Day: July 17, 2023

A Myanmar democracy activist and her family, who are U.N. refugee card holders, were kidnapped from their home in Malaysia’s capital earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said Monday, adding that people linked to the Malaysian government may have been involved.

Activist Thuzar Maung was targeted because she supported the Myanmar pro-democracy movement against the Burmese junta, but it was a first for holders of United Nations refugee cards, said a source who works with migrant groups in Malaysia.

The July 4 abduction in Kuala Lumpur was carried out meticulously, raising suspicion that people connected to the Malaysian government may have participated, Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director, told BenarNews.

“What is clear is this action was professionally planned and carried out with a great deal of efficiency, leaving very few clues – raising suspicion that persons connected to the Malaysian government could be involved,” Robertson said.

Police in Selangor, the state encompassing Kuala Lumpur, said they were investigating the report.

Malaysia has been among the most vocal Southeast Asian nations calling for strong action against the Myanmar military, which toppled an elected government in February 2021. Yet it has deported thousands, including military defectors, to Myanmar, human rights groups have complained.

Unidentified men abducted Thuzar Maung, 46; her husband, Saw Than Tin Win, 43; her daughter, Poeh Khing Maung, 16; and sons Aung Myint Maung, 21; and Thukha Maung, 17; on July 4 from their residence in Ampang Jaya, Kuala Lumpur, HRW alleged, citing witness accounts and CCTV footage.

“We fear that Thuzar Maung and her family were abducted in a planned operation and are at grave risk,” Elaine Pearson, Asia director at HRW, said in a statement. She demanded the Malaysian government urgently locate the family and ensure their safety.

While there was so far no evidence to conclusively determine who was responsible, the only party with a true motive was the Burmese junta, said HRW’s Robertson.

“[T]hose with a real motive to carry out this heinous abduction are the Myanmar military junta and its Embassy in Malaysia, and that possibility must be immediately and thoroughly investigated as well,” he said.

The Malaysian migrant group source, who asked that their name not be disclosed for safety reasons, concurred with Robertson, saying Burmese refugees live in constant fear of deportation because their embassy in Kuala Lumpur represents the Burmese military.

Thuzar’s public support of the shadow and civilian National Unity Government – made up of former elected legislators and other junta opponents – and her help for the NUG on Myanmar migrant welfare issues would be reasons that the junta would target her, the source said.

“And the reason the abduction was made public late is because Thuzar’s colleagues requested confidentiality until late last week due to concerns that media exposure could potentially endanger her,” the source told BenarNews.

Selangor state police said they were trying to find Thuzar and her family.

“The police have received a police report regarding this matter,” Selangor Police chief Hussein Omar Khan told BenarNews.

“Following that, an investigation has been initiated under the Missing Person Inquiry Paper,” he said without providing details.

RFA-affiliated news organization BenarNews contacted the Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, as well as Malaysia’s Foreign and Home Affairs ministers for comment but did not immediately hear back from them.

‘No signs of robbery’

In Malaysia, Thuzar, whose name is also spelled Thu Zar Moung, works as chairwoman of the Myanmar Muslim Refugee Community and the Myanmar Migrant Workers Committee. According to HRW, she arrived in Malaysia in 2015.

Her Facebook page, where she posts criticism of alleged abuses by Myanmar’s junta, has more than 93,000 followers, HRW said.

CCTV footage showed a car entering the gated community where Thuzar lived with her family, at around 4:30 pm July 4, HRW said.

“The driver told the security guards they were police. Two hours later, Thuzar Maung was on the phone with a friend, who heard her yell to her husband that unknown men were entering the house, before being disconnected,” the HRW statement said.

“At about 7:10 p.m., the same car and the two cars owned by Thuzar Maung’s family were seen leaving the compound. Thuzar Maung’s phone and the phones of her husband and children appear to have been immediately turned off, as no calls have gone through since.”

The activist’s colleagues who entered the house on July 5 said there were no signs of robbery, HRW said.

The last post on Thuzar’s Facebook account was at 5:07 a.m. July 4.

BenarNews had met with Thuzar in September 2022 when she said she fled from Mandalay in Myanmar after facing discrimination because of her Muslim identity and being falsely accused of associating with terrorism.

“The Muslim community in that area were heavily accused. I was frightened and decided to flee the country. Because I had a passport at that time, I was able to book a flight and get to Thailand. Thailand granted a visa on arrival, and then I went to Malaysia,” she told BenarNews back then.

“I went to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office in Kuala Lumpur in 2015 and pleaded my case. I showed them proof that I was accused and discriminated against due to my religion. Then we received our U.N. cards.”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

Nearly 2 million civilians in Myanmar have been displaced from their homes by the civil war raging in their country, with 40,000 displaced in the past month alone, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian agency, which appealed for food and other supplies.

Myanmar has been wracked by violence since the military overthrew the democratically elected government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. Junta forces have faced stiff resistance from various ethnic armies that have teamed up with local anti-regime People’s Defense Forces — civilians who have taken up arms to fight the military. 

Of the total 1.9 million internally displaced persons, the largest number — nearly 800,000 — are in Myanmar’s northwestern Sagaing region, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in an update on the situation on July 15.    

“Countrywide, restrictions on humanitarian access have increased in multiple states and regions, notably in the Southeast and Kachin [state], further impeding timely and efficient aid delivery to affected and displaced communities,” the report said.

“Sustained support, including financial assistance, from the international community is crucial to allowing partners to stay and deliver in challenging circumstances,” it said.

The humanitarian situation remains urgent as families continue to grapple with the devastating aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, resulting in significant ongoing needs for shelter and food, OCHA said. The tropical cyclone in the North Indian Ocean hit western Myanmar’s Rakhine state and parts of Bangladesh in May.

“After a brief suspension, humanitarians have been able to restart their regular programs in Rakhine, but the humanitarian cyclone response remains paused by the SAC,” the report said, referring to the State Administration Council, the ruling junta’s official name.

The strictness of junta authorities on humanitarian aid is tightening throughout the country and the situation is worse in the southeast of the country and Kachin state, according to OCHA’s statement.

Food shortages worsen

Displaced people in Sagaing, Chin and Kayah states complain that food shortages are getting worse as military authorities restrict humanitarian aid access. 

A day after OCHA published the figure, military troops raided Sagaing’s Khin-U township, prompting roughly 10,000 residents from about 20 villages to flee to safety. 

A resident of the township’s Inn Pat village told Radio Free Asia that the soldiers unexpectedly raided his community at 5 a.m., putting elderly people who could not flee in imminent danger.

“It caused a great deal of trouble,” said the person granted anonymity to ensure his safety. “Elderly people and the disabled who couldn’t run, had to remain in the village, hiding in the alleys between houses.”

Civilians living in villages where military troops and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militias have been stationed cannot return to their homes, he added. 

More than 50,000 internally displaced people, or IDPs, are  in western Myanmar’s Chin state, according to OCHA’s report.

Civilians there also fled their homes because of fighting and face life-threatening challenges on a daily basis because of the junta’s heavy artillery shelling and airstrikes, said a management committee official for the IDP camps in Chin’s Mindat township.

“Many people have been injured by the shelling,” said the official who declined to be named for fear of his safety. “The junta planes fly over the area every night. That’s why everyone is panicking and can’t sleep well. It’s a pretty bad situation.”

Mounting casualties

Three civilians, including a nine-year-old girl and a breastfeeding mother, were killed by an airstrike by junta forces on Mindat’s Wun Khone village on July 8. 

A resident of Moebye township in southern Shan state, where junta troops and ethnic Karenni joint forces engaged in fierce clashes, said IDPs are having a hard time getting food because military troops have banned the transportation of rice to the area. 

“We can buy only dry food and gasoline in small quantities,” the local said. “The rice transportation routes have been totally blocked by the junta.”

Aid and relief groups said 28 civilians were killed during the 40 days of fighting in Moebye from May 25 to July 4.

The armed assaults on civilians, forcing them to flee their homes, are a crime against humanity, said Banyar Khun Aung, executive director of the Karenni Human Rights Group.

“The junta intentionally planned their attack to force them out of those places that they call home,” he told RFA. “It’s not just in one location. They junta attacked many places using many different strategies to force the local residents to leave their homes.”  

RFA could not reach junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment. 

Armed conflicts continue in 255 of 330 townships in Myanmar, according to the latest annual report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued on March 3. 

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution last Dec. 21, calling for the immediate cessation of violence, the release of all political prisoners, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and the unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid in Myanmar. 

Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Three ethnic armies in northern Myanmar have vowed to protect international investment in their regions which are home to several key Chinese-led projects.

Earlier this month, the Kokant Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, Ta’ang National Liberation Army, TNLA, and Rakhine Arakan Army, or AA, released a joint statement in both Burmese and Chinese vowing to “crush perpetrators of violence” in Shan and Rakhine states.

The move prompted some observers to suggest they were pressured to do so by Beijing.

But Lt. Col. Mai Aik Kyaw, spokesman for the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, one of the three armed groups, said the joint announcement was made to counter the “rise of extortion and terrorist crimes” in Shan state along the border with China since the coup.

“We often see kidnappings and robberies in our areas,” he said. “Businessmen and ordinary civilians are kidnapped for ransom. We have to work for regional stability and peace to counter these problems in the border areas.”

Their statement hints at China’s expanding influence in Myanmar since Beijing has backed the military regime, while other foreign-led investment has fled the country amid a protracted political crisis.

In the past, the three armies have expressed support for the armed resistance battling Myanmar’s military, which seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat, but are currently in talks with the junta. 

According to the MNDAA, around 40 kidnappings took place in Shan state from early 2022 to early 2023. Fifteen Chinese nationals were among those kidnapped, including one who was killed, the group said. Over the same period, 25 Myanmar-born ethnic Chinese and members of other ethnic groups were either robbed or kidnapped in incidents that left six people dead, including one minor.

The MNDAA said four ethnically Chinese Myanmar nationals were sentenced to death for the murders, while five others were sentenced to long prison terms.

Likely pressure from Beijing

Ye Tun, an ethnic affairs and military analyst based in Shan state, told RFA that it is likely that Beijing pressured the three northern ethnic armies to issue their statement, as the incidents could impact Chinese-led investment in Myanmar.

“I think what they meant by ‘international investment’ may mainly be China’s investments,” he said.

He noted that the 800-kilometer (500-mile) China-Myanmar Oil and Gas Pipeline, which began operations in 2009, runs from Kyaukphyu in Rakhine state through Mandalay and Magway regions, and northern Shan state.

“There are many Chinese … nationals working along the oil and gas pipeline,” he said. “I believe that these three ethnic armed groups released their statement to prevent incidents that could impact Chinese investments.”

Rakhine state, where the AA operates, is home to several Chinese megaprojects, including the Kyauk Phyu Special Economic Zone and Kyauk Phyu Natural Gas Project. Other Chinese projects – including the Muse Border Economic Cooperation Zone, Chin Shwe Haw Border Business Zone, and Gokteik and Kunlong bridge projects – are based in northern Shan state, where the TNLA and MNDAA operate.

Kyaw Saw Han, a researcher on security issues, told RFA that since the military coup, the situation in northern Shan state has become “more complicated,” and Beijing is likely growing concerned about how it could negatively affect Chinese interests.

“I believe that China pressured the northern ethnic groups to issue the statement to deter threats to its interests in their regions on the border,” he said. “China is worried about the long-term potential for conflict in northern Shan state as many armed organizations are jockeying for territory since the military takeover, and it is warning the groups not to mess with its business and investments.”

When asked by RFA whether the statement was prompted by Beijing, the TNLA’s Lt. Col. Mai Aik Kyaw did not give a specific answer. He has previously said that representatives of the Chinese government have appealed to northern armed groups to “help maintain peace and stability” in the border region.

Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun for the military regime’s response to the joint statement went unanswered Monday.

Clashes decrease in army territories

The AA, MNDAA and TNLA have expressed support for Myanmar’s armed resistance, while the anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF, paramilitary group claims that the ethnic armies have provided it with training and weapons in the territories under their control, as well as in the fiercely contested regions of Kayah and Sagaing.

However, military and political analysts say that fighting between the military and the PDF has sharply declined in regions where the three ethnic armies operate.

RFA was unable to contact representatives of the MNDAA and AA regarding the joint statement.

Nearly 1,500 clashes took place in 61 Myanmar townships where Chinese-led investments are based between February 2021 and March 2022, but the number of incidents dropped by nearly half to just over 760 from between April 2022 and June 2023, according to a statement issued last month by independent research group The Institute for Strategy and Policy (Myanmar). 

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

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has ordered internet service providers in Cambodia to block the websites of Radio Free Asia and other news outlets ahead of this Sunday’s parliamentary election.

The outlets were accused of misrepresenting the government’s reputation and prestige and of failing to meet the Ministry of Information’s conditions for doing business, according to a July 12 letter signed by Srun Kimsan of Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia.

The blocked sites include RFA’s Khmer and English websites and RFA’s Khmer language Twitter page. 

The regulator also ordered the blocking of the Kamnotra website, produced by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, or CCIM. The website posts information, data or documents that people can use. 

RFA condemned the order, calling it a “clear violation of Cambodian law and an attempt to censor the free flow of information ahead of the July 23 election,” according to RFA spokesman Rohit Mahajan.

“Access to timely, accurate news and information, which RFA’s programming and content provides to the Cambodian people on a daily basis, is essential in any democracy where the rule of law supports free speech and a free press,” he said. 

“Despite these unfortunate efforts, RFA will keep striving to inform its audience in Cambodia with up-to-the-minute journalism during this critical time and beyond,” Mahajan said.

‘Undermines their rights’

As of Monday afternoon Washington DC time, access to some of RFA’s websites were blocked within Cambodia, sources there said.

Some RFA monitors inside the country said they were still able to access RFA broadcasts on Facebook, YouTube, Telegram and Twitter. 

However, Kamnotra has already been blocked by major internet service providers like Cellcard and Ezecom, CCIM director Ith Sothoeut said. 

“When sources of information are blocked, it undermines the right to information of the general population, which is guaranteed by law, especially before the election,” he said.

“It undermines their rights as voters, who need to be fully informed to make it easier for them to make informed decisions,” he said.

Cambodia’s 1993 constitution guarantees press freedom. 

But in February, the government closed independent news outfit Voice of Democracy after it reported that the prime minister’s son had approved a government donation to support Turkey’s earthquake recovery efforts. 

Previous crackdowns

Several other independent media outlets were forced to shut down prior to the last general election in 2018. 

And a government crackdown in 2017 led to the closure of 32 FM radio frequencies, including those that broadcast RFA Khmer Service content, the arrest of two former RFA journalists and the closure of The Cambodia Daily newspaper.

The July 12 letter from the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia also ordered the blocking of a Khmer language website that has continued to publish stories under The Cambodia Daily name.

RFA has not been able to contact Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia spokesmen Seang Sethy and Im Vutha for comment. Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications  spokesman Sovisothy and Ministry of Information spokesman Meas Sophorn also weren’t immediately available on Monday.

However, Ministry of Information spokesman Meas Sophorn confirmed to CamboJA News on Monday that the ministry had ordered the closure of the websites.

Cambodia’s Information Ministry issues licenses to broadcasters and other media outlets. The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia is an autonomous unit within the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.  

Translated by Sok Ry Sum and Keo Sovannarith. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

Vietnamese authorities have detained a former health teacher Duong Tuan Ngoc for posts he made on social media about education, health, and social issues that criticized the government, police reports and family members said.

Ngoc, 38, was once a nutrition teacher in the southern province of  Lam Dong. The Lam Dong police summoned him on July 10, and he was detained the next day, his wife Bui Thanh Diem Ngoc, told Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese Service. 

The police said the detention is for an investigation on charges of anti-state propaganda in connection with videos he posted to Facebook and YouTube.

The exact law he is charged with violating is the vaguely written Article 117, which Amnesty International has described as being “commonly used to suppress legitimate dissent in Vietnam” and “a favored tool of the authorities to arbitrarily imprison journalists, bloggers and others who express views that do not align with the interests of the Communist Party of Vietnam.”

So far this year, at least six other activists, independent journalists and Facebook users have been arrested under Article 117 with prison terms ranging from five years and six months to eight years in prison, according to RFA statistics.

Mrs. Ngoc said her husband was called in on July 10 when police received an anonymous accusation that Mr. Ngoc was selling drug-related products on his Facebook account. At the police station, Mr. Ngoc was asked to admit that an offending account belonged to him.

“He said that he did not do anything wrong,” Mrs. Ngoc said. “The next day, we were asked to appear at the police station again without any stated reason.”

On their second visit, the husband and wife were put in separate rooms for interrogation. Later that night, police searched their house and confiscated phones, laptops, computers and cameras.

Mrs. Ngoc said that she was allowed to keep three of her own phones, and was let go after two days of interrogation, during which she was asked if she had helped her husband edit his online posts. 

She has not seen her husband since the 11th, nor has she been allowed to send him clothes or anything else he might need. On Sunday, she received the written police notice of her husband’s emergency detention. 

Long list of accusations

Signed by Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thai Thanh on July 15, the notice accused Ngoc of a litany of alleged crimes, including attacking socialism, distorting history, denying revolutionary achievements, slandering the socialist regime, defaming national founder Ho Chi Minh and infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of the state – all in violation of Article 117.

However, the police did not specify which social media posts or videos broke the law, she said.

RFA attempted to contact the Lam Dong police for an explanation, but the person who answered the phone said responses to inquiries could only be given in person.

Mr. Ngoc’s most recent Facebook post, on July 10, praised a lifestyle close to nature in Vietnam’s countryside. His personal page has more than 45,000 followers and has an introductory description declaring, “I have rights as a citizen. You have rights as citizens. Citizens are the rightful owners of the country.”

His YouTube account “Freelance Education” was established in July 2019, and he has around 34,000 followers and hundreds of videos about health, medicine, and life in the countryside.

Ngoc’s wife said that the couple had previously lived in Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam’s economic hub, but they recently moved to Lam Ha in March 2022.

They both graduated from Ho Chi Minh University of Economics and hold master’s degrees. 

Mr. Ngoc taught college students online. He has made more than 684 videos and posted thousands of articles on medicine, health, education, economy, and many other social issues.

Prior to Mr. Ngoc’s detention, the couple sold a variety of organic and medicinal agricultural products. Since moving to Lam Ha, they have focused on gardening and producing organic goods, and selling them on social media.

Authorities targeted Mr. Ngoc because he was a champion of raising awareness of human values, an activist from Ho Chi Minh City told RFA on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“The teacher aims at human values, truth and liberal education in the clips he makes,” the activist said. “I feel that he only wants to contribute to the community with a correct view about the country’s situation. Besides that, I don’t see any sense in the charges they put in the detention notice.”

The activist said that in Ngoc’s videos, he never mentioned any specific part of the government or any named person, so the charges don’t make sense.

Le Quoc Quan, a former prisoner of conscience-turned-lawyer, told RFA that she has been following Ngoc’s videos for a long time.

“I am very impressed and have sympathy for Mr. Duong Tuan Ngoc because I think his presentations on social issues are very interesting, humorous, and very true,” she said. “After all, I find that Duong Tuan Ngoc is a talented person, and what he reflects is true and humorous. He deserves to be applauded instead of being arrested.”

Quan said what Ngoc said was true, even if it was sometimes sarcastic and humorous. 

She described application of Article 117 as “a net dredging up everything so that anyone can be attributed with slander or libel.”

Translated by An Nguyen. Edited by Eugene Whong.

China’s foreign ministry on Monday brushed aside questions about the whereabouts of Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who hasn’t been seen in public for nearly three weeks, sparking a storm of media speculation over the reasons for his apparent disappearance.

Asked about a report in London’s Times newspaper mentioning widespread rumors that Qin is currently under investigation for having an affair with Phoenix TV reporter Fu Xiaotian, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said: “I have no information to provide.”

Qin has been notably absent from high-profile diplomatic meetings since he met with the foreign ministers of Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and with the Russian deputy foreign minister in Beijing on June 25.

“I suggest you check the website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Mao told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Monday.

His most recent mention on the foreign ministry website was during Mao’s June 26 briefing, in which she gave a brief account of his meeting with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Rudenko.

Mao said China’s diplomatic activities were “proceeding normally.”

However, her answers were omitted from official records of the briefing that were later published to the foreign ministry’s website. 

A full version of the press conference live-streamed by a Taiwanese TV station can be found on YouTube.

Media speculation that Qin had been sacked grew when his photo and profile link were not found on the page of “major officials” on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website.

But this is misleading because the minister’s photo and profile doesn’t normally appear there, even in the past. Instead, the ministry has a special page dedicated to the minister, with details of his recent remarks and activities, and Qin Gang still appears there.

Former US ambassador

Before becoming foreign minister, Qin was China’s ambassador to the United States and known as a a “wolf warrior” – combative Chinese diplomats who are quick to denounce perceived criticism of China.

A close ally of party leader Xi Jinping, he stepped down in January after being promoted by Xi – which makes the questions being openly asked about him extremely politically sensitive.

Qin was the first ambassador to Washington to be directly promoted to foreign minister in 20 years, as well as the first to be appointed outside of a National People’s Congress annual session. His predecessors Li Zhaoxing and Yang Jiechi both served as vice ministers of foreign affairs before being promoted.

When Qin was ambassador, Fu interviewed him for Phoenix TV in Washington on March 24, 2022, as part of the channel’s “Talk With World Leaders” series, asking him about a video call a few days earlier between Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Qin’s continued absence from the public eye comes after foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on July 11 that Qin wouldn’t be attending forthcoming meetings of ASEAN foreign ministers “for physical reasons.”

Wang Yi, who heads the ruling Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s foreign affairs office attended those meetings in Qin’s stead.

Qin’s scheduled meetings with EU diplomats in late June were also canceled.

The pro-China Sing Tao Daily newspaper cited “reports” in a July 10 story suggesting that Qin had disappeared from public view because he had been infected with COVID-19, citing Wang Wenbin’s “failure to deny” such reports when asked by journalists about Qin’s whereabouts on July 7.

The Times reported that Qin’s disappearance from the public eye came amid “speculation that he has fallen foul of the leadership and even rumors of an affair with a well-known television presenter,” citing local media reports that Fu and her baby son had also recently disappeared from public view.

”The rumors are that he’s sick, but we’re all just reading tea leaves here because nobody really knows the truth,” YouTuber Jiang Taigong commented in a July 15 video. “We’ve only had vague comments from the Chinese Communist Party, so the guesses are coming thick and fast.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.