Day: September 27, 2022

Authorities are still unable to find eight of the 41 Chinese passengers who were aboard a small fishing boat when it sank last week off the Cambodian coast near the port of Sihanoukville, police told RFA Tuesday.

Sihanoukville Police Chief Chuon Narin told RFA’s Khmer Service that officers are conducting an investigation with the help of the survivors of Thursday’s sinking.

“It happened in Cambodian waters, so we are questioning [the survivors],” he said, refusing to provide additional details. 

Three of the passengers lost their lives in the accident. Cambodian rescuers saved 21 others, and another nine were rescued by a fishing boat in Vietnamese waters, AFP reported.

Sihanoukville has become a hotbed for human trafficking, with victims from across the region. According to AFP, the surviving passengers said they had been promised 10,000 to 20,000 yuan (U.S. $1,405 – $2,809) to work in Cambodia for 10 to 20 days.

Police should be more transparent about the search and rescue operation, Cheap Sotheary, provincial coordinator for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, told RFA.

“I pity the victims. I haven’t received any information,” said Cheap Sotheary. “The Sihanoukville provincial administration hasn’t shared any information about the rescue or the victims’ reasons for coming to Cambodia. 

“Were they cheated or did they come here for tourism?” she said. 

Two of the survivors pulled from the water told AFP that they were coming to Cambodia for work and described their ordeal.

“Because of the pandemic I was unemployed and stayed at home for the past year,” said Zhu Pingfan. “When I was in the sea, I felt hopeless. I twice thought about giving up, but after a second thought, I decided I should persist for a bit longer.”

Huang Qian said she was not aware how far she’d have to travel for the work.

“Our boss said he would introduce us to a better job, but we didn’t know it was that far,” she told AFP.

“Four days after we got on the boat, the food ran out. After six or seven days, no water either. Around the 10th day, we got a bit more food and water and we changed boats. We had two bags of instant noodles and then no more food,” said Huang.

When the boat went down, she survived by holding onto floating debris for hours. 

“We sat on an ice bucket, floating. Later we saw a fishing boat, so we called for help and they threw a rope to us. I think I will never get on a boat again in the future,” Huang said.

Immigration raids

Sihanoukville, a popular tourist hub and gambling center, attracts many foreign workers, some of whom are in the country illegally. On Sept. 22, the day the small fishing boat carrying the Chinese passengers went down, local authorities were wrapping up three days of raids in which they questioned around 900 foreign nationals. They found that many were in the country illegally or were involved in criminal activities including trafficking, a statement from the province said.

In a raid of eight buildings, authorities investigated 500 foreigners from 10 nationalities, 300 of whom were found to be in Cambodia illegally. Many of the detained workers were involved in illegal gambling, human trafficking and prostitution, the investigation found. Five suspects were sent to the court on trafficking charges.

In a separate set of raids, police investigated another 414 foreigners, 168 of whom were found to be in Cambodia without documents. They issued fines to 208 others, while 19 Chinese and Cambodians were detained on charges of illegal detention or kidnapping.

U.S Ambassador Patrick Murphy, who was visiting Sihanoukville, expressed his concern Saturday in a tweet, saying he was “taking a moment to reflect on much human tragedy in this area. Unsafe boats, trafficking, scam centers, abandoned buildings, a casino glut. There’s a real need for broad action to address the storm clouds here.”

Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

North Korea is once again importing large quantities of food and medicine from China as rail trade between the two countries has resumed for the first time since April, sources in both countries told RFA.

The first train departed China’s border city of Dandong on Monday morning and arrived at a quarantine facility near North Korea’s Sinuiju, an official from Sinuiju’s surrounding North Pyongan province told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Most of the cargo unloaded from the train’s 11 freight containers was food. However, there were also medicines like fever reducers, antibiotics and glucose,” said the source.

“The Central Committee [of the Korean Workers’ Party] shortened the quarantine period for all cargo from freight trains from seven to 20 days to only three or four days,” he said. “The number of quarantine workers increased from 20 to 50 to process through quarantine work of the cargo more quickly.” 

The shipments were badly needed. North Korea has been short on food and medicine since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in January 2020, when Beijing and Pyongyang shut down their border and suspended all trade. 

The closure has also been ruinous for the North Korean economy, as much of it depends on trade with China.

Though rail freight resumed in November 2021, it was again suspended after only a week due to a resurgence of the virus in China. In 2022, rail freight again resumed but only for a few months.

In May North Korea declared a national “maximum emergency” because of a major outbreak that started in April. It was the first time Pyongyang acknowledged that COVID-19 was spreading within its borders since the beginning of the pandemic, officially ending its claim that the country was completely “virus-free.” 

In August, Pyongyang declared “victory” over COVID-19 and lifted many of the emergency restrictions, but rail freight remained suspended.

The first shipments coming in from China will not be equitably distributed, the North Pyongan source said. The government usually gives priority to privileged residents of the capital Pyongyang, who enjoy a higher standard of living compared to their provincial counterparts.

 “According to the central government’s instructions, basic foods such as sugar and cooking oil are to be first supplied to Pyongyang,” the source said.  “The medicines will be first supplied to military units and residents of the border areas.”

A source in Dandong confirmed to RFA Monday that workers moved the freight train, which had been sitting in Dandong Station since mid-August, onto the main track on Sunday and began loading it with cargo.

“I was mobilized as a freight forwarder and loaded cargo on the train … from yesterday afternoon through the night. The burlap bags that I loaded were sugar and boxes full of four-kilogram [8.8-lb] tanks of cooking oil,” the second source said.

“In relatively light boxes were fever reducer pills like ampicillin and such, and then in heavy boxes were things like glucose and intravenous drugs. There were so many antibiotic injections that they filled three to four freight cars,” he said.

The second source confirmed that the food was bound for Pyongyang and the medicine for military units and hospitals in the Sino-Korean border region, where symptoms suspected to be related to COVID-19 infection are said to be spreading.

Back in business

North Korean trading companies have been preparing in anticipation trade would restart, a trade related source in the western coastal province of South Hwanghae, who declined to be named, told RFA.

“After the authorities declared victory in the war against COVID-19 on Aug. 10, the provincial trade bureaus rushed to prepare for imports and exports, hoping that trade would resume with China soon,” the source said. 

The trade agencies were having a hard time staying afloat with the border closed, the third source said. Many sectors in North Korean society need to generate income or procure raw materials through trade with China to function normally.

“The provincial trade bureau of South Hwanghae is being pressed by the provincial party committee to address repairs for asphalt roads in each region in the province, “said the third source. The Provincial Fisheries Management Bureau also agreed with their Chinese business partners to export raw and dried seaweed in return for fishing materials, including nets, in return.” 

“Even though all the trade negotiations are finished, the Provincial Fisheries Management Bureau is sitting on their hands and waiting because trade with China hasn’t officially resumed,” he said. “The provinces have not traded at all for three years. The province can import and export much-needed goods through trains and ships only when there is an order to resume trade with China.”

Employees of the trading companies have had to sacrifice during the border closure, according to the third source.

“The Provincial Trade Bureau used to be the envy of all the other bureaus,” he said. “It has been a long time since the trading bureau stopped distributing food to its employees, because they haven’t been trading for three years.

“Other institutions in the province are waiting for trade with China to resume to purchase necessary supplies. Members of the trade bureau, however, are more eager to see trade begin because their livelihood is more dependent on trade,” said the source.

In the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, trade with China was of paramount importance to the economy due to the geographical location, an official there told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons.  

“North Hamgyong province is the only region which borders both China and Russia. Due to these geographical conditions, North Hamgyong province was more active in trade compared to other provinces. But now everything is blocked,” the second source said.

Although shipments from China have resumed, it remains unclear when rail trade with Russia will restart.

Seoul-based NK News reported Sept. 9 that North Korea and Russia agreed to resume cross-border shipments in September. The U.S. government has said that Russia is “in the process” of buying ammunition from North Korea for use in the war in Ukraine.

Voice of America reported that the South Korean Ministry of Unification assessed that freight service between Dandong and Sinuiju restarted on Monday, with a ministry spokesperson saying it was not certain how long the rails would be open or what kinds of goods would flow into North Korea.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin confirmed during a press conference that the two countries had agreed to resume freight transport “according to border-related treaties and through friendly consultation,” but North Korean state media did not immediately confirm that rail freight had resumed.

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

Indonesia deported a Uyghur terror convict in July after he served his sentence, police revealed without saying where he was sent amid fears that he was expelled to China which, the United Nations says, represses Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

Ahmet Bozoglan, 35, who was convicted in 2015, had a Turkish passport when he was arrested in Poso, a regency in Central Sulawesi province, the year before.

Bozoglan had been incarcerated on the penal island of Nusa Kambangan off Java, said Aswin Siregar, senior commissioner with the Densus 88 anti-terror unit at the Indonesian national police.

“[Bozoglan] was released on July 1 and was deported,” Aswin told BenarNews.

When asked where Bozoglan was deported to, he replied: “Please ask the relevant authorities.”

Ahmad Nursaleh, spokesman for the directorate general of immigration, did not immediately respond to questions from BenarNews about Bozoglan’s whereabouts.

The Uyghur man’s former lawyer, Faris, confirmed that he was released on July 1, but said he did not know where Bozoglan was expelled to.

“We are no longer representing him,” Faris, who goes by one name, told BenarNews.

Three other Uyghur men who were released from Indonesian custody in September 2020 were believed to have been deported to China after Beijing allegedly paid fines imposed on them by the court, two security researchers had told BenarNews back then.

One of the researchers had got the information from sources at the prison where the men had been held, he said. Those three Uyghur men, too, had Turkish passports when they were arrested alongside Bozoglan.

Moh Adhe Bhakti, a researcher at the Center for the Study of Radicalism and Deradicalization (PAKAR) said Bozoglan had likely been deported to China.

“Looking at the previous case, it doesn’t seem to be different,” Adhe told BenarNews.

Adhe added that the Indonesian government had offered the men released in 2020 to the Turkish government, but Ankara was “reluctant.”

“Perhaps China managed to show that they are Chinese citizens, so the Indonesian government finally sent them back to China,” Adhe said.

BenarNews contacted the Turkish and Chinese embassies in Jakarta, but received no prompt response.

A U.N. report in June said China’s repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in its western Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

The report said that “serious human rights violations” had been committed in XUAR in the context of the Chinese government’s application of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism strategies.

Authorities in the region are believed to have held close to 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017.

Bozoglan and the three other Uyghurs were sentenced to between six and eight years in prison and fined 100 million rupiah (U.S. $6,600) by a Jakarta court in 2015 after being found guilty of entering the country using fake passports and attempting to join the Islamic State-affiliated Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) militant group based in Poso.

At the time, MIT had sworn allegiance to Islamic State extremist group and welcomed foreign mujahideen to join them.

‘They will most likely be executed’

Andreas Harsono, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch who accompanied the four Uyghurs during their trial, feared the worst for the former convicts.

“They should not have been deported to China because they will most likely be executed. We don’t believe the legal system there is fair,” Andreas told BenarNews.

 “We have conveyed this to the Indonesian government, but there has been no answer.”

In a 2020 interview, Bozoglan had expressed fear that, like the other three Uyghurs, he would be deported to China after completing his prison sentence.

“I’m just someone who ended up getting detained in Indonesia while looking for a way to get to Turkey, and so I’m asking for help to go to Turkey or Europe or another place to seek asylum so that I am not returned to China,” Bozoglan told Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news service affiliated with BenarNews.

“My friends’ six-year sentences were up, but they were going to have to stay an extra six months as a fine for problems with their passports. China paid the six months of fees and then sent the three of them back home.”

Lawyers for the four Uyghurs said they were Turkish nationals on holiday in Indonesia, but prosecutors argued they held fake Turkish passports and were on their way to meet MIT leader Santoso, who was Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist at that time. Santoso was gunned down in a counter-terrorism manhunt in July 2016.

Bozoglan said his three Uyghur comrades were forced to sign documents acknowledging that their fines had been paid and that, later, they overheard the head of their prison telling guards that the Chinese embassy had footed the bill and “planned to take them to China.”

After being detained in September 2014, Bozoglan said that Chinese authorities – including Uyghur police and embassy officials – showed up on multiple occasions and accused them of being “black coats,” or terrorists.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

Myanmar beauty queen Han Lay was detained by Thai immigration officials at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sept. 21 as she returned from a three-day trip to Vietnam. She had overstayed her Thai visa after staying there more than 18 months, following her public call at the Miss Grand International pageant in Thailand in March 2021 for the international community to help her country regain democracy. Han Lay, also known as Thaw Nanda Aung, remained in Thailand on a tourist visa, knowing she would likely face persecution back home, where she has been charged in absentia for “high treason.” Supporters said the junta that took power in Myanmar in February 2021 had canceled her passport and spread false accusations against her and other critics of the military regime.  With help from the U.N. High Commission for Refugees and the Canadian embassy in Bangkok, Han Lay was granted political asylum in Canada. She spoke to Khin Maung Soe of RFA Burmese before departing from Bangkok airport.

RFA: How did you end up being permitted to travel on to Canada?

Han Lay: The UNHCR contacted me the other day at the hotel I was temporarily staying at and said they were trying to help me get out of the country. They said they had contacted Canada which I had requested as a priority and the Canadian government had started the process to accept me. And last evening, they said they had received the air tickets but not to disclose anything to anyone for my safety. But I don’t know how, but the news leaked out to the media. And they said they, along with International Organization for Migration officials, would bring all the travel documents and instructions to go through Thai immigration. My flight will be after midnight tonight.

RFA: What are your future plans in Canada?

 Han Lay: Everything happened so fast, and I only have a few pieces of clothing. So I will have to go along with what they have planned for me. I have spoken out for Myanmar wherever I go. I have talked to the media about my country while I was staying in Thailand. Since Canada is a safe place for me, I will have more opportunities to speak out on the issue. And as you know, there is a large Myanmar community in Canada, so I’m sure I’ll be able to carry on the struggle for Myanmar with their help.

RFA: Your case was handled rather quickly. How did that happen?

Han Lay:: Thai Immigration officials had given me so much support because they understood that I was innocent and I had no problems with the Thai government. The ground staff also came to see me and comforted me not to be depressed. They had allowed me to stay in Thailand even though I had overstayed the visa. I am very grateful to the Thai government as well as those officials. And the UNHCR too. They helped me a lot, telling me what to do during that problematic period. I would also like to thank my fans and friends in Myanmar who were worried for me and then, those who are waiting in Canada to help me. I thank the Canadian government the most because if they had not speeded up the process I would still be stuck in the airport hotel now.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane.

Chinese authorities have arrested a Tibetan man for posting online videos of harsh COVID-19 lockdown measures being carried out in Lhasa to contain the spread of the disease, RFA has learned.

Gontse, a teacher of the Tibetan language, was arrested on Aug. 14 at his home in Khyungchu county in Sichuan’s Ngaba (in Chinese Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Tibetan sources living in exile told RFA.

“No information is available on his current whereabouts or where he is being detained,” one source said, citing contacts in Khyungchu and speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Gontse works as a teacher,” another source in exile said, also declining to be named in order to protect his contacts in Khyungchu.

“And though the Chinese authorities gave no explanation for his arrest to his family and friends, the reason is that he shared videos and other images of the Chinese government’s inhumane treatment of people in Lhasa during the lockdown.

“All of Gontse’s social media accounts have been deleted now,” the source added.

Chinese state media have reported 111 more cases of COVID-19 infection as of Sept. 25, with 60,597 people still held in quarantine in conditions described as harsh by sources inside the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

Meanwhile, 786 people have been prosecuted by authorities for violating COVID lockdown directives in the TAR since the current outbreak was first reported on Aug. 8, official sources say.

Harsh conditions in quarantine

Speaking to RFA, Pema Gyal — a researcher at London-based Tibet Watch — said that in the name of containing the further spread of the disease, Chinese authorities in Tibet have been arresting Tibetans “with the deliberate aim of silencing them.”

In a Sept. 26 statement, Tibet’s Dharamsala, India-based exile government the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) described the harsh conditions reported by Tibetans held without adequate food, water or medical care in China’s quarantine camps.

“A Lhasa resident recently compared Lhasa’s current situation to the worst days of Shanghai’s two-month lockdown when people were left to starve,” CTA said.

Camp managers routinely placed infected persons with others still uninfected, resulting in a further spread of the virus “at every level of society, from police to volunteers,” CTA added.

Also speaking to RFA, CTA spokesperson Tenzin Lekshey said that Tibet’s exile government has responded effectively to India’s own COVID-19 outbreaks during the last two years “with the help of healthcare workers and has learned how to mitigate the crisis.

“So we are ready to offer our assistance, whether with healthcare workers or other medical facilities, if the Chinese government ever requests them,” Lekshey said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censors have removed a film about the struggles of a poverty-stricken farming couple from streaming sites, as police and officials clamped down on any form of public dissent ahead of the 20th National Congress next month.

“Return to Dust,” a love story about a couple who marry and eke out a living for themselves from farming despite being rejected by their own communities, was removed from online streaming platforms, with fans asking the movie’s producers for the reason behind the move on social media.

“Not available,” Weibo user @Loved_08791 wrote in a comment on Tuesday, with multiple “tears” emojis, while @wish_w wanted to know “why was it taken down?”

“It’s gone from iQiyi,” wrote @a_ah_yes_yes_yes_yes, adding “Why was it taken down?”

@Traveling_in_a_city wrote on Monday: “Is it due to copyright? Or some other factor?” while @Eat,_sleep_and_beat_the_boss asked: “Why can’t I watch this film?”

Until a few weeks ago, Return to Dust seemed doomed to the same fate as many art-house films about rural Chinese life — relative success at overseas festivals contrasting with relative obscurity back home.

After getting off to a slow start following its release on July 8, the film suddenly rebounded at the box office, raking in some U.S.$7.1 million by the beginning of September.

The film tracks the fates of protagonists Ma Laosi and Cao Guiying — two people born and bred in rural Gansu province who have been rejected by their families.

They find solace together, marry, and set up house in a touching and fragile experience of coming home. But further injustice and hardship are just around the corner, with villagers declining to rescue a drowning Cao, and Ma committing suicide in grief.

The bleak ending quickly aroused the ire of CCP “public opinion” managers, who generally see media and cultural products as a tool to advance “positive stories” about China, along with party propaganda.

‘Ulterior motives’

The film was denounced by Zheng Yanshi, a senior researcher at the Kunlun Research Institute, as having “ulterior motives,” and “repeatedly hyping them up ahead of the party congress.”

“How is the film-maker positioned here, and who are they speaking for,” Zheng demanded to know in a Sept. 9 post. “How did you manage to let such a gross and terrible movie through?” he asked government censors.

Wang Ruiqin, a former member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference from Qinghai Province now living in the United States, said Return to Dust was a realistic portrait of rural life.

“I am a native of the northwest,” Wang said. “I spent a long time in Qinghai and Gansu, and I’m very familiar with those places.”

“This film paints a very vivid and realistic portrait of rural life in the northwest,” he said.

He said CCP ideologues regard any story like that as a kind of attack on the ruling party.

“The ideological trend in China right now is that everything is influenced by CCP control, and the CCP regards [this sort of story] as a kind of slander, and it won’t tolerate any kind of objective or accurate portrayals,” Wang said.

“They only want to hear praise [for the CCP], and will attack anything to do with social injustice as unacceptable,” he said.

Zhu Rikun, an independent film producer based in New York, said movies in China are expected to meet the political needs of the regime.

“It is all about the political needs of the Chinese government, which sees movies as a political tool to serve the regime,” Zhu told RFA. “It’s rare to see this kind of [more realistic] film, because they are overshadowed by China’s [official] cultural output.”

The movie’s demise in Chinese movie theaters and streaming sites came as police and officials on the ground stepped up operations aimed at preventing petitioners — ordinary Chinese people pursuing complaints against official wrongdoing — from being heard ahead of the party congress.

Crackdown on petitioners

Police have been contacting landlords and going door-to-door in suburbs of Beijing known to be home to thousands of out-of-town petitioners, forcing landlords to evict them, or detaining them and sending them home under official escort, petitioners told RFA.

In one video clip posted to social media on Tuesday, the person shooting shows steel barriers around the entrance to the State Bureau of Letters and Visits, or complaints department, preventing anyone from getting close to the building.

“It’s Sept. 26, 2022, and just look at the bureau of letters and visits,” the voice says. “It’s surrounded by steel plating — I really don’t know what’s going on.”

A petitioner Zhou said the level of security is unprecedented.

“Local governments always have control measures before major meetings, and petitioners get escorted [back to their hometowns], but the State Bureau of Letters and Visits has always stayed open,” she said. “This year is a bit unusual.”

She said many petitioners across China are being prevented from going anywhere via the “Health Code” COVID-19 app, because their codes are being turned red, barring them from public transportation.

“You can’t get on a train or bus at all with a red code, so the Health Code is also a means of control,” she said.

A petitioner surnamed Cheng agreed. “I don’t think it’s ever been blocked off before,” she said, while a Beijing petitioner surnamed Tang said: “This is not normal — it’s a very strange phenomenon.”

Tang said police are out in petitioner neighborhoods checking people’s ID on the streets.

“If you try to rent an apartment, the landlord will ask for your ID card, which will then be uploaded to the police station,” she said. “Everyone has to leave Beijing.”

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.