Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Tuesday passed a strict national security law known as Article 23 that makes treason, insurrection and sabotage punishable by up to life in prison, and that will likely widen an ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent.
All 89 legislators voted in favor of the Safeguarding National Security bill, which will come into force on Friday, after lining up to sing the praises of the legislation at a special session attended by Chief Executive John Lee.
Critics say the ruling Communist Party has a broad and vaguely defined interpretation of many of the crimes in the bill, and that “national security” charges are already being used to prosecute people for peaceful dissent and political opposition in the city.
The Council has lacked any political opposition since changes to the electoral rules, and many former pro-democracy politicians have fled a crackdown on public dissent under the 2020 National Security Law, while others are on trial for “subversion.”
The law targets five types of offenses. It can punish people for “treason,” “insurrection,” and “sabotage” with life in prison, while those found guilty of “espionage” can face up to 20 years. Those found to have committed crimes linked to “state secrets” and “sedition” face up to 10 years in prison.
The new law also gives new powers to the police and courts to extend pre-charge detention for those held on suspicion of endangering national security to up to 16 days and to restrict detainees’ meetings with their lawyers.
Under the law, the authorities will also have the power to revoke the passports of anyone who flees overseas and is considered an “absconder.”
The legislation is mandated by Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, which has provided a constitutional framework for the city since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
It was recently rebooted after being shelved following mass popular protests against it in 2003.
Edited by Malcolm Foster and Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Edward Lee for RFA Cantonese.
As Hong Kong authorities prepare to pass a second national security law, the British government has relaxed some of the immigration rules for people from the city seeking to emigrate to the United Kingdom amid a crackdown on dissent.
The Safeguarding National Security bill, currently before the Legislative Council, includes sentences of up to life imprisonment for treason, insurrection, sabotage and mutiny, and 20 years for espionage.
It can punish people 10 years for crimes linked to “state secrets” and “sedition,” and allow the passports of anyone who flees overseas to be revoked.
The legislation is mandatory under Article 23 of its Basic Law, which has provided a constitutional framework for the city since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
It was recently rebooted after being shelved following mass popular protests against it in 2003, and is expected to pass this week.
Critics say the ruling Communist Party has a broad and vaguely defined interpretation of many of the crimes in the bill, and that “national security” charges are already being used to prosecute people for peaceful dissent and political opposition in the city.
Relaxed rules
Now, the U.K. Home Office has relaxed the rules for holders of its British National Overseas, or BNO, passport who wish to apply for a visa.
The visa offers a pathway to resettlement and eventual citizenship, making it easier for them to obtain public assistance if they run out of money, smoothing out bureaucratic bottlenecks and allowing them to bring relatives and dependent adults with them with independent visa status.
In February, the United Kingdom loosened requirements for people wanting to emigrate from Hong Kong with their partner under the BNO route to citizenship. To date, at least 191,000 people have applied to the visa program, according to government figures released in November.
A girl waves farewell to friends as she departs for a permanent move to the U.K. at the Hong Kong airport, June 30, 2021. (Vincent Yu/AP)
The moves, while not huge in scope, will likely smooth the path of many families to resettlement in the United Kingdom, an immigration consultant told RFA Cantonese.
An immigration consultant with the British advocacy group Hong Kong Aid who gave only his surname Chow for fear of reprisals said he has seen an uptick in inquiries about the BNO visa since the government announced it would fast-track the new national security law through the legislature.
“My sense is we have been getting a lot more inquiries from Hong Kong about applying for BNO visas and political asylum as the Article 23 [law] has been in process,” Chow said.
“We have been getting a call every couple of days since February,” he said. Public consultation on the law started on Jan. 30.
Chow said he didn’t believe that the rule changes alone were enough to prompt a surge in applications.
A Hong Kong resident who moved to the United Kingdom a few months ago and who gave only the surname Cheung welcomed the rule changes. Now she plans to apply to have her elderly, dependent mother join her.
“It’s definitely very beneficial, because I had been worried about this for a long time,” she said. “She’s very old, and this is about our family’s long-term future and career development. We all think the U.K. is a better place.”
Moves in Canada
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Canada are calling on the government to make sure that they continue to offer priority processing of applications from Hong Kongers wanting to emigrate to the country, and to take steps to ease bureaucratic bottlenecks for more than 100 applicants.
Parliamentarians Melissa Lantsman and Tom Kmiec said they are concerned about the effects of delays “as the human rights situation in Hong Kong continues to deteriorate and Hong Kongers look for a safe way to exit the city by immigrating to Canada.”
“We would like to clarify whether priority processing is still in place as the situation in Hong Kong continues to deteriorate,” they said in a letter to the immigration minister.
Aileen Calverley, co-founder and trustee of the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, said many Hong Kongers are being faced with delays in processing their applications to emigrate to Canada.
“It is important that the government uphold its commitment and ensure their applications are processed in a timely manner,” Calverley said in a statement.
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Cheryl Tung for RFA Cantonese.
Long queues formed at several polling stations in Moscow and other Russian cities as people took up a call from Alexei Navalny’s widow to head to the polls at noon on Sunday in a symbolic show of dissent against Vladimir Putin’s all but certain re-election as president.
In the run-up to the three-day presidential elections, Yulia Navalnaya urged her supporters to protest against Putin by appearing en masse at midday on Sunday in a legal show of strength against the longtime Russian leader.
Stockholm, March 15, 2024—Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov should reject Russian-inspired legislation that would designate externally funded media rights groups and nonprofits that run news outlets as “foreign representatives,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
On Thursday, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved in a third and final reading, without debate, a bill requiring nonprofits that receive foreign funding and engage in what it defines as political activities to register as “foreign representatives,” according to newsreports.
Japarov, who recently defended the law in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, has a month to return the bill or sign it into law.
The bill, an amended version of a draft law previously criticized by CPJ, does not directly target news outlets but would apply to media rights organizations and nonprofits that run several of Kyrgyzstan’s prominent independent news websites, according to CPJ’s review.
A new provision requires organizations designated as “foreign representatives” to label their publications as being produced by a foreign representative. Other clauses grant authorities sweeping powers of oversight over the activities of “foreign representatives” and allow them to suspend or shutter nonprofits for alleged violations of the law.
“The ‘foreign agents’ bill passed by Kyrgyzstan’s parliament copies many of the worst aspects of Russia’s foreign agent legislation. It is clearly focused on stigmatizing nonprofits working in news media and threatens to hamstring the work of press freedom organizations,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov must show that his stated commitment to free speech is more than empty words by vetoing the bill and withdrawing his support for any form of foreign agent law.”
The latest version of the bill, amended by parliament in February ahead of the second reading, removes a controversial clause stipulating prison terms of up to 10 years for vaguely defined offenses, according to CPJ’s review and an analysis by the Washington, D.C.-based International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL).
Under the bill, externally funded nonprofits must apply to a public register of “foreign representatives” if they participate in activities defined by the law as “political”—including “disseminating … opinions on decisions taken by state organs,” issuing public appeals to state organs and officials, and “shaping socio-political views and convictions, including by conducting surveys of public opinion.”
The law would require nonprofits to carry out a costly independent audit report each year, according to the ICNL. It would also grant authorities the right to request their internal documents, to send government representatives to participate in nonprofits’ internal activities, and to check—by as-yet-unspecified means—whether their activities and expenditures correspond to the aims listed in their articles of incorporation, it said. The U.N. special rapporteurs said these clauses “may amount to almost unrestricted administrative control over these associations.”
Authorities would have the power to suspend the activities of nonprofits for up to six months and freeze their bank accounts if they fail to declare themselves as foreign representatives or to label their publications after receiving a warning. Nonprofits that fail to rectify such omissions after suspension can be liquidated by the courts.
In his letter to Blinken, Japarov said Kyrgyzstan needed to ensure financial transparency of media outlets and NGOs. However, Aibek Askarbekov, an independent human rights lawyer, told CPJ that authorities already had full access to financial data of nonprofits, which are required to publish information about sources of income and expenditures online. The bill instead aims at “exerting tight control” over nonprofits, he said.
Parliamentary approval of the bill comes amid an unprecedented crackdown on independent reporting in a country previously seen as a regional haven for the free press. In January, Kyrgyz authorities arrested 11 journalists linked to the investigative outlet Temirov Live and raided the privately owned news agency 24.kg. In February, authorities shuttered the prominent news website Kloop.
CPJ’s emails to Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, lawmaker Nadira Narmatova, who introduced the bill to parliament, and the Office of the President requesting comment on the bill did not receive any replies.
Vietnam has requested that China respect international law and bilateral agreements with Hanoi after Beijing drew a new baseline in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The baseline is deemed as “excessive” by analysts, with one suggesting the U.S. should conduct a freedom of navigation operation to challenge it.
Radio Free Asia was the first Western media to report the announcement earlier this month of a new baseline that defines China’s territory in the northern part of the area known in China as the Beibu Gulf.
This baseline, which Beijing said was set in accordance with Chinese law, did not exist before.
Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang on Thursday said that “all coastal countries need to abide by the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)” when drawing the territorial baseline, used to calculate the width of the territorial waters and other maritime zones.
She highlighted the necessity for these baselines to not affect the lawful rights and interests of other countries, including the freedom of navigation and the freedom of transit passage through straits used for international maritime activities.
The spokeswoman stopped short of rejecting the new Chinese baseline and instead called on Beijing to “respect and abide by the agreement on the delimitation of the territorial seas, exclusive economic zones and continental shelves of the two countries in the Gulf of Tonkin signed in 2000, as well as the 1982 UNCLOS.”
China’s new baseline (in red) in northern Gulf of Tonkin. (Google Maps/RFA)
Beijing has yet to respond to Hanoi’s statement but the Chinese foreign ministry’s Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs said on its official WeChat account earlier that the announcement of the baseline was a necessary act to exercise national sovereignty and jurisdiction.
Encroachment on shared waters
The Gulf of Tonkin, or Vinh Bac Bo in Vietnamese, is highly important to both Vietnam and China not only in terms of economic development but also defense and security.
After nine years of negotiation, in 2000 Hanoi and Beijing signed a Maritime Boundary Delimitation Agreement to clearly demarcate each other’s territorial seas, exclusive economic zones and continental shelves in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Some analysts say the new baseline won’t affect Vietnam’s economic interests much as long as the signed agreement is observed but some are concerned that Beijing would use it as a pretext to push Hanoi to renegotiate the boundary agreement.
“China’s announcement of its baseline in the Gulf of Tonkin is a step up the ladder of escalation in its strategy of ratcheting up assertiveness in the South China Sea,” said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.
“The new baseline puts Vietnam’s before a fait accompli,” he said, “It gives reasons for China to question the agreement that Beijing and Hanoi signed off in 2000 and push the boundary closer to the Vietnamese coast.”
UNCLOS stipulates that the drawing of straight baselines “must not depart to any appreciable extent from the general direction of the coast, and the sea areas lying within the lines must be sufficiently closely linked to the land domain to be subject to the regime of internal waters.”
The new Chinese baseline at some points encroaches about 50 nautical miles (93 kilometers) on international waters and on average, “it represents an encroachment of 20 to 30 nautical miles upon international waters,” according to Vuving.
“China’s baseline in the Tonkin Gulf is not in line with UNCLOS and can be rejected by an international court,” the security expert said.
Challenging China’s excessive claims
“China’s unilateral creeping excessive claims in other countries’ maritime and territorial domains even while a border resolution instrument is in existence, are becoming a regular event,” said Pooja Bhatt, an independent maritime security analyst.
Vietnam, as well as other countries in the same situation, should protest against this move, raise the issue at bilateral level and also bring international attention to it, she said.
“Keeping silence to save immediate Chinese backlash will harm countries’ future territorial integrity and national interests.”
The new expansive baseline would affect freedom of navigation activities in the area as no foreign vessels or aircraft are allowed to make so-called innocent passage through a country’s internal waters inside the baseline.
China also requires permission or notification before a foreign warship can sail through its territorial sea, measured 12 nautical miles outward from the baseline. Beijing has repeatedly protested against U.S. warships’ sailing in waters near the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos, which Washington insists is conducted in accordance with international law.
Vuving from the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security suggested that several other countries may dispute China’s new baseline and the U.S. “may conduct a freedom of navigation operation to physically challenge China’s excessive claims.”
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
The Hong Kong government, poised to pass its stricter “Article 23” national security law next week, blasted criticism of the bill from rights experts who say it will undermine freedom of religion in the city.
The Safeguarding National Security bill, currently before the Legislative Council, includes sentences of up to life imprisonment for treason, insurrection, sabotage and mutiny, and 20 years for espionage. It can punish people 10 years for crimes linked to “state secrets” and “sedition,” and allow the passports of anyone who flees overseas to be revoked.
Critics say the ruling Communist Party has a broad and vaguely defined interpretation of many of the crimes in the bill, and that “national security crimes” are already being used to prosecute people for peaceful dissent and political opposition.
Hong Kong Justice Secretary Paul Lam warned last week that anyone who hears that another person has committed “treason” but not reported it could be jailed for up to 14 years, once the law takes effect.
This “has grave implications for the confidentiality of Confession in the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions,” according to a letter signed by 16 experts and published by Hong Kong Watch on March 13.
“The new law could force a priest to reveal what has been said in Confession, against his will and conscience and in total violation of the privacy of the individual confession,” the group said.
People attend a Catholic church service in Hong Kong on June 4, 2020. (Dale de la Rey/AFP)
A Hong Kong government spokesman said Hong Kong Watch is an “anti-China organization,” and its members were “frontline destabilizing forces.”
He said ordinary citizens were in no danger of committing treason, which he defined as “levying war against China, or instigating a foreign country to invade China with force,” and called their letter a “blatant, shameless and barbaric intervention.”
Advocating for democracy is a crime
Under the “Article 23” legislation, any attempt to push for legislative changes or criticism of the authorities could be regarded as sedition, and any contact with overseas individuals or organizations could be prosecuted as courting foreign interference, the letter said.
Under another clause, “advocating for democracy and the restoration of civil liberties in Hong Kong, anywhere in the world, could now constitute a crime and result in the cancellation of one’s Hong Kong passport,” it said.
Pro-democracy activists shout slogans during a candlelight vigil to protest the national security law in Hong Kong on Feb. 25, 2003. (Vincent Yu/AP)
The new law has been rebooted three decades after being shelved following mass protests against it in 2003 and fast-tracked through the legislature in mere days after Chinese officials said it should be completed “as soon as possible” at the National People’s Congress in Beijing last week.
It looks likely to be made law next week.
The experts said that the “vague provisions within the law … open the potential for politically-motivated prosecutions under illegitimate ‘national security’ grounds,” pointing to clauses allowing the extension of detention without charge and the prevention of contact between arrestees and their lawyers.
‘More like mainland China’
Taiwanese national security expert Shih Chien-yu said the legislation will have an indelible impact on Hong Kong, which was once promised the continuation of its traditional rights and freedoms for 50 years after the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
“The Article 23 legislation basically will make Hong Kong even more like mainland China,” Shih told RFA Cantonese. “The penalties are very heavy, mostly more than three years.”
Shih predicted that many businesspeople will leave Hong Kong because of it.
Lawmakers completed their detailed review of the bill on Thursday, adding in a strengthened supervisory role for the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, which is itself under the direct supervision of the central government in Beijing.
London-based rights group Amnesty International called on the government to “step back from the brink” and halt the legislation. Hong Kong “is now taking repression to the next level,” the group’s China Director Sarah Brooks said in a March 8 statement.
“The apparent overarching purpose of Article 23 is to stifle any and all criticism of the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities and their policies, within the city and globally,” she said.
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gigi Lee, Alice Yam and Cheryl Tung for RFA Cantonese.
Exclusive: 12 prominent organisations sign open letter criticising lack of humanitarian access
Twelve of Israel’s most prominent human rights organisations have signed an open letter accusing the country of failing to comply with the international court of justice’s (ICJ) provisional ruling that it should facilitate access of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Debate has begun on Article 23 – legislation designed to bring laws closer to those of mainland China
Hong Kong’s government has released the draft text of a new national security law that would further tighten control on the city and bring its laws closer in line with mainland China.
The law, known as Article 23, is a domestic piece of legislation defining and penalising crimes related to national security.
Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams writes, “Along with persistent protests at public events held by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, recent polling is continuously demonstrating that the White House’s vehement support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza despite the rising civilian death toll is not winning them accolades among the voters whose backing they depend on in the upcoming election.” Conley cites a recent poll that “50% of 2020 Biden voters believe the Israeli assault that the U.S. has helped fund is a genocide.” Young Democrats in particular are highly critical of the administration’s policy dimming Biden’s reelection hopes.
This content originally appeared on AlternativeRadio and was authored by info@alternativeradio.org.
Myanmar’s junta has declared martial law in three northern Shan state townships seized by ethnic rebels during an ongoing offensive, prompting concern from residents who fear the military is planning a push to retake the areas.
The junta has declared martial law in more than 60 townships across the country, including in Sagaing, Magwe, Tanintharyi and Bago regions, as well as in Chin state. The designation has been used as a justification by the military to impose heavy punishments on residents on the basis of suspicion alone.
Observers say the junta had refrained from declaring martial law in Namhsan, Mantong and Namtu townships in northern Shan state with the hope the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, would join a ceasefire agreement. The declaration, announced Monday, is an indication that negotiations have stalled, they said.
The TNLA, the Arakan Army, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army together make up the ethnic Three Brotherhood Alliance, which in October launched an offensive known as Operation 1027 against the military in northern Shan state, which borders China.
Less than two months after the start of Operation 1027, the TNLA captured Namsan, Mantong and Namtu, on Dec. 15, 22 and 28. Since then, the ethnic army’s top leadership has regularly conducted public meetings with what they say is an emphasis on a “community-based governance system” in the townships.
In Namtu, municipal, healthcare and electricity services have been restored, according to residents, and inhabitants who fled earlier fighting have mostly returned home.
While the TNLA remains the de facto leadership in the three townships, the junta’s imposition of martial law technically transfers their administrative and judicial oversight to the commander of the military’s Northeastern Command, based in the region’s largest town Lashio.
Residents told RFA Burmese that the declaration of martial law came “just as the situation began to stabilize,” and said they now fear renewed clashes between the military and the TNLA.
“We are now under TNLA governance, and the junta no longer exists here,” said a resident of Namtu who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. Now that martial law has been declared, it’s as if they could attack us whenever they want.”
All three townships are within 160 kilometers (100 miles) of the Northeastern Command, the resident noted, which “adds to our unease.”
“We may need to prepare trenches and bomb shelters once again,” she said.
‘Even less secure’
A resident of Namsan told RFA that while the situation in her township wasn’t safe before, “now it feels even less secure.”
“The use of airplanes to drop bombs and the indiscriminate use of heavy weaponry add to our concerns,” she said. “While some people have not yet returned to their homes, others have just come back.”
An official from the TNLA news and information department told RFA that the junta’s declaration of martial law in the three townships was no surprise.
“That’s just what they do,” he said. “During the height of fighting, the junta declared martial law in [eight northern Shan state] townships … now, post-battle, announcing martial law in these three townships aligns with their strategic approach.”
On Nov. 12, as Operation 1027 reached a crescendo, the junta declared martial law in the townships of Lashio, Kutkai, Kunlong, Hsenwi, Namhkam, Muse, and Chinshwehaw, as well as in Laukkai, in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone. A curfew remains in effect in the townships, with movement restricted between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am.
The Three Brotherhood Alliance captured 16 cities in Shan state, including Muse and Chinshwehaw, as part of the offensive before agreeing to a ceasefire in China-brokered talks with junta representatives on Jan. 11.
An ex-military official later said it was not sustainable and less than a week after the agreement, both sides were accused of violating it in a skirmish.
Last week, the two sides met again in the Chinese city of Kunming for talks that focused on reopening parts of the border with China that had been shut down during the fighting and preserving the ceasefire.
‘It’s clear they’ve given up’
But a political commentator and former military officer told RFA that peace in northern Shan state remains tenuous.
He said that while the junta had been holding out hope that the TNLA would join Myanmar’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, or NCA, the declaration of martial law in the townships under its control indicates that the military leadership no longer sees that as an option.
“[The junta was] indecisive from the beginning, and even was vacillating [on how to deal with the TNLA],” he said. “Now, it’s clear that they’ve given up trying [to bring them into the NCA].”
The NCA was introduced in 2015 to end years of fighting over minority rights and self-determination. Since then, some 10 ethnic groups have signed the agreement.
Ta’ang National Liberation Army troops pose after capturing a Myanmar junta camp in Mantong on Dec. 23, 2023. (PSLF/TNLA News and Information Department)
The junta’s declaration of martial law in Namhsan, Mantong and Namtu follows a Jan. 28 declaration in the Shan state townships of Mongmit and Mabein. The two townships had earlier been seized by the Kachin Independence Army.
The latest declaration brings to 13 the number of townships under martial law in Shan state.
Township captured
The imposition of martial law on Namsan, Mantong and Namtu came amid reports on Tuesday that the Arakan Army, or AA, had captured Ponnagyun township in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where it continues to battle the military despite the Three Brotherhood Alliance ceasefire in Shan state.
In a statement, the AA claimed that Ponnagyun is under its “complete control” after 13 days of fighting, from Feb. 21 to March 4, culminating in the capture of the military’s Light Infantry Division 550 base there on Monday.
It said its fighters had seized “several bodies” of junta troops, including that of junta Tactical Commander Col. Myo Min Ko Ko, Light Infantry Battalion 208 Commander Col. Pyo Thu Aung and Light Infantry Battalion 550 Commander Maj. Saw Htwe.
The AA also claimed to be treating those who surrendered and their families “well,” and to have defended Ponnagyun from attacks by three junta naval vessels.
A resident of Rakhine confirmed to RFA that “the entire township of Ponnagyun lies under the AA’s control, with no trace of the junta.”
He said that after the AA assumed control of Ponnagyun, the junta targeted the area with a dozen air strikes and also attacked a nearby bridge because they were “concerned that the AA might advance toward Rathedaung township next.”
The junta has remained silent about the AA’s seizure of Ponnagyun. Attempts by RFA to contact Hla Thein, the attorney general of Rakhine and the junta’s spokesman for the state, went unanswered Tuesday.
In the three months since the AA ended a ceasefire in Rakhine state that had been in place since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat, the ethnic army has taken over the Rakhine townships of Pauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Myebon, Taungpyo, and Ponnagyun, as well as Paletwa township in neighboring Chin state.
The AA is currently fighting for control of Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Maungdaw, and Ramree townships in Rakhine.
Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
Taylor Swift is just one of countless victims of deepfake videos. Firms feeding off this abuse should pay for the harm they cause
Imagine finding that someone has taken a picture of you from the internet and superimposed it on a sexually explicit image available online. Or that a video appears showing you having sex with someone you have never met.
Imagine worrying that your children, partner, parents or colleagues might see this and believe it is really you. And that your frantic attempts to take it off social media keep failing, and the fake “you” keeps reappearing and multiplying. Imagine realising that these images could remain online for ever and discovering that no laws exist to prosecute the people who created it.
China’s latest piece of security legislation will have a further chilling effect on foreign investment and the economy by creating a new category of confidential information called ‘work secrets,’ analysts said in recent commentaries and interviews with RFA Mandarin.
President Xi Jinping on Tuesday signed an executive order that will see the Law on Safeguarding State Secrets take effect from May 1, after the law was revised and adopted by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee on Feb. 27.
The move follows a number of police raids last year on foreign consultancy firms including Mintz Group and Bain & Co, prompting concerns from foreign investors that Beijing’s widening national security focus could hurt investor confidence.
All government departments and state-owned enterprises will be required under the law to “determine the confidentiality level” of state secrets they work with, and implement new rules about managing a “declassification” period for employees who leave their posts, including bans on overseas travel and new employment, state media reported.
“During the declassification period, personnel who have access to secrets are not allowed to work or leave the country … nor are they allowed to disclose state secrets in any way,” state broadcaster CCTV reported.
What are ‘work secrets’?
However, the measures don’t just apply to state secrets — they will also apply to “work secrets,” according to Article 64 of the new legislation.
“Work secrets” refers to “information produced or collected by departments in the performance of their duties, the leaking of which would cause an adverse impact,” according to Chinese law expert Jeremy Daum.
Chinese police are seen during a raid at the office of the Capvision consultancy firm in Shanghai in this undated photo. (Screenshot from CCTV via AP)
In a commentary on his China Law Translate blog, Daum said an earlier draft had defined a “work secret” more narrowly “but the final version seems even broader.”
“Work secrets and internal documents aren’t a new issue, but it is unfortunate to see them further enshrined in law,” he wrote, adding that the clause could lead to “overzealous identification” of work secrets, leading to increased risk for workers and decreased transparency for the general public.
China has also recently broadened the scope of its Counterespionage Law, and detained an employee of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma last March on suspicion of “spying,” prompting a protest from Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Market research
Xia Ming, professor of politics at New York’s City University, said the new law could have an impact on foreign companies wanting to carry out market research in China.
“The first thing any company that wants to invest in China does is to carry out market research on China,” Xia said. “But all kinds of data are regarded as confidential by China, because they touch on the political security [of the regime].”
“They think people could interpret specific and minor fluctuations in the data to create information that is unfavorable to their political system and regime [stability],” he said. “So everything is confidential.”
U.S.-based economist Li Hengqing said there has already been an impact from last year’s legislation and consultancy firm raids.
“Everyone is definitely feeling the chill now,” Li said. “The more [Beijing] does this, the more foreign businesses and entrepreneurs will be discouraged from investing in China.”
Staffers wait for visitors under display of CCTV images at the Hikvision booth, a state-owned surveillance equipment manufacturer, during the Security China 2023 expo in Beijing, June 7, 2023. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
He said the move runs counter to recent claims from the ruling Chinese Communist Party Central Committee that it is expanding its economy to more global participation.
“Preferential policies for foreign investors would take them in the complete opposite direction,” Li said.
Stability of the regime
But for Beijing, all sensitive information must now “adhere to the overall concept of national security,” and follow the ruling party’s approach to managing secrets, state media reported.
According to the party’s Central Security Office director Li Zhaozong, the revised law provides a “strong legal guarantee for better protecting national sovereignty, security and development interests.”
Writing in party newspaper the People’s Daily on Feb. 28, Li said the same principles of secrets management would apply to any domain into which the party’s national security approach is extended, although he didn’t mention “work secrets” by name.
According to Li Hengqing, that can mean any area that affects the security of Xi Jinping’s grip on power or that of the ruling party.
“It’s all about the stability of the regime,” Li said. “Xi Jinping once said, ‘What is the point of economic development if we neglect the stability of the regime?’”
“He doesn’t really care about the people’s livelihood or the country’s economic development,” he said.
Xia Ming said the law will also have a huge impact on internet service providers, who will be required to cooperate with the authorities in investigating any cases involving the leaking of unauthorized information online.
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jing Wei for RFA Mandarin.
New legislation threatens prison sentences of up to five years for ‘wilful promotion, sponsorship or support of LGBTQ+ activities’
Ghana’s parliament has passed legislation that intensifies a crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ people and those promoting lesbian, gay or other non-conventional sexual or gender identities in the West African country.
The new legislation passed on Wednesday imposes a prison sentence of up to five years for the “wilful promotion, sponsorship or support of LGBTQ+ activities”.
Judges urged to keep proceedings as open as possible in case relating to Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey
Allegations that UK police and intelligence spied on investigative journalists to identify their sources will be heard by a secret tribunal on Wednesday, with judges urged to ensure as much as possible takes place in open court.
Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey asked the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) to look into whether police in Northern Ireland and Durham, as well as MI5 and GCHQ, used intrusive surveillance powers against them.
I have a strong belief in human rights being universal and the UK adhering to these principles. When Ms Begum was stripped of her birthright British nationality she was not a citizen of Bangladesh, which stated that it would not accept her request for citizenship, ergo she was made arbitrarily stateless, contrary to international law. The progress of her case through the UK courts will surely end at the human rights courts, where the UK will lose.
After years of repression, a film about Bobi Wine’s heroic stand against Yoweri Museveni has given new life to the opposition
When the Ugandan musician turned politician Bobi Wine ran for president, his 2020 campaign was thwarted by violent crackdowns by Yoweri Museveni’s regime. Since the election, Bobi Wine – whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu – and his wife, Barbie, say that, from phone tapping to abductions of his supporters, things have been “pretty much the same” in many ways.
Background to the legal battle as the court of appeal decides whether removal of her UK citizenship was unlawful
The court of appeal’s decision due on Friday on whether Shamima Begum, who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State as a child, was unlawfully stripped of her UK citizenship is the latest step in a long-running battle she has fought against the government. Here is the history of the case and why it has attracted so much publicity.
Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang has lashed out at the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch after it issued a statement signed by 86 groups saying that forthcoming security legislation would have “devastating consequences” for human rights in the city.
Thenew legislation, called Article 23, criminalizes treason, insurrection, the theft of state secrets and other national security offenses. It is billed by the government as a way to close “loopholes” in the already stringent 2020 National Security Law.
But Hong Kong Watch and the other groups said the definitions of such crimes were vague in the bill, and would criminalize people’s peaceful exercise of their human rights.
“The proposed law includes a number of procedural changes that will dramatically undermine the Hong Kong people’s due process and fair trial rights,” saidjoint statement signed by 86 organizations.
“The introduction of Article 23 will bring further devastating consequences for human rights beyond those brought by the National Security Law when it was imposed by Beijing in 2020,” said the statement, which called on governments to publicly oppose the law, and for those responsible to be sanctioned.
“The last time the authorities attempted to introduce Article 23 in 2003, over 500,000 Hong Kongers took to the streets in protests with the plans abandoned,” the statement said, adding:” But now they can no longer speak out against it.”
The bill is highly likely to be passed by the Legislative Council now thatelectoral rules have been changed to allow only “patriots” to run for election.
‘Slander and intimidation’
Tang, who has previously claimed that recent waves of mass popular pro-democracy movements in recent years were the work of “foreign forces” operating in Hong Kong, criticized Hong Kong Watch for using “gangster tactics.”
Tang told a news conference in Hong Kong on Monday that most of the groups that signed the letter, which include Freedom House, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Hongkongers in Britain, Human Rights Watch and the Index on Censorship, were “anti-China organizations seeking to disrupt Hong Kong.”
Demonstrators in Hong Kong with tape over their mouths protest the city government’s anti-subversion bill, Feb. 14, 2003. (Anat Givon/AP)
He accused “anti-China and anti-Hong Kong” organizations of “slander, intimidation … wrong, misleading and making something out of nothing,” after they criticized the planned law, which analysts have warned will broaden the definition of what is a “national security” matter still further.
“These comments are slander and intimidation by external forces who want to endanger our national security,” he said, brushing aside the possibility of further sanctions on Hong Kong officials.
“The more you sanction us, the more it appears that we’re doing the right thing,” Tang said, likening the law to putting in “doors and windows to prevent burglaries,” and accusing the groups who signed the statement of “gangster” tactics.
Tang accused Radio Free Asia of reporting what he described as “false” criticism that the new law would target media organizations. He called the media outlet a “foreign force” that was misleading the people of Hong Kong.
He said only those who “deliberately” set out to slander the government could be liable under the planned law.
RFA, funded by the U.S. Congress to provide independent news in countries that lack a free press, has not publicly responded to Tang’s comments.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice Paul Lam, left, Chief Executive John Lee, center, and Secretary for Security Chris Tang attend a press conference on Article 23 in Hong Kong, Jan. 30, 2024. (Lam Yik/Reuters)
Tang said the public response to the Article 23 legislation had been welcoming, and that claims that the new law would boost police powers to detain people at will were “attempts to intimidate the people of Hong Kong.”
“I believe that our friends in the media will not endanger national security,” he said, in response to concerns that media organizations could be targeted under the law for platforming views deemed a threat to national security.
Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday that his administration will seek to pass the new law as soon as possible.
“Our work on legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law will be advanced at full speed,” Lee said. “The government will move forward, and I believe that the Legislative Council will fulfill their constitutional responsibilities in this regard as soon as possible.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alice Yam for RFA Cantonese.
Lawyers seek permission at high court to appeal against WikiLeaks founder’s extradition
Julian Assange faces the risk of a “flagrant denial of justice” if tried in the US, his lawyers have told a permission to appeal hearing in London, which could result in the WikiLeaks founder being extradited within days if unsuccessful.
Assange, who published thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, could be jailed for up to 175 years – “a grossly disproportionate punishment” – if convicted in the US, the high court heard on Tuesday.
Bringing the Russian authorities to international justice over the death of the opposition leader is difficult, but not impossible, says Prof Philip Leach, while Robert Frazer wonders what gives the west the right to judge Putin
The news of Alexei Navalny’s sudden death in an Arctic penal colony has led to numerous calls for the authorities in Russia to be held responsible (Western leaders point finger at Putin after Alexei Navalny’s death in jail, 16 February). They are certainly answerable according to human rights law, but achieving accountability against Russia has become even harder since its expulsion from the Council of Europe in 2022, as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine. As a result, Navalny’s family cannot now petition the European court of human rights to get to the truth about his death.
Nevertheless, UN bodies such as the human rights committee still have jurisdiction over Russia, and cases already in the European court pipeline will be heard. Just last month, the court decided that the Russian government had a case to answer in a lawsuit brought by myself and others on behalf of Navalny, his Anti-Corruption Foundation and supporters in response to the punitive steps taken against them in 2019, including absurd criminal prosecutions on charges of money laundering, their designation as “foreign agents”, raids on their homes and offices, and the freezing of bank accounts.
No amount of tinkering with the government’s proposal for deporting asylum seekers can make it compatible with human rights, says Sacha Deshmukh of Amnesty International UK
The joint committee on human rights was right to be so strident in its assessment that the government’s Rwanda bill is fundamentally incompatible with human rights (UK’s Rwanda bill ‘incompatible with human rights obligations’, 12 February). No tinkering with this bill can make it fit basic tenets of the UN refugee convention, Human Rights Act and European convention on human rights, and judicial independence.
This government is attempting to declare Rwanda safe as a matter of law simply because it says so – an abuse of law that one would expect from an authoritarian regime. Human rights are not fair-weather concepts for a government to simply abandon at its convenience, and if our government pursues that course, then others will feel more licensed to do the same, threatening the entire global system of rights and protections and making us all significantly less safe.
This week on CounterSpin: There’s an announcement on the New York City subway where a voice chirps: “Attention, everyone! There are 150 accessible subway stations!” One can imagine an alternate world where we’d hear, “Only 150 of New York City’s 472 subway stations are accessible, and that’s a problem!”
But people with disabilities are meant to be grateful, excited even, for whatever access or accommodation is made available for them to participate in daily life. There’s often an implied corollary suggestion that any violation of the rights of disabled people is an individual matter, to be fought over in the courts, rather than something to be acknowledged and addressed societally.
The overarching law we have, the Americans with Disabilities Act, is meant to be proactive; it is, the government website tells us, a law, “not a benefits program.” In reality, though, the ADA still meets resistance, confusion and various combinations thereof, 33 years after its passage. And news media, as a rule, don’t help.
The Supreme Court recently dismissed, but did not do away with, a case that gets at the heart of enforcement of civil rights laws for people with disabilities—though not them alone. Acheson v. Laufer is an under-the-radar case that, our guest says, is “part of a pattern of far-right reactionaries weaponizing the courts to dismantle labor protections, housing rights and health guidelines.”
Ariel Adelman is a disability rights advocate and policy analyst. Her piece, with Hayley Brown, appeared recently on CEPR.net, the website of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. She’ll tell us what’s going on and what’s at stake.
CounterSpin240216Adelman.mp3
Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look back at coverage of the racist Charles Stuart murder hoax.
Pro-junta militias in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state are grabbing anyone they can find and forcing them to take up arms against resistance fighters after the military regime announced it would begin enforcing a conscription law over the weekend, residents said.
Junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced on Feb. 10 that the People’s Military Service Law, enacted in 2010 by a previous military regime though it had never been enforced, would go into effect immediately.
The move comes as anti-junta forces and ethnic armies have scored significant victories against the military in Myanmar’s three-year civil war. The conflict appeared to reach a turning point in late October when the groups jointly launched offensives that overran dozens of military camps and resulted in hundreds of soldiers surrendering.
In Kachin state, the Lisu militia in Waingmaw township, the Khaunglanhpu militia in Puta-O township, and the Shanni Nationalities Army, or SNA, in Mohnyin township, began forcibly recruiting civilians as early as the end of last month, and have been emboldened by the new directive, sources in the region told RFA Burmese.
SNA fighters have been rounding up pedestrians and gathering people through village administrators for recruitment, said a resident of Nam Mun village in Mohnyin’s Indawgyi sub-township who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“The administrators are being told to grab passers-by,” he said. “Everyone who is seen on the roads is apprehended.”
People have fled the area and “dare not live in Nam Mun village anymore,” he said.
Another resident reported similar actions in Mohnyin’s towns of Hopin and Nam Mar, adding that those who refused to join the militia were being made to pay hundreds of thousands of kyats (100,000 kyats = US$48).
“After stopping all passers-by, they recruited the people they wanted,” he said. “Among those who were released, some said that they had to pay about 1 million kyats (US$477). They said they were asking for 30 million kyats (US$14,000) [altogether].”
Using family members as leverage
In Puta-O, the Khaunglanhpu militia led by Tang Gu Tan has been forcibly recruiting members of every household to serve for around two weeks, a resident told RFA.
“[But now], the militia is recruiting [people] more than ever,” he said. “Now, whenever they enter villages, they gather young people to join the militia.”
Shwe Min, former chair of the Lisu National Development Party (LNDP) or Dulay Party, central executives and members of the Lisu militia are seen on Jan. 6, 2023. (Courtesy Lisu National Development Party)
So far, the resident said, Khaunglanhpu fighters are mostly targeting civilians who had previously attended militia training.
The recruitment drive comes after junta troops and militias retreated from Puta-O’s Hkar Gar village in December and the anti-junta ethnic Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, seized the Kha Ran Hti Dam pro-junta militia camp in Khaunglanhpu township the following month.
In Waingmaw township, the Lisu militia, led by Shwe Min, is also recruiting soldiers, said a resident.
“When they carry out recruitment drives, they round up ethnic Lisu people at [three] checkpoints” in the township, he said.
The militia has also been detaining female and elderly family members to force the return of men of fighting age who have fled the drives, he added.
RFA calls to SNA spokesman Col. Sai Aung Mein, Lisu militia leader Shwe Min, and junta spokesperson for Kachin state Thant Zin Ko Ko seeking comment on the forced recruitment drives went unanswered Tuesday.
Win Naing, a lawmaker from nearby Mogaung township, told RFA that forced recruitment is a tactic used by pro-junta groups to undermine public opposition.
“The militias will recruit our people whether they want to join their groups or not, and they will train them whether they are willing or not. Then, they will arm them,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s part of a plan to force the people to fight one another.”
In Bago, too
To the south, a junta recruitment drive that kicked off in Bago region’s Htantabin township on Feb. 12 has led to the conscription of nearly all of the youths in the town of Za Yat Gyi, residents told RFA on Tuesday.
Most of Za Yat Gyi’s residents had already fled fighting that broke out between the military and anti-junta forces on Jan. 7, they said, but junta troops stationed at the town’s hospital have now rounded up those who remained from their homes and nearby villages.
They have also drafted youths displaced by the earlier fighting, residents said, adding that the number of detainees and other information about the recruitment drive is still unknown.
Displaced people from Htantabin township’s Za Yat Gyi in Bago region (East) are seen on Feb. 9, 2024. (Photo by Badan Sai)
Men and women over the age of 18 have fled to avoid conscription, an elderly resident said.
“Everyone from the town is on the run,” she said, adding that she and her family members are in hiding. “The army enters the villages and arrests people … They arrest girls aged 18 or 19 years. Men of that age are also apprehended and brought to be forced to serve in the military.”
Residents said the villages surrounding Za Yat Gyi are “nearly empty” because people are trying to avoid being drafted into military service.
RFA has been unable to independently verify the claims of forced recruitment in Za Yat Gyi.
Tin Oo, the junta’s spokesperson and minister of economic affairs for Bago region, dismissed reports of civilian recruitment, saying that the military has only targeted people with ties to the People’s Defense Force, or PDF, of ordinary citizens who have taken up arms against the junta’s military forces.
“There have been arrests of members of organizations related to the PDF and that support terrorism, in accordance with the law,” he said. “We have no authorization to arrest innocent citizens.”
Tin Oo added that there have been “no mass arrests,” and “only three or four people were arrested for interrogation.”
Four youths missing
The threat of forced recruitment is increasingly real for youth in Myanmar’s urban areas, as well.
On Tuesday, junta troops arrested four young passengers on a commuter bus from Yangon to Mandalay at a checkpoint near Tada-U township, located around 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of downtown Mandalay, sources close to the detainees told RFA.
A street view of downtown Mandalay Dec. 2022. (RFA)
The whereabouts of the young men are unknown and they are believed to have been conscripted, the sources said.
Those detained were Zaw Zaw Aung, 23, Kaung Htet Soe, 24, Thwin Soe Tun, 23, and Tin Htut Win, 24, they said.
“They were returning from Yangon after taking a test to go [work in] Korea,” one of the sources said. “They were arrested at a toll gate before reaching Tada-U.”
RFA calls to Thein Htay, the junta’s spokesman and economic minister for Mandalay region, seeking comment on the apprehension of the four youths went unanswered Tuesday.
According to Myanmar’s compulsory military service law, men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 face up to five years in prison if they refuse to serve for two years.
Professionals – such as doctors, engineers and technicians – aged 18-45 for men and 18-35 for women must also serve, but up to five years, given the country’s current state of emergency, extended by the junta on Feb. 1 for another six months.
Burmese of fighting age have told RFA they would team up with resistance fighters or leave Myanmar rather than serve as soldiers for the junta, which seized power in a coup d’état three years ago.
Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
Pro-junta militias in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state are grabbing anyone they can find and forcing them to take up arms against resistance fighters after the military regime announced it would begin enforcing a conscription law over the weekend, residents said.
Junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced on Feb. 10 that the People’s Military Service Law, enacted in 2010 by a previous military regime though it had never been enforced, would go into effect immediately.
The move comes as anti-junta forces and ethnic armies have scored significant victories against the military in Myanmar’s three-year civil war. The conflict appeared to reach a turning point in late October when the groups jointly launched offensives that overran dozens of military camps and resulted in hundreds of soldiers surrendering.
In Kachin state, the Lisu militia in Waingmaw township, the Khaunglanhpu militia in Puta-O township, and the Shanni Nationalities Army, or SNA, in Mohnyin township, began forcibly recruiting civilians as early as the end of last month, and have been emboldened by the new directive, sources in the region told RFA Burmese.
SNA fighters have been rounding up pedestrians and gathering people through village administrators for recruitment, said a resident of Nam Mun village in Mohnyin’s Indawgyi sub-township who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“The administrators are being told to grab passers-by,” he said. “Everyone who is seen on the roads is apprehended.”
People have fled the area and “dare not live in Nam Mun village anymore,” he said.
Another resident reported similar actions in Mohnyin’s towns of Hopin and Nam Mar, adding that those who refused to join the militia were being made to pay hundreds of thousands of kyats (100,000 kyats = US$48).
“After stopping all passers-by, they recruited the people they wanted,” he said. “Among those who were released, some said that they had to pay about 1 million kyats (US$477). They said they were asking for 30 million kyats (US$14,000) [altogether].”
Using family members as leverage
In Puta-O, the Khaunglanhpu militia led by Tang Gu Tan has been forcibly recruiting members of every household to serve for around two weeks, a resident told RFA.
“[But now], the militia is recruiting [people] more than ever,” he said. “Now, whenever they enter villages, they gather young people to join the militia.”
Shwe Min, former chair of the Lisu National Development Party (LNDP) or Dulay Party, central executives and members of the Lisu militia are seen on Jan. 6, 2023. (Courtesy Lisu National Development Party)
So far, the resident said, Khaunglanhpu fighters are mostly targeting civilians who had previously attended militia training.
The recruitment drive comes after junta troops and militias retreated from Puta-O’s Hkar Gar village in December and the anti-junta ethnic Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, seized the Kha Ran Hti Dam pro-junta militia camp in Khaunglanhpu township the following month.
In Waingmaw township, the Lisu militia, led by Shwe Min, is also recruiting soldiers, said a resident.
“When they carry out recruitment drives, they round up ethnic Lisu people at [three] checkpoints” in the township, he said.
The militia has also been detaining female and elderly family members to force the return of men of fighting age who have fled the drives, he added.
RFA calls to SNA spokesman Col. Sai Aung Mein, Lisu militia leader Shwe Min, and junta spokesperson for Kachin state Thant Zin Ko Ko seeking comment on the forced recruitment drives went unanswered Tuesday.
Win Naing, a lawmaker from nearby Mogaung township, told RFA that forced recruitment is a tactic used by pro-junta groups to undermine public opposition.
“The militias will recruit our people whether they want to join their groups or not, and they will train them whether they are willing or not. Then, they will arm them,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s part of a plan to force the people to fight one another.”
In Bago, too
To the south, a junta recruitment drive that kicked off in Bago region’s Htantabin township on Feb. 12 has led to the conscription of nearly all of the youths in the town of Za Yat Gyi, residents told RFA on Tuesday.
Most of Za Yat Gyi’s residents had already fled fighting that broke out between the military and anti-junta forces on Jan. 7, they said, but junta troops stationed at the town’s hospital have now rounded up those who remained from their homes and nearby villages.
They have also drafted youths displaced by the earlier fighting, residents said, adding that the number of detainees and other information about the recruitment drive is still unknown.
Displaced people from Htantabin township’s Za Yat Gyi in Bago region (East) are seen on Feb. 9, 2024. (Photo by Badan Sai)
Men and women over the age of 18 have fled to avoid conscription, an elderly resident said.
“Everyone from the town is on the run,” she said, adding that she and her family members are in hiding. “The army enters the villages and arrests people … They arrest girls aged 18 or 19 years. Men of that age are also apprehended and brought to be forced to serve in the military.”
Residents said the villages surrounding Za Yat Gyi are “nearly empty” because people are trying to avoid being drafted into military service.
RFA has been unable to independently verify the claims of forced recruitment in Za Yat Gyi.
Tin Oo, the junta’s spokesperson and minister of economic affairs for Bago region, dismissed reports of civilian recruitment, saying that the military has only targeted people with ties to the People’s Defense Force, or PDF, of ordinary citizens who have taken up arms against the junta’s military forces.
“There have been arrests of members of organizations related to the PDF and that support terrorism, in accordance with the law,” he said. “We have no authorization to arrest innocent citizens.”
Tin Oo added that there have been “no mass arrests,” and “only three or four people were arrested for interrogation.”
Four youths missing
The threat of forced recruitment is increasingly real for youth in Myanmar’s urban areas, as well.
On Tuesday, junta troops arrested four young passengers on a commuter bus from Yangon to Mandalay at a checkpoint near Tada-U township, located around 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of downtown Mandalay, sources close to the detainees told RFA.
A street view of downtown Mandalay Dec. 2022. (RFA)
The whereabouts of the young men are unknown and they are believed to have been conscripted, the sources said.
Those detained were Zaw Zaw Aung, 23, Kaung Htet Soe, 24, Thwin Soe Tun, 23, and Tin Htut Win, 24, they said.
“They were returning from Yangon after taking a test to go [work in] Korea,” one of the sources said. “They were arrested at a toll gate before reaching Tada-U.”
RFA calls to Thein Htay, the junta’s spokesman and economic minister for Mandalay region, seeking comment on the apprehension of the four youths went unanswered Tuesday.
According to Myanmar’s compulsory military service law, men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 face up to five years in prison if they refuse to serve for two years.
Professionals – such as doctors, engineers and technicians – aged 18-45 for men and 18-35 for women must also serve, but up to five years, given the country’s current state of emergency, extended by the junta on Feb. 1 for another six months.
Burmese of fighting age have told RFA they would team up with resistance fighters or leave Myanmar rather than serve as soldiers for the junta, which seized power in a coup d’état three years ago.
Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
The University of the South Pacific journalism programme is hosting a cohort student journalists from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology this week.
Led by Professor Angela Romano, the 12 students are covering news assignments in Fiji as part of their working trip.
The visitors were given a briefing by USP journalism teaching staff — Associate Professor in Pacific journalism and programme head Dr Shailendra Singh, and student training newspaper supervising editor-in-chief Monika Singh.
The students held lively discussions about the form and state of the media in Fiji and the Pacific, the historic influence of Australian and Western news media and its pros and cons, and the impact of the emergence of China on the Pacific media scene.
Dr Singh said the small and micro-Pacific media systems were “still reeling” from revenue loss due to digital disruption and the covid-19 pandemic.
As elsewhere in the world, the “rivers of gold” (classified advertising revenue) had virtually dried up and media in the Pacific were apparently struggling like never before.
Dr Singh said that this was evident from the reduced size of some newspapers in the Pacific, in both classified and display advertising, which had migrated to social media platforms.
Repeal of draconian law
He praised Fiji’s coalition government for repealing the country’s draconian Media Industry Development Act last year, and reviving media self-regulation under the revamped Fiji Media Council.
However, Dr Singh added that there was still some way to go to further improve the media landscape, including focus on training and development and working conditions.
“There are major, longstanding challenges in small and micro-Pacific media systems due to small audiences, and marginal profits,” he said. “This makes capital investment and staff development difficult to achieve.”
The QUT students are in Suva this month on a working trip in which students will engage in meetings, interviews and production of journalism. They will meet non-government organisations that have a strong focus on women/gender in development, democracy or peace work.
The students will also visit different media organisations based in Suva and talk to their female journalists on their experiences and their stories.
The USP journalism programme started in Suva in 1988 and it has produced more than 200 graduates serving the Pacific and beyond in various media and communication roles.
The programme has forged partnerships with leading media players in the Pacific and our graduates are shining examples in the fields of journalism, public relations and government/NGO communication.
Asia Pacific Report publishes in partnership with The University of the South Pacific’s newspaper and online Wansolwara News.
Witnesses claim victims shot ‘execution style’ during house raids after clashes between government forces and Fano rebels
Ethiopian government troops went door-to-door killing dozens of civilians last month in a town in the country’s Amhara region, according to residents, who said the bloodshed took place after clashes with local militia.
The killings in Merawi appear to be one of the deadliest episodes in Amhara since a rebellion by Fano, an armed Amhara group, erupted last year over a disputed plan to disarm regional forces.
People may be exposed to abuses such as torture and degrading treatment in Rwanda, says watchdog
Europe’s leading anti-torture watchdog has called on the government to process asylum claims in the UK rather than sending people to Rwanda because of the risk they may be exposed to human rights abuses there.
In a report published on Thursday, the Council of Europe’s committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment raises a litany of concerns after an 11-day visit to the UK in March and April last year.
Investigator who uncovered collusion between Europe and the US in a network of secret prisons
The Swiss lawyer and politician Dick Marty, who has died aged 78 from pancreatic cancer, played a key role in the human rights work of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe. As its rapporteur, he uncovered how European countries had colluded in a “global spider’s web” of illegal US detentions and human rights abuses, secret jails and flight transfers of terrorist suspects stretching from Asia to Guantánamo Bay.
The existence of a network of secret prisons was identified in his reports in 2006 and 2007 to the Council of Europe (the 46-member organisation set up in 1949 to uphold the rule of law in Europe), and was later acknowledged by the US authorities. The European court of human rights subsequently found that several states, including Italy, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland and Romania, had been complicit in the CIA secret detainee programme and thus had violated the European human rights convention.
