(Washington, DC — Nov. 1, 2014) Radio Free Asia broadcast the following stories, and more, in October:
RFA Reports on Aung San Suu Kyi insisting on four-way talks to end Myanmar impasse
Oct. 31 – RFA Myanmar aired story [text in English/Myanmar] on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi disparaging the value of a large, high-level meeting hosted by Myanmar President Thein Sein to discuss the country’s problems. The Nobel laureate insisted that a smaller-sized meeting could better address ethnic conflict, constitutional reform, and other major issues gripping Myanmar.
RFA Reports on UN rights envoy demanding access to North Korean prison camps
Oct. 30 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on a U.N. human rights investigator considering an invitation from North Korea to visit but only on condition that he is allowed access to the country’s network of political prison camps. If permission to visit the camps is refused, “then we cannot undertake a visit,” he said.
RFA Reports on China clamping down on younger Uyghurs practicing Islam
Oct. 30 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on Chinese authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region tightening rules forbidding anyone under the age of 18 from following a religion. The rules target families whose children study the Quran or fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with hefty fines.
RFA Reports on Laos allowing foreigners to purchase land
Oct. 30 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on Laos allowing foreign investors to purchase land under a proposed law. Some groups say the legislation discriminates against locals and threatens national sovereignty.
RFA Reports on divisions emerging in Hong Kong pro-democracy movement
Oct. 30 – RFA Cantonese and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Cantonese/Mandarin] on divisions within Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement between the student leaders and other groups emerging in the pro-democracy push. One of the main student figures at the heart of the protests has denied reports that cracks are appearing over how to keep up momentum in the ongoing civil disobedience campaign.
RFA Reports on call for probe into Myanmar journalist’s death while in custody
Oct. 28 – RFA Myanmar aired story [text in English/Myanmar] on the wife of a Myanmar journalist killed in military custody vowing to use all resources available to back her demand for an independent probe into his death. Freelance journalist Aung Kyaw Naing, also known as Par Gyi, was killed in military detention after documenting clashes between government forces and Mon state rebels.
RFA Reports on China seizing jailed Uyghur scholar’s savings
Oct. 28 – RFA Mandarin and Uyghur aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Uyghur] on the draining of nearly $140,000 in savings from the bank account of jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti. The move has sparked fears that his young family may be evicted from their Beijing apartment.
RFA Reports on concerns over fate of 12 jailed pro-democracy leaders in Laos
Oct. 27 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on human rights groups pressing the Lao government to release 12 pro-democracy leaders from jail—some of whom have been held for 15 years. The groups are deeply concerned about the condition of three student leaders detained during a democracy protest in October 1999.
RFA Reports on Cambodian parties closing in on electoral reform
Oct. 27 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on Cambodia’s opposition and ruling parties coming close to completing a draft law to reform the country’s electoral body. Revamping the National Election Committee, which oversees the country’s elections, was a key component of a deal struck in July between the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party to end a long-running political standoff following disputed elections a year earlier.
RFA Reports on Vietnamese Catholics demanding return of land
Oct. 24 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on a group of Catholics in Vietnam holding a rare protest demanding that local officials in Hanoi halt the filling of a lake on property they say belongs to their parish. Followers of the parish group say the longstanding land dispute stems from a “state policy” of limiting the influence of religion in communist Vietnam, where freedom of worship is tightly controlled.
RFA Reports on Cambodian police arresting 10 over anti-government plot
Oct. 23 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on police in Phnom Penh arresting 10 Cambodians whom they accuse of setting up an armed unit in a bid to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. The 10 were allegedly members of the Denmark-based Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF), which has been deemed a terrorist group by the Cambodian government.
RFA Reports on Mongolian herders forced from grasslands under ‘ecological’ policy
Oct. 23 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on hundreds of ethnic Mongolian herding families in China's Inner Mongolia region calling on the international community for help following their forced eviction from a huge area of their traditional grazing lands. In recent years, grasslands on which the herding communities depend for a living have been taken over for China’s mining and tourism industries and for national development projects.
RFA Reports on UN panel backing Hong Kong calls for universal suffrage
Oct. 23 – RFA Cantonese aired story [text in English/Cantonese] on the United Nations human rights body calling on the ruling Chinese Communist Party to allow the people of Hong Kong to nominate candidates for elections. A panel of 18 independent experts working for the U.N. Human Rights Committee said Beijing's insistence on vetting electoral candidates in the 2017 race for the post of Hong Kong's chief executive is in violation of international human rights treaties.
RFA Reports on China executing more than 2,000 last year
Oct. 22 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on China executing some 2,400 people in 2013. According to public statistics and data, the country remains the world’s No. 1 executioner of prisoners by a vast margin.
RFA Reports on Hong Kong students calling for direct talks with Beijing on democracy
Oct. 22 – RFA Cantonese and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Cantonese/Mandarin] on a student leader of a mass pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong calling for direct talks with the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. The demand followed a live televised debate in which local officials offered minor concessions but rejected protesters' demands for genuine universal suffrage in 2017 elections.
RFA Reports on freed Vietnamese dissident arriving in United States
Oct. 22 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on dissident blogger Nguyen Van Hai arriving in the United States following his release from a Vietnam prison. Nguyen, jailed for six years in Hanoi, pledged to continue his fight for democracy in his home country.
RFA Reports on women bearing brunt of abuse in China’s black jails
Oct. 21 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on 80 percent of people held in China's unofficial detention centers, or "black jails," being female, and many suffering routine abuse at the hands of their captors.
RFA Reports on arrests of reporters in Cambodia amid illegal logging charges
Oct. 21 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on authorities in northeastern Cambodia’s Kratie province arresting two local journalists for allegedly attempting to extort money from villagers in exchange for not reporting suspected illegal logging activities. But publishers of the newspapers where reporters Nget Chandary and Nhek Peisei work, claim they were framed by police who they said cooperated with the villagers to harvest illegal wood.
RFA Reports on North Korean farmers losing faith in crop-distribution reform
Oct. 20 – RFA Korean aired story [text in English/Korean] on North Korean farmers expressing outrage that the government of Kim Jong Un has failed to fulfill a pledge that allows them to keep nearly one-third of their grain harvest under a crop-distribution policy adopted two years ago. The policy, which in theory allows farmers to keep 30 percent of their unit’s harvest and the government the remainder, was implemented as part of wider economic reforms.
RFA Reports on Xinjiang farmers’ market attack leaving 22 dead
Oct. 18 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on four ethnic minority Uyghur men armed with knives and explosives attacking a farmers' market in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The incident left 22 people dead, including police officers and the attackers themselves.
RFA Reports on secret trial and jailing of Tibetan religious leader
Oct. 17 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on the sentencing to two years in prison of a popular Tibetan religious teacher in a secret trial after nearly a year of being held in detention. The individual was taken into custody on Dec. 6, 2013, in Chengdu, the capital of nearby Sichuan province, and was charged with “harming state security.”
RFA Reports on Hong Kong protesters retaking Mong Kok street after crackdown
Oct. 17 – RFA Cantonese and Mandarin aired story [text in English/Cantonese/Mandarin] on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong surging back onto the city's streets and rebuilding barricades torn down by police in a raid a day earlier. Thousands gathered, wielding the now-familiar umbrellas as a defense against pepper spray, on Argyle Street in the busy Kowloon shopping district of Mong Kok.
RFA Reports on sentencing of former Myanmar official
Oct. 17 – RFA Myanmar aired story [text in English/Myanmar] on Myanmar’s former minister of religious affairs receiving a 13-year prison sentence on charges of criminal breach of trust and sedition. The sentencing is one of the harshest punishments handed down to a high-ranking government official since the country began its transition from military rule more than three years ago.
RFA Reports on detentions for Chinese mainlanders supporting Umbrella Movement
Oct. 16 – RFA Mandarin and Cantonese aired story [text in English/Mandarin/Cantonese] on authorities on the Chinese mainland detaining more than 60 people for openly supporting the move for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
RFA Reports on Laotians bristling at Ho Chi Minh statue in capital
Oct. 16 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on Laos erecting a statue of former Vietnam president Ho Chi Minh in the Lao capital Vientiane to underscore cooperation between the two communist neighbors. But the move has angered many Laotians who say the project undermines their nation’s sovereignty.
RFA Reports on jailing of five Myanmar reporters
Oct. 16 – RFA Myanmar aired story [text in English/Myanmar] on a court in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon sentencing five journalists to two-year jail terms for sedition after their paper falsely claimed that an interim government had replaced President Thein Sein’s administration. Lawyers and fellow journalists described the sentences imposed on the publisher, an editor, and three reporters from The Midday Sun as harsh.
RFA Reports on dramatic increase of labor unrest in Chinese factories
Oct. 14 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on the doubling of the number of strikes by Chinese industrial workers in recent months compared with the same period last year. A report issued by a labor rights group in Hong Kong cites the lack of social security payments as a major reason fueling the worker unrest.
RFA Reports on arrests in connection with Cambodian journalist’s murder
Oct. 13 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on authorities in Cambodia arresting three former police and military personnel in connection with the murder of a journalist who reports say had been investigating the illegal timber trade in Kratie province.
RFA Reports on young Uyghur man dying in prison after trying to leave China
Oct. 13 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on a 21-year-old Uyghur man dying in prison in south-central China. Abdullajan Abdulmennan, who was born in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region but was granted Turkish citizenship last year, went illegally to Vietnam in January after Chinese authorities refused to allow him to travel to Turkey.
RFA Reports on China building police station near Tibetan monastery
Oct. 10 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on Chinese authorities building a large police station and detention center near a Buddhist monastery in a Tibetan-populated area of Sichuan in an apparent bid to intimidate monks in the religious institution. They pushed ahead with the project despite efforts by monastic leaders over the last few years to block work on it.
RFA Reports on jailing of Wukan officials behind anti-land grab campaign
Oct. 10 – RFA Mandarin aired story [text in English/Mandarin] on authorities in the rebel village of Wukan in southern China's Guangdong province jailing two former local officials who led a long-running campaign against land grabs. The two have also been forced to withdraw from village-level elections.
RFA Reports on freedoms under fire in Cambodian draft laws
Oct. 10 – RFA Khmer aired story [text in English/Khmer] on the Cambodian government planning to tighten Internet censorship, regulate civil society organizations, and effectively institutionalize land seizures as part of five laws being drafted. The laws, which cover farmland, cybercrime, telecommunications, nongovernmental organizations, and trade unions, are being drafted by government ministries.
RFA Reports on widows claiming police killed Uyghur officials in Yarkand violence
Oct. 10 – RFA Uyghur aired story [text in English/Uyghur] on the widows of two ethnic minority Uyghur officials killed during a riot in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region accusing security forces of shooting their husbands. They dispute claims by authorities that the men were executed by “terrorists” in the violence.
RFA Reports on Vietnamese netizens taking inspiration from Umbrella Movement
Oct. 7 – RFA Vietnamese aired story [text in English/Vietnamese] on Vietnamese activists, emboldened by pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, rallying for demonstrations against government plans to hold an elaborate celebration marking the 60th anniversary of Hanoi’s liberation from French rule. But activists have raised concerns over the country’s economic slowdown.
RFA Reports on Myanmar freeing fewer political prisoners ahead of Obama visit
Oct. 7 – RFA Myanmar aired story [text in English/Myanmar] on Myanmar freeing 3,073 political prisoners as part of a presidential amnesty. But rights groups criticized the move, which left out the bulk of the country’s remaining political prisoners.
RFA Reports on thousands in Myanmar’s Kachin state fleeing over possible fighting
Oct. 6 – RFA Myanmar aired story [text in English/Myanmar] on the flight of more than 5,000 people in a township in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state amid concerns over possible renewed fighting between local armed rebels and government forces. They fled after unconfirmed reports said that government troops would launch an offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) after accusing the rebel group of forcing locals to join its ranks under the pretext of drug-control efforts.
RFA Reports on China pledging support on Lao railway link
Oct. 6 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on China offering more support to cash-starved Laos for the launch of a controversial railway project linking the two countries. Lao officials however say “many problems” must be ironed out, including financing.
RFA Reports on second Tibetan self-immolation in less than a month
Oct. 4 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on a Tibetan man burning himself in front of a police station in protest against Chinese rule in Qinghai province. The incident is the second self-immolation within the period of a month.
RFA Reports on Laos restricting international NGOs
Oct. 2 – RFA Lao aired story [text in English/Lao] on the authoritarian government in Laos moving to restrict the operations of international nongovernmental organizations through a set of new measures. The groups have expressed concern that restrictions could further thwart attempts to build a civil society in the country.
RFA Reports on Chinese police opening fire on Tibetans at mine protest
Oct. 1 – RFA Tibetan aired story [text in English/Tibetan] on 13 Tibetans, including a pregnant woman, suffering gunshot wounds when Chinese security forces fired into a crowd of villagers protesting mining operations in a central Tibetan county. Word of the incident in the Shigatse prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) was delayed due to cuts to Internet service and other communications in the area by Chinese authorities.
RFA Reports on Myanmar government suing media group
Oct. 1 – RFA Myanmar aired story [text in English/Myanmar] on Myanmar’s government taking legal action against the local Eleven Media Group (EMG) for publishing an article alleging official corruption in the purchase of a printing press. But the media company has stood its ground, saying it has evidence to back its report.
