Day: February 28, 2024

Tibetans and Buddhist leaders in northern India on Wednesday participated in a march to show their solidarity with Tibetans in southwestern China’s Sichuan province arrested for peacefully protesting the planned construction of a dam. 

Similar solidarity rallies were held in London and other cities the same day.

The large Buddhist community in Ladakh – in Jammu and Kashmir – expressed concerns that the dam project will submerge several significant monasteries with ancient murals that date back to the 13th century. 

The Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, which organized the march and rally, said Buddhists there were concerned about the humanitarian situation and the violation of cultural and religious rights stemming from the expected impact of the dam on several monasteries and villages near the Drichu River.

On Feb. 23, police arrested more than 1,000 Tibetans, including monks and residents, of Dege county in Sichuan’s Kardze Autonomous Tibetan Prefecture, who had been protesting the construction of the Gangtuo Dam, meant to generate electricity.

If built, the power station could submerge monasteries in Dege’s Wangbuding township and force residents of at least two villages near the Drichu River to relocate, sources told RFA. 

Rigzin Dorjey, president of the youth wing of the Ladakh Buddhist Association Leh, said there is an urgent need to address the ongoing human rights abuses and environmental destruction perpetrated by China’s communist government. 

He underscored the interconnectedness of global Buddhist communities and the shared responsibility to stand in solidarity with Tibetans in their struggle for justice, freedom and dignity.

‘Collective commitment’

Lobsang Tsering, vice president of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of Ladakh, said the rally serves as “an expression of solidarity and support for Tibetans facing challenges and oppression in Dege county.”

“It symbolizes a collective commitment to standing up against oppression, promoting human rights and preserving Tibetan culture and identity in the face of adversity,” Tsering said. 

Tenzin Peldon, who participated in the march in Ladakh said while Tibetans everywhere usually gather to raise their voices against China on politically significant dates such as March 10, known as Tibetan Uprising Day – which commemorates the thousands of lives lost in the 1959 uprising against China’s invasion and occupation of their homeland – it is crucial that they come together during dire situations like the one being faced by Tibetans in Dege to collectively speak up against China’s oppression. 

“I urge all Tibetans in exile not to give up hope and to continue to raise awareness on online platforms about the plight of Tibetans in Dege county,” she said. 

Other protests were held in Bir village and Clement town in India, and in London, where Tibetans demonstrated outside the Chinese Embassy to show their support for the Dege county protesters, demand the release of the detainees, and call for an immediate halt to the dam construction.

“Risking arrest and torture, Tibetan residents of Kham Derge [Dege county] have shared images and videos of the protest with the outside world,” the Tibetan Community UK said in a statement. “They want the international community in the free world to know about their plight and to raise their voice.”

Authorities released about 40 of the arrested monks on Feb. 26 and 27, RFA reported on Tuesday.

Chinese authorities released about 20 monks each on Monday and Tuesday, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. 

Also on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch called on Chinese authorities to immediately release the detained Tibetan monks.

“The Chinese authorities have long been hostile to public protests, but their response is especially brutal when the protests are by Tibetans and other ethnic groups,” said Maya Wang, the group’s acting China director, in a statement. 

“Other governments should press Beijing to free these protesters, who have been wrongfully detained for exercising their basic rights,” she said.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Additional reporting by Pelbar for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Chinese companies invested in 17 projects worth US$986 million in Laos in 2023, positioning China to soon become the landlocked country’s top trading partner, replacing neighboring Thailand, according to the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment.

That’s nearly triple the amount in 2022 when Chinese investments totaled US$339 million for 30 projects.

The figure was shared at a meeting of the Laos-China Cooperation Committee in the Lao capital of Vientiane on Feb. 21-22, which reviewed trade with China and the country’s foreign direct investment, or FDI, in Laos.

But even as Chinese investment and trade pours in, many ordinary Loatians say they rarely see the benefits. 

They point to the forced relocation of residents who must give up farming land to Chinese concession holders to build factories, dams and their own industrial-sized farms. And the bump up in trade is driven to a great degree by products and agricultural goods that are exported to China, not sold domestically.

“Local people will have to live their lives uncomfortably if the government lets the Chinese investors come to Laos and do things that harm people,” said a villager from Pakxong district of Champassak province in southern Laos.

“This is not China; this is Laos,” he said, “and it does not mean that the Chinese investors can do everything they want once the government signs agreements or concessions to them.”

Attendees at the China-Laos Cooperation meeting highlighted the rollout of projects funded by grants from China, including the building of a railway operations training college, schools, and other initiatives designed to spur development in Laos, according to a report by the Vientiane Times.

Booming trade

The value of trade between the two nations rose 27% to just over US$7 billion in 2023 from US$5.7 billion in 2022, the report said.

Laos’ exports to China — including copper, rubber, cassava, bananas, salt and other agricultural products — totaled over US$3.7 billion for the year, an 11% increase, while the value of goods imported from China was estimated at about US$3.4 billion, a rise of 48%.

Chinese investment in both small- and large-scale projects has played a vital role in Laos’ economic growth and helped it to achieve its socioeconomic development plan goals and create jobs, an official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment told Radio Free Asia.

“It looks like it is the Lao government’s extraordinary policy to attract FDI from China,” said the official, who declined to give his name so to speak freely. “Many provinces throughout the country see the investment from China and concessions granted to Chinese investors.”

The official went on to say that China — Laos’ largest source of foreign investment in the past decade — has become a very important trade partner. Since 1989, Chinese investors have invested a total of US$13 billion in 933 projects in Laos, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in 2023.

The Lao government believes that by applying a strategic economic development plan along the lines of what the Chinese government does, Laos will emerge from its current status as a least-developed country and move to developing country status, as stated in its five-year socioeconomic development plan, the official said. 

Raw deal?

But many residents say they aren’t seeing the benefits in their income or standard of living.

A Vientiane resident, who like others in this report declined to be named out of fear of retaliation for speaking to the media, told RFA that Chinese investors pour money into Laos only for their own benefit and that in many cases people end up losing their farmland to Chinese-backed projects.

A resident of Phonehong district in Vientiane province told RFA that Laos has the potential to develop the country rather than to rely on Chinese investment. 

Natural resources and land are plentiful, but the Lao government does not have a good plan to promote and use them, he said. Instead, the government grants land concessions and mega- investment projects to Chinese investors and developers that don’t have too little reward for citizens.

“We have a lot of economic potential to develop our country, but we are not able to do so,” he said.

The villager from Pakxong district in Champassak province said that the government should reconsider its economic cooperation policy with China because many Chinese investors just come to profit without caring about locals. 

He cited the example of the Sithandone Joint Development Co. Ltd. in Khong district, a joint venture between Lao and Chinese investors from Hong Kong, which forced 300 families in eight villages to relocate to make way for a development known as the Sithandone Special Economic Zone or new Siphandone area. 

The Lao government gave the firm a 99-year concession in 2018 to develop part of the zone near some of the country’s most beautiful natural attractions, including Southeast Asia’s largest waterfall, Khone Phapheng, and the Four Thousand Islands, a riverine archipelago near the Cambodian border.

In September 2023, the firm paid compensation for local farmers as it sought to begin work on a 36-hole golf course, but about 35 families refused to move as the company prepared to begin construction.

Families who used land near a main road received 800 million kip (US$40,000) per hectare, while ones farther from the road got 200 million kip (US$10,000), one of the landowners told RFA in a January report. At that time, the company still had to pay the full amount of compensation for people’s homes and other property, said the landowner.

Another Vientiane resident acknowledged the importance of Chinese investment to grow the Lao economy and create jobs, but that Chinese companies still receive most of the benefits.

“If we carefully observe the investment from China in Laos, it does not mean that all the investment from China is for the Lao economy and people,” he said. “Those investment projects belong to Chinese investors and are for their own benefit. Many investment projects from China do not really help develop Laos.”

Translated by Phouvong for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Junta authorities are holding more than 100 mostly ethnic Rohingya Muslims captive at a camp for the displaced in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state and threatening to kill them if they refuse to take part in military training, residents said Wednesday.

The military is desperate for new recruits after suffering devastating losses on the battlefield to the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, in Rakhine. On Feb. 10, the junta enacted a conscription law that has seen draft-eligible civilians flee 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.

On Tuesday, a group of around 80 junta troops and police arrived at the Kyauk Ta Lone camp for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, in Rakhine’s Kyaukphyu township and forcibly gathered 107 Muslims between the ages of 18 and 35 at the camp’s food warehouse, after collecting their personal information.

Junta personnel told the captives that they would be “beaten to death” if they refused to take part in military training and threatened to “remove their families from the camp” if they attempted to escape, according to a resident.

The Muslims were also banned from using mobile phones and threatened with punishment if they spoke with the media, said the resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

Another resident with knowledge of the situation told RFA that junta personnel said the 107 Muslims were on the camp’s “first list for military training” and expected to undergo verbal instruction on Wednesday.

“The IDPs are not allowed to go outside at all … [and they] are surrounded by junta troops,” he said. “I found out that [on Thursday] they will be given guns and undergo [physical] military training.”

RFA attempted to contact camp officials and other residents on Wednesday for comment on the recruitment drive at Kyauk Ta Lone, but was unsuccessful, as their phones had been powered off.

Camp recruitment

RFA reported last week that the junta had offered freedom of movement to ethnic Rohingya Muslims restricted to Kyauk Ta Lone and other IDP camps in Rakhine state as part of a bid to entice them into military service amid the nationwide rollout of the conscription law.

But rights campaigners say the junta is drafting Rohingya into military service to stoke ethnic tensions in Rakhine, 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 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 Myanmar are designated stateless by the United Nations, including those who languish in camps and are restricted from moving freely in Rakhine state.

Kyauk Ta Lone is located 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) from the seat of Kyaukphyu township and is home to more than 1,000 people from 375 families.

While many identify as Rohingyas, others claim to be Kamans, who are recognized as one of the country’s ethnic groups but were forced to vacate the urban areas of Kyaukphyu in 2012 amid racial conflict in Rakhine state. The state’s population mostl belongs to Myanmar’s ethnic Rakhine Buddhist minority.

The latest census, taken in 2020, documented no Kamans living in Kyaukphyu township, which suggests that some Rohingyas living in the camp are identifying as Kaman to avoid social and political repercussions.

Draft for citizens only

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, told RFA that because the conscription law stipulates that only citizens are eligible to serve in the military, it is “illegal” to recruit those without citizenship status.

“The mandatory conscription law only applies to citizens and [the junta] doesn’t recognize Rohingyas as citizens,” he said.

Only some of the residents of Kyauk Ta Lone hold documents identifying them as citizens of Myanmar, while others have not been registered.

Ro Nay San Lwin said that the junta wants to train the Rohingya to fight against the AA to bolster its defense of territory in Rakhine state, which it has hemorrhaged since November, when the ethnic rebels ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the coup. 

In the past three months, 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.

“Although the ongoing situation is unrelated to the Rohingya issue, the junta is trying to reduce pressure on itself by using Rohingyas as human shields and creating communal conflict between ethnic groups,” he said.

Attempts by RFA to contact Attorney General Hla Thein, the junta’s spokesperson for Rakhine state, for comment on the situation there went unanswered Wednesday.

Pro-junta mouthpiece Myanma Alin has reported that no Muslims are being listed for military service in Rakhine state.

International Rohingya organizations have called on the U.N. Security Council to take action against the junta to prevent further oppression of the ethnic group in Myanmar.

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

A former top military police official who was found guilty 15 years ago in an acid attack that disfigured a victim’s face has been appointed as an adviser to former Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Former deputy military police chief Chea Ratha and five accomplices were sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison by Cambodia’s Appeals Court after a lower court’s not guilty verdict was reversed.

The six suspects were accused of attacking Ya Sok Nim, the aunt of beauty queen In Solida, who was reportedly Chea Ratha’s lover, according to Voice of America. Ya Sok Nim’s face was disfigured in the 2008 attack, while In Solida was unharmed.

In Solida said she was forced into a relationship with Chea Ratha until she finally refused, Voice of America reported. Chea Ratha has never been arrested or spent any time in prison. 

The permanent committee of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, approved the appointment, according to a decision signed by Hun Sen on Feb. 23.

Hun Sen, 71, stepped down as prime minister last August after decades in power, but he remains president of the CPP and is expected to be named president of the Senate in the coming weeks. 

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San told Radio Free Asia that Chea Ratha’s appointment is private. He refused to elaborate. 

‘Perpetrators rarely go to prison’

Acid attacks have been a common occurrence in Cambodia for several decades as a way for people to “inflict pain, permanently scar, or kill” romantic rivals or spurned lovers, Human Rights Watch said in a 2019 report. 

The report noted that even though lawmakers passed legislation in 2012 to provide health care and legal support to victims and to curb the availability of acid, “perpetrators rarely go to prison and victims rarely receive adequate health care or meaningful compensation.”

In October, Svay Sitha – a top government adviser whose wife has long been suspected in an infamous acid attack on his teenage lover – was named chairman of a committee that promotes positive news coverage of Prime Minister Hun Manet’s government.

While the CPP has the right to appoint whoever it wants, they should be mindful that people in high positions should be generally respected or have made some kind of positive contribution to the country, said Am Sam Ath of human rights group Licadho.

“If someone has been convicted, he or she should be rehabilitated first before the appointment is made,” he said. 

Naming Chea Ratha as an adviser isn’t surprising, though, said Men Nath, a Norway-based representative of the Cambodia Watchdog Council.

“It’s not just Chea Ratha who has been appointed,” he said. “There are many other criminals. Hun Sen is surrounded by those criminals.”

Military police spokesman Eng Hy and Chea Ratha couldn’t be reached for comment on Wednesday.

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

Merchants in North Korea are flocking to illegal night markets to sell their goods because the government has introduced new laws that prohibit the sale of goods that they did not make themselves, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.

It’s the latest effort by the government to eliminate the marketplace, where money and goods change hands without any government control.

Since the application of the new laws, the daytime outdoor markets are now empty, a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Markets are not as popular as they used to be due to market control by the authorities,” she said. “Instead, many night-time street vendors have appeared throughout downtown Chongjin this winter,” she said, referring to a city in the province.

North Korean marketplaces became widespread after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resulting end of aid from Moscow.

The centrally planned North Korean economy, designed with the government controlling all commerce, was unable to absorb the shock, which resulted in the 1994-1998 famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people, or possibly more than 2 million, or about 10% of the country by some estimates.

Inflation spiraled out of control and government-assigned jobs no longer paid a living wage, so people had to go into business for themselves to find a way to make ends meet. For many families, opening a stall in the open-air market became a means of survival.

The markets sold manufactured goods smuggled in from China or stolen from the military, or offered services provided by residents, and the government has almost no ability to tax transactions between buyer and seller, paid mostly in U.S. dollars or Chinese yuan.

Shut down

The markets thrived up until the COVID-19 pandemic, when nearly all commerce was shut down due to a closure of the border with China and a suspension of all trade. 

Business had been returning, but the government began enacting policies to kill the marketplaces, including by paying salaries on cash cards that cannot be used outside of government-run stores.

When that did not work, authorities invoked the new laws, which seemingly allow sellers to deal only in homemade handcrafts. This has forced the real commerce to be done secretly at night.

“When it gets dark, everyone comes out to do business around the market and on crowded street corners,” the North Hamgyong resident said. “Although the night markets are secret and illegal, they attract more people than the regular market.”

The secret markets were reminiscent of the famine era of the 1990s, which North Koreans call the “Arduous March,” she said, as the markets were not legalized until 2003.

‘Grasshopper markets’

Prior to 2003, all marketplaces were secret and had to be mobile. When inspectors came around, sellers would quickly pack up their wares and move to another location. These types of markets were called “grasshopper markets,” because people would disperse quickly, like the insects.

“If you go to the night street market, you will find all kinds of goods, including clothes, shoes, other things you need and even sweets,” the North Hamgyong resident said, adding that the night markets have a large variety of foods that aren’t available in the daytime. 

She said that one particular seller with a connection to rural farmers set up a stall with many different types of grain, including rice and corn. She sold out very quickly.

The new nighttime “grasshopper markets” have sprung up because the people are struggling to survive, and the new laws are working against them, another North Hamgyong resident said on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“There are many people who lost their businesses due to market control by the authorities,” he said. “They have no choice but to go to the night street market to make a living.”

Hard to stamp out

It does not only affect the sellers, he said. 

“You won’t be able to buy things you need at a daytime market, so you have no choice but to go to the night street market,” the second resident said. “Night street markets are thriving, but they are so inconvenient.”

In addition to the time, the nighttime markets are also more disorganized, he said. When the daytime markets were legal, sellers would organize themselves into sections for clothes, shoes, food, kitchenware and other products for customer convenience. 

In the night market the sellers just come together and sell whatever they have with no regard for what the next person is selling.

Crime in the night markets is also a problem, the second resident said.

“There are many thieves in the dark narrow alleys and street markets, so you can easily lose your wallet or purse,” he said. “The authorities’ market control is causing inconvenience to residents in so many ways.”

The second resident predicted that no matter how much the authorities try to control the markets, it will be difficult to completely eliminate street markets unless they resolve the problem of how people are supposed to make a living.

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Police across China are placing prominent dissidents under house arrest or taking them out of town on enforced “vacations” ahead of next week’s annual National People’s Congress in Beijing, activists said in interviews and via social media.

“With the parliamentary sessions approaching, Beijing is really unbearable,” veteran political journalist Gao Yu said via her X account. “State security police are being dispatched to guard people across all districts of Beijing, calling people and coming to their homes.”

“If this is what things are like before the parliamentary sessions have even started, how can people in Beijing go about their lives in a normal manner?”

As delegates get ready to attend the annual sessions of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference advisory body, which opens on March 4, and the National People’s Congress, the national lawmaking body which opens the following day, reports are emerging that police are stepping up security measures in Beijing.

State security police are also placing dissidents under surveillance or other forms of restriction across the country, including Hebei, Jiangsu and Guizhou provinces, and in the central city of Wuhan, as well as in the Chinese capital.

Beijing-based veteran dissident Ji Feng said he has been warned by state security police that they will be taking him out of town on an enforced “vacation” on Thursday.

“The relevant department visited my home to inform me that they’ll be taking me out of town … during the parliamentary sessions in Beijing,” Ji said. 

“Two of them will be driving me around Guizhou province in their car, taking me to various places like Liupanshui,” Ji said in a reference to a popular scenic area. “They said I didn’t need to know how long this would go on for.”

Ji said via his X account that he would also be “saying a temporary goodbye” to the platform. “I have to go out of Beijing on a trip,” he wrote. “I’ll meet up with friends again after I get back.”

Under surveillance

A Beijing-based lawyer who gave only the surname Zhang said he got a call from the Chaoyang district police department on Tuesday.

“I’m in Zhengzhou, and am going back to Beijing in the next few days,” Zhang said. “Yesterday, the Chaoyang state security police called me and asked me to let them know when I’m coming back to Beijing.”

“They’ll be sending a car to Beijing Station to pick me up and place me under surveillance,” he said.

A Beijing resident who gave only the surname Guo said the authorities are conducting sweeps of areas that are typically home to migrants from elsewhere in China, and forcing them to leave.

“They’re clearing the migrant population out of urban areas inside the Second Ring Road, like Dongcheng and Xicheng districts,” Guo said. “They say that 600,000 – 700,000 will be forced to leave.”

“I also heard that people and vehicles wanting to enter Beijing will have to apply for an entry permit, and that people entering Beijing have to register and are being interrogated.

‘I can’t go anywhere’

A scholar from the northern city of Shijiazhuang who gave only the surname Chen said he got a visit from police after speaking to a friend who lives there on the phone.

“They asked me why I was going to Beijing, and who I would be meeting,” Guo said. “I can’t go anywhere now — there are cameras everywhere.”

A petitioner from the central city of Wuhan who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals said she had planned to travel to Beijing to petition during the parliamentary sessions, but had been intercepted by state security police.

“I can’t go anywhere now,” Wang said. “All I can do is wait for the two sessions to be over.”

A Jiangsu-based rights activist who asked to be identified by his surname Qin said his local police have been active in recent days, too.

“They’ve been standing guard outside the door again since [Lantern Festival],” Qin said. “They are up to their old tricks, restricting the freedom of ordinary people and of rights activists.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.

A member of the banned Guizhou Human Rights Forum who declined to give their name for fear of reprisals said they have been taking on an out-of-town “vacation” by police.

“There are restrictions on everything,” the person said. “A lot of people are stuck at home, and have to be accompanied by state security if they go out,” he said.

Meanwhile, a member of the Early Rain Covenant Church in the southwestern city of Chengdu said a number of church members have also been warned not to leave home during the parliamentary sessions.

And a pastor in the eastern city of Qingdao told RFA he had been told not to “talk nonsense” during the parliamentary sessions, a likely reference to making critical social media posts or speaking with foreign journalists.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.