Month: July 2023

Strongman Hun Sen has announced he will transfer power to his eldest son Hun Manet, after nearly four decades ruling Cambodia. Hun Manet, a former military chief and four-star general, is at the forefront of a major generational succession in the ruling party that will also see Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defence Minister Tea Banh hand over their posts to their sons.

In a move that could disrupt humanitarian aid to Rohingya, Bangladesh has frozen UNHCR’s import license and accused it of irregularities after the U.N. refugee agency brought in dozens of vehicles duty-free, according to a letter reviewed by BenarNews.

In the letter dated June 21, the government’s customs department stated it would not release imported goods destined for UNHCR until the U.N. agency paid US$7 million for alleged irregularities in the vehicles’ transfers. The letter was signed by Md. Abdul Hannan, deputy commissioner of the National Board of Revenue, which oversees the customs office.

The board has locked the humanitarian aid organization’s business identification number (BIN), which is required for all exports and imports.

“The 46 vehicles were imported duty-free for official use, but transfers of those vehicles violate NBR rules,” the letter reads, adding UNHCR was notified in a letter demanding that it pay the $7 million, which includes fines and interest.

“But it didn’t pay any amount,” the letter states.

The vehicles, which were imported into Bangladesh in 2018, include a Toyota Land Cruiser, Land Cruise ambulance and trucks. NBR alleged that the vehicles were used by the Bangladesh government’s Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief as well as the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner without permission.

It was unclear whether the vehicles that UNHCR shipped into the country duty-free were later sold second-hand or given away or donated.

On Monday, Md. Bodruzzaman Munshi, deputy commissioner of NBR’s Customs House in Chittagong, confirmed the freeze.

“UNHCR has violated the rules in the case of 46 vehicles – that is why they have been asked to pay customs duty and other taxes,” he told BenarNews. 

The UNHCR office in Bangladesh did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment.

On Monday, a local UNHCR official asked a BenarNews reporter to send questions that were to be relayed to more senior U.N. representatives, but the official did not pick up subsequent follow-up calls after the questions were emailed to him. 

Last week, the U.N. agency did issue a statement to Bangladesh media.

“UNHCR has not violated any government regulation on import and export. However, UNHCR is currently in discussion with the Government of Bangladesh to solve this issue,” Bangladesh spokesman Mostafa Mohammad Sazzad Hossain told The Financial Express.

Concerns for Rohingya

Meanwhile, the executive director of the Policy Research Institute called the NBR action reckless.

“If the organization’s imports are disrupted because of this decision, how will UNHCR work for the Rohingya? Since UNHCR is working in the greater national and international interest, it should be resolved in an amicable way, taking consideration of small mistakes,” Ahsan H. Mansur told BenarNews.

“They [UNHCR] did not sell any vehicle. Maybe another organization is using them,” he said, adding UNHCR should not be forced to pay for a small mistake.

“They are bringing relief and feeding people and now you want them to pay taxes,” he said. “Now if they fail to import, then the government will have to feed the Rohingya.”

About 1 million Rohingya who have fled Myanmar live in refugee camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern district near the Burmese border. These include about 740,000 who fled a military offensive in their home state of Rakhine in August 2017.

UNHCR is one of the international organizations assisting the refugees.

A July 2000 NBR order states “a diplomatic mission or diplomat or privileged organization or person may sell or transfer such goods without payment of duties and taxes only to another such diplomatic missions or person’s with prior permission from the NBR.” 

“They neither complied with the NBR rules nor informed the customs authority,” Munshi told BenarNews.

M. Masrur Reaz, an economist with the World Bank’s office in Bangladesh, called on both sides to reach an agreement.

“UNHCR should have followed the rules of the NBR. Customs will take action if there is any irregularity,” Reaz told BenarNews, adding such action is normal.

He questioned the BIN lock, calling it a harsh decision.

“There is no point in imposing tax on the vehicles if there is no personal use except for refugees or humanitarian work,” he said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

Three members of Vietnam’s Khmer Krom ethnic group who are suspected of distributing books about indigenous peoples’ rights were arrested on Monday in the Mekong Delta region, authorities told local media.

One of the three men was To Hoang Chuong of Tra Vinh province. Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese Service reported last month that he was beaten by local policemen in June while visiting a friend in neighboring Soc Trang province.

On June 25, the U.S.-based Union of Khmers Kampuchea Krom issued a statement condemning the Soc Trang Provincial Police for the “brutal and inhuman treatment” of Chuong.

The other two men arrested on Monday were Danh Minh Quang of Soc Trang province and Thach Cuong of Tra Vinh province. 

Police in both provinces told local media that local residents reported that the men had been passing out copies of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states that indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions. 

The nearly 1.3-million strong Khmer Krom live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia. They have faced serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and movement. 

The three men have been charged with “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the Penal Code, a statute used by Vietnamese authorities to silence those speaking out for human rights.

Homes surrounded

Additionally, Soc Trang provincial authorities arrested two other Khmer Krom activists on Monday and surrounded the home of another two activists, one of the activists told RFA’s Khmer Service.

The siege of the two homes was an attempt by plainclothes police to intimidate, Lim Vong told RFA Khmer.

“I appeal to the United Nations to help stop Vietnamese authorities from excessively abusing the rights of the Khmer Krom people. I have done nothing wrong in Vietnam,” he said.

“I only distributed the United Nations’ textbooks about human rights and the rights to self-determination,” he told RFA. “I neither demand back the territory of Kampuchea Krom nor demand the separation of the Khmer Krom from Vietnam.”

Some activists have also been harassed recently by police for wearing T-shirts that show the Khmer Kampuchea Krom flag, according to Son Chumchoun, secretary general of the Phnom Penh-based Khmer Kampuchea Krom Association for Human Rights and Development.

The Khmer Krom are recognized as one of 53 ethnic minorities in Vietnam, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

But the Vietnamese government has banned its human rights publications and has tightly controlled the practice of Theravada Buddhism by the group, which sees the religion as a foundation of their distinct culture and ethnic identity. 

Last year, seven special U.N. rapporteurs sent a 16-page letter to Vietnam’s government about the country’s alleged failure to recognize the right to self-determination of the Khmer Krom.

Hanoi denied the allegations in May and said it does not repress the Khmer Krom. 

Translated by RFA Vietnamese and Sok Ry Sum of RFA Khmer. Edited by Matt Reed.

Brussels is ready to boost EU-Philippines cooperation in maritime security amid tensions with China over the territorially contested South China Sea, the visiting European Commission president said Monday.

A 2016 international arbitration court’s ruling that invalidated Beijing’s expansive claims to the waterway is “legally binding,” said Ursula von der Leyen, who was in Manila for her first official visit as head of the commission.

“It provides the basis for peaceful resolving disputes between the parties. We are ready to strengthen the cooperation with the Philippines on maritime security in the region by sharing information, conducting threat assessment and building the capacity of your National Coast Watch Center and your coast guard,” Von der Leyen said after she met with Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the presidential palace in Manila. 

She and President Marcos also discussed a potential trade agreement between the Philippines and European Union (EU).

The EU is concerned about rising tensions in Asia, Von der Leyen said without naming China. 

The Philippine Coast Guard has been on the frontline of the bilateral territorial dispute with China, reporting instances of alleged harassment by the Chinese coast guard in South China Sea waters within Manila’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). 

“The global geopolitical landscape is changing. It is volatile, it is more threatening. Authoritarian leaders show that they are willing to act on their threats,” Von der Leyen said, alluding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“The illegal use of force cannot be tolerated. Not in Ukraine, not in the Indo-Pacific. Security in Europe and security in the Indo-Pacific [are] indivisible. Challenges to the rules-based order in our interconnected world affect all of us,” she said. 

Marcos said the Philippines and the EU were “like-minded partners through our shared values of democracy, sustainable and inclusive prosperity, the rule of law, peace and stability and human rights.

Last week, senators here sponsored a resolution calling on the government to raise China’s continuous harassment of ships within the Philippine EEZ to the United Nations General Assembly. 

“We should not yield to China’s threats and intimidation. Why are we afraid when we now have so many allies with us,” said resolution co-sponsor Sen. Risa Hontiveros, citing the support of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India and 16 member-states of the EU. 

Reducing dependency on China 

Von der Leyen and Marcos also discussed the possible reopening of negotiations on a free-trade agreement. The EU is the Philippines’ fourth largest trading partner while the Philippines, the fifth largest economy in Southeast Asia, is the European bloc’s seventh “most important trading partner in the region.” 

The EU and the Philippines launched free trade negotiations in 2015 but those have stalled since 2017. At that time, the EU opposed former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs because of alleged human rights violations, while Duterte publicly lashed out at the EU and its officials. 

“The Philippines is a key partner for us in the Indo-Pacific region, and with the launch of this scoping process, we are paving the way to taking our partnership to the next level,” Von der Leyen said. 

The resumption proposal came after the EU and Thailand revived trade talks after years of hiatus. The EU already has free trade agreements with Singapore and Vietnam, while it is negotiating with Indonesia and Malaysia. 

Basilio Sepe, Jojo Riñoza and Noel Celis in Manila contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

Authorities in Beijing have evacuated tens of thousands of local residents following heavy flooding in suburban areas to the west of the capital, amid warnings of further flooding and rainfall to come as Typhoon Doksuri dumped huge amounts of rainfall on mountainous areas nearby.

At least two people died as flash floods swept through Mentougou district on the outskirts of Beijing, with social media footage showing cars and other vehicles being swept away by turbulent floodwaters amid screams and shouts from onlookers in nearby buildings.

News photos showed people picking their way along damaged roads, after some 580 mm of rainfall hit the area over the weekend, the People’s Daily newspaper reported.

Cheng Ming-tian, who heads the meteorological bureau in democratic Taiwan, said China typically has an average national daily rainfall of around 60 mm, which is already considered “torrential.”

However, Mentougou had seen rainfall of 320 mm daily over several days, he said.

“The rains were too heavy for the flood discharge capacity, so it overflowed from the rivers to the nearby streets, which is why we see all that water rushing through the streets and the cars being swept away,” Cheng told Radio Free Asia on Monday.

“The river isn’t wide or deep enough [to carry all of the rainwater] and it can’t accommodate all of the water from the overflowing drainage ditches,” he said. “It’s similar to the way things used to be in Taiwan — it’s a matter of urban development.”

He said some atmospheric fluctuations over the weekend had strengthened Typhoon Duksuri, bringing the heavy rain to Beijing.

Upgraded flood warnings

More than 30,000 people have been relocated, as the Beijing municipal meteorological bureau issued a red warning signal for rainstorms and upgraded flood warnings to red on Monday, the Global Times newspaper reported.

“On Monday morning, about 80 employees from a distribution station of a logistics company in Zhoukoudian town in Fangshan [district] were stranded by the floods caused by the storm. The emergency rescue of these people is underway,” it said.

Videos posted to social media showed a number of people trapped by the floods, awaiting help, as well as footage of a man being dragged from the waters as first aiders tried to revive him, as others shouted: “It’s too late! Too late!”

A Beijing resident who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals said they expect the losses from the floods to be heavy.

“There were casualties in those videos — they were doing first aid, but there was no hope he would survive having been under for so long,” the resident said.

A resident who gave only the surname Tang said she had personally seen hundreds of cars submerged in flood water, and had posted video footage that was later deleted.

Cars swept away

A resident surnamed Wang said the mountainous area around Fangshan was hardest hit by the flooding, and that state media were warning people to stay home for their own safety.

“Many people are awaiting rescue on higher ground, and many cars have been swept away by floodwaters,” the Global Times reported, citing video clips sent by residents.

“Several other videos taken in Mentougou showed that water had flooded a bridge and also poured into some restaurants and large supermarkets,” it said, adding that some areas had lost their piped water supply.

But it said most of the city was “functioning normally.”

The municipal flood control headquarters has issued 28 emergency notices since Saturday night, including four “geological disasters” and a flash flood in Fangshan’s Beixiasi village.

In total, 30,652 at-risk residents have been relocated, while 4,069 construction projects have been suspended, while around 150,000 flood control personnel remain on stand-by, the paper said.

A passenger train from Hami in the northwestern region of Xinjiang was stranded near Mentougou’s Anjiazhuang station with a large number of children on board, the Beijing News reported.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

Ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on Monday replaced the commander of the country’s rocket corps — which controls the country’s nuclear missiles — amid media reports of an investigation into his predecessor and his deputies.

At a ceremony held by the ruling party’s Central Military Commission in Beijing on Monday, Xi named Wang Houbin as the new commander of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, promoting him and political commissar Xu Xisheng to the rank of general, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“The two officers promoted to the rank of general came to the rostrum full of energy,” the report said. 

“Xi Jinping issued orders to them and congratulated them. Wearing the epaulets of the rank of general, the two officers saluted Xi Jinping and all the comrades who participated in the ceremony, and the audience burst into enthusiastic applause,” it said.

Wang’s appointment, while not explained by state media reports, is widely seen as confirmation of reports that his predecessor Li Yuchao is under investigation behind the scenes.

“This is indirect proof that there was a [political] problem with the former leadership of the Rocket Force,” U.S-based political commentator Hu Ping said via his X account on Monday. 

“The fact that these two new appointments have no connection to the Rocket Force shows that Xi Jinping is uncomfortable with the entirety of the former Rocket Force team,” Hu wrote.

Li was reportedly taken away for investigation in June, according to U.S.-based former PLA Navy Lt. Col. Yao Cheng, who posted the news on June 28 to X, formerly known as Twitter.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper then cited two sources on July 28 as saying Li Yuchao and his former deputies Zhang Zhenzhong and Liu Guangbin are currently under investigation by the commission’s disciplinary arm, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Corruption or loyalty?

The investigation began some time after March, when Wei Fenghe retired as defense minister, the paper cited one source as saying.

“Almost all the senior generals [in the rocket force] had good reputations before their promotion. They became immoral after moving to Beijing headquarters, allowing them to have more chances to engage with defense-related enterprises,” the paper quoted one source as saying. 

The rocket force is “an important element in Beijing’s efforts to ramp up the military pressure on Taiwan,” the paper said, citing Middlebury Institute of International Studies researcher Decker Eveleth.

Yao Cheng told Radio Free Asia on July 28 that the investigation has little to do with corruption, however, and that Xi is investigating the Rocket Force to ensure it continues to carry out his orders faithfully.

“This isn’t about Xi Jinping rectifying them [due to corruption],” said Yao, who formerly served in the PLA Naval Command. “Xi Jinping wants them to fight a war, and they didn’t want to, so now he’s coming for them.”

“It’s been the Rocket Force people who don’t want to go along with Xi Jinping’s plan,” Yao said. “They don’t want a war — they fear war because they have a very clear idea of what their missile capabilities are.”

“They know very well what the outcome would be of any surgical strike by U.S. forces,” he said.

Yao said Xi is nonetheless determined to carry out a military invasion of democratic Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China.

“He definitely wants to go to war,” he said. “Otherwise, he can’t realize [the goals of] his third term in office.”

Readiness questions

Current affairs commentator Cai Shenkun said Xi’s political attack on the Rocket Force raises questions about its readiness for military engagement.

“Xi Jinping’s plan to forge a new Rocket Force is a major blow,” he said. “There is a question mark over whether or not the Rocket Force is truly ready for war.”

Meanwhile, China’s internet censors have been deleting reports that Lt. Gen. Wu Guohua, a former deputy Rocket Force commander, died at the beginning of July.

Party-backed news site The Paper reported on July 27 that it had “learned from [his] relatives and friends that Lt. Gen. Wu Guohua, a former deputy commander in the rocket corps, died in Beijing on July 4, 2023 at the age of 66 due to medical issues.”

The link to the story returned an error message when clicked on Monday, and the story had also been deleted from Sina.com’s finance channel and Sohu.com, although cached versions of those syndicated stories were still available via Google.

An unconfirmed death notice also remained on the social media platform Sina Weibo on Monday.

“Comrade Wu Guohua, former deputy commander-in-chief of the Rocket Army, died in Beijing on July 4, 2023 due to illness at the age of 66,” the notice said, adding that the funeral was scheduled for July 30 at Babaoshan Funeral Home.

However, Taiwan’s Central News Agency and the Sing Tao Daily‘s U.S. edition both reported that Wu’s death had been described as suicide by his former boss Zhang Xiaoyang.

Citing a now-deleted social media post by Zhang the reports said Wu had “hanged himself due to heavy work-related pressure and family conflict.”

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.