Engnews November 2019

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RFA Breaking News: Police, Uyghur Twitter Campaign Contradict China’s Claim to Have Emptied Camps

by Paul Eckert

Police, Uyghur Twitter Campaign Contradict China’s Claim to Have Emptied Camps Aug. 1, 2019 - China’s assertion that it has released 90 percent of the million-plus Uyghurs held in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) internment camps was refuted by police in the region and by members of the Uyghur community living in exile who launched a twitter campaign challenging the claim. China presented the two top ethnic Uyghur officials in the XUAR at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday to deliver a surprising claim that the vast majority of Uyghurs had completed training in re-education camps and rejoined their families. “The majority of people who have undergone education and training have returned to society and returned to their families,” Erkin Tuniyaz, the vice chairman of the XUAR government, told the news conference. “Most have already successfully achieved employment,” he said. “Over 90 percent of the students have returned to society and returned to their families and are living happily,” said Tuniyaz, who was flanked by Shohrat Zakir, the XUAR government chairman. The two Uyghur men work under XUAR Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, the architect of the system that has incarcerated up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas since April 2017. The claims, which were presented without evidence, were met with dismissal and derision by leading human rights experts and Uyghur diaspora groups, who described the statements as the latest in a long history of Chinese disinformation about Xinjiang. One expert warned that released detainees could be drafted for forced labor in factories. “China is making deceptive and unverifiable statements in a vain attempt to allay worldwide concern for the mass detentions of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and South-East Asia. “Given China’s record of heavy censorship, outright falsehoods and systematic obfuscation about the situation in Xinjiang, it remains imperative that UN human rights investigators, independent observers and the media be given unrestricted access to the region as a matter of urgency,” he added. The Germany-based World Uyghur Congress while slamming the Chinese claim noted that Zakir’s own sister and several other relatives have received political asylum in Western countries after fleeing Chinese repression. #prove90% hits Twitter In a view consistent with other human rights and Uyghur groups, Bequelin said Amnesty had “received no reports about large scale releases – in fact, families and friends of people who are being detained tell us they are still not able to contact them.” In an effort to verify the XUAR officials’ assertions RFA’s Uyghur Service, conducted telephone interviews with police in the region. “I did not hear that anybody was released from the education. We would have been informed if anybody had been released,” said a policeman at a village police station in Hotan (Hetian in Chinese). “There are 1700 people in the village, and about 250 of them are in the education camps, and so far we have only one person, aged between 40- 50, who was released,” said the policeman, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to the risk of punishment for talking to foreign media. A Uyghur woman in Hotan City told RFA that seven of the 12 houses on her street have been left “ empty and padlocked” by the re-education campaign. “All of them were sent to the education camps for about two years,” she said, describing the detained Uyghurs as all business people from Karakax (Moyu, in Chinese) county in Hotan. “There are fewer people everywhere, even in the city. Stores are open, but there are very few people who are shopping and there is a money shortage,” added the woman. In Kumul (in Chinese, Hami) prefecture, one official in the Kumul city neighborhood committee said he didn’t know that any inmates had been released. Asked about the XUAR government figure presented in Beijing, he then stated: “maybe 90 percent.” Another person from the Kumul city neighborhood committee told RFA, however, that: “We have about 100 people undergoing ‘education’ from our district and three of them were released so far.” Meanwhile, the Uyghurs living in exile with relatives incarcerated in the XUAR have conducted a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #prove90%. “ China show me my parents, my cousin Ilzat and my other relatives. #prove90 % (of) concentration camp detainees (are) being released as you stated. It’s been years since I last heard my parents’ voice,” wrote a man calling himself Alfred Uyghur. ‘Where the hell is my father-in-law?’ Another Uyghur man on Twitter, Arslan Hidayat, wrote “#China says they’ve released 90% of #Uyghurs from “Re-Education” camps, then where the hell is my father-in-law, prominent actor and comedian ‘Adil Mijit’?” Adil Mijit, a well-loved Uyghur comedian, went missing in late 2018, and social media sources as well as anonymous reports shared with RFA confirmed he was now serving a three-year prison term for making a trip to the Muslim holy city of Mecca without authorities’ permission. The latest campaign follows a similar one in February, when after China showed a video of a Uyghur mistakenly thought to have died, the Uyghur exile community had launched a social media campaign under the hashtag #MeTooUyghur, calling on Chinese authorities to release video of their relatives who were missing and believed detained in the vast camp network. Beijing initially denied the existence of internment camps, but changed tack earlier this year and started describing the facilities as “boarding schools” that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization and help protect the country from terrorism. Reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service and other media outlets that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities. RFA has also discovered repeatedly that many of the Uyghurs forced to go through vocational training were already highly educated, accomplished professionals in various fields. The mass incarcerations of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Kirgiz have prompted increasing calls by the international community to hold Beijing accountable for its actions in the region, and Tuesday’s claim that many Uyghurs were released was seen as an effort to blunt that criticism. The Global Times , a tabloid published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, doubled down on the “vocational education” propaganda on Thursday in an editorial praising the purported release of “trainees.” “This time, the autonomous region released a great amount of crucial information on the vocational education and training centers. Information received by the Global Times through other channels also shows that a great number of trainees have indeed graduated and returned to the society,” it said. “Although officials have yet to publish detailed figures, the improving situation of Xinjiang is expanding to all spheres. As a powerful interim measure, the vocational education and training centers play a pivotal role in making these achievements possible,” said the daily. Reported by Mamatjan Juma and Alim Seytoff for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this story online at: [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/twitter-campaign-08012019163200.html | https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/twitter-campaign-08012019163200.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 U.S. Agency for Global Media ( [ https://www.usagm.gov/home/ | USAGM ] ) . 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 ] .

4 years, 3 months

RFA Breaking News: Former Tibetan Monk Stages Fatal Self-Immolation Protest in Ngaba

by Paul Eckert

Former Tibetan Monk Stages Fatal Self-Immolation Protest in Ngaba Nov. 28, 2019 - A young Tibetan man set himself on fire in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) county, a Tibetan region in the western Chinese province of Sichuan, this week in a protest against Chinese rule in Tibet, exile sources familiar with the case said on Thursday. "24-year-old Youten self-immolated on November 26, around 4 p.m. local time, in a village in Meruma township, Ngaba. He died on the spot," said Kanyag Tsering, a Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan. "After the self-immolation occurred, it was not known if the family could take possession of his remains. Due to clampdown on communication channels, details in the aftermath of the self-immolation are hard to ascertain," he said. Ngaba's main town and nearby Kirti monastery have been the scene of repeated self-immolations and other protests in recent years by monks, former monks, and other Tibetans calling for Tibetan freedom and the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet. "In Ngaba Meruma township, nearby monasteries and the markets in public places remained closely monitored and under surveillance, and this has affected people's normal life," said Tsering. Tsering identified Youten as the son of father Sodhon and mother Tsekho Kyi, who are residents of Meruma. "Youten was a monk in his childhood at Ngaba's Kirti monastery, and later disrobed and spent his time in nomadic areas," he said. Youten's protest follows the December 2018 self-immolation of DrukKho, also in Ngaba, and brings to 156 the number of self-immolations by Tibetans since the wave of fiery protests against Chinese rule of their homeland began in 2009. Reported by RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this story online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/ngaba-immolation-11282019081135.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 U.S. Agency for Global Media ( <https://www.usagm.gov/home/> USAGM). 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 .

4 years, 9 months

RFA Breaking News: Expert Says 1.8 Million Uyghurs, Muslim Minorities Held in Xinjiang's Internment Camps

by Paul Eckert

>> >> >> >> >> Expert Says 1.8 Million Uyghurs, Muslim Minorities Held in Xinjiang’s Internment Camps >> >> Nov. 24, 2019 - Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in as many as 1,300 to 1,400 internment camps, one of the world’s foremost experts on mass incarcerations in the region said in a paper released Sunday. >> >> Adrian Zenz, senior fellow in China Studies at the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, obtained a cache of more than 25,000 files from different government departments in the XUAR to inform his latest estimate of the number of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities being held in a vast network of camps in the region since April 2017. >> >> Zenz had initially estimated that some 1.1 million people are or have been detained in the camps, which he refers to as Vocational Training Internment Camps (VTICs), but in March this year revised his assessment to 1.5 million. Camp inmates have been accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas. >> >> “Adding 177,000 to the current internment estimate of 1.6 million results in a combined figure of 1.777 million, or approximately 1.8 million,” he said in the report, which also cited members of the Hui Muslim minority as being among those detained. >> >> “This means that 15.4 percent of the adult Turkic and Hui minority population are or have been interned. This is equivalent to just below one in six members of that population, with the difference to the author's previous estimate from July 2019 of 1.5 million being explained by using updated population figures, including the Hui population in the sample.” >> >> Zenz said that his new estimate was based on information obtained mostly from rural minority regions in the XUAR’s Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian), Kashgar (Kashi), and Kizilsu Kirghiz (Kezileisu Keerkezi) Autonomous prefectures. >> >> Camps in the region number up to 1,400, Zenz said in Sunday’s report, providing more specific details following an interview with RFA’s Uyghur Service earlier this month, in which he said that he had obtained convincing evidence to suggest that his “original estimate of at least one camp per administrative unit between township and prefecture levels, which adds up to 1,200, was accurate.” >> >> “Xinjiang has at least 119 detention centers, one per administrative unit above township level,” the report said. >> >> “Likely, there are more than that. That means that the region has probably somewhere between 1,300 and 1,400 extrajudicial internment facilities (excluding prisons).” >> >> In one tranche of data included in Sunday’s report, Zenz posted a spreadsheet containing detailed information on nearly 1,500 persons detained from just one village in Kashgar’s Yarkand (Shache) county, with the last six digits of their identification numbers redacted for privacy reasons. >> >> The report more generally includes lists of detainees including “young persons with their status of study or work, lists of children with both parents in some form of detention and how they are being cared for, lists of couples of mixed ethnicity and whether they still live together, lists of families and their >> fulfillment of family planning requirements.” >> >> It also details “lists of persons below the poverty line or who are currently (or no longer) receiving minimum welfare payments, or lists of persons who have failed or are unable to repay their government-issued debt.” >> >> ‘Coercive and abusive’ >> >> While Beijing once denied the existence of the camps, China this year changed tack and began describing the facilities as “boarding schools” that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization, and help protect the country from terrorism. >> >> Reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service and other media organizations, however, has shown that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities. >> >> According to Zenz’s report, official government documentation “repeatedly and unambiguously testifies to the fact that Xinjiang’s VTICs engage in known and pre-existing forms of coercive and abusive political >> re-education.” >> >> He cites at least five different XUAR government or educational institution websites as stating that the VTICs “are dedicated brain-washing institutions” that claim to “wash clean the brains of people >> who became bewitched by the extreme religious ideologies of the ‘three forces,’” or the terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism China says are threatening Xinjiang. >> >> Zenz’s report also bolsters reports that internment camp detainees are “in involuntary internment” and that the camps are “heavily guarded, prison-like facilities.” >> >> Shifting strategy >> >> Speaking with RFA earlier this month, Zenz said that China significantly increased its internment and internment capacity in the XUAR in 2018, but gradually shifted from “vocational training” into what he called “involuntary or coercive forms of labor” in the second half of last year. >> >> Zenz said that while it is difficult to confirm such trends, as there is limited evidence to work from and China’s government doesn’t provide statistics, he believes that “in 2019 Xinjiang has been moving from internment into forced labor.” >> >> Last month, at a hearing in Washington held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), witnesses including Zenz highlighted reports of a widespread system of forced labor in the XUAR, which requires Uyghurs and other ethnic minority Muslims to work in the production of textiles, food, and light manufacturing. >> >> Zenz detailed a forced labor system he called even “more shocking” than that of the internment camps, which he said involved coerced military, political, and vocational training for the purpose of working in officially subsidized companies as part of a “business of oppression.” >> >> China is the world’s largest cotton producer and Zenz noted that some 84 percent of China’s cotton is produced in the XUAR, meaning that between the textile industry and other forms of work—including on components that are sent to eastern China and incorporated into finished products—it is extremely difficult for customs officials in the U.S. to determine whether imported goods are linked to forced labor in the region. >> >> He said at the time that “the situation in Xinjiang is so serious, that it is necessary and warranted to call for an ethical boycott of any products made in whole or in part in Xinjiang.” >> >> Mass incarcerations >> >> Mass incarcerations in the XUAR, as well as other policies seen to violate the rights of Uyghurs and other Muslims, have led to increasing calls by the international community to hold Beijing accountable for its actions in the region. >> >> U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month singled out China as one of the worst perpetrators of abuse against people of faith, particularly in the XUAR. >> >> In September, at an event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan said that the U.N. has failed to hold China to account over its policies in the XUAR and should demand unfettered access to the region to investigate reports of the mass incarceration and other rights abuses against Uyghurs. >> >> On Saturday, The New York Times published a 403-page trove of documents it said were released by someone within the “Chinese political establishment” that told of how Xi called for an “all-out ‘struggle against terrorism, infiltration, and separatism’ using the ‘organs of dictatorship,’” in internal speeches following an attack by Uyghur militants that killed more than 30 people at a train station in 2014. >> >> While it was unclear how the documents, commonly referred to as the “Xinjiang Papers,” were selected, the Times said that the leak came from an official who requested anonymity and expressed hope that their disclosure would hold party leaders, including Xi, accountable for policies in the region. >> >> View this story online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/detainees-11232019223242.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 U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). >> >> If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org .

4 years, 9 months

RFA Breaking News: Rohingya Genocide Case Against Myanmar Based on ‘Compelling’ Evidence: Lawyer

by Paul Eckert

Rohingya Genocide Case Against Myanmar Based on ‘Compelling’ Evidence: Lawyer Nov. 21, 2019 - An attorney assisting Gambia with its lawsuit against Myanmar for state-sponsored genocide at the U.N.’s top court said Thursday that he is confident that the West African nation will win the case based on copious, strong evidence of army atrocities against the Muslim Rohingyas. “The evidence is plentiful,” Paul Reichler, an attorney at Foley Hoag LLC in Washington told RFA’s Myanmar Service. He spoke a day after the Myanmar government announced that State Counselor and Foreign Affairs Minister Aung San Suu Kyi would lead a team in defending the country at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands. “There are many, many fact-finding reports by U.N. missions, by special rapporteurs, by human rights organizations,” Reichler said. “There is satellite photography, and there are many, many statements by officials and army personnel from Myanmar which altogether show that the intention of the state of Myanmar has been to destroy the Rohingya as a group in whole or in part,” he said. “And we’re very confident that at the end of the day the evidence will be so compelling that the court will agree with The Gambia,” he said. In the lawsuit filed 10 days ago, Muslim-majority Gambia accuses Myanmar of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention for the brutal military-led crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017 that left thousands dead and drove more than 740,000 across the border into Bangladesh. The West African country filed the lawsuit on behalf of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The first public hearings at the ICJ will be held on Dec. 10-12. Myanmar has largely denied that its military was responsible for the violence in Rakhine state, which included indiscriminate killings, mass rape, torture, and village burnings, and has defended the crackdown as a counterinsurgency against a group of Muslim militants. The government has also dismissed credible evidence in numerous reports and satellite imagery that point to the atrocities, and claimed that the Rohingya burned down their own communities and blamed soldiers. Myanmar’s powerful military and the civilian-led government are together working with legal experts to take on the lawsuit, Agence France-Presse reported Thursday, quoting military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun. Separate cases pertaining to the persecution of the Rohingya have been filed at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and in an Argentine court, the latter of which names Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and top military commanders deemed responsible for the atrocities. Myanmar has refused to cooperate with the ICC because the country is not a party to the Rome Statute which created the international court. O n Thursday, Christine Schraner Burgener, the U.N. special envoy on Myanmar, welcomed the Southeast Asia country’s decision to defend itself before the ICJ. The special envoy ended a 10-day mission to Myanmar on Nov. 21 during which she met with government and military official, diplomats, think tanks and U.N. agencies. “She welcomed the government’s position on the case filed by The Gambia to the International Court of Justice that, as a party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide since 1956, Myanmar would take its international obligations seriously and would defend itself in front of the ICJ,” said a statement issued by the U.N.’s Myanmar office. State responsible for army actions Some of Myanmar’s top rights attorneys meanwhile weighed in on Aung San Suu Kyi’s decision to appear before the ICJ. “As a foreign minister, it is reasonable that she will lead the defense team,” said Thein Than Oo, one of the founding members of the Myanmar Lawyers’ Network. “As a leader of the country, Daw [honorific] Aung San Suu Kyi has consistently denied the accusations. This charge is not just for human rights violations. She will be defending the genocide accusation. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has consistently denied that charge. I think she will deny it in the court too. She has to.” Kyi Myint, chairman of the Union Attorney and Legal Aid Association, raised questions about the ICJ’s impartiality. “We’ve got a very short period for preparation,” he said. “It’s less than 20 days. They should give us between three and six months, so that we have enough time to prepare the defense.” Kyi Myint went on to say that Aung San Suu Kyi should point out her limited authority over the military, as mandated in Myanmar’s constitution “During the defense at the court, she should demonstrate her limited authorities over the military, showing them a copy of the 2008 constitution,” he said. “If she is willing to take the fall when the military is silent, that’s up to her.” But Reichler said that would provide no protection for Aung San Suu Kyi. “The army is part of the state. The civilian government is part of the state,” he said. “The state is responsible for the behavior of agents, of its organs, of its entities, of its ministries and of its military forces,” he added. “The idea that there are people in the government who oppose genocide … does not absolve the state of the responsibility that it has for operations of a different part of its government,” Reichler said. “The state is responsible whether the civilians support that genocide or not. It is the state that is carrying it out, whether it is the civilians or the military,” he said. Damage to country’s image Representatives from Myanmar’s political parties defended the government. Pyone Kathy Naing, a lawmaker from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said that the West has misunderstood the term “clearance operations,” the actions that Myanmar security forces took in Rohingya communities in Rakhine state in 2017 in response to deadly attacks by a Muslim militant group. ‘The term ‘clearance operation’ is misunderstood in the Western world,” she said. “The military’s clearance operations were to clear out the terrorists — not to drive out the [Muslims]. We need to clarify it.’ “For the lawsuit, we need to counter strategically with a highly expert legal team,” she added. Soe Thein, an independent legislator and former minister of the President’s Office agreed, saying, “We need to fight back with an expert international legal teams — spending millions of dollars.” Oo Hla Saw, a lower house lawmaker from the Arakan National Party (ANP), raised concern over the impact that the ICJ lawsuit would have on Myanmar. “This lawsuit’s impact on our society will be huge, especially because our country’s image will be damaged whether we win or lose since we are accused of rights violations,” he said. “The second thing is economic impact,” he said. “We will be isolated. We might be sanctioned by large western countries. Nobody can be sure, but the impact will be huge because Western countries and the OIC countries will be influencing these motives.” “This will be a very big problem for us,” he added. Reported by Ye Kaung Myint Maung, Khin Khin Ei, Nay Myo Htun, Thet Su Aung, Thiha Tun, and Phyu Phyu Khaing for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Roseanne Geri n. View this story online at: [ https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/rohingya-genocide-case-against-mya… | https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/rohingya-genocide-case-against-mya… ] 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 U.S. Agency for Global Media ( [ https://www.usagm.gov/home/ | USAGM ] ) . 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 ] .

4 years, 9 months

Bay Fang Named Radio Free Asia's New President

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 20, 2019 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Bay Fang Named Radio Free Asia's New President WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia's (RFA) board of directors has appointed Bay Fang as the company's new President, effective today, Nov. 20. Fang replaces Libby Liu, who will serve as an advisor/counselor during a period of transition. "Bay Fang is an excellent choice to lead Radio Free Asia," said RFA and United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Board Chairman Ken Weinstein. "She brings rich expertise in journalism and foreign policy to ensure RFA fulfills its crucial mission in spite of overwhelming challenges throughout the region. Radio Free Asia leads the world in exposing atrocities in Xinjiang, Tibet, North Korea and throughout Southeast Asia. RFA is a lifeline for people living under repression -- giving them the truth and a voice." Fang said, "I'm deeply honored by this opportunity to lead Radio Free Asia. For people living under authoritarian rule, RFA is a lifeline that both informs and empowers through its unique journalism, at the forefront of so many critical stories in Asia. As President of RFA, I vow to continue on the path of success carved out by RFA's brave journalists and expand the organization's capacity to bring free press to people living in closed societies." Fang has served as RFA's Executive Editor since October 2016 and was originally hired as the Managing Director for East Asia in 2015. Fang has worked closely with RFA leadership and USAGM on the company's strategic journalistic initiatives and held responsibilities relating essentially to all sectors of RFA operations. Fang's major investigative ventures include a ground-breaking series on North Korea <https://www.rfa.org/about/releases/nk-labor-overseas-04052016112935.html> 's means of skirting international sanctions through forced overseas labor around the world, and numerous multimedia projects showcasing RFA's in-depth journalism on China <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/china-reach/> 's influence in Southeast Asia, the surveillance state in the Uyghur and Tibetan regions, and the legacy of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In addition she edited and helped to produce the award-winning e-book featuring the work of RFA resident political cartoonist Rebel Pepper, which received the Sigma Delta Chi award <https://www.rfa.org/about/releases/rebel-pepper-04252018063549.html> by the Society of Professional Journalists. A longtime journalist and former diplomat, Fang has served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, overseeing public diplomacy and public affairs for Europe and Eurasia. Her 20-plus-year career in journalism includes serving as the Diplomatic Correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, and covering the wars in Afghanistan (2001-2002) and Iraq (2003-2004) for U.S. News and World Report magazine. She started her career as the Beijing Bureau Chief for US News & World Report, where she won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for her story "China's Stolen Wives." Fang earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, and was a Fulbright scholar in Hong Kong and a visiting fellow at Oxford University. # # # 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 United States Agency for Global Media. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Vice President of Communications & External Relations <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

4 years, 9 months

Radio Free Asia Uyghur Journalist Wins Magnitsky Human Rights Award

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 15, 2019 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Uyghur Journalist Wins Magnitsky Human Rights Award WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia's (RFA) Uyghur Service journalist Gulchehra Hoja last night received a Magnitsky Human Rights Award at a ceremony in London <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-svElzDHyJg> for her reporting on the ongoing humanitarian and human rights crisis <https://www.economist.com/china/2019/10/24/to-suppress-news-of-xinjiangs- gulag-china-threatens-uighurs-abroad> in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). "Gulchehra and RFA's Uyghur Service have worked tirelessly to bring to light the human rights abuses happening in China's Uyghur region," said Libby Liu, President of RFA. "We must also remember the extraordinary pressure facing her and her fellow journalists in RFA Uyghur, as Chinese authorities have targeted their family members in China in retaliation. "Heroically, Gulchehra and her colleagues have not let this unacceptable emotional intimidation stop them from keeping RFA audiences and the world informed about an unfolding humanitarian crisis affecting millions." Hoja said, "It is an honor to be recognized with this award for my reporting about the dire situation in China's Far West for the Uyghurs. My colleagues and I know that no matter the obstacles or the adversity we face, it is crucial that we continue to reveal the truth." Along with her colleagues in RFA's Uyghur Service, Hoja <https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/asia/uyghur-china-xinjiang-interview-intl/ index.html> has been at the forefront <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/training-camps-09112017154343.htm l> of coverage of the internment of, by many estimates, more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the XUAR. RFA, the only outlet outside China that has a Uyghur-language service, has received wide recognition for first reporting on the mass internments and related developments in the XUAR. The Economist recently published an editorial <https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/10/24/knowledge-of-chinas-gulag-ow es-much-to-american-backed-radio> noting RFA's ability "to penetrate China's wall of secrecy in Xinjiang by pumping local sources for information, using their own language." Hoja began her career in journalism in the XUAR with Chinese state media. But when she first heard RFA's reports during a trip to Germany in the summer of 2001, she was inspired to leave China and join RFA. Hoja shortly thereafter settled in the United States and became a full-time journalist with RFA in October of that same year, and later a U.S. citizen. Among many other stories, Hoja has reported on the construction of crematoria <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/crematoriums-06262018151126.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=%20crematoria> near the internment camps in the XUAR, the sterilization and sexual abuse <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/abuse-10302019142433.html?searcht erm:utf8:ustring=%20gulchehra%20hoja> of female detainees, and the situation facing <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/children-11082018162416.html> "orphaned" children, whose parents have been detained. Hoja is among at least six members of RFA <https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/03/radio-free-asia -uighur-service/583687/> 's Uyghur Service who have family members in China who are missing, detained, or jailed in retaliation for these RFA journalists' work. The Magnitsky Human Rights Awards were established in 2015 to recognize brave journalists, politicians, and activists for human rights-related work. This year's honorees included Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of the media outlet Rappler, and the late Jamal Kashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist and critic of the Saudi government, who was slain in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Past winners of the Magnitsky Award have included journalists from Radio Free Europe, Bellingcat, and MBK Media. This instance marks the first time a journalist from RFA has been recognized. # # # 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 United States Agency for Global Media. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Vice President of Communications & External Relations <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

4 years, 9 months

RFA President's Statement on Cambodia Journalists' Arrest Anniversary

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 14, 2019 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Statement of Libby Liu, President of Radio Free Asia, on Anniversary of Arrest of Ex-RFA Journalists in Cambodia WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia President Libby Liu today issued the following statement on the two-year anniversary of the arrest of Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, two former RFA journalists in Cambodia, who still face charges, including "espionage," in connection with their work for RFA. On Nov. 11, The Bangkok Post published Liu's related op-ed <https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1791569/hun-sens-media-witch- hunt-must-end> . Liu's statement is as follows: "For two years, journalists Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin have been forced to endure a never-ending nightmare at the hands of Cambodian authorities. Their unjust prosecution is emblematic of the struggle for press freedom and free expression in Cambodia. "On the anniversary of their arrest - when Sothearin and Chhin's ordeal began - there is an opportunity to do the right thing by dropping the unsubstantiated charges against them. Authorities can end a pointless persecution of two proud journalists and rekindle some hope for a free press in Cambodia." # # # 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 United States Agency for Global Media. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Vice President of Communications & External Relations <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

4 years, 9 months

'Hun Sen's media witch-hunt must end': Libby Liu in Bangkok Post

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 11, 2019 Contact: Rohit Mahajan | 202.530.4976 | mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> 'Hun Sen's Media Witch-Hunt Must End': Radio Free Asia President in Bangkok Post Liu's Op-Ed Condemns 'Arbitrary' Legal Ordeal of Two Ex-RFA Cambodia Journalists WASHINGTON - The Bangkok Post today published an opinion piece by Radio Free Asia (RFA) President Libby Liu calling for an end to the "pointless persecution" of two former RFA journalists in Cambodia, while addressing broader press freedom issues in the country. Liu's op-ed, "Hun Sen's Media Witch-Hunt Must End <https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1791569/hun-sens-media-witch- hunt-must-end> (11/11)" comes on the week of the two-year anniversary arrest of Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin, who were taken into custody on Nov. 14, 2017. Though their trial ended in August 2019 without a verdict, they still face charges <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-media/cambodian-judge-orders- reinvestigation-of-spying-case-against-reporters-idUSKBN1WI052> , including "espionage" in connection for allegedly working for RFA after it was forced to close <https://cpj.org/2017/09/radio-free-asia-suspends-operations-in-cambodia.p hp> its Phnom Penh bureau in September 2017. "Two years after their arrest on outlandish charges of 'espionage,' two of Cambodia's finest journalists are snared by a government assault on free expression," Liu states in the piece. "The prosecution of Chhin, a cameraman, and Sothearin, an editor and anchor, has proceeded despite a dearth of evidence. "It undermines the high-minded declaration of the Cambodian government in December that it 'cherishes' a free press and that RFA would be welcome to re-open its in-country bureau." Sothearin and Chhin were freed on bail in August 2018, after being detained nine months. But Cambodian authorities still pursued their prosecution and they were put on trial <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/in-cambodia-journ alism-has-become-a-crime/2019/08/23/52e57b0c-afb9-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_s tory.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_9> in the summer of 2019. In May 2019, after Reporters Without Borders <https://rsf.org/en/news/two-cambodian-journalists-arrested-two-others-abo ut-go-trial> referred the case to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the group concluded that their detention was unmerited <https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Detention/Opinions/Session84/A_HRC _WGAD_2019_3.pdf> . After their verdict was delayed twice following the conclusion of their trial in early August 2019, on Oct. 3, the presiding judge ordered a "reinvestigation" - effectively reopening the case despite there being insufficient evidence for a conviction. The move was decried by rights groups and others, including 37 civil society organizations - such as Amnesty International, IFEX and a number of Cambodian NGOs - that made a joint statement <https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/04/civil-society-organizations-condemn-c ontinued-investigation-ex-rfa-journalists-yeang> condemning the continued investigation of the two men. Members of the U.S. Congress have repeatedly called for charges to be dropped <https://yoho.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/yoho-chabot-lowenthal- schiff-and-sherman-sherman-release-statement-on> . Last week, a bipartisan U.S. Senate resolution on Cambodia was introduced <https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-markey-durbin- and-cruz-call-on-cambodian-government-to-allow-the-peaceful-return-of-oppo sition-party-members-and-democracy-activists> , calling for an end to "judicial harassment <https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Cambodia%20opposition%20party %20members%202019.pdf> " of journalists, citing Sothearin and Chhin's ordeal. The two men recently appealed <https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/appeal-10172019172853.html> the decision to reinvestigate their case. # # # Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Vice President of Communications & External Relations <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

4 years, 10 months

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