Day: September 19, 2022

Myanmar’s junta is using weapons purchased from abroad to commit “war crimes” against its people and must be targeted with new sanctions to end violence in the country, former military officers and political observers said Monday.

On Friday, the United Nations human rights office in Geneva said in a report that countries should do more to prevent money and arms from reaching the junta, which rules through terror and repression.

The office called for further isolation of the military regime, which it said had failed to govern effectively, suggesting U.N. members impose bans on arms sales and more narrowly defined sanctions to prevent its business network from gaining access to foreign currency.

While the U.S., Britain, Canada and the EU have imposed sanctions on Myanmar since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup, several countries have continued to supply the junta with arms — most notably Russia, China and Serbia. 

Speaking to RFA Burmese on Monday, former army Capt. Lin Htet Aung, who is now a member of the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), said sanctions are key to cutting the junta off from the modern weapons and raw materials it needs to maintain its hold on power.

“The military’s domestic production capacity cannot provide all the weapons it needs for the army,” he said.

“Missiles and heavy weapons and their accessories, as well as ammunition used by its armed forces, are all imported from abroad. All these things, as well as raw materials, have to be purchased from foreign nations.”

The CDM captain said the military will continue to commit human rights violations, including bombing attacks on towns and villages, if the international community fails to level effective sanctions.

On June 18 last year, the U.N. General Assembly approved a proposal to ban arms exports to the Myanmar military. One hundred and nineteen countries voted in favor of the resolution, while 36 countries — including China, India and Russia — abstained. Russian ally Belarus voted against it.

Ineffective sanctions

Observers told RFA that the junta continues to obtain military equipment and technology via large domestic and international arms brokering companies.

Hla Kyaw Zo, a Myanmar political analyst based in China, said sanctioning these companies would have a significant effect on ending the junta’s domination.

“Western countries consider their own interests and big arms companies are more or less connected with the Western world, so this issue is difficult to discuss,” he said.

“If the West blocks [these sales] effectively, it’ll be good, but I don’t think they will press on the issue.”

According to a list compiled by NGO Justice For Myanmar, there are more than 150 companies selling arms to Myanmar’s military, 135 of which are based in Myanmar, Russia and Singapore.

Yadana Maung, the group’s spokeswoman, told RFA that many companies have been able to evade Western sanctions, meaning financial and military support continues to flow to the junta.

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the Thayningha Strategic Studies Institute, which is made up of former military officers, said using human rights to justify sanctions against Myanmar is “weakening the defense of the country.”

“All we have heard so far is the noise they’re making about human rights,” he said. “In reality, what we understand is that they are using that premise to allow those who are pulling the strings to obtain more power.”

He said the junta will continue to purchase arms from its allies despite attempts to block them.

Propping up a brutal regime

In February, former U.S. Rep. Tom Andrews, who serves as U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said in a report to the U.N. Security Council that countries should stop selling arms to the junta, citing a brutal crackdown on civilians since the coup.

The report called out permanent Security Council members China and Russia, as well as India, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel, Serbia, Pakistan and South Korea, for selling the weapons, which Andrews said are almost certainly being used by the military to kill innocent people.

However, analysts say it is unlikely that the sale of arms to the junta can be cut off completely as Russia and China, which are its main suppliers, wield veto power at the Security Council.

In the meantime, junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has visited Russia three times in the 19 months since the coup. During his last trip, earlier this month, he signed an agreement with Russian government officials to build a nuclear reactor factory in Myanmar.

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

Supporters of jailed Cambodian American and human rights advocate Theary Seng called on Cambodia’s government to grant her release, days after a New York-based rights group called her June 14 trial “a travesty of justice.”

Theary Seng was sentenced to six years in prison along with 50 other activists for their association with the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, once the main opposition in the country before the Supreme Court dissolved it in 2017.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice, which was founded by actor George Clooney and his wife and human rights attorney Amal Clooney, gave the trial a grade of F because it ignored Cambodia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which it signed in 1980 and ratified in 1992.

The foundation urged the appellate court to overturn Theary Seng’s conviction and order her release.  

“This case was all but predetermined,” said Andrew Khoo, co-chair of the Malaysian Bar Council’s Constitutional Law Committee, who reviewed the case for the foundation.

“Theary Seng was convicted not because of what she did, but because she supported democratic change in Cambodia.  Her continued incarceration constitutes arbitrary detention under the ICCPR, which prohibits imprisoning someone for exercising their right to freedom of expression.”

Theary Seng, who is known for donning elaborate costumes in her public protests, appeared in front of the courthouse on the day the trial ended dressed as the Statue of Liberty, awaiting the verdict. After the court found her and the others guilty, she was quickly taken into custody and sent to prison.

Other activists are also pushing for her release. Sat Pha, who once stood shoulder to shoulder with Theary Seng at protests before she fled to Thailand for fear of political persecution, told RFA’s Khmer Service Sunday that she and other exiles planned to wear t-shirts demanding her fellow activist be freed this weekend in Bangkok on the occasion of Pchum Ben, the Cambodian festival for remembering ancestors.

“Even though I am in another country right now. I strongly demand that the government release Theary Seng from prison without condition,” Sat Pha said.

Others inside Cambodia marched and sent petitions to foreign embassies from democratic countries, said Prum Chantha, a protester from the Friday Women Group, which held weekly protests at the court during the trial in support of their husbands, who were eventually convicted alongside Theary Seng.

“I appeal to the government to release Theary Seng and our husbands because they haven’t committed any wrongdoing. [They should] and drop all the charges,” Prum Chantha said.

Sokun Tola, a member of the Khmer Thavarak youth organization, told RFA that she believes Theary Seng is a good role model for the younger generation thanks to her advocacy work to end injustice and bring about freedom for the Cambodian people.

“I think the government should consider releasing Seng Theary [and the rest] during the Pchum Ben festival so that they can join the festival,” Sokun Tola said.   

Theary Seng has been treated according to the law, government spokesperson Phai Siphan told RFA Monday. 

“The government authorities have no jurisdiction over the court nor can we interfere or order the court to end this case. We have no authority over the court,” he said.

The government frequently makes that excuse, however, Am Sam Ath of the  Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights told RFA.

“They always say that the arrest and imprisonment of political activists is done according to the law,” he said. “But, human rights experts, the U.N. Council for Human Rights and democratic countries see that the arrests and imprisonments of former political activists and Seng Theary are politically motivated, rather than a proper application of the law.” 

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

Military helicopters fired on a village school in Myanmar “for nearly an hour” before junta foot soldiers let loose with guns, killing at least seven children, residents said Monday, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on children since last year’s coup.

UNICEF condemned Friday’s attack in Tabyin township and put the death toll even higher, saying at least 11 children died “in an airstrike and indiscriminate fire in civilian areas.” It said at least 15 other children from the same school were still missing.

The raid is believed to have caused the highest number of child deaths of any single incident since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup and came barely one week after the release of a report that said thousands of students and teachers have been injured or killed in attacks in Myanmar over the past two years.

Residents of Tabayin township said that four helicopters approached the village of Let Yet Kone on the afternoon of Sept. 16. Two of the helicopters landed and deployed around 80 junta troops, while the other two fired at a secondary school located in the nearby Maha Dhammaranthi monastery compound.

“They fired rockets and then machine guns for nearly an hour continuously. Two helicopters hovered above and attacked us from both sides. For an hour, there was nothing we could do,” one parent who witnessed the attack told RFA Burmese, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“After a while, soldiers with baskets on their backs entered our school. They came in, with guns blazing,” the parent said.

“I heard a voice saying ‘Stop! Stop!’ [The troops] said, ‘Keep your heads down and don’t look up.’ They said they would shoot if we looked at them. I took a glimpse and saw children running out of the kindergarten. Some were limping, some were dripping with blood. There were many children covered in blood.”

Witnesses said the soldiers who raided the school belonged to Light Infantry Battalion 368, under the 10th Military Operations Command based in Kyi Kone village, in Sagaing’s Kale township, adding that most were wearing shorts or sweatpants instead of full military uniform.

Another parent, who also declined to be named, said there were 31 teachers and 211 students at the school when it came under attack from the gunships. Four children were killed on the spot, they added.

Residents of Tabayin told RFA that troops detained 15 people, including nine injured students, three teachers, and three villagers — none of whom had been released as of Monday. They said two of the detained children later succumbed to their injuries, bringing the total number of children killed in the school attack to six. Troops buried the bodies of the two children in Ye-U township instead of returning them to their families.

Another child and six adults were killed by troops in Let Yet Kone village following the attack on the school at the Maha Dhammaranthi monastery compound, residents said.  

The seven children killed in the attacks on the school and in Let Yet Kone village were identified as Hpone Tay Za, 7; Suyati Hlaing, 7; Zin Way Phyo, 9;  Win Win Khaing, 11; Zin Ko Oo, 14;  Soe Min Oo, 13; and Aung Aung Oo, 16. Residents said a man and a woman were among the six adults killed in Let Yet Kone, but were unable to provide additional details.

The parent of one student, who asked to remain anonymous citing security concerns, told RFA that the surviving children are dealing with severe trauma from the incident.

“My children are in a state where they do not dare to sleep alone at night. … I have to sit by them and can only leave when they are fast asleep. Otherwise, they wake up startled and begin sobbing,” they said.

“All the other parents say the same about their kids. They all are having nightmares.”

The school was nearly destroyed in the attack and remains closed, according to residents who said the smell of blood hangs heavy in the air around the compound.

Attack condemned

On Sunday, the ministries of education, women, youth and children’s affairs, and human rights under Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) issued a joint statement condemning the attack, which they called “an inhuman and horrific war crime.”

NUG Deputy Minister of Education Sai Khaing Myo Tun said the incident shows how far the junta is willing to go to cling to power and reach its military objectives.

“It’s an example of how seriously they violate the rights of children, such as freedom of education and freedom of thought. But this incident resulted in a terrible loss of lives,” he said.

“There is an urgent need to take action against this military regime in accordance with international laws.”

Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the office of NUG President Duwa Lashi La, said the military had used Russian-made Mi-35M helicopters in the attack, which he called “brutal and merciless.”

“No country on earth kills children, especially elementary school children,” he said. “This was an act of terrorism.”

Pro-junta media published an official statement on Sept. 17 which confirmed that civilians had been killed in the incident, but blamed the deaths on fighters with the ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group, who it said fought back against troops using residents as human shields.

Witnesses, however, said the attack was one-sided with no return fire.

On Monday, UNICEF Myanmar issued a statement condemning the attack and calling on the military to release the missing students.

“On Sept. 16, at least 11 children died in an airstrike and indiscriminate fire in civilian areas, including a school in Tabyin township, Sagaing region,” the statement said.

“At least 15 children from the same school are still missing. UNICEF calls for their immediate and safe release.”

RFA was unable to independently confirm the number of dead and missing cited by the statement.

A lawyer, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said the attack was a violation of  both domestic and international laws.

“It is premeditated and intentional murder [under Myanmar’s Penal Code],” he said.

“Additionally, according to international law and the Geneva Convention, the intentional shooting and killing of civilian targets in an operation area, can be … classified as a war crime.”

The lawyer called for evidence of the attack to be collected and presented to an international court for prosecution, noting that it is impossible to do so in Myanmar while the judiciary is under the control of the junta.

Schools under attack

The raid on the school and Let Yet Kone village came only a week after New York-based Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack published a report which found that at least 190 schools were the targets of attack in Myanmar in 2021, up from 10 the previous year.

The report, entitled “The Impacts of Attacks on Education and Military Use in Myanmar” and released on Sept. 9, said attacks on schools spread from at least three to 13 states and regions in Myanmar following the military takeover, with a peak in May 2021, and “often involved the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects.”

Over the past two years, it said, such attacks had killed or injured more than 9,000 students, teachers and education personnel.

The report urged all sides involved in Myanmar’s conflict to refrain from setting up camps in schools and attacking the education sector.

According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, authorities in Myanmar have killed 2,299 civilians and arrested nearly 15,600 since last year’s coup — mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests.

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

North Korea has started installing complaint boxes at all government facilities as part of an effort to root out corruption, but North Koreans are balking at reporting graft through a system that requires them to provide their names.

Government workers, like all North Korean citizens, are paid a small monthly wage by the state, but it is not enough to live on. Most families start businesses, selling goods in the marketplace or performing services to make enough money to get by. Government officials, however, can use the power of their position to bring in extra cash by extracting bribes in return for their services.

Citizens who know about the shady dealings can now more easily report them, although many are reportedly reluctant to do so. Complainants must give their names, leaving them susceptible to retribution by the people they identify as corrupt. 

“A box for reporting on officials was installed on the main gate of the Hungnam Pharmaceutical factory the day before yesterday,” a resident of the eastern province of South Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service Sept. 15 on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Up until now they only had report boxes at the building of the reporting division at the provincial, city and county level. … The fact that the report box is now in a factory is an expansion of the corruption reporting system,” said the source. “This measure follows the Central Committee’s order to strengthen the system to identify officials who are blinded by self-interest and are violating the interests of others.”

A factory worker can now simply slip a letter into the box at the workplace instead of going into town to the city party building to file a report, according to the source. When the box gets full, a party committee member at the factory will send its contents to the report division, where it is passed up the chain and dealt with.

Authorities in the Seungri Motor Complex in Tokchon, South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, installed boxes at the factories there, making it far more convenient for workers to report. But few people believe that more easily filing complaints will lead to less corruption, a source there told RFA.

“Authorities are suddenly encouraging residents to report corruption by officials who abuse their powers to extort bribes,” the second source said. 

“This is because of the increasing number of residents turning their backs on the system due to extreme hardship after the pandemic crisis,” said the second source.

Beijing and Pyongyang closed the Sino-Korean border and suspended all trade at the beginning of the pandemic in Jan. 2020. The closure was ruinous for the already unstable North Korean economy, much of which is dependent on imported goods from China.

Government officials, however, got along as they always have, catching people doing illegal things and demanding bribes, at a time when many North Koreans are worried about finding their next meal. Public sentiment for corrupt officials is now “serious,” the second source said. 

According to the second source, many people do not believe the government genuinely cares about ending corruption, saying that adding more reporting boxes is more for show than substance. 

Additionally, people are reluctant to file reports, because they must identify themselves as the reporter, writing their name, job and address on the reporting documents, the second source said. 

There have been cases where the chief of the reporting division colluded with corrupt officials, and they used the identifying information to retaliate and punish the reporter with the full power of the government, according to the second source. 

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

The head of Hong Kong’s journalists’ union has been charged with obstructing a police officer in the course of their duty, amid an ongoing crackdown on critics of the government under the national security law.

“I just received a call from the police asking me to go to the Mong Kok Police Station today for them to formally file a case against me,” Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA) announced via his Facebook page on Monday.

Chan arrived at the police station at 3.30 p.m. local time and left after half an hour, after being formally charged with “obstructing official duties.”

He will appear at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Sept. 22.

Chan, former deputy assignment editor at now-defunct pro-democracy news outlet Stand News, was re-elected as HKJA chairman in June.

He has frequently spoken out against ever-diminishing press freedom in the city.

He had been planning to study journalism on a scholarship at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, and had been scheduled to leave Hong Kong at the end of September.

It is unclear whether Chan will now be allowed to leave to take up the scholarship as planned.

Chan told reporters outside the police station he would be seeking legal advice on the matter.

“I need to seek legal advice on how to do that,” he said. “[The police] also asked me if I would leave the country at the last minute.”

“I told him I was planning to spend six months [overseas] and he said he would inform the court,” Chan said. “It was odd that he asked my out of the blue like that, as I was waiting for them to process my bail.”

Measure of declining press freedom

Chan said his arrest, which was criticized by the city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club at the time, was indicative of the current state of press freedom in the city.

“I have heard a lot of things since my arrest, but I have not been able to verify them, so I won’t mention them now,” Chan said. “It would be ridiculous if I were unable to go to the U.K. because of this.”

“I think it’s plain to see the environment Hong Kong journalists are working in from this incident.”

The FCC said at the time of Chan’s arrest that it “supports journalists’ right to cover stories without fear of harassment or arrest.”

The statement won a rebuke from China’s foreign ministry, which said it constituted “interference with the rule of law” in Hong Kong, and that there was no such thing as absolute press freedom.

The HKJA said Chan was arrested after officers claimed he failed to comply with an ID check while at a venue as part of a journalistic assignment.

“Just as Ronson Chan was about to show his ID to one of the female police officers, another plainclothes officer stepped forward and yelled at him to ‘cooperate’,” the HKJA said in a statement at the time.

“Chan asked the policeman to show his warrant card and asked the officer to confirm his full name and department, as he could only see the surname Tan,” the statement said. 

 “But the officer immediately issued a warning, and, within a few minutes, had Chan in handcuffs under arrest, en route back to Mong Kok police station.”

 Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

At least 27 people died and 20 were left with injuries after a bus taking 47 people to a COVID-19 quarantine camp crashed in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou, local authorities said.

Police in Guizhou’s Sandu country said only that a vehicle had overturned on an expressway in the county, and the injured were being treated in hospital.

But the Guiyang municipal government told a news conference on Sunday that those on board were being taken from the provincial capital Guiyang to Libo county, some 200 kilometers to the southeast.

The bus, which was taking people to a quarantine hotel in Qiannan prefecture for medical observation and isolation, overturned at around 2.40 a.m. local time on Sunday, falling into a deep ditch by the side of the road.

The authorities confirmed that 27 people had died, with 20 people receiving hospital treatment for injuries suffered in the crash.

The crash came as authorities around the country scramble to implement ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy, leading to strict curbs on “non-essential” travel overseas, grueling and repetitive mass compulsory testing programs, lockdowns and forcible mass transportation to quarantine camps.

Feng Wenhua, a resident of the Guiyang’s Yunyan district, said one of the victims lived in the same residential compound as him.

“This happened [to someone] in our community, which is on a street next to the Yunyan district government building, called Chemical Road,” Feng told RFA.

There were signs that the news of the crash, which initially garnered around 100 million views, was being suppressed on social media, as the story later disappeared from lists of trending search terms.

Strong-arm enforcement of zero-COVID

By Monday morning, it had been replaced at the top of Weibo’s “hot searches” list by an official apology from the Guiyang municipal government.

“An apology won’t bring back the dead, and this betrayal of trust is chilling,” @Nobi_Big_Bear wrote on Weibo.

Others hit out at over-zealous officials using strong-arm tactics to implement zero-COVID measures for fear of spoiling their official appraisal records.

A Guiyang resident who gave only the surname Sun said the zero-COVID policy has caused countless human tragedies.

“These kinds of things are all caused by human actions,” Sun said. “These things would never happen if there had been no lockdown.”

“There’s little that ordinary people can do about it.”

Feng said zero-COVID means that anyone deemed a “close contact” of a COVID-19 case is forced to go to a quarantine camp, often in the dead of night or early morning.

“A large number of people have been taken away to quarantine at night,” Feng said. “They take all of the close contacts of a case, once it is found.”

A social media user who gave only the surname Zhao said officials are to blame for forcing people to comply with the measures.

“They sent people to their deaths, and all for their own power and political record,” Zhao said. “The outbreak isn’t that serious, yet they drag all of these people into isolation. Are they really doing it for disease prevention or for profit?”

“Why don’t they let people self-isolate at home?”

Dragging people away

An employee who answered the phone at the Guizhou Provincial Epidemic Prevention Headquarters said the aftermath of the crash was being handled by the traffic and civil affairs departments.

“This policy is not formulated by us here, nor by our center. It may be formulated by a higher-level department,” the employee said.

“If you have any opinions, you can directly report them to your superiors. If you have any doubts, you can appeal to the provincial government,” they said.

Calls to the Guizhou municipal government had met with no response to RFA’s request for comment by the time of writing.

A Guiyang resident who requested anonymity said quarantine and isolation operations were still in full swing in the city.

“There are still hundreds of our neighbors who have been taken off to some place in Zunyi,” the resident said. “I saw a video clip they posted: they were in a school dormitory.”

“These things are bound to happen if you drag people off like this in the middle of the night; it’s a waste of life, and a waste of money,” he said, adding that he had been warned by the authorities not to speak out about the incident.

“The Guiyang authorities are now telling to keep our mouths shut,” he said. “CNN wanted to interview a friend of one of the people who died, but was told not to allow imperialist forces to smear China. The police also contacted me and told me not to talk so much about it.”

“The hot search listings have been removed from social media platforms in China, like Weibo and Xiaohongshu,” he said. “They have hidden the forwarding and commenting functions.”

Political campaign

Senior journalist Zhang Feng said the drivers of quarantine buses have to wear heavy protective clothing on long distance drives at night, affecting the safety of the bus journeys.

“They are transferring confirmed positives out of Guiyang, known as social clearing,” Zhang told RFA. “The destination … was 300 kilometers away.”

“I don’t know why they like doing these transfers overnight, which is a violation of traffic laws, which bans all passenger buses from driving along highways between 2.00 a.m. and 5.00 a.m.”

“There are lots of stretches of highway in Guiyang that are pretty tough to drive,” Zhang said. “I don’t know if it was due to driver fatigue, but wearing that [protective] clothing has got to have had some impact.”

Zhang said officials are keen to deliver on the zero-COVID policy, in order to demonstrate political loyalty to Xi Jinping and the CCP.

“It’s a [political] campaign, with a top-down loyalty system, under which everyone wants to perform well,” he said. “All the local governments are performing their political allegiance to the central government.”

“Under such a system, there’s no way to pull back from [implementing the measures].”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.