watch, confirmed Norbu’s arrest, also citing sources in the Shigatse area.

“It’s true that Pasang Norbu was arrested by Chinese authorities in Shigatse, but he is not the only one to have been detained. The Chinese government has recently been increasing its controls on many privately owned Tibetan tourist services and has been holding their owners on unreasonable charges,” Gyal said.

Growing pressure

Tibetan tour businesses have come under growing pressure in recent years from Chinese authorities concerned about foreign visitors’ unmonitored contact with Tibetans who have returned to their home areas to work as tour guides after spending time in India, sources say.

One guide, Kunchok Jinpa, 51, died on Feb. 6, 2021, in a hospital in Lhasa after being transferred in critical condition from his prison, where he had been serving a 21-year prison term for sharing news of Tibetan anti-mining protests in Driru (Biru) county with RFA and other outside media.

He had gone to live and study in exile in India in 1989 and returned nine years later to Tibet, where he was widely respected in his community, sources told RFA in an earlier report.

Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force 70 years ago, and Tibetans living in Tibet frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at eradicating their national and cultural identity.

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