Day: December 26, 2022

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has kicked off a key meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party, state media reported on Tuesday, a venue he has often used to announce major policy decisions marking the New Year.

The Sixth Enlarged Plenary Meeting of 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) was convened on Monday, the official KCNA news agency said.

The dayslong gathering of party and government officials caps a year when the isolated country fired an unprecedented number of missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

A new round of tension flared on Monday as five North Korean drones crossed into South Korea, prompting Seoul to scramble fighter jets and attack helicopters, and open fire to try to shoot them down.

Kim also faces mounting economic challenges amid international sanctions over its weapons programs, the fallout from an anti-coronavirus lockdown and natural disasters.

At the meeting, the participants approved five big agenda items including a review of the implementation of major policies and the budget in 2022, as well as the work plan and a draft budget for 2023.

Kim presented a detailed report on how the country’s power has “remarkably increased in all fields of politics, military, economy and culture, and successes and progress have been made in carrying out the gigantic tasks … through this year’s unprecedentedly arduous and fierce struggle,” KCNA said.

“He stressed the need to lay out more exciting and confident struggle policies based on valuable facts that achieved practical advance while persevering all difficulties.”

The report specified the main goals for 2023 in key sectors including metal, chemical, electricity, construction, agriculture and light industry, it added.

North Korean state media previously released its leader’s speech on New Year Day, but in recent years, Kim has called party gatherings at the end of the year to make major policy announcements.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

A second group in two days of weak and exhausted Rohingya Muslims landed on a beach in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh on Monday after weeks at sea, officials said.

At least 185 men, women and children disembarked from a rickety wooden boat at dusk on Ujong Pie beach at Muara Tiga, a coastal village in Aceh’s Pidie district, said local police chief Fauzi, who goes by a single name.

“They are very weak because of dehydration and exhaustion after weeks at sea,” Fauzi said.

They were taken to the village hall and will stay there while they receive help from residents, health workers and others.

Fauzi said that immigration officials and police were trying to identify the refugees to determine if they were from the group of 190 Rohingya who were reported by United Nations to be drifting in a small boat in the Andaman Sea for a month.

The UNHCR on Friday urged countries to rescue the refugees, saying reports indicated they were in dire condition with insufficient food or water.

“Many are women and children, with reports of up to 20 people dying on the unseaworthy vessel during the journey,” the agency said.

Also on Friday, another group of 58 Rohingya — all men — arrived in Ladong village in Aceh Besar district.

Azharul Husna, who heads the Aceh branch of KontraS, an Indonesian rights group, said Monday that the men in the group all carried UNHCR cards from refugee camps in Bangladesh and had left in search of a better life in Malaysia.

Citing one of them, Husna said the 58 refugees left Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where more than 700,000 Rohingya from Myanmar had fled, to work on plantations in Malaysia. Their boat was damaged and the engine failed, leaving them drifting at sea until they came ashore in Aceh.

Since 2017, Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and burning of thousands of homes belonging to Rohingya, sending them fleeing to Bangladesh and onward.

Malaysia has been a common destination for many of the refugees arriving by boat, but they also have been detained in the country.

Although neighboring Indonesia is not a signatory to the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention, the UNHCR said that a 2016 presidential regulation provides a legal framework governing the treatment of refugees on boats in distress near Indonesia and helps them disembark.

Last month, 219 Rohingya refugees were rescued off the coast of North Aceh district aboard two rickety boats.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Thai royals, celebrities and members of the public have led prayers for Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, the oldest child of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who remains gravely ill after collapsing December 14 while training her dog for a contest.

The 44-year-old princess, better known to the Thai public as Princess Ong-Bha, is a senior member of Thailand’s royal family, which sits at the top of the country’s hierarchy of power.

She was hospitalized after losing consciousness early in the morning while in northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province. The most recent update issued via the Royal Gazette, the official palace mouthpiece, described the princess’ condition as of December 19 as “stable to some extent.”

“Doctors have been giving her medication to help sustain the functions of [her] heart, lungs and kidneys,” according to the statement. Authorities have issued warnings against speculating on her condition. In a kingdom where the monarchy is revered by many and shielded by a stringent “lèse-majesté law” — which makes it a crime to defame, insult or threaten the monarchy — rumors can be dangerous.

The princess is one of King Vajiralongkorn’s three children who have formal titles, aligning her under a 1924 Palace Law of Succession — although no heir has been formally named.

A sense of shock and sadness has rippled across royalist Thais who have long lauded Princess Ong-Bha for her public work and down-to-earth image, which has included a role as a public prosecutor in some high-profile Thai criminal cases.

“I’ve been praying for a miracle to happen every day and I’m not alone, all of us Thai people are doing the same,” Taew Supawadee told VOA. “I haven’t been able to send well wishes in person at the Chulalongkorn Memorial hospital [in Bangkok] so I’ve been doing it online instead on a website, circling around among my group of friends for people to send the princess well wishes.”

Details on health issues or the deaths of Thai royals are closely guarded by the palace, leaving local authorities to judge the best way to capture the mood of the moment.

Some — including in the Bangkok tourist hub, Khao San Road — have decided to cancel New Year’s Eve countdowns, in favor of more muted celebrations.

Celebrities have made public their wishes for the princess’ good health, including a Thai actor, Akarat Nimitchai, who was ordained as a Buddhist monk for a week.

The princess was born on Dec. 7, 1978, the first grandchild of the late King and Queen Sirikit. She attended Thai universities for her undergraduate studies of law and political science. She received masters and doctorate degrees from Cornell University, New York.

In 2012 she represented Thailand at the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), serving in Europe before returning to Thailand as a provincial prosecutor. There, she has gained a profile as a champion of female inmates.

Her father made her chief-of-staff in the king’s bodyguard command in 2021, indicating her central role in palace structures.

Kanchariya Nitchyakarnn, a stall holder in Bangkok, said her memories of the princess stretch back to childhood.

“She has always been working. She’s been a main force in driving our country forward,” she said, wiping away tears. “I wish her better health and that she will survive this tragedy and I believe that every Thai person agrees with me.”

The Thai monarchy has its critics, notably among the young pro-democracy movement who accuse the palace of a pact with the army — which serves narrow elite interests — rather than the people.

Protests against the military-backed government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha in 2020 went on to include rare open criticism of the monarchy.

In response, 225 people have been charged — including teenagers as young as 14 years old at the time of their alleged transgression — for breaching the lèse-majesté law, according to the group, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

That law — known as 112 for its number in the criminal code — carries a jail term of between three and 15 years per charge of defaming the royals.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

China said Monday it would scrap mandatory quarantine on arrival, further unwinding years of strict virus controls as the country battles a surge in cases.

Having mostly cut itself off from the rest of the world during the pandemic, China is now experiencing an unprecedented surge in infections after abruptly lifting restrictions that torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests.

And in a sudden end to nearly three years of strict border controls, Beijing said late Monday it would scrap mandatory quarantines for overseas travelers.

Since March 2020, all passengers arriving in China have had to undergo mandatory centralized quarantine. This decreased from three weeks to one week this summer, and to five days last month.

But under new rules that will take effect January 8, when COVID-19 will be downgraded to a Class B infectious disease from Class A, they will no longer need to.

“According to the national health quarantine law, infectious disease quarantine measures will no longer be taken against inbound travelers and goods,” the National Health Commission (NHC) said.

The move is likely to be greeted with joy from Chinese citizens and diaspora unable to return and see relatives for much of the pandemic.

But it comes as China faces a wave of cases that studies have estimated could kill around one million people over the next few months.

Many are now grappling with shortages of medicine, while emergency medical facilities are strained by an influx of undervaccinated elderly patients.

“At present, COVID-19 prevention and control in China are facing a new situation and new tasks,” President Xi Jinping said in a directive Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“We should launch the patriotic health campaign in a more targeted way… fortify a community line of defense for epidemic prevention and control, and effectively protect people’s lives, safety and health,” he said.

‘Impossible’ to track

Hospitals and crematoriums across the country have been overflowing with COVID patients and victims, while the NHC on Sunday announced it would stop publishing daily nationwide infection and death statistics.

That decision followed concerns that the country’s wave of infections is not being accurately reflected in official statistics.

Beijing has admitted the scale of the outbreak has become “impossible” to track following the end of mandatory mass testing.

And last week, the government narrowed the criteria by which COVID-19 fatalities were counted — a move experts said would suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus.

The winter surge comes ahead of two major public holidays next month, in which millions of people are expected to travel to their hometowns to reunite with relatives.

Authorities are expecting the virus to hit under-resourced rural areas hard, and on Monday called for the guaranteed supply of drugs and medical treatment during New Year’s Day and late January’s week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

In recent days, health officials in the wealthy coastal province Zhejiang estimated that one million residents were being infected per day.

The coastal city of Qingdao also predicted roughly 500,000 new daily infections and the southern manufacturing city of Dongguan eyed up to 300,000.

Unofficial surveys and modelling based on search engine terms suggest that the wave may have already peaked in some major cities like Beijing and Chongqing.

A poll of over 150,000 residents of the southwestern province of Sichuan organized by disease control officials showed that 63% had tested positive for COVID, and estimated that infections peaked Friday.

Only six COVID deaths have been officially reported since Beijing unwound most of its restrictions earlier this month.

But crematorium workers interviewed by AFP have reported an unusually high influx of bodies, while hospitals have said they are tallying multiple fatalities per day, as emergency wards fill up.

The main funeral service center in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou postponed all ceremonies until January 10 to focus on cremations due to the “large workload,” according to a notice published online Sunday.

China’s censors and mouthpieces have been working overtime to spin the decision to scrap strict travel curbs, quarantines and snap lockdowns as a victory, even as cases soar.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

A broken-down boat ferrying over 180 ethnic Rohingya men, women and children landed Monday afternoon on the shores of Indonesia’s Aceh province after weeks adrift with more than a dozen reported deaths, two rights groups that have been tracking the vessel told VOA.

It comes on the heels of a boat of 57 Rohingya men that also landed in Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago’s far west, on Sunday.

Relatives of those on board the boat that landed Monday afternoon say it left Bangladesh in November with 160 to 200 passengers, said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project. More than 1 million Rohingya are living in Bangladesh refugee camps after fleeing persecution in neighboring Myanmar.

Videos of the scene shared with VOA on Monday showed the boat resting in the shallows as locals helped dozens of men, women and children out of the water. Lewa said several of the passengers’ relatives — living in Malaysia, where the passengers were likely headed — identified family members in the same videos.

“We contacted relatives of the [passengers on the] boat in distress just to check whether or not they were from the same group,” she said. “And, yes, they confirmed.”

Lilianne Fan, international director of the Geutanyoe Foundation, an Indonesian rights group that was also tracking the boat, confirmed its landing Monday.

She said initial reports from contacts at the scene indicated that 83 men, 70 women and 32 children were brought ashore.

The rights groups said last week that up to 20 passengers might have died during the journey up to that point. They could not immediately confirm the death toll as of Monday.

In the videos, some of the rescued passengers appear exhausted and emaciated. A Rohingya activist in the refugee camps told VOA last week that the captain of the boat had told him by phone that they were “starving to death.”

“We can see from the conditions that are visible in the videos that have been emerging that the conditions of these refugees are extremely dire, that there’s a lot of malnourishment,” Fan said.

“We can expect that there are multiple health problems that are going to have to be addressed immediately. We’ve heard that at least 30 of them are in need of urgent medical attention so far,” she added.

Indonesian authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.

Babar Baloch, a regional spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, welcomed the reports of the boat’s landing.

The UNHCR has been urging countries ringing the Andaman Sea to rescue the boat since its engine cut out in early December, leaving it drifting helplessly off the coasts of India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand through the weeks.

“This was first spotted off the coast of Thailand, [and] it has been since then drifting away to all locations,” Baloch told VOA. “So, we have been calling on all the states to go out and help save lives. We welcome it if it happens, and if it has happened, but these people have been out there in the open sea on those choppy waters for too long.”

The Arakan Project, the Geutanyoe Foundation and others had been urging authorities in the surrounding countries to help the boat as well.

“It’s outrageous that the search and rescue did not happen earlier, but we are very grateful that, again, fishermen in Aceh have been the ones to conduct a rescue based on humanitarian principles and their customary law,” Fan said.

“We are hoping that if there are any other boats that are at sea that there will be urgent attention by governments in the region and no delays for search and rescue in order to prevent unnecessary loss of life,” she added.

Lewa, of the Arakan Project, said another boat carrying about 180 Rohingya from Bangladesh is now believed to have sunk somewhere at sea in early December, with all passengers and crew likely dead. Relatives of the captain of yet another stranded boat of Rohingya refugees rescued off the coast of Sri Lanka a few weeks ago informed her team that the captain received a distress call from the missing boat about cracks and leaks just a few days into its journey. Neither the captain nor relatives of those on board the missing boat have heard from them since, Lewa said.

If the deaths are confirmed, this will be the deadliest year for Rohingya fleeing Bangladesh and Myanmar by boat since 2014, when 730 were believed to have died or gone missing, according to the UNHCR. More than 160 are believed to have died or gone missing this year already, besides the 180 aboard the boat gone missing this month.

Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Rohingya attempt the sea journey each year, fleeing persecution in their native Myanmar and mounting violence and restrictions in the sprawling refugee camps of Bangladesh.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America