Day: February 22, 2024

Myanmar’s junta is offering freedom of movement to Rohingya Muslims restricted to camps for the displaced in Rakhine state as part of a bid to entice them into military service amid the nationwide rollout of a conscription law, according to sources in the region.

The enactment of the People’s Military Service Law on Feb. 10 has sent draft-eligible civilians fleeing from Myanmar’s cities, saying they would rather leave the country or join anti-junta forces in remote border areas than fight for the military, which seized power in a 2021 coup d’etat.

Myanmar’s military is desperate for new recruits after suffering devastating losses on the battlefield to the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, in Rakhine state. Since November, when the AA ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the coup, the military has surrendered Pauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Myay Pon and Taung Pyo townships in the state, as well as Paletwa township in neighboring Chin state.

But rights campaigners say the junta is drafting Rohingya into military service to stoke ethnic tensions in Rakhine state, while legal experts say the drive is unlawful, given that Myanmar has refused to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s ethnic groups and denied them citizenship for decades.

Some 1 million ethnic Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh since 2017, when they were driven out of Myanmar by a military clearance operation. Another 630,000 living within the country are designated stateless by the United Nations, including those who languish in camps for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, and are restricted from moving freely in Rakhine state.

Residents of the Kyauk Ta Lone IDP camp in Rakhine’s Kyaukphyu township told RFA Burmese that junta forces, including the township administration officer and the operations commander of the military’s Light Infantry Battalion 542, took a census of the camp’s Muslims for the purpose of military service on Monday.

Junta personnel compiled a list of more than 160 people deemed eligible for conscription and informed them they would have to take part in a two-week military training program, according to one camp resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

“The township administration officer came … and told us that Muslims must also serve in the military, but we refused to follow his order,” the resident said. “Then, the military operations commander arrived here along with his soldiers, and forced us to do so under the military service law. They collected the names of more than 160 people.”

Freedom of movement

Some 1,500 Rohingyas from around 300 families have been living at Kyauk Ta Lone since ethnic violence forced them to flee their homes in Kyaukphyu 12 years ago. 

Since taking the census on Monday, junta officers have repeatedly visited the camp, trying to persuade Rohingya residents to serve in the military with an offer of free movement within Kyaukphyu township, said another camp resident. 

“They won’t guarantee us citizenship,” he said. “But if we serve in the military, we will be allowed to go freely in Kyaukphyu.”

Other camp residents told RFA they “would rather die” than serve in the military, and suggested the recruitment drive was part of a bid by the military to create a rift between them and ethnic Rakhines – the predominant minority in Rakhine state and the ethnicity of the AA.

No date was given for when the training program would begin, they said. After receiving training, the recruits would be assigned to a security detail along with junta troops guarding routes in and out of Kyaukphyu, and dispatched to the battlefield “if necessary.”

Rohingya IDPs are afraid to serve in the military, but are unable to flee the camp because it is surrounded by junta troops, residents added.

Other recruitment efforts

The military service census at the Kyauk Ta Lone IDP camp came as Rohingyas in the Rakhine capital Sittwe, the Rakhine townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw, and other parts of Kyaukphyu reported that junta troops have been arresting and collecting data from members of their ethnic group as part of a bid to force them into military training.

On Monday and Tuesday evening, military personnel arrested around 100 Rohingyas of eligible service age from the Buthidaung villages of Nga/Kyin Tauk, Tat Chaung, Pu Zun Chaung and Kyauk Hpyu Taung, said a resident who also declined to be named.

“People doing business in the village were arrested. Village elders were also arrested,” said the resident, who is also a Rohingya. “At least one young person from every house was arrested and taken to the army. The parents of those who were arrested are quite worried now.”

Junta troops said that the AA had established camps near the Rohingya villages and residents would have to undergo military training to defend the area, he added. They said the residents would be equipped with weapons and returned to their villages after the training was complete.

Rohingyas in Sittwe and Maungdaw, where an AA offensive is now underway, also reported junta census efforts and pressure to join military training. They said that larger villages are expected to provide 100 people for training, while smaller ones should send 50 residents.

Law does not apply

A lawyer who is representing Rohingyas in several legal cases told RFA that the People’s Military Service Law “does not apply” to members of the ethnic group because they do not have citizenship status in Myanmar.

He added that the junta’s attempt to recruit Rohingyas is part of a bid to drive a wedge between them and the people of Myanmar, many of whom oppose the military regime.

Nay San Lwin, an activist on the Rohingya issue, said that the junta hopes to divert attention from its losses to the AA in Rakhine state by igniting tensions between ethnic Rakhines and Rohingyas.

“If the Rohingyas are forced into their army, there could be a lot of problems between the Rakhines and the Rohingyas,” he said. “That’s what they want. Once that happens, they’ll drop all support for the Rohingyas as usual. But the main reason is to use the Rohingyas as human shields.”

Nay San Lwin noted that as successive governments in Myanmar have denied the Rohingya citizenship, there should be no pressure to force them to serve in the military.

The junta has released no information on efforts to recruit Rohingyas in Rakhine state and attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun and Rakhine State Attorney General Hla Thein, who is the junta’s spokesman in the region, went unanswered Thursday.

The AA issued a statement on Wednesday calling on ethnic Rakhines to take refuge from junta oppression – which it said includes unlawful arrests, extortion, forced military recruitment, and extrajudicial killings – in AA-controlled territory, instead of fleeing to other areas of the country.

Conscription eligibility

According to Myanmar’s compulsory military service law, men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 face up to five years in prison if they refuse to serve for two years, while highly skilled professionals aged 18-45 must also serve, but up to five years. More than 13 million of the country’s 54 million people are eligible for service.

Conscription is slated to be implemented at the end of April 2024, with a goal of recruiting up to 60,000 service members each year, in batches of around 5,000 people.

Translated by Aung Naing and Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

Authorities in Turkey have arrested six people believed to be spying on members of the Uyghur community in Istanbul for Chinese intelligence, according to media reports.

Members of the Istanbul Anti-Terrorism and Organized Crime Directorate apprehended the six Chinese nationals early on Tuesday, Turkey’s Demiroren News Agency said in a report, citing information provided by the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey.

The group is accused of gathering information about Uyghur organizations, their leaders, and public figures, and transmitting it to Chinese intelligence operatives, the report said. Another suspect remains at large.

No further information about the suspects was provided and it was not immediately clear whether the suspects were ethnic Uyghurs.

The arrests will send a warning to the Chinese government to curb its espionage activities, Erkin Ekrem, the vice president of the World Uyghur Congress and a strategy expert, told RFA Uyghur.

“This incident sheds light on China’s heightened surveillance of Uyghurs,” he said. “Some individuals may be coerced into spying due to threats, while others may engage in such activities for financial gain or other motives.”

Ekrem said that Beijing dispatches spies to foreign countries with sizable Uyghur communities and Uyghur organizations, and many of the spies are themselves Uyghurs.

“Given the increasing international acknowledgment of the East Turkistan cause and the mounting pressure on China, I anticipate that China will intensify its espionage efforts to counter criticism of its regime and allegations of genocide,” he said, using a name preferred by Uyghurs for their homeland, which China calls Xinjiang.

The arrest is a “positive step,” and “sends a message to China,” that Turkey is distancing itself from Beijing, Hidayet Oguzhan, president of the International Union of Eastern Turkistan Organizations, told RFA.

“This action serves two main purposes,” he said. “First, it protects our cause, people, and organizations from the threat of espionage. Second, we interpret Turkey’s direct action against individuals working for China and its coverage in the international media as a sign of Turkey’s growing distance from China.”

The arrest represents a shift in policy, Oguzhan said.

“It is a significant development for Turkey to take proactive measures in East Turkistan matters, especially marking the first instance of such action in our long history in Turkey, particularly against individuals discovered to be collaborating with China against East Turkistan organizations,” he said.

But Oguzhan also said that there are more spies in Turkey beyond the suspects in this case.

“We demand the complete expulsion of Uyghurs … acting as spies for China from our society, and we urge Turkey to take a firm stance against them,” he said.  

Abdulreshit Abdulhamit, a representative of the World Uyghur Congress, said that Turkey’s decision to arrest the six “suggests that they possess substantive evidence.”

But he acknowledged that “it may not be appropriate for us to pass judgment on them” and deferred to Turkey’s courts to issue a ruling in the case.

Attempts by RFA to reach both the Istanbul Police Department and the Chinese consulate in Istanbul went unanswered.

Translated by Alim Seytoff. Edited by Eugene Whong.

Prime Minister Hun Manet defended naming his younger brother one of Cambodia’s 11 deputy prime ministers, saying Thursday that Hun Many was chosen because he can execute needed government reforms.

“It just so happens that the minister has the same family name as me,” Hun Manet told the audience at an awards ceremony. “But I would have promoted the head of the Ministry of Civil Service [to deputy prime minister] anyway, even if he were not my relative, because that is the ministry in most need of reform.”

“The purpose [of his appointment] is to carry out reforms in three important areas: public functions, education, and health,” he said.

Critics immediately responded to Hun Many’s promotion Wednesday with accusations of nepotism and corruption.

Legal scholar Vorn Chanlot pointed out that Hun Many’s promotion is not necessary to make reforms as he already has enough power as minister of civil service to improve the efficiency of public services.

“It just creates a delay in the implementation of reform,” he told RFA.

The Hun family has faced accusations of nepotism since Hun Manet was handed the reins of power from his father, Hun Sen, following the 2023 election. 

At that time, Hun Sen – who had ruled Cambodia since 1985 – argued that his son’s appointment was based on merit, not nepotism.

Like his son, Hun Sen claimed he would have promoted Hun Manet “even if he were not [his] relative.”

However, experts have characterized Hun Sen’s attempts to stack the government with his relatives as a means of cementing the Hun family as Cambodia’s ruling clan.

Law student Ly Chandaravuth told RFA that Hun Many’s appointment “empowers the backbone of Hun Sen’s family.”

“When Hun Manet is absent, Hun Many can take over state affairs. He becomes acting prime minister,” he said. Under these circumstances, “it is impossible for the government to be effective.”

 

Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Claire McCrea and Malcolm Foster.

A claim emerged in Chinese-language social media posts that a Taiwanese coast guard captain caused two Chinese fishermen to die near Kinmen island – controlled by Taiwan but just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from mainland China – because he had interests in two fishing businesses. 

But alleged details about the post’s caption are false, and the images shared by social media users to back their claim are apparently taken from an unrelated 2023 document.

The claim was shared on Facebook on Feb. 17. 

“What caused this incident [near Kinmen] is a captain of the Taiwanese coast guard’s 9th maritime patrol unit named Wu Meng-chieh … [It’s] due to business interests relating to two fishery companies he owns,” reads the post, which included three images of what appeared to be an official document from Taiwan.

In the Feb. 14 incident, four Chinese fishermen from Fujian province in a speedboat fell into the ocean after being chased by Taiwanese coast guard ships after crossing into restricted waters around Kinmen island. 

All four were recovered from the water and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. Two returned to stable condition, but two others who had lost consciousness after falling into the sea were later pronounced dead.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office condemned the coast guard’s handling of the incident.

But Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council stated that the relevant personnel “performed their duties in accordance with the law without any misconduct.”

The claim and images in question – that the coast guard captain caused the accident because he owned fishing businesses – were shared by a number of widely followed pro-Beijing influencers on popular social media platforms such as X and Weibo, with some additionally attaching a purported photo of Wu, the captain.

The document

The partial document included in the social media post made it appear that there was some classified document that linked Wu to the accident. But crucial details like dates and serial numbers were removed or blurred.

Keyword searches on Google found the original document issued in Sept. 2023 – concerning the disposal of an unidentified body – and had no relation to the February incident.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the original document (left) and the document shared by social media users (right). 

Wu’s identity 

Also, Taiwanese coast guard officials told AFCL that the Facebook post was false, noting that while there was an official surnamed Wu, he served on the shore patrol team, and was not a maritime patrol captain. 

Also, a review of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs’ public company register revealed that the two fishery companies allegedly prompting Wu to target Chinese fishermen were approved for dissolution in Dec. 2017 and Nov. 2019, respectively.

Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.

Chinese officials arrested more than 100 Tibetan monks and other ethnic Tibetans in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Thursday to quell protests against a massive dam project that would destroy six Buddhist monasteries and force the relocation of two villages, three sources told Radio Free Asia. 

In a rare act of defiance, residents have taken to the streets of Wangbuding township in Dege County in Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture since Feb. 14 to oppose the plan to build the 2,240-megawatt Gangtuo hydropower station on the Drichu River (Jinsha in Chinese), which is located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, one of China’s most important waterways. 

Residents were particularly distraught that construction of the hydroelectric dam would destroy six monasteries, including the Wonto Monastery, which includes ancient murals that date to the 13th century, the sources said.

Citizen videos exclusively shared with RFA show Chinese officials dressed in black forcibly restraining monks, who can be heard crying out against the dam. 

The Chinese government has not released a statement about the arrests. A request for comment to the Chinese Embassy in Washington was not immediately returned. 

The detentions reportedly occurred in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, an area with a large population of ethnic Tibetans. Some of the arrested protesters required hospitalization due to rough treatment, sources said. 

Local sources who spoke with RFA despite the Chinese government’s effort to restrict communication from the area said police officers used water cannons, pepper spray and tasers to subdue the protesters. The videos shared with RFA do not show those tactics, however.

Rising opposition

The protests started on Feb. 14, when at least 300 Tibetans gathered outside the Dege County Townhall to protest the dam. Such protests are rare in China, particularly among Tibetans, due to strict controls on public gatherings and extensive surveillance by authorities.

The construction of the Gangtuo hydropower dam will force the resettlement of the Upper Wonto and Shipa villages and the Yena, Wonto and Khardho monasteries in Dege county, and the Rabten, Gonsar and Tashi monasteries in Chamdo township, sources told RFA. 

The Wonto and Yena monasteries, which are located closest to the site of the planned project, together have about 300 monks and hold significant cultural and religious importance to locals. 

The Wonto Monastery was severely damaged during China’s Cultural Revolution. Locals preserved its ancient murals, however, and began rebuilding the monastery in 1983

The number of monks who live and worship at the four other monasteries slated for destruction is not known. 

About 2,000 people live in the two villages and would be forced to relocate due to the dam project, sources told RFA.

The Gangtuo dam is part of a plan that China’s National Development and Reform Commission announced in 2012 to build a massive 13-tier hydropower complex on the Drichu. It would be located at Wontok (or Gangtuo in Chinese), Dege county, northwest of the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province.

The planned capacity of the 13 hydropower stations is 13,920 megawatts. 

Chinese authorities closed all the main roads and imposed strict restrictions, including on digital access, on the villages and monasteries in the Wangbuding township following the Feb. 14 protests.

On Feb 20, as authorities inspected Yena and Wonto monasteries in preparation for their demolition, video footage obtained by RFA showed monks prostrating themselves before the visiting Chinese officials to plead with them to halt the construction of the dam. 

The appeals continued today. But by then Chinese officials apparently had had enough, and the arrests began. Officials also reportedly confiscated the mobile phones of protesters. Some locals though avoided arrest and were able to record elements of the crackdown. 

Additional reporting by Pelbar and Sonam Lhamo. Edited by Jim Snyder and Malcolm Foster.