Day: March 16, 2022

Citizens in North Korea are cashing in by trading fuel coupons and mixing gasoline with cheaper fuels as prices surge in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sources in the country told RFA.

Following the Feb. 24 invasion, the U.S. and other countries placed sanctions on Russia, a major petroleum exporting country, resulting in higher global gas prices.

As of Tuesday, average prices in the U.S. reached $4.32 per gallon, their highest level since July 2008. In South Korea, the price per liter reached above the 2,000 won ($6.16/gallon) line for the first time in more than nine years.

North Korea, which relies primarily on fuel imports from China and Russia, has also seen a steep increase. People who travel between provinces can purchase fuel coupons exchangeable for gasoline from one area where gas is cheaper and sell them where it is more expensive, sources said.

In the city of Sinuiju, across the Yalu River border from China’s Dandong, gas cost 7,500 won per kilogram ($3.55/gallon) in January, increasing to 8,700 won ($4.12/gallon) in February and 11,000 won ($5.20/gallon) in March, a total increase of 46 percent. Prices for diesel fuel more than doubled over the same period.

Gas is more expensive farther inland, so the price hike was even more crippling. In the city of Pyongsong, just north of the capital Pyongyang, gas costs almost 50 percent more than in Sinuiju.

Sinuiju	Jan	Feb	Mar	Pyongsong	Jan	Feb	Mar
Gasoline	7500/kg $3.55/gal	8700/kg $4.12/gal	11000/kg $5.20/gal	Gasoline	11000/kg $5.20/gal	13000/kg $6.13/gal	15000/kg $7.10/gal
Diesel	3800/kg $1.79/gal	4400/kg $2.07/gal	7800/kg $3.69/gal	Diesel	8400/kg $3.98/gal	9500/kg $4.49/gal	11500kg $5.42/gal

A man in Sinuiju told RFA’s Korean Service that drivers who ferry government officials around the country stock up on the coupons in gas stations where fuel is cheaper.

“If they buy it cheap and go to another region, they can sell it for more to the people there,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons. “Also when prices go up they sometimes mix in cheaper aviation gasoline or naptha.” Naptha is commonly known in the U.S. as lighter fluid.

The source said that gas prices may rise more as demand for fuel increases in the spring when each cooperative farm must secure 3-5 tons of fuel to prepare for the year’s agricultural needs.

On the other hand, most North Koreans do not own their own cars, so the price of gasoline may have a less pronounced effect on their finances as it does in countries where car ownership is more common.

Oil prices will continue to rise due to North Korea’s dependence on fuel from China and Russia, William Brown, an East Asian economy expert at Georgetown University, told RFA.

“The question will be what will happen to Chinese refine product sales to North Korea, including those that are included in the sanction agreement and those that are smuggled outside of it?” said Brown. “You would imagine the prices would be rising a lot with the world price jumping and in that sense the North Korean prices will have to rise to compensate for that.”

Brown predicts that Russia might increase oil sales to North Korea at a time when the international community has imposed sanctions and barred imports of Russian crude.

Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Four of 15 people arrested by Bangladesh police in recent months on suspicion of ties to the murder of Rohingya leader Muhib Ullah have confessed to the crime and say they belong to the ARSA insurgent group, police told BenarNews on Wednesday.

However, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and the police are continuing to insist that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army has no presence on Bangladeshi soil although, in mid-January, local authorities arrested the brother of the rebel group’s leader from a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. The brother is not among the 15 suspects in the Muhib Ullah case.

“This case [of Muhib Ullah’s killing] has been under investigation. Thus far, we have arrested 15 suspected people in this connection. Four of them have given confessional statements [with regard to the murder] at the court,” Gazi Salahuddin, the officer-in-charge of the Ukhia police station, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

When asked whether the four had admitted to having links to ARSA, Salahuddin replied, “They claim they are [ARSA members]. Some of them said they were guards of ARSA [members], some of them said they were activists of ARSA.”

ARSA is a Rohingya insurgent group whose 2017 attack on government outposts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state led to a brutal military crackdown against the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, causing about 740,000 of them to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

Unidentified gunman burst in and fatally shot Muhib Ullah, a refugee and internationally known Rohingya activist, in his office at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar on the night of Sept. 29, 2021.

Salahuddin, the local police official, said he believed that ARSA leader Ata Ullah Abu Ammar Jununi may have ordered Muhib Ullah’s killing, but he said police had no evidence to prove the existence of the insurgent group in the refugee camps.

“Actually they [some arrested people] claim to be ARSA members. But we have not got anything that substantiates the claim,” he said.

ARSA is also blamed for criminal activities at the Rohingya camps in Ukhia and Teknaf, two upazilas (sub-districts) of Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern district near the border with Rakhine state in Myanmar.

When asked to comment Wednesday about the Muhib Ullah case, the home minister again denied that ARSA has a foothold in Bangladesh. But, he conceded, operatives from the rebel group have crossed the Bangladesh-Myanmar frontier back and forth.

“We have no sympathy for, or link with, ARSA. ARSA originated in Myanmar and sometimes some of their members infiltrate into Bangladesh territory to commit a robbery and go back,” Khan told BenarNews.

“Whenever we get intelligence, our law enforcement agencies catch them. But there are no organized camps or presence of ARSA on Bangladesh soil, and we will never allow them.”

However, security analyst Mohammad Ali Shikder told BenarNews that the presence of ARSA at the Rohingya camps was not “unusual.”

“The family members of Muhib Ullah alleged ARSA killed him. Again, four arrested persons confessed at the court that they are ARSA members,” the retired Army major general told BenarNews.

“So, the government must take the issue seriously as Bangladesh maintained zero tolerance for terrorism of all forms and manifestations.”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Pandemic lockdowns have prompted dozens of factory closures in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, as people continue to leave neighboring Hong Kong in droves amid an ongoing COVID-19 wave.

More than 60 Taiwanese-owned factories including Apple suppliers Foxconn were forced to suspend production amid a weeklong citywide lockdown imposed by the local government in the hope of containing community transmissions of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

The tech sector was particularly hard hit, with printed circuit-board makers, chip foundries and assembly facilities, touch screen and LED makers all forced to suspend production.

Foxconn, which employs 180,000 workers at its Longhua plant alone, later said in a statement it had restarted production after negotiating a “closed-loop” bubble arrangement for its employees.

“Some operations have been able to restart and some production is being carried out,” Foxconn said in a statement, saying employees are still required to submit to quarantine procedures.

“This process, which can only be done on campuses that include both employee housing and production facilities, adheres to strict industry guidelines and close-loop management policies issued by the Shenzhen government,” the company, which makes iPhones as well as parts and accessories for the iPad, said.

Electronics sector shutdown

China’s National Health Commission reported 1,952 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the majority of which were community transmissions in the northeastern province of Jilin, also currently under various levels of lockdown.

Of the 59 newly confirmed cases in Guangdong, Shenzhen reported 55, with the remainder scattered across the cities of Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Shaoguan.

The city has seen the shutdown of an entire district of electronics wholesalers, with Huaqiangbei district now taken over by disease control and prevention officials, police cars and quarantine enforcers.

An electronics industry insider who gave only the surname Chang said shipments of Apple products could still be affected.

“They will definitely be affected, because it’s not just the suspension of production that will affect them but also [shutdowns in] the logistics sector,” she said.

“Pretty much all logistics services in and out of Shenzhen have stopped, so the impact is huge.”

Chang said the shutdowns weren’t limited to Shenzhen.

“A lot factories in Shanghai have stopped production,” she said. “You won’t be able to find a precise number online, because the government is now implementing a no-trace policy, meaning that there won’t be any general public notices, but smaller local documents telling people what to do.”

“Taobao merchants are no longer shipping to Shanghai from elsewhere in China,” she said.

Stuck on zero-COVID

An online commentator surnamed Zheng in the eastern port city of Qingdao said the government doesn’t appear to be reconsidering its zero-COVID strategy, despite considerable economic losses.

“They don’t care about the economy or the people; they’re not even thinking about that,” Zheng said. “They are focused solely on their ideology and their targets.”

“They will shut down everything and make people stay home at the first sign of an outbreak,” he said. “The rest of the world isn’t really managing the pandemic, and the U.K. has opened up fully.”

Meanwhile, people are leaving Hong Kong in unprecedented numbers as the city’s government scrambles to contain a mounting COVID-19 outbreak with the highest death rate seen in a developed economy so far.

Net passenger outflows reached 71,350 in February, compared with 15,200 in January and 16,800 in December, with more than 65,300 of February departures registered as permanent residents of the city.

The figures were released as the U.S. State Department raised its travel advice for Hong Kong to the highest level: “Do not travel.”

The exodus comes as the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposes its zero-COVID policy on Hong Kong, with inbound passengers forced to quarantine for at least 14 days, with anyone testing positive forced into supervised quarantine camps.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

A Chinese navy reconnaissance ship’s trip through Philippine territorial waters in the Sulu Sea did not break international law, Beijing said in responding to a protest by Manila, which had called it an “illegal incursion.” 

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian described the ship’s action as “an exercise of the right of innocent passage pursuant to UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea].” 

“The Chinese passage was safe and standard, and consistent with international law and international practice. We hope relevant parties can view it in an objective and rational manner,” he said in response to a reporter’s question during the ministry’s daily press briefing on Tuesday.

China and the Philippines are signatories to UNCLOS, an international treaty that provides a comprehensive legal framework for all activities and uses of the world’s seas and oceans. 

On Monday in Manila, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian to meet with Acting Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro over China’s alleged maritime action in southwestern waters of the Philippine archipelago. 

An “electronic reconnaissance ship” of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) had entered Philippine waters without permission from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, the department said in a statement. 

The department did not say why it waited six weeks to confront the Chinese ambassador about the incident. 

The Dongdiao-class PLAN ship communicated that it was “exercising innocent passage” when the Philippine Navy challenged it in Sulu Sea waters, the department said. The ship reached the Cuyo Islands in the Palawan region of the central Philippines. 

“Its movements, however, did not follow a track that can be considered continuous and expeditious, lingering in the Sulu Sea for three days,” the DFA said, adding that the ship did not immediately leave despite being warned off by the Philippine Navy.  

The department said Manila recognizes the right of any ship to pursue innocent passage through its waters in accordance with UNCLOS. However, the action of the Chinese ship “did not constitute innocent passage and violated Philippines sovereignty.”

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea as its own, but five other Asian governments – Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam – have territorial claims. While Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of the sea overlapping Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).  

Manila has filed a series of complaints about Beijing’s presence within its territory beginning about 12 months ago and summoned Ambassador Huang after about 220 Chinese ships were spotted in March 2021 around Whitsun Reef in the Spratly Islands.

 BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Cambodian police on Wednesday arrested around 200 workers striking outside the NagaWorld casino in Phnom Penh, crowding them into buses for transport to a COVID-19 quarantine center outside the city, Cambodian sources said.

Hundreds of officers both in uniform and plain clothes used force against the workers, who were still being held at the center as of 9 p.m. local time on Wednesday, sources said.

“The strikers were physically abused by the authorities, who also took our cell phones,” one worker named Chantha told RFA, saying city authorities are siding with the NagaWorld company to prevent striking workers from entering casino buildings.

NagaWorld workers will continue their protests until their union is recognized and solutions are found to the now months-long labor dispute, she said.

Wednesday’s arrests follow the release on bail on Monday of eight union leaders and members, with three others still held in detention and workers vowing to continue an online campaign demanding that charges against all 11 be dropped, sources said.

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

Chhim Sithar, leader of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld, and seven colleagues were later arrested and charged with inciting social unrest, with Cambodian authorities calling the strike illegal and part of a plot promoted by foreign donors to topple the government.

Speaking to RFA in an interview on Wednesday, Chhim Sithar said that she and the others released on Monday have called for striking workers to be allowed to return to work and are urging those laid off to remain at home until a legal settlement of their status is in place.

These statements show a softening of the union’s stance, she said. “We have made a lot of concessions, especially by asking the workers to return to work. There should be some benefit on all sides.”

Asked why the striking workers had continued their protest on Wednesday in spite of the union’s call for them to return, Chhim Sithar said the NagaWorld workers were free to make their own decisions without union interference.

Chhim Sithar denounced as “fake” another labor union recently established by NagaWorld, saying casino owners have consistently opposed the independent representation of workers’ rights.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor meanwhile said on Wednesday that a previously missed meeting with workers’ representatives to help resolve the labor dispute would now be held on Thursday.

Also speaking to RFA, Am Sam Ath — deputy director of the Phnom Penh-based Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights — said that the striking NagaWorld workers have continued their protest because they feel their dispute with the casino can never be resolved while three of their union representatives are still detained.

“The court should drop all charges against the workers’ representatives so they are able to represent the workers during talks,” he said.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Richard Finney.

A national-level Uyghur volleyball coach is serving an eight-year prison sentence for “befriending bearded men,” under a deepening crackdown on Islamic practices and culture, a Uyghur living in exile and a local police officer told RFA.

Alimjan Mehmut is serving his sentence in a detention center in Aksu (in Chinese, Akesu), according to information provided by the Norway-based rights organization Uyghur Hjelp, which documents missing and imprisoned Uyghurs in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region.

His name is also on a list of Uyghur torchbearers for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games who have been imprisoned in recent years, caught in a wider crackdown on the ethnic minority group.

Previous reporting by RFA has found that Xinjiang authorities have used the pretense of fighting religious extremism to increasingly restrict Muslim-influenced Uyghur traditions such as wearing beards and various garments, wedding and funeral rites, the giving of alms, and the naming of children after Mohammed or other Islamic figures.

Abduweli Ayup, the Uyghur linguist who runs the Uyghur Hjelp website, told RFA that Alimjan was one of at least six or seven instructors from the Kashgar Sports School hauled away by authorities in past years. Among those arrested were two other volleyball instructors.

“Through our sources, we learned that Alimjan Mehmut, and his colleagues, Ezizjan and Ezisqari, from the Kashgar Sports School were all arrested,” he said.

RFA contacted the sports school for information on Alimjan, but an official said that no instructor there had been arrested by authorities and refused to answer questions about the former coach after Alimjan’s name was mention.

“We don’t have someone named Alimjan Mehmut in our school,” he said.

But a local Chinese government police officer in Kashgar (Kashi) told RFA that Alimjan had been arrested for “befriending bearded men,” meaning that he had contact via cell phone or otherwise with Muslim Uyghurs deemed suspicious by authorities.

“He was arrested before I came to work here,” the police officer said. “He was sentenced two years ago.”

Respected in Uyghur society

As a coach at the Kashgar Sports School, Alimjan was well-known and respected not only in sports circles, but also in greater Uyghur society for his activism in in his community, said Abduweli.

Alimjan was among the most influential figures in Uyghur society whom the Chinese government began arresting amid a heightened crackdown beginning in 2017, he said.

Many were taken away under the pretext of engaging in religious extremism or separatist activities.

Alimjan is one of at least eight Uyghurs from Kashgar who served as Olympic torchbearers, but were arrested years later. The others on the list compiled by Uyghur Hjelp are Patigul Kadir, Alimjan Mehmut, Yasinjan Awut, Jumehun Memet, Nureli Memet, Abduqeyum Semet and Adil Abdurehim.

In recent weeks, RFA reported that Abduqeyum Semet and Adil Abdurehim had been arrested and sentenced after confirming their detentions with authorities in Xinjiang.

A Uyghur who served as a torchbearer in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and was a medical doctor, Abduqeyum Semet is serving an 18-year jail sentence. Adil Abdurehim, also a previous torchbearer and a former Chinese government official, is serving a 14-year jail sentence for watching counter-revolutionary videos.

Citing these draconian restrictions on Uyghurs’ religious practices and culture and the arbitrary arrests and detentions of some 1.8 million people in internment camps over the past five years, the United States and legislatures of several other Western countries have accused China of committing genocide and crimes against humanity.

Beijing rejects these charges, but has allowed little or no outside access to Xinjiang, a vast mountain and desert region the size of Iran or the U.S. state of Alaska.

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