(Washington, DC — Sept. 1, 2012) Radio Free Asia broadcast the following stories, and more, in August:
RFA Reports on officials’ retaliation over forced abortion fight in China
Aug. 30 – RFA Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on retaliatory moves taken by officials in the central province of Hunan against a family who spoke out about attempts by the local family planning department to force a seven-months-pregnant woman to have an abortion. Officials stopped short of carrying out the procedure, but have begun putting pressure on the family through other channels, the woman’s husband said.
RFA Reports on shortening of Burma re-entry blacklist
Aug. 30 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on the Burmese government removing thousands from an immigration blacklist. The list barred those individuals, including many exiles, from reentering the country. However, close to 4,000 others still remain banned.
RFA Reports on Cambodian officials slamming human rights report
Aug. 29 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on Cambodian government officials rejecting a report by a United Nations expert pushing for electoral reforms. The report also accuses the authorities of rights violations over economic land concessions.
RFA Reports on extension of Vietnamese-American’s detention
Aug. 29 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on Vietnamese authorities extending the detention of a Vietnamese-American by another four months after apparently finding no evidence to press “terrorism” charges against him. Nguyen Quoc Quan, 58, also known as Richard Nguyen, was arrested on April 17 as he deplaned in Tan Son Nhat airport and was charged with terrorism under Article 84 of the Vietnamese Penal Code for allegedly trying to disrupt the anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
RFA Reports on AIDS protest in Henan
Aug. 29 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on AIDS patients in the central Chinese province of Henan, many of whom were infected through tainted blood transfusions, renewing calls for compensation and health-care payouts. The calls come after heated protests outside a local government building sparked clashes with police.
RFA Reports on Burma cabinet reshuffle
Aug. 27 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on Burma's President Thein Sein making his biggest cabinet reshuffle since taking power in March last year. The move included dropping his hard-line information minister in a move that analysts say will strengthen the government's reform agenda.
RFA Reports on two Tibetan teenagers self-immolating
Aug. 27 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on two young Tibetan men setting themselves on fire near a monastery in China’s Sichuan province in protest against Chinese rule in Tibetan areas. Their self-immolation came two days after a nun in a neighboring prefecture braved tight security restrictions and staged a solitary protest, also challenging Beijing’s rule, before she was detained and taken away.
RFA Reports on security reintroduced in Chen Guangcheng’s hometown
Aug. 24 – RFA Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on authorities re-imposing strict security measures in the home village of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. This comes after authorities removed the measures in the wake of the activist's escape from house arrest and subsequent move to the United States, Chen’s brother told RFA.
RFA Reports on Lhasa security clampdown
Aug. 23 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on Chinese authorities implementing a massive security clampdown in Lhasa. This has included pouring armed police into the Tibetan capital and setting up checkpoints with airport-style body scanners in busy downtown areas. "Lhasa city has been turned into a large prison," one Tibetan resident of Lhasa told RFA's Tibetan service.
RFA Reports on police raid on Christian school in China
Aug. 22 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui shutting down a Christian summer school run by an unofficial "house church." The educational camp, which was being run by a Protestant church not registered with the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Anhui's Linquan county, had 82 students enrolled from local primary and secondary schools.
RFA Reports on inquiry into Cambodian land grabs
Aug. 22 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking details over a complaint lodged as “crimes against humanity” allegedly committed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government against its people. A rights group is alleging the Cambodian government forcibly evicted more than 100,000 people. The allegations go on to say that members of the government are personally profiting from the use and sale of the confiscated land.
RFA Reports on Burmese land protest over mine expansion
Aug. 22 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on a rare protest of more than 1,000 residents of 12 villages in northwestern Burma. The demonstration was held over the confiscation of their land for the expansion of the country’s largest copper mine, partly owned by China.
RFA Reports on protest over waste incinerator plans in Guangdong
Aug. 21 – RFA Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on residents of an industrial town in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong banding together in protest over plans to build a waste incinerator on their doorstep. More than 1,000 local people turned out for a town meeting, amid rising anger and concerns over the health effects of pollution from the planned plant.
RFA Reports on new high-tech IDs in North Korea
Aug. 21 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on authorities in repressive North Korea planning to exert even stricter controls on citizens by issuing electronic identification cards containing personal information. An inside source, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said the current plastic IDs will be replaced with cards containing circuit chips that store data about the cardholder, including address, family background, and records of travel.
RFA Reports on Burma lifting censorship controls
Aug. 20 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on the Burmese government’s announcement to lift – after 50 years – direct censorship of print media. Private daily newspapers remain banned, though, and regulations against publishing information “harmful to state security” remain in place, leaving open the possibility of self-censorship or prosecution after articles appear in print.
RFA Reports on probe into Burma’s recent deadly ethnic unrest
Aug. 17 – RFA Burmese aired story [text in English/Burmese] on Burma’s president announcing the formation of a commission to investigate the June incidents of ethnic violence in western Rakhine state. The announcement came a day after an Islamic group said it would raise the issue of the Muslim Rohingya, who allegedly bore the brunt of the deadly unrest, before the United Nations.
RFA Reports on NGOs critical of Cambodian court charges
Aug. 17 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on a consortium of more than 20 Cambodian human rights groups condemning a court in the country’s capital for pursuing charges against an outspoken human rights activist. In a joint statement, the organizations such as Licadho and the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) called the charges against Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) activist Chan Soveth the “decade’s most serious threat to human rights work in Cambodia.”
RFA Reports on shooting death of Tibetan protester
Aug. 16 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on Chinese security forces shooting dead a Tibetan when dispersing a crowd of Tibetans protesting against the resumption of mining operations. The Tibetans from Choeten town in the Tibet Autonomous Region's Markham county marched to the mining site, but faced the wrath of police who used tear gas and live fire to disperse the crowd.
RFA Reports on Tibetan singer’s detention
Aug. 14 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on a popular Tibetan singer being detained by Chinese authorities, apparently over politically sensitive lyrics in his songs. Choksal, a resident of Driru county in the Tibet Autonomous Region, was taken into custody on July 29 in the Qinghai provincial capital Xining by Chinese police, who told him he was wanted by authorities in Driru and in Lhasa. His whereabouts are unknown.
RFA Reports on Bo Xilai wife’s trial highlighting high-level corruption
Aug. 13 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on the murder trial of the wife of a former rising star in the ruling Chinese Communist Party putting a spotlight on suspected abuses of power by the country's political elite. The trial comes as a new survey sheds light on the growing overseas connections of newly wealthy Chinese.
RFA Reports on warning for Uyghur scholar over Ramadan security content on website
Aug. 10 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on Chinese authorities interrogating an outspoken Uyghur scholar after his website alleged that authorities had sent armed forces to mosques in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to monitor Muslims during Ramadan. Ilham Tohti, an economist at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing who runs the Uyghur Online website, was warned not to speak to foreign media or discuss religion online.
RFA Reports on Tibetan woman self-immolating
Aug. 8 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on a Tibetan woman taking off her clothes and self-immolating in protest of Chinese rule in China’s Gansu province. Dolkar Tso, a 26-year-old mother of two, died after setting herself on fire near a stupa at the Tso monastery in the southern part of Kanlho prefecture, sources told RFA.
RFA Reports on exiled Cambodian opposition leader’s optimism for return
Aug. 8 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on Cambodia’s exiled politician Sam Rainsy expressing optimism on the possibility of returning home and running in next year’s election. The government has said that he may not return without serving a two-year jail sentence for uprooting markers at the Cambodia-Vietnam border in 2009.
RFA Reports on lawsuit over Xayaburi dam in Laos
Aug. 7 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on conservationists and residents of communities along the Mekong River asking a court in Bangkok to stop a Thai government power company from buying electricity generated by the proposed Xayaburi dam in neighboring Laos. Despite officials saying they have suspended the dam in response to calls to wait for further impact assessments, initial construction has begun.
RFA Reports on U.S.-Beijing tensions over disputed waters
Aug. 5 – RFA Mandarin and Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Vietnamese] on the United States and China crossing swords over security in the South China Sea—this time over Beijing's decision to set up a new military garrison in the disputed waters. As the exchange of words between the two powers intensified a week after China moved to establish a tiny city and a garrison in the disputed Paracel chain, Vietnamese police arrested dozens of people protesting against Beijing's maritime claims.
RFA Reports on Beijing student’s unusual protest against sexist hiring policies
Aug. 3 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on a Beijing-based student creating a stir by rapping outside the headquarters of a company that she plans to sue over its gender-exclusive recruitment policies. Cao Ju staged her performance outside Juren Co.'s corporate headquarters in the western district of Haidian, after she said she was told by the educational materials publisher that they weren't considering female candidates for a recently advertised job.
RFA Reports on nearly identical North Korean Olympic speeches
Aug. 3 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on medal-winning North Korean athletes at the London Olympics delivering boilerplate acceptance speeches praising the country’s “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Un. The dictatorship had 56 athletes competing in 11 sports at the international games this year.
RFA Reports on postponement of Vietnamese bloggers’ trial
Aug. 3 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on Vietnamese authorities postponing a trial for three prominent Vietnamese bloggers, claiming their lawyers had called for the delay following the self-immolation death of the mother of one of the defendants. However, the attorneys for the three activists denied ever having made any such request.
RFA Reports on jailing of Uyghurs for ‘separatism’
Aug. 2 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on Chinese authorities jailing 20 people, all believed to be Uyghurs, for using the Internet to “spread separatism” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The move comes amid strict curbs on the ethnic group during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
RFA Reports on sex trafficking of Lao girls
Aug. 1 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on a Thai official claiming that more than 500 underage Lao girls are working as sex slaves in eastern Thailand. Chuvit Kamolvisit, a Thai member of parliament and advocate for social issues, said that the girls, aged 13 to 18 years, were discovered in a karaoke bar in Chachoengsao province.
RFA Reports on Cambodian leader responding to radio station owner’s arrest
Aug. 1 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen denying that the July arrest of a radio station chief was aimed at closing down the station. The station, known as Beehive Radio, has been a frequent source of broadcasts critical of the government.
