Day: April 9, 2024

In the event of the Dalai Lama’s death, Buddhist monks are banned from displaying photos of the Tibetan spiritual leader and other “illegal religious activities and rituals,” according to a training manual Chinese authorities have distributed to monasteries in Gansu province in China’s northwest, a source inside Tibet and exiled former political prisoner Golok Jigme said.

The manual, which lists 10 rules that Buddhist clergy should follow, also forbids disrupting the process of recognizing the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, said the source from inside Tibet who requested anonymity for safety reasons. 

Tibetans believe they should determine his successor in accordance with their Buddhist belief in reincarnation, while the Chinese government seeks to control the centuries-old selection method.

The 14th Dalai Lama, 88, fled Tibet amid a failed 1959 national uprising against China’s rule and has lived in exile in Dharamsala, India, ever since. He is the longest-serving Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader in Tibet’s history.

The manual, which was seen by Radio Free Asia and was issued to monks in Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the historical Amdo region of Tibet, is the latest effort by Beijing to crack down on the religious freedom of the Tibetan people, experts and rights groups say. 

It is part of Beijing’s systematic attempts to make Tibetan Buddhists more loyal to the Chinese Communist Party and its political agenda rather than to their religious doctrine, said Bhuchung Tsering, head of the research and monitoring unit of International Campaign for Tibet in Washington.

“This goes against all tenets of universally accepted freedom of religion of the Tibetan people that China purports to uphold,” he told RFA.

China has imposed various measures to force Tibetan monasteries to conduct political re-education and has strictly prohibited monks and ordinary Tibetans from having contact with the Dalai Lama or Tibetans in exile, whom Beijing sees as separatists.

The Chinese government has intensified its suppression of Tibetan Buddhism in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and in other Tibetan-populated areas in China in recent years.

“The latest government campaigns against the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhists’ religious practices in Gansu province represent another attempt by the Chinese government to interfere in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation process,” said Nury Turkel, a commissioner on the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF.

Turkel called on the U.S. government to sanction Chinese officials who violate religious freedom. 

‘Separatist ideology’

The manual also says monks are forbidden to engage in activities that undermine national unity, hurt social stability in the name of religion or require cooperation with separatist groups outside the country, the source said.  

It says no illegal organizations or institutions will be allowed to enter monasteries and that the education system for monks cannot harbor elements of “separatist ideology.”

The rules also prohibit the promotion of “separatist ideas” and the dissemination of “separatist propaganda” via radio, internet and television or by other means, and forbids deception in the form of open or covert fraud, the source from inside Tibet said.

“While the Chinese government implements various political education and activities targeting Tibetans, the primary focus seems to be eradicating Tibetan identity through the dismantling of Tibetan religion and culture,” said Golog Jigme, who was imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities in 2008 for co-producing a documentary on the injustices faced by Tibetans under Chinese rule. He now lives in Switzerland and works as a human rights activist.

There are 10 Tibetan autonomous prefectures in Chinese provinces bordering Tibet, including ones in Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai and Yunnan, where many ethnic Tibetans live. 

Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province, where authorities distributed the manuals, is home to about 415,000 Tibetans speaking the Amdo dialect.

The province has about 200 large and small monasteries under its administration. 

During a visit to two counties in Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in March, He Moubao, secretary of China’s State Party Committee emphasized the need for Tibetans to Sinicize religion and to implement the Chinese Communist Party’s policy on religious work. Monks should be guided in this regard to maintain national unity and social stability, he said.

“Communist China egregiously violates the religious freedom in Tibet by Sinicising Tibetan Buddhism to fulfill its political and ideological goals and agenda,” said former USCIRF Chair Tenzin Dorjee.

“To say that no one can lawfully practice Buddhism after His Holiness the Dalai Lama passes away is an indication of imposing more religious repressions in Tibet later,” he told RFA.

China, which annexed Tibet in 1951, rules the western autonomous region with a heavy hand and says only Beijing can select the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, as stated in Chinese law. 

Tibetans, however, believe the Dalai Lama chooses the body into which he will be reincarnated, a process that has occurred 13 times since 1391, when the first Dalai Lama was born. 

At his home in Dharamsala earlier this month, the Dalai Lama, whose given name is Tenzin Gyatso, told a gathering of hundreds of Tibetans during a long-life prayer offering to him that he was in good health and was “determined to live for more than 100 years.”

He has said on several occasions that his successor would come from a free country without Chinese interference. 

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

Facing drought and saltwater intrusions in southern Vietnam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called on authorities to ensure people have sufficient drinking water, a government dispatch said Monday. 

Through mid-May, the Mekong Delta region could experience three waves of saltwater intrusion – when ocean water seeps into sources of freshwater – and so far in 2024, the problem has been much worse than normal, the dispatch said.

The government’s communique came after TV footage showed residents of an apartment complex in Thu Duc, a subcity of Ho Chi Minh City, lined up around the block on April 3, buckets in hand, to get water from a truck. 

The facilities’ 4,000 residents had received a notice that their water would be turned off for maintenance, but experts told Radio Free Asia that water supply issues like these could be caused by a drought in the region and saltwater intrusion.

Experts acknowledged the problem, but were not alarmed, saying that there would be very little effect on agriculture, and issues with water supply to homes would not be too serious.

The management board for the Ehome Phu Huu Residential Complex said on April 4 that water had been restored to the apartment building. RFA Vietnamese contacted the board on April 5, and the person who answered the phone confirmed that water was running but was not able to answer questions about why the water had been shut off.

The Thu Duc Water Supply Company, which provides water to many areas of the city, had announced several suspensions of service on its website, saying that shutting off the water was to “maintain or construct water pipelines” or to “coordinate with the construction of other projects.”

Calls by RFA to the company went unanswered.

Water cuts have been a recurring problem in the city, a resident who wished to remain anonymous due to security reasons, told RFA.

“The situation has been worsening recently. Water cuts often start at 5:30 a.m., and sometimes by 11:00 p.m. we haven’t seen the water back or have only a few drops,” he said. “Having water cuts is terrible. We don’t even have water to wash our hands, not to mention other things.”

Saltwater intrusion

The recurring water cuts are likely the result of saltwater intrusion, Ho Long Phi, the former Director of the Center for Water Management and Climate Change at the National University in Ho Chi Minh City, told RFA.

“According to my assessment, saltwater is intruding further and further inland, affecting water supply plants and, therefore, shortening water supply times,” he said, adding that the effect is most pronounced in the Mekong River Delta in the country’s south, and the Dong Nai River are which flows through Ho Chi Minh City.

He said the problem is not serious enough to bring about water shortages yet, but it does affect the capacity of water supply plants.

The shortage may also be because the drought has dried out some of the places where water is pumped out of the ground, Le Anh Tuan, the Deputy Director of the Climate Change Institute at Can Tho University, told RFA. Can Tho is the largest city in the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam.

He said that because these places are drying out, supply plants in Ho Chi Minh City and other places must transport water from elsewhere, which cuts into that location’s supplies.

Additionally coastal areas have to get water from elsewhere as theirs has become too salty, he said, adding that in some cases, the water coming from the tap is salty.

Tuan said that the current drought was not as serious as the one in 2016.

He said that people in the region will have to endure shortages for the next four to six weeks until the rainy season begins.

“Agricultural activities have almost finished, therefore, the damage to agriculture is not significant,” he said. “What concerns me the most is the damage to water supply infrastructure.”

“Consequently, residents (in these rural areas) rely on on-site groundwater, which is neither cost-effective nor environmentally sustainable.”

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Just before midnight on Feb. 25, Ali opened his door to see junta soldiers pointing guns at him. Myanmar’s military had been making its way through Rakhine state, as part of a newly launched forced conscription campaign and the young Rohingya man was their latest victim.  

Ali (whose name has been changed for security reasons) said they pushed him into a car and brought him to the Light Infantry Battalion No. 535 military camp in Buthidaung. The next day, a tactical operation commander urged the new recruits to take their military training seriously, offering them a deal. 

If these Rohingya men formed a militia and held off the Arakan Army, which had recently made significant gains against the junta in Rakhine state, Ali and his fellow conscripts would be given legal status. They promised him a salary of 1,000,000 kyats along with rations.

“They demonstrated how to shoot the gun, how to walk, and how to avoid [injury] during the battle,” he said. They told him that the training would last 14 days, after which they would be prepared to form militias to fight the AA. 

“He tried to persuade us, saying that we were brought there in consideration of our religion. He also quoted the Prophet Muhammad, saying that we need to fight for our faith,” said Ali, who managed to escape after 10 days. 

The invocation of the prophet likely came as a bitter irony for the Rohingya conscripts, who are not legally recognized as citizens and whose ethnic and religious identity has long made them the targets of violence, particularly from Myanmar’s military, or Tatmadaw.

Seven years after the Tatmadaw tortured, raped and killed thousands of Rohingya and sent nearly 1 million fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh, soldiers are now pressing pressing those who remain in a patchwork of villages and IDP camps into service to prop up their struggling military campaign. 

Myanmar’s military, which came to power in a Feb. 2021 coup, has faced mounting battlefield losses since October. Earlier this year, the military announced a draft law that would see 50,000 young men and women forcibly recruited each year. Since then, thousands of civilians across the country have been pressed into military service, while countless more have fled. 

But the military appears to be forcibly conscripting Rohingya in particularly large numbers, according to accounts given to Radio Free Asia by village residents and those who escaped training.

“These Rohingya are being forced into military service. They are being unlawfully detained, thrust into frontline combat, and compelled to participate,” said Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition. “Thus, the ongoing genocide against our people persists.” 

Replenishing its ranks

In late October, the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army — in partnership with other ethnic armed groups and anti-junta forces — began making significant gains against the leadership. “Operation 1027” launched by the Three Brotherhood Alliance initially saw mass surrenders and a number of key cities taken over in northern Shan state. 

In March, an ethnic army captured a major trade route near the China border. And most recently, the Arakan Army, or AA, has captured six of Rakhine state’s 17 townships. By early April, the AA held 170 junta camps. 

Faced with mounting losses in Rakhine, the junta have been forcibly recruiting Rohingya in high numbers from the internally displaced camps in which they have been forced to live for years. In exchange for their service, the junta has promised would-be fighters freedom of movement as well as small amounts of food and money — intended to appeal to a desperately poor population. 

“Initially enticed by a bag of rice and fifty thousand kyats, they volunteered for the first round of training,” said a Rohingya man who had familiarity with the situation and asked to remain anonymous for security concerns. “Some even returned for a second session. However, after witnessing fatalities among those deployed to the frontline during battles, many hesitate to participate for a third time out of fear.”

In the Rohingya camps, young men are reportedly being forced into service by the hundreds — far more than the estimated two or three youths called up per village elsewhere in the country. 

Starting in late February, residents reported forcible enlistments of Rohingyas from Kyaukphyu, Sittwe and Buthidaung townships. Among those coerced into military service are Rohingyas residing in IDP camps including South Ohn Taw Gyi, North Ohn Taw Gyi, Baw Du Pha I, Baw Du Pha II, Hman Si Taung, Thea Chaung, and Thet Kay Pyin.

Over the span of a single month, nearly one thousand Rohingya refugees underwent military training in three separate batches, according to residents. RFA has previously reported that captives are threatened with violent deaths if they refuse to take part in the training and told their families would be targeted if they flee.  

Given the scant training, once they are sent to the frontlines, the Rohingya fighters appear to be little more than human shields. The Rohingya witness said that those sent off to fight were dying at an extraordinarily high rate. 

“Out of about hundred trainees, 61 died while 41 sustained injuries and are currently hospitalized.”

The AA, too, has reported large numbers of Rohingya fighter casualties. In a March 17 press statement, the group said that when they took control of the junta camps in Rathedaung, they discovered the bodies of several Rohingya who had undergone brief military training and were deployed to the front lines. The release included photos of the killed men.

Approximately 600 out of the nearly 1,000 Rohingyas who underwent military training were sent back as reservists to their respective refugee camps in the second week of March. However, the status of the remaining 300 is unknown, according to another Rohingya witness who asked not to be named for security reasons. He also said that because the junta is calling back the Rohingya who were returned to the camps, some of them are fleeing because they are afraid of being sent to the battlefield again.

Breaking the law 

The night Ali was taken was a busy one for the Myanmar military’s conscription drive in Rakhine. 

According to accounts provided by IDP camp residents, on Feb. 25 and 26 alone, 39 Rohingya from four villages and wards in Buthidaung township were forced into training by the Light Infantry Battalion No. 535.

In Kyaukphyu, the Light Infantry Battalion No. 542 trained around 100 Rohingyas from Kyauk Ta Lone Rohingya IDP camp for a period of 14 days, commencing at the end of February, according to locals.

Fifty of them were outfitted with military uniforms and weaponry on March 28 and were assigned security duties at four army camps within the township, said a young woman from Kyauk Ta Lone village who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Given their lack of citizenship status, Rohingya legally should not be eligible for conscription, lawyers have told RFA. And the junta seems to be skirting its own conscription law in other ways. 

The military draft law stipulates that those eligible for direct service are men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27. Professionals – such as doctors, engineers and technicians – aged 18-45 for men and 18-35 for women must also serve. But the Kyauk Ta Lone resident said Rohingya far outside that age range were drafted.

“They brought young people from 18 to over 40. People up to 55 years old were also called up for training,” she said. “All are Muslims.”

RFA could not independently confirm these accounts. An official from the Rakhine State Committee on Summoning People’s Military Service said he was not the right person to speak to about the matter while Hla Thein, the Rakhine state attorney general and spokesperson of the junta, did not respond to calls.

For Ali, who remains in hiding lest he be killed for desertion, the forced recruitment represents only the latest brutality levied by the military. 

“They carried out attacks [against us in 2017] and now they are trying to use kind words to persuade us. I really hate them because they have destroyed our lives.”

Translated by Aung Naing and Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Abby Seiff, Malcolm Foster, Joshua Lipes, and Boer Deng.

Early on June 25, 1950, 75,000 Korean People’s Army troops attacked, catching the South Korean Army by surprise and starting the Korean War. Three days later, Seoul fell to the Communist North.

But the new hit North Korean movie, “72 Hours,” tells a different story of how the three-year-long conflict started.

Produced by the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the country’s Central Committee, the film has the South attacking first, and the North’s advance to Seoul is part of a counter offensive, a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.  

This account falls in line with Pyongyang’s official version of events – that it was the South that provoked the war under the orders of the United States, and that Washington wanted the war as an excuse to send troops to Korea to “conquer” the entire peninsula.

The movie is proving popular, largely because its production quality is higher than most made in North Korea, the resident said. 

“People know it is ideological, but it is very entertaining,” the resident said.

Viewers seem enthused about the film even though they know it is propaganda, a resident of the northwestern province of North Pyongan told RFA.

Rare homegrown hit

It was in production for more than two years, and it was made specifically to paint the South Koreans as the enemy, he said.

RFA was not able to confirm the plot or other details about the film, which was released in February.

The movie is proving a rare homegrown hit for North Koreans, many of whom secretly watch South Korean TV shows and movies.

“There are not many North Korean movies worth watching, so residents usually prefer South Korean and foreign movies,” the first resident said. 

South Korean and foreign media are smuggled into the country on SD cards and USB flash drives, but distributing or viewing the media is illegal, and citizens have been punished, or even executed, for getting caught watching or selling it. 

An estimated 2-3 million Koreans died in the war, and the North ended up with slightly less territory than it had at the start, but North Korea claims it was victorious in what it now refers to as the “Great Fatherland Liberation War.”

At the beginning, though, the rapid advance of the Korean People’s Army suggested that the Communist forces would swiftly defeat the South. 

As depicted in the film, Seoul’s first fall – the capital changed hands four times –  is an inspiring story of brave men fighting a fierce three-day battle to “liberate” the city, the first resident said. 

Pricey tickets

But not everyone can afford to see the movie, he said.

Authorities originally set ticket prices at 18,000 won (US$2.12) when the film was released, he said, an enormous sum that equals about half a month’s salary for the lowest paid government-assigned jobs. The price was later cut to 5,000 won (59 U.S. cents).

 The exact production costs are not known, but rumors are spreading among residents that the film’s long run in theaters is because it hasn’t yet recouped those costs, the second resident said. 

Those who can’t afford to watch are eagerly awaiting the film’s TV release, as that’s what usually happens to all North Korean propaganda films, the sources said. But rumors are circulating that “72 Hours” will be sold on VCD before that, yet another way to generate revenue.

“Even though the ticket price was lowered to 5,000 won … it is more important for residents to buy a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice for 6,000 won (70 U.S. cents) than to spend 5,000 on a movie ticket,” the North Pyongan resident said.

Authorities are also taking measures to prevent people from taking videos or pictures of the movie on their cell phones, saying that the ban is to prevent people from taking videos of national founder Kim Il Sung, even though the role is portrayed by an actor, he said. 

“Residents who watched the movie left the theater wondering, ‘If we had won the war and occupied South Korea back then, what would Korea be like now?’” 

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

U.S. President Joe Biden will host his Philippine and Japanese counterparts this week during a historic summit that aims to bolster cooperation in the South China Sea and strengthen their relationship amid tensions with Beijing, analysts said. 

Biden is to welcome Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for three-nation talks at the White House on Thursday. Among other topics, the leaders are expected to discuss freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and launching joint patrols in the strategic waterway, observers said.

Leading up to the summit, the three countries, joined by ally Australia, conducted a large-scale joint exercise in the South China Sea on Sunday. They showcased their collective naval and air power, signaling a shift in defense priorities for Washington, analysts said. 

“This trilateral meet shows Biden’s clear South China Sea policy, which was perplexing during the Obama and Trump administrations as America kept mum on pivotal events,” said Chester Cabalza, a defense analyst and founding president of International Development and Security Cooperation, a think-tank in Manila. 

Analysts said the summit will serve as a reminder that the Philippines stands with other like-minded nations including the United States, which is bound to a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty compelling it to come to Manila’s aid in the event of an attack by a foreign power. 

In Washington, John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said he expected the three leaders to announce a series of new initiatives during their meeting.

“It’s the first-ever at the leader level, and so we’re going to look to find ways to continue to deepen the collaboration with our closest partners, again, to ensure a free, open, prosperous, secure Indo-Pacific,” Kirby told reporters at the White House on Monday.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council, previewed Thursday’s summit by announcing a series of items on the agenda.

“Our leaders will announce new initiatives to enhance energy security, economic and maritime cooperation, partnerships on technology and cybersecurity and some considerable investments in some major infrastructure areas,” she told reporters in Washington on Tuesday without going into specific details.

Lately, tense incidents at sea have increased as Chinese coast guard and militia ships try to block Philippine ships and boats from delivering supplies to Manila’s military outpost in Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal). The Philippines and China are locked in a territorial dispute over the shoal and other features in the South China Sea.

Tokyo, which has a territorial dispute with Beijing over the uninhabited Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, has found support from Manila. 

Last year, Kishida addressed both chambers of the Philippine Congress – the first time for a Japanese leader since World War II, when Imperial Japan occupied the Philippines – and pledged to boost defense ties. 

“This time around, Washington has seen a respectable [show of] support from Tokyo and a braver stance from Manila on its assertive transparency strategy on China’s duplicitous gray-zone tactics aside from its lawfare,” Cabalza told BenarNews on Tuesday. 

He praised the Philippines under President Marcos for having “flexed a muscle from a balanced foreign policy to a stout territorial defense operation.”

This week’s summit in Washington is also intended for the three leaders to mount a collective defense against China at a time when the Asian superpower is saddled with economic recession while facing international political tensions, analysts said. 

Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst who lectures at De La Salle University’s international studies department in Manila, said the summit could help give pause to China’s “revisionism in the region” where it claims nearly all of the seas.  

“What the Philippines is doing is fortifying its capacity to defend what it rightfully owns based on international law,” he told BenarNews – something that goes “against the interests of revisionist powers.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning spoke out against the upcoming summit.

“Defense cooperation between any countries should be conducive to regional peace and stability. We oppose cobbling together exclusive groupings and stoking bloc confrontation in the region,” the spokeswoman said during a daily news conference on Monday.

She issued a specific warning to Tokyo in response to a second question during the news conference.

“Japan needs to earnestly draw lessons from history and stay prudent on military and security issues,” Mao told reporters.

South China Sea

Rapp-Hooper reiterated the Biden administration’s commitment to defense of the Philippines in light of recent acts of Chinese aggression against Filipino coast guard ships and boats bringing supplies to the military outpost on the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal.

“The Philippines has found themselves under increasing pressure from the PRC in the South China Sea,” Rapp-Hooper said, using an acronym for People’s Republic of China, its official name.

“The U.S., Philippine mutual defense treaty applies to the Philippines in the South China Sea,” she said, adding it covers “vessels underway including coast guard vessels.

“We stand strongly by our alliance commitment to the Philippines,” she said.

The summit comes at a time when the participating nations are holding joint training exercises focused on maintaining regional security.

Balikatan, a large-scale annual joint exercise, is scheduled for April 22 to May 18. The French Navy is expected to participate in the exercises on the edge of the West Philippine Sea, Manila’s name for South China Sea waters that lie within its exclusive economic zone.

But while these activities are designed to rattle China, the upcoming summit in Washington could do more to inflame tension, political analyst Rommel Banlaoi warned.

“The summit cannot peacefully resolve the South China Sea disputes requiring direct negotiations of the parties concerned,” said Banlaoi, who heads the Philippine Society for International Security Studies.

“It will only intensify major power rivalries,” he told BenarNews.

China has developed its own capabilities, enough for it to believe that it can resist major Western pressure. The summit likely would motivate Beijing “to develop further capabilities to recover from centuries of humiliation from Western powers,” Banlaoi said.

During the multi-nation exercise over the past weekend, two Chinese navy ships were observed monitoring from about six nautical miles away, said Gen. Romeo Brawner, the Philippines’ military chief.

While noting China’s presence, Brawner said the joint training with “like-minded armed forces” signified that allies were ready to lend a helping hand.

The summit also signals Marcos’ preference to align with the West, a clear departure from Duterte’s pro-China stance, he said. 

During an interview with a local radio station on Monday, Marcos called the weekend’s exercise successful even as his administration seeks to avoid similar incidents involving Chinese ships.

“We’re doing everything we can to talk to the Chinese leadership, and tell them not to heighten the tension and let’s just talk well so we can avoid collisions, water cannons,” Marcos said in the interview, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency.

Late last month, Marcos’ administration summoned a Chinese diplomat to protest against the “aggressive actions” of the China Coast Guard in the South China Sea, following a March 23 incident that left three crew members aboard a Philippine supply boat injured.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.