Day: June 8, 2023

A Vietnamese climate activist serving a five-year prison sentence for tax evasion will begin a hunger strike on Friday unless he is immediately and unconditionally released, his wife told Radio Free Asia.

Lawyer and environmentalist Dang Dinh Bach, 44, who had campaigned to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal, was arrested in June 2021 and then sentenced to five years in jail. 

Bach was director of the Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center, which works with communities affected by development, poor industrial practices and environmental degradation to help them understand and enforce their rights.

Authorities accused him of not paying taxes for sponsorships his organization received from foreign donors. He is one of several Vietnamese activists sentenced for tax evasion—a charge that rights groups say is politically motivated. 

In a conversation with RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Thursday, Bach’s wife, Tran Phuong Thao, said he planned to start a hunger strike the next day. She said he had already been skipping meals and had only been eating one meal a day since March 17.

“He wants to send his sincere love to all species and people,” said Thao. “The hunger strike is for the environment, justice, and climate. He wants to take action to awaken everyone’s love to protect Mother Nature and combat climate change.”

Bach also told his wife that the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese government should reconsider their stance on environmental activists, as they are not a threat to political security.

“[They should] stop ungrounded arrests and wrongful convictions,” said Thao. “Also, [Vietnam] must implement its commitments against climate change in a responsible and substantive manner.”

Thao said that it would be her husband’s fourth hunger strike, which could last for many days and be dangerous. Bach asked his family to stop sending food to him in prison except for hydration and electrolyte replenishment packs for emergency use.

Bach said he would regularly send two letters to his family each month, she said, and if no letters arrived, that meant he was in danger in prison.

Rights dialogue

The news from Bach’s wife comes on the eve of a bilateral human rights dialogue with the European Union. 

The regional bloc should add cases like Bach’s to the agenda for discussion, New York-based Human Rights Watch, or HRW, said in a statement Thursday.

“The EU claimed its 2020 Free Trade Agreement would encourage Vietnam to improve its human rights record, but just the opposite has happened,” said Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director. 

“Hanoi’s disregard for rights has already made it clear that the EU needs to consider actions that go beyond simply issuing statements and hoping for the best.”

HRW recalled that the expectation for the establishment of the a EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement Domestic Advisory Group was to promote Vietnamese independent civil society groups’ participation in monitoring the implementation of the EVFTA trade and sustainable development provisions, but cited the tax related arrests of Bach, and another activist Mai Phan Loi, as evidence to the contrary.

HRW also urged the EU to press the Vietnamese government to amend or repeal several vague penal code articles which the authorities frequently use to repress civil and political rights, as well as two constitutional articles which allow for restrictions on human rights for reasons of national security that go beyond what is permissible under international human rights law.

“The EU should get serious about pressing the Vietnamese government to convert rights pledges into genuine reform,” Robertson said. “It’s not much of a rights dialogue if Vietnam officials are just going through the motions, expressing platitudes, and waiting for the meeting to end.”

Political prisoners

In May 2023, HRW made a submission to the EU on the human rights situation in Vietnam, and urged the bloc to press the Vietnamese authorities to immediately release all political prisoners and detainees.

Among the hundreds of cases raised in the submission was that of  “Onion Bae” Bui Tuan Lam, who is serving a 5½-year sentence on propaganda charges.

Lam, 39, who ran a beef noodle stall in Danang, achieved notoriety in 2021 after posting an online video mimicking the Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, known as “Salt Bae.”

The video was widely seen as a mockery of Vietnam’s minister of public security, To Lam, who was caught on film being hand-fed one of Salt Bae’s gold-encrusted steaks by the chef at his London restaurant at a cost of 1,450 pounds (US$1,790). 

In a conversation with RFA about Lam’s recent trial in May, his lengthy sentence, and the upcoming EU-Vietnam human rights dialogue, his wife, Le Thanh Lam said that rights organizations in the EU and UN understand how Vietnamese authorities have done many wrongful things the family. 

“My kids lost their right to have a father next to them while their father did not do anything unlawful. Everything my husband did is[allowed] under Vietnam’s Constitution and laws,” she said. “He only exercised freedom of speech and other human rights enshrined in the U.N. documents that Vietnam signed.”

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday urged thousands of garment workers to speak out against the opposition Candlelight Party and its efforts to bring international sanctions against the country’s garment industry.

“Workers must dare to point to any opposition party officials who have urged foreigners not to invest in Cambodia and buy products from Cambodia,” he said during a public event in Kampong Chhnang province attended by local garment factory workers. 

“You need to say, ‘You are the person who destroys us,’” the prime minister said. “Other opposition parties are opposing the government but they don’t urge foreigners not to buy products.”

Hun Sen’s speech comes almost six weeks before the July 23 parliamentary election. 

The Candlelight Party has gathered support over the last several years with a policy platform centered around improving social welfare benefits and raising the minimum monthly wage for garment workers and civil servants.

But the National Election Committee last month blocked it from appealing on the ballot, citing inadequate paperwork. Several foreign embassies have criticized the ruling party for undermining Cambodia’s democracy.

The European Union in March threatened to raise tariffs if Cambodia doesn’t improve its human rights record and hold free and fair elections this year.

An EU resolution said Cambodia risks further suspension of its participation in the regional bloc’s “Everything But Arms” scheme, or EBA, which allows Phnom Penh access to the European market without tariffs.

The EU already withdrew about 20% of the EBA scheme in 2020, equivalent to about US$1.1 billion of Cambodia’s Europe-bound exports. 

Hun Sen said in March in response to the resolution that Cambodia doesn’t need foreign aid or preferential trade agreements because its economy is strong enough to survive on its own. 

On Thursday, he said that international sanctions could result in the loss of garment factory jobs. 

Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok said Hun Sen should blame himself for any sanctions because he has destroyed the opposition party and democracy in Cambodia. 

“Hun Sen is worried that he will get international pressure after the election that will worsen the workers’ situations,” he said. 

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Thursday that he was reassured after seeing a statement from Thailand’s Move Forward Party that said it would not expel Cambodian migrant workers if it forms a government. 

Hun Sen said on Sunday he was worried that a new Thai government would enact policies that would jeopardize the status of migrant workers from neighboring countries.

“This policy will not be supported by Cambodia and Laos,” he said. “Cambodia doesn’t have much but I want to leave a message: ‘Please watch out.’ I don’t want to advise Thai politicians but please watch out.”

Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor has said that at least 1.2 million Cambodians are working in Thailand. 

Move Forward, the top vote-getting party in the May 14 election, denied it has a policy to repatriate migrant workers. 

“The party’s stance is to protect the welfare and labor rights of all workers in Thailand, regardless of their nationalities,” it said in a statement on Thursday. “The Move Forward Party recognizes the importance of the contribution made by the migrant workforce to the economic and social development of Thailand.” 

Move Forward and Pheu Thai – Thailand’s two largest opposition parties – dealt a resounding defeat to the country’s pro-military establishment in last month’s election. But an alliance of eight parties remains short of the 376 seats required to govern in Thailand’s 750-seat bicameral legislature, and no new government has been formed.

Thai economy’s need for migrant workers

On Thursday, Hun Sen said he welcomed the Move Forward statement. 

“So now we don’t have any concerns that the workers will leave Thailand,” he said during a public event with thousands of garment factory workers in Kampong Chhnang province. 

But Sou Piseth, a migrant worker in Thailand, speculated that Hun Sen was making the statements simply to gain votes ahead of the July 23 elections.

He pointed out that Hun Sen’s government didn’t do anything to help workers who were stuck in Thailand during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. 

Mao Saron, another migrant worker in Thailand, told Radio Free Asia on Thursday he isn’t concerned that a new Thai government would expel migrant workers because Thailand relies on workers to boost its economy.

Dy The Hoya, the migration program director at the Phnom Penh-based Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, or CENTRAL, also said he wasn’t worried about Thailand sending thousands of Cambodians back across the border.

“Thailand won’t expel workers because they benefit from them as well,” he said.  

Move Forward said in its statement that it would like to “expand and improve regular pathways” for migrant workers and ensure that those pathways “are free from extortion, coercion, or other forms of exploitation.” 

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Myanmar’s junta has issued a blanket ban on transportation for aid groups operating in Rakhine state only a day after granting them permission to assist victims of one of the worst cyclones to hit the country in a decade.

The Central Committee for the Rakhine state government on Wednesday approved transportation access to domestic and international aid groups assisting in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, which made landfall on May 14 with sustained winds reaching over 220 kilometers per hour (137 mph), killing more than 400 people and decimating much of the state.

On Thursday, Rakhine State Minister of Security and Border Affairs Colonel Kyaw Thura issued a letter saying that the junta had suspended the order. No explanation was provided.

Aid workers have told RFA that In northern Rakhine, more than 90% of houses and buildings were damaged by the storm, but more than two weeks later, many people have yet to receive aid. The situation prompted several Rakhine humanitarian organizations to issue a joint statement last week urging junta authorities to speed up relief efforts and not to restrict the work of civil society groups.

An official with an international aid group, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA that the flip-flop had delayed urgently needed supplies from reaching at-risk populations.

“Aid groups such as the U.N., INGOs [international NGOs] and NGOs had applied for access to help the cyclone victims and the state government approved it yesterday, but the junta overrode it,” he said. “I’ve heard that the ban was imposed by the union-level junta in Naypyidaw.”

A domestic NGO official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, called the junta’s rescinding of access to cyclone victims “unacceptable.”

“People are starving and some have to live out in the open without a roof or walls,” he said. “The military’s ban of international humanitarian assistance at such a critical moment when the victims are facing various hardships proves that we are living under an inhumane government.”

The official noted that with the disaster so recent, it is too early to focus on rebuilding Rakhine state.

“It’s still an emergency situation when urgent help and rescue are of vital importance,” he said, calling for an immediate lift to the ban.

‘Not a political issue’

Pe Than, an ethnic Rakhine politician and former lawmaker in Naypyidaw’s Lower House, went further, saying the junta’s ban is the same as inflicting harm on cyclone victims.

“At a time when we are in need of a lot of domestic and foreign aid … I can’t understand [the junta] closing off access like this,” he said. “This issue is not a political one, nor is it related to the military. It is humanitarian, which is simply a matter of welcoming those who will help. I was shocked to see that what is happening is the reverse.”

Attempts by RFA to contact Hla Thein, the junta’s spokesman and attorney general for Rakhine state, by telephone regarding the ban rang unanswered Thursday.

The junta announced on May 21 that a total of 148 Rakhine and Rohingya people died in Sittwe, Rathedaung, Ponnagyun and Myebon townships due to Cyclone Mocha. 

Emergency assistance is needed in cyclone-affected townships of Sittwe, Rathedaung, Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Pauktaw, Myebon and Mrauk-U, where many residential homes have been damaged and food and drinking water are in short supply.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

North Korea is punishing people who engage in minor “anti-socialist behaviors” like dying their hair, wearing unapproved styles of clothing and brewing moonshine, by sending them to work on rural farms to atone, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.

“Anti-socialist behavior” is the vague term North Korea’s government uses to describe activities deemed to be South Korean, foreign or capitalist cultural practices. 

In 2020 the country passed the Rejection of Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, which laid out punishments for specific anti-socialist acts, including multi-year prison sentences for watching South Korean media.

But some offenses are not as serious as others, and violators caught in recent crackdowns in the northeastern city of Chongjin can expect to receive a relatively mild sentence of only five days working on the farm, a resident there told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“[They’re] cracking down on making or selling clothes in the market that are not our style,” the resident said, using the Korean term “uri,” which literally means “our” but refers to concepts that have originated in or are ubiquitously accepted as part of Korean culture. 

Clothing and hairstyles

He said that tight clothes, clothing that reveals the shoulder and clothing with foreign letters on them were all anti-socialist.

“Socialist Patriotic Youth League patrols are also cracking down on young men and women who dye their hair yellow or brown, grow their hair long and wear jeans or tight-fitting clothes in public,” the resident said. 

“Recently, the authorities have instructed barbers and hairdressers not to dye customers’ hair brown or do strange hairstyles, such as clipping only the side of the hair and leaving the front and back,” he said. “This kind of hair is a priority for crackdown on the street.”

The source said that using foreign currency is also grounds for punishment.

“If they catch you, they will take you to the countryside in a car,” he said. “You will be planting rice or weeding for the next five days.” 

The resident said that when people are caught and sent to work, it is not only they who suffer.

“At our factory, two young men and one woman are not coming to work because they have been mobilized for planting rice after they were caught on the street wearing clothes and hairstyles that are not our style,” he said. 

‘Ruthlessly’

Every morning when the factory holds a meeting, the officials advise them not to get caught in the crackdown because the factory requires them to be at their posts, the resident said.

“This crackdown is proceeding ruthlessly. It’s different than usual,” he said. “It’s strange that this kind of punishment coincides with the rice planting and weeding season,” he said.

Authorities in Chongjin are raiding the city’s Kangdok neighborhood on a weekly basis, hoping to catch people making moonshine in their homes, another resident of the city told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

Kangdok became a haven for a home-brewed alcoholic drink called nongtaegi during the 1994-1998 North Korean famine, which followed after the country’s economy collapsed. 

The people of Kangdok needed to make a living somehow and began producing nongtaegi in large quantities and selling it all over Chongjin’s surrounding North Hamgyong province.

“Some people are lucky enough to avoid the crackdowns, but there are also some who get caught red-handed while making alcohol,” the second resident said. “Their brewing machines and corn kernels they prepared to make the alcohol were confiscated.”

Moonshine is a slightly more serious offense, so the illicit brewers were sent to the farms for 10 days, he said. 

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

A Uyghur university student named Mehmut Memtimin who was arrested more than five years ago by police in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region is serving a 13-year prison sentence, a policeman involved in his apprehension said. 

His crime: Using a virtual private network, or VPN, to bypass official internet sensors and view “illegal information,” according to a police officer linked to Xinjiang University who asked to be identified only as Abduweli. 

“The reason for his arrest was that he posed a threat to national security by using a VPN,” Abdulweli said. “He was sentenced to 13 years and is serving time in Tumshuq Prison,” in Kashgar prefecture’s Maralbeshi county.

Memtimin was a computer science student at Xinjiang University’s Institute of Information and Technology in Urumqi.

His arrest came at a time when authorities were jailing Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in “re-education” camps and prisons for alleged extremist behavior, such as previous trips or contacts abroad or religious activities. Many were jailed in Tumshuq Prison.

Many Chinese citizens use VPNs to evade censors, but rarely are they arrested and punished for doing so.

Memtimin was forcibly detained by police from his hometown of Qaghiliq, about 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) from Urumqi, according to information compiled by independent researcher Gene Bunin. 

Bunin, who spent nearly five years in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region researching the Uyghur language, runs the Xinjiang Victims Database, a platform that collects records of Uyghurs and other Turkic minority peoples detained there.

His information, based on data from the Xinjiang Police Files leaked and publicly disclosed in 2022, indicates that Memtimin was arrested at noon on Dec. 7, 2017.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.