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RELEASE: Radio Free Asia Launches Aung San Suu Kyi Weekly Q&A

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 6, 2010 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Launches Weekly Q&A With Aung San Suu Kyi On-air forum with freed Nobel laureate exclusive to RFA Burmese service WASHINGTON, DC - Listeners of Radio Free Asia's Burmese service will be able to engage Aung San Suu Kyi on topics of their choice in a weekly series on Friday evenings. "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the People" invites RFA's audience to submit questions on any topic, which are then answered by the recently freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Burmese opposition party leader. The question-and-answer series is an exclusive engagement with Radio Free Asia. "After almost two decades under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi remains a beacon of hope and strength to the world," said Libby Liu, President of Radio Free Asia. "But in her homeland, despite the deep admiration of her country men and women, her voice was stifled. Now, with this program, the Burmese people have a unique, public forum in which they can speak freely with their 'Lady'." "In Burma, there is no opinion or perspective expressed on official media apart from that of the ruling regime," said Nyein Shwe, service director of RFA Burmese. "Many Burmese people never in their lifetimes imagined they would be able to hear Aung San Suu Kyi discuss her views nor ask her their questions on the radio. For them, it's a first." In the series' first installment Suu Kyi answered questions from listeners on her time under house arrest, global sanctions against Burma, free speech and human rights, and democracy, among other topics. Since being freed on Nov. 13, Suu Kyi has been interviewed by outside, non-state-controlled media, but this series is the first media forum in which she is participating on an ongoing basis. To hear excerpts from the first installment of the series in English online, please visit http://www.rfa.org/english/women/conversation-aungSanSuuKyi/conversation 1-11302010121141.html <http://www.rfa.org/english/women/conversation-aungSanSuuKyi/conversatio n1-11302010121141.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. Rohit Mahajan Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036 Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 www.rfa.org

14 years, 6 months

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PRESS RELEASE: Radio Free Asia Responds to RSF 2010 Press Freedom Index

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 20, 2010 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Responds to RSF 2010 Press Freedom Index Five RFA countries ranked in bottom tenth; Cambodia dips to lowest showing WASHINGTON, DC - Today, in response to the release of Reporters Without Borders' 2010 World Press Freedom Index <http://en.rsf.org/spip.php?page=classement&id_rubrique=1034> , Radio Free Asia <http://www.rfa.org/english/> 's President Libby Liu said the findings underscore the lack of free media and free speech in Asia, and their continuing downward trend. The survey, which rates media freedoms in 178 countries, ranked five of RFA's broadcast countries - North Korea, Burma, China, Laos and Vietnam - in the bottom tenth of the world's worst places for journalism. Also, Cambodia, RFA's sixth broadcast country, posted its poorest showing in the annual survey since it began in 2002. "Free speech and free media continue to deteriorate in the countries to which Radio Free Asia provides reliable news and information on a daily basis," Liu said. "While we hope our work at RFA encourages emerging traditions in journalism to take root, governments in many Asian countries continue to censor news, intimidate reporters, and restrict access to media - on the airwaves, in print, and online. "This year's World Press Freedom Index is a sober reminder of how dire this situation remains in Asia and much of the world." In the survey, North Korea was ranked second to last at 177; Burma, 174; China, 171; Laos, 168; and Vietnam, 165. Since Reporters Without Borders began the survey, these five countries have consistently been ranked in the bottom 10 percent in all consecutive eight indices. Notably, Cambodia, which rose to 117 in last year's survey, fell to the 128th place this year - its lowest rank ever. All six countries within RFA's broadcast region were categorized as "Not Free" in Freedom House's Freedom of the Press survey, which was released in April. RFA <http://www.rfa.org/english/about> provides accurate, fact-based news happening in these countries and information via short- and medium-wave radio, satellite transmissions, and online through the websites of its nine language services. They are RFA Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Burmese, Khmer (Cambodian), Vietnamese, Lao, and Korean. # # # 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 press releases, please send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, please send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> Rohit Mahajan Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia 2025 M Street NW Washington DC 20036 Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> http://www.rfa.org/ <http://www.rfa.org/> Rohit Mahajan Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org http://www.rfa.org/

14 years, 7 months

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PRESS RELEASE: Beijing-based RFA Contributor Wins Women's 'Courage' Award

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 19, 2010 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Beijing-based RFA Contributor Wins Women's 'Courage' Award But Chinese Authorities Bar Woeser from Accepting Honor in Person WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Radio Free Asia contributor and freelance Tibetan blogger Tsering Woeser was honored with the 2010 Courage in Journalism Award by the International Women's Media Foundation at a ceremony in New York. However, Woeser, who is based in Beijing, has long been denied a passport from the Chinese government, and could not attend the ceremony held in New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to accept the award in person. "Courage is the defining trait in Tsering Woeser's life and work," said Dan Southerland, Radio Free Asia's Vice President and Executive Editor, who attended the ceremony. "If only she were here in person to receive this distinguished award and know firsthand the recognition and respect she commands among her journalistic peers." Undeterred by orders and threats from official quarters, living under constant police surveillance, and subject to repeated attacks on her blogs and e-mail accounts, Woeser has persevered in reporting human rights abuses in the Tibetan region. Woeser continues to publish commentary on Radio Free Asia's website and break stories about crackdowns in Tibet on her Chinese-language blog, Invisible Tibet <http://woeser.middle-way.net/> . Because Woeser is a banned writer in China, her website is hosted abroad. In April 2009, The New York Times cited Woeser's blog as one of the few reliable news outlets for those able to circumvent China's Great Firewall. Unfortunately for Woeser, this recognition also means living with risk. Sources and friends with whom she speaks are subject to detention and interrogation. Woeser originally was a reporter and eventually became an editor for a government-controlled Tibetan literary journal. After the publication of her best-selling book Notes on Tibet, which was banned in late 2003, Woeser was told by authorities to change her point of view in order to keep her job. She refused. Woeser then moved to Beijing and began blogging. In a 2006 interview with Radio Free Asia, Woeser said she would never stop writing. She said, "While I was working in an office in Lhasa, I was paid well. But I never felt free, and it bothered me ... When I was fired from the job, the incident led me to the freedom to express myself in writing." Here is a link to RFA's website slideshow on Woeser's life in pictures: http://www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/WoeserSlideshow-10012008162026.htm l Here is a link to Woeser's most recent English-translated commentary for RFA: http://www.rfa.org/english/commentaries/languages-09222010105909.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. Rohit Mahajan Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia 2025 M Street NW Washington DC 20036 Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org http://www.rfa.org/

14 years, 7 months

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PRESS RELEASE: Radio Free Asia Wins at 2010 New York Festivals

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 27, 2010 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Wins at 2010 New York Festivals Services Take Gold, Bronze, and Earn Finalist Slots WASHINGTON, DC - Reporters from Radio Free Asia's Vietnamese Service and Burmese Service won gold and bronze medals respectively at this year's New York Festivals. Both winning entries produced pieces exploring the issue of human trafficking in Asia. Additionally, broadcasters from RFA's Mandarin and Korean services were named as finalists by the competition's judges. "The honors bestowed on Radio Free Asia at New York Festivals showcase the journalistic excellence for which our news services consistently strive to achieve in some of the world's toughest media environments," said Libby Liu, President of RFA. "Two of our winners reported on the trafficking of women and migrants in Asia, and we hope this recognition underscores the need to continue informing our audience and the world about this prevalent and nefarious issue." "We at RFA pledge to continue bringing accurate, objective news to people living in Asian countries that restrict and censor the press." Information about RFA's winners and finalists, and their entries follows. * Broadcaster Khanh An of RFA's Vietnamese service earned the top award in the category of Best Ongoing News Story for her three-part series "A New Form of Women Trafficking." The series, which aired in March 2010, documented an incident of a Vietnamese woman being trafficked to Europe. The series examined some of the local factors and people and their roles in facilitating the woman's victimization. * RFA Burmese reporter Kyaw Min Htun won a bronze award in the category of Best Coverage of Ongoing News Story for his stories on the human trafficking of Burmese refugees and migrants in Malaysia, which aired from January to May of this year. For his stories, the reporter interviewed ethnic Rohingya migrants, seeking asylum in Malaysia after being subjected to persecution in Burma. Many, however, once in Malaysia, faced exploitation by human-traffickers, abusive employers, and corrupt officials. * Park Songwu of RFA's Korean language service, was a finalist in the NYF category of Best Human Interest Story for his four-part series on North Korea's youngest defectors. The series focused on the difficulties and challenges these individuals face once living in South Korea. * RFA Mandarin's Tang Qiwei was also a finalist in the NYF History category for her piece on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, which aired on June 4, 2009. The short audio documentary, which was edited by Feng Xiaoming, used interviews with many leaders, activists, and officials involved with or connected to the Beijing student-led demonstrations. # # # 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. Radio Free Asia is in the process of improving our e-mail delivery system to better serve you. Please send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org to continue receiving releases and updates. Rohit Mahajan Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org http://www.rfa.org/

14 years, 8 months

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Radio Free Asia Wins Major Environmental Reporting Prize

by Sarah Jackson-Han

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2010 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Wins Major Environmental Reporting Prize Mekong River series takes top honors Washington, DC - The Society of Environmental Journalists today awarded Radio Free Asia (RFA) First Prize for Outstanding Online Reporting on the Environment for its 2010 multimedia series "The Last Untamed River." The prize, in recognition of RFA's investigative reporting trek down the Mekong River, will be awarded in Missoula, Montana, on Oct.13 at the SEJ's 20th annual conference, the nonprofit organization said. "This award is a tremendous honor," RFA President Libby Liu said. "We know from our listeners that the health of the Mekong River is of paramount importance to their quality of life, and in some cases, to their very existence." The Mekong River-the least developed of the world's major rivers-sustains more than 60 million people from the Tibetan plateau to the South China Sea. RFA's series, with original reporting in English adapted into seven Asian languages, comprises 22 high-quality videos, along with blogs, graphics, slideshows, and other social media releases. It addresses climate change and melting glaciers, urbanization and industrialization, the decline of forests and fisheries, and finally the development of China's dams and control over water flow, as seen by ordinary citizens-from nomadic herders and fishermen-as well as regional experts and analysts. RFA's videographers traveled for nearly 3,000 miles along the Mekong River from Tibet to Vietnam and the South China Sea. RFA's Mekong River series is online in English at www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/MekongProject. # # # 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org

14 years, 10 months

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RFA News: Tibetan Gets 15 Years

by Joshua Lipes

Tibetan Gets 15 Years A Chinese court convicts a prominent environmentalist and activist, who vows to appeal. HONG KONG, June 24, 2010-A court in China's troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang sentenced a prominent Tibetan businessman-turned-activist to 15 years in jail and a heavy fine on Thursday on theft-related charges that were initially dropped in 1998, his wife and lawyer told Radio Free Asia (RFA). Karma Samdrup, 42, denied the charges and will appeal, his lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, said in an interview with RFA's Tibetan service. "The verdict was unfair," his wife, Dolkar Tso, said. "I asked for some time to meet and talk to my husband but I was not allowed." "I just want to let him know all his relatives are proud of him and he shouldn't worry about us. But I wasn't given the chance." Pu, the lawyer, said that in addition to 15 years in jail, Karma Samdrup was sentenced by a court in Yanqi county, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), to five years' deprivation of his political rights and a fine of 10,000 yuan (U.S. $1,500). "He denied the charges in court and expressed his intention to appeal," Pu added. The appeal must be filed within 10 days, according to Chinese law. Karma Samdrup, an environmentalist and art collector, went on trial Tuesday. Dolkar Tso said her husband appeared to have been drugged and beaten and had lost some 40 pound (20 kilos) in detention. Pu said Karma Samdrup was tortured in 1998 and again this year. "The Bazhou Prefecture PSB [Public Security Bureau] tortured him and tried to get a forced confession from him. He lost 20 kilos in prison from over 90 kilos (198 pounds) and he owes 660,000 yuan (U.S. $97,000) to the prison and other inmates for food and water," he said in an interview. "In China, on top of laws we have leaders. So you never know what will happen," Pu said earlier this week. "There are clear signs of torture and forced confession through torture," as well as an obviously forged confession, he added. Detained in 1998 Karma Samdrup was taken by authorities from his home in the southwestern province of Sichuan back to Xinjiang in January, on charges resurrected from a 1998 case against him which was dropped by order of Xinjiang's Supreme Court. Pu said the accusation against Karma Samdrup related to an incident in 1998, when he acquired, as an art collector, cultural artifacts that later turned out to have been stolen by grave-robbers. Several men were convicted in connection with the robbery by the Yanqi County High People's Court, but the charges against Karma Samdrup were dropped. Karma Samdrup comes from a family of prominent Tibetans, many of whom have already fallen foul of the Chinese authorities. His elder brother, Rinchen Samdrup, was detained in August 2009 on charges of subversion and "splitting the motherland." At the time of his detention, Karma Samdrup was in the process of setting up a museum of Tibetan culture, and was judged by other Tibetans to own the largest private collection in the world of Tibetan art and artifacts. Several artists and intellectuals have been detained or have disappeared in recent months in what activists say amounts to the broadest suppression of Tibetan culture and expression in years. Tensions have frequently risen in Tibetan areas of China since deadly rioting broke out following days of peaceful protests by Tibetans in their capital, Lhasa, in March 2008. Security is also very tight in the XUAR ahead of the anniversary of deadly ethnic violence in the regional capital, Urumqi, which was sparked on July 5, 2009 by a demonstration by the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group whose homeland is in Xinjiang. At least 200 people died in the violence, which Beijing has blamed on incitement by U.S.-based Uyghur exiled dissident Rebiya Kadeer. Original reporting in Tibetan by RFA's Tibetan service. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Translated from the Tibetan by Karma Dorjee. Translated from the Chinese and written in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. ######################################################################## ###### 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. Please take a brief survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s_thankyou.aspx?sm=e0a5xCaMqY2toSXwVfP3Ua0G nBy%2fw8WatWPWMjdH6bU%3d> to help us improve your experience on www.rfa.org 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 ##### Joshua Lipes Online Copy Editor, English News Radio Free Asia lipesj(a)rfa.org T (202) 266-4094 F (202) 530-7798 www.rfa.org

14 years, 11 months

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Renegade Thai General Vows 'Civil War' Before Being Shot

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Renegade Thai General Vows 'Civil War' Before Being Shot Ousted major general who led protesters is struck by a bullet to the head. Go to www.rfa.org for more. BANGKOK-A renegade Thai general shot here Thursday as the military planned to encircle barricaded antigovernment demonstrators predicted that the protests would become "civil warfare," in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA) just hours before he was struck in the head with a bullet. "It is an insurgency warfare that will be developed into civil warfare. The mobs are flaring and other demonstrators from other provinces will join in," Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawatdiphol, 59, known as Seh Daeng, said in one of his last interviews before the shooting. "So they won't care if their tap water and power are cut off. They have their own supplies. They don't care about the sky train. They have abundant food supplies and they can even sneak out to get them," said Khattiya, who claimed to be in direct contact with ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra. "There is no question of what next. They don't know. The People's Army are programmed to demand the dissolution of Parliament. If the tanks come in-if anything comes in to bother them-they will fight, and they don't need training from me." "They removed the bolts [from military armored personnel carriers or APCs], stomped on them, sprayed fire extinguishers into the APCs, and the soldiers fled like pigs. When the protesters were shot and fell down, they stood up and picked up the shields, and sprayed the soldiers with curry and hot water," he said. News agencies quoted an aide as saying Khattiya was shot in the head by a sniper, but this couldn't be independently confirmed and police couldn't be reached to comment. Local media reports said he was taken to Hua Chiew Hospital after Chulalongkorn Hospital refused to treat him. Khattiya is a renegade army major general whom the government has branded a "terrorist" and a mastermind behind violence from anti-government protesters. He was suspended from the army and became a fugitive from justice, although he continued to move freely about the capital. Khattiya, 58, was struck in the head by a bullet during an interview with the International Herald Tribune at about 7 p.m. on the street in central Bangkok, the newspaper reported. After a loud bang, "the general fell to the ground, with his eyes wide open, and protesters took his apparently lifeless body to the hospital, screaming out his nickname," the newspaper said online. Crackdown expected The report of Khattiya's shooting came after sounds of gunfire and at least four explosions. Khattiya, who helped build the barricades paralyzing downtown Bangkok, was accused of creating a paramilitary force among the anti-government protesters and had vowed to fight the army in the event of a crackdown. A reporter for TNN television said electricity went out late Thursday in the Red Shirt protest zone in Rajprasong, an upscale retail and residential area they have occupied since April 3. The Red Shirts, many from the rural poor, are demanding an immediate dissolution of Parliament, alleging that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's coalition government came to power illegitimately through manipulation of the courts and support from the powerful military. Original reporting and translation from the Thai by RFA staff in Bangkok. Additional reporting by news agencies. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years

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Radio Free Asia Responds to Freedom House's Media Freedoms Survey Results

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 29, 2010 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Responds to Freedom House's Media Freedoms Survey All six RFA broadcast countries 'Not Free': Report WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Radio Free Asia President Libby Liu responded to the findings released in the Freedom House's 2010 Freedom of the Press survey that classified all six RFA target countries as "Not Free." "This year's edition of Freedom House's Freedom of the Press survey is an urgent reminder of the need to empower citizens in Asian countries that limit free speech and free media," Liu said. "Despite recent economic gains, media freedoms throughout Asia have continued to decline and worsen, as confirmed in this index. "It is especially important for Radio Free Asia to keep carrying out its mission to provide its listeners with timely, reliable information and news happening within Asian countries that lack free media." Liu participated in Freedom House's release of its annual report at the Newseum as moderator of a panel of distinguished experts, including Bob Boorstin of Google, Frank Smyth of Committee to Protect Journalists, and Chris Walker and Karin Karlekar of Freedom House. Freedom House's comprehensive report, which examines the media environment in 196 countries and territories, cites the governments of all six countries into which RFA's nine language services broadcast - China, North Korea, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia - as actively taking steps to censor news and information in print, on television and radio, online, and throughout all new media formats. These countries' governments also intimidate and harass reporters, prevent public access to uncensored news and information, and restrict media freedoms in general, earning the survey's designation of "Not Free." Most global press freedom rankings of RFA's target countries remain consistent with previous surveys, with North Korea ranked at the top as the world's worst free media environment. Notably, however, Cambodia's ranking as a repressor of free press jumped up six places, after the recent spate of criminal disinformation lawsuits by Cambodian government officials against reporters, editors, and publishers to silence voices of opposition. # # # 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. RFA Twitters - Follow Radio Free Asia's breaking news happening throughout East Asia via Twitter. Please visit https://twitter.com/RadioFreeAsia <https://twitter.com/RadioFreeAsia> to sign up now. If you no longer wish to receive RFA press releases, please send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, please send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> Rohit Mahajan Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org http://www.rfa.org/

15 years, 1 month

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Radio Free Asia Responds to China Blocking Google Searches with the Letters 'RFA'

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 30, 2010 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Responds to China Blocking Google Searches with the Letters 'RFA' Washington, DC - Radio Free Asia President Libby Liu issued the following statement today in response to the news that China's Great Firewall temporarily blocked all Google searches in China, due to an unintentional association with the long-censored term "rfa." According to Google, the phrase "gs_rfai," which began appearing in the URL's of Google searches globally, triggered the problem. Google's statement went on to explain that in China these search results are being blocked due to the presence of the letters "rfa," because they are associated with Radio Free Asia. "This development is a stark reminder to the world of China's repressive control of the Internet and free speech for its citizens," Liu said. "The sensitivity of China's Great Firewall to filter any searches with the letters 'rfa' shows the extent to which online censors will go to restrict the Internet. "It's time for China to stop exerting draconian control of its cyberspace, and allow accurate and objective information to flow freely within its society." # # # 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 Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org http://www.rfa.org/

15 years, 2 months

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Press Release: Radio Free Asia Praises Acquittal in Cambodia Disinformation Case

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 19, 2010 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Praises Acquittal in Cambodia Disinformation Case WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Radio Free Asia President Libby Liu praised the acquittal of four men, including RFA broadcaster Sok Serey, on charges of disinformation stemming from a report about a Cham Muslim community leader in Takeo province. "We at Radio Free Asia are pleased that our reporter has been acquitted of the baseless charges against him," Liu said. "We hope this ruling will reverse the growing pattern of using Cambodia's legal system to suppress free speech and freedom of the press." The Trial's Background Serey, a journalist with RFA's Khmer language service, was among the four men charged with disinformation. Last year, authorities charged the men following the broadcast of Serey's report in late 2008 that contained comments from the three other defendants regarding a dispute between Cham Muslim community leader Rim Math and more than 200 villagers from his mosque. In a complaint filed with leaders of the Cham Muslim community in late 2008, villagers from Borei Cholsar district's Kampong Yol village, called for the dismissal of Rim Math on the charge of mishandling donations (10 million riels, valued at 2,400 USD) intended for a local project. In addition to Serey, the other men acquitted were one villager and two activists from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. The men's trial was held on Feb. 9. # # # 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.

15 years, 3 months

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RFA News: China Jails Tibetan Filmmaker

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Also on www.rfa.org: Multimedia Journey Down the Mekong www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/MekongProject <http://www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/MekongProject> China Jails Tibetan Filmmaker HONG KONG, Jan. 6, 2010-Authorities in the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai have handed a six-year jail sentence to a Tibetan filmmaker who returned from exile to make a documentary about his homeland, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The Xilin People's Court handed the sentence to Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of the documentary "Leaving Fear Behind," in a secret trial that found him guilty of "splitting the motherland," Tibetan sources told RFA's Tibetan service. "Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of 'Leaving Fear Behind,' was sentenced six years to prison," a Tibetan from the Amdo region identified as Thardrub said. "We were checking around about it...later, we were able to confirm that he was sentenced secretly by Xilin People's Court in Qinghai on Dec. 28, 2009." Dhondup Wangchen's relatives were given no information about his trial or sentencing, he added. "They were not informed about the sentencing," Thardrub said. "The relatives argue that he is innocent and he did not commit any crime...They are planning to appeal his sentence in the higher courts." Jamyang Tsultrim, a relative of Dhondup Wangchen now living in Switzerland, said the sentencing of Dhondup Wangchen was a clear indication of how Tibetans were deprived of freedom of expression in China. "His relatives made arrangements for a lawyer to represent him, but the lawyers were not allowed to represent him," Jamyang Tsultrim said. "He was also suffering from liver problems and was denied any kind of medical treatment," he added. Short documentary Jamyang Tsultrim also said Dhondup Wangchen's relatives weren't informed about his detention, his health problems, or his sentencing. The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ran a petition campaign following Dhondup Wangchen's detention on March 23, 2008, calling him "a courageous man who took the risk of returning to his country to interview other Tibetans." Dhondup Wangchen's film, "Leaving Fear Behind" ( www.leavingfearbehind.com), is a 25-minute documentary including interviews with Tibetans in the Amdo region expressing their views on Tibet's exiled leader the Dalai Lama, the Beijing Olympics, and Chinese laws. The authorities also detained Jigme Gyatso, a monk from the Kham region, at the same time, but released him on Oct. 15. He later said he was tortured in detention. "Leaving Fear Behind" was produced outside China after Dhondup Wangchen managed to send footage out of Tibet before the authorities caught up with him. It was shown to foreign journalists in Beijing during the Olympic Games. Many Tibetans have chafed for years under Chinese rule. Rioting rocked the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in March 2008 and spread to Tibetan-populated regions of western China, causing official embarrassment ahead of the August 2008 Beijing Olympics. Chinese officials say 21 people-including three Tibetan protesters-died in the violence. The India-based Tibetan government-in-exile estimates that 220 Tibetans were killed and 7,000 were detained in a subsequent region-wide crackdown. Original reporting by RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 5 months

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RFA News: Chinese Activist's Family Gets US Asylum

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Also on www.rfa.org: Multimedia Journey Down the Mekong www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/MekongProject <http://www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/MekongProject> Lawyers, Activists Denied Access http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/refusedaccess-11172009171720.html <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/refusedaccess-11172009171720.html> Chinese Activist's Family Gets US Asylum HONG KONG, Nov. 19, 2009-The wife and two children of a jailed Chinese rights lawyer have been granted political asylum in the United States, Radio Free Asia reports. Zhang Qing, the wife of jailed Chinese rights lawyer Guo Feixiong, and their two children were notified of their status on Nov. 19, she told RFA's Mandarin service in her first interview since arriving in the United States in early April. "I was notified this morning," she said. Zhang and her children fled their home in Guangzhou in late January and reached Thailand in early February before continuing to the United States. Zhang said she is relieved to have been granted asylum, adding that she and her children, Xixi and Jinbao, had been persecuted by the Chinese government because of her husband's civil right work. "I lost my job. Jinbao missed an entire year of schooling. Xixi's schooling was also under their control. Our bank account was frozen. Our lives were greatly disrupted. It was under these circumstances that we left China," Zhang said. Guo Feixiong is currently serving a five-year jail term for "illegal business activities." Zhang said that while she now feels safe, she and the children miss Guo and are concerned for his health. "We have heard a lot of news about him, but it is all bad news. He was beaten. He sustained injuries to his arm. Family members were prohibited from visiting him," Zhang said. She said Guo had asked to see his attorney in prison, but that each attempt to meet had been blocked by prison officials. "We are deeply worried about his well-being," she said. Taishi corruption In mid-2005, Guo Feixiong was beaten by police in China's southern Guangdong province after representing villagers seeking to remove their local Communist Party head, whom they accused of corruption in a lucrative property transaction. "[Guo] was involved in the [village chief] recall campaign of Taishi village... He offered legal assistance to the villagers in their attempt to exercise their rights to democratic elections," Zhang said. But Zhang said the movement was suppressed by "as many as 1,000 riot police," leading to Guo's arrest and the detention of "scores of villagers." Guo was incarcerated for 3-1/2 months but eventually exonerated and released. Zhang said that Guo had refused food and water while in prison to protest his "illegal arrest" and was subject to government harassment after being released. "He was followed everywhere. He was not allowed to leave his home and was placed under house arrest. His personal freedom was restricted. He endured beatings on three separate occasions," she said. 2006 arrest Guo was arrested again in September 2006 after becoming involved in a campaign to release fellow rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Authorities charged him with engaging in illegal business activities after publishing an article exposing official corruption in the northeastern city of Shenyang. Zhang said that while Guo's case was remanded twice on grounds of insufficient evidence, he was subjected to brutal treatment at the hands of the Guangzhou police. "For 42 days his hands and feet were tied together to a hardboard bed. Even under such brutality he did not succumb and refused to confess. Without evidence the case could not go on," she said. Guo was transferred to custody in Shenyang, which Zhang called "a place known for its brutal treatment of prisoners." "He was hit in the genitals with electric batons" by prison guards there, Zhang said. "While this wrongful case was being processed he was interrogated 175 times... The police knowingly violated the law. They fabricated the case against him," she said. Mistreatment in prison Zhang said that Guo has been constantly abused while serving his current sentence. "As soon as he was transferred to the Meizhou prison [in Guangdong province], the prison authorities drew three yellow warning lines in front of his cell. He was not allowed to cross the lines. He was not allowed to have any kind of contact with the other inmates," Zhang said. "The prison authorities also ordered him to do labor. He went on a hunger strike to protest," she said. Guo began seeking an appeal for his case in early 2008, but Zhang said that the process has been delayed. She said Guo had not even been allowed to meet with his attorney until November last year. "According to the law, the lawyer and his client are supposed to meet face-to-face across a table without police presence. They are supposed to be able to speak freely without being monitored or recorded," she said. But Zhang said Guo and his lawyer were forced to speak to each other on a phone through a glass window with police listening in and recording their conversation. "Given the circumstances they were not able to even touch on the core of the problem. So the meeting, which was granted only after almost an entire year's effort, was a total waste," she said. Zhang said a request to meet with his lawyer again this year has been met with "tremendous obstructions." Call for rights Zhang called on Chinese authorities to safeguard Guo's legal rights. "I have heard so many times that he has been brutally beaten and that he has sustained injuries-this on top of the torture he had endured before." Zhang said inmates' personal safety should be guaranteed according to China's prison laws and regulations. "I call on the prison authorities to fulfill at least this most basic requirement," she said. Zhang also called on authorities to grant Guo the right to pursue an appeal and to meet with his lawyer. "From my first open letter to President Hu Jintao I have been urging the Chinese government to resolve and to re-evaluate this wrongful case in a just way, and to exonerate and free him." Zhang said. "I reiterate my plea: Stop persecuting Guo Feixiong and release him," she said. "I also call on everyone in China and the international community to express their concern about Guo Feixiong's case, as well as those against other rights lawyers and dissidents." Original reporting by Zhang Min for RFA's Mandarin service. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Jennifer Chou. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 6 months

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RFA News: North Korea's Underground Bunkers

by Rohit Mahajan

Also on www.rfa.org: Multimedia Journey Down the Mekong www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/MekongProject Drug Abuse Among Hong Kong Teens www.rfa.org/english/news/china/youngerabusers-11122009130512.html North Korea's Underground Bunkers Hundreds of bunkers are decoys, a defector says, while hundreds more contain material for a possible invasion. SEOUL, Nov. 16, 2009-North Korea built hundreds of bunkers at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating it from South Korea even as the previous Seoul government pursued its policy of opening to the North, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. A well-informed North Korean defector said in an interview that Pyongyang had built at least 800 bunkers, including an unknown number of decoys, to prepare for a possible invasion of South Korea while South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun was in office. "Each bunker contains military equipment that can fully arm 1,500 to 2,000 soldiers," the defector told RFA's Korean service, adding that construction began in 2004-the second year of the Roh government. "If a soldier carried all his military equipment, which weighs 32 kilos, and came to the DMZ in full gear, he would already be exhausted before infiltrating into the South. So they built bunkers at the DMZ and put all their operations equipment there," he said. The defector, who once worked as an informant for South Korea's Defense Intelligence Command (DIC), uses the alias Kim Ju Song. He declined to give any personal details and asked to have his voice disguised for broadcast to protect relatives still in North Korea. He is scheduled to arrive in the United States on Monday and attend a closed-door session with U.S. legislators in Washington Wednesday. More than 1,000 bunkers planned "In the bunkers, there are South Korean military uniforms and name tags, so that they can disguise themselves as South Korean troops. Also reserved are...60-mm mortar shells, condensed high explosives, and all sorts of bullets." The bunkers are not linked to a series of underground passages built in the past to attack South Korea, he said. About 70 percent of the roughly 800 bunkers are fakes, he said, decoys "to confuse the South." "The North was trying to finish constructing bunkers by early 2008 with the target number of 1,000 to 1,200," Kim said. Nuclear-armed North Korea possesses one of the world's largest standing armies, employing some 1.2 million of its 22.7 million citizens in the military. The bulk of the forces are deployed along the DMZ and make use of a vast and complex tunneling network to hide their movement from the South Korean military in South Korea's capital Seoul-a mere 40 kms (25 miles) away. Kim resettled in Seoul in the early 2000s and worked with the DIC from 2004-2007. As director of a trade center run by the military, he was given the military title sangja, somewhere between lieutenant colonel and colonel. Through his work for the DIC, Kim said, he wanted to let people in South Korea know the North is not giving up "its principal target of unifying the Korean Peninsula by using armed force." "Regardless of Seoul's appeasement policy, or whatever the South does toward the North, Pyongyang hasn't given up its aim of unifying the Korean Peninsula by military force. They are sticking to this principle and teaching North Koreans about it," Kim said. Trade center with military ties South Korean intelligence authorities asked Kim to explain the bunkers in August 2005, he said. Two months later, he said, "I delivered to the DIC my investigation results, including the fact that the North began to build the bunkers in 2004 and that their purpose is to reserve military equipment for attacking the South." "In August 2006, I enticed a North Korean platoon leader, who was involved in building the bunkers, into Yanji, China, where three DIC agents interrogated him for two days. So we got all the information about the bunkers, such as the bunkers' blueprints and how thick their walls and covers are." South Korean intelligence officials declined to comment on Kim's account. Kim also described his work in North Korea as director of a military-affiliated trade center at a city in the North. "I worked as a trader for a long time, but I worked as director for six years," he said. "In each province, there are around two trade centers that are run by the North Korean military." Trade centers and their employees are given military status "to intensify the power of control, and to separate the military affiliates from the society, so that we are not bothered by local leaders. The purpose is to give special status to the military affiliates and help us earn more hard currency." Although he declined to explain why he chose to defect, Kim said he eventually bribed his way into China, where he spent two months before his connections there arranged passage to South Korea. "I have a human network in China that I built while I was in North Korea. I got some help from them," he said. "I used to visit China for business. And my Chinese counterparts also came to North Korea. Those business exchanges helped me build the human network." Radio critical North Korea allowed ships to carry shortwave radios as a safety measure after a seismic wave struck North Korea's East coast and killed thousands of fishermen in 2005, Kim said. Radio channels were fixed to government frequencies, but North Koreans took advantage of this relative relaxation to begin smuggling in radios from China and are now selling them on the black market. Pyongyang remains deeply wary of international broadcasts, he said. "The North Korean government's biggest concern is international radio broadcasts like those of Radio Free Asia. Content promoting democracy and disclosing leaders' corruption as well as North Korea's human rights situation-the Kim Jong Il regime considers this its biggest threat." "When people learn these things, they don't believe in the regime anymore. In this context, I think those broadcasts are fulfilling their mission fully and serving as a pillar for the spirit of the North Korean people." Original reporting and translation by Song-Wu Park in Seoul. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Rohit Mahajan Media Relations Manager Radio Free Asia Desk: (202) 530-4976 Cell: (202) 489-8021 Email: mahajanr(a)rfa.org http://www.rfa.org/

15 years, 6 months

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RFA News: Document Details Executed Tibetan's Trial, Appeal

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Also on www.rfa.org: Multimedia Journey Down the Mekong www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/MekongProject Drug Abuse Among Hong Kong Teens www.rfa.org/english/news/china/youngerabusers-11122009130512.html Document Details Tibetan Trial, Appeal HONG KONG, Nov. 16, 2009-Court documents relating to one of three Tibetans believed to have been executed by the Chinese authorities for their part in the Lhasa unrest of March 2008 have confirmed the identity of one of the men, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. According to the documents, judicial authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China handed down a death sentence to Lobsang Gyaltsen, who was convicted of burning a Han Chinese shopowner to death during the unrest of March 2008. "For committing arson, the defendant Lobsang Gyaltsen is sentenced to death and to the revocation of his life-long political rights," the Lhasa municipal People's Intermediate Court said in its judgment, a copy of which was seen by RFA's Tibetan service. Tibetans in China and overseas had previously reported the executions of at least three people convicted of rioting during last year's widespread uprising against Chinese rule. The reports mentioned one Lobsang Gyaltsen, 24, of Lubuk township, near Lhasa. Accomplices cited The court documents confirmed that a Tibetan tour-guide named Lobsang Gyaltsen, known also by his Chinese nickname Banzhang, was detained March 24, 2008, by Lhasa police on suspicion of involvement in setting fire to shops during the unrest. The disturbances flared March 14 in Tibetan regions of China following three days of peaceful protests in Lhasa. Lobsang Gyaltsen was formally arrested on April 1, 2008. The Lhasa municipal procuratorate, or government prosecution service, accused Lobsang Gyaltsen of "actively participating in assault, smashing, looting, and burning" in the Ramoche street area of Lhasa on March 14. "During the afternoon of that day, Lobsang Gyaltsen set fire to the Hongyu Kuye Garment on Qingnian Lu with the help of fellow accused Pen Kyi," the court judgment said. "The victim Zhao Rancun was a Han Chinese national, 45 years old, who died due to burns," the judgment said, while estimating the damage to Zhao's shop from the fire at 250,000 yuan (U.S. $36,600). "The accused also set another garment store, Niaomo Shijia, on fire, causing damage worth 1.1 million yuan (U.S. $161,100). The judgment, issued by the appeals department of the Lhasa municipal People's Court, said subsequent investigations had interviewed Zhao's wife and son and the owner of the Niaomo Shijia garment store. He was also convicted of inciting others to participate in riots and of assaults on police, it said. "The court found that Lobsang Gyaltsen did participate in the March 14 arson, threw stones at the armed police on Ramoche street and instigated Tenzin (another accomplice) to participate in the arson." "At 14.00 hours on the same day, Lobsang Gyaltsen, with the assistance of Pen Kyi, set the Hongyu Kuye garment shop on fire," it said. "Lobsang used his lighter to set fire to a shirt which he threw on the pile of clothes in the shop. Pen Kyi threw kerosene oil that she brought with her which caused the fire to catch and engulf the whole store in flames." In October, Tibetan exiles and residents of the region first reported the execution of several people convicted of rioting during last year's widespread uprising against Chinese rule. They were the first reported executions in connection with rioting that erupted in March 2008 in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) capital, Lhasa. Capital punishment is administered only rarely in Tibet, experts say. Mixed plea The judgment, dated April 8, 2009, said that Lobsang Gyaltsen denied setting fire to Hongyu Kuye Garment but acknowledged setting fire with an accomplice to the Niaomo Shijia shop, which deals in clothing as well as precious metals. It said that his legal representative Phuntsok Wangyal appealed for a lighter sentence, but that the appeal was turned down. It said he was sentenced according to Clause 1, Articles 57 and 115, of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. Before his execution, according to one source, Lobsang Gyaltsen was permitted a visit with his mother. "I have nothing to say, except please take good care of my child and send him to school," he was quoted as telling her. A local source said Lobsang Gyaltsen's mother's home is now under round-the-clock surveillance. Rioting rocked Lhasa in March last year and spread to Tibetan-populated regions of western China, causing official embarrassment ahead of the August 2008 Beijing Olympics. Chinese officials say 21 people-including three Tibetan protesters-died in the violence. The India-based Tibetan government-in-exile estimates that 220 Tibetans were killed and 7,000 were detained in a region-wide crackdown. The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported separately that four people were executed on Oct. 24. A recent Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) report said that at least 670 Tibetans have been jailed in 2009 for activities that include peaceful protest or leaking information abroad. By the end of April 2009, TAR courts had sentenced 84 Tibetans to punishments ranging from fixed jail terms to life, as well as to death or death with a two-year reprieve, in connection with the 2008 riots, the CECC report said. The report also detailed a widespread Chinese "patriotic education" campaign that requires Tibetan monks and nuns to pass examinations on political texts, agree that Tibet is historically a part of China, and denounce the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Original reporting by Dolkar for RFA's Tibetan service.Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 6 months

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RFA News: Lao Group Wanted Help

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Also on www.rfa.org: Multimedia Journey Down the Mekong www.rfa.org/english/multimedia/MekongProject Interview with President Obama's Brother www.rfa.org/english/news/china/mark-obama-memoir-11132009105323.html Drug Abuse Among Hong Kong Teens www.rfa.org/english/news/china/youngerabusers-11122009130512.html Poems by North Korean Teen Defectors www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/moonpoetry-11112009111951.html Lao Group Wanted Help Several hundred Lao people detained on their way to the capital weren't dissidents, one man says. BANGKOK, Nov. 13, 2009-An ethnic Lao man briefly detained this month as he and several hundred others converged on the Lao capital to petition the government has said the group was planning to seek help from the authorities rather than stage a political protest, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. "What have we done that is so wrong, that we had to be detained? All we were doing was asking the government for help. I want to live with dignity even if it costs my life," the man, 47 and an illegal migrant worker in Thailand, said in an interview. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect himself, his three children, and his wife-one of nine people who remain in Lao custody after they were detained en route to Vientiane on Nov. 2. The man was detained briefly and then released. He said he was legally "stateless," having left Laos after the Communists took power in 1975, then met his wife and married in a Thai refugee center. He has no Lao identification documents and works illegally in Thailand, one of what he described as "hundreds of thousands" of illegal Lao laborers there. The couple have three children: a 22-year-old daughter, a 21-year-old son, and an eight-year-old girl, all born in Thailand. The older two attended school through the sixth grade, he said, adding that the oldest child works in construction alongside her parents in Thailand. "When you are so poor, you do what you have to do to survive-and you sell whatever you have to sell to survive, your labor or yourself. It's so sad... We have become merchandise." The Seattle-based Lao Students Movement for Democracy estimated that authorities had detained more than 300 people traveling to Vientiane from North and South. Most were quickly released, but the nine still in custody have been moved to Samkhe Prison in Vientiane, the group said in a statement, dated Nov. 5 and written in Lao. The Lao government has denied detaining anyone, saying the reports were "fabricated" to harm the country's image. Lao sources identified those still detained as Ms. Kingkeo, 39; Mr. Soubin, 35; Mr. Souane, 50; Mr. Sinprasong, 43; Khamsone, 36; Mr. Nou, 54; Ms. Somchit, 29; Mr. Somkhit, 28; and Sourigna, 26. Family members confirmed that all nine were under arrest, sources who asked not to be named said. Some are linked to the Oct. 26, 1999 student protests in the communist Southeast Asian country-four of whose leaders remain in Samkhe prison in Vientiane after one died in custody. The man told RFA's Lao service that the group, which last year decided to call itself Lao United for Economic and Social Renewal, was seeking economic and social support from the government as well as the re-integration of ethnic Lao returning from abroad. "Everyone who was arrested was an average common person, not an activist," he said. "They have grievances... they just wanted to petition." "The Vietnamese [living in Laos] have more rights than Lao people in Laos-it's not right. Why this crackdown on us-when other vices are rampant and no one is doing anything about real crime?" Nov. 2 convoys On Nov. 2, a convoy set out from the Nam Ngum dam area of Thalat in Vientiane province, heading to Vientiane by taxi when authorities intercepted them in Phone Hong town, some 60 kms from Vientiane and also in Vientiane province, at around 5 a.m., relatives said. Two busloads carrying about 75 travelers each meanwhile set out from the south, and were detained in Pakading town some 70 kms from Vientiane in Borikhamxay province, witnesses said. They had planned to meet several hundred others at the Patuxay monument in Vientiane, sources said. Tiny, landlocked Laos, with a population nearing 7 million, is one of the world's poorest countries. Literacy and life expectancy are low, and most of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture. Original reporting by RFA's Lao service. Lao service director: Viengsay Luangkhot. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 6 months

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RFA NEWS: Six More Uyghurs Freed

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Six More Uyghurs Freed Go to www.rfa.org for more Another cohort of Uyghur detainees is freed from Guantanamo to a Pacific island. WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 2009-Six Uyghur men held for seven years in U.S. military custody at Guantanamo Bay have been released and have now reached the tiny Pacific island of Palau, authoritative sources have told Radio Free Asia (RFA). The men were identified as Adel Nury, 40; Ahmed Tursun, 38; Abdulghappar Abdulrahman, 36; Anwar Hasan, 35; Edhem Mohammed, 31; and Dawud Abdulrehim, 35. They landed in the early hours of Sunday after a 17-hour direct military flight, along with three U.S. lawyers, Rushan Abbas, a longtime translator for the Uyghur detainees at Guantanamo Bay, said in a telephone interview, citing contacts with the men and their lawyers. A new Uyghur translator was flown in from Australia and was to remain indefinitely, she said in an interview. No comment was immediately available from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. They were among a larger group of 22 ethnic Uyghurs captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan and sold for bounty to U.S. forces after fleeing the mountains in the wake of U.S.-led raids, following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. They say they were living as refugees in Afghanistan, having faced religious persecution in China Four were transferred to Bermuda in June 2009 while five others were resettled in Albania in 2006. One man in that group has since resettled in Sweden. Seven men left The transfer of these six men leaves seven in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, who say they cannot return to China for fear of persecution. The United States maintained that the men had attended terror-training camps, and they were flown to Guantanamo Bay in June 2002. The Republic of Palau is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles (800 kms) east of the Philippines and 2,000 miles (3,200 kms) south of Tokyo. After a series of military tribunals and courtroom battles, they were cleared of links to global terrorism-but most governments refused to take them in for fear of angering Beijing, which regards them as terrorists. The U.S. Supreme Court this month agreed to review the cases of all remaining Uyghur prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The group was originally ordered released into the States in October last year by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina here. But his decision was overturned after an appeals court ruled that District Court judges don't have the authority to order the transfer of foreigners into the U.S.; only Congress and the executive branch do. Uyghurs in China Millions of Uyghurs-a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim-populate Central Asia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of northwestern China. Ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese settlers have simmered for years, and they erupted in rioting in July that left some 200 people dead, according to the government's tally. The six men may have difficulty reaching their relatives in the XUAR because Chinese authorities have imposed a telephone and Internet blackout over the whole region in an apparent bid to avoid further ethnic violence. Twelve people have since been sentenced to death in connection with the violence, which was the worst the country has experienced in decades. Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier. Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Original reporting by Radio Free Asia. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Sarah Jackson-Han News Director, English Radio Free Asia jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 907 4613

15 years, 7 months

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RFA News: Taiwan Offers Unification Model

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Also on www.rfa.org Warming Poses Food Risk http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/climatechange-10062009153510.html Graft Mars North Korean Trade http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/graftnk-10062009131428.html Taiwan Offers Unification Model: Ex-Party Aide HONG KONG, Oct. 8, 2009-Taiwan, which marks its own National Day nine days after a lavish display of communist military power by rival Beijing, should provide the model for reunification with China, a former top Communist Party aide has told Radio Free Asia (RFA). Bao Tong, former aide to late ousted Party chief Zhao Ziyang, lauded the current form of democracy on the self-governing island, which still celebrates the fall of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) with the 1911 revolution led by Sun Yat-sen. "In Taiwan, where there is no socialism, it is possible to ferret out corruption openly," Bao wrote in an essay marking the "Double Tenth" celebrations. "On the mainland, where we enjoy the benefits of the dictatorship of the proletariat, masses of people who turn out to protest at corruption are suppressed as troublemakers," Bao added, referring to the 1989 military crackdown on student-led protests on Tiananmen Square. Bao said that while Taiwan had long since reversed the official verdict on a massacre of demonstrators by the Nationalist Kuomintang troops in 1947, in China to this day, no one dares to mention "June 4, 1989." "Courts in Taiwan have the power to pass judgment on high-ranking officials," wrote Bao, who called for peaceful reunification between Taiwan and China, ruled separately since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. 'Mao's dying wish' "Mao Zedong managed to divide China into two parts: This part is the 'New China' under the leadership of the Communist Party, while the other is the 'old society' in a faraway place," said Bao. "Liberating Taiwan was Mao's dying wish, but he didn't have the means to carry it out, and Taiwan has gone on existing." "As we on the west bank of the Taiwan Strait have conducted reviews of the troops and sung the praises of the last 60 years, Taiwan has continued to develop on the east bank." Writing from house arrest at his Beijing home, Bao said reunification should occur on the basis of Taiwan's system of government, not China's. "In mainland China, where there is no separation of powers and everything is controlled by the Party, you need the permission of the provincial Party secretary to lodge a case against a county level official," Bao wrote. "Without this, the court has no jurisdiction." 'A big lie' Bao recalled a comment of former Communist Party supreme leader Mao Zedong, who is reported to have said: "Unification can be achieved only on a democratic basis." "I agree with Mao's assessment," said Bao, who spent seven years in jail following the fall of his former political mentor Zhao, who was removed from office by late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping for sympathizing with the 1989 protesters. "Only peaceful reunification on the basis of democracy will bring happiness to compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait." Bao said the last 60 years of "glorious" communist rule contained "a big lie." "In the first 30 years, tens of millions either died of starvation or were 'struggled' to death under the banner of revolution," he wrote. "In the second 30 years, anyone standing up for civil and constitutional rights, for religious freedom, for ethnic autonomy has been declared an enemy of the people en masse, all in the name of stability." Rivals Taiwan and mainland China kicked off direct air and sea transportation links for the first time in 60 years at the end of last year, with inaugural flights taking off on both sides of the Taiwan Strait-which leaders said signaled improved ties. Original essay in Chinese by Bao Tong. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 8 months

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RFA News: Election Call From Former Aide

by Joshua Lipes

Election Call From Former Aide Go to www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-09242009094453.html for complete coverage HONG KONG- A former top official in China's Communist Party has called on patriotic Chinese to "return power to the people" and push for full democracy ahead of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. Sixty years after peasant leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China from Tiananmen Square on Oct. 1, 1949, former top Party aide Bao Tong said the Party has never admitted its mistakes. "All of the great mistakes at a national level with far-reaching consequences were committed under the planning and leadership of the Communist Party," wrote Bao, a former aide to disgraced late Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang. "The People's Republic of China is not a republic at all. This is a sort of pathology," he said in a letter obtained by RFA's Mandarin service. "It consists in the systemic erosion of the rights of citizens to all sorts of things, including elections and private property, by the Party leadership over the last 60 years." 'Progress' under the Party In an essay penned from his Beijing home, where Bao has been held under house arrest since returning from a seven-year jail term in the wake of the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement, Bao poured scorn on the wave of official praise for China's progress under the Party. "Hidden troubles shouldn't be allowed to remain packaged up in talk of 'great and mighty results,' for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and all their descendants," he wrote. Behind the talk of "prosperity" and "the rise of China" lies rampant official corruption and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor, Bao said. "Behind the words 'hard reasoning of development' lies the plunder of natural resources and the laying waste of the environment," he added. He delineated a "collapse of personal freedoms, religious freedom, ethnic autonomy, and freedoms of speech, protest and demonstration" behind the government's emphasis on stability. Call for elections "How should a patriot show their love and concern for their country?" Bao wrote. "By returning power to the people and building a republic," said Bao, who called on Chinese people to educate themselves about what full, direct elections actually mean. "If we are to cash in on [promises of] democracy, openness, competition and meritocracy, universal direct elections are inevitable," he wrote. "Otherwise that particular check will undoubtedly bounce." "China is in dire need of a period of education and enlightenment about what is really meant by a 'republic' and what is really meant by 'universal, direct elections.'" Bao said that no political party should be given the right to field an approved list of candidates, or to interfere with the right of any candidate to enter the field or to take up their post if they are elected. "The legitimacy of a republic rests on universal, direct elections. It is the sacred duty of every patriotic citizen to promote universal, direct elections in which there is true competition between candidates," Bao wrote. Chinese authorities are implementing a nationwide security clampdown ahead of the Oct. 1 National Day celebrations, closing key Web sites and discussion boards, and detaining people who try to lodge complaints in Beijing about local governments. The anniversary comes as Beijing struggles to quell ethnic tensions in China's northwest and to silence outspoken dissidents, petitioners, and civil rights lawyers, who have been warned not to use the occasion to protest against the government. Original essay by Bao Tong. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 8 months

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RFA News: Karen Children Forced To Work for Burmese Junta, Ethnic Troops

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Children, Families Forced To Work for Burmese Junta, Ethnic Troops Also on www.rfa.org: 'The Moon Is Up': Poems by Young North Korean Defectors, translated into English for the first time www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/nk-children-poetry-09012009142744.html Vietnamese Schools Reject HIV Children http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/HIV-08282009102134.html NORTHERN THAILAND, Sept. 14, 2009-Children as young as 10 are being forced to work as porters for the Burmese military and ethnic minority Karen troops amid intensifying conflict near the border with Thailand, according to refugees in northern Thailand, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. One village here in a Karen region houses 95 Burmese refugees, including 39 children under age 12. All say they were taken from their villages in Burma and forced to work as military porters. The increased press-ganging of villagers, including children, into work as porters comes in the wake of intensified fighting between Burmese government forces supported by elements of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) on one side and the mostly Christian Karen National Union (KNU) troops on the other, the refugees said. Thousands more are believed also to have fled their homes in Burma since June and to be hiding in villages on the Thai side of the border, according to human rights and aid workers. The prolonged military conflict in the region has meant that none of the Karen children has ever been able to attend school. "I am 10 years old," one shy girl told a visiting reporter. Another, who said she was 16, said she had to carry dozens of cans of rice in a basket on her back for five days at a stretch and was given only rice with salt and chili peppers to eat. "When it rained, we had to sleep under trees, so we would get completely wet," she said. Pulling children through the jungle Burmese soldiers forced anyone who had no physical disability to carry goods and ammunition for them, the refugees said. No one was paid for his or her labor. The porters said they don't know if the troops who press-ganged them into service belong to the DKBA or a joint force comprising soldiers for the DKBA and the ruling junta. Fathers with children able to walk on their own but not big enough to work as porters themselves must hold onto their children while carrying ammunition on their backs, sometimes pulling the children through heavy jungle vegetation, they said. Parents and children are required to sleep separately to prevent them from running away, they said, and the men are told their wives will be taken by soldiers if they try to flee. Parents in the camp said they had no choice but to bring their children, as the only people left behind in their villages were very elderly or too disabled to look after anyone but themselves. One woman carrying her three-year-old son in a sling in front of her demonstrated how she had to carry artillery shells in a basket on her back at the same time. If her child cried, she was told to put her hand over his face to silence him or face a reprimand from the soldiers. She said she had had to carry the shells for four days at a time and was allowed to stop and rest only two or three times a day. Stepped-up recruiting "In the past, they would need porters only once a month," said the head of the village that the group of refugees left behind them. "But now they need them three or four times a month, and we would even have to go to the front line. We would have to supply three soldiers per village, and if the village was bigger we would have had to supply up to 20 soldiers," he said. "If we cannot supply the soldiers we would have to pay 30,000 baht (about U.S. $880). If we cannot give them the money, they would send us to jail," he added. Karen refugees have so far received no aid from international agencies, nor from the Thai government, they said. Sometimes, soldiers from the DKBA stole their goods, even on the Thai side of the border, they added. "When I left I brought with me the best bullock I had, but when I got to Thailand the DKBA stole the bullock from me," she said. "I had to pay them 1,500 baht (U.S. $44) to get my bullock back." According to the Burma-based Karen Human Rights Group, the DKBA began a stepped-up recruitment drive in August 2008 in response to an escalating series of DKBA and joint DKBA/government attacks on KNU and Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) positions in the Dooplaya and Pa'an Districts of Karen state. Those attacks have greatly intensified since the start of the year, the group said in a report published on its Web site. Partly under the control of the Burmese government, the DKBA has again increased recruitment as it prepares to transform itself into a Border Guard Force as required by the military junta ahead of elections in 2011. "By June 7, over 3,000 villagers, including the Ler Per Her camp population of just over 1,200 people as well as nearly 2,000 residents from other villages in the area, had fled to neighboring Thailand to avoid fighting as well as forced conscription into work as porters and human minesweepers for DKBA and SPDC forces," the group said Aug. 25. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says there are more than 100,000 registered Burmese refugees inside Thailand today, most of them Karen. Original reporting in Burmese by Khin May Zaw. Translated by Soe Thinn. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 8 months

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RFA News: Outspoken Uyghur Economist Presumed Detained

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Outspoken Uyghur Economist Presumed Detained After Urumqi Clashes Go to www.rfa.org for full multimedia coverage from Urumqi RFA Twitters - Follow Radio Free Asia's breaking news happening throughout East Asia via Twitter. Visit https://twitter.com/RadioFreeAsia to sign up now. HONG KONG-An outspoken economist from China's Uyghur ethnic minority, whose blog was cited for allegedly instigating deadly ethnic clashes in Xinjiang, has gone silent and his whereabouts are unknown after he reported police had summoned him from his Beijing home, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. "Police have been watching my home for two days now," Ilham Tohti, an economics professor at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, said July 7 in a telephone interview, two days after deadly clashes in the northwestern city of Urumqi killed at least 156 people. "They are calling me now, and I have to go. I may be out of touch for some time," he told RFA's Uyghur service. "I wasn't involved in anything, but I am not safe. The police are calling me," Tohti said, and then hung up. Subsequent phone calls rang unanswered. On July 6, he told RFA's Cantonese service that he had gathered information on the clashes but wouldn't release it because the timing was too sensitive. Uyghur Online publishes in Chinese and Uyghur and is seen as a moderate, intellectual Web site addressing social issues. Authorities have closed it on several previous occasions. Tohti's blog, Uyghur Online, was specifically targeted in a July 5 speech by the governor of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Nur Bekri, as an instigator of the clashes, along with exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer. Tohti's last blog entry, published through a U.S. server at 10:52 a.m. Beijing time July 7 and now blocked inside China, reads: "As the editor of Uyghur Online, I want only to tell Nur Bekri, 'You are right, everything you say is right, because you will decide everything. I have already offended too many powerful people, including yourself and others whom I don't want to and don't dare to offend. But right or wrong, there will be justice." "I always tell myself [to be] cool and calm and make rational analyses. Going to court to resolve disputes is the fairest course of action in a lawful society. I have my own lawyer. When my trial comes up, don't appoint a lawyer for me. I will refuse any court-appointed lawyer." "Even if we say that Uyghur Online and outsiders stirred thing up-stirred what up? People can think for themselves. If everything were working so well, why did so many people suddenly come out and riot? I think after this event the central government and the local government should give this some thought." The clashes on Sunday in Urumqi, the XUAR capital, flared between Han Chinese and Uyghurs following attacks on Uyghur migrant workers at a factory in the southern province of Guangdong last month. Official media said 156 people died in riots Sunday. The ethnicity of the dead was not specified. Online photos of corpses sparked calls for revenge, and thousands of armed Han Chinese poured onto Urumqi's streets Tuesday, trying to break through police lines into Uyghur neighborhoods. Earlier detentions Tohti has said he was interrogated repeatedly and accused of separatism after he spoke out in March against Chinese policies in Xinjiang, particularly the disproportionately high unemployment there among Uyghurs, compared with Han Chinese. He has called on authorities to ease curbs on free expression and foster greater economic opportunity for Uyghurs in their native Xinjiang region, where poverty and joblessness are commonplace. "There are visible changes in China," he said in an interview with RFA's Uyghur service in May. "But in terms of freedom and democracy, Xinjiang's situation is the worst of the worst, compared with other regions of China. "What I have encountered at this time is typical. My Web site was shut down without notice. I was interrogated many times and threatened. I am a legal Beijing resident, and by law I should not be interrogated by Xinjiang police officials, but it has happened." "This shows how long the local authorities' reach is. They accused me of separatism," he said. "But is demanding implementation of the autonomy law separatism?" China's 1984 Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law is the main legal framework for managing the affairs of China's ethnic minorities. It promises a high degree of autonomy for minority groups, but critics say its implementation in many areas has been weak. "There is no major problem with the main points of the central government's policy," Tohti said. His goal, he said, is "equal opportunity and equal development in Xinjiang, equal with other provincial regions of China-and equal opportunity and equal development between the Uyghur people and the Han Chinese immigrants in Xinjiang." Slammed governor In an interview in March, Tohti also sharply criticized the governor of Xinjiang, Nur Bekri, as incompetent. Tohti, who said he feared for his own safety, was speaking as the National People's Congress, China's annual session of parliament, met in Beijing, with Bekri warning of a "more fierce struggle" against separatist unrest in the region. "My message to the Xinjiang government is, 'You should know that there is no peace without equal development between Han immigrants and native Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Similarly, there is no stability in the Uyghur region without freedom of speech.'" "My message to the central government is, 'Don't listen only to what the local government officials in Xinjiang say-listen to the people. Don't just make decisions based on government research-also look at independent research. This will be very helpful for protecting the unity of the nation, and the long-term prosperity of the country.'" According to his official biography, Tohti was born in Atush, Xinjiang, on Oct. 25, 1969. He graduated from the Northeast Normal University and the Economics School at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing. Original reporting by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur service. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Additional reporting by Gregory Ho for RFA's Cantonese service. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 11 months

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Radio Free Asia Named Broadcaster of the Year at 2009 New York Festivals

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 7, 2009 Contact: John Estrella 202 530 4900 estrellaj(a)rfa.org <mailto:estrellaj@rfa.org> Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> Radio Free Asia Named Broadcaster of the Year at 2009 New York Festivals RFA Reporters, Services Take Record 7 Awards WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Radio Free Asia was named Broadcaster of the Year by the New York Festivals for winning the largest number of awards among participating broadcasters. Four of Radio Free Asia's nine language services won top honors for excellence in journalism in the international competition, which included three gold, one silver and three bronze medals. "While Radio Free Asia has consistently been honored at the New York Festivals over the years, it is deeply gratifying that the outstanding work by our staff won a record number of awards this year," said Libby Liu, President of Radio Free Asia. "RFA reporters work tirelessly under the most difficult circumstances to bring uncensored news to our listeners. On a daily basis, they overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in environments that are hostile for journalists. "We are inspired by this high recognition. We will continue our quest for journalistic excellence to make an even bigger impact on the lives of those we serve." Information about the winners and their submissions follows: * Broadcaster Shohret Hoshur of the RFA's Uyghur service won a gold medal in the Best Human Interest category for her exclusive story on an ethnic Uyghur woman in China facing a forced, third-term abortion. International pressure resulting from the story led to authorities releasing the woman, who was able to give birth to a son. * RFA's Burmese service won a gold medal in the category of Best Ongoing News Story for its excellent coverage of Cyclone Nargis, which both warned listeners of the approaching storm and, after it made landfall, helped survivors find desperately needed food, shelter, medical attention and other humanitarian aid. * Reporter Ding Xiao of RFA's Mandarin service won a gold medal in the category of Best Investigative Report for her story on a petitioner from China's eastern Jiangsu province who was held by authorities without due process in a "law study group" detention center for disciplinary re-education. * Reporter Peter Zhong of RFA's Mandarin service took a silver medal in Best Investigative Report category for his four-episode story titled "Crime without Punishment" in which he exposed the extent of Guilin's police-run underworld through his extensive coverage on female prisoner abuse. * Reporter Jill Ku of RFA's Mandarin service won a bronze medal in the category of Best Special Report for her exclusive story, which caught on audio and video Chinese police arresting a petitioner, who was being interviewed by RFA, during the Beijing 2008 Olympics. * RFA Mandarin Service's Asia Pacific Report was awarded a bronze medal in the Best Newscast category for its story on Chinese lawyers attempting to file a civil lawsuit on behalf of the families of victims of the tainted milk powder scandal that left at least six infants and children dead and 300,000 suffering from related ailments. * Giao Pham of RFA's Vietnamese service was awarded a bronze medal in the National/International Affairs category for his timely coverage on young Olympic protestors being arrested and beaten by police for demonstrating against China's torch carrying in Hanoi - a story which was not covered by media inside Vietnam. To follow Radio Free Asia's breaking news and developing stories happening throughout East Asia, please visit our Web site at www.rfa.org and sign up for RFA's news in English via Twitter at https://twitter.com/RadioFreeAsia. # # # 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. RFA Twitters - Follow Radio Free Asia's breaking news happening throughout East Asia via Twitter. Please visit https://twitter.com/RadioFreeAsia to sign up now. If you no longer wish to receive RFA press releases, please send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, please send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org Rohit Mahajan Communications Radio Free Asia 2025 M Street, NW Washington DC, 20036 (202) 530-4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org

15 years, 11 months

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RFA News: Tight Security After Deadly Xinjiang Clash

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Tight Security After Deadly Xinjiang Clash Go to www.rfa.org/english/news/special/XinjiangRiot <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/XinjiangRiot> for complete multimedia coverage HONG KONG-Residents of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) report a heavy police and paramilitary presence inside and outside the regional capital, Urumqi, where deadly clashes erupted at the weekend following a protest by ethnic minority Uyghurs, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. "The situation in Gulja is so intense right now. I saw armed police everywhere when I went out to buy oil this morning. I saw five armored vehicles patrolling the streets. There are many police cars, patrolling on every street," one man told RFA's Uyghur service. "Military police are stationed in front of every government building and other work units. Since armed police blocked the main entrance to Ili Teachers' College, I went home through the back door," he said, adding that officials in the northwestern XUAR city of Gulja had imposed a curfew. "They said they are going check every vehicle from other towns. They said it's better for us to remain inside," the man said. The weekend clashes, which left at least 156 dead and hundreds injured, flared after an initially peaceful demonstration took to the city's streets to protest how authorities handled recent violence between majority Han Chinese and mostly Muslim Uyghur factory workers in the southern province of Guangdong, witnesses said. According to the official Chinese Xinhua news agency, some of the 156 dead were retrieved from Urumqi streets and lanes, while others were confirmed dead at hospitals. Xinhua also said more than 700 suspects had been taken into custody. Urumqi is home to 2.3 million residents, including many Uyghurs, who have chafed for years under Chinese rule. The city is located 3,270 kms (2,050 miles) west of Beijing. Security forces were now manning checkpoints at strategic points throughout the city, and ethnic minority officers were being drafted from outlying regions to help interrogate detained suspects, police said. Security is always tight in the XUAR, and after the clashes phone service was in many instances suspended. Uyghur witnesses spoke on condition that they remain unnamed. Strip-searches reported "The information we are getting is that this is sort of spreading," World Uyghur Congress and Uyghur American Association leader Rebiya Kadeer told a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington late Monday. "We have heard news that in Hotan, in Aksu, in cities like Karamai, there were protests. And because of the tragic event, many people were killed and a lot of families and friends were killed. So others may have joined in other towns as well to protest," said Kadeer, whom Chinese authorities have blamed for instigating the clashes. A former businesswoman in Xinjiang who served time in prison for alleged subversion, she denied instigating the clashes. Sources at Xinjiang University estimate the number of dead at "nearly 400," including many outside Xinjiang University, Kadeer said, but she cautioned that "we can't confirm" that number. A Uyghur man living in Saudi Arabia said residents of the old Silk Road city of Kashgar were reporting that some 300 people tried to stage a protest outside a mosque and at the local People's Square but were quickly suppressed. A Uyghur youth in Kashgar gave a similar account. "A protest was planned in Kashgar today at 3 p.m.," he said. "But first they set up checkpoints on every road into Kashgar, then there were two or three Chinese soldiers in various places. But after 3 p.m., the government brought a lot of armed forces in around the Heytkar Mosque," the youth said. "They blocked both sides of the mosque and wouldn't let people in or out. They took a lot of photos and video and detained some people." In Urumqi, meanwhile, the city was tense but calm. Residents said numerous intersections had been blocked, and police were said to have surrounded a Uyghur settlement, called the Horserace Track, and detained all adult males. "They are gathering them in the field, strip-searching them, and pushing them down to lie on the field, naked," one man said. "This morning they also took away many youths from that area whether they participated [in the protest] or not. They just took away many Uyghur youths." Electroshock weapons Other witnesses described a heavy presence by security forces on Sunday. Before the demonstrators reached the People's Square in central Urumqi, armed police were in position and moved to disperse them, one witness said. Police "scattered them [the protesters]," he said. "They beat them. Beat them, including girls, very, very viciously," he said. "The police were chasing them and captured many of them. They were beaten badly." "When the demonstrators reached the People's Square, armed police suppressed them using electroshock weapons and so on," he said, adding, "After that, other protests erupted in Uyghur areas of town." A Uyghur patient at the Dosluk No. 3 Hospital said she saw at least 10 to 15 injured men there. Official CCTV television said the hospital treated more than 100 people injured in the clashes, four of whom died. "There were Uyghurs and Chinese, but mostly Uyghurs. There were both badly injured and lightly injured. Blood was everywhere," she said. "Riots took place in bus stations, in tourist spots, and in shopping areas. Scores of Uyghurs were killed. Armed police were carrying automatic assault rifles and machine guns. There were thousands of soldiers. It had a tremendous impact, and we won't be able to go to work for three days," another resident said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. City 'now calm' A police officer in Urumqi contacted by telephone early Monday said a curfew had been imposed on Uyghur areas, and residents said many shops were shuttered. "People are dead. This might have planned by evil-minded people," the officer said. "All the shops in the area where the riot happened were closed today," one Uyghur girl said in an interview Monday. "I walked around the streets a while ago. There were police and soldiers in the streets. There are some Uyghurs, but no Chinese. Today, for the first time in my life, I have a feeling that Urumqi is my hometown, because there were no Chinese in the streets. I am so glad." A shop owner in Urumqi who declined to give his name said he had had to close for business as police swarmed through the city. "We closed our doors from last night. Armed police dispersed the protesters in about two hours. Firefighters were also dispatched and last night police were all over the city," he said in an interview Monday. Deadly clash in June was trigger Uyghur sources said the protest Sunday was organized online and began early July 5 with about 1,000 people but grew by thousands more during the day. They gathered to demand a probe into the deadly fight in Guangdong late last month. In separate interviews, three Uyghur witnesses now under Chinese government protection said the fighting in Shaoguan began when Han Chinese laborers stormed the dormitories of Uyghur colleagues, beating them with clubs, bars, and machetes. The clashes began late June 25 and lasted into the early hours of the following day. At least two people were killed and 118 injured, and witnesses said the numbers could be higher. A number of Uyghurs have voiced anger and bitterness over the clash and accused police of doing too little, too late to stop it. "If the government had given any explanation about the Shaoguan incident without hiding it from Uyghurs, this would not have happened in Urumqi," one Urumqi businessman said Monday. "If the government had explained, as the demonstrators demanded, the protests would have dispersed," he said, referring to the demonstrations Sunday. "Instead, the government got heavy-handed, and this angered the people." "Because the police took the protest leaders away, the protesters did not know what to do and acted aimlessly. If the leaders had not been captured, the demonstration would have ended peacefully. Trying to dissipate [the protest], the government only aggravated it." Simmering resentment Like Tibet, which erupted in protests in early 2008, the XUAR has long been home to smoldering ethnic tensions related to religion, culture, and regional economic development that residents say has disproportionately enriched and employed majority Han Chinese immigrants. China has accused Uyghur separatists of fomenting unrest in the region, particularly in the run-up to and during the Olympics last year, when a wave of violence hit the vast desert region. The violence prompted a crackdown in which the government says 1,295 people were detained for state security crimes, along with tighter curbs on the practice of Islam. XUAR Party Chief Wang Lequan was quoted in China's official media as saying the fight against these forces was a "life or death struggle," and he has spoken since of the need to "strike hard" against ethnic separatism. Activists have reported wide-scale detentions, arrests, new curbs on religious practices, travel restrictions, and stepped-up controls over free expression. Original reporting by Mamatjan Juma, Shohret Hoshur, Medina, and Mehriban for RFA's Uyghur service and by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated from the Uyghur by Mamatjan Juma and from the Mandarin by Jia Yuan. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Edited by Luisetta Mudie. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 11 months

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RFA News: Burma, North Korea Said To Expand Military Ties

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Burma, North Korea Said To Expand Military Ties Also on www.rfa.org: Hong Kong's Lyrical Lament www.rfa.org/english/news/complain-07012009112410.html BANGKOK-A leaked report purportedly drafted by authorities in Burma's military government describes a top-secret visit to North Korea late last year by Burma's top brass, during which the two sides pledged to significantly expand cooperation in military training and arms production, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The 37-page report in Burmese claims to contain details of a Nov. 22-29 visit to North Korea by 17 Burmese officials, billed as a goodwill visit to China and reportedly led by Gen. Thura Shwe Mann, Burma's third-ranked leader and armed forces chief of staff. It also contains 118 photos said to have been taken in North Korea and 64 said to have been taken in China, from which the group was said to have traveled to North Korea. Photographs in the report show a Burmese delegation in uniform in China but in civilian clothing in North Korea, suggesting a bid to keep the visit to North Korea low-profile. Exile Burmese media have voiced alarm in recent days at reports of growing ties between Burma and nuclear-armed North Korea, both highly reclusive pariah states targeted by international sanctions, and have warned that this warming relationship indicates Burma's own nuclear ambitions. The report is titled "Report of the High-Level Burmese Military delegation led by SPDC member and Military Chief General Thura Shwe Mann to the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and the PRC [People's Republic of China] from Nov. 21-Dec. 2, 2008." SPDC, denoting the State Peace and Development Council, is the Burmese junta's formal name. The report says the delegation left Burma's remote new capital, Naypyidaw, on a special aircraft Nov. 21 at the invitation of Chinese Defense Ministry Central Commission member and armed forces Chief of Staff Gen. Chen Bingde and North Korean Defense Ministry Chief of General Staff Gen. Kim Kyok Sik. The report was transmitted to RFA's Burmese service through a knowledgeable source in Burma's former capital, Rangoon. Out in the cold The report surfaced just as both regimes find themselves farther out in the wilderness than ever before. North Korea recently launched a long-range missile over Japan and conducted a second nuclear test, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions and an international outcry, even from longtime allies in Moscow and Beijing. It test-fired four short-range missiles on Tuesday. Burma has meanwhile brought a bizarre criminal case against detained opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and renewed a military offensive against ethnic rebels in the east, forcing thousands to seek refuge in Thailand. Over the last week, U.S. officials tracked a North Korean ship, the Kang Nam I, suspected of heading toward Burma with illicit weapons on board in violation of new U.N. sanctions. The ship turned around and headed back north on Sunday. The Bangkok-based Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner, an authority on North Korea, said the report may have been fabricated and leaked to discredit the Burmese exile press. But he added that it could also indicate "there are people within the military establishment not very happy with its cooperation with North Korea." If the latter is true, "They leaked the information in order to make it known to the international community, especially the U.N. Security Council, which has imposed sanctions on new North Korea arm exports," Lintner said. Htay Aung, a researcher at the Thai-based Burmese opposition group Network for Democracy and Development, said he believed the report was authentic, and either sold by mid- to low-level officers or leaked by opponents of cooperation with Pyongyang. The latter group "seems unhappy with projects to equip the military with costly weapons and technologies as the country goes deeper into poverty," Htay Aung said. Aim to modernize The stated aim of the visit was "to modernize the Burmese military and increase its capabilities through visiting and studying the militaries" of China and North Korea. The group reportedly included Gen. Thura Shwe Mann, Lt. Gen. Myint Hlaing (anti-air defense chief), Maj. General Hla Htay Win (training), Maj. General Khin Aung Myint (air force), Maj. General Thein Htay (vice chief of staff, ordnance), Maj. Gen. Mya Win (munitions), Brig. Gen. Hla Myint (tanks), Brig. Gen. Kyaw Nyunt (military communications), Brig. Gen. Nyan Tun (engineering), and staff officers. After signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the North Korean side on Nov. 27, according to the report, the Burmese delegation deemed the visit a success. The report concludes: "1. The two militaries will cooperate in the teaching and training of military science. The Burmese military will focus on studying special forces training, military security training, training in tunnel warfare, air defense training, and language training for both countries. 2. The two militaries will cooperate in the building of tunnels for aircraft and ships as well as other underground military installations. The two countries will cooperate to modernize military arms and equipment and will exchange experiences on such matters. As such, the objective and aim of the high-level visit is deemed to be successful." The report makes reference to several appendices that are omitted from the text obtained by RFA. Outings and visits A detailed account in the report includes discussions with North Korean Chief of General Staff Gen. Kim Kyok Sik, visits to weapons and radar factories, and a missile launch site. About one-quarter of the report is devoted to comparing the Chinese and North Korean militaries. It makes no specific mention of any actual or planned military purchases. The report says the Burmese delegation was shown North Korean surface-to-air missiles and rockets, along with naval and air defense systems and tunnel construction, including how Pyongyang stores aircraft and ships underground to protect them from aerial attack. It also describes a Nov. 23 visit to North Korea's National Air Defense Control Center and a Nov. 24 visit to a North Korean naval unit in Nampo. Subsequent outings included tours of an armored division of the North Korean Aerial Defense Corps, the AA Weapons & Rockets Factory, and three underground missile factories, according to the report. North Korean officials also showed the Burmese delegation the USS Pueblo warship, seized by North Korea in 1968 and now docked in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The tour included visits to Pyongyang and to Myohyang, where the government has dug secret tunnels to store jet aircraft, missiles, tanks, and weapons. The delegation also visited a Scud tactical ballistic missile factory outside Pyongyang, the report said. Pyongyang has since the 1980s been a major supplier of Scud missiles to Iran, Egypt, and Syria. Market for North Korea Another recent report by Lintner, the Swedish journalist, claims that North Korean engineers have been actively building a vast network of underground tunnels in Burma. Lintner, author of Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia and Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan, reported that the Burmese junta began tunnel construction with North Korean assistance as early as 2005, when the country's capital was moved to Naypyidaw from Rangoon. Lintner said he regards the report as further evidence of deepening ties between Burma and North Korea, with China-unwilling to sell arms to Burma for fear of alienating major powers-now playing the role of broker. North Korea is likely looking for new arms buyers now that its arms sales to Libya and Pakistan have dried up, he said. "North Korea has a lot of things to offer, and they are willing to sell anyone who can pay for it," Lintner said. "They are looking for a new customer. And Burma seems to be the perfect one." Original reporting by Kyaw Min Htun for RFA's Burmese service. Translated by Soe Thinn. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

15 years, 11 months

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RFA News: Four Uyghur Detainees Realeased in Bermuda

by Sarah Jackson-Han

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2009--Four men belonging to the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group and held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for more than seven years have been released and landed early Thursday in Bermuda, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The four men, part of a larger group of 17 Uyghurs detained after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, landed on the tiny North Atlantic island at about 5:30 a.m., according to Ilshat Helenian, vice president of the Uyghur American Association. The four released men were identified as Abdulla Abduqadir, 30; Helil Mamut, 31; Ablikim Turahun, 38; and Salahidin Ablehet, 32. The location of the remaining 13 Uyghurs wasn't immediately clear. Most of the 17 Muslims from China's remote northwestern Xinjiang province held at the controversial detention facility for suspected terrorists were cleared more than four years ago of being "enemy combatants." The Uyghurs were living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the U.S.-led bombing campaign began in October 2001 as part of the military after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. They fled to the mountains, but were turned over to Pakistani authorities, who then handed them over to the United States. The Chinese government says the men are members of the outlawed East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which Beijing and Washington regard as a terrorist organization. Beijing blames ETIM for a series of violent attacks inside China in recent years. Rights advocates argued against returning them to China for fear they would face torture there. 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. 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 ##### Sarah Jackson-Han News Director, English Radio Free Asia (RFA) jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 530 7774 w 202 907 4613 m

15 years, 12 months

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RFA News: Paint-Throwing at Mao's Portrait Born of Frustration, 1989 Protester Says

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Paint-Throwing at Mao's Portrait Born of Frustration, 1989 Protester Says Go to www.rfa.org/english/news/special/june4/ for news, essays, and never before released videos and photos of the 1989 protests WASHINGTON-China has developed tremendously over the last two decades, but "in terms of political and democratic reforms" the system is unchanged, one of three men jailed for splattering paint on Chairman Mao Zedong's portrait during the 1989 Tiananmen protests has told Radio Free Asia (RFA). Yu Zhijian, who along with fellow paint-thrower Yu Dongyue was just granted U.S. asylum, described their high-profile May 23, 1989 act of vandalism as a product of frustration directed at the Chinese authorities and prompted by the failure of protest leaders to devise a response when Beijing declared martial law. "Before we resorted to the violent behavior, we tried to communicate to the student leaders our assessment of the situation," Yu Zhijian told RFA's Mandarin service in his first interview since arriving in the United States in mid-May. "We felt, as participants in the movement, that there should have been a plan in response to the martial law." "The day after we arrived in Beijing, we joined the crowd that tried to block the PLA [People's Liberation Army] vehicles from entering the city. We talked to the students and ordinary citizens. I felt that they didn't know where the movement was headed," he said. "As there wasn't to be a 'triumphant withdrawal,' the leaders of the movement should have come up with relatively decisive responses. So we proposed three suggestions," he said, including a nationwide strike and a takeover of several key buildings. But on May 21, "when we brought our three suggestions to the Square we didn't see any student leaders. So we gave our proposal to someone whose job was to maintain order at the Square...After that, the movement wasn't headed in the direction that we had hoped," he said. Turned over to police And two days later, "We decided to smear Mao's portrait with eggs containing paint. In our view, the rule by the Chinese Communists from 1949-89 was a Maoist dictatorship," Yu said. "The portrait of Mao Zedong symbolized the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party. We had hoped that our action would lead the participants of the movement to change course and bring the movement back from the brink of failure." The two childhood friends-along with a bus driver named Lu Decheng-hurled 30 eggs filled with paint at the portrait and were quickly seized by student protesters eager to distance themselves from the act and handed over to police. Less than two weeks later, Chinese troops moved in on the protests with tanks and live ammunition, killing hundreds of people and prompting an international outcry. An official blackout on discussion of the crackdown remains in force, 20 years later. "China has witnessed huge changes in the past 20 years. But in terms of political and democratic reforms, it is where it was 20 years ago. There has been no change whatsoever," he said. Mental health damaged Yu Dongyue¸ a former journalist and art critic, was convicted of sabotage and counter-revolutionary propaganda and handed a 20-year jail term. Lu received a 16-year jail term, and Yu Zhijian, a former teacher, drew a life sentence. Lu and Yu Zhijian were paroled in 1998 but Yu Dongyue remained in custody because, officials said, he had never confessed to any wrongdoing. His sentence was cut by two years in 2000 and another 15 months in 2003. Yu Dongyue is the longest-serving known political prisoner sentenced in connection with the 1989 crackdown. He spent several years in solitary confinement and was subjected to beatings and electric shocks, and friends and relatives say his mental health has suffered severely. During an interview here, Yu Dongyue appeared vacant. He spoke haltingly and was unable to answer direct questions. "As you can see, his mental condition is awful, just awful," Yu Zhijian said. "Yu Dongyue spent 17 years in prison. When he was released he was a shadow of his former self. My heart ached when I saw him." Lu was granted asylum in Canada in 2006. Yu Dongyue and Yu Zhijian fled China through Thailand and were granted U.S. asylum last month. Neither man would discuss the route they took to escape China, but Yu Zhijian notably cited Chinese-born human rights activist Harry Wu and his Laogai Foundation, for their assistance. Asked how he regarded the 20th anniversary on Thursday of the June 4, 1989 crackdown, he replied: "My heart is heavy with memories of June 4th. These memories will never be erased from my mind. It is a topic that pains me to bring up, especially when the June 4th anniversary is upon us. I am unable to sleep or eat. My mind is in turmoil. The movement 20 years ago was a noble one and it changed our lives." "The participants were not limited to university students. The general public-in the millions-also took part in it. In our hometown in Hunan, even the peasants stopped working in the fields. They were glued to the television. They were inspired by the patriotism and democratic spirit of the students." Original reporting by He Ping for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated by RFA Mandarin service director Jennifer Chou. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Sarah Jackson-Han News Director, English Radio Free Asia (RFA) jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 530 7774 w 202 907 4613 m

16 years

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RFA News: Zhao Ziyang Tapes Reveal Call for Democracy in China

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Zhao Ziyang Tapes Reveal Call for Democracy For more, go to www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> HONG KONG, May 14, 2009-Twenty years after the People's Liberation Army crushed the student-led pro-democracy movement in China with guns and tanks, a former top Communist Party official has released audio recordings in which former premier Zhao Ziyang calls for parliamentary democracy for China, Radio Frede Asia (RFA) reports. Zhao, who fell into political disgrace in the wake of the crackdown, described it in recordings as "a tragedy to shock the world, which was happening in spite of attempts to avert it." He recalls hearing the sound of "intense gunfire" on the evening of June 3, 1989 while sitting at his Beijing home, where he was held under house arrest until his death. He concludes in extracts read from an unpublished political memoir that the only way forward for China is a parliamentary democracy. "Of course, it is possible that in the future a more advanced political system than parliamentary democracy will emerge," Zhao said. "But that is a matter for the future. At present, there is no other." He said China could not have a healthy economic system, nor become a modern society with the rule of law without democracy. "Instead, it will run into the situations that have occurred in so many developing countries, including China: the commercialization of power, rampant corruption, and a society polarized between rich and poor." Released by aide Zhao's former political aide, Bao Tong, who served a seven-year jail term in the wake of the crackdown, released the tapes ahead of the 20th anniversary of the violent suppression of the 1989 student movement, in which hundreds, perhaps more than 1,000, died. "Zhao Ziyang left behind a set of audio recordings. These are his legacy," Bao wrote to RFA's Mandarin service from under house arrest at his Beijing home. "Zhao Ziyang's legacy is for all of China's people. It is my job to transmit them to the world in the form of words and to arrange things," he said. "Their contents have implications for a history that is still influencing the people of China to this day. The key theme of this history is reform," Bao said. Authorities in Beijing suppressed any public displays of grief for Zhao in the days after his death on Jan. 17, 2005, detaining dozens of people for wearing white flowers in his honor or attempting to pay their respects at the former premier's home. Zhao was openly mourned by thousands in the former British colony of Hong Kong, however, where is seen by many as a symbol of the territory's own struggle for political change. Educating China's youth Bao said his purpose in releasing the tapes, which he described as "political task," was partly to educate a whole generation of young people in China who had never heard of Zhao Ziyang. "On the mainland at the current time, this part of history has been sealed off and distorted, so it will be useful to discuss some of this history for younger readers." "The name of Zhao Ziyang was erased from news media, books and periodicals, and the historical record within China," Bao wrote in a six-part essay accompanying the tapes, titled "The Historical Background to the Zhao Ziyang Recordings." "Zhao wanted to address the issues of official corruption and democracy which were the concerns of most ordinary Chinese people, using the principle of the rule of law," Bao wrote of the conflict between his former political mentor and late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping. "He wanted to instigate reforms of China's political system alongside deepening economic reforms, concentrating the attention of the whole of society onto the issue of reforms." The Chinese authorities have already begun tightening security in and around Beijing ahead of the sensitive anniversary. Articles and forum posts connected in any way to the events of 20 years ago are being deleted regularly from Chinese cyberspace, including an appeal for the rehabilitation of Zhao and Hu Yaobang, whose death on April 15, 1989 triggered the student movement. Original reporting by RFA's Mandarin service. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Sarah Jackson-Han News Director, English Radio Free Asia (RFA) jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 530 7774 w/202 907 4613 m

16 years

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RFA News: Burmese Medicines Sickened Refugee Children

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Burmese Medicines Sickened Refugee Children Also on www.rfa.org: Loyal Burmese Businessmen Urged To Run in 2010 Polls www.rfa.org/english/news/burma/business-03312009123802.html Tibetan Monk Beaten to Death www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/monk-death-03302009161540.html U.S. health officials have found lead and arsenic in traditional Burmese medications used by refugee families. Are children back in Burma also affected? BANGKOK and WASHINGTON, March 31, 2009-Burmese children in the United States who took two commonly used household medications from Burma were found to have high levels of lead and arsenic in their blood, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The poisoning was discovered in 32 Burmese refugee children who were resettled in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the United States from refugee camps in Thailand. "All refugees are tested when they come into the country for several things," said Loraine Hagerty, special projects manager of the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation, which has been helping the Fort Wayne refugees. "It was found that there were a number of Burmese refugee children who had tested positive for lead poisoning," said Hagerty, whose organization works closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to run the tests. "And when additional tests were conducted on their arrival in Indiana, we found more instances of lead poisoning amongst the Burmese refugee children," she told RFA's Burmese service. Indiana-based Burmese doctor Khin Mar Oo said follow-up tests were currently under way on the affected children. Homes surveyed "When tests were conducted by the schools, they found that the lead levels in the Burmese refugee children were quite high," Khin Mar Oo, who runs an organization helping Burmese refugees in Fort Wayne, said. "At first it was thought that these lead levels were brought about during their stay on the Thai-Burma border," she said. "But then they found that ... not only were the lead levels high in the Burmese refugee children who had come from Thailand, but also in some of the refugee children born in the U.S." Health-care workers and medical experts from the CDC visited the homes of the affected children in early February to look for clues in their environment, diet, and medications. Tests on building materials and drinking water yielded no evidence of lead or arsenic, so experts began questioning the children about their daily routines, Hagerty said. "We actually went from door to door and asked them a lot of questions about the products that they use in their homes, habits that their children have, what they drink and eat and what kinds of medication they took, taking samples of their medication and testing them at the laboratories," she said. Children's medicine pinpointed The source of the lead and arsenic was finally narrowed down to two types of Burmese medicine called "Daw Tway" and "Daw Kyin" medicines, specifically aimed at children. The two medicines are commonly used in rural households all over Burma. An official who answered the phone in the national food and drug administration of Burma's Health Ministry said he was unaware of the problem. "[We] did not pass those medicines," he said. "Maybe it went through the department of indigenous medicines." U Tin Nyunt, director general of Burma's department of indigenous medicines, said the remedies could have come out before 2007. "I don't think these medicines are what we have on the market today," he said. "They are most likely to be medicines from earlier times ... We have machines that can test heavy metals in medicines, and if they are found in medicines we will revoke the production license of the producer," he said. 'No announcements' heard But he said he had been unable to crack down on substandard medications produced before he took office. "Since I took over responsibility here we have absolutely not permitted this at all," he said. "We are doing all of this within the policies and regulations." The packaging on the two medicines found among the Burmese refugees in Indiana was dated September 2007. A housewife based in the former capital, Rangoon, said she had seen no media reports concerning these medicines. "People living in rural areas, especially the parents of children, are still using these medicines," she said. "They are still selling these medicines." Cheap alternative "There have been no announcements with regard to these medicines. When I heard this, I was quite alarmed because the children depend on these medicines," she said. These traditional remedies, at about 50 kyat (a few U.S. cents), were far cheaper than a visit to a clinic or hospital, which could run into thousands of kyat, she said. A total of 12,000 children have been diagnosed with lead poisoning among refugee communities in the U.S. states of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri, according to health sources. The CDC is expected to release a detailed report next month on the reasons for the lead poisoning among U.S. refugee families. Common problem Issues such as this are not uncommon among refugees, said Steve Weil, co-founder of the Virginia-based nonprofit Coalition for Environmentally Safe Communities. "There are any number of these products," said Weil, whose organization is working with Denver-based Mercy Housing to conduct workshops aimed at educating U.S. health and refugee workers around the country about lead poisoning. The workshops are funded by the U.S. Health and Human Services department. The last of three workshops is scheduled for April 2 in Indianapolis, Weil said. Remedies originating abroad are often inconsistent in their lead content, with one batch containing toxic lead levels and another with little or none, Weil said. Original reporting by Nyi Nyi and Kyaw Min Htun for RFA's Burmese service. Translated by Soe Thinn. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written and produced in English by Luisetta Mudie and Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Sarah Jackson-Han News Director, English Radio Free Asia (RFA) jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 530 7774 w 202 907 4613 m

16 years, 2 months

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RFA News: Chinese Dissident's Family Defects

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Chinese Dissident's Family Defects Also on www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> North Korean Bans Foreign Cars www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/nkoreacars-03102009112654.html Mental Health Cases Sweep China www.rfa.org/english/news/china/health-03112009153434.html Buddha Images Stolen in Laos www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/laosstolenartifacts-03092009170008.html WASHINGTON, March 12, 2009-The wife and children of a top civil rights lawyer under close surveillance by the Chinese authorities have arrived in the United States after walking across the border to Thailand, Gao Zhisheng's wife Geng He has told Radio Free Asia (RFA). Geng said her daughter, 15, and son, 5, had suffered "great hardship" in China from living under virtual house arrest in their Beijing home. "I left China because my family had been under tight surveillance for a long time. We experienced-in our careers and daily life-great hardship and difficulty," Geng told RFA's Mandarin service in her first interview since arriving in the United States on March 11 to seek asylum. "My daughter was unable to attend school. Because she was unable to attend school, she tried to commit suicide several times," Geng said. "I had no place to turn. So I fled with my children." Geng said she had left a note for Gao, an Army veteran who lost his law license after he criticized the government for its treatment of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. Gao began a rolling hunger strike among fellow civil rights activists to protest the ill-treatment of lawyers and rights activists at the hands of police and local government officials. "I left a note for my husband that I was leaving with the children," Geng said. "I said in my note that our daughter is miserable because she couldn't attend school. I said I was miserable and I had to take the kids and leave," said Geng, in tears. Dangerous route through Thailand Geng and her children left China on Jan. 9 and arrived in Thailand on Jan. 16, leaving for the United States on March 10. Describing the family's dramatic escape, Geng said they first left Beijing very quietly, unnoticed by the state security police who usually followed them. "We could not travel by air. We took a train," Geng said, adding that Gao was unable to accompany them because he couldn't throw off the police on his tail. "Eventually, with the help of friends, we freed ourselves from police surveillance and we walked to another country," she said. Geng said friends who helped her leave China were members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. "We walked day and night. It was extremely hard. I did not even know the names of some of the towns we passed through." "It was extraordinarily difficult to get us out of China. The friends who helped us escape took enormous pains, some even risking their own lives," Geng said. She said she hadn't been in touch with Gao since leaving China. "On Feb. 4, when we had arrived in the second country, I heard from a friend that he had been detained. I am very worried," said Geng, who has no idea of Gao's whereabouts. 'Very fragile state' Now in the United States, Geng said she has few specific plans. "The first step is to get here and to give my daughter a chance to heal her mental scars," she said. "She is in a very fragile state. When she feels better, I will arrange for her to get an education. It's important to get an education." She said her son asked repeatedly for Gao, and whether his father had been sent to prison again. Gao's whereabouts remained unclear for months after he was subjected to a secret trial by the authorities on unspecified subversion charges in 2006. Lauded by China's own Justice Ministry as one of China's Top 10 lawyers in 2001 for his pro bono work in helping poor people sue government officials over corruption and mistreatment, Gao was once a member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. He resigned from the Party in 2005. Gao's fortunes took a sharp downturn after he wrote an open letter to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in October 2005 urging them to end the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, detailing a range of abuses they suffer in custody, including torture, beatings, and execution. Report on abuses In its most recent report on human rights around the world, the U.S. State Department noted that Gao's whereabouts remained unknown. It also noted the authorities had revoked the professional licenses of several prominent lawyers, including Gao and of Teng Biao, who offered to represent Tibetans taken into custody for their role in the March 2008 Tibetan uprising in Lhasa. "Government-employed lawyers often refused to represent defendants in politically sensitive cases, and defendants frequently found it difficult to find an attorney," the report said. "Officials deployed a wide range of tactics to obstruct the work of lawyers representing sensitive clients, including unlawful detentions, disbarment, intimidation, refusal to allow a case to be tried before a court, and physical abuse." Original reporting in Mandarin by Tang Qiwei. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Written for the Web in English. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> ##### Sarah Jackson-Han News Director, English Radio Free Asia (RFA) jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 530 7774 w 202 907 4613 m

16 years, 2 months

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RFA News: Lawyer for Guantanamo Bay Uyghurs Vows To Fight

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Lawyer for Guantanamo Bay Uyghurs Vows To Fight Also on www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> Defiant Vietnamese Cyber-Dissident Freed www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/release-02182009154739.html Khmer Rouge Trial Lawyers Clash www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/hearing-02192009121437.html WASHINGTON-The lead lawyer for 17 ethnic Uyghurs held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is vowing to fight a new legal order keeping the men in U.S. military custody and is calling on U.S. President Barack Obama to free them quickly, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. "We are bloodied but unbowed. We will fight this," Sabin Willet, who represents the 17 Uyghurs-Muslims from China's northwestern Xinjiang region-said in a telephone interview on his way back from visiting the men at Guantanamo Bay. "Precisely what our next legal filing will be we have not decided, but the courts have not heard the last from us," said Willet, who spent all day Thursday with the detainees and translator Rushan Abbas at Guantanamo. "There is a mechanism for seeking further review in the Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court is a second option." On Wednesday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed an earlier ruling that the Uyghurs-who have been cleared of the terrorism charges on which they were initially detained-must be released in the United States. The panel said a federal judge who ordered the men released into the United States in October 2008 lacks the authority to make such a ruling, and that only the executive branch can make such a determination. The Uyghurs have remained at Guantanamo because the United States has been unable to find a country willing to take them and won't return them to China because they would face persecution there. Albania, which took in five other Uyghurs in 2006 after they were released from Guantanamo, has balked at welcoming the others-apparently fearing reprisals from Beijing. The 17 detainees "are deeply disappointed and frustrated," Willet said. "They were a few hours from freedom on Oct. 9... This is a long time to be in a military prison. There is deep disappointment and frustration among these men." "At the same time we mean to remind President Obama every day that this is his problem. The court concluded that the courts can't solve this problem, and that's wrong, but that's what they concluded," Willet said. Obama "can solve this problem, and he should do it, and he should do it tomorrow morning," he said. Willet said his clients were being held in better conditions recently, with military officials "working hard in the last two weeks to arrange calls" between the detainees and their families. The Uyghur detainees resettled in Albania have tried to send letters to the Uyghurs still held at Guantanamo, he said, although whether they reached Guantanamo was unclear. He also said his request for a phone call to his clients from the Uyghurs in Albania hasn't been met. Previous order The Obama administration has vowed to close Guantanamo within a year but hasn't decided what to do with the 245 detainees still held in custody there. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled in October that there was no evidence the detainees were "enemy combatants" or a security risk and ordered them freed to live with Uyghur families in the United States. The Chinese government says the men are members of the outlawed East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which Beijing and Washington regard as a terrorist organization. Beijing blames ETIM for a series of violent attacks inside China in recent years. Uyghurs twice enjoyed short-lived independence after declaring the state of East Turkestan during the 1930s and 40s, and many oppose Beijing's rule in the region. Chinese officials have said Uyghur extremists plotted terrorist strikes during the Beijing Olympics. Original reporting by Sarah Jackson-Han in Washington. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 3 months

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RFA News: Burmese Prisoners Killed After Cyclone

by Joshua Lipes

Burmese Prisoners Killed After Cyclone Burmese guards beat prisoners and deprived them of food after a riot following last year's cyclone. A group of survivors was sentenced on Jan. 11 to additional terms of 2-12 years. Also on www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> Asian Women in their own words www.rfa.org/english/news/women <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/women> BANGKOK-Guards at Burma's Insein Prison beat scores of inmates following a disturbance nine months ago, according to sources who asked not to be named. Nine of the prisoners later died from their injuries, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The beatings occurred during questioning aimed at identifying prisoners who rioted after the prison was damaged by Cyclone Nargis. After being beaten, the men were denied water for four days and food for 11 days. "They told us they would give us food if we confessed," a prisoner said. "But even after some confessed, we didn't get any food. Then, 11 days later, we began to receive a spoonful of rice puree twice a day." Rioting at Insein Prison broke out after the prison was pummeled by Cyclone Nargis beginning around midnight on May 2. The storm tore zinc roofs off some of the prison's colonial-era buildings and left prisoners exposed for several hours to heavy rains and wind, according to RFA's Burmese service. Frustrated at the long delay in being moved, prisoners in storm-damaged Halls No. 3 and 4 threatened to break out of their cells. Then, as prisoners in the damaged buildings were being relocated, the assistant warden and more than 20 armed guards began to argue with the prisoners and fired gunshots into the air. "One of the bullets hit an iron bar, ricocheted off the wall, and hit a prisoner named Thein San in the chest," a prisoner said. "The rest of the prisoners tried to hide, and some of the younger prisoners in Hall No. 8 started a fire." Suspects questioned, beaten Authorities then moved prisoners suspected of taking part in the disturbance to a central part of the prison, where they were questioned and beaten on their heads and backs, sources said. Prisoners who were beaten included Wai Moe, Khin Kyaw, Soe Kyaw Kyaw, Tun Lin Aung, and Aye Min Oo, according to friends of the men's families.Interrogations continued for several weeks and ended with 103 prisoners identified as rioters, with 41 identified as key leaders. On Jan. 11, a special court inside Insein handed down sentences of two years each to 28 participants in the riot. Wai Moe and six others were given 12 years each for arson, damaging public property, and leading the riot, according to sources close to the trial and the prisoners. But Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) spokesman Bo Kyi said that it is the prison authorities themselves who should have been charged with crimes. "Under international conventions, beatings and other forms of torture should not be used as punishments in prison procedure," he said. "The perpetrators of such beatings should be convicted for their actions. If they are not, we must assume that torturing prisoners is state policy." Original reporting in Burmese by Kyaw Min Htun. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written for the Web in English by Richard Finney. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Joshua Lipes Online Copy Editor Radio Free Asia 2025 M Street, NW Washington DC, 20036 (202) 266-4094 CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION This e-mail message is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. Any unauthorized dissemination, distribution, or copying is strictly prohibited. If you receive this transmission in error, please contact network(a)rfa.org <mailto:network@rfa.org> . Visit us at www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

16 years, 3 months

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Asia Society/Radio Free Asia: Reception with Author Yiyun Li on Feb. 18, Washington DC

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Radio Free Asia & the Asia Society present award-winning author Yiyun Li, who will discuss her new novel The Vagrants. Date: February 18th Time: 6:40 - 8:15 pm Location: Radio Free Asia, 2025 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Ground-floor conference center. Cost: Asia Society members and RFA staff $5, nonmembers $10. Please RSVP at https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=375965 RSVP deadline: noon, Tuesday, February 17th. Set in China in the late 1970s and inspired by author Yiyun Li's own experiences, The Vagrants is a deeply imaginative, beautifully realized story of life in the provincial city of Muddy River. "Magnificent. . . . Li records these events dispassionately and with such a magisterial sense of direction that the reader can't help being drawn into the novel, like a sleeper trapped in an anxiety dream." - Publishers Weekly (Starred review) A young woman from Muddy River, Gu Shan, always a bold spirit and a former follower of the late Chairman Mao, has renounced her faith in communism. A political prisoner, she is to be executed for her dissention. Her distraught mother, determined to follow the superstitious custom of burning her only child's clothing for the journey to the next world, is about to make another bold decision. Her father, who has already buried his rebellious daughter in his mind and heart, begins to retreat into memories of the past. Neither can imagine that their daughter's execution will have profound and far-reaching effects on other people, in their town, and in Beijing beyond. Yiyun Li is a winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, and the Guardian First Book Award. She grew up in Beijing and attended Peking University. She came to the United States in 1996 to study medicine and started writing two years later. After receiving a master's degree in immunology from the University of Iowa, she attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received an MFA. The author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Li was selected for a Whiting Award and named by Granta as one of best young American novelists. Yiyun Li teaches at the University of California, Davis and lives in Oakland, California. Sarah Jackson-Han, Media Relations Director at Radio Free Asia and formerly with NPR and Agence France-Presse, will moderate the discussion. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> ##### Sarah Jackson-Han Director, Media Relations Radio Free Asia (RFA) jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 530 7774 w 202 907 4613 m

16 years, 3 months

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RFA News: Party Interests 'Drive China, ' Civil Rights Movement Holds Key: Former Top Cadre

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Party Interests 'Drive China,' Civil Rights Movement Holds Key: Former Top Cadre Go to www.rfa.org for more HONG KONG, Jan. 5, 2009-China's ruling Communist Party is a highly efficient political machine that drives the country's 1.3 billion people with scant regard for their welfare, a former top official has said in a series of essays broadcast by Radio Free Asia (RFA). In a blistering conclusion to a series of essays for RFA's Mandarin service to mark the 30th anniversary of China's economic reforms, Bao Tong, former aide to the late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, said the main hope for political reform now lies with the country's civil rights movement, as its citizens increasingly begin to invoke rights already enshrined in law to protect themselves against abuse. "It is a system engineered to make sure the people are governed by the interests of the Party, engineered so that the Party can drive China's billion-strong population before it in any direction it chooses," Bao wrote from his Beijing home, where he has been under house arrest after serving a seven-year jail term in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. "It doesn't matter what the task is; the system is up to the challenge, up to mowing down everything in its path, however fruitful, up to dealing with sudden incidents, up to trying the signatories to Charter 08 in court; there is nothing it can't handle smoothly," he said, referring to a recent document signed by more than 300 intellectuals and rights activists which called for political reform. "Of all the grass-roots movements that have happened in the past 10 years, the one most worthy of notice is the civil rights movement," said Bao, citing government figures detailing tens of thousands of "mass incidents" across China every year: one every five minutes. Bao lashed out in an earlier essay at late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, credited with launching China's economic reforms in 1978 and lauded in a series of official media features looking back over the last 30 years of economic growth. Bao also launched a stinging attack on the "terrifying juggernaut" that is China's one-Party state, saying it is now capable of driving all before it and now acts entirely in its own interests. The process of reforms was derailed after the 1989 crackdown, Bao said, and is now reformist only in name. China's chief hope for change still lies with grassroots activists around the country, he said. "The civil rights movement is extending its influence into every domain: from appeals and complaints about grievances and official wrongdoing, to health and safety, to land and property rights, to the right to religious freedom, to the right to ethnic autonomy, to the right to supervise those in power, and the right to self-expression and to vote," Bao said. "[This is] a phenomenon which is both unstoppable and impossible to hide." Original essays in Chinese by Bao Tong, broadcast on RFA's Mandarin service. Director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. Bao Tong's 30th anniversary essays in English: * Party Interests 'Drive China' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-01052009131839.html> * China 'in Political Dead End' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12312008181844.html> * China's Economy 'No Miracle' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12302008123051.html> * 'Two Faces' of Deng Xiaoping <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12292008165015.html> * A Pivotal Moment For China <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/thirdplenum-12272008165259.html> * Why China Had to Reform <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12272008095946.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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> #####

16 years, 5 months

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RFA News: ?Two-Faced? Portrait of China?s Paramount Leader Deng Xiaopeng

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Two-Faced Portrait of Chinas Paramount Leader Deng Xiaopeng HONG KONG, Dec. 29, 2008A former top aide to late ousted Chinese Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang has written a stinging attack on Deng Xiaoping, who is credited with launching China on the path to economic reform 30 years ago this month, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. Bao Tong, under house arrest at his Beijing home since completing a seven-year prison term in the wake of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, published his personal reminiscences of Deng in six parts to mark the 30th anniversary of Chinas reforms. Dengs two-sidedness was like a pendulum, wrote Bao, whose voice is never heard publicly now in China, and whose essay was published in response to a wave of official eulogies for Deng and the economic reforms he permitted to take root. One minute he wanted reforms, the next he was resolutely upholding the four basic principles of socialism: One minute he wanted to escape from a political dead end, the next he had returned to it, Bao said in his essay, broadcast on RFAs Mandarin service. If he had been in primary school, his teacher would have suggested he spend a little time studying logic. If he were an ordinary person, he would have been the subject of ridicule, or of patient explanations. Saving the Party Deng, according to Bao, believed himself a man with single mission: to save not China, nor its people, but the Communist Party. People are often bemused by his inconsistency, he said. But Dengs own sense of himself was in good shape. He thought he was doing fine, because he was set apart from ordinary people. Bao said that while Deng tried to present himself as a son of the people, the Chinese people were a rather distant and hazy phenomenon for this leader who lived his life in the corridors of power, completely absorbed in its workings. He was the embodiment of the Party; he carried its spirit, Bao wrote. Louis XIV said Letat, cest moi. Well, Deng was the Party. Deng, according to Bao, knew very well that the only system that would prevent a recurrence of the Cultural Revolution was a democratic one; but he resolutely opposed the separation of powers to preserve the Partys monopoly on power." He would occasionally speak some high-flown talk of democracy, but that was just to keep up his image as a man of the people, to win the affection of the people on behalf of the Party, but the charade was never to become a reality, Bao wrote. Behind his apparent double-sidedness was a single-mindedness that was pure Party spirit, a clear guiding principle that ran through the apparent confusion. Far from being a liberal-minded reformer, Deng wasnt interested in economics, nor did he understand how markets worked, Bao said. Instead, he saw a way to breathe life into the floundering Communist Party in the wake of the turmoil of the Mao era, and took it. Bao said Deng never intended to allow liberalism to flourish in China. A lot of observers seem to think that free economic competition will naturally bring democratic politics in its train; that economic reforms will not just call for but will inevitably push forward political reform. But Deng Xiaoping made his calculations on a different abacus, Bao wrote. The price of reform The price of economic reforms was the sacrifice of any hope for future political reform. I believe that this was Dengs bottom line, and to cross it was to walk the path of liberalism, and the road to chaos; it was no less than treason. Bao said the fall of reformers Hu Yaobang and his former political mentor Zhao Ziyang, who died in January 2005, was inevitable given Dengs focus on maintaining Party rule. Hus death sparked demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, which led to the military crackdown and Zhaos ouster. Original essay broadcast on RFAs Mandarin service. Director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Sarah Jackson-Han Media Relations Director Radio Free Asia jacksonhans(a)rfa.org 202 907 4613

16 years, 5 months

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RFA News: Media Ban on China's Charter Activists

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Media Ban on China's Charter Activists HONG KONG-China's powerful Central Propaganda Department has ordered a crackdown on Chinese media workers who signed a document which called this month for sweeping political reforms, a management executive at a state-run media organization said, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The message was given orally by the department, which is charged by the ruling Communist Party with ensuring that China's media toe the Party line, the executive said. It was aimed at anyone who had signed Charter 08, a document published online in early December, sparking a flurry of interrogations, police searches, and detentions. "It wasn't as if there was a written order issued by the Central Propaganda Department. Nowadays the Central Propaganda Department rarely issues written orders. Instructions are conveyed orally," the executive told RFA's Mandarin service. He said media outlets had been barred from interviewing anyone who signed the charter and from carrying articles penned by signatories. Some journalists had received visits or phone calls warning them "not to go to extremes," he added. Charter 08, signed by more than 300 prominent scholars, writers, and rights activists around the country, called for concerned Chinese citizens to rally to bring about change, citing an increasing loss of control by the ruling Communist Party and heightened hostility between the authorities and ordinary people. It called for a genuine use of the Constitution and institutions that uphold the rule of law, democratic reforms, and human rights, warning of disaster amid growing social tensions if change is not implemented soon. Several of the Charter's signatories were detained, their homes searched, or they were questioned and placed under surveillance even before the document had been published online. One journalist at a state-run media organization who signed Charter 08 also said he had received a phone call from his boss, telling him not to bother submitting any more articles. He said the reason given was his involvement with the Charter. Beijing-based rights activist Zhou Guoqiang, himself a signatory, said the authorities want to force Chinese journalists to show where their loyalties lie. "The policy is meant to intimidate those who have not yet signed the Charter," Zhou said. "It's like saying, you make the choice: either sign or carry on writing." Along with professional journalists and editors, the decision will likely affect scholars and academics who contribute to the media. Xu Youyu, a researcher with the Institute of Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he had signed the Charter. "Recently a magazine asked me to write articles for a column," Xu said. "When I asked for approval from my superiors I was told that I couldn't do it." "But I can't say for certain if it was because I had signed the Charter," Xu added. Slap at government The Charter hit out at China's government for "clinging" to an authoritarian political way of life. "It has caused an unbroken chain of human rights disasters and social crises, held back the development of the Chinese people, and hindered the progress of human civilization," it said. A former reporter with state-run China Central Television (CCTV) surnamed Li said the government was trying to strong-arm the media. "Not allowing them to publish articles after they signed the Charter, such is the behavior of thugs," Li said. "The ideas advocated in Charter 08 are the kind of things that a government should endeavor to achieve." Meanwhile, Zan Aizong, former reporter with China Ocean News, said he doubted Beijing would be able to exert total control. "More than 300 people signed the Charter initially. And so many more people have subsequently expressed support for it. Numerous articles have been written about it. It's impossible for them to have total control," Zan said. Many writers and academics were among the Charter signatories detained and questioned earlier this month. They included constitutional scholar Zhang Zuhua and Beijing-based independent writer Liu Xiaobo. Deputy chairman of the writers' group Independent Chinese PEN Jiang Qisheng was interrogated by police for two hours after he signed Charter 08, and Hangzhou-based scholar Wen Kejian was also questioned. The Beijing home of writer Yu Jie, in the United States at the time, was also surrounded by police around the time that the Charter was published. Original reporting in Mandarin by Qiao Long. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 5 months

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RFA News: Vietnam To Police Blogs With Random Checks, Self-Reporting

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Vietnam To Police Blogs With Random Checks, Self-Reporting Also on www.rfa.org: North Korean Prison Memoir Paints Grim Picture www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/book-11162008180959.html/extracts-1119200 8085805.html Korean Leaflet War Escalates www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/korea-12092008081506.html BANGKOK-Vietnamese authorities plan to police the content of dissident blogs through random checks and self-policing by the country's blogging community, a senior Vietnamese Internet security expert has told Radio Free Asia (RFA) "There should be a legal corridor to assure better operation of the blogs," the director of the state-run Bach Khoa Internet Security Center, Nguyen Tu Quang, told RFA's Vietnamese service. "We'll manage them by randomly checking-we don't need to control all the blogs." "When we create a legal corridor, determining what is legal and what is a violation of Vietnamese law, the blog community will detect such things on its own and will let the government know of violations," Quang said. Earlier this month, Information and Communication Deputy Minister Do Quy Doan was quoted as saying Hanoi would seek cooperation from Internet giants Google and Yahoo! to help "regulate" the country's flourishing blogging scene. The government will soon announce new rules, stressing that Weblogs should serve as personal online diaries and not organs to disseminate opinions about politics, religion, and society, senior officials were quoted as saying. The regulations aim "to create a legal base for bloggers and related agencies to tackle violations in the area of blogging," said Information and Communication Deputy Minister Do Quy Doan, according to the official Thanh Nien daily. The ministry "will contact Google and Yahoo! for cooperation in creating the best and the healthiest environment for bloggers," he added. Quang, speaking in a telephone interview, said getting help from Google and Yahoo! would be helpful but not critical. "Our effort to detect blogs will be more convenient if we can get help from the Internet companies," he said, but added: "We can detect blogs without help from Internet companies." Quang said under the draft rules being debated violators could face up to U.S. $12,000 in fines and up to 12 years of jail time. Wary of online content According to recent government figures, nearly one in four Vietnamese use the Internet. Activity in Vietnam's blogosphere has recently increased and Hanoi is becoming more wary of online content it considers politically threatening. Authorities currently block some Web sites run by overseas Vietnamese that espouse views critical of the government, and they often seek to shut down anything seen as encouraging public protest. In September, blogger Dieu Cay was jailed for 2-1/2 years on tax evasion charges after he tried to persuade people to protest at the Olympic torch ceremonies in Ho Chi Minh City last summer. Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom monitoring group, called on authorities to release the cyber-dissident, whose real name is Nguyen Hoang Hai, and said that he was being unjustly targeted because of his outspoken criticism of China's claims over disputed South China Sea islands. Vietnam's government is also extremely cautious of internal issues that could anger its northern neighbor. Abide by local laws Robert Boorstin, director of policy communications at Google, said his company hadn't been contacted with a specific request from the Vietnamese government but is aware of the plans to further regulate bloggers in the country. "We believe that blogs are an expression of a person's personal opinions, whether those opinions concern culture, art, their daily life, or politics-whatever they want to talk about. We don't censor based on the content of blogs and would not want to do so," Boorstin said. Boorstin said Google censors "a great deal less" than other search engines around the world, but he added, "If we don't abide by local laws, we will be thrown out" of certain countries. He said that Google's policy in China, where authorities restrict much of what may be accessed by netizens, is to filter results from its search engine according to local laws, but to clearly show users that results are blocked. Google also refuses to offer its email or blogging service in China because this would force the company to operate servers within the country from which authorities could request personal information about users. "That is the kind of place where we draw the line and say 'No, we're not going to venture into those kinds of services because the risk to individual freedom and the risk to our users' privacy is too great,'" Boorstin said. "We push the limits as far as we can push them without being told to pack up our bags and leave the country, because we don't want to leave countries where we're providing a service of information to people. It may not be every single piece of information that we want them to have, but much better they have access to huge new quantities of information than the other choice, which is to show them nothing at all." Original reporting by Mac Lam and Thien Gao for RFA's Vietnamese service. Vietnamese service director: Diem Nguyen. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes and Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> #####

16 years, 6 months

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RFA News: in Nanchang, Chinese Authorities Enforce Switch from Microsoft

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Chinese Authorities Enforce Switch from Microsoft Also on www.rfa.org: North Korean Prison Memoir Paints Grim Picture www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/book-11162008180959.html/extracts-1119200 8085805.html Asian Women in their own words www.rfa.org/english/news/women HONG KONG-Authorities in the southeastern Chinese city of Nanchang are requiring all local Internet cafes to replace their Microsoft Windows XP operating systems with a Chinese-made system, Red Flag Linux, officials and Internet cafe owners have told Radio Free Asia (RFA). An official with the Nanchang Cultural Discipline Team, which oversees the roughly 600 internet cafes operating in Nanchang city, said the new operating systems were mandatory. "We have already started installing the new software in all Internet cafes. All of them must have this new one," he told RFA's Mandarin service. The switch was mandated by the Nanchang Cultural Management Bureau in what it said was an effort to crack down on pirated software, local sources said. But cafe managers said the new system requires a licensing fee of 5,000 yuan (about U.S. $726), and that even legitimate, non-pirated copies of Windows XP were being replaced. "Our district cultural management authorities came and installed the new Red Flag Linux in all of our 13 Internet cafes," one cafe worker said. "It happened around Nov. 20, and we all paid the 5,000 yuan installation fee, even though we used to use legally purchased Windows XP. But I don't think this new system is as good as the old one." A new, legitimate copy of Windows XP costs around 899 yuan (about U.S. $130) in China, plus 15 yuan for shipping. Unwelcome switch Whether Nanchang authorities were enforcing an order from higher up, and whether the directive might apply elsewhere in China, wasn't immediately clear. An Internet cafe owner surnamed Chen said the switch was unwelcome."Every Internet cafe has to install the new software though none of us wants it. There's no other choice," he said. "We've been facing a number of new charges. Not long ago, the police asked us to install personal ID scanners for 3,800 yuan (U.S. $550). Now we're charged for this new software. We don't know what we will be charged for next. So I wouldn't pay, and I'm closing my business." Cafe owners complained online this week about paying licensing fees for an operating system that can be downloaded free for personal use. "How much of the charge goes to the Red Flag Linux Co. and how much to the cultural management authorities in Nanchang?" one post read. An employee at Red Flag Linux's developer, Beijing Zhongke Red Flag Software Co., confirmed that the system is free for personal use but couldn't comment on whether businesses are ever required to buy licenses. Suspected censorship Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California-Berkeley, said he saw the move to Linux as an effort to tighten censorship and step up surveillance online. "It mainly means [a] less secure and private communication environment for netizens in those Internet cafes," Xiao said. "The authorities are gaining more control." "China has a vast number of small Internet cafes, and a huge proportion of them are in a quasi-legal area. By forcing all Internet cafes to change operating systems, the authorities are making them register...and therefore all kinds of policing and surveillance software will be installed at all these large and small Internet cafes as well." Red Flag Linux was created by the Software Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. Financial backing came from a government-owned firm, ShangHai NewMargin Venture Capital. According to the U.S.-based Business Software Alliance, Chinese piracy accounted for almost U.S. $6.7 billion in losses in 2007, up from U.S. $5.4 billion a year earlier. Original reporting by Ding Xiao for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated by Chen Ping. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 6 months

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RFA News Exclusive: North Korean Prison Memoir Paints Grim Picture

by Sarah Jackson-Han

North Korean Prison Memoir Paints Grim Picture Also on www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> Asian Women in their own words www.rfa.org/english/news/women <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/women> SEOUL-He's written a book about growing up in one of North Korea's most brutal prison camps, but Shin Dong Hyuk grows quiet when asked about his past. After writing Escape to the Outside World, "I thought I had rid myself of my scars-I felt uplifted, as if I'd gotten a big burden off my chest," Shin said in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA). Even his nightmares stopped. Shin was born in 1982 in North Korea's Camp No. 14 in Kaechon, South Pyongan province, north of Pyongyang. North Korea uses guilt by association to keep the public in line, human rights groups say. Shin's father was imprisoned because his relatives had escaped to South Korea. Shin is the first North Korean known in the West to have escaped from a North Korean prison camp, and his life was spent in the grimmest of circumstances: a total-control zone, where inmates are worked to death. Read extracts below from his unprecedented memoir of growing up in one of North Korea's most brutal prison camps, translated into English for the first time: Camp Rules: The 10 Commandments 1. Do not attempt to escape. The punishment is death. 2. Never gather in groups of over three people or move around without the guard's authorization. The punishment for unauthorized movement is death. 3. Do not steal. If one steals or possesses weapons, the punishment is death. The punishment for failure to report the theft or possession of weapons is death. 4. Obey your guards. If one rebels or hits a guard, the punishment is death. 5. If you see outsiders, or suspicious-looking people, report them immediately. The punishment for abetting in the hiding of outsiders is death. 6. Keep an eye on your fellow prisoners and report inappropriate behavior without delay. One should criticize others for inappropriate behavior, and also conduct thorough self-criticism in revolutionary ideology class. 7. Fulfill your assigned duties. The punishment for rebelling against one's duties is death. 8. Men and women may not be together outside the workplace. The punishment for unauthorized physical contact between a man and a woman is death. 9. Admit and confess your wrongdoings. The punishment for disobedience and refusal to repent is death. 10. The punishment for trespassing camp laws and rules is death. Childbirth, vaccinations and medical care A couple of weeks before childbirth and about one month after, women get maternity leave. That simply means that they are assigned work that can be done from home, while looking after their babies. One month after childbirth, every mother has to return to her workplace, carrying the baby on her back. While planting rice, women have to lay their babies down by the paddy. While mothers are working, the elders also have to work. There is no child care in the camp, and this lack of care often proves lethal to the babies. I remember getting my vaccinations when I entered school in 1988. That was the first and last time I was vaccinated against infectious diseases. There was one clinic inside the camp, with one doctor, assisted by a nurse, who was a prisoner herself. Regardless of how badly hurt one may be, getting out of the camp is not an option. The doctor and nurse use a saline solution to clean wounds, and patients are asked to come back in a week. It goes without saying that the workplace supervisor's approval is needed prior to the follow-up visit to the clinic, and refusal to grant that approval is rather common. After the guards cut off my middle finger, I was taken to the clinic and given medical attention, but without any anesthesia whatsoever. Prisoners are not allowed to wear glasses inside the camp, not even those who wore glasses prior to being brought into the camp. Marriage and family inside the camp Inside the camp, there are fewer people in their 20s than before. Since they are short of young prisoners, young people inside the camp are assigned a lot of work. About 60 percent of people in their 20s are married. In my father's time, only about 30 to 40 percent of people were married. Because they need more laborers, and because young people work well, more of them are matched with a spouse and ordered to marry. There are no single women in the village. Having babies is allowed. Most married couples have one or two children, sometimes even three. It is hard to have more children, as spouses are not allowed to spend much time together. Marriage is the only dream that prisoners have. Men above 25 and women above 23 are generally eligible, and since there is no standard procedure in place, permission to marry is entirely the work supervisor's decision. Once the supervisor has decided on the names of the people who will be ordered to get married, the list of names is submitted to the camp commander, for his signature. There are only a few days in the year when people can get married: Jan.1, Feb. 16 [North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's birthday], and April 15 [birthday of North Korea's late founder, Kim Il Sung]. Pregnant women 'disappear' To be allowed to get married, people break their backs working and volunteer to perform the most dangerous of tasks. Working hard and distinguishing oneself are preconditions for the ultimate recognition, permission to establish a family. Nevertheless, diligence alone is insufficient. The successful marriage candidate has to strictly obey camp rules and regulations, and must also spy on the other prisoners, and report on their behavior. Inside the camp, the ultimate reward is marriage, and the one who has the power to make that happen is the supervisor, so he is like royalty to the prisoners. Women try to win the supervisors' favors, and they take full advantage of that, while the other prisoners have to turn a blind eye on the obvious and keep silent. If a woman becomes pregnant after having a relationship with a supervisor or a guard, one day she just vanishes. If a man and woman like each other and have a relationship without camp approval, once their secret is discovered, they both disappear without a trace. While in the camp, I knew a couple of women who got pregnant and just disappeared. No consideration is given to whether the marriage would be a good match or whether the newlyweds like one another or not. Whether they like their men or not, women have no choice but to get married, because they know that this opportunity will never come again. Summary matchmaking Many of these matches are not exactly made in heaven, and men are used to hitting their female co-workers anyway. If two co-workers are matched and ordered to marry, that kind of physical violence only gets worse. The supervisor shows up and says: "You two, you've been matched, from today on, you're married. Work hard and don't waste your time. If you slack, I'll split you up!" Until that day, the newlyweds have no idea who their spouse is going to be. I once heard a camp story about a bride and groom who didn't like each other much, or didn't feel like getting married. One asked: "Sir, would it be possible at all to postpone our marriage a little?" The supervisor replied: "Sure, if you don't feel like it, just don't do it. You ungrateful pricks can forget about marriage, I'll never let you do it!" >From that day on, regardless of how hard they worked, no mention of marriage was ever made to them. The young and the old Most children born in the camp grow up without knowing parental love or care. These children are the offspring of political offenders, treated as political offenders themselves. The camp is their microcosm, and camp life is the only life they'll ever know. Their parents don't have to teach them social skills, or how to behave in society, as they will never experience a normal social life. Instead of parental teachings, parents tell their children about camp rules and regulations, and thoroughly instruct them on how to live and work inside the camp. Children learn about camp rules and regulations even before getting to know anything about their parents. The parents are to blame for the children's having born in a political prisoner camp, and children are painfully aware of that, growing up with very little affection for their parents. In South Korea, May 5 is Children's Day, and May 8 Parents' Day. I often wonder if political prisoners in North Korean camps would even know how to honor their elders and amuse their young, if ever given this opportunity. I sometimes feel embarrassed because of my having grown up in a camp. One day, I was on the subway in Seoul. I was sitting, and an elderly gentleman was standing nearby. Another young man, probably older than me, stood up and yielded his seat to the older man. I felt deeply embarrassed that day. In the camp, there is no seniority among prisoners, and no respect for the elders. From the first day of school to the day they die, prisoners are nothing but laborers, and there is no distinction, seniority, or hierarchy among them. There is no difference between the young and the old, the sick and the healthy; they simply have to do their work, and if they fail, they are beaten and they bleed. I am sure that, somewhere inside that camp, people are still dropping dead from overwork, and are still being beaten savagely and vomiting blood. Child labor Little children under 10 are forced to work in dark coal mines, pushing heavy loads on coal carts. They never complain, and no one realizes how wrong that is, as everyone has been brainwashed, their consciousness distorted, all trained to be just one of the many laborers who spend their entire lives working. When asked to do dangerous work, they laugh, to show that they're not afraid, and when they're hurt, they cry, but no one is there for them, to listen to their laughter or crying. The guards abuse the prisoners and see them as sub-human, and even the guards' children look down on the children of prisoners, thinking of them as the offspring of traitors, traitors themselves, who do not deserve to be thought of as human beings. I would like to ask the tormenters' children: "What would you be, had you been a prisoners' child? Would that make you less of a human being?" The unthinkable escape The reason why prisoners don't resist or rebel goes beyond fear of the armed guards watching over the camp. All prisoners have been brainwashed to believe that they are in the camp for a good reason, that they have done wrong and deserve to be there, and the thought of escape hardly crosses their mind. Most prisoners, including me, believed that they were supposed to be in the camp. My escape wasn't an act of rebellion against the prison camp system; I was just tired of having to work so much, and I simply wanted to get away. Parents report on their children, children on their parents, and neighbors on the people living next door, so an uprising would be impossible. Prisoners may be upset and have gripes against their guards and supervisors, but they never go as far as to think of opposing the prison camp system itself. All they do is suffer in silence. Resistance is simply unthinkable. Extracts from "Escape to the Outside World" by Shin Dong Hyuk translated and published here with kind permission from the Data Base Center for North Korean Human Rights. Acting RFA Korean service director: Francis Huh. Translated by Grigore Scarlatoiu. Edited and produced in English by Luisetta Mudie and Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org #####

16 years, 6 months

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RFA News: Uyghur Woman Freed Without Abortion in China

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Uyghur Woman Released, Without Forced Abortion Also on www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> North Korean Gulag Escapee Speaks Out www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/book-11162008180959.html <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/book-11162008180959.html> Asian Women in their own words www.rfa.org/english/news/women <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/women> HONG KONG-An ethnic Uyghur woman in China's northwestern Xinjiang region who was scheduled to undergo a second-term abortion against her will-and whose case drew international attention-has been released to her family and allowed to continue her pregnancy, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. "I am all right and I am at home now," Arzigul Tursun told RFA's Uyghur service, shortly after she was released from the Women and Children's Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture. "I brought her home," the local population-control committee chief, Rashide, said. "She wasn't in good enough health to have an abortion." Tursun's case prompted calls to the Chinese authorities from two members of the U.S. Congress and from the U.S. ambassador in Beijing for a planned abortion of her pregnancy to be scrapped. Police tracked down Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, at a relative's home Monday afternoon after she fled Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital, relatives said. China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese and allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two. But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining], so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja, in the remote northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up. Police operation On Monday, Tursun's father, Hasan Tursunjan, said, between 20 and 30 police cars came to the family home to search for his daughter and take her to the hospital to terminate her pregnancy. "It was a big operation-and they treated us very rudely," he said. "They confiscated all out cellphones, but I hid one. One of them was pushing my forehead and saying, 'You have connections with the separatists in America-see if they can come and rescue your daughter or not.'" "I was very upset of what he did to me and said, 'I believe they will rescue us, if not today then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the day after tomorrow-they will eventually rescue us,'" Tursunjan said. "My youngest son was upset and rushed to us and shouted... 'Don't touch my father!' The [official] immediately called a few police over and they arrested him. They took him away with a car." High-level intervention Two members of the U.S. Congress called on authorities in China to release Tursun and cancel the planned abortion Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania on Monday urged officials to "immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place." On Friday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called forced abortions a "barbaric practice" and made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong. On Monday, Smith said he had spoken with Zhou, who said he would look into the case. Smith also contacted U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt and asked him to intervene. Randt spoke with the executive vice foreign minister Wang Guanya, Smith's office said. Detailed policy According to China's official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two. Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear. The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low. Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means. The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward. China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years. And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy. The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say. Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region. Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy. Tense relations Relations between Chinese authorities and the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population have a long and tense history, with many Uyghurs objecting in particular to the mass immigration of Han Chinese to the region and to Beijing's population-control policy. Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion. But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it calls a war on Islamic terrorism. It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia. Original reporting in Uyghur by Shohret Hoshur. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Translated by Alim Abdulkerim. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 press 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 #####

16 years, 6 months

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RFA News: Uyghur Woman Faces Imminent Forced Abortion

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Uyghur Woman Faces Imminent Forced Abortion Also on www.rfa.org: China's Quake Victims Face Grim Winter www.rfa.org/english/news/forced%20abortion-11132008173803.html HONG KONG-Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, is under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will because authorities say she is entitled to only two children. As a member of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, Tursun is legally permitted to more than the one child allowed most people in China. But when word of a third pregnancy reached local authorities, they coerced her into the hospital for an abortion, her husband told Radio Free Asia (RFA). "Arzigul is being kept in bed number three," a nurse in the women's section at Gulja's Water Gate Hospital said in a telephone interview with RFA's Uyghur service. "We will give an injection first. Then she will experience abdominal pain, and the baby will come out by itself. But we haven't given her any injection yet-we are waiting for instructions from the doctors." China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese but allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two. But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband, Nurmemet Tohtasin, is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining] so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja. Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country, through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up. "My wife is being kept in the hospital-village officials are guarding her," Tohtisin said before authorities directed him late Thursday to switch off his mobile phone. "When she fled the village to avoid abortion, police and Party officials, and the family planning committee officials, all came and interrogated us," he said. "The deputy chief of the village, a Chinese woman named Wei Yenhua, threatened that if we didn't find Arzigul and bring her to the village, she would confiscate our land and all our property." Steep fines On Nov. 11, Tohtisin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital. There, Tohtisin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion. "The abortion should be carried out because according to the family planning policy of China, you're not allowed to have more children than the government has regulated. Therefore she should undergo an abortion. This is their third child. She is 6-1/2 months pregnant now," Rashide said. "If her health is normal, then the abortion will definitely take place. Otherwise they have to pay a fine in the amount of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)-that's a lot of money, and they won't have it," she added. Tursun's abortion was originally scheduled for Thursday, but hospital authorities said they had postponed it until Monday after numerous calls from local and exiled Uyghurs. Officials then told her husband to switch off his mobile phone and stop making calls. Carrots and sticks According to the official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two. Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear. The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low. Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means. The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward. China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years. And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy. The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say. Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region.Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy. Congressional appeal In Washington, Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, appealed on Thursday to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to intervene. "Human rights groups and the U.S. government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family," Smith, senior member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement. "I appeal to the Chinese government not to forcibly abort Arzigul." Tense relations Relations between Chinese authorities and the Uyghur population have a long and tense history. Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion. But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it regards as a war on Islamic terrorism. It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia. Original reporting in Uyghur by Shohret Hoshur. Translated by Omer Kanat. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written and produced for the Web in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Edited by Joshua Lipes. 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 press 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 #####

16 years, 6 months

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RFA News: Tibetan Monks Arrested Over Blast

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Tibetan Monks Arrested Over Blast Also on www.rfa.org Burma Jails Lawyers for Contempt http://www.rfa.org/english/news/burma/lawyers-10302008130234.html Asian Women in their own words http://www.rfa.org/english/news/women KATHMANDU-Chinese authorities in Tibet have arrested three young Tibetan Buddhist monks in connection with a September blast at a local power station, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. Ngawang Tenzin, 20, Tenzin Norbu, 19, and Tenzin Rinchen, 17, are now in police custody on suspicion of causing an explosion Sept. 8 at a local power station that knocked out television broadcasts but caused no casualties, Tibetan and Chinese sources told RFA's Tibetan service. The explosion, in Markham county, Chamdo [in Chinese, Changdu], in China's Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), came less than six months after simmering anti-China resentment erupted in massive protests and rioting throughout Tibetan regions in China. Tibetan sources, who asked not to be named, cited resentment among local Tibetans over television programming in the Kham dialect in August and September that condemned Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as a "splittist" committed to dismantling China. On Oct. 24, police found Tenzin Rinchen, shot him in the leg, and arrested him, Tibetan sources said. Ngawang Tenzin and Tenzin Norbu "were detained yesterday, Oct. 30," one source said. "They were arrested yesterday night and taken away." An official with the Chamdo Public Security Bureau, contacted by telephone Oct. 31, said Ngawang Tenzin and Tenzin Norbu "have been arrested and they are being investigated." Authorities have moved the three monks from Markham to Chamdo and ordered their family members to remain in the Markham area, another Tibetan source said. Tensions 'intense' "The tensions and restrictions on Markham are very intense. The Chamdo police chief is here, and they're still holding meetings. There's a huge presence by security forces here," the source said. On Oct. 26, Dechen Dorje, 49, the father of Ngawang Tenzin, was detained and questioned, one source said. He remains in detention. Lobsang Tenzin, 26, Tenzin Norbu's older brother, was also detained Oct. 19 while ploughing a field, one source said. He refused to talk under questioning and was unable to move his hands or feet when he was released on Oct. 27, the source said. In an interview Oct. 30, a Public Security Bureau (PSB) officer in Markham county confirmed that the three youths were wanted in connection with the explosion. "Those culprits have been hiding out somewhere for a little over a month and 20 days," the official said. "We caught one. There is no way to escape from us. If the other two culprits surrender on their own, China's legal system might show leniency." Previous blasts On Sept. 23, the Chamdo Intermediate People's Court sentenced four monks to jail terms of four to nine years for "terrorist actions" in connection with a series of small blasts during massive anti-China protests in the region earlier this year. The mostly teenage monks were among dozens who were detained in Markham county on or around May 14 and were charged with "obstructing the Olympics" and "damaging national stability." All the monks are believed to have been from Markham county's Oser monastery or one of its branches. Tibetan sources in the region reported eight separate explosions in the Markham area during the Tibetan protests early this year. No one was hurt in the blasts. Chinese authorities have made numerous arrests and launched a "patriotic education" campaign aimed at Tibetans after protests and riots that began in Lhasa in mid-March and spread to other Tibetan areas. Beijing says 22 people were killed in the rioting. Tibetan exiles say at least 140 people died in the region-wide crackdown that followed, while more than 1,000 were detained. Chinese authorities have blamed the Dalai Lama for instigating the protests and fomenting what they regard as a "splittist" Tibetan independence movement. The Dalai Lama rejects the accusation, saying he wants only autonomy and human rights for Tibetans. Original reporting in the Kham dialect by Lobsang Choephel for RFA's Tibetan service.Translated by Karma Dorjee.Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo.Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. 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 press 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 #####

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