Author: ASEAN Tribune

Lao villagers displaced by construction of the Xayaburi Dam, a hydropower project on the Mekong River in northwestern Laos, are struggling to survive in resettlement towns three years after being moved, saying  they lack sufficient farmland and water to support themselves, Lao sources say.

Construction began on the first of Laos’ 11 planned Mekong River dams in 2012, with the dam going into operation in October 2019 amid widespread criticism from environmental and human rights activists who warned that altering the natural flow of the Mekong River would cause serious damage to the environment and communities living downstream.

Compensation has now been paid to those displaced by the $4.47 billion Thai-owned Xayaburi project, with resettlement villages finally built and land distributed to those who lost their land when the dam went into operation, sources said.

Land and water in resettlement areas are still in short supply, though, one villager told RFA’s Lao Service on Monday.

“We can grow crops on the land provided by the dam developer and the authorities, but there’s not enough of the land to farm,” the resident of the Nator Yai resettlement village in Xayaburi province said. “Our village also doesn’t have running water yet,” he added.

A villager who was not displaced by the dam’s construction and is living in the province’s Pieng district said that the operations of the Xayaburi dam and other dams on the Mekong have caused water flows on the river to rise and fall in unnatural and unpredictable ways.

“These dams often release water that floods our village and gardens,” he said.

“Our vegetable gardens on the Mekong riverbank are often flooded,” agreed a farmer living in the province’s Ngeun district, adding that water levels on the river constantly fluctuate.

“Sometimes the water is so low that we can see the riverbed, but at other times the water comes and floods our gardens so quickly that we don’t have time to save our crops.”

“We keep growing vegetables on the riverbank because we can’t do this anywhere else,” he said.

Xayaburi dam developers had promised villagers displaced by the dam’s construction new homes, allotments of land, and allowances of food and financial support for three years beginning with the launch of dam operations in October 2019, an official with the province’s Labor and Social Welfare Department told RFA.

Shortages of water and farmland are leaving residents of Xayaburi resettlement villages uncertain of their future, though, one resettled villager said.

“Since we don’t have enough water and land to farm, we’re worried about our livelihoods after October next year when our financial and food support comes to an end,” he said.

Speaking at a virtual Mekong River-ASEAN Environment meeting on Sept. 4, Angkana Neelaaphaijit—a former member of the Thai National Human Rights Commission—said that “a great number of people in ASEAN countries have lost their land to large development projects such as the Xayaburi dam and the Hongsa Lignite Power Plant in Laos.”

Large projects should also benefit villagers living in the areas in which they’re built, with investors responsible for the impacts on the environment and the health and livelihoods of local people, she said.

“The people’s rights should be respected. And if they petition for their rights, they shouldn’t be threatened or abducted,” she said.

Another project moves forward

Another project on the Mekong, the China-backed Sanakham Dam, is once again moving forward after a two-year delay caused by concerns over the spread of COVID-19 in Laos, with the regional Mekong River Commission now resuming a prior consultation process that is scheduled for completion in January.

Speaking to RFA on Sept. 22, an official with the Lao Ministry of Energy of Mines called the Sanakham Dam, a project of China’s Datang International Power Generation Co. Ltd., one of the Lao government’s top development priorities.

“The Lao government is determined to build this dam,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “And despite the delay, the dam developer is also determined to complete construction on the Sanakham Dam in 2028, as planned.”

“The dam developer has all the plans needed to build this dam, and of course we intend to sell the electricity to Thailand,” the official said, adding that developers and the government are preparing to “spend a lot of money and use the most advanced technology” to reduce the dam’s possible impacts.

According to the primary report of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) already conducted, the 684 megawatt Sanakham Dam will affect more than 3,000 people in 621 families living in 13 villages in three districts of Xayaburi and Vientiane provinces, with 267 families in three villages forced to move from their homes.

“We’ll be displaced. Our village and temple will be relocated, and we’ll lose our farmland too,” said a resident of Kae village in Xayaburi’s Kentao district, speaking to RFA on Sept. 22. “We have more questions than answers so far.”

“We can’t relocate our rice fields, farms, and gardens to new locations. So how and where can we farm or make a living in a new place?”

“How will [the developers and the government] compensate our losses? And will our living conditions be the same or worse?” he asked.

“Everything will change because of the dams,” he said.

Another villager in Kentao district likely to be displaced said that many villagers won’t object to being moved if they are offered fair compensation for the land and property they lose.

“Many villagers have no problem with relocation as long as the compensation is fair. However, relocations should be done on a voluntary basis,” he said.

“Most of us are very reluctant to move,” a villager living in Vientiane province’s Sanakham district said. “But what can we do? We will have no choice.”

“But if we are offered fair compensation, we might not be so reluctant to move,” he said.

Environment, community, culture

Speaking to RFA on Monday, a representative of the Love Chiang Khan Group, a Thai environmental NGO based in northeast Thailand, which suffers transboundary impacts from Lao dams, said that the Sanakham Dam, like the Xayaburi, “will have serious impacts on our environment, community, and culture.”

“Villagers likely to be affected should participate and have a voice in the prior consultation process,” he said.

Thailand has not yet agreed to sign agreements to buy electricity from four Mekong River dams in Laos, including the Sanakham Dam, the Thai Energy Minister told the Thai People’s Network of Eight Mekong River Provinces, an environmental group, on Aug. 25.

Laos has built dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong and its tributaries and is building about 50 more under a plan to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia” and export the electricity they generate to other countries in the region, mainly Thailand.

The Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the country’s economy, but the dam projects are controversial because of their displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, environmental impact, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements.

Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.

With Koranic recitations and the raising of the blue and white crescent moon and star East Turkestan flag, Uyghurs in Canada opened a mosque and community center on the outskirts of Toronto in a renovated 150-year-old Roman Catholic Church to serve a community of 2,000 members of the Turkic ethnic group.

The East Turkestan Association of Canada — which uses Uyghurs’ preferred name for the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwestern China —conceived the idea of a Canadian Uyghur center in 2008 and 13 years later bought the church building it for CAD $610,000 (U.S. $482,000) with donations from as far away as Germany and Australia, said Tuyghun Abduweli, president of the group.

“For Canadian Uyghurs, this shows what kinds of results unity and solidarity can and cannot achieve,” he told RFA’s Uyghur Service.

“The unity here in Canada [that] ultimately led us to purchase such a large church, which we then turned into a mosque to use for our own cultural, historical, and religious matters, is very exciting and inspiring to Uyghur Canadians.”

The opening ceremony drew members of the Uyghur community in Canada, a Canadian lawmaker, diplomats and officials, and leaders of two major Uyghur exile groups — Dolkun Isa, president of the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, and Rushan Abbas, executive director of the U.S.-based Campaign for Uyghurs.

The East Turkestan Association of Canada also invited the Catholic pastor and former congregation of the church to raise awareness of the plight of the Uyghurs in the XUAR, said association member Itbiar Artish.

The Catholic congregation had been getting older, and church administrators could not afford to keep up the building, said Robin Wilkie, the last pastor of the church, after the opening ceremony on Sept. 25.

“And with COVID, they decided that it was time to sell. So that’s when the Uyghur community purchased the building from us, and so we hand the baton on to them to carry on their faith,” he said of the Italian Romanesque-style building built in 1873-1874.

Documented abuse

Xinjiang came under Chinese imperial rule during the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century. An East Turkestan state was declared in 1949, but was forcibly absorbed by the new People’s Republic of China later the same year.

China has come under criticism for heavy-handed policies targeting the 12 million predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, destroying mosques, making Mandarin Chinese the main language in schools, monitoring Uyghurs’ moves with a pervasive and intrusive surveillance system, and using forced Uyghur labor at factories and farms.

Researchers have documented the incarceration by Chinese authorities of as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a network of detention camps that Beijing claims are vocational training centers.

China rejects widespread and documented allegations that it has mistreated Muslims living in Xinjiang and keeps the region closed to independent researchers and journalists.

The United States and the legislatures in several European countries have deemed the treatment of Uyghurs and others in the XUAR as constituting genocide and crimes against humanity.

In February, the Canadian parliament passed a unanimous nonbinding motion declaring China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in the XUAR a genocide, becoming the second country after the U.S. to make that determination.

Lawmakers also included an amendment to the motion, calling on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing if the Chinese government continued its maltreatment of the minority group.

At the time, China strongly condemned and opposed the moves from Ottawa, saying Beijing had lodged representations with Canada.

About 2,000 Uyghurs — or 600 to 700 families — live in Canada, a country of 38 million people, Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project in Canada, told the Canadian women’s magazine Chatelaine in March.

Reported by Jelil Kashgary for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

The Chinese survey vessel Haiyang Dizhi 10 has left Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after almost a month, marine traffic data show.

The 3,400-ton survey ship, tailed by a Chinese coastguard vessel, is moving northeast out of the North Natuna Sea, where it has been since the end of August.

It is unclear where the vessel is heading, but it may stop at Fiery Cross Reef, where China operates a large outpost, for rest and resupply. Experts say it could yet head back toward Tuna Block, the oil field where U.K.-based Harbour Energy and its partner, Russia’s Zarubezhneft, are drilling two appraisal wells. The Chinese ship spent the last month surveying around the area.

The submersible rig Noble Clyde Boudreaux, commissioned by Harbour Energy, had just completed the first appraisal well “despite Chinese meddling,” the industry web portal Energy Voice reported Monday. It added that the drilling of the second well was planned to finish in early November.

Meanwhile, marine traffic data show that another Chinese survey ship, the Da Yang Hao, is now operating in an area that runs through the EEZs of three countries: Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. None of the countries has made any public comment about the Da Yang Hao yet.

Malaysia, however, keeps “tracking and shadowing Chinese vessels” which are spotted in the Malaysian waters, said Thomas Daniel, senior fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

“Malaysia has always preferred quiet diplomacy in dealing with China in the South China Sea. There have been exceptions to this, but they are few and far between,” Daniel said.

“My understanding is that Malaysia is often very forthright about its concerns and positions with China on these matters. But it is unlikely that policymakers or officials will speak of this openly as drawing public attention might be seen as potentially counterproductive in the long run,” he added.

The same approach may be adopted by the Indonesian authorities who have not said much about the Haiyang Dizhi 10, despite public pressure. Countries in the region seem reluctant to challenge China openly, mainly due to their economic reliance on the Chinese market but also to their limited maritime capabilities.

Earlier this week, the Indonesian government announced a budget proposal for 2022 in which 12.2 trillion rupiah, or $853 million, would be allocated to develop the security infrastructure in the Natuna Sea.

Indonesian media report that the budget will be used to build up defense infrastructure on strategic islands and procure maritime security equipment including unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

The budget would be divided equally between the Indonesian Navy and the Maritime Security Force, which is known as Bakamla.

The government said 41 percent of the budget was used to meet the weapon system needs of the navy in Natuna and 44 percent was used to fulfill Bakamla’s marine security equipment needs.

China has been accused of harassing its neighbors’ fishing and oil and gas activities in the South China Sea, where its sweeping claims overlap with the claims and EEZs of other nations. Beijing asserts that these are lawful operations in waters under its jurisdiction.

Myanmar’s Arakan Army (AA) ethnic armed organization (EAO) has been beefing up its administrative and judiciary mechanisms in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state during the past 10 months of a cease-fire negotiated with the army before its military coup. On Aug. 1, the AA announced that the people of Rakhine state can now report all crimes and land disputes, as well as other legal issues, to its political branch, the United League of Arakan (ULA). According to Pe Than, a top Rakhine politician and a former lower house MP from Arakan National Party’s Myebon township, the AA now controls 80 percent of the administrative and judiciary sectors in Rakhine state, while military junta’s administrative mechanism is almost completely collapsed.

Myanmar’s military seized power from the democratically elected government on Feb. 1 and embarked on a campaign of brutal repression against anti-junta protests, killing at least 1,146 civilians and arresting 6,914, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The junta is now reinforcing troop levels in Rakhine state in response to the AA’s growing influence, but Pe Than told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the Rakhine people will never settle for anything less than complete independence from Myanmar.

RFA: Can you first tell us about the current situation in Rakhine state?

Pe Than: The issue in Rakhine state is a bit different from the problems in the mainland. Tensions still exist between the military and the ULA/AA and renewed fighting could occur any day. We do not have any stability here yet. The military has not accepted any part of the demands for self-determination made by the AA.

RFA: How much control does the AA have in Rakhine state now?

Pe Than: The AA has now gained control of large swathes of the region and is exercising administrative and judicial powers. Apart from the cities and major towns and areas where there is a large military presence, I should say the AA is in control of about 80 percent of the region. Frankly, the military junta’s administrative machinery has totally collapsed. The judiciary sector does not work at all. The police have no powers, and the courts are not working. No one files complaints or cases at police stations. Even in the major towns, the police are constantly on their toes and cannot perform their duties properly. As the courts have failed in their work, the responsibility of the rule of law has now fallen on the shoulders of the AA in most areas. Only the AA can now mete out justice.

RFA:  Do you think Rakhine state will become an autonomous region soon?

Pe Than: Autonomy and self-determination are goals for staying in the union. Otherwise, the goal becomes a totally independent state. Previous governments in the country have given the ethnic people only a small portion of the rights they deserved. People have been demanding a federal system all along, but these demands have been ignored and lately, people are talking about independence. The AA is now a formidable force and has the full support of the local people. And so, we might be seeing major battles that would bring about a decisive result.

Self-determination and independence

RFA: Are the people of Rakhine state hoping for an independent state?

Pe Than: Most people want self-determination. Rakhine was once an independent country that became colonized for 137 years. People lost all their basic rights, natural resources in the region were exploited and Rakhine state became one of the poorest states in the country. They are now yearning for self-determination and, if possible, total independence.

RFA: Do you mean a totally independent country?

Pe Than: That is the dream of the people. And they believe that the AA leaders will find a way that would bring the least harm to the people in pursuing that dream.

RFA: What do you think of the current situation in Myanmar?

Pe Than: The conflict between the junta and the [shadow] National Unity Government (NUG) is getting bigger and bigger, and the sufferings and grievances of the people are also growing day by day. The military will use its full might to protect its interests, but the other side is not going to back down. Since political dialogue is off the table, a civil war will break out soon and I think the country will be ruined.

RFA: What do you think of the Muslim population in Rakhine state?

Pe Than: The Muslims are the second largest population in our state. If we want to establish a new state, we cannot ignore the existence of them. We won’t be able to solve the problem if Rakhines and Muslims cannot live together in harmony. I think the ULA/AA will be able to handle the situation and find a solution. The ULA/AA has already invited Muslim leaders to take part in the administration and judiciary sectors and I think an understanding between the two peoples will overcome the existing problem. The previous governments had played one against the other to create problems and now I think the ULA/AA is working hard to find a solution for the development of Rakhine state.

Reported by Khin Maung Soe for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane.

China’s power grid operator denied there was an energy crisis and vowed to upgrade the national power grid and guarantee normal power supply amid a rolling wave of outages around the country, state media reported on Wednesday.

The cuts and restrictions have been implemented piecemeal by local governments, often with scant warning and little explanation, sparking public anger, as well as uncertainty over whether the problem lies with a chronic shortage of generating capacity.

“China’s energy supply capacity is is currently sufficient to meet demand,” State Grid Corp. said in comments reported by the Global Times, a newspaper with close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “China has no energy crisis,” it said.

It said it is currently rolling out measures to unify the entire national grid, enabling inter-regional and inter-provincial delivery of energy to solve the problem of limited supply in other parts of the country.

The power cuts were trending on Chinese social media, with around 500 million searches on the topic on Monday, the Global Times said.

It quoted an economist as saying that the power shortages were “actually a game between central and local governments.”

The paper also cited government statistics as saying that China currently has an installed power generation capacity of 2.2 billion kilowatts.

Residents of northeastern China have taken to social media in recent days to document unexpected power outages leaving no traffic signals on dark streets, with shops illuminated by makeshift lighting and even candles.

Some said they were suffering in the heat after air conditioning systems went down, while others sought reasons for the power cuts.

“A powerful China can save the so-called princess but can’t seem to manage the electricity consumption of 90 million people in the northeast,” Weibo user @Daozhimaifudazusheng commented, in a barbed reference to the return of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou from house arrest in Canada.

Jilin resident Liu Fang said there is all kinds of speculation about the reasons for the cuts, including that the CCP is experimenting with public responses to disaster, or trying to prevent the public from finding out information online.

“[So many] companies have stopped production or closed down due to the power outages,” Liu said. “They can’t fulfill their orders, and the workers can’t get paid.”

“The government doesn’t seem to be taking responsibility for the situation.”

Patience wearing thin

A current affairs commentator surnamed Zhao, who is currently in outage-hit Kunshan city, Jiangsu province, said people’s patience with the government is wearing thin.

“It’s not that we’ve never had power outages in the past, but this time people are exhausted due to the uncertainty over the reasons for it, and they have diminishing tolerance,” Zhao said.

“The sense of dissatisfaction is resonating loudly online, and the impact of the power outages is pretty big; people are complaining loudly and in large numbers,” he said.

Power rationing may be the order of the day, with a state newspaper in the southeastern province of Fujian reporting that “phased and orderly” power consumption will be in effect from the end of the month.

The Fujian provincial power company would boost supplies to meet a two million kilowatt shortfall between October and December, the Fujian Daily newspaper reported.

Regional energy consultancy the Lantau Group said there are a number of factors contributing to the power outages and rationing in China.

It said in a report that some provinces are facing a shortfall of power supply after operators of coal-fired power stations stopped operating in the face of skyrocketing coal prices.

Others have adopted power rationing as a way to meet annual energy control targets for the year, known as “dual control” objective.

And regions that typically import power from elsewhere in China to meet chronic shortfalls are now unable to do so, owing to the first two factors, the report said.

It quoted the China Electricity Council as saying that coal mines are halting production following safety incidents and that applications for expansion of coal production are stuck in the bureaucratic pipeline, while the Inner Mongolian coal industry has been hit by a huge corruption scandal.

Some coal generators are idling their plants or only operating at a minimum capacity factor, as they are currently incurring losses on all their generation, according to the Lantau Group.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

National security police in Hong Kong have frozen the assets of a group that organized vigils for Tiananmen massacre victims, as the city’s public broadcaster was warned on Wednesday that its reporting must ‘safeguard national interests.’

“This morning, the liquidator of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, Mr. Cheng Yiu-cheong, received a notice from the national security police notifying him that all of the Alliance’s assets, including those of the June 4th Memorial Hall, were frozen,” the Alliance said in a post on its Facebook page on Wednesday.

National security police officers took Cheng Yiu-chang to the June 4th Memorial Hall and handed him the letter of notification, the group said.

“Cheng expressed surprise and disagreement with the [move],” it said, adding that Cheng planned to go to the national security police headquarters to request the assets be unfrozen pending the dissolution of the group.

The Alliance voted to disband at an extraordinary general meeting on Sept. 25, following an investigation by Hong Kong’s national security police under a law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

The Alliance stands accused of acting as the agent of a foreign power, with leaders Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho, and Lee Cheuk-yan arrested on suspicion of “incitement to subvert state power,” and the group’s assets frozen under the national security law.

At a special general meeting held at the June 4th Memorial Hall under heavy police watch in Mong Kok district, members voted 41-4 to disband after 32 years of supporting victims of the Tiananmen killings, demanding accountability, and advocating for an end to one-party rule.

The national security law ushered in an ongoing and citywide crackdown on all forms of public dissent and political opposition, with election rules changed to ensure only pro-CCP candidates can run and with the government insisting that further legislation on espionage is needed to continue the crackdown on what Beijing insists was an attempt by hostile foreign powers to foment a “color revolution” in Hong Kong.

Journalists warned

Government broadcaster RTHK on Wednesday issued a new set of guidelines to its staff, warning them that their work must always serve China’s national interests, on pain of disciplinary action.

Journalists have also been warned to be careful what they say on social media, “to protect the station’s integrity and reputation,” RTHK reported on its English-language news page.

The rules mean that opposition or critical voices are likely to be unwelcome on RTHK programs.

“Under no circumstances should our programs provide a platform to encourage, incite, promote, glorify, endorse, or sympathize with any act or activity endangering national security or otherwise contain any contents which are contrary to the interests of national security,” the station quoted the guidelines as saying.

RTHK programs must not provoke or deepen hatred, discrimination, or hostility towards the central government or the Hong Kong government, the rules say.

Staff must also avoid any contact with foreign governments or political organizations, and should take at face value Beijing’s territorial claim on the democratic island of Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China.

In an apparent reference to reporting linked to the 2019 protest movement, staff must make sure they don’t sympathize with, justify or glamorize “criminal acts.”

‘Inciting secession’

The warnings came as a former protester stood trial under the national security law in Hong Kong’s District Court, for “inciting secession.”

Ma Chun-man, known by his nickname Captain America 2.0, is accused of inciting others to commit secession by shouting “Hong Kong independence is the only solution,” and “Free Hong Kong, revolution now!” at protests and in shopping malls between August and November 2020.

Motorcyclist Tong Ying-kit was jailed for nine years in July for “inciting secession” and “terrorism” after he flew a flag with the “Free Hong Kong, revolution now!” slogan while riding his bike at a protest against the national security law on July 1, 2020, the day it took effect.

National security police have also charged seven other people including a 16-year-old with “conspiracy to incite the commission by other persons of the offence of subversion.”

The group, aged 16-25, are members of the pro-independence group Returning Valiant, and were arrested in July on suspicion of terrorism and amid allegations of a bomb plot.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.