Engnews June 2018

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RFA Breaking News: Xinjiang Rapidly Building Crematoria to Extinguish Uyghur Funeral Traditions

by Paul Eckert

Xinjiang Rapidly Building Crematoria to Extinguish Uyghur Funeral Traditions June 26, 2018 - Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are rapidly constructing crematoria staffed by dozens of security personnel, according to local officials, amid concerns over the eradication of ethnic Uyghur funeral traditions. Between March 2017 and February 2018, the XUAR government listed 5-10 million yuan (U.S. $760,000 to $1.52 million) tenders for contractors to build nine “burial management centers” that include crematoria in mostly Uyghur-populated areas throughout the region, according to a report listed on the official website of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). While investigating an 8 million yuan (U.S. $1.22 million) tender from July last year for a center in Aksu (Akesu) prefecture's Shayar (Shaya) county, RFA’s Uyghur Service discovered a contact number for an existing crematorium in nearby Kuchar (Kuche) county and was told by an ethnic Han Chinese staff member there that the Shayar burial center and crematorium had yet to be completed. The staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the Aksu government was “investing in these projects” and had earmarked funding to expand the size of the Kuchar crematorium as well. “A very few” ethnic minority corpses are sent to the Kuchar crematorium, he said, which are “normally brought to us with special documentation provided by the police.” “The police normally contact the head of the crematorium directly and make arrangements,” he said. “We have no right to get involved in these matters, and we have no knowledge of any details of the arrangements—only the officials know.” Among the ethnic minority corpses brought to his crematorium are those who have died in “political re-education camps,” he said, where authorities in the XUAR have detained tens of thousands of Uyghurs accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” views since April 2017. When asked if authorities are building crematoria throughout the region, the staff member said the facilities “are being built everywhere,” and typically require a staff of 15 people, who cremate two to five corpses each week in a process that takes around 90 minutes for each body. “It looks like the trend for the future will be cremation rather than burial,” he said, noting that on television “the government is calling on people, regardless of ethnic background or religion, to choose cremation over burial, as the land in Xinjiang is limited in size, and also to protect the environment and create more green land.” “All I know is that they are expanding crematoria at the moment, but the policy regarding their use has not been implemented yet,” he added. Subverting traditions Officials have previously told RFA that burial centers help them comply with the “four different orders,” referring to guidelines for governing in the region—strengthening propaganda according to the promotion of Chinese-style religion, encouraging residents to self-report and criticize their own behavior, opposing religious extremism, and expressing gratitude to the Communist Party. But members of the Uyghur exile community say authorities are using the centers to subvert ethnic traditions and remove the religious context from funerary rites, thereby taking control of the last private aspects of Uyghur lives by regulating burial practices. Other members of the exile community say that authorities use the crematoria to secretly “deal with” the bodies of Uyghurs who have been killed by security forces during protests against pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule in the XUAR, or who have died under questionable circumstances in re-education camps. Burial centers are increasingly stepping in to arrange funeral services in communities where most of the adult men—who would normally assist with the ceremonies—are in detention, sources say. According to Uyghur tradition, the dead must be cleansed by a member of the local community who is versed in religious knowledge before relatives say a final farewell. Bodies are then transported by “jinaze,” a coffin-like carriage, to a nearby mosque for a closure prayer. Afterwards, an imam recites a sermon on the meaning of life and death, reminding the congregation that everyone eventually meets their creator, regardless of what they have done on earth. The body is then transported to a cemetery for burial, and a week later, the family holds a mourning ceremony which is attended by members of the community. Exile sources say that the ruling Chinese Communist Party had never previously interfered in Uyghur funerals due to the sensitivity of the tradition, but by using the burial centers and crematoria to take over services, authorities are now able to remove one more situation in which local religious leaders hold more influence over residents than the government. Other reports Amid concerns over the expansion of burial management centers in the XUAR, a job posting listed on the official government website for the region’s capital Urumqi last month called for “50 security personnel with above average health, who are physically and mentally fit, and exceptionally brave, to work in the crematorium located in the city’s Saybagh district for a salary of more than 8,000 yuan (U.S. $1,215) per month.” An employee who recently answered the listed telephone number confirmed that he was associated with the Urumqi City Funeral Management Center in Saybagh district, but referred inquiries about the positions to the center’s recruitment office. It was not immediately clear why 50 armed guards were needed to secure the site. Other recent reports have suggested that Uyghur government officials are being encouraged to sign documents agreeing to have their bodies cremated in death, rather than buried according to traditional Uyghur customs—a claim verified by at least one official RFA spoke with in Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture’s Yopurgha (Yuepuhu) county. Perhat Yorunqash, the vice president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress exile group, called the burial management centers a form of “psychological torture” for members of the exile community, who are unable to honor their loved ones back home with Uyghur burial rites according to Muslim tradition. But he also expressed concern over policies in the XUAR that he said have increasingly come to mirror those used by Germany’s Nazi regime against the Jews, and urged the international community to send observers to the region to report on the “atrocities and killings against our people.” Camp network China's central government authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in the XUAR, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret, but local officials in many parts of the region have in RFA telephone interviews forthrightly described sending significant numbers of Uyghurs to the camps and even described overcrowding in some facilities. Citing credible reports, lawmakers Marco Rubio and Chris Smith, who head the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said recently that as many as 500,000 to a million people are or have been detained in the re-education camps, calling it ”the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.” Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology, said the number “could be closer to 1.1 million, which equates to 10-11 percent of the adult Muslim population of the region." China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material. While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009. Reported by Gulchehra Hoja for RFA's Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA's Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. View this s tory online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/crematoriums-06262018151126.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. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org | engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org ] . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org | engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ] . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at [ mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org | mahajanr(a)rfa.org ] .

6 years, 2 months

RFA Breaking News: Nearly Half of Xinjiang Village's Residents Sent to 'Political Re-Education Camps': Official

by Paul Eckert

cid:e499a30d87d312d6e7ff3e0581ac9ea5a326b667@zimbra June 14, 2018 - Authorities in Qaraqash (in Chinese, Moyu) county, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), have detained nearly half of the population of a village in "political re-education camps," according to a local official. Beginning in April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" views have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout the XUAR, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule. A duty officer with the Chinibagh township police station in Qaraqash recently told RFA's Uyghur Service that in his home village of Yengisheher, almost all of the adult males from the area's more than 1,700 households had been placed in camps, leaving few people behind to farm the local fields. "Overall, 40 percent of the population in our village is currently in re-education camps," said the officer, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity. The officer acknowledged that village authorities were following an official directive previously reported by RFA which brands Uyghurs born in the 1980s and 1990s as "members of an unreliable and untrustworthy generation" and targets them for re-education because they are considered "susceptible" to influence by dangerous elements. He said that "only children and old people" remain in the village, and that the local labor force had been decimated by the sweep. "If the husband is taken away, his wife must take over his work, and where there are young children in a family . they must help in the fields," the officer said. For families with no remaining able-bodied members, "the village cadres have made arrangements for their fields to be cultivated by other people," he added. The officer, who said he helps to question detainees, said none of his siblings had been placed in the camps because his grandfather had taught them to "refrain from anything which would get us into trouble, and to always be loyal and give a good impression to the authorities." "From a very young age, we followed the call of the [ruling Chinese Communist] party." When asked how many residents of Chinibagh township have been detained in the camps, the officer said he was unsure, and referred questions to his supervisor. The officer's claim comes after the party secretary of Qaraqash's Aqsaray township told RFA at the end of last year that he and other township officials had received an order from county-level authorities to target 40 percent of the population for re-education. At the time, RFA found that around 5,000 of Qaraqash's population of 34,000 people-or nearly 15 percent of the county's residents-had already been taken away to re-education camps. Reports suggest similar orders for "quotas" have been given in other areas of the XUAR, and that authorities are detaining as many Uyghurs as possible in re-education camps and jail, regardless of their age, prior service to the Communist Party, or the severity of the accusations against them. Camp network China's central government authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in the XUAR, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret, but local officials in many parts of the region have in RFA telephone interviews forthrightly described sending significant numbers of Uyghurs to the camps and even described overcrowding in some facilities. Citing credible reports, lawmakers Marco Rubio and Chris Smith, who head the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said recently that as many as 500,000 to a million people are or have been detained in the reeducation camps, calling it "the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today." Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology, said the number "could be closer to 1.1 million, which equates to 10-11 percent of the adult Muslim population of the region." China regularly conducts "strike hard" campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material. While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009. Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA's Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. View this story online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/half-06142018132115.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. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.

6 years, 2 months

Radio Free Asia Ends TV Broadcasts in Myanmar

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 11, 2018 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org Radio Free Asia Ends TV Broadcasts on DVB: RFA President WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia (RFA) aired its last original TV broadcast on the <http://www.dvb.no/> Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) network on Myanmar's MRTV channel this evening. The Myanmar government told DVB that it could not carry RFA's programming if the word "Rohingya" continued to be used. As a policy, RFA does not accept interference by outside groups or governments in making its editorial decisions. RFA's Burmese Service's TV programming was available on the network since October 2017. RFA content and programming will continue to be available for its audience in Myanmar on shortwave radio, social media ( <https://www.youtube.com/user/RFABurmeseVideo> YouTube/ <https://www.facebook.com/pages/RFA-Burmese/39218993127> Facebook) and RFA Burmese's <https://www.rfa.org/burmese/> website. RFA's President Libby Liu said: "Radio Free Asia will not compromise its code of journalistic ethics, which prohibits the use of slurs against ethnic minority groups. RFA will continue to refer to the Rohingya as the 'Rohingya' in our reports. Use of other terms, even those that fall short of being derogatory, would be inaccurate and disingenuous to both our product and our audience. "By forbidding the use of the word 'Rohingya,' Myanmar's government is taking an Orwellian step in seeking to erase the identity of a people whose existence it would like to deny. RFA will continue to provide audiences in Myanmar with access to trustworthy, reliable journalism, particularly when reporting on issues that local and state-controlled media ignores and suppresses." # # # 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. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Director of Public Affairs and Digital Strategy <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

6 years, 2 months

RFA Breaking News: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Orders State Organs to Repatriate Defectors

by Paul Eckert

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Orders State Organs to Repatriate Defectors June 7, 2018 - North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has ordered government agencies, including the powerful State Security Department, to exert pressure on the family members of those who have defected to South Korea in a bid to get them to return home, according to sources inside the country. A source from North Hamgyong province, on the border with China, recently told RFA’s Korean Service that Kim’s directive concerned “bringing back people who were tricked by the South Korean National Intelligence Service” and had “gone to South Korea against their will.” “The instruction stresses that the South Korean National Intelligence Service should be held responsible for this disgraceful act while a peaceful atmosphere with South Korea is being created,” the source said, referring to a recent thaw in tensions between the two rival nations that saw Kim meet with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in last month to discuss peace on the Korean Peninsula. Kim also called for plans to “stop the traitors from taking an active part in the United Nations and on other international stages,” where they have exposed human rights abuses in the North, and to entice “North Korean defectors in South Korea who are experiencing difficulties adjusting to South Korean society” to return home, he said. In order to do so, the source added, government agencies have begun “quietly investigating the families of defectors.” “State security agents are gathering information on defectors’ families in each person’s work unit and are simultaneously working to propagandize defectors,” he said. “They are forcing the defectors’ family members to try to convince their relatives in South Korea to come back [to North Korea].” A second source from Yanggang province, also on China’s border, told RFA that State Security agents have stepped up patrols in his region recently and specifically mentioned a case in which they had “visited the home of a defector family and forced the mother to call her son” who had relocated to the South. “The State security agents are maneuvering to have the son come back home,” he said. However, the source said, “most [family members of defectors] are wary” of the orders they have been given by the authorities and instead “tell their relatives who have fled to South Korea or other countries not to be tricked by State Security Department” propaganda. A North Korean defector who relocated to the South Korea three years ago confirmed to RFA that family members recently began calling and trying to convince him to return home. “I recently received two calls from my wife in North Korea during which she begged me to return, saying that if I changed my mind and came back to the heart of North Korea’s leader, [the authorities] would not accuse me of any crime and we could live happily ever after,” said the defector, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “My wife proudly said our son [in North Korea] is doing well at his school … but I could tell from the sound of her voice that she was very nervous. I got the feeling that there was someone next to her, giving her instructions.” Around 30,000 North Koreans have fled to the far wealthier South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry data, 1,418 reached the South in 2016, while arrivals fell 21 percent to 1,127 in 2017. The South has blamed the drop in defections on tighter border controls by North Korea and China, after a spike in 2016 that included an unusually high number of North Korean elites. Reported by Myungchul Lee for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. View this s tory online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/defectors-06072018142629.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. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org | engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org ] . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org | engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ] . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at [ mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org | mahajanr(a)rfa.org ] .

6 years, 3 months

RFA Breaking News: Vietnam Blogger 'Mother Mushroom' in Hunger Strike Over Prison Treatment

by Paul Eckert

Vietnam Blogger 'Mother Mushroom' in Hunger Strike Over Prison Treatment June 1, 2018 - Jailed Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known also as “Mother Mushroom” has launched a hunger strike in protest at her treatment in prison, refusing to eat prison food she says sickens her, her mother told RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Friday. Quynh — who had published a blog under the handle Me Nam, or Mother Mushroom — was arrested Oct. 10, 2016 and was sentenced in June 2017 to a decade in jail on charges of spreading “propaganda against the state” under Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Quynh’s mother, Nguyen Thị Tuyet Lan, visited her on Thursday at No. 5 Prison in Yen Dinh, Thanh Hoa province, in the country’s north central coast region, taking the blogger’s children to see her. “Quynh told me that from May 5 to May 11 she was on hunger strike to protest the prison’s treatment and that she won’t eat any food provided by prison because she felt sick after eating the food,” Lan told RFA. “She said her joints are all swollen and get worse when she has to lay on the floor,” added Quynh’s mother. Quynh, a Catholic, has not been allowed by prison authorities to receive a bible or letters from family or friends, while all letters that the blogger sent home to her family were collected by prison authorities and only given to her mother during Thursday’s visit, Lan said In February, Quynh was moved to Yen Dinh, more than 620 miles from her former location in the city of Nha Trang on the country’s south central coast without notifying her family, her mother told RFA at the time. Another female political prisoner, Tran Thi Nga, meanwhile, has been cut off from seeing her family for several months as part of disciplinary measures, her husband old RFA on Friday. A human rights defender noted in Vietnam for her online activism, Nga, 40, was sentenced on July 25 to nine years in prison for spreading "propaganda against the state" under Article 88 of Vietnam’s penal code, a provision frequently used to silence dissident bloggers and other activists. Her appeal was rejected in December. Nga’s husband, Phan Van Phong, told RFA that he received a phone call on Tuesday from an anonymous woman who said she was Nga’s cellmate and had just been released. “She called me and told me not to visit Nga this time because she is not allowed to see her family,” Phong said. “I don’t know who that person is. She told me that Nga’s health is normal. I have not been able to talk to Nga over the phone since Tet festival (in mid-February),” he said “She is not allowed to use her 5 minute phone call per month entitlement,” added Phong. No reason was given for Nga’s punishment, but Phong said that prison authorities had told him before that Nga always displayed a “protest attitude” since she was brought to her current prison. Phong added, however, that he still intended to take their two children to come see Nga in coming days. Like Quynh, Nga was transferred to a distant prison without informing her family – a measure authorities use to increase prisoners’ isolation and make it difficult for family and friends to visit them. Nga was moved in March to a prison in Gia Long Province, more than 1,000 km (620 miles) from her home in Ha Nam. Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this s tory online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/prisoners-political-06012018162141… 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. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org | engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org ] . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to [ mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org | engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ] . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at [ mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org | mahajanr(a)rfa.org ] .

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Engnews June 2018