Engnews February 2019

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RFA Breaking News: China Spiriting Uyghur Detainees Away From Xinjiang to Prisons in Inner Mongolia, Sichuan

by Paul Eckert

China Spiriting Uyghur Detainees Away From Xinjiang to Prisons in Inner Mongolia, Sichuan Feb. 21, 2019 - Ethnic Uyghurs held in political “re-education camps” in northwest China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XUAR) are being sent to prisons in Inner Mongolia and Sichuan province, officials have confirmed, adding to the growing list of locations detainees are being secretly transferred to. In October last year, RFA’s Uyghur Service reported that authorities in the XUAR had begun covertly sending detainees to prisons in Heilongjiang province and other parts of China to address an “overflow” in overcrowded camps, where up to 1.1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas have been held since April 2017. And earlier this month, RFA spoke to officials in both Shaanxi province and neighboring Gansu province, who confirmed that Uyghur and other Muslim detainees from the XUAR had been sent to prisons there, although they were unable to provide specific numbers or dates for when they had been transferred. The first report, which was based on statements by officials in both the XUAR and Heilongjiang, came in the same month that XUAR chairman Shohrat Zakir confirmed to China’s official Xinhua news agency the existence of the camps, calling them an effective tool to protect the country from terrorism and provide vocational training for Uyghurs. As global condemnation over the camp network has grown, including calls for international observers to be allowed into the XUAR to investigate the situation there, reports suggest that authorities may be transferring detainees to other parts of China as part of a bid to obfuscate the scale of detentions of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the region. RFA recently spoke to an official at the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Women’s Prison who said that detainees from the XUAR had been transferred to detention facilities in the region, but was unable to provide details without obtaining authorization from higher-level officials. “There are two prisons that hold prisoners from Xinjiang—they are Wutaqi [in Hinggan (in Chinese, Xing'an) League’s Jalaid Banner] Prison and Salaqi [in Bogot (Baotou) city’s Tumd Right Banner] Prison,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity. When asked how many Uyghur detainees are held in the prisons, the official said she could not disclose the number “because it is strictly confidential.” The official said she had attended a meeting on transfers of detainees from the XUAR and that prior to the meeting attendees had received notices informing them that “we are not allowed to disclose any information regarding the transportation program.” “Regardless of who is making inquiries, we cannot disclose any information unless we first obtain permission from our superiors,” she said. An official at the Wutaqi Prison Command Center also told RFA that detainees from the XUAR are being held at Wutaqi, as well as a second one in Inner Mongolia, without specifying which one. The official, who also declined to provide his name, said the detainees had been transferred to the two prisons as early as August last year, but was unsure whether they were being permanently relocated to the two prisons or being held there temporarily before they are transferred elsewhere. “The prisoners are placed in two prisons, but [the officials at the facilities] don’t report to us about what is happening inside,” he said, before referring further inquiries to his supervisor. “Regarding the number and the exact location of where they are held [in the prisons], I am unable to say,” he said. The official said he was unsure of whether any detainees from the XUAR had been sent to Inner Mongolia recently, as information about the transfers is closely guarded. “It is impossible for me to tell you how many prisoners have been transferred here this month or last month,” he said. “The authorities are keeping all the information very secret—even we don’t know the details.” Sichuan transfers Reports of detainee transfers from the XUAR to Inner Mongolia followed indications from officials in Sichuan province that prisons there are also accepting those held in XUAR re-education camps. When asked which prisons XUAR detainees are being sent to in Sichuan, an official who answered the phone at the Sichuan Provincial Prison Administration told an RFA reporter that if he was calling to “visit them,” he would first have to make an official request. One official at a prison believed to hold detainees from the XUAR in Yibin, a prefectural-level city in southeast Sichuan, told RFA that he “can’t discuss this issue over the phone” and suggested that the reporter file an official request for information. But when asked about whether there had been any “ideological changes” to procedures at the facility, a fellow official who answered the phone said “these detentions are connected to terrorism, so I can’t answer such questions.” “The transfer of Xinjiang detainees is a secretive part of our work at the prison, so I can’t tell you anything about it,” she added. The statements from officials in Inner Mongolia and Sichuan province followed recent reports by Bitter Winter, a website launched by the Italian research center CESNUR that focuses on religious in China, which cited “informed sources” as confirming that detainees from the XUAR are being sent to prison facilities in other parts of the country. The website, which routinely publishes photos and video documenting human rights violations submitted by citizen journalists from inside China, cited “CCP (Chinese Communist Party) insiders” as saying that more than 200 elderly Uyghurs in their sixties and seventies have been transferred to Ordos Prison in Inner Mongolia. Bitter Winter also cited another source in Inner Mongolia who said one detainee was “beaten to death by the police” during his transfer, and expressed concern that the victim’s body “might already have been cremated.” The website has previously said that authorities plan to disperse and detain “an estimated 500,000 Uyghur Muslims” throughout China, although this report could not be independently confirmed by RFA. Call to action Dolkun Isa, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress exile group, told RFA he was “deeply troubled” by the reports of secret transfers of detainees from the XUAR to prisons in other parts of China, saying the move signalled a “very dark intent” by authorities. “We simply cannot imagine what kind of treatment they are enduring at the hands of Chinese guards in these prisons, as this is shrouded in complete secrecy,” he said, adding that he was concerned for the well-being of the detainees. Isa called on the international community to turn its attention to the transfers and demanded that the Chinese government disclose the total number of detainees who had been moved, as well as the location of the prisons they had been sent to. “If the United Nations, U.S., EU, Turkey and other Muslims nations do not voice their concerns over this troubling development in a timely manner, I fear these innocent Uyghurs will perish in Chinese prisons without a trace,” he said. China recently organized two visits to monitor re-education camps in the XUAR—one for a small group of foreign journalists, and another for diplomats from non-Western countries, including Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Thailand—during which officials dismissed claims about mistreatment and poor conditions in the facilities as “slanderous lies.” 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. Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology, has said that some 1.1 million people are or have been detained in the camps—equating to 10 to 11 percent of the adult Muslim population of the XUAR. In November 2018, Scott Busby, the deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, said there are "at least 800,000 and possibly up to a couple of million" Uyghurs and others detained at re-education camps in the XUAR without charges, citing U.S. intelligence assessments. Citing credible reports, U.S. lawmakers Marco Rubio and Chris Smith, who head the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, recently called the situation in the XUAR "the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today." Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Alim Seytoff. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. View this s tory online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/detainees-02212019162142.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 ] .

5 years, 10 months

'Vietnam Takes Aim at Radio Free Asia' -- Libby Liu in WSJ (OpEd) 2/20

by Rohit Mahajan

In case you missed it . The Wall Street Journal published an opinion-editorial by Libby Liu, Radio Free Asia <https://www.rfa.org/english/> 's President, titled, "Vietnam Takes Aim at Radio Free Asia <https://www.wsj.com/articles/vietnam-takes-aim-at-radio-free-asia-1155061 9921> ," yesterday (2/20). Some excerpts: "When President Trump goes to Hanoi next week for a summit with his North Korean counterpart, he should raise with the host nation the fate of two Vietnamese journalists working for Radio Free Asia[.]" . "Popular blogger Truong Duy Nhat has been missing for more than three weeks since he fled his home in Da Nang, Vietnam, for neighboring Thailand to seek asylum. We fear Mr. Nhat was abducted and taken back to Vietnam for imprisonment and interrogation." . "Not surprisingly, Vietnam has been silent about the case. Vietnam holds many political prisoners-200, says Nguyen Kim Binh of the California-based Vietnam Human Rights Network. One of those prisoners is Radio Free Asia's Nguyen Van Hoa." . "A strong message in Hanoi from Mr. Trump about the plight of these Radio Free Asia journalists would resonate in Vietnam and beyond. It's a message that needs to be heard; governments across the region use repressive tactics to try to intimidate our network." 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

5 years, 10 months

BREAKING NEWS: Radio Free Asia Vietnamese Blogger Missing Amid Abduction Reports

by Richard Finney

Radio Free Asia Vietnamese Blogger Missing Amid Abduction Reports Feb. 5, 2019 - A Radio Free Asia blogger from Vietnam is missing after he fled to Thailand to seek political asylum with a UN refugee agency, fueling fears in the exile community that he has been abducted by Vietnamese security agents. There has been no word from Truong Duy Nhat, a weekly contributor for RFA’s Vietnamese Service’s blog section, since Jan. 26. He last communicated with Washington-based RFA editors two days earlier over his commentary on the growing opposition movement in Venezuela and the prospects of change in Communist-ruled Vietnam. “We are extremely concerned about the safety and well-being of Truong Duy Nhat," RFA President Libby Liu said on Tuesday. "We hope to hear from him as soon as possible about his whereabouts and to be assured that he’s not in any danger,” she said. Nhat’s disappearance has sent a chill through the Vietnamese refugee community in Thailand and prompted a call from Human Rights Watch for Thai authorities to investigate. RFA has also reported his case to the State Department and staff of several U.S. lawmakers. Exile sources said that Nhat had gone to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, or UNHCR, in Bangkok on Jan. 25 to apply for refugee status and they subsequently lost contact with him. Thailand-based associates of Nhat, who requested anonymity because they feared for their own safety, said that he went missing on Jan. 26 during a visit to Future Park, a huge mall on the outskirts of Bangkok. One of the sources said Nhat was “arrested” at an ice cream shop on the third floor of the mall. Thai police said they don't have Nhat in custody. “We’ve checked through the list of detainees, we don’t see him, Truong Duy Nhat, on the list,” Police Colonel Tatpong Sarawanangkoon, who is in charge of the detention section at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, told RFA. The UNHCR was tightlipped, citing privacy concerns. Associate external relations officer Jennifer Harrison said: “Due to reasons of confidentiality and data protection, we are unable to comment on [or even confirm/deny the existence of] individual cases.” Afraid to talk Nhat's wife, who is in Vietnam, and their Canada-based daughter are afraid to talk about his fate, exile sources said. The family believes Nhat left Vietnam for Thailand about three weeks before they heard he had gone missing, according to thevietnamese.org, an online magazine run by a group of Vietnamese activists and independent journalists. The authoritarian Vietnamese government of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is at present holding more than 200 political prisoners, including rights advocates and bloggers deemed threats to national security, according to Nguyen Kim Binh of the California-based Vietnam Human Rights Network. The government controls the news media, censors the internet, and restricts basic freedoms of expression. Nhat himself served a two-year-imprisonment in 2014-2015 for his activism after being arrested in May 2013 and held in detention until his trial. Human Rights Watch, or HRW, said Thai authorities have to investigate the case of Nhat, noting that he had come to Bangkok for the sole reason of applying for political asylum. The U.S.-based group called for the authorities to “consult with his family until he is found." HRW said Vietnam’s embassy in Bangkok may also be able to shed light on the blogger’s whereabouts. "[T]he Thai authorities have an urgent obligation to seriously investigate this disappearance,” Phil Robertson, HRW's Bangkok-based deputy Asia director, told RFA, noting that the group itself did not yet know what had happened to Nhat. "If it turns out that Vietnam and local Thai officials are found to be involved in his disappearance, there needs to be serious consequences for everyone responsible,” he said. Surveillance, harassment Robertson accused Vietnam of "consistently engaging in hostile surveillance and harassment of Vietnamese and Montagnard [minority] who fled the country to escape political and religious persecution, and this includes activities in Bangkok." "Pursuing dissidents and demanding the Thai government shut down events about human rights and democracy in Vietnam is just part of what makes Hanoi stand out as one of the worst rights abusing regimes in ASEAN [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations],"he said. "So there is every possibility that the Vietnam Embassy may know much more about Truong Duy Nhat’s mysterious disappearance than they are letting on," Robertson said. The circumstances of Nhat’s disappearance in Bangkok remain murky. But California-based blogger Nguyen Van Hai, who served in the same prison with Nhat before Hai’s release in 2014, and Germany-based blogger Bui Thanh Hieu said they suspect Nhat was abducted by Vietnamese security agents in Thailand. "We are looking at the possibility that he has been abducted," Hai, who writes under the name Dieu Cay, told RFA. "We know he arrived at Bangkok and went to the UN’s office to apply for refugee status. If for any reason Nhat now appears in Vietnam, it must be against his will," he said. Sources say that Vietnamese exiles have inquired about Nhat's whereabouts with hospitals and various district offices in Bangkok but to no avail. An associate of Nhat’s said his disappearance was also reported to Thai police late last week. Fighting in the Party Nhat is based in Da Nang city, next to Prime Minister Phuc's home province of Quang Nam where there is infighting within the Vietnamese Communist Party. He may have been privy to information that could be detrimental to the prime minister, activists said. Nhat had previously worked for a police newspaper in Da Nang, also Phuc’s stronghold. Blogger Hieu said he suspected that Vietnamese military agents abducted Nhat from Bangkok on the orders of the prime minister. "I think the prime minister wanted Nhat arrested at any costs because he has information about his faction in Quang Nam province [in Da Nang]," Hieu, who writes under the name 'Wind Trader,' said on his Facebook page. This is not the first time the Vietnamese government has been accused of abducting its citizens from abroad. Last year, a German court jailed a Vietnamese man almost four years for helping his country’s secret services kidnap a former oil executive from a Berlin street in 2017 and smuggle him back to Vietnam. Ex-oil executive Trinh Xuan Thanh was seeking asylum in Germany at that time and his disappearance soured bilateral relations, with the German foreign ministry accusing Vietnam of breaching international law. Thanh was subsequently tried and jailed for life on corruption charges in Vietnam. Reported by RFA's Vietnamese Service and BenarNews. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai and Matthew Pennington. View this story online at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/missing-02052019111653.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.

5 years, 11 months

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Engnews February 2019