Category: Automotive

A senior Myanmar military official has not been seen in public for weeks following a drone attack, leading to speculation he might have been wounded, according to a political analyst.

Junta vice chairman Soe Win, who is a deputy senior general and regularly attended meetings with the military chief,  Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was not seen in junta media coverage of  a military council meeting on agriculture and natural disasters on Monday. 

Junta media, which regularly cover such meetings, showing the high-ranking officers in attendance, has not shown pictures of Soe Win, or reported his attendance at any meetings since the drone attack in the second week of April. 

He was last seen publicly attending an army graduation ceremony in the city of Ba Htoo in Shan State  on April 3, according to a  junta press release. 

An anti-junta guerilla group said it had attacked the Southeast Regional Military Command headquarters in Mon State on April 8. The group, the Alpha Bats Drone Force, announced the next day that it had carried out a drone attack during a military meeting at the regional headquarters in the city of Mawlamyine, which Soe Win and other senior officials were attending. The military officials were discussing sending reinforcements to the city of Myawaddy on the Thai border, where allied rebel forces have been battling junta troops. 

Political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA it was possible that Soe Win and other high-ranking officers were wounded in the drone attack.

“He may have been injured in a drone strike and disappeared from public view. But he did not die. There is some injury. I don’t see any changes in the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief among the military council’s members,”, he told RFA Tuesday.

However, junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun dismissed such speculation in mid-April, telling media the general was performing regular security and defense duties.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.

Tibetan families whose pasture land was sold to Chinese businessmen without their knowledge or consent say that compensation belatedly offered to them – 3,000 yuan, or about US$415 each – is far too low, sources familiar with the situation told Radio Free Asia.

Four Tibetans who had been arrested April 10 for protesting the land grab in Markham county in Chamdo, or Changdu in Chinese, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, were released, but said they had been beaten while in detention, a source told RFA Tibetan on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“The four of them were released on April 16 but they were beaten and tortured during detention, and one of them even has a swollen cheek,” the source said.

Since the protest, about 10 policemen have been deployed to patrol the area day and night, where they closely monitor all activities of the people, sources said. 

It’s the latest example of land taken by Chinese authorities in Tibet and in Tibetan-populated areas of nearby Chinese provinces for mining, farming or other use. Local officials routinely use force to subdue those who complain or protest.

Earlier this month, about 25 families were shocked when a Chinese developer came to clear their land. They were told their land had been sold without their knowledge or any compensation.

After they protested, Chinese officials agreed to pay each family 3,000 yuan, or about US$415, each.

The resident said that the affected families must accept the compensation without protest, and it cannot be negotiated because the amount has been decided by higher authorities.

Other residents said that those who do not comply with the government’s instructions on the matter could face imprisonment.

Authorities conveyed the details of the compensation plan at a meeting on April 16, requiring at least one representative of each of the affected families to attend.

“The people were unhappy about the compensation and rejected the low figure,” said the first source, who explained that the pasture land is being dug out to clear all remaining grass.

Attendees were not allowed to bring their phones to the meeting, where authorities warned the families that it was forbidden to leak any information outside the country and reprimanded them for committing the “crime” of spreading news about the land grab and protesting it.

“They were told that internal problems can only be solved internally,” a second resident said on condition of anonymity to speak freely. 

“But if this information had not been widely reported, there wouldn’t have been any talk of compensation, let alone the release of the four young men who were arrested and detained.”

Additional reporting by Dolma Lhamo and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan

Tibetan families whose pasture land was sold to Chinese businessmen without their knowledge or consent say that compensation belatedly offered to them – 3,000 yuan, or about US$415 each – is far too low, sources familiar with the situation told Radio Free Asia.

Four Tibetans who had been arrested April 10 for protesting the land grab in Markham county in Chamdo, or Changdu in Chinese, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, were released, but said they had been beaten while in detention, a source told RFA Tibetan on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“The four of them were released on April 16 but they were beaten and tortured during detention, and one of them even has a swollen cheek,” the source said.

Since the protest, about 10 policemen have been deployed to patrol the area day and night, where they closely monitor all activities of the people, sources said. 

It’s the latest example of land taken by Chinese authorities in Tibet and in Tibetan-populated areas of nearby Chinese provinces for mining, farming or other use. Local officials routinely use force to subdue those who complain or protest.

Earlier this month, about 25 families were shocked when a Chinese developer came to clear their land. They were told their land had been sold without their knowledge or any compensation.

After they protested, Chinese officials agreed to pay each family 3,000 yuan, or about US$415, each.

The resident said that the affected families must accept the compensation without protest, and it cannot be negotiated because the amount has been decided by higher authorities.

Other residents said that those who do not comply with the government’s instructions on the matter could face imprisonment.

Authorities conveyed the details of the compensation plan at a meeting on April 16, requiring at least one representative of each of the affected families to attend.

“The people were unhappy about the compensation and rejected the low figure,” said the first source, who explained that the pasture land is being dug out to clear all remaining grass.

Attendees were not allowed to bring their phones to the meeting, where authorities warned the families that it was forbidden to leak any information outside the country and reprimanded them for committing the “crime” of spreading news about the land grab and protesting it.

“They were told that internal problems can only be solved internally,” a second resident said on condition of anonymity to speak freely. 

“But if this information had not been widely reported, there wouldn’t have been any talk of compensation, let alone the release of the four young men who were arrested and detained.”

Additional reporting by Dolma Lhamo and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan

A Uyghur butcher serving a seven-year prison sentence in southern Xinjiang for advising friends not to drink alcohol or smoke at a gathering has been released alive and returned to his family, sources with knowledge of the situation said.

It marks the first time that one of the roughly 100 jailed Uyghur residents from Xaneriq village had been released alive, said an Uyghur from the area who now lives abroad, but who did not give his name for fear of retribution.

Authorities freed Mahmudjan Muqeddem, 46, who hails from the Tawaqchi community of Xaneriq village, on April 11, he said. The village lies in Kashgar Yengisheher county in Kashgar prefecture. 

A police officer from the Yenitam community in Xaneriq confirmed that Muqeddem, a butcher and farmer, had served seven years in a prison in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and was released on April 11. 

The officer’s colleagues told him that Muqeddem was arrested on suspicion of religious radicalization for advising his friends not to drink or smoke at an event prior to 2016.

Initially, he was “educated” in a camp for two years, but in 2019, he was sentenced and transferred to prison, they said. 

“The reason for arrest is that he stopped others from smoking and drinking,” said the officer. “He is not a religious figure.”

Extremist behaviors

Abstaining from alcohol is one of 75 different activities and behaviors identified by the Chinese government as a sign of potential religious extremism. It is listed in brochures distributed in some parts of Xinjiang to educate the public on how to identify extreme religious activities.

It is also a cause for jailing Uyghurs, who as Muslims abstain from drinking alcohol, as part of a larger effort by Beijing to eradicate Uyghur culture and religion. 

Xaneriq village consists of 23 smaller communities with a total population of 31,000 people, averaging around 1,400 people in each community. 

About 800 people live in Tawaqchi community, of which more than 100 were in prison, with some serving indefinite sentences in internment camps, the Uyghur expatriate said.

Since 2017, six others imprisoned were released dead, he said, though RFA could not independently confirm this.

Muqeddem’s release has offered some hope to others from the village’s Tawaqchi community worried out the fate of their imprisoned relatives, the expat said. 

But because the butcher was considered to have committed one of the mildest “crimes” among those arrested, his release also caused concern about the fate of those serving sentences for more serious offenses, he added.

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

Junta authorities in western Myanmar forced hundreds of Rohingya Muslims to protest an ethnic rebel offensive that has the military on the ropes in Rakhine state – and fining them if they didn’t participate, residents said Monday.

It’s the latest bid by the junta to stoke ethnic tensions in the region, where a military clearance operation in 2017 killed thousands of Rohingyas and sent nearly 1 million fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh. Authorities have been pressing those who remain in a patchwork of villages and camps for the displaced into military service in recent weeks.

A participant in Monday’s protest said authorities forced around 1,000 Rohingyas from Rathedaung township’s Bar Sar Ra village and Bu May village in the state capital Sittwe to hold signboards denouncing the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, and call for an end to the conflict or face fines and other punishment.

“If we don’t take part in the protests, we will have to pay 50,000 kyats (US$1.40) per household, and our village will be cut off as punishment,” said the protest participant who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns.

“We all fear such threats, and we cannot afford to pay this fine as all of us are facing various hardships in our daily lives. So, we had no option but to join the protest,” he told RFA Burmese.

The Rohingyas were also made to sign a petition saying that they don’t want the region to be governed by the AA, which has seized six of Rakhine’s 17 townships and several smaller towns since launching an offensive against the military on Nov. 13, 2023.

As of early April, the AA had captured some 170 junta camps and posts, as well as several larger bases, battalion headquarters, and training facilities in Rakhine state.

Earlier protests

Monday’s protest follows similar ones in Sittwe on March 21 and in Buthidaung township on March 19 – both of which included hundreds of Rohingyas.

Rohingya elders thwarted a protest scheduled to take place in Maungdaw township last month, a resident told RFA.

Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin said that the protests were orchestrated by the junta in Rakhine state.

“We have learned that the state police commander forced Rohingyas to stage the protests,” he said. “He [the commander] organized a meeting with the local elders and ordered them to take part in the protest with at least one person from each household.”

Nay San Lwin expressed concern that junta pressure could lead to communal conflicts between Rakhine and Rohingya people in the state.

Also on Monday, around 30 junta troops entered Munaung township’s Thit Pon village and forced villagers to sign a petition against the AA, according to residents.

A Munaung resident, who also declined to be named, told RFA that villagers were scared and could not refuse.

“They [the junta soldiers] went to Thit Pon village and held a village meeting,” he said. “They forced us to make signboards that said ‘The AA is not welcome.’ If we refused, we would have been arrested and they would have fired artillery at our village.”

Repeated attempts by RFA to contact Attorney General Hla Thein, the junta spokesperson for Rakhine state, for more information about the protests went unanswered Monday.

The AA accused the junta in late March of creating racial and religious conflict in Rakhine state with protests to divert public attention from military defeats in the region.

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

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state were subjected to “ethnic cleansing” by security forces working with vigilante groups in 2023, says a report released by the United States on Monday.

About 1 million Rohingya refugees have lived in Bangladesh since 2017, when an operation by Myanmar’s military drove them across the border. Hundreds of thousands more, though, remain in Myanmar, and have been designated as “stateless” by the United Nations.

In its annual human rights country reports, which detail the rights situation in each of the world’s countries and were released Monday, the State Department says the Rohingya remaining in Myanmar continue to face “severe discrimination based on their ethnicity.”

In many cases, the Myanmar country report says, Rohingya civilians are even taken to be fair targets for military operations amid the country’s civil war, which has hit the ethnic minority hard.

On Aug. 25, it notes, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army claimed responsibility for attacks on a series of security outposts in northern Rakhine state, which led to the deaths of 12 security personnel. 

In response, the security forces and “local vigilante groups” then “committed widespread atrocities against Rohingya villagers.”

The atrocities included “extrajudicial killings, disappearances, rape, torture, arbitrary arrest, and burning of tens of thousands of homes and some religious structures and other buildings.”

“These atrocities and associated events forced more than 655,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh as of December,” says the report, “and constituted ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.”

Uyghur genocide

The China country report noted that many of the 1.8 million Uyghurs who have been “detained in the government’s mass arbitrary detention campaign” still “remain imprisoned” to this day, despite the Chinese government’s claims that most of the camps have now closed.

China’s government says that the camps, which it claims are in fact vocational training centers, were mostly closed in mid-2019, with the detained Uyghurs having graduated and found employment. 

U.S. officials have said in the past that the claims are questionable. 

The 2023 human rights country report for China says that the genocide against the mostly Muslim Uyghurs in the far western region of Xinjiang continued last year, with “forced disappearances” against Uyghurs also not abating.

“Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year in China against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” the report says. 

In many cases, family members of Uyghurs who are subjected to “forced disappearances” and not even informed as to the location of the person detained, or the length of time they will be detained.

For other RFA target countries – including North Korea, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – the 2023 report noted few overall changes.

“There were no significant changes in the human rights situation,” the reports for those countries say, even if the situation remains poor.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.