A planned event will be held on Saturday, 14 August 2021 at The Float @ Marina Bay.
To facilitate the event, the following roads and lanes will be closed to vehicular traffic during the stipulated period:
During the closure, access will only be granted to police and emergency vehicles. Auxiliary police officers and marshals will be deployed at the affected roads to assist and direct motorists.
Traffic delays are expected along Temasek Avenue, Bayfront Avenue, Raffles Boulevard, Republic Avenue, and Nicoll Highway. Motorists are advised to plan their route early and avoid these roads. Members of the public travelling to these affected areas are strongly encouraged to use public transport.
Similarly, motorists proceeding to Suntec City and Marina Square from Raffles Avenue, Raffles Boulevard, and Bayfront Avenue are to use alternate routes via Nicoll Highway or Ophir Road leading to Temasek Boulevard.
Parking restrictions along the peripheral roads will be strictly enforced. Vehicles found parked illegally or causing obstruction will be towed.
During the event, the public is also strongly advised to refrain from conducting of any aerial activities (i.e. flying of unmanned aircraft, kite-flying and hoisting of tethered balloon) in the area and its vicinity.
Members of the public may contact the organiser at 1800-637-2021 for further enquiries.
The Police have arrested a 25-year-old man for his suspected involvement in a series of cheating cases.
On 9 May 2021, the Police received a report from a victim who was purportedly cheated by an online seller into purchasing a furniture set on Carousell. After the payment was transferred by the victim through i-banking, the seller purportedly did not deliver the furniture set and became uncontactable.
Through follow-up investigations, officers from Bedok Police Division established the identity of the man and arrested him on 12 August 2021. Preliminary investigations revealed that the man is believed to be involved in several other similar cases of scams.
The man will be charged in court on 13 August 2021 with cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years and a fine.
The Police would like to advise members of the public to take the following precautions when making online purchases:
If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. Purchase only from authorised sellers or reputable sources, especially for high-value items.
Opt for buyer protection by using in-built payment options that release payment to the seller only upon delivery. Whenever possible, avoid making advance payments or direct bank transfers to the seller as this method does not offer any protection.
Scammers may entice buyers to contact them directly through messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or WeChat by offering a better or faster deal if bank transfer payments are made directly to them. They may also use a local bank account or provide a copy of a NRIC or driver’s licence to make you believe that they are genuine sellers. Do not fall for it!
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688. Anyone with information on such scams may call the Police hotline at 1800-255 0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.
Chinese authorities in Tibet have arrested 110 Tibetans on suspicion of sharing videos of preparations for a local horse racing festival they ordered canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, sources in Tibet told RFA.
The Nagchu (Naqu, in Chinese) Horse Racing Festival has been described as the biggest annual event in the northern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Though the event had been scheduled to open Monday and run through Aug. 20, authorities decided to cancel the event and all related festivities, tourist activities, and gatherings to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The cancellation came with retroactive orders not to share publicly any photos or videos of the event’s preparations, and many Tibetans who had shared them were punished, sources said.
“We were summoned to a meeting on the morning of Aug. 9, and that’s where all the cell phones were confiscated by the authorities for inspection,” a Tibetan resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“Eleven police officers showed up that day and called out the names of 110 individuals who were then taken to the police station,” the resident said.
The 110 were accused of sharing pictures and videos of event preparations on social media, according to the resident.
“Some of them were fined 5,000 yuan [U.S. $772] and were told they must report to the police station once a week,” the resident said.
Another Tibetan resident told RFA in a written message that authorities are unfairly applying pandemic restrictions to Tibetan cultural events.
“Tibetans were barred from celebrating the Shoton Festival in Lhasa and the Horse Racing Festival in Nagchu, but the Chinese government didn’t hesitate to celebrate the 70th anniversary of what they call the ‘liberation’ of Tibet, with the full festivities,” the second resident said.
The anniversary commemorated the May 23, 1951 signing of the 17-Point Agreement which established Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, which from that point onward ceased to be an independent state. In Chinese, the 17-Point Agreement is known as the “Agreement of the Central People’s Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet.”
Sources told RFA that 30 of the 110 arrested Tibetans remain in detention, while 80 were released.
Reported by Sangyal Kunchok for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Two pro-democracy activists died and three others were seriously injured in Myanmar when they jumped from a building in Yangon to avoid capture by junta authorities, witnesses said Wednesday, while the father of one of those killed said he was told his son survived the impact and was beaten to death by police.
Ye Min Oo and a woman, Wai Wai Myint, also called Pan Thee, lost their lives Tuesday night when they and three friends jumped from the roof of a building as junta forces stormed their apartment in Botahtaung township in Myanmar’s largest city.
The three who survived the jump—Wai Phyo Aung, Thiha Kaung Set, and Poe Kyaw Kyaw—were arrested by police and taken with the bodies of those killed to a military hospital in Mingaladon township in northern Yangon.
Tin Zaw—the father of Ye Min Oo, who died Tuesday—said he was told by witnesses that his son was still alive after the fall.
“Immediately after the fall, my son was dying, not dead. Then police officers beat them up, and my son died after the beating,” he told RFA in an exclusive interview. “I got that information from witnesses and residents.”
A neighborhood resident told RFA on Wednesday that two of those who jumped called out three or four times for water and then died, while the other three remained motionless after they hit the ground.
“Because they fell from a height, they must have broken their limbs,” he said.
The neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA the fleeling activists apparently got trapped on the rooftops of the old buildings.
“You could climb up to the roof, and the kids must have thought they could run across the rooftops. But there were only four buildings you could run across like that,” he said.
“There was a five-storey building blocking their path on one side and an eight-storey building on the other, and they must have run this way and that, and finally when they couldn’t escape they must have jumped,” he said.
Wai Wai Myint, who died on Aug. 10, 2021 after jumping from a building in Yangon to avoid arrest, is shown in an undated photo. Photo: citizen journalist
Dead and injured taken to hospital
Military forces ordered community service workers to take both the two who died and the three survivors to a 1,000-bed military hospital in Mingaladon, a member of the Lin Let Social Welfare Association told RFA.
“The two who died were dead when we got there,” the charity worker said.
“We were sure they were dead because we made all the necessary checks required to see if they were still alive,” she said. “One of the injured had a broken leg, and another had a head injury and had to be taken to the hospital’s neurology center.”
Soe Myat Thu, the husband of 29-year-old Wai Wai Myint, said he hopes the military will give him back his wife’s body so that he can bury her according to her own request.
“I’m trying to get my wife’s body back, but we are under the rule of a military coup, so what can I do?” he asked. “If they refuse to release her body, there is nothing we can do about it.”
“She always said, ‘Don’t cremate my body when I die. Please bury me in a grave,’ and I want to fulfill that last wish. I don’t care about anything else,” he said.
A police report now circulating on social media says the raid on the activists’ apartment was carried out by a team led by Tactical Commander Col. Soe Tun of the ruling Military Council, while a military press release on Wednesday confirmed that two had been killed and three injured in the operation, with hand grenades and bomb-making materials recovered during the raid.
An independent scout
Ye Min Oo, who was born in 1994, was not connected with Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), People’s Defense Force (PDF), or any other formally organized group, his father said.
Instead, he had worked independently with friends in a scouting unit gathering intelligence on pro-junta informers and other military targets, Tin Zaw said.
“He never expressed any political opinions, but after the February coup, he became actively involved in anti-coup protests, and although I did not forbid this as a parent, I warned him to be mindful and careful,” he said.
“My son stood and fought for his beliefs, and now he has fallen in the fight,” he said.
Tin Zaw said Ye Min Oo’s fate was the outcome of the military overthrow of the country’s democratically elected government on unfounded claims of voter fraud in the country’s November 2020 election.
The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide demonstrations calling for a return to civilian rule. According to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 948 civilians were killed by police and soldiers between Feb. 1 and Aug. 10.
“These kids were pushed into the struggle by the Feb. 1 coup. They were pure and innocent youths. I am very proud of my son,” Tin Zaw said.
Reported by Nayrein Kyaw for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Tin Zaw’s son Ye Min Oo is one of two Myanmar pro-democracy activists who died late on Tuesday when they and three colleagues jumped from a building in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, to avoid capture by junta authorities. In an exclusive interview with Nayrein Kyaw of RFA’s Myanmar Service on Wednesday, he describes how the Feb. 1 military coup that deposed the country’s elected government had inspired his previously apolitical son to join the anti-junta movement, and shares his reaction to the loss of Ye Min Oo. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
RFA: How did you hear about the incident?
Tin Zaw: Midday today, there were explosions in downtown Yangon—I was concerned about my son. After the February coup, he became actively involved in protests. I did not bar this as a parent, but warned him to be cautious and mindful. When they blocked all the streets and were searching for activists downtown, I was worried about him and called his number, but he did not answer. At nightfall, one of his friends informed me that he had died by jumping from an apartment during a raid. I was like, it’s all gone—I could no longer help my son anymore. Later I got images of my son and his friends jumping from the rooftop, and I knew that my son died from the jump.
RFA: Was your son Ye Min Oo a protester downtown, or was he involved in other activities?
Tin Zaw: He said he joined a scouting unit that gathers information on pro-military informants and military targets. He also told me he was not (an underground activist who was involved in political activities deemed illegal by the military junta), but was related to both. I asked him once whether he had contact with the National Unity Government, and he replied he did not. He even said that he did not know the Red (National League for Democracy) or Green (Union Solidarity and Development Party). He just knew to revolt against the dictatorship.
RFA: What is a scout and what was the nature of his scouting activities?
Tin Zaw: It was gathering information about pro-military informers and how they were actively working and where. They do a kind of intelligence gathering on the targets, working the whole day on the streets. He had no longer been sleeping at home for quite a long time. Once he was arrested near Maung Aye Café at Yegyaw junction in Pazundaung, detained during a random security check of all passers-by. He was arrested and detained after his mobile phone was checked. I went there and helped him get out from the arrest. Since then he no longer slept at home. He lived with his friends and colleagues. He visited home sometime, in February, days after the coup.
RFA: The initial information we received today was that five activists jumped from the roof top and died, including your son. What did you hear about today’s incident? Did you know the other activists?
Tin Zaw: I heard there were a husband and wife with the three others, including my son. Immediate after the fall, my son was dying, not dead. Then police officers beat them up, and my son died after the beating. I got that information from witnesses and residents.
RFA: Please tell us a little bit about your son, Ye Min Oo?
Tin Zaw: My son was born in the military junta era in 1994, grew up during the (2011-16) Thein Sein government, and the (2016-2021) Aung San Suu Kyi government. He never said anything about politics in his entire life. But he became active in politics only after the February coup and got involved in activities, up until his death now. There was no support behind my son or any youth in this movement. There was no organized command structure behind these groups of youths from anyone. What I mean here is: They were independent from the National Unity Government, the People’s Defense Force, or the armed training in liberated areas that have been popular online these days. They were not part of those. He did not flee to the border, did not attend the training, and was not a People’s Defense Force member. He joined the movement based on his own beliefs, and stood and fought, and has now fallen in the fight. They were pure and innocent youths. These kids were pushed into the struggle by the Feb. 1 coup. I am very proud of my son.
A professor who has researched and written about classical Uyghur literature for more than 40 years is serving a prison sentence of 10 years in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, university officials and other sources inside the restive region confirmed to RFA.
Gheyratjan Osman, a prolific academic at Xinjiang University’s School of Philology, was taken away in 2018 amid a purge of Uyghur intellectuals and cultural leaders – one of a set of Chinese government policies that have been determined by the United States and others as constituting genocide.
The abuses also include forced labor at factories and farms, forced birth control, and the detention of up to 1.8 million Uyghurs in a network of internment camps.
Gheyratjan, 63, who has written more than 30 books and 100 scholarly papers and has attended dozens of international academic conferences, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on vague separatism charges in May 2020, sources said. Among evidence presented against him were his having given a lecture at a university in Japan and having attended a conference on Turkology in Turkey, the sources said.
His sentencing came to light when his family recently received a notice that he had been handed a 10-year sentence, delivered by an official from Xinjiang University, where Gheyratjan had spent most of his career, said a source familiar with the situation who declined to be identified in order to speak freely.
During the past year, Xinjiang University has held a number of secret meetings for administrators in which school officials report on the alleged crimes and fates of detained instructors, the source said. The meetings appear to be meant in part to serve as a warning to administrators and are kept secret from instructors and students, he said.
Officials at one meeting gave information about Gheyratjan, saying that he had “rejected national culture” — a reference to majority Han Chinese culture — and “inculcated separatist ideology in generations of Uyghur students” through excessive praise of Uyghur culture in his research, he said.
When Gheyratjan previously was a visiting researcher at a XUAR government research institute for science and culture, “problems” had been discovered in some of the lectures he gave there, the source said.
The professor had lectured at a university in Japan, where some of the examples he used in class may have been considered a “rejection of Chinese culture,” he said. Gheyratjan also participated in a conference in Bursa, Turkey, in 2008, where he discussed Uyghur culture, which authorities interpreted as “separatist propaganda.”
The matter is a ‘state secret’
An employee of Xinjiang University’s cadre department declined to speak about the professor during a call from an RFA reporter, though the staffer did not deny reports that Gheyratjan had been sentenced.
A second university official mentioned Gheyratjan by name when RFA asked about which instructors’ prison sentences had been discussed recently during a meeting at the school, but the person declined to provide additional information, including the reason for his conviction and jailing.
A third Xinjiang University staff member confirmed that the professor was in prison, although he said he did not know the reason.
Asked about the accuracy of the various accounts of the scholar’s case, university officials said the matter constituted a “state secret,” which meant they could not answer the question.
Gheyratjan was born in the town of Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) in 1958 and admitted to the Xinjiang University Department of Uyghur Language and Literature in 1978, according to an online biography.
The professor spent the next 40 years of his life teaching and researching at Xinjiang University up to the time he was detained by authorities in 2018.
His published works included Uyghurs in the East and the West and The History of Classical Uyghur Literature. Additionally, he contributed to the development of literature curriculum and textbooks for students studying Uyghur language and literature at Xinjiang University, and advised generations of young Uyghur graduate students.
Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
