FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 24, 2014
Contact: Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org>
mahajanr(a)rfa.org
RFA Wins at New York Festivals Radio Awards
WASHINGTON Radio Free Asia <http://www.rfa.org/english/> (RFA) last night
won a bronze medal in the category of Best Human Interest Story at the 2014
New York Festivals International Radio Program Awards for RFAs Cantonese
Service <http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/> exposé on Chinese birth tourism,
Born in the USA: Instant Citizenship in Saipan
<http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/features/hottopic/feature-China-birth-06262013
104200.html?encoding=simplified> . In addition, RFAs Uyghur, Korean, Lao,
and Cantonese services had stories and features among this years finalists.
The full credit and honor that comes with this recognition at New York
Festivals goes to our reporters, said Libby Liu, President of RFA. Whether
reporting on the questions raised about a missing Lao activist, birth
tourism in Saipan, Chinas food safety issues, or a deadly crackdown in
Chinas Uyghur region, RFA aims to get at the truth, no matter what
obstacles stand in the way.
No one understands this better than the journalists at RFA.
For RFAs winning entry, Cantonese Service journalist Vivian Kwan
investigated the cottage industry of birth tourism in the U.S. territory of
Saipan, an island in the western Pacific. Since the U.S. government waived
the visa for Chinese tourists to visit the Northern Mariana Islands, which
include Saipan, near-term Chinese women have been going there in great
numbers. If they give birth during their stay, the mothers bypass Beijings
one-child policy and can take advantage of instant U.S. citizenship status
for their newborns. The piece also won a Gracie award
<http://www.rfa.org/about/releases/birth-tourism-gracie-02182014135252.html>
earlier this year from the Alliance for Women in Media.
RFAs finalists were: the Lao Services audio news documentary on the
disappearance of activist Sombath Somphone; the Uyghur Services breaking
news coverage of a deadly crackdown
<http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/clashes-08102013000244.html> on the
eve of Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr in Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Regions Aksu province; the Korean Services human interest story on a
church-sponsored trip to Eastern Europe for young North Korean defectors to
learn about life under Communism and after; and the Cantonese Services
multimedia investigative series on Chinas food production, Poisoned at the
Source <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/foodsafety/Home.html> .
Other winners <http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/worldsbestradio/2014/> at
this years program, the ceremony for which was held in New York, included
BBC, Bloomberg News, RTHK, and RFA sister network Middle East Broadcasting
Networks.
# # #
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and
publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian
languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media.
RFAs broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and
expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information
and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. RFA is funded by
an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Media Relations Manager
<mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M:
202.489.8021
Five Police Officers Killed in Attack on Xinjiang Security Checkpoint
JUNE 22, 2014 -- Five police officers have been killed in a pre-dawn attack on a security checkpoint in China's restive far-western region of Xinjiang after government officials harassed ethnic minority Muslim women wearing head scarves and men with beards, according to police and residents.
Unknown assailants on Friday stabbed two police officers guarding the checkpoint in Qaraqash (in Chinese, Moyu) county in southwestern Hotan prefecture and then set fire to a room in the building where three police officers were taking a nap, police said.
Residents going for early Friday morning Muslim prayers discovered the two wounded officers and the charred remains of the three others in the room and alerted the authorities. The two officers died on the way to the hospital.
The incident followed several high-profile attacks blamed on militants in Xinjiang, the traditional home of the Uyghurs who complain they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness.
Local police described the violence in Kayash village in Manglay township as among the most deadly in the area in recent years.
“It was the most terrible incident in our town but I cannot give you details about that," Ablikim Yasin, chief of the Manglay police station, told RFA's Uyghur Service. "You should call the higher authorities for that.”
Manglay town chairman Shi Hongchang said the assailants struck at 4 a.m.
"The three police officers were sleeping inside, the two others were on watch outside. The group first stabbed the two who were guarding outside and then set fire to the room,” he told RFA.
Kayash village residents said the checkpoint was razed to the ground.
Lookout for suspects
Atawulla Qasim, chief of Kayash village, said the local authorities were helping police to look for the suspects who carried out the attack.
"There are still no clues about the identity of the suspects," he told RFA, saying police have found five empty bottles of petrol.
"The group locked the door of the room from outside after they stabbed the two officers, poured the petrol into the room through a stove chimney and then set fire to it," Qasim said.
"The officers were unable to get out," he said.
A resident living near the checkpoint said the violence occurred amid tensions in Manglay town, where police had detained and interrogated women wearing head scarves and men with beards two days before the incident.
"Just two days ago, this place was so busy," the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The [police] were stopping, holding or interrogating women who were wearing headscarves or men with beards."
Many Uyghurs say headscarves are a marker of Uyghur rather than Muslim identity. Chinese authorities, however, discourage the wearing of beards and headscarves, veils, and other Islamic dress in the region.
Heavy-handedness
A Qaraqash schoolteacher said he was not surprised by the fresh violence in the county, citing what he called the heavy-handedness of Beijing's “strike hard” campaign launched throughout Xinjiang in the wake of increasing violence.
"I was not surprised when I heard about this incident," the teacher said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. "The ongoing 'strike hard' campaign, let alone other campaigns in previous years, is enough to provoke more serious incidents which we are seeing now."
"They do not do anything for stability other than just spreading hostility and hatred among society."
The Qaraqash violence came a day before police shot dead 13 people in Kargilik county in Xinjiang's Kashgar prefecture on Saturday after they drove into a police building and set off an explosion, according to reports.
The official Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region government website Tianshan said the 13 "thugs" crashed a car into the public security building in the county and detonated explosives.
Three police officers suffered injuries but there were no other casualties, the report said, without providing further details, according to Agence France-Presse.
Chinese state media reported earlier in the week that 13 people had been executed in the region for "terrorist attacks” in seven separate cases.
Xinjiang authorities declared a one-year crackdown on “violent terrorist activities” last month following the May 22 bombing at a market in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi that killed 43 people, including the four attackers.
Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur Service. Translated by Shohret Hoshur. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/violence-06222014163028.html
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
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All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.
