Day: March 4, 2024

Chinese officials have told local ethnic Tibetans and monastic leaders in Sichuan province to maintain stability following the arrest of more than 1,000 protesters over a hydropower dam, and made clear that the project would continue, two Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said.

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

“Chinese officials have held meetings in the Wonto village area where they ordered local Tibetans to comply with the government’s plans and regulations and called for the leaders of the local monasteries to mobilize the locals to toe the party line,” said one source who hails from Dege and now lives in exile. 

On Feb. 25, Dege County Party Secretary Baima Zhaxi visited Wangbuding and neighboring townships to meet with Buddhist monastic leaders and village administrators, during which he called for “stability” and urged residents to comply with regulations or else be “dealt with in accordance with the law and regulations,” according to a local news report.

“As the stability maintenance period in March and the national Two Sessions approach, we must implement detailed stability maintenance measures to promote continued harmony and stability in the jurisdiction,” Zhaxi was quoted in the report as saying. 

The Two Sessions refers to China’s annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, being held this week in Beijing.

“We must continue to carry out the investigation and resolution of conflicts, risks and hidden dangers, and effectively resolve conflicts and disputes at the grassroots level, and nip them in the bud,” Zhaxi said.

Zhaxi’s visit comes ahead of Tibetan Uprising Day on March 10, a politically sensitive date that commemorates the thousands of Tibetans who died in a 1959 uprising against China’s invasion and occupation of their homeland, and the flight of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile in northern India.

Keep building

Zhaxi also visited the dam construction site and told the leaders of the coordination team to adhere to their work orders and make arrangements for “the next step of work,” according to a local Chinese government announcement.

Zhaxi told residents about “the great significance and necessity of the construction of hydropower stations” and indicated that the government would “protect the legitimate interests of the masses to the greatest extent.”

“Abide by the law, express your demands in a legal, civilized and rational manner, and do not exceed the bottom line,” Zhaxi told locals during the on-site visit, according to the same news report. “Otherwise, you will be dealt with in accordance with the law and regulations.” 

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

Authorities continue to heighten security restrictions in Dege county on the east bank of the Drichu River, called Jinsha in Chinese, and in Jomda county of Qamdo city in the Tibet Autonomous Region on the west bank of the river, said the sources who both live in exile and requested anonymity for safety reasons. 

Strict surveillance

Residents are forbidden from contacting anyone outside the area, the sources said. Chinese officials continue to impose strict digital surveillance and tight restrictions on movement in Wangbuding after rare video footage emerged from inside Tibet on Feb. 22 of Chinese police beating Tibetan monks, before arresting more than 100 of them, most of whom were from Wonto and Yena monasteries. 

Since then, authorities have carried out wide-scale rigorous interrogations of the arrested Tibetans, even as information from inside Tibet has been harder to come by amid a crackdown on the use of mobile phones and social media and messaging platforms to restrict communication with the outside world, sources said.

The protests began on Feb. 14, when at least 300 Tibetans gathered outside Dege County Town Hall to protest the building of the Gangtuo Dam, part of a massive 13-tier hydropower complex with a total planned capacity of 13,920 megawatts. 

Over the past two weeks, Tibetans in exile have been holding solidarity rallies in cities in the United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia and India.  

Global leaders and Tibetan advocacy groups have condemned China’s actions, calling for the immediate release of those detained. Last week, Chinese authorities released about 40 of the arrested monks on Feb. 26 and 27, RFA reported. 

Additional reporting and editing by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

The military junta’s notorious Ogre Column cut off body parts – including heads – during a weeklong rampage through a Sagaing region township that left 11 men dead, residents and members of local People’s Defense Forces told Radio Free Asia.

The victims were from nine different villages in Taze township and were all males between the ages of 25 and 70, a member of the anti-junta Taze People’s Defense Force told RFA. Nine of the 11 victims were found decapitated, he said.

“Almost all of the corpses had their male organs cut off, their bellies sliced open, their arms, legs, heads and other parts brutally removed,” he said. “In the case of one of the deceased bodies, they cut off the head, applied make-up, adorned it with glasses and even put on cigarettes.”

The Ogre Column, officially part of the Myanmar military’s 99th Light Infantry Battalion, is a unit of killers notorious for their cruelty in a military already known for its brutality.

They’re part of a psychological warfare approach developed by the country’s generals that’s known as “Sit Oo Bi Lu,” the “First wave of brutal attack,” or “Yakkha Byu Har” – “The Ogre Strategy,” according to a former military captain who defected to the rebel side since the junta’s Feb. 1, 2021 coup d’etat.

Ogre Column troops also raided Taze township and several other nearby townships in March and April of 2023, cutting off limbs and beheading people across Sagaing, which has seen some of the fiercest resistance against the military junta. 

In January, five villagers from Sagaing’s Tabayin township were arrested by the Ogre Column, local residents said. They were also subjected to mutilation of their body parts, they said.

Arrested on his motorcycle

In their most recent appearance in Taze township, the column arrived in Kan Htu Ma village and began burning houses on Feb. 23 – hours after local defense forces had attacked a police station, according to residents.

Over the next week, they attacked villages to the west of Kan Htu Ma village, residents said. They finally left the township on Saturday.

The Taze People’s Defense Force member told RFA that some of the bodies of the 11 men were found on the edges of forested land and in adjacent villages.

One of the victims – a 45-year-old man named San Po – was arrested on Feb. 29 while trying to flee the area on his motorcycle, a resident of Ywar Thit Kone village, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA.

“He said he was afraid of the approaching column and fled to avoid it,” the village resident said. “He can’t run on foot because of his gout disease.”

San Po’s body was found on March 1 on the outskirts of Ywar Thit Kone village, the resident said.

RFA attempted to contact the Minister of Ethnic Affairs, Sai Naing Naing Kyaw, who is the junta’s spokesman for Sagaing region, but he didn’t answer a telephone call.

Former naval Capt. Zay Thu Aung, who now advises resistance forces as part of the country’s anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement, said junta soldiers are killing civilians and fighters and mutilating some of their bodies because the People’s Defense Forces has prolonged a conflict they expected would be over quickly.

“In such situations where they are unable to think clearly,” he said. “They haven’t seen their families for years, and the ongoing conflict further intensifies their feelings of animosity.”

Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Matt Reed.

The ethnic Arakan Army won’t lay down arms until it has liberated all of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state from military rule, an official said Monday.

The Arakan Army, or AA, has captured six townships in Rakhine, and a seventh in neighboring Chin state, since it ended a ceasefire agreement in November that had been in place since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat. Its fighters are in the midst of an offensive against junta troops in five other Rakhine townships.

Speaking at an online news conference on Monday, AA spokesman Khaing Thu Kha said his group will continue to fight until it has taken over the entirety of the state for the ethnic Rakhine people.

“The goal of the Arakan Army is to fight for the liberation of the entirety of Rakhine state,” he said. “We [ethnic Rakhines] will establish the future of Arakan state through full self-determination.”

Khaing Thu Kha said that the AA is not seeking independence and instead will allow the Rakhine people to “create their own future within Myanmar,” adding that they won’t accept a political status for the state “lower than confederate.”

The AA, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army together make up the ethnic Three Brotherhood Alliance, which in October launched an offensive known as Operation 1027 against the military in northern Shan state, which borders China.

The alliance captured 16 cities in Shan state, including Muse and Chinshwehaw, before agreeing to a ceasefire in China-brokered talks with junta representatives on Jan. 11. An ex-military official later said it was not sustainable and less than a week after the agreement, both sides were accused of violating it in a skirmish.

Last week, the two sides met again in the Chinese city of Kunming for talks that focused on reopening parts of the border with China that had been shut down during the fighting and preserving the ceasefire.

On Monday, AA Deputy Chief Nyo Tun Aung made clear that the ceasefire in northern Shan state, known as the Haigeng agreement, has no bearing on his group’s activities in Rakhine state.

“At the moment, we are only discussing the Haigeng agreement, which is concerned only with the AA in northern Shan state, not with our troops in Rakhine state,” he said.

Attempts by RFA Burmese to contact junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the AA statements went unanswered Monday.

‘They won’t get another chance’

Since ending the ceasefire in Rakhine state, the AA has captured the townships of Pauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Myaybon, and Taungpyo, as well as Paletwa township in Chin state. The group is fighting for control of Ponnagyun, Ramree, Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships in Rakhine.

A former military officer said that if the AA agrees to stop fighting in Rakhine, it won’t be able to capture Kyaukphyu township’s strategic sea coast or the state capital, Sittwe.

“They won’t get another chance to control these areas … so the AA has vowed to continue its offensives,” said the former officer, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “The junta will work hard to keep these areas, so the AA in northern Shan state will likely join the fighting in Rakhine.”

In the three months of fighting in Rakhine state, junta artillery attacks and small arms fire has killed 111 civilians and injured another 357, according to the AA. The group said that nearly 300,000 people have fled their homes due to the conflict. 

A resident of the state told RFA that ethnic Rakhines are willing to make sacrifices for a chance at true autonomy in Myanmar.

“The AA will win the conflict, but there will be loss of life,” he acknowledged. “[Ethnic Rakhines] have high expectations for the AA. There is a sense that we now have the best chance to determine our own future for our people.”

At a ceremony in the capital Naypyidaw on Feb. 13, junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said he will only pursue peace in Myanmar according to the 2008 military-drafted constitution and would never acquiesce to demands made by the armed resistance.

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

The United Nations human rights chief on Monday urged China to carry out recommendations from his office to protect human rights in Tibet, Xinjiang and across the country – but activists criticized his comments as weak and not backed up by action.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk made the comments on China while delivering an address to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, updating its members on an array of themes and country situations.

Türk’s predecessor, Michelle Bachelet, issued a report in August 2022 that found that China’s detention of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity, though Beijing denies committing any abuses.

“I also call on the government to implement the recommendations made by my office and other human rights bodies in relation to laws, policies and practices that violate fundamental rights, including in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions,” Türk said. “I’m engaging with the Hong Kong authorities on continuing concerns about national security laws.”

Bachelet’s report made 13 recommendations to the Chinese government, including promptly releasing those detained against their will in detention camps – but which Beijing calls vocational education and training centers.

The report called on China to investigate allegations of human rights abuses at the facilities, including accusations of torture, sexual violence, forced labor and deaths in custody.

China should also release details about the location of Uyghurs in Xinjiang who have been out of touch with relatives abroad, establish safe means of communication for them and allow travel so families can be reunited – something that is now forbidden.

In the address, Türk said his office looked forward to engaging with China on plans it announced during its recent Universal Periodic Review to adopt 30 new measures for human rights protection, including amendments to the criminal law and revisions of the Criminal Procedure law.

During China’s Universal Periodic Review — a comprehensive review of its human rights record — at the Human Rights Council in January, Chinese government officials defended Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang, while the U.S. representative to the United Nations condemned the country’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity there. 

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to an RFA request for comment on Türk’s address.

Though China has denied rights violations in Xinjiang, Western states continue to raise alarms about continuing repression, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances of Uyghurs and others.

Western nations and human right groups have also condemned the Chinese government for policies undermining Tibetans’ religion, culture and language as well as for its brutal treatment of dissidents and the implementation of harsh national security laws in Hong Kong. 

‘Weak performance’

Sophie Richardson, former China director of Human Rights Watch, called Türk’s address “a weak performance,” saying he seemed “completely unmotivated by the agony and the pressure and the abuses that people across China are enduring.”

“I find it deeply worrying that he seems to be relying on tools and tactics that are, I think, well established to be ineffective, particularly dialogues,” she told RFA. “I think it’s also very worrying that he won’t even refer to his own office’s report on the Uyghur region and the conclusion that there may potentially be crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese government.” 

“Thirty years of human rights dialogs have clearly enabled crimes against humanity, not prevented them,” Richardson said. 

New York-based Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, took Türk to task for “staying shamefully silent on the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.”

Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said Türk’s call was a step in the right direction, though not enough because the findings in Bachelet’s report haven’t yet been discussed at the Human Rights Council. 

“While Türk may be reluctant to take a stronger position on China because of China’s powerful influence at the U.N., his latest statement stings China badly as China is attempting to cover up the Uyghur genocide,” he said.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Laos has repatriated 268 Chinese citizens suspected of scamming while living or working at a murky Chinese-run special zone along the Mekong river, the China Daily reported.

The Lao Ministry of Public Security confirmed to Radio Free Asia that the suspects were sent back to China in January, and that they were all arrested in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, or SEZ, a gambling and tourism hub in northern Laos that caters to Chinese tourists.

The handover took place in January at Bokeo international airport, a ministry official said. The Chinese media just reported about this on Feb. 28, he said.

An official at the Chinese Embassy in Vientiane told RFA that the Chinese consular officials in Luang Prabang province went to the airport to witness the handover.

Several Lao citizens told RFA Lao that they were happy that suspected criminals from the SEZ were being sent back because by using the zone as their base of operations they were giving Laos a bad reputation as a hotbed for crime.

“I closely follow news of the [alleged] scammers,” a Lao citizen, who like all unnamed sources in this report requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA. “I think it is not easy to wipe them out in a short period of time and it seems it could take many years.”

Another citizen told RFA that there are notices throughout the country that warn Lao people not to be duped into taking high paying jobs offered by unknown parties in the special economic zone. 

The warnings are clear but still people fall for them, and many end up being made to scam foreign tourists in the zone, or worse, trafficked to other countries or “sold” into the sex trade.

“I always hear the warnings, but I still see some people take job offers to work there,” he said. “However, there are fewer people going there now and those who are already there are returning, as I observe.”

An official in Bokeo province said that some family members come to ask for help from the executive office of the zone or relevant officials to investigate the cases of Lao citizens or foreigners who are lured to conduct illegal work in the zone who later disappeared, or lost contact with them.

“They file documents to us and then there is a team, consisting of officials from the department of social welfare and labor and the immigration police, who work on each case,” he said. “There is also a task force unit and we will follow up the cases filed.”

In November, Lao and Chinese police jointly cracked down on call-center scammers in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone and arrested up to 462 Chinese nationals. All of them were sent back to China for further investigation via the Laos-China border at the Boten-Mohan international border checkpoint.

In September, the Lao ministry of public security handed over 164 Chinese nationals who were believed to be involved with telecom fraud in China.

Reported by RFA for Lao service and translated by Phouvong. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

International human rights groups were stunned at Vietnam’s bid for reelection as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council in the 2026-2028 term. The critics say that during its current three-year stint on the Geneva-based body, Hanoi has condoned rights violations by fellow authoritarian states while mounting a harsh crackdown on civil society groups, bloggers and activists in Vietnam.