Day: March 29, 2022

Fighting between junta troops and ethnic Karen rebels in eastern Myanmar’s Kayin state has forced more than 10,000 civilians to seek shelter along the country’s shared border with Thailand, but Thai officials have refused entry to the refugees and aid workers warned Tuesday of a food shortage risk.

Since mid-March, soldiers with the Karen National Liberation Army have engaged in several clashes with the military in Kayin’s Myawaddy township. Thousands of villagers living along the Myawaddy-Walay road have set up makeshift camps along the Moei River, which separates Myanmar and Thailand, to escape the conflict.

On Saturday, heavy fighting in the Wawlay and Lay Kay Kaw areas of Myawaddy forced around 1,000 people to cross the Moei into Thailand, but Thai authorities later sent them back across the border, according to an official from a refugee camp in Myawaddy’s Phalu Lay village.

“We crossed to the Thai side and then Thai soldiers came and said we could stay there only for the night. They said we’d have to cross back in the morning when the fighting stopped,” said the official, who spoke to RFA’s Myanmar Service on condition of anonymity.

“The next morning, we returned and stayed in our camp. Some of those who were very scared stayed behind on the Thai side. The Thai soldiers came again this morning and told them they could not stay any longer. So, we have called everyone back to our camp. The other side did not accept us at all.”

The camp official said he hopes Thai authorities will reconsider and allow the refugees temporary asylum during the fighting, which has worsened in recent days.

Aid workers told RFA that, instead of offering refuge, Thai authorities are tightening security along the river and are searching border villages for any Myanmar nationals who have crossed illegally.

One aid worker said border camps are securing food from the town of Mae Sot in Thailand but warned that the flow of goods “is not official” and remains at risk of being shut down.

“These routes work because we have an understanding [with the local authorities]. But when donors share information on social media about how they have provided help and from which places, they could be closed. That’s a problem,” the worker said.

“If the current supply routes are blocked, tens of thousands of refugees will be in trouble.”

Some camps along the Moei River “only have rice and onions,” workers said, while recent heavy rains have destroyed supplies in others.

The situation along the border is similar to one in December, when intensified fighting in Kayin state forced more than 20,000 people to flee to Thailand. At that time, Thai authorities opened temporary camps to receive the refugees, but the camps were closed, and refugees were sent home when the fighting subsided.

Only around 2,000 refugees continued to live in makeshift camps along the Myanmar side of the river, but that number swelled to more than 10,000 amid renewed fighting in March.

Refugees at risk

A woman living along the river in Myanmar, who declined to be named, told RFA about the state of the camps in recent days.

“Now, there are people from Wawlay as well as from Ingyin Myaing and Sone-Zee-Myaing. And there are also people who were already living on the riverbank,” she said.

“Since the Thais did not allow us to enter, people are staying on sandbanks in the middle of the river. The main problem is [a lack of] drinking water. There are some young mothers who have just given birth. We need blankets, dry rations and medicine.”

Somchai Kijcharoenrungroj, the governor of Tak province in Thailand, told RFA-affiliated Benar News that authorities there are not deporting Myanmar nationals.

“Currently, there are still people being displaced from Myanmar, gathering along the border, and periodically crossing into Thailand. The figures are always fluctuating. Lately, there are about 100 to whom we gave sanctuary and humanitarian aid,” he said.

“Regarding repatriation or pushback, we affirm that no such thing has taken place. Most of them voluntarily return because when things calm down, they must go look after their property.”

Junta Deputy Minister of Information Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA that temporary camps are being set up in and around Myawaddy township for those fleeing the fighting.

“If it’s going to take time for them to return to their places of residence, we consider them to be [displaced persons]. If it isn’t, it is considered a temporary evacuation,” he said.

“There is fighting in some places and that is why we are making preparations to set up temporary shelters for refugees in and around Myawaddy.”

Pado Saw Tawney, foreign affairs officer for the Karen National Union (KNU), the political party affiliated with the KNLA, said some of the routes leading into the area had been closed since Sunday due to the clashes. He called for the junta to withdraw its troops from Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) territory.

“The problem is that [the military was] talking about a ceasefire at the same time it was sending troop reinforcements,” he said. “We have had to engage in self-defense. Things will calm down again if their troops withdraw. If they don’t withdraw, there will inevitably be clashes. It’s difficult to say for sure what will happen.”

Sources told RFA that people fleeing the fighting in Kayin along the Thai border are from towns and villages under KNLA control including Wawlay, Lay Kay Kaw, Maetawthalay, Phlugyi, Plululay, and Ingyinmyaing.

Reporter arrested

Meanwhile, officers from the Myawaddy Myoma Police Station have arrested a Myawaddy-based reporter for the Karen Information Center (KIC) news agency named Nay Naw, a source who is close to the man’s family told RFA.

The source, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, said that police had summoned Nay Naw to the station twice for questioning on Monday and detained him during the second meeting.

“They didn’t tell us where he is being detained, but we have heard he is being held in the Myawaddy Myoma Police Station,” the source said. “We don’t know if he has been tortured or beaten.”

The junta has yet to issue a statement on Nay Naw’s arrest, and RFA was not immediately able to verify his detention.

In March alone, the junta has sentenced Hanthar Nyein, the editor of Kamayut Media; Than Htike Aung, the editor of Mizzima News; Ye Yint Htun, a reporter with Myanmar Thandaw Sint; and Aung Zaw Zaw of the Mandalay Free Press to two years each in prison.

Media targeted

On Monday, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Ye Yint Htun and demanding that authorities stop imprisoning members of the press for the work that they do.

Ye Yint Htun was sentenced on March 23 for allegedly disseminating “fake news” and publishing information that could cause fear or alarm. He was first arrested on Feb. 28, 2021, while covering a protest and was held in pretrial detention until his sentencing, according to media reports.

“Journalist Ye Yint Htun’s harsh sentencing and imprisonment for merely doing his job as a reporter speaks to the cruelty of Myanmar’s military regime,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative.

“Myanmar’s junta should be releasing, not sentencing, the dozens of journalists it wrongfully holds behind bars.”

CPJ ranks Myanmar as the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists, trailing only China.

Authorities have arrested at least 115 reporters since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup and 39 remain in detention, according to data compiled by RFA. Three journalists have been killed by security forces during crackdowns on anti-junta protests or during interrogation.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cambodia’s opposition Candlelight Party, whose popularity has been steadily increasing, is threatening to boycott local elections on June 5 if its activists and members continue to be harassed by officials from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

Some political observers believe the Candlelight Party poses the greatest challenge to the CPP in the June commune votes. But Candlelight Vice President Thach Setha said local officials continue to hound candidates from his party without any effort from the Cambodian government to stop the abuse.

Thach Setha told RFA on Tuesday that he is considering petitioning the European Union and foreign embassies in Cambodia to intervene to try to stop the government’s intimidation of his party.

“If the problem has not been resolved, the party will boycott the election,” he said.

The Candlelight Party, formerly known as the Sam Rainsy Party and the Khmer Nation Party, was founded in 1995 and merged with other opposition forces to form the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in 2012.

In November 2017, Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in a move that allowed the CPP to win all 125 seats in Parliament in a July 2018 election.

Candlelight officials allege they have been falsely accused of using fake names for candidates and putting forward some candidates for election without their permission. At least two Candlelight Party activists have been jailed on allegations of submitting false documents to run in the communal elections.

Activists say the harassment often comes at the hand of local police. Candlelight Party activist Sim SoKhoeun told RFA that he was summoned to his local police station in Pursat province on Monday. Once there, police could not produce any complaint against him.

“After asking me to wait for an hour, they set me free,” he said, adding that he suspected the move was meant to intimidate him.

The Candlelight Party’s boycott threat came as a U.N. human rights official warned that the rights of Cambodians to speak freely and challenge authorities are being eroded by single-party rule.

Vitit Muntarbhorn, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, called on all CPP officials to respect basic freedoms of expression and assembly. He spoke via video at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

“Civic and political space in Cambodia have receded and regressed due to what is effectively all-intrusive single-party rule,” he said.

The outlook for human rights and democracy in Cambodia is troubling on many fronts as local, commune elections approach in June, Vitit Muntarbhorn said.

Although Cambodia has made progress by drafting laws to protect “vulnerable people” and has reduced a backlog of court cases that had kept people in jail before their trial, Vitit Muntarbhorn said that he had immediate concerns about “closing civic and political space; mass trials and imprisonment of political opposition members; and the upcoming elections.”

“I call on all authorities in Cambodia to respect fundamental human rights and international human rights laws to which the country is a party, including the basic freedoms of expression and assembly,” he said.

Too much impunity

Kata Orn, spokesman for the government’s Cambodia Human Rights Committee, said the government does not abuse human rights and that only politicians abuse the law.

“The special rapporteur for Cambodia confused the meaning of human rights abuse and abuse of the law,” he said.

Seventeen political parties have registered to put forward candidates in the communal elections, he said.

Kang Savang, a monitor with the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel), said although local authorities are supposed to remain neutral, some of them, including police officers, have abused their power and threatened the opposition party.

He warned that the integrity of the communal elections would be affected without new measures to prevent political threats against Candlelight Party. Kang Savang urged the Ministry of Interior to investigate the conduct of local authorities.

“Impunity will allow perpetrators to not be concerned about their conduct,” he said.

Sam Kuntheamy, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC), said local officials do not have the authority to resolve election-related disputes. Those instead must be handled by Cambodia’s National Election Committee (NEC).

“It is the NEC’s job. If there are disputes, they should file a complaint with the NEC,” he said.

RFA couldn’t reach Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak for comment on Tuesday, but Interior Minister Sar Kheng said at a meeting a day earlier that the Candlelight Party was using fake candidate names and then names of others without their consent — a punishable crime. He mentioned a few districts where this had occurred.

Thach Setha denied the accusation, saying local authorities had not produced any evidence to support their claims.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

A Uyghur woman who escaped from a hospital in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region to avoid a forced abortion in 2014 has died in prison, a Uyghur who lives in exile and a village police officer said.

Authorities ordered Zeynebhan Memtimin to terminate her pregnancy, but she fled the hospital in Keriye (in Chinese Yutian) county in Hotan (Hetian) prefecture where the procedure was to take place.

In 2014, a Uyghur from the county who was then living in exile told RFA that authorities took Zeynebhan from Arish village to a hospital for a forced abortion. RFA later determined through interviews with sources in Xinjiang that Zeynebhan had escaped from the hospital to save her unborn child.

When the child turned three in 2017, authorities detained Zeynebhan in an internment camp along with her husband, Metqurban Abdulla, who had helped her escape from the hospital, on charges of “disturbing the social order” and “religious extremism” for avoiding the abortion, the Uyghur in exile told RFA last week.

Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison, the source said.

The Uyghur source said that contacts in the region and a former neighbor confirmed last week that Zeynebhan died in 2020.

The woman’s funeral was conducted under heavy supervision by Chinese officials, who did not disclose the reason for her death to her family and didn’t provide any information on her detained husband, the Uyghur source said.

Chinese authorities in Keriye county contacted by RFA declined to comment on the matter.

A police officer in Arish village confirmed to RFA that Zeynebhan and Metqurban had been sentenced to 10 years, but he didn’t provide any information on what happened to their four children after they had been incarcerated.

“They were sentenced to 10 years in prison and were serving their terms in Keriye Prison,” he told RFA.

He also said that Zeynebhan was 40 years old when she died in prison from an illness caused by having multiple births, and that she had been jailed for violating family planning policies.

“Since she had multiple births, it’s natural that she died from illness,” he said.

RFA’s Uyghur Service reported in 2014 that Metqurban agreed to pay a fine for Zeynebhan to have a fourth child in violation of China’s family planning policy for ethnic minorities, which limited families to two children. But instead, authorities tried to force her to terminate the pregnancy.

At that time, the Uyghur Service aired a series of eight reports on authorities forcing women in Keriye county’s Lenger, Arish and Siyek villages to have abortions.

Of the 70% of Uyghurs in Arish village who were arrested and detained in 2017 for allegedly engaging in illegal religious activities about 10% were being held because they violated family planning policies, according to the Uyghur source in exile.

Uyghur activists say Chinese authorities in Xinjiang often arrest Uyghurs accused of violating family planning policies as a pretext for meeting their arrest quotas.

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

Muslim 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.

The Philippines lodged a new diplomatic protest against China after a Chinese coast guard ship maneuvered dangerously close to a Filipino vessel in the disputed Scarborough Shoal in early March, a senior official said Tuesday. 

China’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, insisted that it was within its rights when its ship allegedly engaged in what the Philippine Coast Guard described as a “close distance maneuvering” in South China Sea waters.

“It’s done, we’ve filed a diplomatic protest regarding that,” National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told reporters on Samar Island in the central Philippines, where he was attending a government event.

Similar incidents could occur over contending claims in Scarborough Shoal, he warned. Esperon heads the national taskforce for the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine name for territory claimed by Manila in the South China Sea.

On Sunday, the Philippine Coast Guard reported that a China Coast Guard ship had sailed within 21 meters (69 feet) of the BRP Malabrigo during a routine patrol on March 2.

That was the fourth time since May 2021 that Chinese Coast Guard ships had made that type of maneuver against Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said.

“It can always happen that vessels of the different countries, especially from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and other claimant countries and China, will get into close encounters simply because we have conflicting claims,” Esperon said. “There may be counter-claims but we, as a nation, will stand by our established sovereign rights and sovereignty over the area.”

He said Manila had been increasing its presence in the region through the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Esperon also said there were fresh reports about other claimants to the potentially mineral rich sea region improving facilities on islands they occupy. 

“That’s the situation there, just be aware of it. And Vietnam has 21 positions, we have nine stations, [while] China has seven strong positions,” he said.

Manila, which claims nine islands in the South China Sea, the biggest of which is the 92-acre Pag-asa Island (known internationally as Thitu Island), has been improving its facilities in the region in recent years “in the same manner that Vietnam is doing a lot of improvement” to theirs, Esperon said.

The national security adviser said the government would continue to assert its claims through “diplomatic channels and through the international community.”

“Can we afford to go to war? Not now or not in this instance. … [I]n general we want peaceful settlements of the conflicts in the area,” he said.

‘Earnestly respect China’s sovereignty’

Manila issued the protest a day after Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin insisted that China had sovereign rights over the shoal.

“China has sovereignty over Huangyan Dao and its adjacent waters as well as sovereign rights and jurisdiction over relevant waters,” Wang said, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal.

“We hope that Philippine ships will earnestly respect China’s sovereignty and rights and interests, abide by China’s domestic law and international law, and avoid interfering with the patrol and law enforcement of the China Coast Guard in the above-mentioned waters,” he said during a media briefing on Monday.

Also known as Bajo de Masinloc, Scarborough Shoal lies 120 nautical miles west of Luzon Island – well within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

For years, the shoal has been a traditional fishing ground for Filipinos but since 2012 it has been under virtual control by China, which has maintained a constant coast guard presence. After a tense standoff, Manila said the United States brokered a deal for both sides to pull out of the shoal but China reneged on it.

In 2016, an international court ruled in favor of the Philippines in a South China Sea territorial dispute. Instead of moving to enforce the internationally accepted deal, President Rodrigo Duterte moved to appease Chinese leader Xi Jinping in exchange for cordial ties and billions in Chinese investments.

Apart from China and the Philippines, other claimants to South China Sea territories are Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. Indonesia is locked in a separate dispute with China which claims parts of the sea that is within Jakarta’s EEZ.

‘Shared responsibility’

Also on Tuesday, Malaysia Defense Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said that the South China Sea “is ultimately a region of shared responsibility, a region which we in ASEAN are collectively responsible for,” referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“Issues around the South China Sea have always made headlines. As much as strongly worded statements are likely to grab attention, we must strive to ensure that cooler heads prevail,” Hussein said during the Putrajaya Forum, a security conference organized by the Malaysian Institute of Defense and Security and the Malaysian Defense Ministry.

“Though we are in the business of defense and security, de-escalating a high-stakes situation is a task in itself. A task that we must all put above all else lest we risk compromising the peace and stability in the region,” he said.

Hussein told those at the conference that tensions between nations must be diffused “through all available means.

“Due to the complexity and sensitivity of the issue, through established international laws and conventions, all parties must work together to increase efforts to build, maintain and enhance mutual trust and confidence so that we can maintain peace, security and stability in the South China Sea.”

Nisha David in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Any hope that Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping may have had for a quiet 2022 to ease the path to his anointment in autumn to an unprecedented third term as party chairman and state president vanished early in the face of a coronavirus outbreak, real estate and energy problems hurting the economy, and his Russian ally Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. China’s worst COVID-19 surge since the 2020 Wuhan outbreak has prompted lockdowns of tens of millions of people, hitting consumer spending and supply chains. China’s awkward stance on the war on Ukraine–proclaiming neutrality, but sticking to Moscow’s line and censoring reports on the conflict, while its diplomats and state media spread anti-U.S. conspiracy theories–has won Xi few friends in the wealthy democratic West, and Beijing faces the risk of being hit by secondary versions of the crippling economic sanctions imposed on Russia if it steps up material support for Putin.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is moving to delete rumor, speculation and opinion about the China Eastern crash from the country’s tightly controlled internet, while even state-approved journalists have reported problems gaining access to the crash site.

Since officials announced on March 22 that all 132 people aboard flight MU5735, a Boeing 737 China Eastern en route between Kunming and Guangzhou that crashed in a mountainous part of Guangxi outside Wuzhou, had died, any information about the investigation into the cause of the crash has been tightly restricted by the authorities.

Chinese journalist Du Qiang recently complained on the social media platform WeChat that he and a colleague, Chen Weixi, were denied access to the crash site by police after flying there on the same day, only managing to take a few photos from a distance before being ordered to leave.

Du wrote that the roads leading to the crash site were blocked by three police checkpoints, and that fellow journalists working for Japanese broadcaster NHK met with similar treatment.

He wrote that official journalists working for state broadcaster CCTV and Xinhua news agency had once been in the habit of visiting disaster sites in the hope of netting some prized photos or footage of the area, but that this now seems impossible.

His WeChat post, which also called for better press arrangements, including wider access to official news conferences, garnered huge numbers of views and comments, but has since been deleted.

“Could the leaders of China Eastern Airlines and relevant departments come better prepared so that more questions can be raised?” Du’s post said, also calling for more interviews with rescue teams or grieving relatives. “Is it possible to seek the opinions of family members and let those who are willing to meet with the media?”

A photographer who gave only the nickname Xiao Gao told RFA he had also tried to get to the site around the same time.

“I have never come across such tight controls at a disaster site as I did this time around,” Xiao Gao said. “We tried to interview people in nearby villages … but there were obstacles at every turn.”

Hebei-based journalist Huang Tao said the authorities are keen to ensure that they control every aspect of media and social media reporting of the crash.

“This must be to prevent information from leaking out,” Huang said. “There is probably a lot of evidence at the scene indicating something that they don’t want reporters to find out about.”

Deleting ‘rumors’

China’s powerful Cyberspace Administration said on March 26 that it has deleted more than 279,000 posts containing “illegal content” relating to the crash, including 167,000 rumors and 1,295 hashtags.

It said it had also shut down 2,713 social media accounts.

Among the “rumors” deleted from social media included claims that China Eastern had already sustained losses of tens of billions of dollars, and had slashed maintenance costs in a bid to improve its financial situation.

But Huang said he believes much of what the authorities say is “rumor” is authentic information.

“You can tell which reports are true by looking at what they are deleting,” Huang said. “[So] the reports that the airline didn’t maintain [the aircraft] properly to save money … may be true; it’s looking more and more likely that it has to do with maintenance.”

An aircraft maintenance engineer surnamed Chen said the fact that parts of the aircraft’s tail were found some 10 kilometers from the crash site suggests that there may have been problems with this part.

“[If] the torque was too large, it could have gotten sheared off, which wouldn’t be surprising,” Chen said. “The crash is going to be either due to human error or a mechanical failure.”

Both black boxes, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, have been recovered and taken to Beijing for decoding, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official Zhu Tao told journalists on March 27.

The investigation is seeking answers to questions about why the Boeing 737 descended 6,000 meters in the space of just one minute, before burying itself 20 meters deep in a mountainside as it began its descent to Guangzhou.

Deliberate media controls

U.S.-based economist He Qinglian said the media controls are likely top-down and deliberate.

“They won’t let them report from the crash site — that’s the CCP’s dead hand controlling the media,” He said. “It’s to make sure that nobody starts making interpretations that aren’t in line with the official narrative.”

Meanwhile, the authorities have yet to publish a list of the passengers and crew who were aboard the doomed flight, with Hong Kong media reports saying the families of victims are being closely watched around the clock by Chinese officials.

An online appeal from the families of victims complained that they, too, are being kept in the dark by officials.

“Due to the pandemic, there is almost no way for family members [of victims] to communicate with other family members,” the appeal, which was no longer visible on Toutiao by Tuesday, said.

However, authorities did respond to some of the relatives’ requests by taking them up to the crash site in separate groups, to view the scene and to make offerings for their loved ones at a temporary shrine in the area.

One family member wrote: “Even if they don’t find anyone, I am hoping to go home with some soil from the crash site [in lieu of remains].”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.