Day: September 20, 2022

More than 100 people remained trapped in two Buddhist compounds on the outskirts of a village in Myanmar’s Shan state on Tuesday after the military took advantage of a lull in fighting with anti-junta forces to set up positions in the area, sources told RFA Burmese.

The group of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and pagoda caretakers are being held at the Set Taw Yar Hill Top Pagoda and Mway Taw Pagoda Monastery compounds in Taunggyi district’s Moe Bye township, said a resident, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. They were taken captive on Monday morning, when some 100 junta troops entered the township and established a camp.

“People there have had their phones taken away and they have not been allowed to leave the compounds yet,” the resident said.

“There’s no fighting yet, but we don’t know how long it will last. The lull might be broken tonight or tomorrow. The situation is very tense. The army has taken up positions and [anti-junta] forces are also moving around. It’s hard to say when clashes might occur.”

The IDPs had fled their homes in Pwe Kone Ward No. 3 during fighting between the military and anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries earlier this month, the resident said. The 10 pagoda caretakers are from Zay Kone Ward and had been living at the Mway Taw Pagoda Monastery compound as guards.

From Sept. 8-12, junta troops squared off with local PDF units and ethnic Karenni armed groups in a series of intense battles in and around Moe Bye, a township situated along Shan state’s eastern border with Kayah state. According to the Moe Bye PDF, the troops called in airstrikes during the fighting, while the military’s 422 Light Infantry Battalion, stationed two miles away, attacked with heavy weapons.

The PDF said two of its fighters were killed and six seriously wounded during the five days of fighting, while around 50 suffered minor injuries. It claimed that more than 60 junta troops were killed and “many injured” over the same period.

RFA could not independently verify the number of casualties reported by the PDF.

Residents of the area told RFA that junta forces re-entered Moe Bye with reinforcements on Monday, around one week after the fighting ended.

Aid workers told RFA that five civilians were killed and 15 others wounded in Moe Bye by military shelling during the clashes. The Moe Bye General Hospital is closed at present and the wounded are being treated at nearby clinics, they added.

A spokesman for the Moe Bye Rescue Team, a local aid group, said the majority of the town’s 25,000 people had fled to Pekon township — around 10 miles to the north — and other areas in southern Shan, as well as to Loikaw, the capital of Kayah state.

“About half of them fled to the Kayah region, east of the town,” said the spokesman, who also declined to be named.

“I believe some two-thirds of the population has fled the town,” he said, adding that the exact number of evacuees remains unclear.

As of Tuesday, the junta had yet to release any information regarding the clashes in Moe Bye. Attempts by RFA to contact the junta’s spokesman in Shan state went unanswered.

Situation tense

A fighter with the Karenni People’s Defense Force told RFA that while there had been no recent clashes, the situation remained tense.

“[The military] re-entered with … two tanks from two sides, from the Wari supply station, where the first battle took place [last week], as well as from Pekon township,” he said.

“Some of them were wearing civilian clothes and others were in uniform. They have set up positions on both sides of the main road in the area and it’s a very tense situation.”

According to a Sept. 10 statement from the Progressive Karenni People’s Force (PKPF), there are 16 PDF groups with a strength of nearly 16,000 across the border from Moe Bye township in Kayah. The statement said that the junta has about 7,500 troops in the area, including 18 battalions and three artillery regiments.

Than Soe Naing, a political observer, said the junta is trying to regain control of southern Shan state, including the Moe Bye Dam, which holds water for the Baluchaung Hydroelectric Power Station. PDF forces took control of the dam following the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

“The Karenni Army and the PDF have control of much of Kayah state and military tensions are high,” he said.

“I believe [the junta is] trying to get back control of this region because … [doing so] can have repercussions for the whole country.”

The PKPF said in a statement on Sept. 1 that there had been 454 battles and 158 airstrikes in Kayah state since the coup last year, resulting in the death or capture of 261 civilians.

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

North Korea is requiring trade officials dispatched to China to install invasive surveillance software on their smartphones and computers to allow the government to track their phone calls and restrict their online access, sources in China told RFA.

Trade officials must install the software, called “Secure Shield” on their phones, so that the government can see who they are calling. A program called “Hangro” monitors their computer use.

“Trade officials must visit the North Korean consulate in Shenyang, install the newly developed software on their cellphones, and receive a memory storage device that contains the software for computers,” a source with North Korea connections in the northeastern Chinese city told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

The order went out last month to all the North Korean trade officials in the three northeastern Chinese provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang, according to the source.

“Once you install the software, its name appears on the main screen. Then a message shows up in the middle of the screen, saying ‘Your cellphone is secured,’” said the source. 

“Along with the mobile phone identification number, there is an indication that the phone numbers and call details connected to the phone are being detected in real time,” the source explained.

RFA reported in July that smartphone users who want to access North Korea’s closed intranet had to install an app that allows the Ministry of State Security to see where they have been, what websites they browsed, and whether they downloaded, watched or listened to illegal foreign media.

The expansion of surveillance of officials outside the country is partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced mandatory in-person meetings to move online, where it is thought to be harder to monitor the loyalty of dispatched personnel.

North Korea previously attempted to use surveillance software outside its borders in 2020, according to the source.

“There was a conversion problem in the software because it was made for the North Korean government by a foreign developer, so it didn’t work properly,” the source said. 

“The reason for the new software is because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now ideological learning sessions and home country meetings for the trade officials are conducted through self-learning and email communication, so the authorities believe that the changes have weakened loyalty to the party among the trade officials,” the source said.

In Dandong, which lies just across the Yalu River border from North Korea’s Sinuiju, every trade official had to go to the consulate for a phone inspection, a North Korea-related source there told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

They were instructed to install the software on their computers, the second source said.

“The newly developed computer startup program detects the internet connection status in real time and opens a channel to use only North Korean e-mail. You can download instructions from Pyongyang, and access lecture materials and study materials only through North Korean e-mail,” the second source said.

“The software, called ‘Hangro,’ disables external emails from China and the rest of the world. It has become the only email channel where messages can be exchanged between the North Korean authorities and the company,” said the second source. 

“North Korean trading companies must pay $350 to the Shenyang consulate to use Hangro,” the second source said.

“The  trade officials are complaining saying that the authorities do not  trust them and are forcing them to install software on their phones and computers that make conducting business uncomfortable and difficult.” 

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

Floods and mudslides have destroyed rice paddies well ahead of harvest time in northwestern Laos, as heavy rains and water releases from a dam wiped away the livelihoods of small farmers in five villages, sources in the country told RFA.

Water released from the Nam Nhone dam pushed mud, sand and rocks onto fields in Pana, Hua Mouang, Hua Nam, old Nam Nhone, new Nam Nhone and Lao Luang villages in Huai Xai district in the northwestern province of Bokeo. Villagers there will now have to buy rice instead of growing their own, and are awaiting help from the central government.

“All the trees on the hill near my house had been cut down [for lumber] by the villagers, so when it rained it made a landslide so fast, and the logs and mud came down to the river,” a villager from Lao Luang told RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“I haven’t seen a catastrophe like this in maybe 30 or 40 years. The damage was worst for people living at the river bank. Some of us lost some of our rice fields, but others lost all of their fields and even their house,” the villager said.

The 15-megawatt dam  often releases water during heavy rains, but this is the first time that a release has caused a landslide. 

A resident of a different village nearby said that government aid is necessary if the fields are to be ready for planting next year.

“When it rained, it flooded all over the rice fields. Then the dam released water to make even more damage,” the second villager said. “When it flooded it destroyed everything. We cannot use [our fields] because sand and rocks came down the hill in a landslide that covered everything. Up until now no related department has come down to help people.” 

The second villager said that local authorities did not give any warning prior to the flood. Residents are still waiting for relief and need rice, dry goods and other necessities. 

“Thankfully nobody died, and none of the houses [in this village] were destroyed,” the source said.

Damage claims totaled about 10 to 20 hectares (25 to 50 acres) per village, according to the second villager.

The rains have also toppled electric poles across roads, isolating the communities and leaving some villagers without electricity, an official from the Huai Xay district Department of Natural Disasters told RFA.

“Three rivers flow into the small dam upstream,” he said. “The waters cut off the roads so we cannot use them. The authorities are still repairing the road damage.

“The rice fields are not rice fields anymore. They are islands covered with mud,” the official said.

The authorities have asked the Transportation Department to assess the damage to the roads, the official said.

An official from the Department of Labor and Social Services told RFA that authorities are in the process of assessing the damage and plan to ask the central government to help locals recover, but they don’t know when that will happen.

“Nam Nhone dam is a small dam. Normally if there is regular rain without a landslide, it does not affect villagers’ rice fields when releasing water,” the labor and social service official said.

“Villagers can even use the water to irrigate their fields,” he said. “The authorities should help villagers to restore their damaged farmland. Remove the logs, rocks and mud from the landslide.”

Additionally, the electrical poles and roads will be handled by the Department of Transportation, he said.

Laos has constructed dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong River and its tributaries in pursuit of its controversial economic strategy to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia.” 

The dams, along with the onset of climate change and deforestation, are causing more floods and mudslides during the May to October monsoon season each year.

Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

China’s uncompromising zero-COVID lockdown policies have caused starvation and death among the Uyghurs of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where they have long endured extensive high-tech monitoring, repressive re-education policies and arbitrary incarceration under what China says is a campaign to combat extremist violence.

Taiwan has dismissed social media posts leaking sensitive details of an alleged trip by its national security director to Thailand as ‘cognitive warfare.’

A Twitter account using the handle @andreny45652235 tweeted on Sept. 12 a claim that Chen Ming-tong had been in Thailand for purposes of tourism, but at taxpayers’ expense.

The tweet included photos allegedly taken of Chen at the airport, along with an official customs document and a hotel bill. The same post was also shared on Facebook.

An official with the democratic island’s national security bureau said the point of the tweet was to show that the whereabouts of Taiwanese officials is known to China, which has threatened to annex the island by force.

The tweet was an example of “classic cognitive warfare,” and had come from a short-lived account that was created last month and posted just six tweets before being taken down, the Taiwan News reported, citing an unnamed bureau official.

If true, the post reveals the extent to which Chinese agents have infiltrated security systems in Thailand, the report said.

It also signals to officials from other countries that China might be aware of the details of their trips to Thailand, the paper quoted the national security bureau official as saying on condition of anonymity.

There was no immediate response from Thailand to the report.

Cross-border issues

Opposition Kuomintang lawmaker Chen Yi-hsin called for a direct response from Chen Ming-tong himself.

“I didn’t know anything about this, and neither, I believe, did the foreign affairs and national defense committee [of Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan],” Chen said.

“Security should never be taken lightly … the director of national security has yet to respond on the matter: he should explain it,” he said.

An official who answered the phone at the National Security Bureau declined to comment on the reports when contacted by RFA on Monday.

“The bureau continues to closely monitor and analyze the national security situation, and will respond appropriately,” the official said.

Ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Wang Ting-yu said it wasn’t unusual for Chen to travel overseas.

“Director of National Security has many matter to discuss with other countries, including online security, regional geopolitical security issues, anti-terrorism operations, and drugs,” Wang said.

“It’s not uncommon for them to cross borders.”

Attack on DPP

Current affairs commentator Shen Ming-shih said the move was likely a covert attack on the DPP, which has seen its popularity plummet in recent weeks, ahead of local elections in November.

“This is more political messaging than cross-strait intelligence operation,” Shen told RFA. “It’s not quite at the level of life-and-death, spy intrigue or combat yet.”

“The main target is the DPP and the [local] elections,” he said.

Lin Ting-hui, deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Institute of International Law, said the post was likely a deliberate leak by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence service, using information obtained through its infiltration or relationship with the Thai authorities.

Lin called on Taiwan’s foreign ministry to lodge a protest with the Thai authorities, and demand that those who leaked the details of Chen’s trip to Thailand be disciplined.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

One year after her incommunicado detention for “subversion,” #MeToo activist and feminist journalist Sophia Huang has dismissed her defense attorney, suggesting she is under huge pressure to plead guilty and ‘confess’ to the charges against her, rights groups said.

“Huang’s current situation in the detention center remains unknown,” the Free Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing campaign said in a statement on its Github page.

It said that while Huang’s family had hired defense attorney Wan Miaoyan to represent her, police had presented a letter signed by Huang terminating the lawyer’s instruction.

When Wan tried to visit Huang at the detention center, the request was denied on the basis of COVID-19 control and prevention measures.

“Huang has been represented by a government-appointed lawyer(s) since then,” the campaign said, adding that she is still being held incommunicado, meaning family and friends have no way of knowing how she is doing in detention.

“This is a very worrying situation,” it said. “[It] raises suspicions that Huang was coerced into making this decision.”

Police transferred Huang and Wang’s cases to the Guangzhou municipal prosecution service on March 27. Both face charges of “incitement to subvert state power.”

Huang is being held at the Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Center after being transferred from the No. 2 Detention Center, while Wang was held in solitary confinement “for interrogation,” activists said.

Huang had planned to leave China via Hong Kong on Sept. 20, 2021 for the U.K., where she planned to take a master’s degree in development with a prestigious Chevening Scholarship.

Wang, who is a labor and healthcare rights activist, had planned to see her off on her journey. But both were detained before she could board her flight.

‘Supplementary investigation’

A friend of Huang’s who gave only the name Tom said he was very surprised that Huang had apparently dismissed her attorney.

“Firstly, the lawyer hired by her family is a good friend of hers,” he said. “He was also her lawyer when she was initially arrested.”

“Under what circumstances did she make this decision? Was it voluntary? What sort of physical and mental state was she in? We have no way of knowing,” Tom said.

Since Huang and Wang’s cases were sent to the prosecutor in March, they had twice been sent back for “supplementary investigation” due to lack of evidence, with the case once more sent to the prosecution in mid-August, he said.

He said Wang was in solitary confinement for the first five months, with no contact with anyone outside the facility.

“His mental and physical state was very poor at that time, because he was so depressed,” Tom said. “He was sent back [to the detention center] after that, and may be recovering a little now … at least he’s slightly better off than during those five months in solitary confinement.”

Human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who was himself held in long-term, incommunicado detention from July 2015, said sending cases back for “supplementary investigation” is a common delaying tactic in such cases.

“This practice has a very obvious impact on the rights and interests of the detainees,” Wang told RFA. “The long-term and indefinite detention of detainees is itself a kind of punishment, which is seriously damaging to them.”

“This sort of physical and psychological damage is obviously a violation of the rights and interests of criminal suspects,” he said.

Calls for protection

The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network called along with dozens of other rights groups for Huang and Wang’s rights to be protected in detention.

“We, the undersigned civil society groups, call on Chinese authorities to respect and protect their rights in detention, including access to legal counsel, unfettered communication with family members, their right to health and their right to bodily autonomy,” the groups said in a Sept. 19 statement marking the anniversary of Huang and Wang’s detention.

“We … call for their release and for authorities to allow them to carry out their work and make important contributions to social justice,” CHRD said.

“We are deeply worried about [Huang’s] physical and mental health, and reiterate that incommunicado detention is a grave violation of international law,” it said.

It said some 70 friends and acquaintances of Huang and Wang had been summoned for questioning by police across China, with some of them interrogated for up to 24 hours, or repeatedly interrogated.

“The police also coerced and threatened some individuals to sign false statements admitting that they had participated in training activities that had the intention of ‘subverting state power’ and that simple social gatherings were in fact political events to encourage criticism of the government,” it said.

Before being targeted by the authorities in 2019, Huang had been an outspoken member of the country’s #MeToo movement, and had carried out a survey of sexual harassment and assault cases among Chinese women working in journalism.

Huang was present at a million-strong protest in Hong Kong on June 9, 2019 against plans to allow extradition to mainland China, and was detained for “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” in October 2019, before being released on bail in January 2020, a status that often involves ongoing surveillance and restrictions on a person’s activities.

Her travel documents were also confiscated after her return, preventing her from beginning a law degree in Hong Kong the fall of 2019.

Huang had previously assisted in the investigation and reporting of a number of high-profile sexual harassment allegations against professors at Peking University, Wuhan University of Technology, Henan University and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

Wang started to work in rural development after graduating in 2005, before joining the Guangzhou Gongmin NGO in 2014 and director and coordinator for youth work.

In 2018, he started advocacy and legal support work on behalf of workers with occupational diseases, and was a vocal supporter of China’s #MeToo movement.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.