May 12, 2023 – Page 3 – Cambodia News Gazette

May 12, 2023

North Korea cracks down on bribery in prisons

North Korea is cracking down on prison officials who accept bribes from wealthy prisoners in exchange for preferential treatment while they are incarcerated, two former inmates in the country told Radio Free Asia.

Bribery and corruption are a way of life in North Korea because the average wage from government-assigned jobs is nowhere near enough to live on. For most people, it means they have to get a side gig or run their own businesses.

Police and government officials, however, can make their living by using the power of their position to extract bribes from the public.

In January 2021, the government established the Justice and Discipline Investigation departments. The two offices are tasked with auditing people in positions of authority to uncover any corruption and illegal behavior and report them to the Central Committee, the governing body of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party.

In April, the two departments spent a week investigating correctional officers at Chungsan Prison in South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, a woman sent to Chungsan in 2019 told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Special cell

“The inspection started when a prisoner who was released from the prison reported to the Central Committee that there was a ‘special cell’ in prison camp No.11 [Chungsan Prison],” she said.

The special cell is where rich prisoners who can afford to bribe the right officials are sent to do their time. They receive preferential treatment and are exempt from hard manual labor unlike most of their fellow inmates.

Those who can’t afford to pay the bribe for the special cell can bribe their way into the cafeteria staff or livestock raising teams, according to the source.

This is advantageous because the government does not provide food, and the prisoners must cultivate it for the entire prison population. The cafeteria workers can sneak food away, whereas the livestock raising team can eat food intended for the animals.

In any case, the special cell is the preferred choice.

The source, who was imprisoned for accepting money sent by an escapee relative who had resettled in South Korea, said that several hundred U.S. dollars is all it costs to buy special cell privileges.

“If you give US$500 a year to a correctional bureau official, he will give a call to the prison you’re going to to set you up,” she said. “If you don’t have a personal connection with a correctional official, then you can give $100 per month to the official in the prison to get into the special cell.”

The source said she did not know how many people were in the special cell, but estimated that during her time in Chungsan, there were 20 inmates in the women’s side of the prison.

“During the inspection, two provincial correctional department officials and the head of Chungsan Prison were fired for receiving bribes and giving special treatment to prisoners,” she said.

Inmates also punished

Another source, who was released from Chungsan in April after serving a five-year sentence, told RFA that it was not only the prison officials who accepted bribes that got punished – the special cell inmates who bribed them were also in trouble.

“They are temporarily forbidden from family visits and they are also getting three years of hard labor tacked on to the backend of their sentences,” she said.

As a result of the inspection, face-to-face family visits for prisoners will only be allowed once per six months. This is an abrupt change, as normal prisoners are allowed a visit every 15 days.

The second inmate said that new prisoners will also now be separated based on their occupation and crime. Executives, wholesalers and meth dealers are separated because they have experience moving large sums of money around on the outside and are more likely to be able to afford bribes.

“These measures appear to be aimed at eradicating the source of bribes to the prison officials, but I don’t know if they will be effective,” she said.

May 12, 2023

Laos, China launch joint ‘Friendship Shield’ military exercises in Laos

Laos and China have officially kicked off 20 days of joint military exercises in Laos aimed at shoring up the ability of their armed forces to combat terrorism, media reports said Thursday.

The May 9-28 drills, called Friendship Shield-2023, come amid a larger push by Beijing to engage with its neighbors in Southeast Asia, prompting wariness of China’s growing influence in the region.

The exercises are being led by Major Gen. Phanh Seng Bounphanh, the deputy commander of the Lao People’s Army, and Major Gen. Yang Wenlin, deputy commander of the 75th Group Army of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command, according to official Lao state media.

Some 200 Chinese troops and 700 Lao troops are taking part in the drills, which officially launched following an opening ceremony on Thursday. The exercises are being held at the Kommadam Academy of the Lao People’s Armed Forces and will train for joint attacks on transnational armed crime syndicates operating in a mountain jungle environment.

The rare joint exercises represent an upgrade in security cooperation between Laos and China, whose militaries have previously carried out joint humanitarian medical rescue exercises in Laos.

In addition to live arms fire, individual training, detachment tactics, and combat support, the joint drills will also include sports competitions and cultural exchanges between the two militaries, as well as training to provide humanitarian assistance.

In preparation for the exercises in Laos, China’s military sent more than 300 assault vehicles, various types of ordnance, and equipment for mine clearance, explosive disposal and epidemic prevention.

Countering US presence

While the drills are billed as a way to strengthen the two countries’ military ties, one expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told RFA Lao that they are also aimed at joint security efforts to “counter the U.S. presence in Southeast Asia.”

An official from the Lao defense ministry, who also declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that the exact location of the drills have yet to be revealed.

Members of the public interviewed by RFA said that the joint exercises will be useful, provided they serve as a cooperative exchange, rather than as a means by which China can bolster its influence and control in the region.

China has pushed to more deeply engage with its neighbors in Southeast Asia in recent months.

This year, China and Cambodia held joint exercises in Cambodian waters for the first time, also involving China’s Southern Theater Command. The Southern Theater counts within its area of operations the South China Sea, whose waters are the subject of a territorial dispute between China and several other countries in the region.

In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith to Beijing for a state visit, during which the two sides pledged to work together to “build a shared future.”

The drills in Laos could raise concerns in Vietnam, which is Laos’ traditional fraternal, communist partner. In January, Lao Prime Minister Dr Sonexay Siphandone and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh signed 10 agreements on future cooperation, including the creation of a mechanism for discussing economic diplomacy and training for diplomats and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the latter’s first official visit to Laos.

Last month, the U.S. held its largest-ever annual drill with the Philippines, involving more than 17,000 personnel. Washington has expanded its military exercises in the region with annual war games in Indonesia and Thailand.

May 12, 2023

On Sichuan quake anniversary, bereaved parents hit out at upbeat propaganda

China’s ruling Communist Party newspaper marked the 15th anniversary of a devastating earthquake in the southwestern province of Sichuan with a commemorative video on Friday, sparking criticism from bereaved parents who say the causes of the school collapses have never been investigated as promised.

The propaganda video focused on improvements in the lives of survivors over the past decade-and-a-half, while the Global Times reported on improvements in “disaster prevention” on Friday in a bid to put a positive spin on the 15th anniversary of the devastating Sichuan earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people, more than 5,000 of them children.

“It’s because so many people refused to give up, that we had so much motivation and energy [to rebuild our lives],” the voice-over says, accompanied by inspiring tales of amputees who have made a success of their lives despite losing limbs in the rubble.

“So many people are still seeing a fresh start in life, like rays of sunlight shining through the cracks, or seeds sprouting afresh,” it says.

But parents whose children died due to substandard construction in school buildings said they are still silenced, detained and harassed if they continue to call for an investigation that was promised into the deaths of 5,000 children, which their families largely blame on rampant official corruption.

Forgotten the dead

Sang Jun, whose son died in the Fuxin No. 2 Elementary School in Sichuan’s Mianzhu city, said the government has treated the living well, but appears to have forgotten the dead.

“They have forgotten about the victims, and they still haven’t investigated [why it happened],” he said. “There is nowhere we’re allowed to mourn them now — we’re not allowed to go to the scene [of the collapsed buildings].”

Many still call for a government response through official complaints channels, yet are harassed and detained when they do so, according to Zhou Xingrong, a bereaved parent from Sichan’s Dujiangyan city who has lodged more than 100 complaints with central government in Beijing over the loss of her son.

“When we got to Beijing … a bunch of four or five burly men with Beijing and Hebei accents grabbed us and forced us into a vehicle, took our backpacks … our mobile phones and ID cards,” Zhou said of a recent petitioning trip in February. “They wouldn’t let me speak and threatened to tape up my mouth.”

“Then a few people from the Juyuan township of Dujiangyan came and they took us on the bus straight to Shijiazhuang and then bought tickets for the high-speed railway back to Dujiangyan,” she said. “When I got back, there was no explanation, and my personal freedom was restricted, and I wasn’t allowed to leave the house.”

“Tofu buildings”

The authorities’ treatment of victims had been unjust, she said.

“They promised to pursue those responsible back then, but nothing has been done for 15 years,” Zhou said. “No-one is being held accountable for the tofu buildings,” a reference to buildings believed to have been built shoddily and with leftover materials, similar to the dregs left over from the tofu-making process.

“They acted illegally and won’t answer up to the injury done to me and my family,” she said. “The past 15 years have been so difficult.”

“Back then, [then premier] Wen Jiabao said he would investigate illegal construction methods, and told us to go home and wait for news,” Sang said.

“Fifteen years and three premiers later … none of them has even mentioned the Sichuan earthquake, not one of them this whole time.”

“I have also been to Beijing [to complain] but they tell us to deal with it back in our local area, so now we have to give up, because trying to stand up for your rights is too hard,” Sang said.

Afraid of backlash

He said he has given up in part to avoid any backlash against his second son, born after the disaster.

“My other kid is very good at reading, and it will affect their ability to find a job in future if I go against [the government],” he said. “They always settle accounts, up to three generations later.”

“I would like to stand up for my rights, but I’m afraid of the backlash.”

Lu Biyu said it is particularly hard for bereaved families to get closure because the government places restrictions on public mourning for their lost children.

“The police and government set guards at the scene [of the disaster] every year, and they don’t want to let us go there [to make offerings to the dead],” Lu said.

“I would feel better if I could sit with my baby for an hour or two in that place, especially after so many years of unsuccessful petitioning,” she said.

“The day of the earthquake was the most painful of my life. It’s still all there, in my mind,” Lu said. “It’s as if it happened yesterday, that feeling of rigidity when I hugged his body.”

“I kept thinking, why couldn’t it have been me? He died before he had experienced anything, so I can’t let him go,” she said, adding that only the classroom block collapsed in her home district of Juyuan, leaving all of the private houses around standing.

“If it hadn’t been a tofu building, then all of those children wouldn’t have wrongfully died,” Lu said.

May 12, 2023

Sister of imprisoned Tibetan entrepreneur is seen protesting again in Lhasa

In a video received by RFA, Gonpo Kyi, sister of imprisoned Tibetan Businessman Dorjee Tashi, is seen protesting yet again in Lhasa. Kyi has repeatedly campaigned on her brother’s behalf against Chinese authorities. She’s been arrested and physically beaten by Chinese police. Here in this latest video, Kyi is being dragged away by two police to stop her from protesting. As of now, RFA has no further information on how the protest ended and Kyi’s condition.

May 12, 2023

Cyclone Mocha barrels toward Myanmar and Bangladesh

Potentially devastating Cyclone Mocha is expected to slam into the shared border region between Myanmar and Bangladesh on Sunday, putting hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced at risk.

Posting wind speeds of nearly 210 kilometers per hour (130 mph), the storm is similar in strength to Cyclone Nargis, which left nearly 140,000 people dead and missing in 2008, said Hla Tun, director of Myanmar’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.

“It’s very dangerous,” he told Radio Free Asia.

Cyclone Mocha, which formed Thursday in the southern Bay of Bengal, caused heavy rains and coastal surge in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Friday.

It is expected to affect areas stretching from Rakhine’s Kyauk Phyu township in the east to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh in the west – where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees live in makeshift camps.

As Mocha barreled towards that coast, Bangladesh’s Meteorological Department on Friday night raised its danger level to eight on a scale of 10.

“We cannot stop the cyclone. But we are trying to reduce the extent of damage of the cyclone,” said A.B. Tajul Islam, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee at the Disaster Management Ministry, told the RFA-affiliated BenarNews on Friday evening.

“The government has been trying to relocate people to the cyclone shelters, but it is not possible to shift all of the people,” said Islam.

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In Myanmar, the Irrawaddy Delta region and Rakhine coast can expect frequent strong winds and torrential downpours, while waves in the Bay of Bengal may reach heights of 4-5 meters (13-16 feet), weather officials said.

Evacuations have begun

Residents in the path of the storm have begun to evacuate.

About 800 people from four villages have been sheltering in a local monastery since May 8, said Than Htay, a resident of Rakhine’s Pauk Taw township.

“When the storm hits, it will have been too late to run,” he said.

On Friday, the International Rescue Committee warned in a statement that “over 850,000 refugees risk losing their homes and livelihoods” if the cyclone hits Cox’s Bazar.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it is “engaging with all relevant stakeholders to ensure timely and unimpeded access to those in need,” noting that even before the cyclone hits, there are already about six million people in need of humanitarian assistance and 1.2 million people displaced across Rakhine state and Myanmar’s northwest.

“Of particular worry is the situation facing 232,100 people who are displaced across Rakhine,” it said in a flash update issued on Friday.

Inhabitants of Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine state, and nearby villages are also evacuating, and state authorities and civil organizations have prepared emergency shelters, said Soe Min Aung, a resident of the city.

The Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine rebel group, is also evacuating residents from the coast and low-lying areas. The group’s spokesman, Khaing Thu Kha, told reporters that more than 10,000 people had been relocated from 21 villages over the last two days, and are being provided with food and medical assistance.

Rohingya at risk

Thousands of Rohingya displaced by a Myanmar military crackdown in 2017 and living in camps in Myanmar have not been evacuated, officials said.

More than 140,000 are sheltering in refugee camps in Rakhine’s Sittwe township.

These most vulnerable can only pray that the storm veers off course, said Kyaw Hla, a committee member of the Thae Chaung refugee camp in Rakhine state.

“If the storm actually hits here, we won’t be able to withstand it,” he said. “If that is the case, we will have to suffer. We will just have to try to survive all on our own.”

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi government officials have instructed Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar – where 740,000 live in camps – to shelter in religious schools and schools operated by the NGO community, residents of the camps told RFA.

But they acknowledged that there is little they can do to prepare for the brunt of the cyclone.

“We are very worried – if the storm hits here, there will be many negative effects,” said Ko Aung Myaing of the Kutupalong refugee camp.

Heavy rains will likely lead to landslides, destroying flimsy homes on the hillsides, he said. “The tents we have are not strong enough.”

Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told BenarNews that there were risks of landslides at some of the refugee camps.

“We have identified 500 families living at the camps in Teknaf who face the risk of landslides,” he said.

Officials had not yet started to evacuate people from Cox’s Bazar on Friday night, but were planning to start evacuations early on Saturday morning. At least 2,000 people had been evacuated from Saint Martin’s island and had arrived in Teknaf, a sub-district of Cox’s Bazar district, officials said.

Muhammad Shaheen Imran, the Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner told BenarNews that the government readied 576 cyclone shelters in the area that could accommodate up to 500,000 people.

Disaster risk management specialist Abdul Latif Khan told BenarNews that Mocha was likely to cause up to two meters (seven feet) of tidal surge in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar.

‘Passing the days with anxiety’

Mohammad Alam, chairman of the Teknaf Leda Development Committee, told BenarNews that the authorities had been making public announcements to make people aware of the dangers of Mocha.

“The people living on hills at risky places have been asked to go to safer places. Pregnant women and children have been advised to take shelter at nearby schools and distribution centers inside the camps,” Alam said.

“We are passing the days with anxiety,” he said.