Burma Overtakes China on Rights

Burma Overtakes China on Rights:
Burma recorded improvements in both its political rights and civil liberties ratings in a global freedom survey published Wednesday, overtaking China which was accused of having “the world’s most complex and sophisticated apparatus for political control.”

But in spite of political reforms introduced since March 2011 under a nominally civilian government, Burma remains “Not Free” together with China and North Korea, the Washington-based Freedom House said in a report.

Nuclear-armed North Korea was however ranked “Worst of the Worst” together with the China-ruled Tibet Autonomous Region, where Tibetans together with others in Tibetan-populated provinces in China have staged deadly self-immolation protests. 

“For years ranked among the world’s most repressive regimes, Burma continued to push ahead with a process of democratic reform that was launched in 2010,” Freedom House said in its report, “Freedom in the World 2013: Democratic Breakthroughs in the Balance.”

“While it remains a ‘Not Free’ country, it registered improvements in both its political rights and civil liberties ratings,” Freedom House said.

Freedom House’s Not Free ranking is assigned to countries “where basic political rights are absent, and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied.”

A slight rise

Speaking in an interview, Sarah Cook, Asia researcher for Freedom House, said that Burma’s ranking in political rights moved up from a score of 7, Freedom House’s lowest ranking, to a 6 during 2012, and that its ranking in civil liberties moved up from 6 to 5.

While Burma has 6 on political rights and 5 on civil liberties, China is still 7 on political rights and 6 on civil liberties, the survey showed.

“China remained one of the most repressive countries in the world, and is in fact home to over half of the people in the world who live in a country that is rated Not Free,” Cook said.

Signaling further progress in reforms, Burma on Wednesday repealed a law formerly used to jail critics of the country’s former military rulers, state media reported.

Other gains in freedom of assembly and freedom of expression and a reduction of censorship in the media and on the Internet were also observed during the year, Cook said.

“But these are at the whim of the authorities, without any of the institutional changes that would prevent a backsliding if the political winds change,” she said.

Also ranked Not Free in this year’s report were Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, while Tibet and North Korea languished at the bottom of Freedom House’s list.

Media blackouts

Ninety-six Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against Chinese rule in Tibetan populated areas since February 2009 amid accusations by rights groups of worsening abuses by Beijing.  

“And the government’s response, rather than really looking at the underlying roots of these grievances, was to further intensify their restrictions, both within the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Tibetan regions of the surrounding [Chinese] provinces,” Cook said.

“We saw media blackouts and efforts to stop the news from getting out, [and] the arrest and imprisonment of people who did send information out."

In China itself, “what we saw in 2012 was the continued dedication of [the ruling] Communist Party to really maintain its political control,” she said.

“The security apparatus was really active, particularly in trying to neutralize some of the people who are known as activists and dissidents, as well as religious believers like Falun Gong practitioners.”

Bright spots during the year included the escape from house arrest of blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng and “the determination and courage of not just high-profile dissidents but also a large number of ordinary citizens to assert their rights and challenge injustice,” Cook said.

But China’s northwest Xinjiang region continued to see a “severe” security presence and a range of security measures targeting the country’s ethnic minority Uyghur population, she said.

“Also, a lot of the people who had been abducted and disappeared right after the protests and riots [in the regional capital Urumqi] in 2009 remain unaccounted for, and large numbers have been sentenced to prison.”

For Xinjiang, the main development of 2012 was “intensified pressure” on religious practice outside of state controls, Cook said. The mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs complain they are discriminated against by the Chinese authorities in favor of the majority Han Chinese ethnic group.

Southeast Asia

In Southeast Asia, Cambodia, which had 6 for political rights and 5 for civil liberties, showed “some decline” with regard to freedom of association.

“Violence against civil society activists and journalists seemed to ramp up even more in 2012, with one journalist killed and police opening fire on demonstrators involved in labor protests and in protests connected with logging and forced evictions,” Cook said.

Laos, though with unchanged scores of 7 and 6, also showed a decline in freedom of association.

“We also saw in the media field the Lao authorities taking off the air a popular radio call-in show that had focused, among other things, on land-grabbing.  They also publicly rebuked journalists for not heeding state guidance on these stories,” she said.

Vietnam, ranked at 7 and 5, has seen a continuing harsh crackdown on political dissent, “particularly with regard to suppression of online activism and people’s ability to communicate freely and safely on the Internet,” Cook said, adding that “this was particularly related to concerns about corruption.”

North Korea saw slight openings in market activity and in an increase in mobile phone usage but there was no significant change in terms of political opening under the new young leader, Kim Jong Un, she said.

“In terms of any significant reduction in the labor camp populations or changes in some of the laws that send people to labor camps, or even things like punishments for people who are caught making international phone calls, we didn’t see anything like that,” Cook said.

“It was only in the economic area that we saw a bit of opening, and we’ve seen openings and closings like that before.”

Reported by Richard Finney.

ASEAN Dogged by Rights Concerns

ASEAN Dogged by Rights Concerns:
As senior diplomat Le Luong Minh officially assumed the post of ASEAN Secretary-General about a week ago, a court in his home country Vietnam was sending more than a dozen peaceful activists to jail in the largest trial of its kind in the one-party communist state.

The timing might have been coincidental. But the conviction and harsh jail sentences on the 14 activists provide an ominous backdrop to the appointment of the first Vietnamese official at the helm of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the group  begins to lay the groundwork for human rights protection in the region.

When Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995 after coming out of the diplomatic cold, many had expected it to show leadership, especially to the other mainland Southeast Asian states—Burma, Cambodia and Laos—which joined the group later and united the region for the first time.

Eighteen years later, Vietnam remains an authoritarian state despite economic progress and its rights violations are serving as a bad example to its smaller neighbors Cambodia and Laos.

Hanoi's human right record is abysmal, rights groups say, as it wages an unrelenting campaign to muzzle dissent.

Several dozen activists were thrown in jail last year for expressing their opinions and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says its 2012 prison census showed Vietnam held 14 reporters behind bars, making the country the sixth worst jailer of journalists in the world.

The government suppresses virtually all forms of political dissent, relying on loosely-worded national security laws, including those which vaguely prohibit activities aimed at “overthrowing the government.”

"[T]he government appears despotic to its own people and the world when it says that someone who tries to uphold the rights of others is a threat to the state,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The 14 bloggers, writers, and political and social activists convicted last week were sentenced to up to 13 years for "subversion of the administration” in a verdict criticized by the United Nations, the United States, France, and several other governments.

Absurd

Prosecutors had accused the 14 of working with a U.S.-based exile group Viet Tan, which Hanoi calls a terrorist organization, a term which even the U.N. thinks is absurd.

“Although Viet Tan is a peaceful organization advocating for democratic reform, the Government has deemed it to be a 'reactionary organization,'” said a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Rupert Colville.

“None of those convicted are alleged to have been involved in violent acts,” he said, expressing alarm over the limited space for critical voices in Vietnam.

In fact, a number of those convicted had carried out volunteer activities in their local neighborhoods. They had encouraged women not to have abortions, supported the poor and people with disabilities, and worked to protect the environment and labor rights.

“The convictions of the 14 activists illustrate a deeply worrying trend, and suggest that the crackdown is set to continue in 2013,”  said Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s researcher on Vietnam.

Rights groups also expect Laos and Cambodia, which holds national elections in July, to further restrict freedom this year.

Questionable court rulings

In Cambodia, 2012 was a "very bad year" for human rights, amid a "harsh crackdown on freedom of expression and widespread land ownership disputes and forced evictions,” said Janice Beanland, Amnesty International’s Campaigner on Cambodia.

A series of court rulings have also been questioned by rights groups, which accuse Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's government of using the justice system as a tool to suppress dissent and undermine rights.

In Laos, the disappearance of a popular local social activist has sent shockwaves through non-governmental organizations and the international community since he was last seen taken away by unidentified men after he was stopped by police in the capital Vientiane about a month ago.

Three Southeast Asian lawmakers who flew to Laos to prod top government officials to get to the bottom of the case suggested that some section of the government or rogue elements within the government might have abducted the 60-year-old Sombath Somphone.

"[A]t a time when ASEAN is coming together as a real community in the eyes of the world, his disappearance reflects badly not only on Laos but on the whole ASEAN community," said Philippines Congressman Walden Bello, who was among lawmakers who spoke to Lao government officials and legislators on the case.

The ASEAN group, which recently adopted the region's first declaration on giving greater protection of human rights for the region's 600 million people, has been asked to push Laos to come clean over Sombath's issue.

"His disappearance looks more and more like a blatant display of political arrogance and central control inside Laos. Increasingly in the new regional landscape, such an authoritarian system is no longer acceptable," The Nation newspaper in Thailand said in an unusually strong editorial.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also piled pressure on the Lao government over Sombath’s case, asking it “to pursue a transparent investigation of this incident and to do everything in its power to bring about an immediate and safe return home to his family.”

National or ASEAN's interest?

With Minh heading the ASEAN secretariat in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, rights groups wonder whether the Vietnamese official will move to strengthen human rights via meaningful consultation with civil society in the region following the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration in November.

They ask whether Minh can push for greater rights for the region when his home government shows no sign of polishing its rights record.

"Well, when a person becomes the ASEAN Secretary-General, he serves ASEAN's interest, he doesn't serve national interest," said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, a regional expert on political and security issues at the ASEAN Studies Centre of the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS).

“That is stated in the ASEAN Charter,” said Termsak, who retired last year after a two-decade stint at the ASEAN secretariat. “Also in the charter, you'll find a provision saying that governments cannot influence the Secretary-General in his performance of duties.”

If ASEAN provisions are an indicator, Minh may also have a mandate to push for regional attention over Sombath’s case.

Based on the terms of reference of the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), which is the groups' central but non-binding rights mechanism, the Secretary-General can bring “relevant issues" to the attention of the panel and "concurrently inform the ASEAN Foreign Ministers of these issues.”

But Termsak cautions that AICHR is only a “consultative inter-governmental body”.

“It is not supposed to enforce human rights protection in any ASEAN member State.”

China to Train Cambodia Military

China to Train Cambodia Military:
China will train Cambodia’s military under a new deal signed Wednesday, following an earlier agreement to sell 12 helicopters to Phnom Penh, officials said.
Cambodia is in need of the military assistance and China had honored its request with the deal, Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh said at the signing ceremony.
Moeung Samphan, secretary of state in Cambodia’s Ministry of Defense, inked the agreement in Phnom Penh with the deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), who is on a three-day visit to the country.
Under the deal, China will enhance the capacity and expertise of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces by offering training courses and providing military equipment and materials, according to China’s Xinhua state news agency.
It will also provide musical instruments to be used during a military procession for the cremation of Cambodia’s late King Sihanouk next month.
Helicopters
Tea Banh said that the training and the 12 helicopters will help boost the military’s capabilities.
“So far we haven’t had the equipment for emergency rescue and long-distance operations. We will use this to prepare our military,” he said.
The Chinese-built Zhi-9 army utility helicopters are part of a U.S. $195 million loan cemented late last year.
Tea Banh said they would be used mainly for emergency relief efforts.
Qi said after singing the training deal that China will continue to help Cambodia as long as long as it needs help.
“We have decided to provide helicopters for Cambodia to help develop this country. When Cambodia has a natural disaster, Cambodia can use its helicopters,” he said.
China has played a key role in improving Cambodia's dilapidated military inventory since 2010, when Beijing donated 250 jeeps and trucks to Cambodia's army after the U.S. scrapped a similar plan.
China is also investing heavily in Cambodia, with its companies pledging in the past year to pump $8 billion into the country, a figure equivalent to almost two-thirds of the Cambodian economy, according to Reuters news agency.
Reported by Sok Serey for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Blogger Held, Put in Mental Ward

Blogger Held, Put in Mental Ward:
Vietnamese authorities have arrested a blogger critical of the government and thrown him into a mental institution in the latest move to curtail dissent in the one-party Communist state, a rights group said Saturday.

Le Anh Hung was taken away from his workplace on Thursday morning by security officials and his friends later discovered that he was interned in a mental institution in the capital Hanoi, according to the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights.

The 40-year-old blogger had in the past been subjected to repeated interrogations, threats, and harassment by the police over his writings denouncing instances of corruption and power abuse among top-level ruling Communist Party and government officials.

"Six secret security agents held Le Anh Hung at his workplace in [northern] Hung Yen [city] on Thursday morning and told his boss they needed to see him about 'matters concerning temporary residence papers,'” a statement by the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said.

"They then forced him into their car and took him away without any explanation. He was later found to be interned in the 'Social Support Center No. 2' in Ung Hoa, Hanoi, a center for mentally ill."

When his friends tried to visit him on Friday, the head of the center confirmed that he was there, but refused to let them meet him, the statement said.

The center's head also claimed that Hung’s mother had demanded his internment, and that she specifically told them that no one should be allowed to see him other than herself.

But Hung’s mother denied making such a demand, the statement said.

“Detaining critics and dissidents in mental hospitals is a despicable tactic reminiscent of the Soviet Union era,” said Vo Van Ai, president of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, the international arm of Action for Democracy in Vietnam which is campaigning for human rights and democracy in Vietnam.

“Vietnam will clearly stop at nothing to stifle the voices of this young generation. The international community should condemn his kidnapping and detention and call on Vietnam to immediately set him free," he said.

Complaints

Le Anh Hung (Photo courtesy of Le Anh Hung's blog).

Hung has filed 70 complaints against leading figures such as Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and former Communist Party secretary-general Nong Duc Manh, accusing them of corruption, drug dealing, arms trafficking and other crimes. He had also participated in anti-China demonstrations in Hanoi.

Last month, Vietnamese police detained a prominent lawyer and blogger Le Quoc Quan as he dropped his daughter off at school and has held him incommunicado since then in a case which the United Nations says "exemplify the limited space for critical voices in Vietnam."

Two weeks ago, Vietnam sent more than a dozen peaceful activists, including bloggers, to jail in the largest trial of its kind in the country.

They were sentenced to up to 13 years for "subversion of the administration” in a verdict criticized by the United Nations, the United States, France, and several other governments.

Reported by RFA's Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

NGO Reveals Smuggling Law Delay

NGO Reveals Smuggling Law Delay:
Laos is unlikely to meet its self-imposed deadline to frame and implement anti-human trafficking legislation by next year, an official with a nongovernmental organization in the country said Tuesday.

The NGO official, who spoke to RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity, said that while the anti-human trafficking law was drafted with the intention of a 2014 rol-lout, the National Assembly, or Lao Parliament, has not yet received it for approval.

“I am not sure it will be ratified by the National Assembly next year as it is still in the drafting stage,” the official said, pressing the need for the law to be adopted swiftly to tackle the trafficking problem, which is also faced by neighboring Southeast Asian countries.

“The last I heard, it is still being reviewed and improved,” the official said, citing information he had gathered from certain groups.

The official added that “even if the draft were ratified [by the National Assembly], it would still have to go through several hearings from relevant government departments,” which would make it “almost impossible” to be implemented in 2014.

In late 2012, the government of Laos adopted a national anti-human trafficking strategy—an unprecedented move in the fight against human trafficking in the country.

The NGO official said that the strategy was intended to be used in tandem with the proposed law in order to improve the effectiveness of anti-trafficking measures.

Laos currently has no comprehensive human trafficking law and instead uses its criminal code to deal with the problem.

Lao officials remain optimistic that the law will significantly deter the issue of human trafficking in Laos.

Anti-trafficking efforts

Laos has stepped up its efforts to investigate human smuggling offenses and to prosecute and punish traffickers in recent years, according to an annual report by the U.S. State Department that monitors human trafficking worldwide.

In 2011, authorities reported investigating 49 cases of suspected trafficking, involving 69 alleged offenders and resulting in 37 convictions, a step up from the 20 cases investigated and 33 convictions the year before, the report said.

Figures for 2012 are not available, but cases of smuggling have been exposed, especially involving the trafficking of women to neighboring nations.

Lao officials had said that foreign sex rings were smuggling Lao women to China, Thailand, and Malaysia.

In June 2012, Lao and Thai officials met to launch a joint campaign to prevent human trafficking across their shared border.

Laos is a source, transit, and destination country for women and girls subjected to sex trafficking, as well as for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, according to the State Department report.

Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

MPs Urge Child Labor Action

MPs Urge Child Labor Action:
A group of opposition lawmakers have written to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urging action against a sugar factory owned by a ruling party official accused of exploiting child labor and grabbing land from villagers.

Six Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) parliamentarians sent a letter dated Jan. 23 through National Assembly President Heng Samrin, calling on Hun Sen to “take serious measures” against the Phnom Penh Sugar Co., which runs the factory in central Cambodia’s Kompong Speu province.

The company belonging to ruling Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat has been at the center of a long-running dispute with villagers who say they were offered inadequate compensation for land they had farmed for years which was taken over by the sugar project.

“Ly Yong Phat's factory is using child labor from workers who are under 18 years of age,” reads the letter, demanding that Hun Sen take actions to “improve working conditions in this factory, which is abusing the rights of children.”

The International Convention on Child Labor, which Cambodia is subject to, defines a child as anyone below the age of 18 years and spells out the basic human rights that children should enjoy, including the right to protection from economic exploitation.

“The government must take serious measures against the factory,” the letter said.

It also called on the sugar company to resolve its land dispute with the more than 1,000 villagers in Kompong Speu province.

Member of Parliament Mu Sochua, who described the company as a “’blood sugar’ producer known for encroaching on villagers' land,” said she and her fellow SRP lawmakers had discovered that the factory was employing underage children through an “investigation,” without providing further details.

“We must prevent child labor. I request that the company allow local commune officials to inspect the factory,” she told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“I will write to Okhna [honorific] Ly Yong Phat to allow lawmakers to inspect the factory," she said.

Staffers from Hun Sen's cabinet refused to comment on the letter from the SRP lawmakers when contacted by RFA’s Khmer Service.

Child labor allegations

A villager who lives near the sugar factory confirmed to RFA that the company had been hiring children “to work on the plantation … clearing sugar cane.”

“There are children aged 12-14 years old working. They drop out of school [to work there]," said the villager, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union President Ath Thon said that villagers were bringing their children to work with them because they do not have enough money to send them to school and do not want them to stay at home by themselves.

He said that the villagers are unable to raise money for schooling because they no longer have their own land to cultivate, adding that the children would accompany their parents to the factory to help earn additional income for the household.

“The children are forced to work alongside their parents because the villagers don't have any plantation [land for themselves],” Ath Thon said.

"We shouldn't condone development using child labor,” he said.

Ly Yong Phat could not be reached for comment about the child labor allegations.

Some 1.5 million Cambodians under the age of 18 are forced to work, with about 20 percent of them engaged in hazardous jobs such as spraying pesticides or working in brick factories, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Many school aged children stay at home since their parents cannot afford to send them to school. Instead, they earn around U.S. $0.50 cents to $3.00 a day by hauling, fishing, or selling foods on the street to help the family.

The Cambodian government and the ILO have set a goal of ending the “worst” forms of child labor in the country by 2016.

Long-running dispute

More than 1,000 villagers in Kompong Speu claim they have lost around 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres) since the government awarded the Phnom Penh Sugar Company an 8,000 hectare (19,770 acre) concession in 2010.

They also charge that the company had illegally seized their land and forced them to move to higher ground, where they are unable to grow crops.

The land dispute has been dragging on for two years without any signs of an imminent resolution.

Another sugar plant formerly owned by Ly Yong Phat in southwestern Cambodia’s Koh Kong province is also involved in a land dispute with more than 450 families who say they were forcibly evicted from their homes and lost farmland to make way for the development.

Residents say the eviction involved beatings and warning shots fired by police. Ly Yong Phat has since sold his stake in the plantation and factory to Taiwanese partner company Ve Wong.

Opposition party members have called on European countries not to purchase sugar from the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, calling the product “blood sugar.”

Last October, the European Parliament called for a probe into possible human rights abuses by Cambodian companies exporting to Europe and linked to questionable land concessions.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Vietnam Deports Democracy Activist

Vietnam Deports Democracy Activist:
The government of Vietnam has deported an American pro-democracy activist of Vietnamese descent after detaining him for nine months on charges of subversion, official media said Wednesday.

Nguyen Quoc Quan, 59, was arrested on April 17 last year as he deplaned in Tan Son Nhat airport and charged with terrorism for allegedly trying to disrupt the anniversary of the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam conflict.

Also known as Richard Nguyen, Quan is a member of the Viet Tan Party—a U.S.-based opposition group outlawed in the one-party communist state, and which credited “immense international pressure” for his release.

"Vietnam has expelled Nguyen Quoc Quan, who is an American citizen," the state-run Vietnam News Agency said in an online report Wednesday.

"Quan admitted his crimes, asking for leniency so that he could go back to the United States and be with his family," the report said, without providing additional details.

Following his arrest last year, state media reported that Quan “had schemes to execute some demonstration and terrorist activities planned by the overseas terrorist organization Viet Tan” to mark the April 30 anniversary of the fall of the U.S.-backed regime in southern Vietnam.

It said Quan’s plot had been revealed through an investigation by the Ministry of Security and that he subsequently “admitted to his involvement in the criminal activities.”

In August, Vietnamese authorities “quietly” changed the democracy activist’s charges from terrorism, under Article 84 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, to subversion, under Article 79, for merely being a member of Viet Tan.

He was due to go on trial earlier this month but the proceedings were cancelled without official explanation.

Release welcomed

In a statement Wednesday, Viet Tan expressed gratitude to the international community for exerting pressure on the Vietnamese government to secure Quan’s freedom.

“After months of illegal detention with limited access to legal counsel, Dr. Quan’s release comes amidst immense international pressure for his case,” the statement said.

“Viet Tan opposes the illegal detention of Dr. Quan and strongly rejects the Hanoi regime’s attempt at smearing the peaceful activities of Viet Tan.”

Quan’s U.S.-based attorney Linda Malone called the activist’s release “a major and wonderful surprise,” particularly in light of the Vietnamese government’s ongoing trial of 22 members of an obscure environmental group for trying to “overthrow” the country’s communist leadership and convictions of others on similar charges this year.

“Vietnamese authorities have been quoted as saying that he had admitted to his charges and asked for leniency,” Malone said.

“His wife has noted that this is patently untrue as, if he had admitted to the charges, he could have been released months ago,” she said.

Malone said media attention, public concern, and the efforts of the U.S. State Department had been “critical in preventing conviction of a U.S. citizen for exercising a clearly protected human right to freedom of speech and thought.”

Quan, who received his doctorate in mathematics from North Carolina State University, is a former high school teacher in Vietnam.

He was previously detained by Vietnamese authorities in November 2007 and held for six months for distributing materials promoting nonviolent tactics for civil resistance before being deported in May 2008.

Crackdown

Vietnamese authorities have jailed dozens of political dissidents since launching a crackdown on freedom of expression at the end of 2009.

Earlier this month, a court convicted 14 activists, including Catholics, students, and blogger under Article 79 for their involvement with Viet Tan. Nearly all of them were ordered jailed for between three and 13 years in prison.

Article 79 forbids “carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration” or establishing or joining organizations with the intent to do so.
Rights groups say Article 79 has been used in the past as a pretext to repress and silence peaceful democratic voices.

Reported by Joshua Lipes.

Par Par Lay: The Power of Laughter

Par Par Lay: The Power of Laughter:

After his comedy troupe was banned from public performances, a Burmese comedian launches a campaign to end political fear.

The Moustache Brothers (Lu Zaw, Par Par Lay, and Lu Maw) refuse to stop performing despite political persecution. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Burmese comedian Par Par Lay comes from a performing family: His grandfather, father, younger brother, and cousins are all comedians—plus, all of their spouses are dancers. Additionally, Par Par Lay, his brother Lu Maw, and his cousin Lu Zaw founded the Moustache Brothers, a popular traditional Burmese a-nyeint (screwball comedy and classic Burmese dance) group.

1. 
2. In Burma if you want to hear about issues the newspapers can’t talk about, you should go to a tea shop. Tea houses were where I used to meet with other activists, writers and artists, as well as where I built friendships. Within tea houses we talked about Burmese writers, literary trends we noticed, and, of course, politics. This online space attempts to emulate the conversations I enjoyed in Rangoon’s tea houses.
3. 
4. Khet Mar is a journalist, novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist from Burma. She is the author of one novel, Wild Snowy Night, as well as several collections of short stories, essays and poems. Her work has been translated into English and Japanese, been broadcast on radio, and made into a film. She is a former writer-in-residence at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.

But while jokes have the power to make us laugh, they can also shed light on serious political issues. Par Par Lay is just one example of the many people who have been arrested in Burma for expressing what they believe in.
In 1990, Par Par Lay was detained for six months after he campaigned for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party. In 1996, he and Lu Zaw were arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison for joking about the military regime at an Independence Day celebration at Aung San Suu Kyi’s home. They were sent to a hard-labour camp in the Kachin state and released in 2001.
As an additional consequence, the Moustache Brothers were banned from performing in public. Nevertheless, Lu Maw decided to perform for tourists at his home, but the family struggled to support itself, and its two imprisoned Brothers, with the income from those private shows.
Before the ban I had the chance to watch the Moustache Brothers perform in 1996 and was able to talk with them for hours after the show. That experience is how I first became interested in this family of performers, but unfortunately I never had the chance to see them again. However, after I moved to the United States in 2009, I often called them to talk.
On one occasion Par Par Lay told me that nowadays the audience asks him about the changes that have occurred in Burma’s government since President Thein Sein assumed power in 2010:
“When people ask if Burma is on its way to democracy,” he said, “I reply that I can’t say if Burma is on its way or not, but I’m sure that I’m not on my way to democracy yet. I was in jail because I expressed my beliefs. Then, when I was released in 2001, the authorities told me that I wasn’t permitted to perform in public. Since I still can’t legally perform with my troupe, or any other groups, that is my answer to the audience.”
But aside from the ban being an annoyance for Par Par Lay, he doesn’t look as if he’s affected by it. He is doing what he can when he can’t do what he wants. Last year, he launched the No Fear campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the current political situation in middle Burma.
“Most people are still afraid to speak out, and they don’t know their rights,” he said. “So I tell them to select the leader they want with no fear in the 2015 election.”
Despite the persecution he’s faced, it’s clear how much Par Par Lay loves being a comedian when he says: “If I return as a human in the next life, I just want to be a comedian again. A comedian’s job is to make people happy. If he sees that people are happy, he is happy as well. Plus, a comedian can educate people and serve as a representative for their suffering.”
Still, instead of wishing for things in the next life, I’d rather work in this life toward a Burma where Par Par Lay is free to use his comedy to make people happy again.

Freedom of Speech Roundup

Freedom of Speech Roundup:
In the weekly Freedom of Speech Roundup, Sampsonia Way presents some of the week’s top news on freedom of expression, journalists in danger, artists in exile, and banned literature.

Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr's work focuses on political themes, and was featured at the 'Long Live Free Art' exhibition in Cairo. Photo: Roobee on Flickr.

Egypt’s Art World Rallies to Defend Freedom of Expression

The Art Newspaper. A recent exhibit in Cairo, called “Long Live Free Art,” displayed artwork in resistance to President Morsi’s new constitution. Here, artists talk about the future of art in Egypt and the cultural coalitions being formed in response to the Muslim Brotherhood. Also included is a slideshow of work from the exhibition. Read here.

China: Why does Censorship Look Like Harmony in the Office? Why do People get Errors in WeChat?

Poynter. A former announcer for China Radio details his experience with censorship and office “harmony” in a first-hand account of what makes a story controversial. Read here.
PC Magazine. If a user writes “restricted language”—like the name of the Chinese paper Southern Weekly—on the Chinese App WeChat, he or she will receive an error notification and the word will automatically be corrected. The government also controls the app so that messages can’t be sent out of China. Read here.

Burma Dissolves Censorship Board; Professor Resigns over Brunei University ‘Censorship’

Burma News International. On Thursday the Burmese government officially dissolved the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, the body responsible for censoring the press since 1962. A second draft of a new media law is currently being rewritten. Read here.
The Myanmar Times. Dr. Maung Zarni, the head of the Free Burma Coalition, has resigned from his position at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam due to “extreme and unprofessional academic censorship.” Zarni is an outspoken human rights activist and was allegedly threatened to stay silent about the conflict between the Rakhine Buddhists and the government of Burma. Read here.

Uploading MLK Speech an Act of Civil Disobedience

Digital Trends. In honor of Internet Freedom Day and Martin Luther King Jr., Fight for the Future — an Internet freedom group — posted a video of King’s iconic yet copyrighted “I Have a Dream” speech. The video was immediately taken down since posting it constitutes an act of civil disobedience. Read here.

Google Executive Visits North Korea

WebProNews. “Once the internet starts in any country, citizens in that country can certainly build on top of it, but the government has to do one thing: open up the Internet first,” Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said. Read here.


Google’s Eric Schmidt and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson visit to a computer lab at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. Video: YouTube, Associated Press.

‘Insulting words’ Crime Ditched

BBC. In the U.K., it is no longer a criminal charge to use “threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behavior” against another person. Though free speech campaigners are enthusiastic about the drop, many policy makers are considered for minorities who may be affected by the change. Read here.

India: Writers Demand Freedom of Speech

The Hindu. At the Jaipur Literature festival in India a panel of writers featuring Ariel Dorfman (Chile), Frank Dikotter (China), Ian Buruma (Holland), Selma Debbagh (Palistine), and Sudeep Chakravarti (India) discussed the writer’s place in a totalitarian state. Read here.

Musicians and Composers Battle Censors in Iran

The World. Five members of an underground Iranian band have been arrested for “collaborating with dissident Iranian singers and satellite channels based in the U.S.” In an anonymous interview, the nature of composing music in Iran is discussed. Fear is a constant component of making music, and the composition process begins with “self-censorship.” Read here.

Vietnam’s Propaganda Agents Battle Bloggers Online

France 24. The government has assigned a team of 900 “internet polemicists” to attack bloggers on Internet forums and spread the party line. Over 18 websites and 400 accounts monitor conversations about domestic issues in Vietnam and encourage viewers to “trust the government.” Read here.

Facebook Graph Search leaves little privacy and no opting out | PCWorld

Facebook Graph Search leaves little privacy and no opting out | PCWorld

Philippines Pays Price for Gun Culture - WSJ.com

Philippines Pays Price for Gun Culture - WSJ.com

Yahoo Mail users hit by widespread hacking, XSS exploit seemingly to blame

Yahoo Mail users hit by widespread hacking, XSS exploit seemingly to blame:
Late last night reports started coming in suggesting that Yahoo Mail users have had their accounts hacked. While “hacked” is a very broad term nowadays, it does appear that Yahoo email accounts are being compromised after users click on a malicious link they receive in their inboxes.
A bit of digging shows the attack seems to have been carried out by a lone hacker by the name Shahin Ramezany. He has uploaded a video to YouTube demonstrating how to compromise a Yahoo account by leveraging a DOM-Based XSS vulnerability that is exploitable in all major browsers:

The technique shown off is very simple, can be performed in just a few minutes, and seems to be very easy to automate. In his only tweet about the hack so far, Ramezany notes the vulnerability puts some 400 million Yahoo users at risk and promises the full details of his method will be posted after Yahoo plugs the security hole.
It’s not currently clear how many Yahoo Mail users have already been affected by this flaw, but it does look as if the number is growing quickly. A search on Twitter for Yahoo hacked shows that many have either had their accounts compromised, or are receiving spam from their friends with Yahoo accounts.
This warning from an actress and singer sums up the situation perfectly:

Friends and colleagues, don’t click the link that was sent to you from my Yahoo email account, I was hacked :/ Apologies!
— Cristina Vee (@CristinaVee) January 7, 2013

This isn’t the first time Yahoo Mail has been attacked by hackers, and it likely won’t be the last. The previous such incident was not so long ago, in July 2012, although that was related to a file being swiped from the company’s servers. This appears to be a security hole directly in Yahoo Mail.
We recommend that users with a Yahoo account change their account passwords and make a point not to click on any suspicious links they receive by email or from anywhere else. In fact, that goes for all users; don’t click on random links, even if you get them from a friend. If you think your account was compromised, also change your password on any related accounts, especially if you use the same password.
We have contacted Yahoo about this issue. We will update this article if we hear back.
Image credit: KateKrav

East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin - 3 Jan 2013

East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin

Study: More heads of state are using Twitter | PCWorld

Study: More heads of state are using Twitter | PCWorld

Competition in Timor-Leste’s telecommunications sector will help more people access to a variety of services

Competition in Timor-Leste’s telecommunications sector will help more people access to a variety of services

View point: ‘You gotta have faith’, but… | The Jakarta Post

View point: ‘You gotta have faith’, but… | The Jakarta Post

Deported Uyghurs Jailed

Deported Uyghurs Jailed:
Updated at 1.15 p.m. EST on 2012-12-21
A group of 11 Uyghurs repatriated from Malaysia to China last year has been sentenced to prison on separatism charges, according to a relative and friends in their hometown.

Chinese authorities have not revealed what happened to the group since they were repatriated in August 2011 as part of what rights groups said was Beijing’s “coordinated campaign” to pressure neighboring countries into extraditing members of the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority who had fled persecution in their homeland in the restive Xinjiang region.

But the mother of one of the men told RFA’s Uyghur Service this month that her son is serving a three-year sentence for separatism in Hotan prison in Xinjiang, following a secret trial in July.

Friends of his and the other 10 deported men said they have heard that the others had also been thrown in jail for up to 15 years, though they did not wish to be named and the sentences could not be confirmed.

Kurbanjan Sirajidin Ahmet Sadiq, who had been living legally in Malaysia for five years before he was deported back to China, was given a six-year jail sentence for separatism that was later reduced to three years, his mother Haniyaz’han Ahmet Sadiq said.

“They accused him of separatism and sentenced him to jail,” she said, adding that he has denied the charges and insisted he has nothing to do with separatism.

"In July this year, there was a court session for him and he was sentenced to six years. But we were not allowed to enter the courtroom,” she said, adding that the term was later reduced to three years.

Family members have not been allowed to visit him but have been told he is in Hotan prison, she said.

“His father and I are both very ill, and I worry we will not live to see him released,” she said. “Three years is too long.”

Separatism

Friends of his who were contacted by RFA and who did not wish to be named said that they heard others had been given sentences ranging from 11 months to 15 years.

Hotan police contacted by RFA refused to comment on any of the deportees.

Haniyaz’han Ahmet Sadiq said she believes her son is innocent but added that Chinese authorities consider him and the 10 other deported men to be separatists.

“We believe he is innocent, but the government believes he is a separatist because he helped 10 other Uyghurs with translation issues in Malaysia, and they accused him of separatism, sentenced him to jail,” she said.

“The [Chinese] government said these 10 Uyghurs were separatists because they crossed the Chinese border illegally without passports.”

Kurbanjan Sirajidin Ahmet Sadiq, who is married to a Malaysian woman and ran a restaurant in an Islamic university in Kuala Lumpur, is fluent in Malaysian and English and frequently helped newly arrived Uyghurs with language issues. Sources said he had assisted UN refugee agency staff as a translator several times.

He and the 10 other deportees were among 16 Uyghurs detained by Malaysian police in separate raids in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru city on Aug. 6 of last year.

The Malaysian police said they had busted a Chinese trafficking ring which was falsely trying to claim United Nations refugee status for its victims after smuggling them into the country.

UNHCR officials said the agency had tried to meet with the men before they were deported but were refused permission by Malaysian authorities.

Two of the Uyghurs were released soon after the arrest and three were released into the agency’s custody as “persons of concern,” while the remaining were deported to China 20 days after the arrest.

Malaysian authorities

A lawyer who helped the group of Uyghurs while they were in Kuala Lumpur, Anwar Ismail, said he believes the men are innocent of the terrorism and separatism charges leveled at them and should not have been sent to China.
The lawyer said the Uyghurs were arrested by Malaysia's counterterrorism police for violations of Malaysia's security laws.
"Police called me and told me that they were arrested under [Malaysia's] Internal Security Act. But they told the media that they were arrested for human trafficking and nothing to do with any political or religious group."
He said that if Malaysian authorities had been given evidence from China that the deported Uyghurs had committed other crimes that warranted them being extradited, then they should have provided proof.

“China has no proof. If China had proof, the Malaysian government would have disclosed this proof,” he told RFA’s Uyghur Service.

He urged the Malaysian government not to allow any more Uyghurs to be deported to China.

"I feel deeply sorry about the deported people. The Malaysian government should learn what happens when they deport Uyghurs,” Anwar said.

The Malaysian counterterrorism police unit contacted by RFA refused to comment on the case.

Call for transparency

In recent years, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos have all repatriated Uyghurs allegedly following pressure from Chinese authorities.

Many of the Uyghurs who have been deported were fleeing China’s restive northwestern Xinjiang region, where they say they face discrimination, which fueled deadly riots in 2009.

Phelim Kline, the deputy director for Asia at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said that China has kept the fate of repatriated Uyghurs such as the 11 from Malaysia under wraps.

“There is zero transparency on the Chinese side in terms of determining what exactly the situation is for these people who were detained and returned to China.”

Rights groups have accused Malaysia of violating legal due process by deporting them instead of charging them under international law.

Kline said that Malaysian authorities were obligated to explain what legal procedures had occurred.

“They are obligated to ensure these Uyghurs were not forcibly returned,” Kline said.

“If so, they need to explain why they violated due legal process by turning over these Uyghurs to Chinese jurisdiction after the raids which resulted in detention in Malaysia,” he said.

A Uyghur woman in Kuala Lumpur who knew the 11 deported men said they had not been involved in any terrorist or separatist activities.

“Most of these people are farmers that have not received much schooling.... I believe that they do not even understand what ‘separatism’ or ‘terrorism’ mean,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

She said the group had fled to predominantly Muslim Malaysia because they faced political repression in Xinjiang.

“They came to Malaysia to look for a better life. This is because life is harsh for Uyghurs in East Turkestan due to Chinese control,” she said, using a Uyghur term for the Xinjiang region.

She said the deportations were a way for China to impose more pressure on Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

“China frequently labels Uyghurs with terms like ‘terrorism’ and ‘separatism.’ I think China would like to scare Uyghurs by hunting them down across its borders. In the meantime, China would like to show off its regional power as well.”

Reported by Rukiye Turdush for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Rukiye Turdush and Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

A Year of 'No Progress'

A Year of 'No Progress':
The outlook for press freedom in China continued to look grim throughout 2012, with 88 journalists behind bars and no letup in state control of the media during a year of political transition.

Beijing kept up its campaign of arrests, attacks, and acts of censorship against anyone who didn't toe the official line of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, according to an annual report from a Paris-based press freedom group.

China ranked 174th of 179 countries in the 2011-2012 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The harassment of journalists and citizen journalists was concentrated around the crucial, once-in-a-decade leadership transition in November, the group said in a statement issued with the report.

"The Chinese Communist Party Congress was accompanied by an increase in arrests, attacks, and acts of censorship," RSF said.

"Many media are trying to free themselves of control by the Propaganda Department and local officials, but the Communist Party refuses to loosen its grip on this 'strategic' sector and keeps on inventing new ways to censor," it said.

However, the numbers of Chinese journalists behind bars had remained fairly constant for several years, RSF said, saying there was an overall lack of progress in press freedom in the country.

In total, 30 professional journalists and 69 netizens and citizen reporters are currently in prison in China.

"Most of the hundred or so journalists and netizens currently held are serving long sentences in harsh conditions on charges of subversion or divulging state secrets," RSF said.

"Those who arrest journalists are often local officials concerned about the bad publicity that can result from reports about corruption or nepotism."

Widening focus

But state security police are also widening their focus to include free speech activists and bloggers, who make good use of China's hugely popular social media sites and the limited freedom of expression available online, RSF said.

In November, a Guizhou-based journalist who broke the story about the shocking death of five runaway boys in a dumpster in the southwestern province of Guizhou "disappeared" after being forced into a vehicle by police.

Guizhou-based dissident writer Li Yuanlong, who has made a living as a cutting-edge freelance after leaving his job in state-run media, was taken away by police on the afternoon of Nov. 17 after he posted an online report with photographs on the discovery of the bodies of the boys two days earlier.

The news sparked an online outcry and led to the firing or suspension of eight officials and school staff for negligence.

However, tight constraints remained on mainstream media organizations, which are closely controlled with daily directives by the powerful but secretive Communist Party central propaganda department.

In September, top Chinese investigative reporter Jian Guanzhou, who first exposed the scandal of melamine-tainted infant formula in 2008, quit his job, saying his ideals had been crushed.

Jian, the first journalist to name dairy giant Sanlu as the source of contaminated milk powder in a story for the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post in September 2008, announced he was leaving in a post on China's popular Sina Weibo microblogging service.

"I have been at the Oriental Morning Post for 10 years, during which I have poured the most precious years of my youth, my sorrow, my dreams and feelings into the purest of ideals," Jian wrote. "Now my ideal is dead, so I'll get going. Take care, brothers!"

Editorial staff

As the censorship drive kicked in ahead of the 18th Party Congress in November, Chinese authorities removed from their posts top editorial staff at a Shanghai newspaper and the editor-in-chief of the cutting-edge Guangzhou-based New Express newspaper.

In Shanghai, Lu Yan, who headed the Eastern Daily News, and deputy editor Sun Jian lost their jobs, according to a former reporter at the paper, which was known for its coverage of controversial topics like the high-speed rail crash of 2011, the melamine-tainted milk scandal, and the controversial Three Gorges hydroelectric power project.

And in September, authorities in the eastern province of Shandong jailed cutting-edge journalist Qi Chonghuai for 13 years for subversion, after he penned a series of articles critical of local government extravagance.

Qi's wife Jiao Xia, who is in poor health, said she had been left with no breadwinner with two children to care for.

"Because of this, it is very hard for me to keep things going. My daughter is 15 and my son is 13," Jiao said in an interview on Thursday.

"My husband isn't the only journalist to be jailed in China," she said. "Everyone can see the dark side of China, and my husband's detention ... is proof of it."

"The cruelest thing about it is that we are now having a hard time getting by," Jiao said.

Earlier in the year, authorities in Guangdong province also restricted coverage of grassroots elections brought about through unrest in the rebel village of Wukan, with Chinese journalists tweeting that they had been turned back by officials after traveling there to cover the polls, which followed the groundbreaking appointment of key protest leader Lin Zuluan as village Communist Party secretary.

Reported by Xin Yu for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

UN Urges Action in Disappearance

UN Urges Action in Disappearance:
The United Nations on Friday joined calls to the government of Laos to do everything in its power to locate a social activist who went missing last week, expressing concern that his disappearance might be tied to his work in human rights.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, the spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Rupert Colville, said his organization was distressed “by what appears to be the enforced disappearance of Mr. Sombath Somphone,” the missing social worker.

“We are highly concerned for his safety and believe that his abduction may be related to his human rights work,” he added.

Sombath, 60, is the former director of the Participatory Development Training Centre (PADETC), a nongovernmental organization he founded in 1996 to promote education, training, and sustainable development.

The recipient of the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership for his work in the fields of education and development across Asia was last seen on the evening of Dec. 15 while driving home from the PADETC office in Vientiane.

Based on closed-circuit television footage, Sombath was taken to a roadside police station in the capital city Vientiane on Saturday night after the car he was driving was stopped by traffic police, a relative who wished to remain anonymous told RFA’s Lao Service earlier this week.

The footage, which relatives posted online on Wednesday, shows—according to the relative—a man arriving on a motorbike at the police station while Sombath is inside, then leaving and coming back with other men in a truck to pick him up. He did not appear to be coerced, though the truck clearly leaves in a hurry.

Police did not provide any explanation of who took him away or why he had been allowed to leave the station.

The Lao government has disavowed responsibility for Sombath’s disappearance and pledged to conduct an inquiry into the incident, but has suggested that the activist was kidnapped “because of a personal conflict or a conflict in business,” which his family members said was extremely unlikely.

The OHCHR asked the Lao government to work quickly to locate the missing activist.

“We welcome the government’s recent statement that a serious investigation is underway, and urge the authorities to do everything possible to ensure that Mr. Somphone is found safe and unharmed,” Colville said.

The UN statement followed a more accusatory one issued Thursday by the New York-based Human Rights Watch which said that the circumstances surrounding the case of Sombath’s disappearance “indicate that Lao authorities took him into custody, raising concerns for his safety.”

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that “Lao authorities should come clean on the enforced disappearance of this prominent social leader and take steps to stem the deepening climate of fear his disappearance has caused.”

On Tuesday, a group of 61 civil society organizations in Thailand called on Laos to take “every urgent action” with regard to Sombath’s case in a letter sent to the government, the Thai and Singaporean embassies in Vientiane, and to Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Sombath is well known among Thai activists working on cross-border social development issues. His wife is a Singaporean national.

Reported by Joshua Lipes.

Torture Rampant at Chushur

Torture Rampant at Chushur:
Tibetan political prisoners held at a facility outside the regional capital Lhasa are routinely subjected to torture and other forms of abuse, often leading to physical harm from which they do not recover, a recently released prisoner said.

Harsh treatment is common at the Chushur Prison, located about 48 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Lhasa, the man told RFA’s Tibetan Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We were tortured every day in the jail,” the man said. “We were sometimes hung from the ceilings, with our hands and legs tied together.”

“They never fed us regularly. But when they did, they mixed sand in our tsampa [roasted barley flour], which induced thirst, and many of us were forced to drink our own urine.”

“Many of us were chained and tortured in the bathrooms,” he added.


Ruined health

Almost all Tibetan prisoners confined at Chushur suffer from impaired vision and other injuries due to torture and beatings, said the man, who was recently released after being taken into custody in late 2009 for taking part in political protests.

“The condition of my own health is not good,” he said.

“My hands are damaged, and both my eyes were badly affected by my long imprisonment in Chushur and the prolonged torture that I endured.”

Chinese interrogators at Chushur repeatedly ask prisoners about what authorities believe to be sources of outside influence on protests in Tibet, the man said.

“They wanted to know who had ‘instigated’ us to protest against the Chinese government.”

“They told us that [Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama would not help us when we needed him, and that it was the [ruling] Chinese Communist Party that could really help us.”

Asked why they had protested, prisoners at Chushur uniformly replied that they had no freedom to practice their religion or to express their views and thoughts, he said.

Torture 'endemic'

Though China is a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, “torture remains endemic in Chinese prisons,” said Sophie Richardson, China Director at the Washington office of Human Rights Watch.

“It’s a very commonly used tactic either to force people to comply, or simply to torment them, or to elicit further information.”

“There are very few avenues for redress,” Richardson said.

As of Sept. 1, 2012, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s (CECC) Political Prisoner Database contained records of 626 Tibetan political prisoners believed or presumed to be held in Chinese custody.

Of these, 597 were detained on or after March 10, 2008, when Tibetan protests against Chinese rule swept the region, according to the CECC Annual Report for 2012.

Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English with additional reporting by Richard Finney.

Villagers Allege Political Bias

Villagers Allege Political Bias:
Villagers in central Cambodia on Friday accused a local official who is a member of the country’s ruling party of discriminating against them because of their political views, saying he refused to allow them access to water critical to their rice crops during the dry season.

Residents of Khan Chor commune in Pursat province’s Kandieng district said that Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) official Samreth Chea had shut off the local irrigation system for 25 families who had voted for the political opposition, resulting in the withering of several hectares (1 hectare = 2.5 acres) of dry season rice.

Opposition Sam Rainsy Party member Chheng Ny, 41, said her dry season planting of around 1 hectare of rice would soon die because she lacks water to maintain it.

The rice farmer said that there is plenty of water in the irrigation system, but that Samreth Chea had told the villagers who belong to different political parties that it was “reserved for CPP members only.”

“He won’t allow us to pump water for my rice. Instead, he told me to ask for help from my affiliated party officials,” she said.

“He said I would have to defect to the ruling party before he would allow me to access the water for my rice. Now the rice will be destroyed.”

Another villager named Srey Ry, who belongs to the royalist Funcinpec Party, said he also stood to lose about 1 hectare of dry season rice because he was refused water by Samreth Chea.

“He is discriminating against me because of my political affiliation. He wouldn’t allow me to pump any water,” he said.

“He told me that he would only help the area’s CPP members.”

When asked about the villagers’ accusations, Samreth Chea confirmed that he had refused them water, saying that the irrigation system had been donated by the CPP and CPP members were using their own money to pay for the fuel needed to power it.

He said that other villagers could use the water if they agreed to help him defray the cost of the fuel and were careful not to reveal their political affiliation, to prevent him from getting in trouble with his party superiors.

“The irrigation system has water because the CPP is pumping it here, so villagers who are of a different political affiliation cannot use it,” Samreth Chea said.

“Villagers can use water from other resources, but this water belongs to the CPP.”

Eng Chhun Heang, a provincial official with the Cambodian rights group Adhoc, said the authorities should not discriminate against villagers because of their political beliefs.

“The authorities must find a way to help the villagers with their rice,” he said.

Eng Chhun Heang warned that the CPP stood to lose popularity because of the issue.

Reported by Mondul Keo for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Asians Dominate Free Speech Prize

Asians Dominate Free Speech Prize:
Five Vietnamese bloggers, a prominent Burmese poet and 12 writers, journalists, and activists from China are among 41 writers from 19 countries chosen to receive the 2012 Hellman/Hammett grants for their commitment to free expression and their courage in the face of persecution.

The cash grants, named for the American playwright Lillian Hellman and her longtime companion, the novelist Dashiell Hammettare, are given annually to writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution or human rights abuses.

The Vietnamese bloggers who won the prestigious awards reflect the diversity of sectors in Vietnamese society whose critical and concerned voices the one-party Communist government in Hanoi wishes to silence, said Human Rights Watch, which administers the annual Hellman/Hammett awards.

The bloggers are advocate of religious freedom Nguyen Huu Vinh (who blogs as J.B. Nguyen Huu Vinh); rights defender Pham Minh Hoang (who blogs as Phan Kien Quoc); freelance journalist Vu Quoc Tu (known as Uyen Vu); novelist Huynh Ngoc Tuan; and the youthful political, social commentator Huynh Thuc Vy. All five have been persecuted for their writings.

The Vietnamese authorities have prevented at least one family member of the winners from leaving the country to collect the award on their behalf.

Blogger Huynh Trong Hieu was prohibited on Dec. 16 from leaving Vietnam for the United States to receive awards on behalf of his father, Huynh Ngoc Tuan, and his sister Huynh Thuc Vy, and confiscated his passport, Human Rights Watch said.

Two other 2012 Hellman/Hammett recipients, bloggers Nguyen Huu Vinh and Vu Quoc Tu, cannot travel to collect their awards. Nguyen Huu Vinh was prohibited from leaving the country in August 2012 and Vu Quoc Tu in May 2010.

Blogger Pham Minh Hoang is serving a three-year probation term, which restricts his movement within his residential ward.

“Like other Vietnamese exercising their right to free expression, many of the country’s growing corps of bloggers are increasingly threatened, assaulted, or even jailed for peacefully expressing their views,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"By recognizing these five brave men and women, who have already suffered much and face on-going threats to their basic rights, we are honored to amplify the voices the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party wants to prevent from participating in public discussions of Vietnam’s many social and political problems,” he said.

Suppressing freedom
Human Rights Watch said that the Vietnamese government systematically suppresses freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and persecutes those who question government policies, expose official corruption, or call for democratic alternatives to one-party rule.

Writers and bloggers often face lengthy prison terms imposed by “people’s courts,” temporary police detention and onerous interrogation, intrusive surveillance by various authorities, restrictions on domestic travel and prohibitions on leaving the country, beatings by security officials and anonymous thugs, fines, and denial of opportunities for livelihood, the rights group said.

Burma's award recipient was Zaw Thet Htwe, a prominent poet, screenwriter, editor, journalist, and activist.

He has been involved in social activism, including 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations, a student political party, and raising funds for victims of HIV/AIDS and Cyclone Nargis and alms for monks taking part in the 2007 Saffron Revolution.

Zaw Thet Htwe was arrested in 2003 and charged with treason for his collaboration on a sports journal that employed many former Burmese political prisoners. He was arrested again in 2008 and sentenced to 11 years in prison after being found guilty of violating Burma’s Electronic Transactions Act for “disaffection toward state and government” in his use of the Internet to publish his work. He was released in January and is deeply involved in current efforts to improve media freedom.

Among the other award winners were 12 writers, journalists, and activists from China, including ethnic Hans, Tibetans, Mongolians, and Uyghurs who have been detained or imprisoned, with seven still in prison.

All have suffered harassment and intimidation, including unlawful house arrests, restrictions on their movement, and repeated threats and interrogations by the police, Human Rights Watch said.

Uyghurs

Among the winners was Memetjan Abdulla, a journalist who worked for the Uyghur-language website Salkin and who was sentenced to life in prison for translating and posting on Salkin a call for a demonstration in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, home to the ethnic Uyghur minority.

The demonstration was called to protest the deaths of Uyghur factory workers.

Other winners from China were:

* Gulmire Imin, a writer and colleague of Abdulla’s, who was also sentenced to life in prison for her role as Salkin’s web moderator.

* Qi Chonghuai, a journalist known for his work exposing corruption, is serving a 12-year sentence after he published photos of a luxurious government building constructed with taxpayer funds in a poor province.

* Huang Qi, an activist and founder of China’s first domestic human rights website, spent three years in prison after he reported on the shoddy construction of schools that collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and neglect of the victims.

* He Depu, a veteran activist and writer, spent eight years in prison for publishing articles advocating democracy and political reform and for his roles with the banned China Democratic Party (CDP).

* Wang Lihong, a blogger and activist, served nine months in prison for organizing a protest in defense of three online activists on trial.

* Huuchinhuu Govruud, a blogger, has since 1996 been repeatedly summoned, questioned, and detained many times for her activism, writing, and participation in the Southern Mongolian Democracy Alliance (SDMA).

* Sun Wenguang, a writer and retired professor, continued to write and run in local elections after years in detention and imprisonment in the 1960s and 1970s for criticizing the government and has been placed under house arrest during campaign periods and at other sensitive periods.

Anonymous

Four Tibetan recipients cannot be named out of concern for their security.

“The fact that over a quarter of the 2012 awardees are from China, and that so many have served such long prison sentences in harsh conditions, highlights the repressive environment in which these individuals work,” said Lawrence Moss, coordinator of the Hellman/Hammett grant program.

“By challenging the government’s invisible red lines for expression, these brave journalists, writers, and activists have created greater space for free speech, but at a high price to themselves.”

Reported by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

Explore Spain's Jewish heritage online

Explore Spain's Jewish heritage online: You can now discover Spain’s Jewish heritage on a new site powered by comprehensive and accurate Google Maps: www.redjuderias.org/google.



Using the Google Maps API, Red de Juderías de España has built a site where you can explore more than 500 landmarks that shed light on Spain’s Jewish population throughout history. By clicking on a landmark, you can get historical information, pictures or texts, and a 360º view of the location, thanks to Street View technology. You can also use the search panel on the top of the page to filter the locations by category, type, geographic zone or date.

Toledo, Synagogue Santamaría la Blanca

Information is included on each landmark

This project is just one of our efforts to bring important cultural content online. This week, we worked with the Israel Antiquities Authority to launch the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, an online collection of more than 5,000 scroll fragments, and last year we announced a project to digitize and make available the Yad Vashem Museum’s Holocaust archives. With the Google Art Project, people around the world can also view and explore more than 35,000 works of art in 180 museums.



Read more about this project on the Europe Blog. We hope this new site will inspire you to learn more about Spain’s Jewish history, and perhaps to visit these cities in person.



Posted by William Echikson, External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa

In Burma and Middle East, N. Korea May See Few Buyers Despite Rocket Success

In Burma and Middle East, N. Korea May See Few Buyers Despite Rocket Success:

A video grab from KCNA shows the Unha-3 (Milky Way 3) rocket launching at North Korea’s West Sea Satellite launch site in Cholsan county, North Pyongan province, in this video released by KCNA in Pyongyang on Dec. 13, 2012.

SEOUL, South Korea—By successfully firing a rocket that put a satellite in space, North Korea let the far-flung buyers of its missiles know that it is still open for business. But Pyongyang will find that customers are hard to come, by as old friends such as Burma drift away and international sanctions lock down its sales.
North Korea’s satellite and nuclear programs were masterminded by the late leader Kim Jong Il, who ruled for 17 years under a “military first” policy and died a year ago Monday. An offshoot of the policy was a thriving arms business, including the sale of short and medium-range missiles. The buyers were mostly governments of developing countries — Burma, Iran, Syria, Gulf and African nations — looking for bargains.
But sustained Western diplomatic pressure and international sanctions imposed since North Korea first conducted a nuclear test in 2006 have cut into its traditional markets in the Middle East. North Korea is also losing business in Burma, which has committed to cutting military dealings with Pyongyang as a price for improved relations with the West. Also, there’s shrinking demand for the kind of poor quality, Soviet-type weaponry of 1960s and 1970s vintage that Pyongyang produces and that have limited applications on the modern battlefield.
Arms control expert Joshua Pollack said North Korea accounted for more than 40 percent of the approximately 1,200 ballistic missile systems supplied to the developing world between 1987 and 2009, mostly before the mid-1990s. But he said Pyongyang’s client base has shrunk since then because of a “sustained pressure campaign by the US to get buyers of North Korea war materiel and technology to stop.”
“The main effect of sanctions and interdiction has been to put the heat on buyers, whenever the US and its partners have some leverage over them,” said Pollack, but he added that “Iran and Syria don’t care about what we think.”
North Korea is still believed to have missile cooperation with the two countries. But with the Syrian leadership fighting to survive a civil war, that market might also dry up. And Iran has now surpassed North Korea in missile development. It has already conducted successful space launches and, in addition to having adapted North Korean designs, is creating its own more sophisticated and more militarily useful medium-range missile, said Greg Thielmann of the Arms Control Association, a nongovernment group based in Washington.
For years, North Korea was a leading provider of missile systems, particularly to nations in the Middle East. Its first major client was Iran, during its long war with Iraq. They signed a missile development deal in 1985, and North Korea began mass-producing short-range Scuds, aided by Chinese know-how and using Soviet designs. It then graduated to medium-range missiles with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, since the 1980s, North Korea has earned possibly hundreds of millions of dollars by selling at least several hundred short- and medium-range missiles to Egypt, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
The launch of the Unha-3 rocket was a handy showcase of North Korea’s technical capabilities — sending a satellite into space uses a similar technology as firing a long-range missile. The three-stage Unha-3 rocket, with a potential range of 8,000-10,000 kilometers (5,000-6,000 miles), succeeded after failures since 1998.
“The rocket launch dispels doubts about North Korea’s missile capabilities and redeems the country’s reputation among buyers,” said Baek Seung-joo, a North Korea specialist at the South Korean state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “The launch put an end to years of failure and embarrassment.”
However, few governments are likely to be in the market for such a long-range missile — which North Korea remains years away from perfecting.
Pyongyang is likely to continue to try selling shorter-range missiles and Soviet-vintage rockets and guns to customers in Africa, and likely Islamist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
But the screw has tightened since North Korea’s last nuclear test in 2009. Its weapons exports have been banned under UN Security Council resolutions. The sanctions call on member states to inspect and confiscate suspect cargoes, also including certain luxury goods, and report them to the world body.
The United States is also likely to seek tighter restrictions on the North after the latest launch, although it could face opposition from China, the North’s only major ally.
Former British ambassador to North Korea, John Everard, who until recently served as coordinator of a UN panel of experts that reports on the implementation of the sanctions, said that while the North’s arms exports haven’t stopped, seizures have already caused it considerable financial and reputational damage, particularly when information about their customers becomes public.
But implementation has been patchy. The North goes to great lengths to circumvent controls, typically using neighboring China and other countries en route as transshipment points.
Tracking secret weapons shipments is difficult, but some trends emerge. Recent seizures indicate that North Korea is still shipping missile technology to Syria.
Last month, UN diplomats reported that 445 graphite cylinders from North Korea that can be used to produce ballistic missiles were seized in May from a Chinese freighter ship at the South Korean port of Busan on their way to Syria. In October 2007, propellant blocks that could be used to power Scud missile were seized from a ship heading to Syria, according to a report by the UN expert panel, released this June.
Iran and North Korea have shared missile technology, but it’s less clear what the current state of their cooperation is, said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatically sensitive, counter-proliferation issues.
In December 2009, Thailand intercepted a charter jet from Pyongyang carrying 35 tons of conventional weapons including surface-to-air missiles that Thai authorities reported were headed for Iran — apparently for the use of a proxy militant group. The White House recently remarked on how Thailand had interdicted a North Korean weapons shipment bound for Hamas.
The US official said North Korea is seeking buyers for its cheap weapons in Africa. In recent years, there have been seizures of shipments heading to countries including Eritrea, Republic of Congo and Burundi.
Combined with North Korea’s shrinking markets in the Middle East, Burma’s promise to end its military trade could badly hit Pyongyang’s pocket book.
Burma’s former ruling junta entered into commercial contracts with North Korea, most notably after a high-level military delegation visited Pyongyang in late 2008. According to the United States, one agreement was for North Korea to assist Burma in building medium-range, liquid-fueled ballistic missiles.
In recent months, the United States has credited Burma with “positive steps” toward severing those military ties as the newly elected civilian government courts better relations and investment from the West.
But the US official said Burma was not yet in compliance with UN Security Council resolutions, as North Korea still seeks to ship goods to Burma to fulfill the contracts.

Crew Blamed for Russian Jet Crash in Indonesia

Crew Blamed for Russian Jet Crash in Indonesia:

The Sukhoi Superjet-100 crashed after taking off from an airport in Jakarta in May. (Photo: Митя Алешковский)

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Pilot error caused a Russian-made passenger jet to crash into an Indonesia volcano seven months ago during a demonstration flight, killing all 45 people aboard, the National Commission on Safety Transportation announced on Tuesday.
Information recovered from the Sukhoi Superjet-100′s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder indicated the pilot in command was chatting with a potential buyer in the cockpit just before the plane slammed into dormant Mount Salak on May 9, Commission Chairman Tatang Kurniadi told reporters.
He said that 38 seconds before the crash, instruments inside the cockpit issued a warning saying “pull up, terrain ahead.” Later the warning “avoid terrain” was issued six times, but the instruments were turned off because the crew assumed there was a problem with the database, Kurniadi said. He added that a simulation showed that the crash could have been avoided if the crew had responded within 24 seconds of the first warning.
“The crew was not aware of the mountainous area surrounding the flight path,” Kurniadi said.
The Jakarta radar service was also not equipped with a system in the area where the crash occurred that was capable of informing flight crews of minimum safe altitudes, he said.
Russian pilot Alexander Yablontsev was in charge of the demonstration flight meant to woo potential buyers. He was an experienced test pilot, logging 10,000 hours in the Sukhoi Superjet and its prototypes.
Six minutes after it took off from a Jakarta airfield, the pilot and co-pilot asked air traffic control for permission to drop from 3,000 meters to 1,800 meters (10,000 feet to 6,000 feet) on the scheduled half hour flight.
“The purpose of decreasing the altitude was to make it not too high for the landing process at Halim airport,” Kurniadi said.
However, six minutes later, the plane hit the mountain, he said.
It took more than 17 additional minutes before anyone on the ground realized the plane had vanished from radar screens, and no alerts sounded on the system prior to the disappearance.
Indonesia is one of Asia’s most rapidly expanding airline markets, with growth rates of nearly 20 percent a year. It has a poor air safety record and is struggling to provide qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure safety.
On Sunday, a blackout at Jakarta’s international airport led to a 15-minute disruption of its radar system, causing 64 regional and domestic flights to be delayed, said Bambang Ervan, Transportation Ministry spokesman. The outage has raised questions about the safety of the airport’s 26-year-old system.
Last month, Indonesia certified the Russian Superjet-100 as safe to fly in the country after a thorough validation process unrelated to the crash investigation. This opened the lines for delivery of the aircraft to its first customer in Southeast Asia, the Indonesian airline Sky Aviation, which signed a deal for 12 planes.
The Superjet is Russia’s first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago and is intended to help resurrect its aerospace industry.