Day: March 18, 2024

At least five North Korean children have died as a resurgence of a respiratory disease believed to be COVID-19 has caused authorities to enact quarantine procedures in Ryanggang province, residents told Radio Free Asia.

Residents living in the central northern province, which borders China, will have to wear masks and children will be confined to their homes, as schools and daycare centers have been temporarily shuttered. Sources said they were not sure if the lockdown applied outside of Ryanggang province.

“In early March, children showing symptoms of coronavirus died one after another in Paegam county,” a resident of the province, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA Korean. “The provincial party committee took emergency quarantine measures through the quarantine center.” 

According to the resident, quarantine workers that went house-to-house informed residents that three children in Paegam county died along with two more in nearby Kapsan county after exhibiting coronavirus-like symptoms. Another Ryanggang resident confirmed how the news was spread. 

‘Fever cases’

Residents, however, say they believe the situation could be much worse than reported, the first resident said.

For the first two-and-a-half years of the pandemic, North Korea claimed outwardly to be completely “virus free,” but in April 2022, Pyongyang admitted the virus had spread to all areas of the country and declared a state of “maximum emergency” the following month. 

During the entirety of the emergency, the government kept an official tally of “fever cases,” but its official total on global COVID-19 case tracking websites remained at or near zero. Experts said it was likely that cases could not be confirmed due to a lack of reliable testing capacity. 

Prior to the emergency, when patients in North Korean hospitals with COVID symptoms died, the hospital would quickly cremate the bodies so that they could not be tested for the disease, then attributed the deaths to other causes.

Though authorities acknowledge that five children have died, residents think that the response points to many more casualties, as daycare centers, kindergartens and schools will be closed for a 10-day period, and everyone will be required to wear masks or face punishment, the resident said.

He said that the quarantine center in the city of Hyesan ordered all children to be kept at home as much as possible because they are at greater risk than adults.

“Some are complaining about how children are supposed to be kept indoors when the adults have to do whatever it takes to make a living and find food,” the resident said. “On the other hand, some others agree that the temporary school closure is the best option in the absence of medicine.”

The quarantine center also promoted personal hygiene practices when it went house-to-house, the second Ryanggang resident told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. 

“The quarantine workers warned of the seriousness of the situation and they also shared the news that several children infected with the coronavirus had died in Paegam and Kapsan counties,” she said. “There are many patients around me who are coughing and suffering from high fevers, similar to coronavirus symptoms.”

The second resident said things were just as bad now as they were during the pandemic. 

At that time, the border with China was closed and trade had been suspended, so there were shortages of everything. Additionally, lockdowns at home meant that people could not go out to earn money to support themselves.

“There is no money now, just like during the big outbreak,” she said. “And even if you have money it is difficult to get medicine.”

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.

More than 3,300 people have been evacuated as a wildfire spreads through a Tibetan-populated county in China’s Sichuan province, Chinese state media and three people with knowledge of the situation said Monday.

The fire, which began on the evening of March 15 on the slopes of a mountain near Petse village, forced Tibetans from about a dozen villages in three areas of Nyagchu county, or Yajiang in Chinese, to leave their homes.

The county lies in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the traditional Kham region of eastern Tibet. Tibetans made up the majority of the county’s total population of over 51,000, according to 2020 census data. 

The cause of the fire, which quickly spread to multiple mountain ridges due to strong winds on March 16, is still unknown, sources told Radio Free Asia. 

One of three main sections of the fire has been extinguished, China Daily reported Monday.  

But more than 11 Tibetan villages at the foot of the mountains are still in danger as the wildfire continues to spread rapidly across the area covered mostly by pine trees, while residents are being evacuated, said the first source from inside Tibet. 

Although the fire burned down several houses in nearby communities and harmed animals on the mountains, no human casualties have been reported, said two sources inside the country and a third from the exile community with knowledge of the situation.

Firefighters arrived at the scene on Sunday, said the first source from inside Tibet. That same day, the Ministry of Emergency Management declared a Level-4 emergency response.  

Firefighters dispatched

Chinese state media reported that more than 1,200 firefighters and eight helicopters had been dispatched to fight the fire, with a reinforcement of 750 more firefighters expected from neighboring Yunnan province, according to Chinese media. 

The Jamyang Choekhorling Monastery, founded by popular Tibetan religious leader and activist Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, as well as the Pamo Monastery near Paomo Mountain, are located close to an area where the fire is spreading rapidly, the sources said.

The fire also has burned to the ground about 30 houses in the nearby villages, said the second source from inside Tibet. 

“The fire is spreading very fast because of the direction of the wind,” he told RFA. “If we put it out in one area, it starts in another.”

Firefighters, local Chinese authorities and Tibetan residents are all working to stem the spread of the fire and to ensure minimum damage to homes, monasteries and animals, he added.  

Chinese authorities have warned Tibetans not to share photos or videos of the fire on social media platforms or with contacts abroad, or face arrest, said the first source from inside Tibet. 

State media reported that authorities temporarily closed a highway passing through the region and that communication with a hydroelectric station has been interrupted. 

Written by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Authorities in southwestern Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region have commenced lotteries to select who will be drafted into the military from among lists of draft-eligible youths, but residents say the process is tainted by irregularities.

The announcement last month of a conscription law, prompting youths of fighting age to flee to areas controlled by rebel groups or leave the country to avoid service. While the military regime says it will not begin drafting people until April, RFA Burmese has received reports indicating that forced recruitment is already underway.

The draft comes as the military tries to replenish its ranks after suffering a series of battlefield defeats to rebel forces, including the surrender of hundreds of soldiers. 

Residents of Ayeyarwady region told RFA that authorities in the townships of Pyapon, Myaungmya, and Hinthada began instituting lotteries for the draft at the village level on Saturday, after compiling lists of residents aged 20-30. The selection process is being supervised by relevant administrators, officials and community elders, they said.

But the lotteries have raised hackles in communities where residents say not everyone on lists of the draft-eligible are being added to the selection pool.

“When the neighborhood elders compile a list, those included are required to attend the [lottery] meeting,” said one resident of Hinthada who was among those selected for service. “However … some people on the list are not called upon … They are neither employed nor studying. So why are these people being left out?”

The resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said that “only a minority are included” in the lottery.

Some who have taken part in the draft lottery accused authorities of “administrative dishonesty,” although they were unable to provide details or evidence of their claims.

RFA has reported that amid forced recruitment drives in other parts of the country, some residents have been able to avoid service by paying “fines” to authorities.

Another resident of Hinthada told RFA that in some neighborhoods in the township, those selected in the draft lottery were immediately taken away by authorities.

“After the draw, the person who was chosen must go,” said the resident. “In a nearby neighborhood, people said they were taken at once.”

A resident of Pyapon told RFA that lotteries for military service were held on Sunday in some of the township’s villages, but said some of those chosen had managed to “avoid participation.”

Attempts by RFA to ascertain why some draft-eligible residents were omitted from lotteries remain inconclusive.

Tragedy following lottery

Reports of conscription irregularities came as RFA learned that one young man in Ayeyarwady’s Kangyidaunt township took his own life after being selected to serve in the military.

Residents of Kangyidaunt’s Pathein district said that on Saturday, a lottery was held and three young men from Yae Twin Chaung village were chosen for service.

A 20-year-old from among the three men, who was known to be against the draft, died by suicide the following day, said one of the residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

“I learned that he died that evening after receiving emergency medical treatment at the Pathein Public Hospital,” said the resident. “His family has been summoned by the local police station for interrogation.”

A source who lives in proximity to Yae Twin Chaung also confirmed to RFA that the man had taken his own life after being selected for service in a lottery overseen by village elders.

Although there is no positive proof that the man’s death and his selection in the draft lottery are related, it highlights the tensions young Burmese men are facing due to conscription.

Young adults aged 20-30 are eligible for conscription in Ayeyarwady region through lotteries, residents told RFA. Typically, two or three people are chosen from each village or ward.

Youths in Ayeyarwady region have told RFA they are reluctant to serve in the military.

Attempts by RFA to contact Khin Maung Kyi, the junta’s social affairs minister and spokesperson for Ayeyarwady region, for comment on the recruitment process went unanswered Monday.

Junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun announced on Feb. 15 that 50,000 people would be recruited annually under the country’s draft law.

Based on Myanmar’s 2019 transit census, at least 13 million people are eligible to serve, he said.

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

The Vietnamese government body responsible for combating corruption has proposed penalizing five high-ranking provincial leaders detained for accepting bribes, state media reported.

Vietnam is judged to have significant corruption by those holding political power in the one-party state. Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index for 2023 ranked Vietnam 83 out of 180 countries, putting it on the same level as Burkina Faso, Kosovo and South Africa.

On March 18, the Central Inspection Committee proposed disciplinary measures for two officials from Vinh Phuc province, in the north: Party Chief Hoang Thi Thuy Lan and Chairman of People’s Committee Le Duy Thanh.

It also proposed measures for three officials from Quang Ngai province in the central part of the country: Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee Dang Van Minh, Cao Khoa, former chairman of the Quang Ngai People’s Committee, and Ha Hoang Viet Phuong, director of the Dung Quat Economic Zone and Industrial Parks Management Board. 

The measures followed a widening of an investigation into the case of “violating accounting regulations, causing serious consequences” involving Nguyen Van Hau, also known as Hau Phao, and his accomplices at Phuc Son Group Joint Stock Company, Thang Long Commercial and Real Estate Joint Stock Company, and related entities. 

Based on the testimony of Hau, who was arrested in February, and others, the Investigation Police Agency decided to prosecute additional individuals on charges of receiving bribes; violating bidding regulations, causing serious consequences; and taking advantage of influence on people in positions of power for personal gain. The crimes occurred in Vinh Phuc, Quang Ngai and Vinh Long provinces. 

Others prosecuted were Ha Hoang Viet Phong; Pham Ngoc Thuy, deputy director of Quang Ngai’s Department of Transportation and former head of the department’s Technical and Quality Division; Le Quoc Dat, director of Quang Ngai’s Construction Investment Project Management Board and former head the province’s Investment Management Division of the Department of Transportation; and Pham Ngoc Cuong, deputy general director of the Phuc Son Group.

They were prosecuted for violating bidding regulations, causing serious consequences under Article 222 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. 

Dang Trung Hoanh, chief of staff of Mang Thit District’s People Committee in Vinh Long province, was prosecuted for “taking advantage of influence on people with positions and powers for personal gains” under Article 366 of the Penal Code. 

On March 8, Dang Ngoc Minh, chairman of Quang Ngai People’s Committee, was arrested and prosecuted following the arrest and prosecution of Cao Khoa, the province’s former chairman, a day earlier. Both were charged with receiving bribes.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

As Hong Kong authorities prepare to pass a second national security law, the British government has relaxed some of the immigration rules for people from the city seeking to emigrate to the United Kingdom amid a crackdown on dissent.

The Safeguarding National Security bill, currently before the Legislative Council, includes sentences of up to life imprisonment for treason, insurrection, sabotage and mutiny, and 20 years for espionage. 

It can punish people 10 years for crimes linked to “state secrets” and “sedition,” and allow the passports of anyone who flees overseas to be revoked.

The legislation is mandatory under Article 23 of its Basic Law, which has provided a constitutional framework for the city since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule. 

It was recently rebooted after being shelved following mass popular protests against it in 2003, and is expected to pass this week.

Critics say the ruling Communist Party has a broad and vaguely defined interpretation of many of the crimes in the bill, and that “national security” charges are already being used to prosecute people for peaceful dissent and political opposition in the city.

Relaxed rules

Now, the U.K. Home Office has relaxed the rules for holders of its British National Overseas, or BNO, passport who wish to apply for a visa. 

The visa offers a pathway to resettlement and eventual citizenship, making it easier for them to obtain public assistance if they run out of money, smoothing out bureaucratic bottlenecks and allowing them to bring relatives and dependent adults with them with independent visa status.

In February, the United Kingdom loosened requirements for people wanting to emigrate from Hong Kong with their partner under the BNO route to citizenship. To date, at least 191,000 people have applied to the visa program, according to government figures released in November.

The moves, while not huge in scope, will likely smooth the path of many families to resettlement in the United Kingdom, an immigration consultant told RFA Cantonese.

An immigration consultant with the British advocacy group Hong Kong Aid who gave only his surname Chow for fear of reprisals said he has seen an uptick in inquiries about the BNO visa since the government announced it would fast-track the new national security law through the legislature.

“My sense is we have been getting a lot more inquiries from Hong Kong about applying for BNO visas and political asylum as the Article 23 [law] has been in process,” Chow said. 

“We have been getting a call every couple of days since February,” he said. Public consultation on the law started on Jan. 30.

Chow said he didn’t believe that the rule changes alone were enough to prompt a surge in applications.

A Hong Kong resident who moved to the United Kingdom a few months ago and who gave only the surname Cheung welcomed the rule changes. Now she plans to apply to have her elderly, dependent mother join her.

“It’s definitely very beneficial, because I had been worried about this for a long time,” she said. “She’s very old, and this is about our family’s long-term future and career development. We all think the U.K. is a better place.”

Moves in Canada

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Canada are calling on the government to make sure that they continue to offer priority processing of applications from Hong Kongers wanting to emigrate to the country, and to take steps to ease bureaucratic bottlenecks for more than 100 applicants.

Parliamentarians Melissa Lantsman and Tom Kmiec said they are concerned about the effects of delays “as the human rights situation in Hong Kong continues to deteriorate and Hong Kongers look for a safe way to exit the city by immigrating to Canada.”

“We would like to clarify whether priority processing is still in place as the situation in Hong Kong continues to deteriorate,” they said in a letter to the immigration minister.

Aileen Calverley, co-founder and trustee of the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, said many Hong Kongers are being faced with delays in processing their applications to emigrate to Canada.

“It is important that the government uphold its commitment and ensure their applications are processed in a timely manner,” Calverley said in a statement.

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

At least 15 political prisoners have died at Daik-U Prison in central Myanmar since last May, earning the prison in a remote area of Bago region a notorious reputation for abuse and neglect, aid workers and former prisoners told Radio Free Asia.

The 15 deaths include two since early February, according to sources close to family members. Those two men – 64-year-old Khin Soe and 68-year-old Aye Win – were serving long-term sentences and didn’t have access to health care at the prison, the sources told Radio Free Asia.

Aye Win died on Feb. 9 and had been serving an eight-year sentence that included a conviction under Section 505 (a), which was added to the penal code after the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup d’etat to punish comments or implications that the coup or the military is illegitimate. The cause of his death was unknown.

Junta authorities arrested Khin Soe when they were unable to capture his son, a person close to the family said. His health had worsened in the months before his March 6 death, the family friend said.

“We couldn’t do anything,” the friend said. “One of my friends advised us to voice the lack of medical treatment for him through the news media. But we were afraid his family would be made to suffer if we did.”

The junta’s Ministry of Information on Saturday said Khin Soe died from a longtime stomach illness while being transferred from the prison’s hospital to the Daik-U township People’s Hospital. It denied that the prison lacks medical treatment. 

‘Abruptly changed’

Daik-U Prison was built to hold about 1,000 inmates. The first set of prisoners were transferred into the facility in 2017 during a time when the country was led by a civilian government.

After the 2021 coup, prison authorities stopped providing adequate treatment and refused to allow inmates to receive shipments of medicine from outside the prison, former inmates told RFA. 

Former prisoners also said that political inmates suffered physically from frequent interrogation sessions and were malnourished from not getting enough food and water.

They also weren’t allowed to do physical exercise because authorities suspected the exercises would help prisoners flee.

Daik-U Prison has earned a reputation since the coup for being particularly harsh, said Thaik Tun Oo, a member of the Leading Committee for Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar, or PPNM.

“The situation has abruptly changed,” he said. “The prisoners are being kept in a strict and oppressive manner.”

A legal expert in Yangon said the prison is being run in an illegal manner, and should be examined by government officials.

“This type of repression on political prisoners is also not acceptable in terms of social justice,” he said. 

RFA contacted Naing Win, deputy director general of the junta’s Prisons Department, for his comment on the deaths at Daik-U Prison, but he didn’t answer his phone.

In 2023, a total of 34 political prisoners died in prisons nationwide. Among them, 18 were killed in prison and 16 died after not receiving full medical treatment, according to PPNM.

As of March 14, some 26,242 people have been arrested for political reasons since the coup, according to a report from the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners. Nearly 9,000 of those arrestees are currently serving prison terms, the group said.

Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.