Day: October 20, 2022

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said he would dissolve any political party that dares to associate with Sam Rainsy, a threat that opposition party officials believe indicates he is still afraid of the exiled opposition leader’s political clout ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Sam Rainsy was a co-founder of the now banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP. He fled to France in 2015 to avoid various political charges his supporters say are politically motivated.

In 2017, Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP, a move that allowed Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP,  to capture every seat in the National Assembly in 2018 general elections.

Hun Sen said he was not afraid of bloodshed and would beat down anyone who dared to stand up against him.

“I succeeded in destroying the Khmer Rouge,” he said at a press conference in Kandal province, vowing to do the same to Sam Rainsy. “Now I appeal to the Khmer people who believe in this traitor – and any parties that want to associate with Sam Rainsy – we will file complaints against them to dissolve those parties,” he said. “The law states that we need to dissolve parties that commit crimes.” 

A former Khmer Rouge member himself, Hun Sen defected to Vietnam with a battalion under his command in 1977 and returned during that country’s 1979 invasion of Cambodia.

Following the defeat of the Khmer Rouge government, Hanoi installed him as deputy prime minister. He then rose to become prime minister in 1985 and has ruled the country ever since.

Hun Sen said he supported Wednesday’s decision by the Phnom Penh court to sentence Sam Rainsy to a life sentence and strip him of all political rights, on charges of conspiring to hand over Cambodian territory to a foreign state.

“Cambodia doesn’t have a law to execute prisoners, otherwise the court would have ordered the execution of Sam Rainsy,” he said. “People must understand this traitor’s behavior. People who are involved with these traitors will be punished, so please stay away.” 

Hun Sen’s threats reveal that he himself still feels threatened by Sam Rainsy’s popularity, Um Sam An, a senior CNRP official, told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“People, including the armed forces, continue to support Sam Rainsy, so Hun Sen is afraid of Sam Rainsy’s influence after he urged voters for a change in the 2023 election,” said Um Sam An.

The court’s ability to dissolve a political party is an incorrect interpretation of the law, Kang Savang, an election monitor with the independent Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel), told RFA.

“Political parties are facing difficulties because of the law,” he said.  “Their interpretation of the law is not clear, specifically over issues of national security and foreign collusion.”  

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

Myanmar’s military junta on Thursday banned family visits and delivery of food and other necessities to inmates in seven prisons across the country after an explosion at Yangon’s Insein Prison killed eight people the day before, relatives and lawyers of the prisoners said.

Many prisoners in Myanmar rely on food from families and friends to supplement their poor prison diet.

One woman said her sister, locked up in Insein Prison after the February 2021 coup for setting off explosives, suffers from a stomach disease they believe was caused by prison food. 

“She can’t eat it – horrible quality of rice and tasteless meals. That’s why we cook and send her plenty of food every 15 days,” said the woman, who asked that she remain anonymous. “Now that we can’t send any food, I can’t even imagine how difficult their lives inside the prison could be.”

In addition to Insein Prison, the junta indefinitely banned family visits and sending food to prisons in Pyay, Thayarwaddy, Obo (Mandalay), Taungoo, Thayet and Bago. RFA Burmese was unable to reach prison department officials for comment, and no official statement confirming the ban was released.

The ban is likely to take a psychological toll on inmates, said Tun Kyi, a former political prisoner.

“The prisoners who usually receive food and mental support from family and friends now feel both physically and mentally discouraged, and that can lead to bodily and mental illness as a consequence,” Tun Kyi said.

Trials at secret courts within Insein Prison were also suspended, a lawyer with knowledge of the prisons courts told RFA. 

“Family visits, sending parcels to the prisoners, the prison courts are all suspended,” he said. “When we ask how long this ban is going to be in effect, they say they can only answer when they get the order from the Ministry of Interior.”

Shadowy Group

A little-known rebel group named Special Task Agency of Burma, or STA, claimed responsibility for the bombing. Efforts to reach the group were unsuccessful.

Anti-junta groups in Yangon said STA was not linked to them, and that they knew little about the group, which has operated independently in the past.

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government and various anti-junta groups condemned the attacks and called for those responsible to be held to account. In fact, the NUG also issued a statement saying it would take legal action against any attack that leads to civilian casualties, regardless of who or which group performs it. 

After the blast, a member of the STA confirmed via social media that their group was responsible for Wednesday’s bombing, which killed eight and injured 18.

“Yes, we are the ones who did the attack,” the statement said. “We targeted the prison warden. We can confirm at least three prison employees, including the prison warden, were killed by the blast.”

RFA could not verify the STA’s claim of the death of the warden in the blast. The military junta’s press statement said five prison employees were killed.

One of the dead was 54-year-old Kyee Myint, the mother of a political prisoner named Lin Htet Naing, said a parliament lawyer with knowledge of the case.

The family visit ban is a great loss for the prisoners and those who planned the attack should not have targeted the places where civilians could be victimized, a regular volunteer visitor to Insein Prison told RFA. 

“It’s a loss of prisoners’ rights. The attackers should have thought of that in the first place. They said they targeted the prison chief,” he said, “but the civilian visitors have to suffer firsthand and all prisoners throughout the country have to suffer, too.” 

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Written in English by Malcolm Foster.

Bank patrons in Vietnam are unsettled following the latest financial scandal to rock the country and taking to social media to vent, but the government has offered little in the way of a plan to assuage their fears and is instead blaming “rumor-mongers” for spooking the public.

On Oct. 6, police arrested Truong My Lan, the chairwoman of Ho Chi Minh City-based Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, and three other employees for illegally issuing bonds worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars in 2018 and 2019 and obtaining prime real estate in the city through fraudulent means, according to a statement by the Ministry of Public Security. Reports on social media of Lan’s impending arrest sent depositors racing to withdraw their funds from the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) over suspicions of her ties to the lender.

Lan’s arrest was the latest move by Vietnamese authorities in a years-long anti-corruption drive that uncovered nearly 5,200 economic crimes and more than 520 cases of graft in the 12 months ending in September alone – an increase of 41% from the previous year – the Ministry of Public Security said last week.

Recent high-profile arrests include that of FLC real estate group chairman Trinh Van Quyet in March, former chairman of Louis Holdings conglomerate Do Thanh Nhan in April, and former director of ASA JSC Nguyen Van Nam – all for stock market fraud, according to local media outlet VN Express. Do Anh Dung, the chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Minh, was arrested in April for alleged “fraudulent appropriation of assets” after the firm bid a record 2.45 billion dong (U.S. $101,000) per square meter for a land lot in Ho Chi Minh City late last year, before pulling out of the deal in January.

Vietnam’s benchmark index and bank stocks plunged last week following news of Lan’s detention, prompting the State Bank of Vietnam to issue a statement on Oct. 10 guaranteeing SCB customers that their deposits were safe and assuring them that the Van Thinh Phat chairwoman held no management position at the bank. The central bank urged customers to refrain from withdrawing their money ahead of bond maturity and said it was undertaking “necessary measures” to ensure that SCB remained liquid and able to operate as normal.

On Oct. 14, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department announced that it had summoned four Facebook users for “spreading false information” about SCB over the prior two days, including users T.T.M., a reporter in Binh Thanh district; T.M.K., a university lecturer in Go Vap district; N.H.P., an IT programmer in District 10; and T.C.H., from District 8.

The announcement followed the Oct. 11 summoning of Facebook user N.T.M.H. for posting information related to SCB that caused “psychological insecurity for depositors, negatively affecting social security and order.”

Beginning on Oct. 9, police departments in Binh Duong, Nghe An, Ha Nam, and Quang Ninh provinces also reported cases of “spreading false information” related to banks that they claimed had prompted “public insecurity and anxiety.” While details of the cases were not immediately clear, at least one Facebook user in Quang Ninh province identified as 28-year-old T.H.Q. was fined the equivalent of U.S. $310 for “posting false information” about people withdrawing money from banks, which authorities said had caused public panic.

RFA spoke with one Facebook user who said he was summoned by police after posting content related to SCB and Van Thinh Phat. Speaking on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns, he claimed to have been questioned for five hours and only released after an officer scrubbed his Facebook account of related material.

Rumors swirling

Rumors have swirled around Van Thinh Phat after 50-year-old SCB board member Nguyen Tien Thanh – the husband of Van Thinh Phat deputy director general Tong Thi Thanh Hoang – and a company assistant who was arrested along with Lan, 39-year-old Nguyen Phuong Hong, died on Oct. 8 and 9, respectively, according to state media reports. While the reports – both of which were removed within hours of their posting – did not include the causes of the two deaths, they prompted speculation from the public over their sudden nature and connection to Van Thinh Phat.

A third person named Nguyen Ngoc Duong, the 48-year-old chairman of Van Thinh Phat subsidiary Saigon Peninsula Group, also died on Oct. 14 after apparently taking his own life, according to U.S.-based Vietnamese language newspaper Nguoi Viet.

RFA was unable to confirm whether the deaths were in any way related to the scandal.

On Oct. 13, the Van Thinh Phat building in Ho Chi Minh City caught fire at around 10:00 p.m. before it was extinguished by security guards around 10 minutes later. The following day, police announced that their initial investigation found that faulty electric wiring in a freezer at a soft drink company on the 10th floor had caused the fire, but the incident prompted further speculation about possible links to the scandal. According to Google Trends, “Van Thinh Phat” was the most popular search word in Vietnam on Oct. 14, with more than 50,000 searches related to the fire.

While it remains unclear whether the three deaths and the fire have any connection to Lan’s arrest and Van Thinh Phat, the public appears shaken by the latest scandal and trust in Vietnam’s government to police the financial sector has taken a hit.

Carl Thayer, a veteran regional expert, told RFA that he views Lan’s arrest as “part of a new twist” in Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong’s anti-corruption campaign to show that authorities mean business.

“The private sector and the very rich beneficiaries of this sector are now fair game,” he said.

“They appear to be targeted for two reasons: first, to curb their influence in the political system because it is based on wealth rather than the party; and second, to acquire wealth (rent) to distribute among the party ruling elite.”

‘Speaking one way and acting another’

However, SCB customers appear less than confident that the government will protect their interests.

More than one RFA listener who said they are an employee of a company that banks with SCB reported not receiving their salaries last week, although RFA was unable to independently verify the claims.

Others voiced their frustrations with the way the Van Thinh Phat case was handled and expressed concern over the government’s response.

“We feel more uncomfortable now that they told us to rest assured … Such a tactic,” wrote one Facebook user named Alex Tran on RFA’s Facebook page.

“They asked people to rest assured. However, whoever has deposits should worry about them,” Facebook user Anh Khoa wrote. “We’ve worked hard our whole lives to have some savings in the bank and if we lose our money, we will [die] together with it.”

Facebook user Lang Dinh Tam noted that while the government advised depositors not to withdraw their savings from SCB, no information was provided about what measures would be taken if the bank goes bankrupt.

“We’d better be cautious to avoid losing everything,” they said.

Duong Hien Thuan went further, suggesting that in Vietnam, “all commitments are meaningless.”

“How can we trust [the government] as everyone, including the top leaders, speak one way and act another?”

Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

China’s Consul General in the northern British city of Manchester admitted on Thursday to assaulting a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester inside the grounds of the diplomatic mission as a peaceful protest gave way to attacks at the weekend.

Consul General Zheng Xiyan told Sky News that he was the grey-haired man in a hat seen on social media footage pulling the hair of protester Bob Chan.

“I think it’s an emergency situation. That guy threatened my colleague’s life … that day we tried to control the situation,” Zheng told the network, claiming that he “didn’t attack anyone.”

Asked again if he pulled Chan’s hair, Zheng responded:

“Yes … because he abused my country, my leader. I think it’s my duty,” he said. “Yes, I think any diplomat [would] if faced with such … behavior.”

Footage of the melee showed several men including Zheng gathered around a single protester on the ground, beating and kicking him. Police eventually step inside the gates to drag Chan away.

Sky News also aired footage of a man who appeared to be consular staff being kicked on the ground by unidentified men at the protest on Sunday, which was timed to coincide with the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th party congress in Beijing.

Chan, who fled Hong Kong amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent and political activism under a draconian national security law, told a news conference in London on Wednesday: “I am shocked and hurt by this unprovoked attack because I never thought something like this would happen in the U.K.”

Both Chan and the Greater Manchester Police denied claims from Chinese staff that Chan entered the consulate grounds under his own steam.

The investigation was launched after “a small group of men came out of the building and a man was dragged into the consulate grounds and assaulted,” the police said in a statement at the time.

A British foreign office minister told parliament on Thursday that it would expect Beijing to waive diplomatic immunity if police find enough evidence to bring criminal charges against any of its consular staff including Zheng.

The British government has described the attack on Chan as “unacceptable,” and summoned China’s Charge d’Affaires in London to explain what had happened. The Chinese ambassador is currently out of the U.K.

“I’ve instructed our ambassador to deliver a clear message directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing about the depth of concern with apparent actions by Consulate General staff,” junior foreign office minister Jesse Norman told the House of Commons on Thursday.

“Let me be clear that if the police determine there are grounds to charge any officials, we would expect the Chinese Consulate to waive immunity for those officials. If they do not, then diplomatic consequences will follow.”

His comments were backed up by a tweet from foreign secretary James Cleverly.

“If police determine there are grounds to charge any officials, we expect the Chinese ambassador to waive immunity for all those involved in the appalling incident at the Chinese consulate-general in Manchester,” he wrote.

Ruling Conservative Party lawmaker Alicia Kearns, who chairs the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, called for Zheng’s immediate expulsion.

“We now have an admission of guilt by the Chinese Consul General – he must be expelled immediately,” Kearns said via her Twitter account.

Lord Alton of Liverpool, who is a patron of the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, accused several Chinese diplomats including Zheng of taking part in the attacks, naming Zheng, deputy consul general Fan Yingjie, consul Gao Lianjia and counselor Chen Wei.

Chan’s media appearance came after Chinese consul general Zheng Xiyuan revealed to British newspapers The Guardian and the Manchester Evening News on Tuesday the contents of a letter he wrote to the Greater Manchester Police. 

The Guardian quoted Zheng’s letter as saying the protesters had displayed slogans that were “deliberately designed to provoke, harass, alarm and distress our consular staff.” He said the activists were “asked politely” to remove the imagery “but refused to do so”.

The banners included a picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping with a noose around his neck, along with slogans in Chinese saying “Wipe out the CCP” and “[expletive] your mother,” Zheng wrote.

However, Hong Kongers in the U.K. told RFA the second banner meant “celebrate my ass,” in a satirical reference to the 20th party congress.

Neither the English-language nor the Chinese-language websites of the foreign ministry mentioned the incident on Thursday, although spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday that representations had been made over the Manchester incident, describing the protesters’ actions as “lawless harassment.”

Several organizations representing Hong Kongers in the UK — including Hong Kong Liberty, HKAID and Hong Kongers in Britain, have said they plan to protest on Oct. 23, in support of the protesters who were attacked, and to call for a more definite response from the British government.

“We are immensely shocked and deeply saddened by the abhorrent violent assault of protesters at the Chinese Consulate-General in Manchester on Oct. 16, 2022,” Hong Kongers in Britain said on its Facebook page, announcing a rally in Birmingham.

“We will not be intimidated into silence or be beaten into submission, the HongKongers has had to flee once, we shall not allow white terror to spread in our adopted country,” the group said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

North Korean police are working to enhance security nationwide to ensure the safety of leader Kim Jong Un amid increased tensions on the Korean peninsula, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia.

In the past two months, North Korea returned to its brinkmanship strategy of repeated provocations by introducing a law that allows for preemptive nuclear strikes, test launching a series of missiles, including one that flew over Japan, and Pyongyang is widely believed to be preparing for another nuclear test, which would be its first since 2017.

Though state media waxes poetic about the necessity of such actions to deal with threats from abroad, orders from the top say that local authorities need to get their houses in order and eliminate all potential threats to the leadership from within, a judicial source in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service on Oct. 17 on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“On October 12, the Ministry of Social Security sent down a project agenda for protecting the safety of the Chief of the Revolution,” he said, using an honorific to describe Kim Jong Un. “This is in response to the recent increase in political tensions upsetting social stability.

“Police were ordered to find and eliminate factors that could be maneuvered by impure hostiles among the residents … in their jurisdiction within this month,” said the source. Impure hostiles are people who waver in their loyalty, who might influence others to do the same.

The Ministry of Social Security ordered that the police and social safety agencies create a tight surveillance network to identify problematic people and keep tabs on them, the source said.

“They ordered that the police must remove all subjects who have illegally entered their jurisdiction and return them to their place of origin as soon as possible … and prevent problematic subjects in their jurisdiction from leaving to other areas,”  he said.

In North Korea, people cannot freely move about the country and settle where they please without permission. Once they are in a new area they must also register with the local authorities. Living outside of the area one is registered is technically illegal.  

“Search and patrol checks for problematic subjects should be conducted at least once each day in cooperation with security forces, special agencies, and the Worker-Peasant Red Guards,” he said. The Worker-Peasant Red Guards are a paramilitary militia, and the largest civil defense force in the country.

In addition to keeping tabs on people, police must check the performance of their personnel and review the status of their security-related equipment, a judicial source in the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“From Nov. 1, encrypted terms and documents must be used in the process of implementing and directing escort projects,” he said, referring to times important leaders require a security detail when visiting or moving through an area.

“[Police] must also make trips to the railways and roads by the end of this month to assess risk factors and reflect on security plans for escort projects. Authorities instructed the ministries to build an operation plan and mobilize personnel at a random time for a No. 1 escort operation drill before the 20th,” he said. No. 1 events are those that involve Kim Jong Un. 

While implementing the orders, police are also supposed to take extra precaution to prevent the spread of rumors.

“They must thoroughly control and report on the trends and public sentiments of the residents under the pretext of recent political tensions,” he said.

“But these days, the officials are complaining of fatigue as they work late into the night to deal with the huge pile of orders coming from the top,” the second source said. “Some of the officials complain that the central party’s orders ignore the reality of provincial areas and they keep sending more and more.”  

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

Beijing could invade Taiwan as early as this year or next, the chief of U.S. naval operations said at a forum in Washington on Wednesday. The comments came days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Beijing was pursuing reunification with the island “on a much faster timeline.”

Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, told an Atlantic Council event that his assessment was based not just on speeches by Chinese President Xi Jinping but “how the Chinese behave and what they do.”

“What we’ve seen over the past 20 years is that they have delivered on every promise they’ve made earlier than they said they were going to deliver on it,” Gilday said. “When we talk about the 2027 window, in my mind, that has to be a 2022 window or potentially a 2023 window; I can’t rule it out.”

Last year, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief, Adm. Phil Davidson, told Congress that China was pursuing the military ability to invade Taiwan by 2027.

“I don’t mean at all to be alarmist by saying that,” Gilday said of his more imminent timeline, “it’s just that we can’t wish that away.”

Gilday is not the only American official to warn of a more immediate invasion of the democratically governed island than previously expected. Blinken on Monday said he believed there had been “a change in approach” by Beijing, which he said was no longer prepared to accept Taiwan’s self-government.

“Instead of sticking with the status quo that was established in a positive way, a fundamental decision [was made] that the status quo was no longer acceptable and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline,” Blinken said. 

For their part, Chinese officials have done little to quell concerns of an invasion of Taiwan, even as they have provided little indication of a possible timeline. 

On Saturday, Xi used a speech at the 20th Communist Party National Congress to vow Beijing would “never promise to renounce the use of force” to reunify with Taiwan, threatening to use “all measures necessary” to achieve it, but gave no projected timeframe.