Day: June 27, 2022

Abnormally high-water levels in the Mekong River at the end of May indicate that dams on the river must release less water during the dry season to protect the ecosystem, experts said at an online panel Monday. 

Rain levels during the dry season this year have increased, experts told an online seminar about the unseasonably wet 2022 dry season, hosted by the Washington-based Stimson Center. But they singled out dams, particularly in China and Laos, as adding to the problem of flooding along the lower half of the river, threatening the ecosystems there.

The Mekong region is home to numerous species of plants and animals that rely on its annual changes from dry season to wet season and back again, the panelists said. Disruption of the cycle is harmful to many of the species, and in turn the riparian communities that depend on them.

“I think our data shows that very clearly the river level there is much higher during the dry season than normal … and China’s dams actually can be part of the solution,” Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia program director of the Stimson Center and co-lead of its Mekong Dam Monitor Project, told the panel on Monday.

“They wield a lot of power over the downstream, particularly those two largest dams,” he said. “We found that they can they alone can raise the river level by 50 percent … for total dry season flow. That’s power,” he said, adding that the dams could also help to restore natural flow in times of need.

The Mekong River Commission, an intergovernmental body that helps to coordinate management of the river, reported that May 2022 was the second wettest May since it began collecting data. Total flow in May was 22.8 billion cubic meters, about 150% higher than the average flow of 9 billion cubic meters.

The Mekong Dam Monitor’s data suggested that about 6 billion cubic meters from the flow came from dam releases upstream, mostly in China.

An example of how the increased flow could affect species is the Mekong Flooded Forest, said Ian Baird, a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The World Wildlife Fund said the flooded forest is “a spectacular 27,000 km² complex of freshwater ecosystems including wetlands, sandy and rocky riverine habitats in northern-central Cambodia, bordering the South of Laos.”

Baird said that the forest’s most striking feature, trees that jut upward from the floodwaters, relies on drier periods when the trees are not submerged.

“Right now what we can see is that, the bushes that are in the lowest part of the river have been heavily impacted. The Blodgett trees have [exhibited] medium impacts,” he said.

“So, I mean, things are already bad, but it’s important to understand that they could get a lot worse than they are now. And really the way to mitigate this is to release less water in the dry season,” Baird said.

But he said that decisions about upstream releases are mostly beyond Cambodia’s control.

“This is all water coming from above Cambodia, you know, but there is a lot that China and Laos could do, especially China, I think, that that could reduce the impact.”

The Mekong River ecosystem could be lost if nothing is done, Chea Seila, project manager of the Wonders of the Mekong, a research group that receives funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

She brought up the world record 300-kilogram giant freshwater stingray that was recently caught, tagged by her team and released in Stung Treng.

“The discovery of this [world record breaking] fish indicates the special opportunity that we have in Cambodia and also to protect the species, and also the core habitat,” she said.

Eyler of the Stimson Center said that although existing dams could help keep the river’s flow closer to expected averages, building more could create new problems.

“I would not recommend building more dams to counter this effect, which is a discourse that we’re hearing coming out of the Mekong River Commission, that there’s an investment solution to this, there’s an infrastructure solution to this,” he said.

“I think that’s a very expensive, dangerous and risky proposition, particularly when there are solutions at hand,” Eyler said.

Participants at an international meeting on Tibet called on governments to do more to advance the rights of Tibetans who face repression at the hands of the Chinese government.

More than 100 participants from 26 countries attended the 8th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet on June 22-23 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the resumption of the Sino-Tibet dialogue and other key objectives. The meeting was organized by the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile based in Dharamsala, India, which sent 10 representatives to the meeting.

Attendees agreed to collaborate more fully on matters related to Tibet. They also declared that the International Network of Parliamentarians on Tibet would be revived and to work to establish groups of lawmakers focused on Tibetan issues in countries where they do not yet exist. 

“Substantively what the parliamentarians are willing to do now is a step up from the past,” said Michael van Walt van Praag, the executive president of Kreddha, a nonprofit organization dedicated to resolving intrastate conflicts and promoting peace.

“[T]his is bringing home very clearly how important it is to defend the values of freedom, self-determination but also to uphold international law and to stop large countries from invading their small neighbors,” he said.

The Central Tibetan Administration, the formal name of the Tibetan government-in-exile, and the Dalai Lama have adopted an approach called the Middle Way, which accepts Tibet’s present status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedom, including strengthened language rights, for Tibetans living under Beijing’s rule.

“Despite having a thousand years of history of being an independent country, we are sincere and committed to the Middle Way policy to resolve the conflict between Tibet and China through a mutually beneficial way,” Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, speaker of the 17^th Tibetan Parliament in Exile, said in introductory remarks.

The participants also called on parliaments to take coordinated actions to reach a resolution to the Sino-Tibetan conflict through talks and negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.

“Tibetans can find a resolution in discussions with China somewhere in the middle between Tibet’s independence and integration with the PRC (People’s Republic of China),” said van Walt.

‘Dangerous assault’ on human rights

The participants said China should allow Tibetan Buddhists to appoint the next Dalai Lama and other senior Lamas, which Chinese authorities have said would be a violation of religious freedom.

The question of who will replace the current 86-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, the 14^th Dalai Lama, has become more pressing. Senior Buddhist monks have traditionally identified successors based on spiritual signs and visions, but the Chinese government in 2011 declared that only Beijing can appoint his successor.

“Politically we are not seeking independence for Tibet,” said the Dalai Lama in a video message to the delegates. “I have made this clear over the years. What most concerns us is the importance of preserving and safeguarding our culture and language.”

In their declaration, the participants also asked governments to prohibit corporations from benefiting from forced labor and the exploitation of the natural environment of the Tibetan plateau.

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who spoke at the meeting, said that China has “waged a dangerous assault on human rights in Tibet” for decades.

“The Chinese government has clearly shown that it has no regard for Tibetan autonomy or identity or faith,” she said. “This aggression has not only accelerated in recent years, with new actions to impose mandatory political education, cruelly restrict religious freedom, expand its mass surveillance regime and further close off Tibet to global visitors.”

Pelosi also said that U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), would introduce bipartisan legislation to update the Tibet China Conflict Act, which would clearly state the history of Tibet and encourage a peaceful resolution to the ultimate status of Tibet.

During the CECC hearing on Tibet on June 23, McGovern said that the U.S. and the world community were not doing enough to help resolve the Tibet issue.

“Tibet’s true representatives are His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile as recognized by the Tibetan people, so any solution and way forward has to be what Tibetans want and cannot be imposed by anyone who is not part of Tibetan community,” he said.

Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Myanmar’s junta has launched a campaign urging local members of the armed opposition to surrender, vowing to step down following elections planned for 2023, but prodemocracy fighters on Monday dismissed the move as a sign of desperation from a military regime barely clinging to power.

Beginning on June 12, state-run media outlets published an announcement by the junta calling on members of all armed groups — including the People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group it has labeled a terrorist organization — to lay down their weapons and return to civilian life.

Three days later, residents told RFA Burmese that they began hearing similar messages over loudspeakers from vehicles escorted by the military through several cities and townships.

“Their message was that they will be holding elections … and power will be handed over to the victorious [political] party, so they want the PDFs to give up their arms and surrender to the law,” said a resident of Myanmar’s second city Mandalay, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said that people “ignored the announcements.”

Various armed resistance groups that have sworn loyalty to Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) told RFA that surrendering to the junta is not an option.

Sein Kyaw, the head of the Myaung Revolution Army in embattled Sagaing region’s Myaung township, said he and his fellow fighters must refrain from responding to the military convoys with calls of the same offer.

“There are people from their side who came to join [us]. … There are officers and soldiers who left the army. We PDFs are fighting against them as a people’s movement because we can’t tolerate their rule,” he said.

“We have no intention of surrendering to them. We will fight until the terrorist military dictatorship is uprooted and a federal democratic union established, leaving no dictators in our country.”

Sein Kyaw said the junta is incapable of rule, noting that his and several other townships in Sagaing lack operating schools, and suggesting that an election next year is unlikely as there is little coordination between the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the government.

A spokesman for the Sagaing-based Ranger Kalay Defense Force, who also declined to be named, told RFA that the military’s invitation is seen as a political ploy.

“I don’t think they have the power to conquer us at this time and they are making this move knowing that they cannot win,” he said. “No matter how much they implore us, we will not fall for this. We will do what is right until the very end.”

Dividing the opposition

PDF groups also slammed the military’s call for their surrender while offering to hold peace talks with the country’s ethnic armed groups, which they said was a tactic intended to create a schism within the opposition.

Junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in April called on Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups to hold peace talks and end armed conflict with the military, but he refused to meet with the PDF, and observers say there is little chance that a resolution can be reached without all stakeholders taking part in negotiations.

Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun has said that there will be no talks with the NUG, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Committee of Representatives, or the PDF because their objectives “are totally different from that of the ethnic armed groups” and “terrorist” in nature.

But Naing Htoo Aung, secretary of the NUG’s Ministry of Defense, said Monday that peace will not be possible in Myanmar without the participation of the NUG and the PDF.

“For many years, the military has used a strategy to divide the unity of the armed resistance, and it’s doing the same even now,” he said.

“There can be no internal peace without the NUG or PDF, without a genuine intention of leaving politics by the military, or without accountability for their misdeeds or a strong commitment to a federal democracy.”

Naing Htoo Aung said that, given the current political climate, elections are unlikely in 2023. If the junta pushes forward with a vote, he added, it will not reflect the will of the people.

A spokesman for the Saw Township People’s Administration in Magway region, which operates under the NUG government, said that even if the military holds an election next year, no one in his region will participate.

“I think an election is impossible, especially in our area. They can’t even operate their [administrative] machinery here and if they try to hold an election, there will be no election staff,” he said.

“A war of resistance is continuing nationwide. Some of the military camps have even been taken over. They might be able to hold sham elections in cities they control like Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyidaw … but a nationwide election is impossible.”

Junta defections

According to the junta, at least 66 PDF fighters have handed over their weapons since the call to surrender was issued earlier this month, although RFA was unable to independently verify the claim.

Political observer Than Soe Naing disputed the claim and suggested that the junta had issued the call to surrender as a tactic to end defections by members of the military and boost morale.

“So far, the number of soldiers and policemen who have defected is more than 20,000, so I think this is a political ploy to stop [the defections],” he said, adding that “no PDF fighter has willingly surrendered.”

He said that the opposition must defeat the military before an election is held next year if the people of Myanmar have any hope of reinstating democracy, as the junta will almost certainly install a puppet “civilian government” that will preserve its rule.

Since 2010, there have been three general elections in Myanmar.

The military overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected government on Feb. 1, 2021, claiming voter fraud had led to a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party in the country’s November 2020 election.

The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to civilian rule, killing 2,032 people and arresting 14,304 over the last 17 months, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen changed his official birthdate to Aug. 5, 1952 from April 4, 1951, a switch he said corrected a mistake from back when it was registered during wartime in the Southeast Asian country. But critics say the highly superstitious strongman moved his birth from the Year of the Rabbit to the Year of the Dragon, considered auspicious to followers of the Chinese zodiac. Some reports said he changed the date after the recent death of his older brother, fearing the birthdate he had been using may have led to his brother’s demise because it conflicted with the Chinese zodiac.

A clothing company in China must pay U.S. $1,500 to quarantine each of its 300 North Korean workers after some of them tested positive for COVID-19, sources in China told RFA.

Some Chinese employees at the factory in Dandong, which lies across the Yalu River from North Korea, also tested positive for the virus. All of them went into quarantine last week, but the high cost of isolating foreign workers means the company will have to shell out $450,000 to quarantine the North Koreans.

“The news that the Chinese president of the company that hired the 300 North Koreans must pay for their treatment is disturbing to the other companies that use North Korean labor,” a Chinese citizen of Korean descent, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Korean Service.

“The Chinese government has decided that the quarantine cost for foreigners is 10,000 yuan (about $1,500) per person. The head of the company may incur an irrecoverable debt from the quarantine costs alone,” the source said.

North Korea sends workers overseas to places like China and Russia to earn desperately needed foreign cash. The workers must give the lion’s share of their salaries to their government, but what they get to keep is far more than what they could earn in a similar job at home.

Most of the North Korean workers in the factory are female, according to the source.

 “The quarantine command in Dandong … rushed all the workers to the hospital facility on a large bus,” the source said.

The clothing company is not the first to have to quarantine its North Korean workers, according to the source.

“In May, there were 20 North Koreans who worked for another company in Dandong and were placed in quarantine when they showed symptoms of COVID-19. In that case, they were quarantined in the company’s dormitory because there was no room in the hospital due to the outbreak spreading through Dandong,” he said.

The company with the 300 North Koreans originally produced clothes, but switched to making COVID-19 protective clothing, he said.

“The 300 North Korean workers wore the protective clothing [that they made] while they worked, but they still failed to prevent their own infection,” said the source.

A North Korean source living in the port of Donggang, within the city limits of Dandong, told RFA that owners of companies who hire North Korean workers are getting nervous after hearing about the 300 quarantined North Koreans.

“North Korean workers who are known to be infected with COVID-19 were transferred to the quarantine facility by several large buses,” the second source said on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“Most Dandong residents go to a hospital in Shenyang or Dalian when they get COVID-19, so it is likely the North Koreans are there,” he said. Dandong is a three-hour drive from Shenyang and a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Dalian.

Confirming their whereabouts could be difficult, however.

“Although the Dandong city government has lifted the COVID-19 lockdown, it has not yet guaranteed complete autonomous movement. There is therefore no way to know exactly where the North Korean workers have gone unless you’re somehow involved,” he said.

According to RFA sources, about 30,000 North Korean workers are believed to be in the Dandong area.

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.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.