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RFA Breaking News: North Koreans Overcome Border Guards in Bold Escape to China

by Paul Eckert

North Koreans Overcome Border Guards in Bold Escape to China April 21, 2017 - Seven North Koreans from three families overpowered border guards and seized their weapons in a dramatic escape across the Tumen River to China on April 15, multiple sources inside the North told RFA’s Korean Service. The defectors were from a small village in Musan County, North Hamgyong Province near the Chinese border and their escape took place as North Korea was marking the 105 th birthday of the late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung amid heightened security for the national holiday. “On April 15, the late Kim Il Sung’s birthday, three family units of Musan County beat the border guards and defected. As this incident happened during the special security week, the Border Guard and law enforcement agencies were put on high alert,” one source in North Hamgyong Province told RFA on April 18. “The defectors were a total of seven from the three family units who resided in Dosori village in Musan County,” the source added. “The law enforcement agencies believe the defectors had no choice but to attack the border guards and steal their weapons when they were in danger of being caught by the approaching guards,” said the source. It was not clear if any guards were injured and the whereabouts of the seven escapees is unknown. A second source in North Hamgyong Province reached by RFA on April 20 added details on the events of April 15, whose repercussions are being felt all along the North’s long border with China. “During the escape process, three adults in the families ambushed and muzzled two patrolling guards before tying them securely to trees, and then seized their automatic rifles, removed the magazines and threw them into the (Tumen) river,” the second source said. “Dozens of border guards stationed in Musan County were mobilized the next day, the afternoon of April 16 to dive into icy cold Tumen River to search for the magazines, but failed to find them up to now,” added that source. “Right after the incident happened, the People’s Security Department and the Border Guards headquarters in Musan County prohibited the movement of county residents, and at the same time informed China of the incident, dispatching an investigative team over on the Chinese side of the border in an effort to arrest the seven defectors,” the source said. When asked about the incident by RFA on April 21, a Chinese embassy official in Washington said only: “I do not know." Both of RFA’s sources in North Hamgyong said Saturday’s dramatic escape took place against the backdrop of tighter state controls on border guards. Guards used to take bribes to turn a blind eye on defections into China, but now face stern punishments for allowing escapes, including public execution. The tighter security, “coupled with the spreading rumors of a nuclear war, have made lots of residents determined to defect solo, without the border guards’ help, as they feel they might die helplessly. This kind of thinking among the residents affected the incident involving the seven family members,” said the second Hamgyong source. Reported by Jieun Kim and translated by Changsop Pyon. Written in English by Changsop Pyon and Paul Eckert. View this s tory online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/china-border-04212017155720.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 . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

7 years, 8 months

Radio Free Asia Wins Award for Uyghur Diaspora Project

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 28, 2017 Contact: Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr(a)rfa.org Radio Free Asia Wins Award for In-Depth Web Project on Uyghur Diaspora WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia <http://www.rfa.org/about/> (RFA) is among min magazine's "Best of the Web" award winners and finalists for 2017. RFA's "Between Identity and Integration: The Uyghur Diaspora in the West <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/pathtofreedom/> " was selected as best multimedia feature in this year's international contest. RFA's online feature "The Wild West: Gold Mining and Its Hazards in Myanmar <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/goldmine/index.html> " was named a finalist in the same category. "With this investigative project, RFA interviewed generations of Uyghurs who left their homeland to resettle and re-establish their lives at unimaginable costs," said Libby Liu, RFA's President. "It's the stories of these brave individuals escaping Chinese repression that are so compelling. "Credit for this award belongs to RFA's Uyghur, editorial, and graphics staff for their hard work in realizing this incredible and ambitious project." Over the past 60 years, tens of thousands of ethnic Uyghurs from northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have fled oppression and political violence at home, seeking refuge in the West. "Between Identity and Integration" is the first known effort to document the emigration of Uyghurs from China to Europe and Turkey. RFA shares these individuals' stories through interviews, in-depth reports, and graphics. Collected in this investigative project, they tell of the heartbreaking losses, intrepid escapes, and personal triumphs of Uyghurs who went into exile after the 1949 establishment of Communist Chinese rule, which extinguished hopes of an independent homeland. RFA's finalist entry "The Wild West" focuses on the unprecedented environmental destruction and human toll of rampant industrial gold mining in Myanmar. With a documentary video and in-depth reports, the special investigation provides a detailed look at the lives of the mostly young people driven by poverty to undertake the dangerous and low-paying work in the Mohnyin district of Myanmar's northern Kachin State. Other winners in this year's min awards <http://www.minonline.com/best-of-web-winners-honorees-2017/> include Bloomberg Media, The Economist, Time Inc., National Geographic Society, and Hearst Magazines Digital Media. # # # Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Director of Public Affairs and Digital Strategy <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

7 years, 9 months

RFA Breaking News (UPDATE): Young Farmer Stages First Tibetan Self-Immolation of 2017

by Paul Eckert

(Updates with conflicting report on status of Pema Gyaltsen.) Young Farmer Stages First Tibetan Self-Immolation of 2017 March 19, 2017 - UPDATED at 11:10 A.M. EDT on 2017-03-19 A 24-year-old Tibetan man set himself on fire Saturday in a protest against Chinese rule in the Himalayan region, the first reported self-immolation of 2017, sources told RFA's Tibetan Service. Pema Gyaltsen, from Nyagrong (in Chinese, Xinlong) in Kardze (Ganzi) county Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, around 4 p.m., and police swiftly removed his charred body from the scene, Tibetan sources told RFA. Two sources from the Tibetan exile community said Gyaltsen, an unmarried farmer, was taken to a hospital in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. One source said the man later died, but the other said his contacts in the region believed he was still alive in hospital. In a one-minute video clip that was circulating on Tibetan social media, Chinese police are seen dispersing Tibetan onlookers from a scene of commotion, with women crying. Sources told RFA that authorities blocked the popular smartphone application WeChat following the self-immolation. "In the evening around ten close relatives of Pema Gyaltsen from Nyagrong went to Kandze county police station to see self-immolator Pema Gyaltsen. But the Chinese beat them severely and detained them for the entire night, and forced them to stand up the whole night," a Tibetan exile source with contacts in the town told RFA. "Today some of them could barely walk from the beating, but they were released under the guarantee of a Nyarong official," the source added. "He called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and said there is no freedom in Tibet at the time of self-immolation," another source told RFA. Gyaltsen was the eldest of five children of his father Wangyal and mother Yullha, and "the main breadwinner of his family and had not attended any school," the second source added. The Kardze police station did not answer repeated calls by RFA seeking details of the incident. Saturday's protest brings to 147 the number of self-immolations by Tibetans living in China since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009. The previous known self-immolation was on Dec. 8, when Tashi Rabten, 33, a husband and father of three, set himself on fire and died in Gansu province. Gyaltsen's protest was the second case of self-immolation in Nyagrong, following the death of 18-year-old Kalsang Wangdu in March 2016. Most protests feature demands for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959. Reported by Lobsang Choephel, Sangyal Dorjee, Dawa Dolma and Pema Ngodup for RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Paul Eckert. UPDATE: Adds conflicting report on death of Pema Gyaltsen. Reported by Lobsang Choephel, Sangyal Dorjee, Dawa Dolma and Pema Ngodup for RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/sichuan-immolation-03192017095940.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.

7 years, 10 months

RFA Breaking News: Young Farmer Stages First Tibetan Self-Immolation of 2017

by Paul Eckert

Young Farmer Stages First Tibetan Self-Immolation of 2017 March 19, 2017 - A 24-year-old Tibetan man has died after setting himself on fire Saturday in a protest against Chinese rule in the Himalayan region, the first reported self-immolation of 2017, sources told RFA's Tibetan Service. Pema Gyaltsen, from Nyarong (in Chinese, Xinlong) in Kandze (Ganzi) county Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, around 4 p.m., and police swiftly removed his charred body from the scene, Tibetan sources told RFA. They said Gyaltsen, an unmarried farmer, later died after being taken to a hospital in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. In a one-minute video clip that was circulating on Tibetan social media, Chinese police are seen dispersing Tibetan onlookers from a scene of commotion, with women crying. Sources told RFA that authorities blocked the popular smartphone application WeChat following the self-immolation. "In the evening around 10, close relatives of Pema Gyaltsen from Nyarong went to Kandze county police station to see self-immolator Pema Gyaltsen. But the Chinese beat them severely and detained them for the entire night, and forced them to stand up the whole night," a Tibetan exile source with contacts in the town told RFA. "Today some of them could barely walk from the beating, but they were released under the guarantee of a Nyarong official," the source added. "He called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and said there is no freedom in Tibet at the time of self-immolation," another source told RFA. Gyaltsen was the eldest of five children of his father Wangyal and mother Yullha, and "the main breadwinner of his family and had not attended any school," the second source added. The Kandze police station did not answer repeated calls by RFA seeking details of the incident. Saturday's protest brings to 147 the number of self-immolations by Tibetans living in China since the wave of fiery protests began in 2009. The previous known self-immolation was on Dec. 8, when Tashi Rabten, 33, a husband and father of three, set himself on fire and died in Gansu province. Gyaltsen's protest was the second case of self-immolation in Nyarong, following the death of 18-year-old Kalsang Wangdu in March 2016. Most protests feature demands for Tibetan freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama from India, where he has lived since escaping Tibet during a failed national uprising in 1959. Reported by Lobsang Choephel, Sangyal Dorjee, Dawa Dolma and Pema Ngodup for RFA's Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/sichuan-immolation-03192017095940.html Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org.

7 years, 10 months

RFA Breaking News: China's Rebel Village Still Under Close Surveillance, Cut Off From World

by Paul Eckert

China's Rebel Village Still Under Close Surveillance, Cut Off From World March 16, 2017 - More than a year after a police raid ended months of daily demonstrations, the rebel Chinese village of Wukan is under a security cordon six or seven levels deep, with residents under constant surveillance from security cameras, an activist told RFA on Thursday . The village in southern China's Guangdong province has been largely incommunicado since hundreds of armed police in full riot gear raided the village on Sept. 13, firing rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds of protesters who fought back with bricks from behind makeshift barricades. "There are six or seven layers of security surrounding Wukan before you get to the center of the village," Chen Yongzong, a farmer-turned-rights activist from the southern region of Guangxi, told RFA on Thursday following an incognito visit to check up on the relatives of an activist in exile. "But security cameras all have blind-spots. There were cameras all around the tombs [outside the village] but I got in via the tombs at night," Chen said. Chen said it had been difficult to avoid appearing on security cameras once inside the main village, however. "All I could do was not carry a big backpack, so they couldn't tell I wasn't a local resident, or where I was from," he said. Chen, who hails from Guangxi's Liuzhou city, said the atmosphere is still "extremely tense" on the streets of Wukan. "It is extremely tense, and there were so many security cameras when I went there," he said. "I have never seen cameras so densely packed before." "They had them on all of the main paved roads in the village, so it is impossible to avoid appearing on them," Chen said. "The local residents there are very wary, and very few people spoke to me." "They were really terrified, that was the impression I got," he said. "If you spoke to them, they'd just say they didn't know." Missing activists sought Chen said he made the trip in spite of the fear of being detained to try to find out what happened to two fellow activists from Guangxi, Yang Jishuang and Huang Huimin, who have been incommunicado since they traveled to Wukan to support the protests. "They were detained and beaten up after they got here, and now they are incommunicado," Chen said. "I am very worried about them, so I came here to investigate." While he was in Wukan, Chen also paid a call on the relatives of Zhuang Liehong, a former land rights activist from Wukan who fled to the U.S. in the wake of earlier protests and clashes in 2011. "There were two or three [security cameras] installed to the left of Zhuang Liehong's family home, and one on the right," said Chen, who paid a visit to Zhuang's elderly mother. "I bowed once I had gotten inside the door, and explained who I was, that I was sent by Zhuang Liehong to visit them," he said. "She was pretty shocked; I think she was scared. I could see it in her eyes." He said the family had asked him to leave, apparently for fear of reprisals from the authorities. "Zhuang Liehong's brother was there too, and he said to me, 'leave, please leave,'" Chen said. "They were terrified. I think they were afraid I might be a plainclothes cop trying to entrap them." "They didn't believe me until I played them a recording that Zhuang Liehong had given me," he said. "Then their attitude changed completely, and they became warm and friendly, and treated me very kindly." Zhuang, who has continued to campaign on behalf of his hometown while in the U.S., said Chen was the first person to make it past the tight security and visit his family. "[Activists] I've been in contact with before said they were taken to the police station for questioning, and part of the inquiry was about whether or not they were in direct contact with me," Zhuang told RFA. "I am the only person from Wukan who is able to speak out, so the authorities are extremely focused on me," he said. Police hound family of exiled activist He said local officials typically visit his family home to check up on them several times a day. "They are afraid that the outside world will find out what is going on in Wukan," Zhuang said. Authorities in Guangdong in January sent nine Wukan residents to prison to begin serving sentences ranging from two to 10 years for their involvement in resistance to the armed police raid, without giving them a chance to appeal. The nine were sentenced by the Haifeng County People's Court on Dec. 26 for their part in resisting a raid that put an end to months of daily mass protest in Wukan following the loss of village land and the jailing of its former leader Lin Zuluan. They were found guilty of charges that included "unlawful assembly," "disrupting public order," "disrupting traffic," "obstructing official business," and "intentionally spreading false information." Wukan villagers have been campaigning for the return of land sold out from under them by former village chief Xue Chang, who was fired for corruption after an earlier round of protests and clashes in 2011, sparking fresh elections that saw Lin Zuluan take the helm. But even Lin and his newly-elected village committee found it hard to secure the return of the land amid powerful vested interests, political changes higher up, and a tangle of complex legal issues. September's raid by police on Wukan came after a court in Guangdong's Foshan city sentenced Lin to more than three years' imprisonment on "bribery" charges that local residents said were trumped up. Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. View this s tory online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/wukan-lockdown-03162017140431.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 . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

7 years, 10 months

RFA Breaking News: Detained on Unknown Charge, Uyghur Kills Five With Axe

by Paul Eckert

Detained on Unknown Charge, Uyghur Kills Five With Axe Feb. 27 - A Uyghur baker under police investigation killed five people in Xinjiang’s Kashgar prefecture earlier this month after being brought to a hospital for medical care, sources in the region said. Memet Eli, aged about 30, used an axe to carry out his Feb. 9 attack, also injuring an unknown number of people, sources told RFA’s Uyghur Service. “The attack took place in Yengisar [county] hospital,” a police officer in the county’s Saghan township said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Memet Eli had vomited blood the day before, and Abduhalik, the security chief in the village where Eli was under investigation, took him to the hospital for a checkup.” Leaving Eli waiting in line, Abduhalik went to get some food, and when he returned, “Eli suddenly confronted him and hit him in the head with an axe,” the source said. “After that, he attacked two Chinese shopkeepers—one the owner of a pharmacy and the other the owner of a food store—and after that he rushed back into the hospital and killed a nurse inside,” he said. Also speaking to RFA, Ablikim, deputy director of the Yengisar Hospital, confirmed the attack had taken place, adding that Eli was captured alive shortly afterward. “It happened at around 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 9,” he said. “I was outside the hospital when it happened.” “I later learned that Zhang Caixia, one of our nurses, was among the people killed in the attack, while several were wounded.” “I took two of the wounded to Kerambagh Hospital, a prefectural hospital located in Kashgar city, and one of them—a shop owner—died there,” he said. 'Political re-education' Eli, a resident of Yengisar’s Setil township, had recently been forcibly returned from Korla city by police for investigation, and was undergoing “political re-education,” township security chief Yusup Mesum told RFA. “He had vomited blood in the village office on the morning of the day before the attack, and that is why the security chief took him to the hospital for a checkup,” Mesum said. “We don’t know if he got the axe from his home before visiting the hospital, or whether he bought it from a nearby market. None of this is clear, and different explanations are circulating on the streets.” Eli is believed to have eight children from two different marriages, Mesum said. “Right now, all his family members and officials in his village have been detained for investigation.” China has vowed to crack down on what it calls religious extremism in Xinjiang, and regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material. While China blames Uyghur extremists for terrorist attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009. Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Richard Finney. View this s tory online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/axe-02272017144239.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 . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

7 years, 10 months

RFA Breaking News: Killings in Xinjiang’s Guma Sparked by Anger at Prayer Restrictions

by Paul Eckert

Killings in Xinjiang’s Guma Sparked by Anger at Prayer Restrictions Feb. 23 - Three Uyghurs shot dead last week by authorities in China's troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang after they killed five Chinese passersby on the spot and wounded five others with knives appear to have been motivated by anger at threats by local officials to punish them for praying with their family, RFA’s Uyghur Service has learned. Authorities shot dead brothers Omer Abdurahman, 25, and Memtimin Abdurahman, 21, as well as their friend Ehmet Eli, 21, in a residential area of Guma (in Chinese, Pishan) county in the Silk Road region of Hotan (Hetian) on Feb. 14. The Hotan government said in a brief statement on its official news website the day after the incident that “thugs” had killed five passersby and injured five others among crowds in a residential area around 2:30 p.m. RFA interviews with local authorities and others familiar with the incident indicate that a stability working group of officials barged into the Abdurahman home in Guma’s Yengibazar village the day before the attacks and discovered that Omer’s and Memtimin’s father Abdurahman Rehmetulla had led an “illegal” family prayer service. The groups, which consist of cadres and security officials from the regional capital Urumqi and village-level officials visit Uyghur farmers’ homes every day as part of an effort to maintain social order in the restive region. China has officially outlawed group prayer services in the Uyghur region, even in one’s own home with family members, as a way to curb Muslim religious practices. Uyghurs who hold such group prayer sessions face severe punishment. After the members of the working group called police to report the “illegal religious activity,” officers arrived immediately and took all eight people in the house to the police station for questioning, but later released them. On Feb. 14, police summoned Omer and Memtimin to the station again along with their friend Ehmet Eli. Before the attack About three hours before the attack, Omer and Memtimin went to township chief Ablikim Turek’s office requesting irrigation water for their greenhouse, Abliz Mamut, a Chinese Communist Party member and former village party secretary, told RFA. It was there that they were informed that local police wanted them to provide more details about the illegal prayer service their family had held a day earlier, he said. “When Omer Abdurahman came to my office asking for water, I granted his request and told him that his turn would be at 2 p.m.,” said Ablikim Turek, head of the No. 3 township of Yengibazar. “And I also informed him that the police wanted to see them again.” “But he did not show up to take his turn at 2 p.m.,” he said, adding that local officials took necessary measures to insure social stability in the area by assigning cadres responsible for overseeing groups of 40 people each. “[Previously] we had collected signatures, assigned two families to be responsible for each other, and banned praying in private by stressing that it is illegal,” he said. “Yet, we had this incident happen.” ‘Uyghurs did not intervene’ Around 5:30 p.m., the two brothers and Eli went by motorcycle to the Nilofer residential district in Guma’s town center, about 500-600 meters (547-656 yards) from the Abdurahman family’s home, where they brandished knives and carried out the attack, Mamut said. “The Uyghur onlookers did not intervene,” Mamut said. “We didn’t know if they did so out of fear or to support them. Even though two Chinese resisted with a spade, they were overpowered by them.” Of the five injured Chinese taken to the prefecture’s hospital, one died two days later, sources said. Among the others killed was an official from the township taxation office and Xiang Xiaoping, wife of the head of the County Commission for Discipline Inspection. The names of the others who were killed have not yet been released. It appears as though the attack was not premeditated, but rather a sudden reaction to heavy-handed policing by Chinese authorities and the working group who invaded the Abdurahman home and harassed and intimidated the family for holding a family prayer service, sources said. “It is clear that the attack was not premeditated at all and was carried out instantaneously,” Ababekri Jamal, security chief of the Yengibazar village, said. “The attackers carried out this attack to protest our country’s religious policy and take revenge against the restrictions on illegal prayers,” he said. “They know that they are no match for our armed forces, so they attacked Chinese people in the town.” Mamut said that it is possible that the Abdurahman brothers were “fed up with the endless home visits by the working group cadres or displeased by the police call” for performing the Namaz Muslim prayer ritual in their home with their parents and other siblings. During a Chinese flag-raising ceremony held every morning in the village, an announcement is made to remind Uyghur residents that it is illegal for them to pray in private homes, he said. Instead, Uyghurs must pray in mosques that have a government-appointed imam. “Perhaps they might have been scared of being prosecuted for performing Namaz in their own home, because they were aware that some people in adjacent villages had been sentenced for 10 to 12 years in prison in such cases,” Mamut said. The brothers believed that they had been summoned to the police station a second time for reportedly arguing with police when they hauled in their family members were hauled in for questioning on Feb. 13, he said. When Omer, Memtimin, and Eli arrived in the center of Guma, they stabbed to death a Chinese man who was entering the taxation office, Mamut said. The trio attacked nine other Chinese in front of the Nilofer residential district, killing four instantly and wounding five. Though rumors circulated that cadres who had visited the Abdurahman household were among the dead, officials did not mention this during a meeting they held about the attack, Mamut said. ‘Mysterious’ involvement of third attacker The involvement of the third attacker, Ehmet Eli, is somewhat “mysterious,” Mamut said, because he had gotten a marriage certificate the day before the attack and was to be married that weekend. On Feb. 13, Eli was ill and having his fluids checked in a hospital when he received a phone call from Omer about an hour before the attack, Mamut said. Afterwards, he asked the nurses to remove needles from his arm, saying that he had something important to attend to. When a nurse did not comply with his request, he pulled out the needles himself and left the hospital. Eli did not have any record of suspicious activity, said Abdurahman Abdurishit, Yengibazar’s security chairman. A year ago, however, he was rejected when he tried to enlist in the village militia. “It is clear that they carried that attack abruptly out of contempt for our government’s policies or out of fear of being punished,” he said. “We do not know if they had some secret plan before. Right now this aspect is under investigation.” All three attackers, including the Abdurahmans’ parents, did not have very deep religious understanding and had not received religious training in other places, he said. But he added that the attackers’ families originally hailed from Arakum village in Guma country’s Kokterek township, where people “are a bit dangerous.” After the Feb. 14 attack, authorities detained all members of the Abdurahman family and questioned about 100 people, including their neighbors, at the village office, Mamut said. Between 50 and 60 of them were released after three days, and 20 to 30 others are still under investigation. Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/killings-in-xinjiangs-guma-sparked-b… 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 . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

7 years, 10 months

Radio Free Asia Hires New Managing Director for East Asia

by Rohit Mahajan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 13, 2017 Contact: Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org Radio Free Asia Hires New Managing Director for East Asia WASHINGTON - Radio Free Asia (RFA) today announced the hiring of veteran journalist Min Lee Mitchell as its new Managing Director for East Asia. Mitchell will oversee RFA's four language services for Chinese audiences (Mandarin, Tibetan, Cantonese, and Uyghur) and its Korean Service, broadcasting into North Korea. "Min brings a great range of broadcasting expertise from her well-respected career as a reporter with Phoenix Television and Taiwanese media," said Libby Liu, President of RFA. "She'll be a strong addition to RFA's news team, leading our China and North Korea services. We are thrilled to have Min on board." "I'm proud to join Radio Free Asia's talented team of journalists, who do great work in some of the world's most challenging media environments," Mitchell said. "I look forward to working for an organization with such a critical mandate of bringing free press to closed societies across Asia." As Managing Director for East Asia, Mitchell will work closely with the directors of five language services to manage the daily and long-term operations of RFA Mandarin, Tibetan, Cantonese, Uyghur, and Korean. She will focus on expanding the operations of these services to meet audience needs. Min reports to RFA's Vice President of Programming, Parameswaran Ponnudurai. Prior to becoming RFA's Managing Director, Mitchell covered U.S. politics and global affairs as the Washington- and New York-based correspondent and news anchor for several major Chinese-language news organizations, including Hong Kong's Phoenix Satellite Television and Taiwan Television, where she served as the organization's D.C. bureau chief, and as a stringer for BBC Chinese News. In Taiwan, Mitchell also worked for Ming Sheng Daily News and as RFA's Taipei stringer, providing daily headline coverage of news events. A native of Taiwan, Mitchell received a BA in Russian language and literature from National Chengchi University in Taipei. Mitchell holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Texas in Austin. # # # Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Rohit Mahajan | Radio Free Asia | Director of Public Affairs and Digital Strategy <mailto:mahajanr@rfa.org> mahajanr(a)rfa.org | O: 202.530.4976 | M: 202.489.8021

7 years, 11 months

RFA Breaking News: Interviews: One in Three Rohingya Women Refugees Say They Were Raped

by Paul Eckert

Interviews: One in Three Rohingya Women Refugees Say They Were Raped Jan. 19, 2017 - One in three women interviewed by BenarNews this week in Bangladesh’s refugee camps for Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar claimed they were raped by security forces before their escape. A BenarNews correspondent, who spent four days visiting the camps in southeastern Cox’s Bazar district, reported that 17 of the 54 Rohingya women she interviewed said they were raped while Myanmar’s military launched a brutal crackdown in northern Rakhine state after nine police officers were attacked and killed by an armed Rohingya insurgent group in October. Numerous reports of rape and other atrocities had emerged since the post-attack crackdown, which led to some 65,000 Rohingya entering Bangladesh, but this is the first time that numbers were cited based on random surveys of the extent of sexual assaults on women. Refugees who spoke to BenarNews also described a wide range of other abuses, including torching of their homes and animals, beatings, and killings of loved ones. The perpetrators, often operating at night, were members of the military or the Nadala, a uniformed paramilitary force, they said. Setara Begum, 24, a refugee in Kutupalong camp, said security forces snatched her one night as she was eating dinner in Naisapro village, in Maungdaw district, and took her to some nearby hills where she and some other local women were “tortured by turns.” “Failing to bear the barbaric torture, two women died there. I somehow managed to flee after being raped,” she told BenarNews. “They stripped me, beat my breasts and body; then they did whatever they desired,” she said. Her husband rescued her hours later. By that time, the security forces had burned their home, according to Begum. They hid in the hills for several days. “I could not eat rice for 10 days; my three children survived eating leaves. Coming to Bangladesh, they can eat here,” said Begum, who crossed the border in a boat (?) on Jan. 13. ‘Crude denial games’ Myanmar has come under international fire over the alleged mistreatment of the ethnic minority. On Thursday, representatives of 57 Muslim nations held an extraordinary meeting in Kuala Lumpur to focus on the humanitarian crisis gripping the Rohingya Muslim community. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak warned that Islamic extremists could use the plight of the Rohingya, who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by Myanmar’s Buddhist-majority population, as a way to radicalize the minority group, which is denied basic rights. A commission appointed by the government of Myanmar has rejected accusations that its military was committing genocide in Rakhine villages, which have been closed to Western journalists and human rights investigators. But earlier this month, in a rare official acknowledgment of the security forces’ abuses, several police officers were detained over a video that appeared to show policemen beating Rohingya during a security operation. The U.N. human rights envoy to Myanmar Yanghee Lee met privately in Naypyidaw Wednesday with de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the violence in Rakhine state and reports of security forces committing the atrocities. “Aung San Suu Kyi and her government apparently lack the political will to confront its security forces about their actions,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), calling for an independent, international investigation of the allegations of rights abuses in Rakhine. HRW’s own investigations have uncovered that numerous women have suffered rape and sexual violence at the hands of the security forces, “yet the government continues its crude denial games rather than seriously investigating these grave rights abuses,” Robertson told BenarNews. The 17 women who were said they were raped ranged in age from 16 to 31. They gave their full names to BenarNews. ‘They pushed me with guns’ Nur Jahan, 31, another refugee who spoke to BenarNews, said she was raped three weeks after soldiers took her husband from their home. He remains missing. “On December 14 last year, two [military personnel] tightly caught me and the other raped me; thus all of the three violated me inside my room. I got unconscious; I do not know whether more people raped me,” said Jahan, from Naisapro Noarbil village in Maungdaw. She said she reported her ordeal to a local leader when he visited the village; after he left, the military encircled her house. She went into hiding and fled to Bangladesh, where she said she received medical treatment. “My body got swollen due to their torture. I was admitted to the hospital as I could not bear the pain,” she said. Senoara Begum, 19, living in the Leda refugee camp, said she was heavily pregnant when she was raped. She cradled her baby, born after she arrived in Bangladesh, as she spoke. “They pushed me with guns. I was pregnant for eight months at the time but they did not spare me, and bit my cheek,” she said. A human bite mark was visible on the left side of her face. “They held [my husband] and took him away. Then they took me away to a room and raped me,” she said. Many rape victims: UN worker Officials and workers at non-governmental organization said it was difficult to track large numbers of new arrivals at the camps, but confirmed large numbers of rape reports. “Generally it is true that raped women are coming every day. A lot of the raped women also don’t disclose rape issues, because of shame. But I can say the number of rapes is really huge,” Tayeb Ali, leader of the Kutupalong unregistered Rohingya camp, told BenarNews. “Every day, new Rohingya are taking shelters in almost each of the houses of this unregistered Rohingya camp. Out of them, the number of raped women is huge. Along with old Rohingya, we are providing primary treatment to new Rohingya too,” said Samira Akter, with the medical NGO Bangladesh German Shompreeti (BGS) at Leda camp. Prior to the influx of Rohingya following the recent violence, about 35,000 refugees lived in two UN-registered refugee camps and 300,000 more in vast unregistered settlements immediately adjacent, where homes are constructed of bamboo and plastic and roughly 5,000 people have access to a single water source and latrine, as witnessed by a BenarNews correspondent. “The number of new Rohingya only in this camp is more than thirty thousand. Out of them, a lot of women are rape victims. The nature of the torture on them is very cruel,” a worker with the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) in Noyapara Rohingya Camp told BenarNews on condition of anonymity. “There are also incidents of abortions and miscarriages due to the rape of pregnant women.” Reported by Jesmin Papri from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. View this s tory online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/rohingya-bangladesh-01192017181052.… 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 . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

7 years, 12 months

Breaking News: North Korean Security Conscript in Custody after Shooting 7 Colleagues Dead

by Paul Eckert

North Korean Security Conscript in Custody after Shooting 7 Colleagues Dead Jan. 18 - A young North Korean man conscripted to guard a customs post on his country's border with China in under arrest for shooting dead seven platoon members who had angered him with bullying treatment, RFA’s Korean Service has learned. After the shootings at dawn on Jan. 7 at Hyesan, a city in North Korea’s northern Yanggang province, the young conscript was arrested and taken to Pyongyang, sources familiar with the shooting told RFA. “The suspect and one platoon member who survived the shooting were transported to State Security headquarters in Pyongyang. There is no way to find out the exact cause of this incident, since the Yanggang authorities are trying to keep everyone’s mouth shut,” one source said on Jan. 14. A second source, however, said the shooter apparently snapped after suffering bullying from his colleagues. “The incident at the Hyesan customs office was caused by the frequent beatings suffered by the new conscripts at the hands of their superiors, and the one who committed the crime is a new conscript who graduated from high school last spring,” the source told RFA on Jan. 16. North Korean authorities are trying to prevent the information from spreading to other parts of the country, the sources said.The names of the shooter and victims are not known. No other information was immediately available about the shooting in Hyesan, a provincial administrative center of nearly 200,000 people that lies on the Yalu River, which forms North Korea’s border with China. Reported by Sunghui Moon for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Max Kwak. Written in English by Paul Eckert. View this s tory online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/customs-shooting-01182017170332.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 . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org . ##### All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .

7 years, 12 months

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