Day: October 26, 2022

An ethnic rebel group said Wednesday that dozens of its personnel were among those killed along with 17 civilians, in what is believed to be the bloodiest single airstrike in Myanmar since last year’s military coup.

The revelation comes as top diplomats from Southeast Asia prepare for emergency talks on Myanmar after more than a year of diplomacy has failed to end the country’s political crisis and halt widespread violence.

Col. Naw Bu of the ethnic Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) told RFA Burmese that on Tuesday evening, a KIO staffer succumbed to injuries he sustained in the Oct. 23 attack on Kachin state’s Hpakant township, bringing the death toll from the incident to 63. Of the dead, 46 were KIO officers, including the commander of the 9th Brigade of the Kachin Independence Army, the group’s military wing.

“According to the list sent to me yesterday, there were 62 bodies and 62 injured,” he said of the tally prior to the additional death on Tuesday evening. “The death toll may continue to rise.”

Of the remaining 61 injured, 33 are KIO officers and 28 are civilians, Naw Bu said, adding that rescuers continue to search for people missing after the attack and are working to identify those on the list of casualties.

Sunday’s carnage was the result of military jets dropping munitions on a concert celebrating the 62nd anniversary of the KIO’s founding. 

Among the 63 dead were two KIA officers, members of the Kachin business community, religious leaders, prominent Kachin vocalist vocalist Aurali Lahpai, keyboard player Ko King, and a Myanmar-born Chinese national named Kyar Kyo, residents said.

Injured seek to circumvent military roadblocks

As rescue efforts continued on Wednesday, residents told RFA that the military had yet to remove roadblocks set up in the aftermath of the attack. They said no traffic was allowed to come in or out of the area from Hpakant, around 15 miles away, leaving them short of the medical supplies they need to care for the injured.

“There are too many injured patients and too few nurses here,” said one resident assisting the wounded, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Some have died because they didn’t get the treatment they needed … The medication we already have is barely sufficient either.”

Meanwhile, family members have been unable to claim the bodies of their loved ones because junta authorities are refusing to allow vehicles through checkpoints to carry them home, sources said.

A resident of Hpakant told RFA that some of those in need of medical treatment are taking huge risks to leave via footpaths in the jungle.

“Some people walked very risky and dangerous paths through jungles and over several mountains to return home – I think three or four of them. They carried some seriously injured people with them, but they couldn’t bring all of them,” said one resident, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“There aren’t enough people to carry them out through the mountains. Some are still in the jungle getting what little medical help they can. They have no access to clinics or hospitals.”

Win Ye Tun, the junta’s spokesman for Kachin state, told RFA he had no way to organize assistance for the injured amid ongoing tensions between the military and the KIA.

“When the situation is safer here in the Hpakant area, we are going to start helping,” he said.

The junta has said it was justified in its airstrike on the KIO gathering as a response to attacks on military bases and boats by the KIA and anti-junta People’s Defense Force paramilitary groups, which it calls “terrorist organizations.” It maintains that the only casualties in the attack are members of the KIA and PDF.

The U.N. and foreign embassies have condemned the attack for causing mass civilian casualties in statements the junta foreign ministry dismissed on Tuesday as fabricated claims meant to interfere in Myanmar’s internal affairs.

Special envoy

The latest reports from the military attack in Kachin state came as the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar told the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee in New York that the political crisis in the nation is taking “a catastrophic toll on the people.”

Speaking to the assembly on Tuesday evening, Noeleen Heyzer said that more than 13.2 million of the country’s 54.4 million people lack enough food to eat, while 1.3 million are displaced by fighting and raids by a military using disproportionate force, including arson and the killing of civilians.

The address marked Heyzer’s first at the U.N. in New York since visiting Myanmar in August and meeting with junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who she said she had urged to end aerial bombing and the burning of civilian infrastructure, as well as non-discriminatory distribution of aid.

Heyzer said that she has been working with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, to restore stability in the country, despite the junta’s failure to uphold its end of the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus, agreed to in April 2021.

The plan calls for an immediate end to violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation of the dialogue process by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels and a visit to Myanmar by the bloc’s special envoy to meet all concerned parties. 

ASEAN foreign ministers are planning to hold an emergency meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday to discuss the status of the agreement ahead of the bloc’s annual summit on Nov. 10 in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. ASEAN has not extended an invitation to junta Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin to attend Thursday’s meeting.

Kyaw Zaw, the spokesman for the office of the president of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, said that the meeting will likely discuss actions that can be taken against the junta to ensure that it implements the Five-Point Consensus, “because there is no positive outcome, no progress.”

He also urged ASEAN to extend negotiations to the National Unity Government and all opposition parties in Myanmar, instead of exclusively with the junta.

More than 450 civil society groups sent open letters to ASEAN leaders on Tuesday, calling for bolder and more effective action on Myanmar’s crisis than the Five-Point Consensus.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday threatened to dissolve the opposition Candlelight Party if it does not clarify its stand on alleged insulting comments about King Norodom Sihamoni by exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy.

Sam Rainsy, co-founder of the now banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, fled to France in 2015 to avoid arrest for various charges.

On Monday, he posted a comment on Facebook  that in 2005, Hun Sen forced the king to support a “treasonous act” – a reference to signing a border treaty with Vietnam – otherwise he would abolish monarchy. Sam Rainsy also blamed Hun Sen for using the king to shield his dictatorship.

“The king today has no national conscience, not even a little,” Sam Rainsy said in the video. “After Hun Sen, the king of Cambodia betrayed the nation, because we supplemented others, betrayed the nation completely, because we cut off Khmer territory to foreigners.”

On Wedneday, Hun Sen responded by demanding the Candlelight Party make its stance on Sam Rainsy clear.

“Is Sam Rainsy right or wrong? I want the Candlelight Party to clarify its stand on Sam Rainsy’s statement claiming the King has no conscience. The party’s leaders need to clarify before our compatriots,” Hun Sen told a crowd at a public gathering in Kampong Chhnang province.

Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for nearly four decades, also urged party activists to join his ruling party, saying the Candlelight Party is at risk of being dissolved. 

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

“It isn’t a small story, and [it’s] not a joke,” Hun Sen said. “The Candlelight Party members must immediately defect to avoid any problem [because Sam Rainsy’s supporters in the party] want to topple the government and monarchy.”

On Tuesday, Cambodia’s Ministry of Justice alleged that Sam Rainsy had seriously insulted the king and ordered Phnom Penh Municipal Court to take immediate and strict legal action against him, though he has been sentenced to life in prison and permanently barred from engaging in politics.

Hun Sen recently tried to convince party activists to condemn Sam Rainsy for supposedly insulting the king, calling on party vice presidents Thach Setha and Son Chhay to issue a statement.

The prime minister also said he learned of a phone conversation between CNRP co-vice president Eng Chhai Eang and Candlelight Party officials about setting up the party’s network in Ratanakiri province. The prime minister told the crowd that political parties can’t work with “convicts” in accordance with the law. 

“With this, I want to tell you [the Candlelight Party] that you are facing any issue for yourself, so what you should do is to clarify your stand over Sam Rainsy’s comment. Is it right or wrong? I want an affirmation from you,” said Hun Sen. 

He went on to say that he has a problem with the Candlelight Party because the party was founded by Sam Rainsy. 

Senior Candlelight Party officials said they have no connection to Sam Rainsy. Thach Setha, who also serves as the party’s spokesman, said the Candlelight Party acted in accordance with the law and has a leadership structure that has nothing to do with Sam Rainsy. 

He said the party would issue a statement on its stand, but would not condemn Sam Rainsy as a person. 

“We work independently, we have full sovereignty of our party, we do not accept orders from anyone,” Thach Setha said. “We will make a statement but not name a specific person, and [condemn] all of those who insult the king. Those who abuse the constitution, we will also condemn. We fight to protect Cambodia and the throne.” 

Political analyst Em Sovannara said the country’s leaders should not compromise national interest with political conflict, and that Cambodia has no law prohibiting citizens or politicians from talking to “convicts.” 

“Yes, if we talk about communication, it is not illegal,” he said. “Any person has the right to communicate, the accused, the convict or the prisoner. The politician has the right to communicate.”

Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

North Korea’s central government is ordering provincial cities to solve their own power shortages by building small and medium-sized hydropower plants, echoing a policy from the era of former leader Kim Jong Il, sources have told Radio Free Asia.

But few of the plants built during that time are still in operation, and few local officials want to tackle such projects, knowing they will have to gather the materials and find construction labor themselves, the sources said.

Communist North Korea is chronically short on power, and rolling blackouts are common, even for privileged people in the capital, Pyongyang. 

In 2018, North Korea’s power generation capacity was one-twenty-third that of the more prosperous and democratic South Korea, according to data from Statistics Korea, a South Korean government agency.

North Korea’s aging power plants, lack of energy resources and its inefficient transmission and distribution systems are key contributors to chronic power shortages.

The central government under current leader Kim Jong Un is once again falling back on the country’s founding “Juche” philosophy of self-reliance, by telling the local governments to fix their own problems.

“They say this and that about regional development and self-reliance … but the pressure to build a power plant is a task that is deeply agonizing to officials,” a company official in the northeastern coastal city of Chongjin told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“At every meeting, the provincial authorities are forcing large organizations to submit power plant design plans, and they say that they will guarantee the necessary construction materials,” he said.

But the officials know that they will have to acquire the heavy equipment, cement, rebar, and other materials, then they will have to find the necessary manpower themselves, he said.

As many of Chongjin’s state-run companies and organizations are reeling from the economic downturn that coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, few are in any position to build a costly, labor-intensive project like a power plant.

“No organization in Chongjin has stepped forward to build a power plant,” he said.

The source said that many of the power plants built in and around Chongjin shortly after the 1994-1998 famine, during the rule of Kim Jong Il, are no longer in use. Either the water dried out from under them due to poor river management, or flooding washed away their embankments. Many others that should still be in operation, meanwhile, have fallen into disrepair due to age and wear.

Companies and organizations in Chongjin built several plants at that time, but only one of these is still producing electricity.

“Despite the fact that the nationwide power plant construction project of the Kim Jong Il era has failed, the authorities are again promoting this ineffective policy, and advocating we make a ‘head-on breakthrough’ through ‘self-reliance,’” he said.

The central government’s orders are making officials and residents in the eastern coastal city of Tanchon nervous, said a resident there, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“Officials fear the term ‘self-reliance,’ which basically means they have to fix everything on their own, and the people are worried they will be mobilized every day to build the power plant,” he said.

“Mobilization” is the militaristic term authorities use to justify ordering citizens to provide free labor for government projects.

“Even now, Tanchon residents are providing manpower to build the Tanchon power plant, which began construction in 2017,” he said

Once they begin building more power plants, they will again have to sacrifice to see them to completion, according to the second source.

“They have to pay support funds and donate construction materials such as gravel, stones, and cement. It is powerless ordinary residents who eventually suffer,” he said.

Just as in Chongjin, local organizations built several power plants in Tanchon and its surrounding province of South Hamgyong when Kim Jong Il was in power, but few are producing electricity anymore.

“With Kim Jong Il’s words to build small and medium-sized power plants ‘wherever water flows’ to solve the electricity problem, many people here have suffered for the past few decades,” the source said. “Now that Kim Jong Un is implementing the same policy, we are suffering again.”

Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Angry residents in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa took to the streets on Wednesday to protest the harsh COVID-19 lockdown that Chinese authorities have imposed on them for more than two months, Radio Free Asia has learned.

They were the first protests in the city since the 2008 Tibetan Uprising, a series of demonstrations against the Chinese government’s treatment of the ethnic minority group. Chinese police and military forces crushed that uprising, killing dozens.

Videos obtained by RFA show scores of protesters on the streets. A daytime video shows people mostly standing or milling about, with officials in white protective suits standing nearby. In two nighttime videos, crowds and cars block a large street and the crowd surges forward while raising their voices. 

Protesters can be heard speaking both in Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese in the videos, but it hard to decipher what they were saying.

Sources informed RFA’s Tibetan Service that the protesters warned Chinese officials that they would “set off a fire” if they refused to lift Covid lockdown restrictions, enacted under Beijing’s Zero-Covid Policy. 

The protesters did not specify what they meant exactly, but they might have alluded to self-immolations, more than 150 of which have happened since 2009.

Based on street signs and restaurant names that RFA located on maps, the protesters appeared to be on the street in the “Chakrong” area, in Lhasa’s Chéngguān district in the eastern part of the city, as well as in the Payi area of the city.

One source also told RFA that Tibetans in Lhasa fear that scuffles between civilians and Chinese police could turn violent,.

Translated by Tashi Wangchuk. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

China detained hundreds of Uyghurs in its northwestern Xinjiang region during a new round of its “Strike Hard” campaign in the month leading up to last week’s Chinese Communist Party congress to ensure that the predominantly Muslim ethnic group would not stir up trouble, a Uyghur source and regional authorities said.

Chinese authorities announced the “Strike Hard” crackdown on “violent terrorist activities” in May 2014 after officials blamed suicide bombers for an attack in the regional capital Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) that left 31 people dead. It was the deadliest violence to hit Xinjiang since ethnic riots in July 2009 left hundreds dead.

The detentions began in July, months ahead of the congress, which ended on Sunday. During the congress, Xi Jinping was granted an unprecedented third term of office and designated a leader on par with late Chairman Mao Zedong.

In early October, authorities implemented a travel ban in Xinjiang to prevent residents from leaving the region unless absolutely necessary. The ban came on the heels of strict residential lockdowns from August to September that prevented Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities from leaving their homes. Some reportedly died of malnourishment or untreated illnesses. 

During the most recent crackdown, authorities rounded up Uyghurs who had recently turned 18, those released from internment camps in recent years and those who managed to elude monitoring in recent years, said a source with knowledge of the situation, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. 

Police frequently sounded sirens in towns and cities to intimidate Uyghur residents during the congress, he said. 

An officer at the Xinha police station in Aksu (Akesu) prefecture told RFA that authorities were “safeguarding stability and preventing three things from happening — large, medium and small incidents.” 

When RFA called the home of Elijan Obulhesen, the SWAT team leader of the Hotan (Hetian) City Police Department, his mother answered the phone and said that Obulhesen had been busy detaining people during the current crackdown.

“He has been [busy] since the Strike Hard campaign started,” she said. “He works and sleeps in his office. … He said he’d be really busy because of the party congress and asked me not to be upset if he couldn’t visit me during this time.”

When asked if Obulhesen told her how many people had been detained so far, the woman estimated the number to be between 1,000 and 2,000 people. 

An officer in Ghulja (Yining) told RFA that police had detained 125 people during the recent crackdown because they were “members of the dangerous generation,” a reference to Uyghurs who eluded arrest in 2017, when authorities arbitrarily started detaining adult Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in a vast network of “re-education” camps and in prisons, despite no evidence they had committed crimes.

The Chinese Communist Party branch secretary of lower Panjim village in Ghulja said the most recent detentions there took place in late September and early October and were part of a crackdown before the party congress.

“They were mainly youth born after 2000 from the dangerous generation,” he said, adding that the names of those detained were based on a list issued by regional and prefectural officials.

Young Uyghurs are “easily influenced by harmful influence and are easily misled, so we are explaining that they need ‘education’ for a while,” the branch secretary said. “In addition, some had made mistakes by contacting individuals on the watch list.”

Translated by Mamatjan Juma and Alim Seytoff for RFA Uyghur. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

The prices of some luxury apartments in Shanghai have tumbled in the wake of the Communist Party congress, with wealthy Chinese and Taiwanese owners looking to offload their assets amid what they see as a major shift in economic policy, Radio Free Asia has learned.

“People are dumping apartments; prices of many luxury homes have fallen by 30 or 40 percent compared with market prices [before the party congress],” Shanghai real estate broker Zhao Ting told RFA in a recent interview.

“They are all getting out; they are worried it will be too late if they don’t sell now,” Zhao said.

Online advertisements showed the “negotiable” asking price for a large penthouse in the Chateau Pinnacle development, the former residence of actress Carina Lau, at 35,990,000 yuan after the party congress, compared with an earlier listing of 60 million yuan in September. 

Meanwhile, a luxury penthouse in the city’s Finance Street Rongyu development was listed with an asking price of 50 million yuan on Oct. 23, compared with 55 million yuan last month.

The changes come as Communist Party leader Xi Jinping begins a third and potentially indefinite term in office, pledging to take greater state control of the economy, removing power and influence from the private sector and curbing private wealth.

‘Common Prosperity”

Xi’s “common prosperity” and “Chinese-style modernization” policies refer to the broadening of an ongoing crackdown on private tech giants like Alibaba and Didi Chuxing, using regulatory investigations, Communist Party committees in major companies and direct orders from the top.

Last year, Chinese regulators blocked a planned U.S. $35 billion initial public offering  for Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s fintech Ant Group in Hong Kong, and ordered the operators of ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.

According to Zhao Ting, most of Shanghai’s wealthiest people have already left the country, or at least transferred their assets overseas.

Those still trying to sell off luxury property in the city had likely failed to realize the likely implications of Xi’s ideology and leadership for their personal wealth and privilege.

“There is no longer any illusion of hope for the future under the current leadership,” Zhao said. “And it has become clear to everyone that they will continue to develop the zero-COVID policy” of constant mass-testing, constant tracking of individuals’ movements and restrictions on personal freedom.

Zhou Ning, a real estate broker in the central province of Hubei, said similar patterns are visible in other Chinese cities and provinces, with sell-offs under way in Wuhan, Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

“Large numbers of rich people are now selling off their assets in China, especially wealthy people in Shanghai and Beijing,” Zhou told RFA, adding that they are adapting to the new reality with “a flexible attitude.”

“A lot of their privately owned assets are being bought up by state-owned enterprises,” he said. “Some of my friends have bought up hotels and restaurants from Taiwanese.”

“Taiwanese people feel that there has been a change of policy direction, so they are selling.”

He said the nationalization of assets will continue to spread.

“Assets have to be nationalized now,” Zhou said, citing the old days of the planned economy before mass state-sector layoffs in the 1990s, in which “nobody had to pay to get an education or see a doctor.”

“Since the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress, they are adopting a new planned economy model.”

The business news website Yicai reported on Sept. 27 that local governments across China are encouraging state-owned enterprises to buy up suitable residential property to use as affordable housing for local people.

Notices ordering group purchases have been posted on official government websites in the eastern city of Wenzhou and the Shanghai provincial capital Jinan, order the purchase of commercially available housing for housing reserves and lease purposes, it said.

China’s real estate sector has sparked social unrest across the country in recent months, with mortgage boycotts in protest over unfinished buildings spreading more than 300 locations across the country, and forcing the Chinese government to move to shore up confidence in the banking sector. 

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.