Day: August 29, 2022

Authorities have violently cracked down on at least 15 peaceful protests by political prisoners in the 18 months since Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup, according to an investigation by RFA Burmese.

The incidents – which authorities termed “riots” – occurred in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison, as well as Mandalay’s Ohbo Prison, Tharrawaddy Prison, Kalay Prison, Pathein Prison, Bago Prison and Pyay Prison, RFA learned through an analysis of local news reports and interviews with family members of political prisoners.

Authorities killed at least seven prisoners in a single incident at Kalay Prison in March this year, which residents of the area said was the result of a “crackdown on those protesting ill-treatment” at the facility.

Sources with knowledge of the situation told RFA that in another recent incident, guards beat 19 youths in Ohbo Prison who had been on hunger strike since the beginning of August to protest their detention and then denied them access to medical treatment.

“The protesters were shot with slingshots and kicked all over their bodies,” a Mandalay-based member of the All Burma Federation of Student Union, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told RFA.

“Female political prisoners also face all kinds of threats [at the prison]. I heard of various issues like the installation of CCTV cameras in the women’s dormitory.”

One family member of a former political prisoner, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said that prison authorities receive orders to suppress prisoners and identify members of the armed resistance.

“Some prison staff said let’s see how persistent these guys are, how much pain they can take, etc. Then they would give a beating, all the time saying, ‘Let’s see how much we can hit you and how much you can take.’ Asking and hitting,” the family member told RFA.

History of protests

A former political prisoner, who was recently released from Insein Prison, told RFA that Myanmar has a unique history of prison protests – with prisoners fighting against military rule from inside the walls of detention. 

“Every time something happens outside, there are repercussions inside the prison walls. What do people in prison do? They sing anti-junta songs … They are still doing it now,” the prisoner said. “Some were beaten and some sent to solitary confinement. It’s a lot of struggle.”

After the junta executed four prominent activists in July – the first judicial executions in more than 30 years – prisoners on death row are experiencing renewed trauma and fear about their own fates, he added.

RFA called officials of the Prison Department in Yangon for comment but received no response.

However, a former prison warden, who did not want to be named, told RFA that political prisoners have changed their style of protest since the executions. 

“After the executions … the actions of the political forces in prisons have changed. They do not have direct confrontations with the prison authorities like before … They stopped such actions as protests and riots and instead, they carry out ‘silent strikes,’” the former warden said.

“For example, they take food from the prison because if they refuse, it’d amount to a protest. They take the food but they don’t eat it.” 

The former warden added that prison authorities now attempt to break up protests using slingshots and beatings in violation of clauses protecting the rights of inmates in Myanmar’s Prison Act of 1899, which he said are rarely ever observed.

A revolutionary spirit

According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, authorities have arrested at least 15,268 civilians since the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup, mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. 

Political prisoners in Myanmar report being regularly subjected to hard labor, beatings, and cruel treatment, including being shackled inside of prison and being denied access to clean water.

Families of political prisoners have called for international organizations like the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to investigate prison conditions, which they say violate the human rights of inmates. The ICRC reported a few months ago that it had met with the junta several times to discuss the situation in the country’s prisons, but has not been granted access to the facilities.

Former political prisoner Tun Kyi told RFA that no matter how severely the authorities oppress the country’s activists, “they can only be physically imprisoned.”

“The spirit of the [anti-junta] Spring Revolution can never be imprisoned. And there is no denying that we are fighting with such spirits.”

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Nawar Nemeh.

Inflation in Myanmar hit its highest level in a decade, making life more difficult for citizens struggling to make ends meet amid the political and economic chaos that has enveloped the country in the 19 months under military junta rule.

Inflation hit 14.1% in April, up from 3.6% before the Feb. 1, 2021, coup that deposed the democratically elected government, according to the latest report issued by the International Monetary Fund. 

Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics of the junta’s Ministry of Planning and Finance put inflation higher at 17.78% as of April 2022, up from 4.01% in April 2021.

In a July speech marking the 18-month anniversary of the coup, junta leader Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing pledged to implement policies to strengthen the economy over the next six months, though businesspeople and economic analysts were skeptical that the government would be able to contain rising prices, given the political turmoil.

A drug store owner in Magway said that the price of medicine and goods sold in his shop has gone up to three or four times since the military coup.  

“Employees and workers are all affected by high prices,” said the businessman in Yangon, who declined to be named so he could speak freely. 

“Owners of factories and companies are also finding it difficult to survive at the moment,” he said. “Workers and company staff cannot have any pay raises, and it’s hard for them to live with the effects of inflation.” 

U.S. dollars are used in Myanmar to import goods and purchase fuel and commodities, but the exchange rate is now 3,100 to the dollar on the foreign currency market, up from 1,330 kyats on the day of the coup. 

The prices of staple food items such as rice have gradually increased after the military takeover, with the price of a 24-pyi (108-pound) bag of high-quality Shwebo Pawsun rice hitting 62,000 (U.S. $4) kyats on Monday compared to 34,000 kyats (U.S. $2.20) at the time of the coup, rice traders said.

The price of palm oil, a main cooking ingredient, imported from abroad hit 9,000 kyats (U.S. $0.60) a viss — a Burmese unit of measurement equal to 3.6 pounds — in August, up from around 2,500 kyats (U.S. $ 0.16) a viss at the beginning of the year. 

“When we go shopping in our area, we need to spend every cent in our purses,” said a housewife from Yangon who requested anonymity. She said she is having difficulty buying necessities for her household, given the price increases.

Rice that used to cost 3,000 kyats (U.S. $ 0.19) a sack is now 3,900 kyats (U.S. $ 0.25) a sack, while the price of cooking oil has gone up from 11,000 kyats (U.S. $ 0.71) to 16,000 kyats (U.S. $1.04), the woman told RFA. 

“Rice, oil, onion, garlic, you name it. As the prices of everything are going up, it’s a big headache for housewives to do shopping,” she said.

Merchants and shoppers in other areas of Myanmar are feeling the squeeze as well.

A store owner in Magway in the central part of the country told RFA that the prices of some medicines and other products she sells in her shop are three to four times what they were prior to the coup.

A bottle of the milk-flavoring mix Ovaltine and a container of Dumex milk powder each cost more than 10,000 kyats (U.S. $65), she said. 

“When prices go up like that, many buyers who want to buy three bottles can only buy one, and some people buy medicines only when they have to,” she said.

An increase in transportation costs to deliver products has contributed to pushing up prices, the store owner said.

Min Aung Hlaing, the junta chief, told regime officials from all over the country who attended a meeting in the capital Naypyidaw on Aug. 22 of the need to reduce commodity prices and increase the value of the kyat.

An economist in Yangon, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, said that solving inflation and the depreciation of the kyat depends on resolving Myanmar’s political problems.

“As long as the country is unstable, we cannot do anything,” he said. “This should be considered the second step. The economic problem will not be easy to tackle unless we can solve the political problem.”

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Three civilians, including a five-year-old, were killed and seven others injured by shells fired by Myanmar junta troops into a village  in Rakhine state that was miles away from where a clash with rebel Arakan Army (AA) forces had occurred earlier, sources in the country told RFA.

Myat Thu Lin, 5, Hla Aung Thein, 42, and Aye Yin Nu, 65, of Mrauk-U township were killed by the shelling. 

Myat Thu Lin’s grandfather, Hla Tun Kyaw, told RFA’s Burmese Service that the boy ran away with his mother when they heard explosions and was struck by shrapnel.

“His mother was carrying him as she ran and the shrapnel hit his face entering from his nose and it went through his head,” said Hla Tun Kyaw.

“She was hit on her right arm and thigh. Both mother and son fell to the ground and were unconscious. The child died on the way to the hospital by boat. We are making preparations for his burial. His father is abroad, in Malaysia, and I want him to see the tomb of his son when he returns. The mother is currently in the hospital ready for surgery,” Myat Thu Lin’s grandfather said.

The administrator of their village of Kin Seik, Hla Tha Tun, told RFA that the seven locals who were injured were receiving medical treatment at Mrauk-U hospital.

“Two heavy weapon shells fell in the village at about 5 o’clock last evening. A child and an old woman died on the spot,” he said. 

“There was a man who was working as a farmhand in Chaung Thit village. He was wounded by a shell and died at about 8 o’clock last night. There are seven other wounded people in the hospital. I don’t want this to happen to innocent people in the future. People are also worried that it might happen again,” Hla Tha Tun said.

Junta soldiers fired heavy weapons on Kin Seik village, forcing residents to flee, even though there had not been any fighting in the area, Hla Tha Tun said. 

Villagers told RFA that a clash between junta troops and AA yesterday afternoon took place north of Mrauk-U near Let Kar village on the Sittwe-Yangon road. The junta’s Light Infantry Regiment No. 540, based in Mrauk-U, opened fire with heavy weapons, Hla Tha Tun said.

Kin Seik village, where the shelling occurred, is about eight miles away from where the fighting took place.

A resident who did not want to be named for security reasons told RFA that it was believed that the military was targeting the regional office of the Arakan National League, the political organization associated with the Arakan Army, in Kin Seik village in retaliation for an AA attack on the military.

“They are trying to instill fear in the public. Like giving us a message … ‘This is what we do if you deal with [the AA]. There’s nothing we dare not do.’ They have seized power of the country and so this [attack] meant nothing to them. It’s meant to threaten people,” the resident said.

“What we learned is that the Mrauk-U Township ULA regional office is there, and I think it was a deliberate attack on that office because the shells fell so close to it.”

AA spokesman Khine Thukha said the shelling was a war crime because it targeted innocent people.

“If there is government machinery, there will be administrative offices and judicial courts. Attacking them is unacceptable. It is a crime against innocent people,” Khine Thuka said.

“It’s not a problem if they attack a military camp or something like that or an administrative office which is not near residential areas. It’s OK for armed units shooting at each other. But now they are firing towards that village, which was an inhumane act. They are blatantly committing war crimes,” he said.

He added that the clash, which took place near Let Kah village yesterday, occurred when junta troops entered into AA territory and that it was not a major battle.

After the fighting had ended, Khine Thukha said junta troops fired about 30 rounds of heavy weapons, of which five of the shells exploded in Kin Seik village, between 4:15-5:30 p.m. He said that a monastery in Tammaritz Ward was also hit.

Hla Thein, the junta’s acting spokesperson in Rakhine state, denied knowledge of the attack when contacted by RFA. 

‘The wrong idea’

The incident was an act by the military to discourage the Rakhine people from supporting the AA, Pe Than, a former member of the Myebon Township People’s Hluttaw, said.

“They have the wrong idea. They are thinking that arresting people and shooting them will stop people from supporting AA,” Pe Than said. 

“Because of this incorrect thinking, they are hitting the wrong targets. Look at the incident yesterday. They fired at a village that had nothing to do with the battle about 10 miles away. We can all understand that this is done on purpose. [Junta leader] Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has said there’s nothing he dare not do. [Junta spokesman] Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun has also said the same. I think their words are trying to tell us we cannot blame them if something bad happens,” he said.

In Rakhine, the military and the AA fought from December 2018 to November 2020 before entering into a tentative truce. Since then, the AA has tried to establish an administrative system of its own in the state.

A 60-year-old woman was killed on Saturday in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw Township in another shelling attack over the weekend.

A resident of Min Gyi Village who requested anonymity, said the woman, May Tha Sein, died on the spot when a junta-fired shell landed on her house.

“The shell was fired from Kyein Chaung Creek, northwest of Min Gyi Village. The heavy weapon fell on her house at 9 o’clock,” he said. 

RFA has not yet been able to independently confirm the report.

Border incident

Meanwhile, on Sunday, two unexploded mortars landed in Bandarban, Bangladesh, about one kilometer from the Myanmar border, BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service reported.

Bangladesh’s foreign secretary, Masud Bin Momen, on Monday summoned Myanmar’s ambassador to discuss the incident.

“We have lodged a strong protest … so that such incidents do not take place again. We also strongly condemned the incident,” he told reporters on Monday.

In addition, Border Guard Bangladesh lodged a protest with counterparts in Myanmar over the incident, according to Lt. Col. Foyzur Rahman, BGB director.

 “We have come to know that some troubles happened on the Myanmar side of the border. The BGB personnel have been put on alert,” he said.

Ehsanul Haque, a professor of international relations at Dhaka University, called the incident “unfriendly.”

“This is a violation of international law if it is done on purpose. But the Myanmar government should apologize to Bangladesh if it is an accident,” he told BenarNews.

Additional reporting by Kamran Reza Chowdhury for BenarNews. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Cambodian rights groups on Monday threw their support behind a recommendation of a U.N. monitor that the country do more to ensure the independence of its judiciary system.

“The Cambodian government has stated its commitment to reform the judiciary and the law, but the actual reform remains to be seen,” Am Sam Ath, deputy director for the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, told RFA’s Khmer Service Monday. “There is no progress yet.”

Vitit Muntarbhorn, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Cambodia, released a list of 10 recommendations after wrapping up an 11-day fact-finding visit to the country on Friday. They included greater separation between law enforcement and the judiciary from the governing party “to ensure their independence and impartiality.” 

Cambodia’s leader, Hun Sen, in 2017 had the country’s Supreme Court dissolve the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), paving the way for his ruling Cambodian People’s Party to claim every seat in the country’s National Assembly in the 2018 general election. 

“This has led to systemic control by the powers-that-be, leading to political and other distortions undermining the call for a pluralistic democracy,” Muntarbhorn’s statement said.

Law enforcement and the judiciary are not independent or impartial, and this has resulted in activists going into hiding or exile or winding up in prison, Soeung Senkaruna, spokesperson for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, told RFA.

“I’m sure [the recommendations] will have influence on the international community. When they find such flaws and [the government] does not accept his recommendations and does not change anything, this will affect them,” he said.

“We are concerned that there may be measures or pressure from the international community as they can refer to the report found by the special rapporteur. Therefore, we should not overlook this report,” Soeung Senkaruna said.

Cambodia is no stranger to international pressure. The European Union in August 2020 suspended tariff-free access to its market under the Everything But Arms scheme for around one-fifth of Cambodia’s exports, citing rollbacks in Cambodia on democracy and human rights.

National Assembly spokesman Leng Penglong said that the assembly would review the U.N. special rapporteur’s recommendations once it officially received them.

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

She spends six days per week juggling three separate jobs and only has time to return home to see her children once a week, but Kang Mi Young says her life in Salt Lake City, Utah, is “heaven” compared to the “hell” in North Korea she escaped from in 2019. 

Kang, a pseudonym, and her two children, and one other unrelated North Korean refugee arrived in Utah in November 2021. The four were the first North Korean refugees to settle in a foreign country other than South Korea since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the U.S. State Department.

In an interview with RFA’s Korean Service, Kang recounted her family’s harrowing escape from North Korea, which included two unsuccessful attempts, a stint in a labor camp, and confrontations with brokers who sought to take advantage of her family’s vulnerability.  

Kang Mi Young says her work schedule in Salt Lake City is rough. Her primary job is at a Korean-owned dental laboratory. After that she works an overnight shift helping disabled people, where she can get a few hours of sleep when her duties are complete. She also works at a Korean grocery store on weekends. 

 “I really don’t have time to go home. My daytime and nighttime workplaces and my house are triangularly located. I commute back and forth between two workplaces, and I go home once a week.”

Even so, Kang said her life in the United States, where she can depend on getting paid for the work she does, is much more comfortable than the one she and her family left behind in North Korea.

“Even with a little effort, there is no worry about eating and living, and there is no hindrance to the lives of children,” she said. “In North Korea, you still have no food to eat even though you work all day long. No matter how much I pay in taxes, the income here is high. Should I call it heaven on earth? I feel like I went to heaven after living in the hell that is North Korea.”

Failed attempts

Most North Koreans who escape the hardships of their authoritarian and isolated country want to settle in the South, where they face no language barrier and are already considered citizens. According to the South Korean Ministry of Unification, more than 33,000 North Koreans have settled in the South over the years. Kang’s case, making a home somewhere other than South Korea, is far more rare.

Only 220 North Koreans have settled in the U.S. since Washington started accepting North Korean refugees in 2006, according to a 2021 report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a non-governmental organization. 

Kang’s journey may have an atypical ending, but much of her story mirrors that of other escapees. Prior to their successful escape, Kang’s family made two previous attempts, only to be caught by Chinese police and sent to a detention facility before being forcibly repatriated.

The second time they were repatriated, Kang was sent to a prison camp where she was starved and tortured. She was freed after relatives sold the family home and used the money to bribe camp officials, she said.

Escaping again

Despite the two unsuccessful attempts, the family remained determined to escape. The third time they set out, they were able to make their way to a safehouse in the Chinese city of Shenyang. The safehouse owner introduced them to a broker, who promised to help them get to South Korea via Southeast Asia.

Helping runaway North Koreans is big business in China, but many brokers take advantage of escapees, who are reluctant to report abuse to the authorities because it could mean that they get sent back to North Korea. 

The broker Kang dealt with was a South Korean man, who earned a living collecting refugees from Shenyang and sending them to another broker who would help them get to Thailand.

According to Kang, she and other female refugees were forced to have sex with the broker while they were staying at the safehouse.

The broker delivered her to another safehouse in Qingdao, where she was ordered to write out a contract that would bind her to another broker, and told she would be killed if she refused.

Fearing for her life and the lives of her children, she finally signed the contract, which stated that after her arrival in South Korea that she would have one year to pay off her 7 million won (U.S. $5,200) debt.

The broker promised her that he would assign her to a job that would pay 5 million won ($3,725) per month, which is considerably higher than the average South Korean salary, and much higher than what typical entry-level employees receive.

Kang was skeptical and escaped with her family to Thailand with the help of an organization that requested not to be identified, for security reasons and because it continues to operate in the region. Once in Thailand, Kang and her daughters were placed in a refugee center.

While Kang initially planned to resettle in South Korea, she feared that she could be subject to the terms of the contract she had signed under duress. Another North Korean refugee told her that he was applying for asylum in the U.S., so she decided that she would too.

After two years in a Thai refugee center, her application was accepted and her family boarded a plane to Utah, with a stopover in South Korea.

When the plane landed at Incheon International Airport, Kang said she cried with joy.

Toiling in “Heaven”

Now in Salt Lake City, Kang said she hopes to start her own business. When she was in North Korea, she supported her family by selling Chinese goods in the marketplace.

“I graduated college in North Korea, but I don’t have a college diploma here, and I’m past the age to go to college. I dream of doing business in the future,” she said. 

“Right now is the period where I will work hard for several years to establish a foothold. Compared to my career in North Korea, I’m going to go into the field where I can do my best. I studied well. I was interested in beauty and massage. I can also branch out into things like vegetable farming, where I can do well without making mistakes.” 

The time away from her children is difficult, but Kang believes the sacrifices have been worth it. 

“I feel sorry. But right now, my tasks and my children’s tasks are different. My children have to concentrate on learning and studying, even when I don’t come home,” she said. 

“I need to lay a foundation for them to study. Now, my children are aware of the situation and they study when I’m not home. I believe they will study well so that they can go to college here.” 

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

Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Tangshan say 28 people are being charged and 15 officials investigated in connection with the vicious beatings of several women at a barbecue restaurant in June.

The case prompted international headlines and domestic public anger after surveillance video of the incident showed four women who had been eating at a late-night barbecue restaurant being brutally attacked by a group of men in the early hours of June 10, after one of them harassed a woman, who flapped a hand at her harasser and fought back after she was slapped, prompting the others to join in to repel the man.

The attackers shoved the women to the ground, kicked them, threw a chair at them, and later dragged one of the women out of the restaurant to continue beating her outside. One was taken away on a stretcher with a visibly bloodied and swollen face.

The claim that the women sustained “minor injuries” was met with skepticism on social media.

Much of the outrage focused on the fact that nobody watching intervened to stop the subsequent, vicious beating of the women who fended off the initial assault, which left four women injured, two of whom were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said at the time.

Rather than engage with public criticism of state-enabled male violence, the official response has focused on allegations that the attackers were members of a local organized crime gang with links to the local police department.

The Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection said it was investigating 15 officials over corruption that involved “evil organizations,” including those associated with the attackers, the Associated Press reported.

They include the head of the Tangshan police department and officers from several police stations. Eight police officers have been detained in connection with the investigation, it said.

Meanwhile, the Tangshan state prosecutors said charges of ‘picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,’ robbery, illegal gambling operations and cybercrime activities had been brought against 28 people, including the men seen attacking the women in the video.

Police denied rumors of violent retaliation against the four women.

State broadcaster CCTV aired an interview with a woman surnamed Wang who was one of the victims.

“This man came in, said something at the bar, then he touched me, and slapped me when I resisted,” Wang said. “Several of them beat us up and told us not to call the police.”

Asked if she had been run over or chased by a vehicle since the incident, Wang replied: “No.”

The report also aired a televised confession from one of the people charged, surnamed Chen, who admitted to beating up “several women” at the Seoul BBQ restaurant in Tangshan on June 10.

The use of televised confessions has been widely criticized by rights groups and former detainees, who say they are heavily scripted and directed dramas played out under coercion, often under the threat of abuse or detention, or the threat of harm to the detainee’s loved ones.

Widespread skepticism

The CCTV report prompted widespread skepticism on social media, prompting calls for individual livestreams from the women concerned, with others asking why the authorities were only now moving against gangs in Tangshan, if they had been operating for 10 years already.

Beijing-based political commentator Ji Feng said he shared the public skepticism around the official narrative.

“There are two possibilities here: one is that this woman is a fake, and the other is that it’s really her and they wouldn’t let her speak out, or if she did, they didn’t put that in the report,” Ji told RFA.

“That report only contained what the government wanted people to hear.”

Ji also took issue with the apparently lenient charge of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” when applied to the violence seen on the surveillance footage.

“They beat someone half to death and that’s supposed to be picking quarrels and stirring up trouble?” he said. “The report also avoids talking about the umbrella of protection extended [to the gangs by police].”

Political commentator Wu Qiang said corruption is endemic throughout local government, so police protection for criminal gangs is the rule, rather than the exception.

“People feel the local government is totally supine, with all of its energy and financial resources directed towards unnecessary prevention and control measures,” Wu said.

“High crime rates and unemployment have left society in a state of unprecedented unrest,” he said. “Social problems are at a critical phase, what with Tangshan and the chained woman [in Jiangsu’s Feng county] earlier [this year].”

“Meanwhile, ongoing anti-corruption campaigns have yielded zero benefits to the public, meaning … that people doubt what the commissions for discipline inspection are achieving with all of these cleanup campaigns one after the other,” Wu said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.