Day: August 23, 2022

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) and more than 850 civil society groups called on the United Nations to remove its appointed envoy to the country after her visit last week and demonstrate a “serious commitment” to resolving the nation’s worsening humanitarian crisis.

U.N. Special Envoy on Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer traveled to Myanmar from Aug. 17-18 and met with junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in the capital Naypyidaw. She urged him to end violence against the country’s civilian population, stop imposing the death sentence and release the country’s political prisoners, according to a statement from the U.N.

But opponents of the regime expressed doubt that the visit would change conditions in Myanmar and warned that it risked giving legitimacy to the regime, which ousted the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

On Tuesday, Kyaw Zaw, the spokesperson for the office of NUG President Duwa Lashi La, told RFA Burmese that the U.N. should have presented the junta with a list of consequences if it fails to implement Heyzer’s demands.

“[Her demands were] nothing unusual, but she should have told [Min Aung Hlaing] what kind of action would be taken or what was planned if he didn’t comply,” he said. “Only then would it be viewed as a meaningful meeting.”

Junta troops resumed setting fire to homes and carrying out various human rights violations — including conducting airstrikes and shelling attacks on civilian targets — immediately after Heyzer’s visit, Kyaw Zaw noted. He called for “immediate and effective action” in response.

Kyaw Zaw’s comments came a day after 864 civil society groups issued a joint statement urging the U.N. General Assembly to remove Heyzer ahead of its session next month.

“We … call on the U.N. General Assembly to withdraw the mandate of the special envoy on Myanmar,” said the statement, the signatories of which included hundreds of pro-democracy organizations both inside the country and abroad.

“We also call on the U.N. Secretary-General [António Guterres] to show his serious commitment to resolving the devastating human rights and humanitarian crises in Myanmar by assuming a personal role on Myanmar and taking decisive action.”

The civil society groups called Heyzer’s visit the “latest evidence of the historical ineffectualness of the mandate over a decades-long approach that has continually failed” and demanded that the U.N. “immediately end its business-as-usual approach” toward Myanmar.

“The long history of the U.N.’s attempts at peace-brokering with Myanmar’s military through special envoys has never catalyzed into meaningful results, but has instead lent legitimacy to perpetrators of international atrocity crimes — and has permitted worsening human rights and humanitarian crises,” the statement said.

The groups urged the U.N. to transfer the issue of Myanmar from the Security Council to the International Criminal Court and called for the formation of a special tribunal to carry out an investigation of the situation in the country.

‘Additional action’ needed

In a statement issued after her trip to Myanmar, Heyzer detailed the demands she made during her talks with Min Aung Hlaing and dismissed claims that her trip would lend legitimacy to the junta. The junta called Heyzer’s statement “one-sided” for having failed to include Min Aung Hlaing’s comments during their discussion.

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the Thaningha Strategic Studies Institute, a Myanmar think tank composed of former military officers, called the U.N.’s demands of the junta “unacceptable.”

“[The U.N.] may have hopes for some progress — a discussion has been held — but the U.N. was not very positive, and the way the U.N. approached the talks was not very acceptable to the junta,” he said. “We will have to wait and see if there will be further discussions.

Political analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe said the U.N. should take more effective measures if the military regime continues to ignore the demands of the international community.

“The U.N. Security Council should take additional action, especially through punitive measures, if the junta fails to [comply],” he said.

Sai Kyi Zin Soe also proposed that Heyzer engage with the NUG government to apply additional pressure on the military regime.

ASEAN efforts

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member state, has also repeatedly tried and failed to bring the junta to heel since last year’s coup.

At an emergency meeting on the situation in Myanmar convened by ASEAN in April 2021, Min Aung Hlaing agreed to implement the conditions of the so-called “Five-Point Consensus (5PC),” which calls for an end to violence in the country, constructive dialogue among all parties, and the mediation of such talks by a special ASEAN envoy. The 5PC also calls for the provision of ASEAN-coordinated humanitarian assistance and a visit to Myanmar by an ASEAN delegation to meet with all parties.

Even Min Aung Hlaing acknowledged that the junta had failed to hold up its end of the bargain on the consensus in a televised speech earlier this month, which he blamed on the coronavirus pandemic and “political instability.” He promised to implement “what we can” from the 5PC this year, provided it does not “jeopardize the country’s sovereignty.”

At ASEAN’s 55th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Phnom Penh from July 31 to Aug. 6, most member states criticized the junta for failing to adhere to the 5PC and for its July 25 execution of four democracy activists, including former student leader Ko Jimmy and a former NLD lawmaker.

However, the country’s opposition groups have criticized the bloc for what they say is its failure to adopt stronger measures in its dealing with the junta.

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

Hail and heavy rain caused the deaths of at least 31 people in Tibetan-populated counties in northwestern China’s Qinghai and Gansu provinces, Tibetan sources said. More than 2,000 heads of livestock were also killed in the storms.

In Mangra (in Chinese, Guinan) county of Tsolho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Qinghai province, where five people and the livestock perished, hail and rain on Saturday caused significant damage, including the destruction of tents used by nomads, a Tibetan from the region and one who lives in exile told RFA. 

“The flooding actually came from the nomadic region of Panchen and Panchung [in Mangra county],” said the Tibetan inside the region. 

“What we know of right now is that five people have died out of which three belong to the same family,” said the source who declined to be identified so as to speak freely. “The number of livestock killed by the heavy hailstorm and flood keeps rising which has an overwhelming impact on the livelihoods of Tibetan nomads whose life depends on them.” 

The death toll from the storms and rain in Qinghai’s Serkhog (Datong Hui and Tu) autonomous county hit 26 as of Monday, Chinese media reported.

Landslides from heavy flooding in more than seven villages in Sangchu (Xiahe) county in Gansu province’s Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture have blocked roads and damaged property, the reports said. 

Floods and landslides in Sangchu county began on the evening of Aug. 21, flooding homes over the past two days, the Tibetan sources said. 

“The monks’ residences at the Labrang Monastery and many other residences of the local Tibetans in the region have witnessed huge damage and property loss due to the flood,” said another Tibetan from inside the region who did not want to be identified. “Also, cars and roads are filled with water. 

“But as soon as the hailstorm stopped, the monks from Labrang Monastery went all out to help,” he said. 

The heavy hail broke car windows and ripped tents from their foundations in Rebkong county, Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai province, the source said

“The floods caused by the hailstorm have left lots of destruction, but no specific details have been reported by the Chinese official media other than the occurrence of floods,” he added. 

Tibetans in affected areas are posting photos and videos of the devastation on social media showing monks and locals helping those affected, the Tibetan said. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continued to rise in western Tibet and Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities have stepped up mass testing of residents in major cities, sources in the regions said.

As of Tuesday, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) recorded 5,892 confirmed COVID-19 cases, an increase of 211 from the day before, as the number of infections has risen in the capital Lhasa and nearby areas, according to official figures. 

The number of positive COVID-19 cases is increasing in neighboring Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). 

As of Tuesday, the region recorded 3,154 confirmed cases, with 173 new ones, according to official figures. More and more people are being quarantined, and a lack of food items for purchase in major coronavirus hot spots such as Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) is still severe. 

“It has been 21 days now under lockdown,” a Ghulja resident told RFA on Tuesday. “They [authorities] said food was supplied with trucks, but we haven’t seen any delivery to us. We are only eating potatoes these days” 

There had been only one prior confirmed infection in the TAR — a person traveling from central China’s Hubei province to Lhasa tested positive for the virus in January 2020 — until Aug. 7 of this year, when new cases began to emerge rapidly.

As of Monday, more than 46,450 people in Tibet had been quarantined as mass testing was carried out, according to official figures. 

Thousands of Chinese tourists visiting the region when lockdowns were put in place remain stranded at Lhasa Gonggar Airport. RFA reported a week ago that tens of thousands of Chinese tourists stranded in Lhasa and in Shigatse (in Chinese, Xigaze) and Ngari (Ali) were trying to leave the region. 

On Aug. 16, the TAR’s Transportation Department announced that those who are leaving by air or train must take two COVID tests within 24 hours of their departure and have a certificate indicating negative results.

Now, Tibetan students attending schools in China are not able to make it back to school on time, sources said. 

Many confirmed cases have been reported among Chinese tourists in Tibet, some of whom have been able to return home via different routes. 

Official Chinese reports, however, state that many tourists have left the region because all guesthouses and hotels around the airport are completely occupied, while others still stuck in Tibet are staying in temporary tents on airport parking lots.

Tibet is one of the flash points in China for the contagious respiratory disease with 514 areas of the country’s total of 1,369 hot spots, according to Chinese media. 

Lhasa residents told RFA that they are finding it difficult to purchase groceries, including vegetables, due to restrictions on movement put in place by Chinese authorities.  

Authorities also punished 19 people in Tibet for violating the COVID-19 rules and regulations, source said, though no details about the nature of the punishment imposed nor the individuals punished was available. 

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan and by RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Myanmar merchants who trade goods across the border with China say their country’s kyat has depreciated so much relative to the Chinese yuan that they are no longer able to stay in business.

The traders typically export agricultural and fisheries products to China and import Chinese consumer and industrial goods and food products to Myanmar.

But the kyat’s value has fallen sharply in recent weeks at the border. At the start of the month one yuan (U.S. $1 = 6.83 yuan) was valued at about 300 kyats. On Tuesday, traders said that the yuan is now valued at around 420 kyats. Both values are significantly higher than the official exchange rate, which was about 274 at the beginning of the month and 307 on Tuesday.

The declining value of the kyat is making Chinese goods too expensive to acquire, and many traders say they are now facing losses.

“We cannot make purchases with the amount of money we get after selling our goods [at the border],” Nay Chi, a trader who works in the border town of Ruili, told RFA’s Burmese Service. He added that some of the traders have not bought or sold anything over the past 10 days due to the unstable situation. 

“In the past, it would cost me like 100,000 Chinese yuan [$14,600] for a truckload (of goods), which was equivalent to about Ks 300,000 then. [But now,] we don’t get back that much,” he said. “We don’t make a profit but a loss. And all the money we hold is losing value. Right now, no one is doing business anymore.”

Prior to the dropoff, a bag of Chinese detergent powder cost about 500 kyat. Now it costs between 800 and 1,000. Most Chinese goods have increased in price, sources said.

The instability of the kyat is causing traders to wait for better rates, Zaw Min, the owner of a freight company, told RFA. The instability is therefore not only hurting traders, but the truckers who ship their goods, he said.

“The rate is extremely high. And furthermore, it’s not stable. So, traders will only pay for the goods they have already ordered or for items they need really badly. They won’t make any new purchases,” said Zaw Min. 

“We’re freight forwarders, and it hurts when no more orders come in,” he said. “The money changers do not dare sell right now even when we want to exchange money, because they’re not sure what will come tomorrow. They might set the rate of the yuan at 235, but they are not sure they would get the same rate hours later. The exchange rate is rising all the time and those who have yuan are not selling.”

Zaw Min said that the cost of transporting goods at the border has been set according to the current exchange rate, at about 2.5 yuan per kilogram (2.2 pounds). This is about four times more costly than shipping cargo by sea. 

A trader who has been working at the Muse border zone for more than 10 years said if this situation continues, it will hurt consumers and traders in the long run.

“Finally, the burden falls on the consumer public. People use cosmetics, consume food products and drink alcohol. They’ll be the ones most affected,” the Muse trader said. “The merchants won’t be able to sell because the consumers can’t buy their goods. … Anyway, it will affect everyone.”

Also complicating matters is a June 30 order by the junta that exports of beans, corn, sesame and other vegetables be paid in dollars.

The junta also changed the kyat to dollar exchange rate from 1,850 to 2,100 on Aug. 5, then instructed traders to change 65 percent of their export earnings into kyats, a move that analysts believe was an attempt to control the dollar market and acquire greenbacks.

The junta’s Central Bank also changed the US dollar exchange rate from Ks 1,850 to 2,100 on Aug. 5 and instructed traders to change 65% of the export earnings into kyats.

Since then, one US dollar sells for about 2,700 kyats in private trading, and the price of yuan at the Chinese border slowly increased to match, the border traders said.

People living in border areas have little confidence in the kyat and prefer to hold yuan due to the junta’s frequent changes in monetary policy. Traders believe that the yuan is strengthening due to lower export earnings.

The traders told RFA they want further relaxation of regulations on exports to help stabilize the price of currency at the border.

Khun Thein Maung, the junta’s acting Shan State economic minister, told RFA Aug. 17  that he is having talks with Chinese and Myanmar district-level officials regarding the exchange rate at the border and other trade issues.

Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told at a press conference in Naypyidaw on Aug. 17 that the Central Bank is implementing financial policies to address the issue of high commodity prices and economic development.

“From the beginning, our demand for foreign currency has increased as we did not buy domestic products and only relied on imported goods. The trade deficit has also become huge and debts mounted as a result,” he said. 

“There is a rise in oil prices, fertilizer prices, food, as well as high inflation due to various conflicts happening in the world. On the other hand, the Federal Reserve Bank has raised its interest rates and the Central Bank is implementing a monetary policy that will help economic growth. We are working on this, and in doing so, some sectors might be affected,” said Zaw Min Tun.

He added that traders failed to keep up with the changing systems as the military council changed its monetary policy to help economic growth.

Exporters have to bear the costs of the rising Chinese yuan, but they have not yet fully received money for their previous exports, and there are difficulties when remitting their export earnings to the junta as required due to the rise in exchange rates, Taing Kyaw, chairman of the Mandalay Region Eel Traders Association, told RFA.

“There are a lot of difficulties currently because the rate is always changing. For example, we can buy the Chinese yuan [at the border] at a price of over 420 kyats, but we can get back only 300 kyats in return [from the junta]. So how do we adjust for the difference between them?” he said. 

“When we made the remittances for our export proceeds, the difference in the rates was a little too much.”

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Cambodians are unhappy with the influx of Chinese developers to their country and resent the widespread use of mainland-style simplified Chinese on the streets of the capital Phnom Penh and elsewhere, a Hong Konger who has lived in the country for several years told RFA.

“It’s a pain for local people, and they don’t like it,” the woman, who chose to be identified under the pseudonym Ka Tung, told RFA’s Cantonese Service. “People here mostly don’t like the Chinese.”

“But they have no say in which nationalities come to Cambodia and they mostly care about whether or not they get any business,” she said.

Authorities in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Vietnam have launched crackdowns on human traffickers and fraud gangs who lure people to Cambodia with promises of well-paid expat jobs for Chinese speakers, but then trap them in servitude and take their passports.

Many victims have been rescued from Chinese-invested casinos in Sihanoukville, a key project in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Belt and Road global infrastructure and supply chain strategy that was intended as a classy seaside resort, but which is now being described variously as a “hell on earth,” and as a “fraudster’s paradise.”

Ka said she had only recently heard of the human traffickers operating out of Sihanoukville, but has suspected for some time that similar operations may also be happening in the capital.

Ka frequently passes a gated complex a few kilometers from where she lives, which she thinks could be a Chinese-owned complex.

“I’m not sure how big it is,” she said. “There is barbed wire all around the perimeter, but it’s not regular barbed wire. The fence is much higher, and more heavily guarded than most.”

“This campus has big iron gates, and you need permission to go in or out,” Ka said. “We watched a while and noticed a lot of people, mostly men, arriving on tuk-tuks, or tricycles, with suitcases.”

RFA was unable to confirm the identity of the facility independently. An acquaintance of Ka’s supplies the campus with meatballs, she said.

“There is no factory sign or company name. The whole thing looks like a bird cage from the outside,” she said. “The courtyard is surrounded by steel fencing, and people inside aren’t allowed out.”

“The building is about eight or nine stories high, and people inside can get whatever they need without leaving the campus.”

Ka added: “Once, when we were passing, the gate was opened with cars entering and leaving, and [we could see] foreign exchange kiosks, supermarkets and eateries.”

“Basically, they wouldn’t need to leave; everything they needed from day to day was inside,” she said. 

“It’s very common for them to call in deliveries, and they all use Alipay, WeChat Pay or Payme to make payments,” she said, citing her meatball delivering friend.

Alipay and WeChat Pay are ubiquitous payment methods used by mainland Chinese.

The arrival of Chinese capital in Cambodia is directly linked to CCP leader Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road infrastructure and supply chain strategy, which saw hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals pour into Sihanoukville between 2013 and 2019.

By July 2019, 90 percent of enterprises in the city were owned by Chinese nationals, with the highway connecting the resort to Phnom Penh also built with Chinese funding.

Ka has been living in the country since 2017, and remembers being on planes packed with smartly dressed, big-talking Chinese people dripping with expensive jewellery flying in and out of Phnom Penh.

“Sihanoukville is basically like a really huge Chinatown … there are a lot of casinos there,” she said. “There is simplified Chinese on all the shopping malls, toilets, on the signs.”

Despite the ill-feeling sparked by the influx of people and capital from China, Ka said Cambodians were generally very welcoming of tourists regardless of ethnicity or origin.

“Why are they particularly disgusted by the Chinese? There is the language barrier, because most Chinese people don’t understand Khmer,” she said. “They feel they are very rude, because it’s rude to speak loudly here.”

Nonetheless, job ads still place a premium on Chinese, offering up to U.S.$1,200 a month for Chinese-speaking workers, compared with just U.S.$400-500 for those who only speak Khmer.

Ka hasn’t noticed much sign that fraudulent employment ads are on the wane, however, despite the current furor over trafficked workers.

She said the scandal appears to have made little impact on the locals in Phnom Penh, but Sihanoukville is regarded as quite dangerous, and not a good place to travel to alone.

“I heard that there have been many shootings and cases of Chinese getting revenge on other Chinese,” she said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

UPDATED at 4:50 p.m. EDT on 8-23-22

Four human trafficking rings have been found operating in provinces and cities across Vietnam following the escape of more than 40 migrant workers from a Chinese-owned casino in Cambodia, Vietnamese state media reported on Tuesday.

Information on the rings has been sent to the Criminal Police Department of Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, according to Col. Dinh Van Noi, Director of An Giang Provincial Police.

The ministry will now work with local police to round up the criminal gangs, Noi added in media reports.

Around 42 Vietnamese workers escaped on Aug. 18 from the Koh Thom casino complex in Cambodia’s Kandal province, with a video posted the same day by media outlet VnExpress showing workers jumping into a river, chased by guards swinging metal rods.

A 16-year-old worker from Vietnam’s Gia Lai province was later found dead in the Binh Di River, which the workers had jumped into as they fled the casino, the VnExpress reported on Aug. 20.

Cambodian authorities have now detained the casino’s Chinese manager as they investigate allegations of forced labor and worker abuse.

Workers fleeing the Koh Thom casino reported to police they had been exploited “and did not receive the salary agreed to by both sides, and sometimes were not even paid at all,” Noi told state media in Vietnam.

“In addition, they were forced to commit online fraud and organize online gambling. They were also beaten up, tortured and forced to urge their families to send large ransoms.”

Some Vietnamese workers had also been sold from one casino to another, the An Giang police director said.

‘Hells of exploitation’

Cambodia’s Kandal province, which borders An Giang in Vietnam, is home to seven casinos employing workers from Vietnam and other countries.

Quoted in state media on Tuesday, Senior Col. Khong Ngoc Oanh from the ministry’s Criminal Police Department said that Vietnamese workers were being lured to Cambodia with promises of high wages and light workloads, but were instead being trapped in “hells of exploitation.”

Vietnam’s embassy in Cambodia has asked Cambodian authorities to “handle the situation quickly” to avoid damaging ties between the two neighboring countries, Vietnamese state media said on Monday.

The Cambodian Immigration Department’s detention center is now holding 24 Vietnamese nationals, of whom 11 were detained following the Koh Thom incident on Aug. 18, and 13 were rescued from other workplaces in Kandal, government sources said.

Human rights groups in Cambodia urged their government to conduct an independent investigation into businesses and casinos that detained people for illegal scamming operations.

“It is a shocking video. It is showing those people are in panic, as if they’d rather die than stay inside the building. It is not a good sign for human rights in Cambodia,” Ros Sotha, executive director of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee.

Am Sam Ath of Licadho, a human rights NGO, said Cambodia will get a bad reputation if it fails to combat trafficking after such a prominent case.

“We need to effectively implement the law. Regardless their positions, they must be brought to justice so we can prevent human trafficking,” he told RFA Khmer.

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, however, raised doubts about the viral video, telling reporters on Aug. 18 that some of the Vietnamese might have come to Cambodia to work illegally but when they arrived in Cambodia they couldn’t agree on contracts. so they fled and swam back to Vietnam.

“Some [cases] are true and some are not. Our mission is to rescue and, secondly, to arrest ring leaders and to prosecute them,” he said.

Updated to include comments on the case from Cambodia.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.