Day: June 16, 2023

Vietnamese security forces have arrested more than 50 people accused of being involved in last weekend’s deadly attacks on two commune offices in central Dak Lak province, a Ministry of Public Security spokesman told state media on Friday. 

The June 11 attack left nine people dead.

Those involved in the attacks were young people who harbored delusions and extremist attitudes and had been incited and abetted by the ringleaders via the internet, according to the ministry.  

But officials didn’t say who or which organizations had incited or assisted the attackers.

The attacks occurred in an area that is home to about 30 tribes of indigenous peoples known collectively as Montagnards. 

Vietnamese state media have reported that the attackers were Montagnards, but the ministry did not identify those arrested as such. 

Religious and civil organizations advocating for the Montagnard people told Radio Free Asia in an earlier report that they weren’t involved in the armed attacks and condemned the violence.

Anger and frustration in the Central Highlands has built up after decades of government surveillance, land disputes and economic hardship, RFA reported earlier. In recent months, there have been a number of land revocation incidents by local authorities, police and military forces.

Sought to steal weapons

In the ministry’s description of what transpired, about 40 people wearing camouflage vests and equipped with knives and guns split into two groups for a dawn attack on the offices in Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes.

Members of the two groups also had broken into Special Forces Brigade No. 198’s barracks in Hoa Dong commune in Dak Lak province to steal weapons, but failed, the ministry told state media.   

Those arrested said they sought to steal weapons so as to make news headlines, which they hoped would give them the opportunity to immigrate to other countries, according to the ministry. In their preliminary statements, those arrested said they had been incited by others to kill police officers.

Four police officers, two commune officials and three civilians were killed.

The attackers also kidnapped three civilians, though one of them managed to escape, and the others were rescued later, the ministry said. 

The ministry said it would “use all necessary measures” to hunt down and arrest all suspects still in hiding and seize their weapons and explosives. 

Vietnam’s one-party government has strictly controlled news about the shootings, heightening people’s curiosity about the incident, but Channel VTV1 of Vietnam Television and many newspapers have published the statements and photos of some of those arrested.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hun Sen of neighboring Cambodia ordered armed forces in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri and Kratie provinces to increase security along the border to prevent fugitives involved in the attacks from crossing the border illegally, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. 

Hun Sen said that anyone arrested would be returned to Vietnam if discovered. 

Slapping social media

In the past days, police have fined people who share news about Dak Lak shootings via social media. 

At least five Facebook users have been slapped with administrative fines for sharing the news and their comments, deemed to be harmful to the state. 

Police in Dak Lak as well as authorities in Kontum and Binh Phuoc — two other provinces in the country’s Central Highlands — have fined businesses that sell imitation camouflage military outfits.   

Two human rights lawyers told RFA on Thursday that state media should not have publicly disclosed information from the suspects’ statements to police or their photos, though authorities often take advantage of their power and privilege to provide news organizations with unappealing photos of suspects.

“Publishing citizens’ photos without their permission or without blurring their faces, even if they are suspects or defendants, is a violation of their rights in terms of their image and could cause many consequences, especially when they are in high positions or are influential people,” said one attorney from Ho Chi Minh City, who asked not to be identified.

A human rights lawyer from Hanoi said the Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure Code clearly states that statements from suspects should be kept secret.

Attorney Ha Huy Son, a member of the Hanoi Bar Association, said the country’s 2015 Civil Code contains a provision on the rights of an individual with respect to his image, stipulating that he must give his consent for its public use. 

But he also pointed to another article stating that a person’s photo can be used without consent from the individual or his legal representative in cases where it serves national or public interest.  

The attorneys also said those arrested should be given immediate access to lawyers to ensure fairness and avoid injustice.

Neither the Ministry of Public Security nor Dak Lak provincial police have opened cases against the suspects, or provided information about their charges.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Faced with rising living costs and a tanking economy, residents of China’s rural areas turn to unofficial toll booths to supplement their incomes, according to a recent video clip uploaded to social media.

In a video clip filmed from a truck driving from the northern city of Tangshan to Malanzhuang township in the northern province of Hebei and posted by several Twitter users, the truck slows as a tall figure blocks a road, before an older man with a cell phone gestures briefly indicating the price to pass through the unofficial “toll booth.”

“What’s that?” the truck driver says. “Talk to me! One yuan?”

A woman then holds out a phone with a QR code on it, as the driver says: “So we take WeChat Pay here, do we?”

While Radio Free Asia was unable to verify the video independently, commentators said the phenomenon isn’t new, but has likely seen a resurgence amid growing economic hardship in the wake of the three-year restrictions of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy.

Further along the same route, the truck pulls up again, to address an elderly woman in a burgundy blouse.

“What is it? Money you want?” the driver calls. The woman nods.

“How much? Five yuan?”

The process is repeated further down the highway, with two older women approaching his cab, waving cell phones and asking for payments of 10 yuan and 5 yuan respectively.

‘Things are going from order to disorder’

Jiangsu-based current affairs commentator and former migrant worker Zhang Jianping said unofficial “tolls” are more commonly found in central and western China, where people are generally poorer.

“These farmers only make 107 yuan a month … What can you buy with 100 yuan?” Zhang said. “At the same time, retired officials get tens of thousands of yuan a month, while staying in hospital for an entire year, at a cost of several million.”

“Meanwhile, these farmers who’ve spent their lives knee-deep in the soil with their backs bent in the service of their country, what are they supposed to do?”

Last October, ruling Chinese Communist Party censors removed a film about the struggles of a poverty-stricken farming couple from streaming sites ahead of the party congress, prompting a public outcry on social media.

“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, has a bleak ending that is out of keeping with government “public opinion” policy, which views media and cultural products as a tool to advance “positive stories” about China.

China declared in November 2020 that it had eliminated extreme poverty, claiming success for one of Xi’s key policy goals ahead of the party centenary the following year.

Yet as government-backed employment schemes have focused on getting younger people to seek jobs in cities, elderly people in rural areas have been left to eke a meager living from government subsidies, without the younger generation around to help, and without enough money for decent medical care.

Many are deciding such a life isn’t worth living any more.

New research published in July 2022 and cited by state news agency Xinhua showed that the suicide rate among elderly people in rural areas has risen fivefold over the last two decades

U.S.-based commentator Ma Ju said he first ran into unofficial toll booths in the 1990s, when China’s economic boom had just gotten started.

The fact that they are making a comeback suggests people’s incomes are falling again.

“People don’t have enough for their lives to be sustainable,” Ma said. “The income of officials at the lowest level is limited, and there isn’t much effort to maintain social order.”

“This sort of thing will happen more and more in future,” he said. “Things are going from order to disorder.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Matt Reed.

An ethnic Mongolian herder has been sent to hospital after being hit by heavy machinery amid clashes over the sale of collectively owned grazing land in China’s northern region of Inner Mongolia.

A video clip shared to Twitter showed a mechanical digger plowing into a group of people on grassland near Ar-Hundelen (in Chinese, Arikunduleng) township in Inner Mongolia’s Zaruud banner, a county-like administrative division, as onlookers shout.

The incident comes amid ongoing migration of majority Han Chinese to the region, as well as repeated land grabs by government-backed corporations, whose shift towards large-scale industrial farming in the region has turned huge swathes of the ecologically sensitive grassland to desert.

The digger was hired by the company that had recently bought the land from the township government in the face of widespread opposition from herding communities over the loss of their grazing lands, rights activists told Radio Free Asia.

【内蒙古牧民阻止草场被卖】
【 一人被推土机撞伤】#内蒙古 #扎鲁特旗 #阿日昆都楞镇 牧民，不满该镇种畜场官员将 #草场 出售给商人，本周二在草场上抗议，买家雇佣的工程人员开着 #推土机，直接冲撞抗议者，导致一名牧民受伤，被送医院救治。 pic.twitter.com/jHtjAQEwFt

— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) June 14, 2023

Some of the herders were also beaten up as they tried to block access to the land, they said.

“On June 12, ethnic Mongolian herders were severely beaten and suppressed in Ar-Hundelen … as they were protecting their pastures,” Japan-based Mongolian rights activist Khuubis said. “This happened because township officials … unilaterally sold the land to Han Chinese buyers without consulting the herders or getting their consent.”

“When the Han Chinese who claimed to have bought the land tried to force their way onto the land, the herders resisted, and [the buyer] ran into them with heavy machinery, seriously injuring one person,” Khuubis said.

‘Chinese invaders’

In the video clip, the digger is also shown crushing some of the herders’ motorcycles and scooters, as onlookers rush to surround the injured man and call an ambulance to take him to hospital.

Herders told Radio Free Asia that a livestock breeding farm under collective ownership had sold off one area of grazing land to a Han Chinese businessman from outside the region for two million yuan, in the face of strong local opposition.

The New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights and Information Center quoted a statement from the herders as saying: “The Chinese buyer is now bringing truckloads of cows and other animals to the land, attempting to graze them in disregard of our protest.”

It quoted one herder as saying in a WeChat group that local officials “are ganging up with violent Chinese invaders … The lives of Mongolians are worthless here.”

Repeated calls to two local herders rang unanswered on Tuesday and Wednesday.

An official who answered the phone at the Ar-Hundelen government offices didn’t deny the incident had taken place.

“I don’t know — you can ask the propaganda officer,” the official said when asked how the injured herder was doing, then hung up.

Ecological damage

The Southern Mongolian Human Rights and Information Center quoted the local police department as saying that the violence was “a dispute that escalated to a conflict between a herder and the bulldozer driver, Mr. Lu, and the accountant Ms. Lu, resulting in an injury to the herder Mr. Wu.”

Overseas-based ethnic Mongolian activist Xi Haiming said heavy machinery and vehicles driving on the grassland can do serious ecological damage to the grasslands.

“This causes huge harm to the Mongolian herders,” Xi said. “This incident being reported today is the latest in a string of similar incidents that have been going on for a long time.”

“In this case, the Chinese officials were claiming that grazing the land put too much of a strain on the grassland, and was accelerating its degradation, even desertification,” Xi said, adding that local people have been herding cattle on the land sustainably for thousands of years.

He said the spread of large-scale pig farms in the region — owned by Han Chinese investors — had actually caused far more ecological damage, as the effluent from the farms poisons the grasslands.

In 2016, hundreds of residents of Ar-Hundelen protested over pollution from alumina plants near their traditional grazing lands they said had left local people with higher cancer rates, herders with piles of dead livestock and poisoned the soil and water.

Police later detained Ar-Hundelen herder Nasanulzei, who goes by one name, after he spoke out about the pollution and shot video of poisoned sheep.

Ethnic Mongolians, who make up almost 20 percent of Inner Mongolia’s population of 23 million, increasingly complain of widespread environmental destruction and unfair development policies in the region.

Clashes between the authorities or Chinese state-backed mining or forestry companies and herding communities are common in the region, which borders the independent country of Mongolia.

But those who speak out about the loss of their grazing lands are frequently targeted for harassment, beatings, and detention by the authorities.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

An advisory group of political parties and civil society organizations opposed to Myanmar’s military junta have condemned the Russian government’s political support and continued sale of weapons to the regime.

The statement compared Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to the mass killings and atrocities in Myanmar that followed the junta’s seizure of power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.

“Russia blatantly supporting and advocating for the terrorist regime is prolonging the sufferings of the people of Myanmar,” the June 10 statement from the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) said. “The support and advocacy for the terrorist regime by Russia is not to solve Myanmar’s political issues but only to further Russia’s geopolitical interest.”

The NUCC includes representatives of the National Unity Government, or NUG, civil society groups, ethnic armed organizations and civil disobedience groups. The NUG is the parallel civilian government of Myanmar made up of opponents to the junta.

Since the coup, junta chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has visited Russia three times, purchasing modern Russian-made jet fighters, helicopters and military equipment. The two countries have also signed an agreement to build a small-scale nuclear reactor in Myanmar. 

In February, Min Aung Hlaing wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he appreciates Russia’s support for Myanmar. The message was sent to commemorate the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In a message sent in response, Putin said he believes the relationship between Russia and Myanmar’s junta will help the security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region.

NUCC’s statement called for the immediate end of Russia’s support for the reactor project, saying it would create political instability for Myanmar and the region.

“The diplomatic and military support provided by Russia is the basis for the terrorist Min Aung Hlaing group to totally disregard the agreements developed within the ASEAN, and also creates difficulties for other nations to work on solving Myanmar’s political issues,” the statement said.

Russia cooperation likely to continue

Radio Free Asia called junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for his comment on the NUCC’s statement, but his phone rang unanswered. 

Simply condemning Russia, which apparently doesn’t even care about international sanctions, won’t work, said Aung Thu Nyein, a Thailand-based researcher of Myanmar issues.

Russia’s veto power at the U.N. Security Council, its military assistance and the recent visit to Myanmar of the Russian parliament’s deputy chairman show that cooperation with the junta will continue – with or without criticism, he said.

But NUCC’s statement needed to be made, and similar objections should also be made against China, political analyst Than Soe Naing said.

“NUCC needs to reveal and condemn Russia’s blatant support and assistance to the Myanmar military junta,” he said. “That is what it is supposed to do.”

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Laos’ Ministry of Home Affairs has launched a hotline that citizens can call for government assistance, but many are afraid to use it because callers must reveal personal information.

After dialing 1526 to report an issue, callers must also provide their names, phone numbers and addresses so that police or officials can contact them if they require more information.

“If they call asking authorities to solve a particular problem, the police can call them back easily after the issue is investigated and solved,” a related government official, who like all sources in this report requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Lao Service. 

The official said since the hotline was launched on June 1, many have called asking for the ministry to solve problems and others have called to comment on the work of the ministry, but she was not at liberty to discuss how many people have called or what any of their requests were.

The Lao government has been using hotlines for public engagement since 2016. The country’s National Assembly also has an open hotline where people can raise issues for it to address.

But several Lao residents said they were reluctant to use the new hotline because they doubt the ministry can do anything to solve the problem, and they do not want to get in trouble for reporting problems.

“If you ask for help from the government in a one-party country, and ask them too many times, it’s not good for you,” a resident said. “You have to reveal all your personal information so everybody is afraid to call.”

Another resident said he was not interested in using them because hotlines in the past were ineffective in solving problems.

A third villager said that usually nobody answers government hotlines so it is useless to call them.

A Lao resident who identified as a Christian said that Christians have used hotlines once in a while to inform the ministry when they are harassed by local authorities. 

Sometimes officials come to try to solve the problem but most of the time the complaints are ignored, the person said.

“The good part of using the hotline is that we can inform the ministry of problems that we are concerned about and need them solved,” the Christian said. “However, many problems are still not solved … they always say they are still working on it”

A Lao intellectual told RFA that most people do not trust government hotlines because they are afraid of retribution. For example, if they were to reveal government corruption, the responsible officials could use the power of their positions to punish them.

Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Edited by Eugene Whong.