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Family members of slain Cambodian environmental activist Chut Wutty on Friday held a Buddhist ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of his death, calling for the reopening of investigations into his murder and urging authorities to find his “true killer.”

The call came as members of Cambodia’s civil society held a memorial service for the activist in the country’s capital Phnom Penh, appealing to the government to end a “culture of impunity” they say prevented him from receiving justice.

During a ceremony in southern Cambodia's Koh Kong province, Chut Wutty’s brother-in-law, Yong Sokhorn, appealed to authorities to continue the probe into his murder although a private security official was convicted in relation to the case.

“The government must reconsider and reopen the case in order to find the true killer and determine who was behind the killing,” he said, speaking in front of the logging company in Mondul Seima district where Chut Wutty was gunned down last April while investigating illegal logging operations.

Court proceedings on Chut Wutty’s case—the highest-profile death of a Cambodian activist in years—ended in October last year after a court in Koh Kong convicted a logging company’s security chief for the killing of a military officer accused of murdering Chut Wutty.

Timber Green Logging Company security chief Rann Borath was sentenced to two years in prison for the “unintentional murder” of military officer In Rattana, who judges said had fatally shot Chut Wutty.

Chut Wutty’s son, Chhoeuy Odomraksmey, told RFA’s Khmer Service that the convicted security chief is only in prison as a “scapegoat” in the incident.

He said his family wanted “justice” and urged authorities to put “the real killer” behind bars.

“The court must summon all suspects, including military officers and soldiers who were stationed in the area, to be questioned,” said Chhoeuy Odomraksmey, who is now the director of his father's NGO, the Natural Resource Protection Group.

“We can’t allow [an unjust verdict] to stand,” he said.

Chhoeuy Odomraksmey also appealed to the people of Cambodia for assistance in funding his NGOs, saying that after his father’s death, forest crimes had increased.

Rights groups weigh in

Conflicting accounts of the deaths of Chut Wutty and In Rattana sparked accusations of a government cover-up of the murder.

The case was decried as unfair and unjust by rights groups which alleged the authorities had “intentionally” closed off examination into the activist’s death by placing the blame on a dead man.

The Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on Friday also expressed “deep concern about the lack of significant progress in the investigation into his murder.”

“We strongly condemn the prevailing impunity in Mr. Chut Wutty’s murder, and we urge the Cambodian authorities to finally establish the full truth and bring to justice all those responsible,” said OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock.

“The authorities of Cambodia should also ensure in all circumstances that defenders of economic, social and cultural rights are able to work without any fear of reprisals”, added FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen.

Phnom Penh memorial

Also on Friday, a group of nongovernmental organizations held a commemoration ceremony for Chut Wutty in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, calling for the investigation into his death to be reopened.

Cambodian Food and Service Workers' Federation president Sar Mora said the government must “end its culture of impunity” and “provide justice” to Chut Wutty and his family.

“Chut Wutty tried his best to protect the forest, but he was killed for his efforts. This is very unjust,” he said.

“We urge the government to provide Chut Wutty with justice and to encourage people to remember him.”

The government has so far not responded to appeals on the activist’s behalf.

On the day he was found murdered, Chut Wutty had been leading two journalists to see what he believed were illegal logging activities near a Chinese-built dam in Koh Kong.

The activist had also been involved in organizing communities around Cambodia to protect forests from land grabs and illegal logging and had campaigned against the government's granting of land concessions in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

Four months after Chut Wutty’s death, Hang Serei Oudom, a journalist who had exposed illegal logging and forest crimes involving local elites in Ratanakiri province, was found dead in the trunk of his car.

Authorities have arrested a military police officer and his wife as suspects in the case.

Reported by Uon Chhin for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

The World Health Organization has launched an emergency strategy to combat drug-resistant strains of malaria in Southeast Asia, saying they pose a “global threat” to public health.

The new regional framework launched on World Malaria Day on Thursday is aimed at containing resistance to artemisinin—the frontline drug used to fight the mosquito-borne infectious disease—which has been identified in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

If the resistance were to spread from Southeast Asia to other parts of the world, particularly Africa, global progress on reducing the public health burden of the disease would be derailed, the WHO said.

“The consequences of widespread resistance to artemisinins would be catastrophic,” Robert Newman, director of WHO’s global malaria program, sad in a statement Wednesday.

“We must act now to protect Southeast Asia today and sub-Saharan Africa tomorrow,” he said.

Regional effort

The emergency strategy, which will cost about U.S. $400 million over the next three to four years, will work to remove poor-quality antimalarial drugs and other treatments that compromise the efficacy of artemisinin from circulation in affected countries.

The effort covers the four countries where artemisinin resistance has been found as well as neighboring Laos and southern China’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces.

“This response will require substantial funding, a high level of political commitment, and strengthened regional and cross-border collaboration,” Newman said.

The WHO will also set up a regional hub to provide coordination and technical support in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, where the first cases of artemisinin-resistant malaria were confirmed in 2006.

Strains resistant to the drug, which is derived from a Chinese herb, first emerged in the Thailand-Cambodia border about nine years ago, the WHO has said.

While containment efforts there have been successful, new foci of resistance are being discovered in other areas of the Greater Mekong Subregion, the organization said this week.

In May, regional health representatives will gather in Manila to review country progress towards 2015 targets and discuss national treatment guidelines as part of the WHO’s Regional Action Plan for Malaria Control and Elimination in the Western Pacific.

Between 2000 and 2011, the Asia-Pacific region made overall progress in reducing its malaria burden, with a 73 percent decrease in malaria mortality rates, but there was a great variation between countries, according to the WHO.

Resistance does not prevent patients being cured thanks to partner drugs, but treatment typically takes a longer period and is more expensive.

Two community police personnel have been killed and three motor vehicles set on fire in China's troubled western region of Xinjiang's Hotan county, Uyghur sources said Friday, triggering a fresh security alert after the worst violence in four years earlier in the week.

The Uyghur Online website reported that investigations were under way following the fresh violence in Hotan's Yengi Awat (in Chinese, Yingawa) village on Thursday, two days after 21 people were killed in clashes in Siriqbuya (Selibuya) township in Kashgar prefecture.

The report did not provide details on the fresh incident in which it said two community security officers were killed and three vehicles burned.

"What we know is that this case is under investigation," the report said, adding that the motive behind the incident has not been identified. "The government did not comment on it."

Security patrols

According to Dilxat Raxit, Sweden-based spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, the Hotan deaths followed clashes between local Muslim Uyghurs, many of whom chafe under Beijing's rule, and local people hired to "maintain stability" and watch over the neighborhood.

"We are still trying to establish the actual cause of the clashes, but one issue is that China has recently stepped up security patrols in the Hotan area," Raxit said in an interview on Friday.

"They have sent large numbers of uniformed personnel there along the state highway from Kashgar, and you can see Chinese military vehicles everywhere, frequently," he said.

In contrast to the earlier clashes, China's official media appeared to remain silent on the new incident and the authorities were reluctant to comment.

An official who answered the phone at the Hotan police department said, "I don't know about this."

Calls to the Hotan district government offices and to the county government that oversees Yingawa village went unanaswered during office hours on Friday.

Stability

The reports emerged as Chinese President Xi Jinping called for stability in the ethnically-divided region after the Siriqbuya violence which Chinese officials and state media said had erupted after community officials on patrol were attacked by Uyghur "terrorists" armed with knives at a house.

Reinforcements were called, and in the ensuing shootout six of the suspects were killed, state media said. Others were killed either after being slashed by the suspects or burned to death when the house was torched, state media reports said.

In total, 16 Uyghurs, three Han Chinese, and two Mongolians were killed in the Siriqbuya violence—the worst since ethnic clashes between Uyghurs and Han Chinese rocked Xinjiang's regional capital of Urumqi in 2009, killing nearly 200.

Xi gave instructions on "how to handle the case, deal with the aftermath, and maintain stability in Xinjiang", the state-run Global Times said on its website, citing a local report, and without quoting Xi's remarks directly.

China on Friday accused the United States of "double standards" for not endorsing Beijing's account of the violence, after officials in Washington said the U.S. was "deeply concerned" by accounts of discrimination against Uyghurs and other Muslims in China.

China accused the US of a "double standard" for not condemning the attack despite being a victim of terror itself.

Reported by Hai Nan for RFA's Cantonese service and Qiao Long for the Mandarin service. Translated by Luisetta Mudie and Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

The children of North Korea’s privileged class are shirking their military duties in exchange for bribes, and officials are looking the other way, according to defectors and sources within the country.

Those who hope to join the exclusive ruling Workers’ Party must first serve in the North Korean People’s Army, but, for a price, can get away with special treatment or are given cushy positions after donning fatigues, they said.

A source in North Korea’s South Hamgyong province, near the country’s border with China, told RFA’s Korean Service that the problem of the elite avoiding conscription had become “severe,” but so far has not led to any kind of official crackdown.

“Most parents in North Korea who have sons worry about them being drafted into the army, but that doesn’t apply to wealthy and powerful people,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Young men in nuclear-armed North Korea are required to join the country’s military and serve for a minimum of 10 years after graduating from high school. Young women who live in the capital Pyongyang must serve for two years after graduating, but those outside the city are not required to join.

But the regime under leader Kim Jong Un has faced severe food shortages exacerbated by international sanctions levied over recent rocket and nuclear tests, and feeding the impoverished nation’s estimated 1.2 million-member army has not been easy.

Lack of resource support coupled with grueling work assignments for members of the military has led the majority of influential families to seek a way out of service for their children, largely through bribery.

The source said that the sons and daughters of those who can afford to pay are either passed over by the military or, if they serve, are given lengthy furloughs from duty or discharged from service early.

“If you have enough money, there are 100,000 ways to avoid military duty, such as enrolling in a college for art, technical skills, or foreign languages. These students receive a ‘special education’ … that exempts them from service,” the source said.

He said that scions of the powerful can also dodge the draft by obtaining false documents from a hospital certifying an illness.

“People who get exemptions using these methods don’t care about becoming a member of the Workers’ Party,” the source said.

For those who hope to gain access to North Korea’s inner circle by joining the Workers’ Party, military service is mandatory, he said, “but they take an easy position through bribery and serve their duty at home, making up a fake illness or an excuse for special treatment.”

Draft dodging ‘on the rise’

A North Korean defector who gave his surname as Jang said “a lot of people” falsely report diseases in order to obtain a discharge from the military.

“In the past, people considered the act of dodging military service to be a dishonorable one, but recently this kind of thinking has changed. In fact, North Koreans now believe people who don’t try to get out of service are foolish,” he said.

“The bribery is not being addressed and draft dodging is on the rise among the privileged class.”

Sources said that without a free media in the country to report on the issue of draft dodging, the practice is unlikely to be eliminated. But they said that even if the problem was brought to light, North Koreans would be too afraid of being persecuted by the authorities to discuss it.

They said that in addition to the punishing working environment and substandard rations, young men and women of conscription age are seeking ways to skirt military service because the benefits of joining the Workers’ Party are no longer attractive.

North Korea’s military was founded 81 years ago Thursday and is older than the country itself. It began as an anti-Japanese militia and is now the heart of the nation’s “military first” policy.

North Korea, a country of about 25 million, has an estimated 7.7 million army reserves.

Kim Jong Un’s father and predecessor Kim Jong Il, who died in December 2011, raised the military’s profile during his 17 years in power.

The younger Kim this year instructed the Korean People’s Army to focus on a “nuclear arms force,” but it is believed to be operating on outdated materials and short supplies.

Reported by Joon Ho Kim for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Goeun Yu. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Former Hong Kong second-in-command Anson Chan has launched a new pressure group to campaign for universal suffrage in the former British colony, amid growing signs that Beijing is unlikely to move forward with full, direct elections for the city's legislature and chief executive any time soon. Former chief secretary Chan, who still commands huge popular support among Hong Kong people, told a news conference that veteran politicians, including those once regarded as pro-Beijing, are worried about the territory's future under Chinese rule:

We are at a crucial point if we are to make universal suffrage a reality. The chief executive is still doing nothing about it, and what's more, he has refused to put a timetable for the political reform proposals before the citizens of Hong Kong. This means we have lost a lot of valuable time.

There are only a few months left in which to gather different opinions on how we should elect the the chief executive in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020, including hearing from the business community, various civic groups, and the voice of young people. [We will] gather these into a dossier and submit it to the government.

The chief executive [C.Y. Leung] has done nothing so far to promote political reforms, which is why we have set up this group to promote democracy, and to communicate with different sectors of society through different media. We want to be sure that we are getting a broad-based and fair consensus.

There are no preconceived notions. The bottom line is that we must make sure that our final dossier adheres to the core principles of fairness and universality. We would very much like to have a dialogue with the central government [in Beijing], but our biggest problem at the moment is that the central government doesn't trust that Hong Kong people have the wisdom to use their personal votes to elect a chief executive that is acceptable to Beijing.

Asked if she had the support of overseas governments, or if she had plans to run for chief executive herself, Chan said:

We have never accepted [financial] help from overseas, and we won't in the future. I will be offering some financial assistance, as will some people who care about this cause. I am doing this entirely for Hong Kong, not for myself.

Only through universal elections can we boost the level of public acceptance of the chief executive, and preserve our way of life and our core values, including the rule of law and protection for freedom and human rights.

If anyone has an opinion about me, the fairest thing to do would be to communicate with me more. Maybe some people are just reflecting the views of the central government.

Reported by Lin Jing for RFA's Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Claims from Chinese officials that the majority of buildings built after the devastating 2008 earthquake didn't collapse in Saturday's magnitude-7 temblor in Sichuan faced criticism from rights groups and quake survivors as the province was rocked by a smaller tremor on Friday.

Friday's 4.8 magnitude earthquake jolted Sichuan's Yibin city, injuring 61 people, just six days after a larger quake in Lushan county left more than 200 people dead or missing and around 12,000 injured.

Reconstruction work was beginning on Friday, meanwhile, in the wake of the Lushan quake, amid official claims that stricter building rules brought in after 2008 had proved effective.

Official media quoted Qiu Jian, chief planner of the provincial housing and urban-rural development department, as saying that most of the buildings that collapsed in the earthquake near Ya'an city were built by local people.

"As for the buildings constructed as part of post-quake programs following the [2008] earthquake, none of them collapsed though these buildings bore some cracks or broken walls," Qiu told reporters.

He said a team of more than 400 experts had determined that post-2008 buildings were largely up to anti-quake standards.

A total of 186,300 rural buildings collapsed in the quake and about 430,000 homes were gravely damaged, provincial officials told a news conference on Thursday.

Claims disputed

The claims were disputed by local residents and activists, however.

A resident of Sichuan's Tianquan county surnamed Yu said the situation on the ground didn't match up to this assessment.

"I have come across a lot of privately built houses, three-storey buildings built by the owners themselves, which didn't drop a single piece of concrete and which don't have any cracks in them at all," she said.

"They all came through the quake unscathed."

She said she doubted whether government-built buildings had performed as well.

Post-2008 rules

Officials were closely questioned by reporters over the extent of collapsed buildings, in spite of tougher rules on earthquake-proofing brought in after the 2008 quake left 87,000 people dead or missing, thousands of them schoolchildren.

A resident of worst-hit Lushan county, Rui La, said everyone in her neighborhood had been made homeless after the quake had rendered their homes too dangerous to live in.

"All our houses were hit," she said. "No one's house came through it OK, not even the ones built last year, or those that were just finished. They all cracked."

She said a school in the county that had been built to tougher specifications since the 2008 disaster was now unsafe for use.

"It was built after 2008," Rui said. "Now they will have to build huts so the kids can go back to class."

The U.S.-based Chinese-language news site Boxun said that the newly built No. 3 Elementary School in Ya'an city, which was supposed to withstand a magnitude-8 earthquake, had sustained major damage, with fallen walls and broken tiles everywhere, and wasn't suitable for use.

Meanwhile, the New Tang Dynasty website said large numbers of armed police had moved into the quake-hit area, and were using up precious resources that could be used to prioritize rescue work.

It quoted local residents as saying that there were around 10,000 troops and armed police in the region by Thursday, suggesting that the authorities feared popular unrest amid widespread anger over the rescue operation and the level of damage to buildings.

Only three of the 359 schools in Ya'an had escaped damage in the earthquake, and among the worst hit was the Lushan High School, which was built by Hong Kong-donated relief funds in the wake of the 2008 quake to withstand a magnitude-8 tremor, it said.

Huang Yuming, a resident of Lushan's Taiping township, said more armed police—who are generally used instead of troops to maintain public order—had been arriving the area every day.

"There are armed police here, yes," Huang said. "Every day they come. There are more than 20 in our [immediate area] alone."

'Huge damage' to newly built buildings

Sichuan-based Huang Qi, who runs the Tianwang website and rights group, said relief workers sent to the quake-hit region by his group had reported problems with large numbers of reconstructed buildings after the quake.

"Our sources from the disaster area are telling us that they have visited a lot of public buildings like schools and hospitals in the past couple of days, and unfortunately even those that were newly built have suffered huge damage," Huang said.

"According to an initial investigation [by the government], most are not currently being used," he said.

Sichuan urban construction official Si Qijian defended the performance of the newer buildings, however.

"It's normal for there to be cracks or damage to buildings after such a big earthquake," he said.

"The most important thing is that they should sustain no damage in a smaller earthquake, be reparable after a medium earthquake, and not fall down in a large tremor."

Online commentators said they wanted to hear the government's definition of "collapsed."

Shenzhen Commercial Times reporter Huang Xiping posted via the Twitter-like service Sina Weibo: "The Chinese language is very broad in scope! Who can tell me what 'not a single building collapsed' actually means?"

"Does it count if half of it collapsed? How about nine-tenths? Or, so that there's only a brick and a tile left standing?"

"They are using these ridiculous notions to try to cover up the truth of official corruption that lies behind these tofu buildings," Huang wrote.

Reported by Xin Lin and Shi Shan for RFA's Mandarin Service and by Fung Yat-yiu for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

For strategic or other reasons, the United States may have been giving special treatment to major powers China, Russia and India when evaluating their human trafficking record in a bid to avoid imposing sanctions on them, according to some American lawmakers and former government officials.

In a clash between priorities of national security and foreign policy on the one hand and human rights on the other, the U.S. authorities have let even Uzbekistan off the hook apparently because of the repressive nation's  cooperation in getting supplies to American troops in Afghanistan, they said.

As Washington assesses steps taken by governments across the world in combating human trafficking, allies Iraq and Thailand too have seen their potential ranking downgrades delayed while Vietnam has won a premature ranking boost allegedly due to strategic considerations, the legislators and ex-state officials charged at a U.S. congressional hearing last week.

The U.S. State Department gives rankings—from Tier 1 to Tier 3—to more than 180 countries every year in its annual report on the state of human trafficking across the world, acclaimed as the international gold standard for anti-trafficking accountability.

Tier 1 countries are judged as fully meeting the minimum standards established by the law. Tier 2 nations may not fully comply with minimum standards, such as protection, prosecution, and prevention, but are seen to be making a significant effort to comply.

Those listed on the worst Tier 3 ranking are open to sanction by the U.S. government.

But much of the ranking controversy revolves around the second-lowest tier—the Tier 2 Watch List created a decade ago in a bid to encourage countries that take anti-trafficking steps late in the evaluation year, especially those countries that took last-minute measures to avoid a Tier 3 designation.

Some countries have exploited a loophole by, in the words of a lawmaker, "gaming the system"—making it a habit of last minute efforts and failing to follow through year after year.

So, in 2008, a law was created for an “automatic downgrade” for any country that had been on the Tier 2 Watch List for two years but had not taken significant enough anti-trafficking measures to move to Tier 2.

The U.S. President can however waive a Tier 3 downgrade for two additional years if there is “credible evidence” that the country has a written and sufficiently resourced plan to meet the minimum standards.

Automatic downgrade

It has now been four years since the two-year limit, or 4 years-with-a-waiver limit, was instituted and all eyes are on the State Department's 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) to be released in June with the new rankings.

Six nations face a potential automatic downgrade from Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 3 with possible sanctions—China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Azerbaijan.

They have now had at least four full years of warning that they would face downgrade to Tier 3 if they did not make significant efforts to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, and prevent trafficking.

"The 'parking lot' is now closed: The [U.S.] Administration can no longer avoid telling hard truths about politically sensitive countries by keeping them indefinitely on the 'Watch List,' which was not part of the original, three-tier structure established [under the law]," Ed Royce, Chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told the hearing.

"If time-limited countries have not made significant efforts to comply with minimum trafficking standards, they must be downgraded to Tier 3 status," he said.

Another House lawmaker, Chris Smith, said that if the six countries "have once again failed to make significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, the State Department must downgrade them or risk undermining the credibility and demonstrated power of the TIP Report."

He said he was particularly concerned about China's human trafficking record, saying it has been on the Tier 2 Watch List for eight consecutive years but not been making significant efforts to comply with the minimum standards of the law.

It also continues to forcibly repatriate North Korean trafficking victims who face severe punishment, including execution, upon return to their country, said Smith, a rights crusading lawmaker.

'Pulls punches'

Mark Lagon, a former head of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons which publishes the annual global trafficking report, acknowledged that "at times" the department "pulls punches" with some countries.

He cited India, "the demographic epicenter of human trafficking in the world," saying the State Department upgraded it from Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2 in the June 2011 report in a move that "may have had even more to do with strategic relations with India than the merits."

Lagon, who was the head of the anti-trafficking office from 2007 to 2009, also said that he himself had "learned of a Tier 3 ranking being overturned by the very highest level of State Department leadership just days before" he was confirmed to his post.

The State Department declined to comment on the issues raised at the congressional hearing ahead of the publication of the annual human trafficking report in June.

"We can't comment on this year's country assessments before the 2013 TIP Report is released this summer,"  Luis CdeBaca, Ambassador-at-Large at the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said in response to a query from RFA.

"State Department staff are working with a wide range of partners to ensure this year's narratives are thorough and take into account all available information," CdeBaca said.

Battles

Lagon also cited battles between diplomats and anti-trafficking experts within the State Department over the issue of labor camps in China.

A "sizeable portion" of the world's 2.2 million victims of forced labor "compelled by governments, militaries and armed groups" is represented by those political prisoners in the laogai, or “reeducation through labor” prison camps, in China, according to published data.

"Those responsible for East Asia in the State Department actually temporarily fought with the TIP Office when I was its Director as to whether the laogai—documented publicly in the annual Department Human Rights Report —would be considered trafficking victims, as they are," he said.

Lagon, now an international affairs professor at Washington's Georgetown University, was particularly vocal about Uzbekistan's human trafficking record, describing it as "the most appalling case in the neighborhood of the former Soviet Union."

"Let me be plain: There are loud voices within the U.S. Government who say the U.S. must downplay any distraction which might upset Uzbekistan’s cooperation in the Northern Distribution Network getting supplies to troops in Afghanistan," he said.

"China, Russia, and India may predictably avoid downgrades as great powers. But if as unreconstructed and unrepentant an autocracy as Uzbekistan is let off the hook because of a supply mechanism for troops being winnowed from Afghanistan anyway, it would be a travesty."

David Abramowitz, a former State Department official and congressional staffer, said the “automatic downgrade” provision for the trafficking rankings "was viewed with some alarm" among many in the State Department and a number of important countries, such as India, Thailand, China, and Russia—perennial members of the Tier 2 Watch List.

Abramowitz, now vice-president of Humanity United, a California-based philanthropic organization, warned of "the risk that national secuerity and foreign policy perspectives will trump the human rights considerations that should always be at the forefront of this issue."

Farmers and activists protesting a Chinese-backed copper mine in northern Burma were shot at and beaten by police on Thursday in a new crackdown on protests against the project since a brutally suppressed demonstration last year.

The clashes broke out after security forces moved in to stop farmers from plowing fields in land that has been seized by Wan Bao Company, which runs the copper mine near Mount Letpadaung in northern Burma’s Sagaing division.

At least ten protesting farmers were injured, some of them with gunshot wounds, and three others were arrested, protesters said.

“While we were plowing our lands to plant crops, the security forces came in and arrested us,” local farmer Zaw Naing told RFA’s Burmese Service.

“They cracked down on us violently,” he said, adding that one villager received two gunshot wounds and taken to the hospital in Monywa.

The Irrawaddy online journal quoted a doctor as saying "some of the injured had received gunshot wounds."

November clampdown

The clashes were an echo of a clampdown on protest camps at the mine site last November, when police used smoke bombs to disperse the crowd, injuring dozens of demonstrators, including monks, and triggering a national outcry.

The crackdown prompted a government probe into the future of the mine, which is a joint venture between the Burmese military's Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (UMEHL) and Wan Bao Company, the a subsidiary of a Chinese arms manufacturer.

Last month, a probe panel recommended that the mine be allowed to proceed as it serves the economic benefit of the nation. Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who headed the committee, traveled to the area to urge local farmers to drop their protest.

But hundreds of farmers have continued to refuse compensation and demand the return of land which they say was illegally confiscated for the mine.

Some of them began plowing fields near the mine earlier this week in preparation to plant ahead of the start of the rainy season, before police arrived Thursday morning.

'No warning'

Ko Latt, an activist from the Rangoon People’s Support Network that has been working with local farmers to protest the mine, said the security forces came with “no warning.”

In the ensuing clashes, he said police had used what he believed to be explosives, which had caused bushes and trees to catch fire.

Zaw Naing said the clashes ended when farmers scattered out of fear that security forces would use bombs to make them leave.

“We heard a police officer shout to his forces, ‘Use bombs to crack down on them.’ We didn’t have any weapons, so we went home,” he said.

The three arrested were two local residents from Setae village and activist Aung Soe from the Rangoon People’s Support Network, Zaw Naing said.

State television reported the skirmish, saying police used rubber bullets to disperse 200 farmers, according to the Associated Press. The report said 15 police were also injured.

The chief of the local Sarlingyi township police station and the Monywa district administrator refused to comment on Thursday’s clashes when contacted by RFA, referring reporters to Wan Bao’s security unit.

'Problem of daily survival'

The 88 Generation Students’ Group, a prominent Burmese civil society organization based in Rangoon, denounced Thursday’s crackdown as “harsh” and said the local farmers face a struggle for their livelihood when they cannot farm land there.

“If the farmers can’t do anything in the area, they face a problem of survival, and they cannot wait until the end of the planting season,” a statement by the group on Thursday said.

“The authorities need to address the farmers’ problem of their daily survival,” it said.

It added that the group was concerned authorities there were “responding harshly whenever a problem happens.”

Reported by Nay Rein Kyaw, Kyaw Zaw Lwin, and Yadanar Oo for RFA’s Burmese Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

An exiled rights group has called on the U.S. envoy to China to raise human rights violations against the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority with the government in Beijing, two days after 21 people were killed in the worst episode of violence in the restive Xinjiang region in nearly four years.

U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke was visiting Xinjiang with a trade delegation when the clashes took place Tuesday in Maralbeshi (in Chinese, Bachu) county in Kashgar prefecture and the U.S. State Department has called on Beijing to conduct a “thorough and transparent investigation of this incident.”

Chinese officials and state media said the violence erupted after community officials on patrol were attacked by Uyghur "terrorists" armed with knives at a house in Siriqbuya (in Chinese, Selibuya) township.

Reinforcements were called and in the ensuing shootout, six of the suspects were killed, state media said. Others were killed either after being slashed by the suspects or burned to death when the house was torched, state media reports said.

In total, 16 Uyghurs, three Han Chinese, and two Mongolians were killed in the clashes—the worst since ethnic violence between Uyghurs and Han Chinese rocked Xinjiang's regional capital of Urumqi in 2009, killing nearly 200.

The Washington-based Uyghur American Association (UAA) warned that Chinese media reporting on the incident should be “viewed with extreme caution” given a lack of details and independent verification, and urged the international community to dismiss allegations of a Uyghur terror plot.

The UAA called on Locke to raise any violations against the Uyghurs with the Chinese authorities and urge Beijing to find a “lasting political solution” to their grievances.

“It is vitally important for Ambassador Locke to remind the Chinese authorities that the constant attack on Uyghur identity, language, culture, religion and ethnicity as well as equating Uyghurs’ legitimate grievances with terrorism, separatism and extremism will not bring long-term peace and stability to the region,” said UAA President Alim Seytoff in a statement.

The UAA said that since the unrest of 2009, China had intensified its repression of the Uyghur people through “heavy-handed security measures” and the “arbitrary use of lethal force.”

It said that in addition to deploying anti-terror forces into Xinjiang following the clashes, authorities had also created “neighborhood watch offices” in areas of the region populated by Uyghurs, such as Kashgar and Hotan, to “spy” on the ethnic group.

“These offices were tasked to report any Uyghur out of town or any kind of Uyghur gathering even in the privacy of their house to police or security personnel patrolling the area,” the group said.

“Subsequently, it results in an immediate unlawful house search by neighborhood watch officers and sometimes arbitrary use of lethal force by security personnel for any kind of resistance, causing the deaths of many people, with authorities usually labeling the Uyghurs involved as ‘terrorists’.”

Terror plot?

New York-based DWnews.com quoted anonymous official sources as saying that Tuesday’s incident triggered off after three community officials discovered a “terrorist” group watching a “terrorist” video during a house-to-house search.

It said that the officials, who had also found a cache of knives, reported the matter to police who soon after arrived on the scene with the police station chief and a group of officers.

“When they arrived at scene, they found the three officials killed. The police chief was the only one armed with a gun among his team,” the Chinese-language report said, without providing the police chief’s name.

“When his six rounds of ammunition were exhausted, the terror group used a 1.2-meter (4-foot) knife to kill him and the other policemen.”

DWnews said the group “burned down the house with the bodies in it,” adding that among the community officials killed in the clash was ethnic Mongolian deputy town mayor Sung Chao.

The Global Times, an official Chinese media organization, reported that the remaining police officers had taken eight men into custody during the incident.

It said the “terrorists may have set a trap” in luring police officers and to their home before setting upon them with knives, quoting local officials.

Chinese authorities often accuse Uyghurs of terrorist activities, but experts familiar with the region have said Beijing exaggerates a terrorism threat to take the heat off domestic policies that cause unrest.

The Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) maintained that the clash was sparked by the shooting and killing of a young Uyghur by Chinese security forces that fired into a crowd angered over the illegal search of homes.

And an eyewitness told RFA's Uyghur Service on Wednesday that when a Uyghur woman had refused to lift her veil during a search of area homes, a neighborhood watch officer forced her to do so, sparking the conflict.

Investigation urged

The United States on Wednesday urged China to carry out a full probe of the violence and "take steps to reduce tensions and promote long-term stability in Xinjiang."

"We urge the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of this incident and to provide all Chinese citizens—including Uyghurs—the due-process protections to which they're entitled," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters.

But China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Thursday said the U.S. was using a “double standard” for not outright condemning the attack while also recently suffering from an act of terror, and said Washington should “reflect on its own problems.”

Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two explosions occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. Two young men, one of which was killed in a shootout with police, are suspected of having carried out the attack.

“We are firmly opposed to the U.S. confusing black and white, right and wrong. Not only do they not condemn violent terrorist attacks, but they also make casual and irresponsible accusations against China’s ethnic policy,” she said.

“We hope the U.S. can respect the most basic facts and stop the wrong practice of using double standards. They should look at themselves in the mirror more often to see all the problems in their own country instead of making casual accusations against other countries.”

In Xinjiang, rights groups say that the Chinese authorities are indiscriminately jailing Uyghurs in the name of fighting terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism, and are intensifying the influx of Han Chinese in the region.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness.

Reported by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by Dolkun Kamberi. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui have refused to release a journalist who shot video of a campaign to allow the daughter of a local dissident to attend school, his relatives said on Thursday.

Sun Lin, a reporter for the overseas-based Chinese-language news site Boxun, was initially sentenced to 10 days' administrative detention, after the couple took part in protests in support of dissident Zhang Lin and his 10-year-old daughter Zhang Anni, who was taken by police from a school in the provincial capital Hefei in February and barred from returning.

Sun's wife Gao Xiaojun said the authorities had since declined to release her husband, however.

"They said he won't get out," Gao said in an interview on Thursday. "They will probably change his status to criminal detention on April 30."

She said Sun's lawyer had visited him in detention for two hours on Saturday.

"His reporting has been having an impact for many years now," Gao said. "So he is probably going to be suppressed by the authorities."

"I thought things were looking dangerous, so I hired him two lawyers ... in case one of them is subjected to [official] controls."

Sun's detention came after more than 30 supporters of veteran pro-democracy activist Zhang gathered in the provincial capital Hefei earlier this month to protest the Feb. 27 removal of the dissident's daughter Anni from the Hupo Elementary School in the city by police.

Anni has since been denied permission to return by the school's principal, and the family has now returned to their hometown of Bengbu, a smaller city in Anhui, and enrolled her in a local school there.

Criminal detention

Gao said the police had already set up a committee to transfer Sun's case to criminal detention and that things didn't look good for her husband.

"As soon as we got inside the detention center, they sent someone to meet us and show us around, including two state security police...who were trailing around in front of us and behind us," she said.

"After the meeting with the lawyers, when I visited [Sun], they were still there, coming and going."

Online outcry

Anni's case sparked an outcry among Chinese netizens, with her story and photograph trending regularly on the popular microblogging site Sina Weibo in recent weeks.

On April 8, activists from around the country converged on Hefei in a bid to escort Anni to school.

Some were set upon by unidentified men near the school gates, while others have volunteered to teach Anni and staged relay hunger strikes in support of the family.

'Blowing up' the campaign

One of the lawyers, Guangzhou rights attorney Sui Muqing, said Sun had been beaten by police while in detention.

"They beat him up after they detained him, and they didn't specify under what charges he was being held," Sui said. "All he got was a so-called verbal communication that he was being held under administrative detention."

"They never sent out a notice of detention to his family, so the way the police handled this case was clearly illegal," he said.

Sui said police had accused Sun of "blowing up" the campaign in support of Zhang Lin and Anni.

"They asked him why he took part in blowing up the Anni affair, saying he was suspected of transmission of information, and threatening him by saying it depended on his attitude."

"They said his [video reports] had created a bad impression overseas, but Sun Lin refused to sign the form when they detained him," Sui added.

Zhang home under surveillance

Back in Bengbu, Zhang Lin, 50, said last week that his home had been under tight police surveillance since the detentions of his fellow activists.

China's nationwide "stability maintenance" system, which now costs more than the People's Liberation Army, tracks the movements and activities of anyone engaged in political or rights activism across the country.

Under this system, activists and outspoken intellectuals are routinely put under house arrest or other forms of surveillance at politically sensitive times.

Zhang, a veteran of the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Anhui, has served more than 13 years in prison on subversion charges for his political activities since the banning of the opposition China Democracy Party (CDP) in 1998.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Relatives of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who is currently a visiting legal scholar in New York, say the authorities have stepped up harassment of the family ahead of Friday's anniversary of his daring escape from house arrest.

"They have been harassing us ever since the night of [April] 18th," Chen Guangcheng's brother, Chen Guangfu, said from the family's hometown in the eastern province of Shandong.

He said government-sponsored thugs had hung dead chickens and ducks in his family's private courtyard on the night of April 18, and put up posters defaming and threatening him and his family around the village.

"At 1:00 a.m. on [April] 21, they threw some stones into our courtyard, smashing some glass and roof tiles," Chen said.

"On the 22nd, when my mother got up at 7:00 a.m. to go and buy some stuff, she found someone had distributed leaflets on the streets [about us]."

"They threw rocks into our house again in the early hours of [Wednesday] ... and a beer bottle in our cooking pot," Chen said.

The posters were printed, and described Chen Guangfu and Chen Guangcheng as "hoodlums and traitors to the Han people," he said.

"They said we had links with foreign devils, Taiwan independence forces, and were the sons of the United States, and traitors to our own land."

He said he believed the posters were an attempt to mark the anniversary of Chen Guangcheng's daring escape after his family was subjected to more than 18 months of house arrest and beatings, at the end of April last year.

Sending a warning

Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who exposed forced abortions under the country's one-child policy and defended the rights of ordinary people, has been living and studying law in New York since arriving in the U.S. in May 2012, after a diplomatic standoff between Washington and Beijing.

After 18 months of house arrest in Shandong's Dongshigu village, Chen Guangcheng outwitted his guards and made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where Chinese and American officials eventually struck a deal allowing him and his family to go to New York to study.

"Maybe they want to send us a warning, not to go speaking out about things," Chen Guangfu said. "My feeling is that this is an organized campaign, and they are probably secure in the knowledge that they have [government] backing."

He said that the harassment was likely linked to the fact that Chen Guangcheng had supplied a list of more than 40 names of officials in his home county of Yinan he said were responsible for human rights abuses to the U.S. Congress, and his subsequent visit to Taiwan.

"This is affecting us economically, and the psychological pressure is huge as well," he said.

Also on Wednesday, Chen Guangfu's wife, Ren Zongju, was summoned by the authorities from nearby Linyi city and accused of "harboring" the couple's son, Chen Kegui, who was jailed last year after he tried to defend the family against an assault by security personnel.

"This is the first time I have been called in for questioning by police since last year," Ren said in an interview on Wednesday. "[Last year], they took me to a detention center and didn't take me home until four days later."

Punishing the family

According to Catherine Baber, Asia-Pacific Program Director at Amnesty International, the latest detention of Ren appeared to be a punishment aimed at the whole family.

"This new detention—a full year after Chen Guangcheng’s escape—seems aimed at punishing him and his family for his continued outspoken criticism of the Chinese government," Baber said in a statement on the group's website.

Another Chen brother recently said that his car had been damaged and his tires repeatedly slashed, Amnesty said.

"In China we’ve seen a pattern of the authorities singling out family members and associates of prominent government critics and human rights defenders for intimidation—this must be stopped immediately," Baber said.

The family's lawyer, Ding Xikui, said the harassment of the Chen family was illegal.

"I hope they will report the case to the authorities, and we will see how they deal with it," he said.

Earlier this month, Chen Guangcheng said his nephew, who is serving a 39-month jail term for injuring officials, has been subjected to “torture,” including sleep and food deprivation, while under detention.

Chen Kegui said local officials entered his home and attacked him and his family in anger, shortly after his uncle’s blind, solo escape under cover of darkness.

Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese service, and by Xin Yu for the Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

More than 1,000 families reeling from one of Vietnam’s biggest land disputes say officials are ignoring their legal complaints over the loss of their rice fields confiscated for a satellite city on the edge of the country’s capital.

They were among residents in Hun Yen province’s Van Giang district whose protest against the takeover of their farmland in April last year was brutally suppressed by the authorities.

One year after the April 24, 2012 protests, the residents’ complaints against the seizure of the land to make way for the U.S. $8 billion dollar EcoPark development project have not yet been addressed, farmers’ representatives said.

Pham Hoanh Son, a villagers’ representative, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service the residents are “very disappointed” that officials had not responded to their complaints even though some had acknowledged in private that the farmers had been treated unfairly.

“We talked to various authorities who admitted in private talks that there had been wrongdoing but avoid saying so publicly,” he said.

“The government, from the province to the central level, is still ignoring us.”

Farmers had staged protests occasionally since the EcoPark project was launched several years ago, claiming that the government granted 500 hectares (1,200 acres) that they used as farmland to the developers without proper consultation or compensation.

In one of the biggest land clashes in the country in recent years, thousands of security forces suppressed the mass protest by the residents last year, with police firing warning shots and tear gas while farmers resisted by throwing bricks, glass bottles, stones, and Molotov cocktails.

Call to officials

On Wednesday, 1,244 Van Giang households issued a statement calling on Vietnam’s leaders to resolve the case and address concerns about their forced eviction.

“We have been determined and will continue to be, fighting till the end to protect our basic right, which is that farmers must have land,” the statement said, adding that that their case was being watched by farmers with similar disputes across the country.

“If you don’t pay attention and solve this case, which is very big and very close to Hanoi, people will understand that other cases of farmers in other provinces will never get the attention from the central government,” it said.

In Vietnam, all land belongs to the state, with people having only the right to use it, and expropriation has been linked to several high-profile incidents of unrest.

Court case refused

Land for the EcoPark project was confiscated in two stages in 2009 and 2012, but thousands of households refused to take compensation from the government, saying the amount offered was significantly lower than what they were owed.

Following the clash last year, residents submitted a complaint to the Van Giang People’s Court in May, suing the district chairman over their initial 2009 eviction.

In August, the court returned their complaint, saying it was refusing the case because there was not enough evidence.

The EcoPark project, part of a long-term urban planning scheme for Hanoi, was approved by the government for development by the Viet Hung Urban Development and Investment Company.

Hun Yen provincial officials recently issued a decision saying the province had already responded to complaints about the project and that the EcoPark development in the area was on track to proceed, Son said.

He said villagers’ had spoken with government officials who were sympathetic to their case and had indicated they believed that some agencies had “violated the law” in dealing with the land dispute, but were not willing to support the villagers due to the “sensitivity” of the case.

Son said he had been told that an official from the central government had been ordered to meet with the residents but refused to do so because he was “too busy.”

Earlier this month, a court in Haiphong sentenced a local official to jail for more than two years for his role in another of Vietnam’s highest-profile land disputes.

In a rare admission of a botched government land seizure, the official was sentenced for destroying the property of fish farmer Doan Van Vuong, who had become a national hero after he was jailed for putting up an armed resistance to his forced eviction.

Four other officials received suspended sentences for their roles in the forced eviction in Hai Phong’s Tien Lang district.

Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Ethnic Mongolian netizens in China have slammed a popular Chinese talk show host for comments suggesting their ancestors were “uncivilized illiterates,” prompting him to make a public apology, a rights group said Wednesday.

Gao Xiaosong had made the disparaging remarks recently on his online video talk show “Xiao Shuo” (Morning Call), eliciting a hail of angry responses by ethnic Mongolians on Chinese social media sites, according to U.S.-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC).

“When elaborating on place names in Beijing, Gao Xiaosong stated that ‘Beijing was first built by a group of uncivilized illiterates including the Manchus and the Mongols who conquered the world on horseback’,” SMHRIC said.

Gao, who is a Chinese-American musician and composer, said that the Mongols “were illiterate and even unable to speak Chinese fluently” and that the names they had given to places in Beijing were awkward and unauthentic.

Beijing was designed and built by the Mongols as one of several capitals of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century during the Yuan Dynasty.

Most of China’s ethnic Mongolians today live in Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region and have long complained that their traditional grazing lands have been ruined by mining and desertification, and that the government has marginalized their culture and language.

SMHRIC said that Gao’s comments were found to be “both insulting and disrespectful” and led Mongolian netizens to take to Twitter-like service Sina Weibo, YouTube equivalent YouKu, and websites Ren Ren and Baidu to post strongly-worded messages demanding Gao make a public apology.

“Full of national hatred and ethnic discrimination, his statements not only insulted the national dignity of the Mongolians but also created an extremely vicious social effect,” netizen Araashdorjee posted on his microblog.

He also called on “Mongols from all walks of society to join together to defend their national dignity” and “give Gao Xiaosong a maximum punishment through legal means.”

Other responses suggested filing a lawsuit against Gao in accordance with provisions under the Chinese Criminal Law which state that individuals who “instigate national hatred and advocate national discrimination” shall be “punishable to three to 10 years imprisonment” depending on the severity and nature of the act.

Apology posted

In response to the deluge of criticism, Gao took to his microblog account to issue an apology.

“I apologize! The Mongols who conquered China at that time were very civilized, very modern, and were never unpolished,” Gao wrote to his Mongolian detractors.

But Gao also attempted to deflect blame, saying that “many articles claim the Mongols killed, enslaved and raped the Chinese,” referring to publications that celebrated Chinese heroes who resisted the Mongols and fought against the Yuan Dynasty.

He pled for an end to the barrage of criticism, saying “Mongolians are open-minded forgiving people—not like us narrow-minded Chinese.”

Heated discussions over Gao’s comments also extended to the ethnic Mongolian online community abroad on platforms including Facebook and Twitter, SMHRIC said.

“The illusion of so-called ‘ethnic harmony’ [in China] has long disappeared,” the group quoted a netizen named “Voice of Southern Mongolia” as saying on Facebook, “and Gao Xiaosong correctly admitted that the Mongols are foreigners and the national border between the Mongols and Chinese is the Great Wall.”

“The Chinese Government distorts history and eradicates national education,” the netizen continued. “In fact what Gao Xiaosong said is an expression of the deep-rooted attitude of all Chinese toward the Mongolians: discrimination.”

Twenty-one people have been killed in clashes in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, reports said Wednesday, amid charges by exile groups that the violence stemmed from persistent raids by the Chinese authorities on ethnic Uyghur homes.

Local authorities said the violence Tuesday in Maralbeshi (in Chinese, Bachu) county in Kashgar prefecture erupted after community officials were "seized" by "rioters" in the home of a local resident while they were patrolling the area.

There was a shootout by the authorities and the house in Siriqbuya (in Chinese, Selibuya) township was burned down, reports said.

An eyewitness told RFA's Uyghur Service that the violence was triggered when a local community watch group ordered a woman to lift a veil covering her face while searching Uyghur houses in the Third Residential Committee area near the People's Square bazaar.

"When she refused, one of the watch group's member removed her veil, triggering the conflict," said the male employee of an electronics shop nearby, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I saw people were running and police were shouting, and, through my shop window, I saw smoke billowing from the area where the incident occurred," a hairdresser working in the bazaar one kilometer (0.6 miles) away said.

A police officer in neighboring Mekit county told RFA he was informed that police were searching the houses for a suspect from Pichan (in Chinese, Shanshan) county in Xinjiang’s Turpan prefecture when the killings occurred.

A seven-year-old Uyghur boy was hacked to death by a Han Chinese suspect two weeks ago in Pichan county and the authorities had stepped up security to prevent retaliation by Uyghur groups.

Identities

There were also contradictions on the identities of the 21 killed in the Maralbeshi incident, the worst violence in Xinjiang in four years.

One local government official was quoted saying that six of the dead were Uyghur "terrorists" or "thugs." Xinhua said the other 15 killed were community officials—10 Uyghurs, three Han Chinese, and two Mongolians.

But Hou Hanmin, spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government, identified the dead as nine "residents," six police, and six Uyghurs. Eight other Uyghur suspects have been held.

"It's certainly a terrorist attack," Hou was quoted saying by Reuters news agency.

Chinese authorities often accuse Uyghurs of terrorist activities but experts familiar with the region have said Beijing exaggerates a terrorism threat to take the heat off domestic policies that cause unrest.

'Local protest'

Exile groups said Tuesday's clashes were sparked by the killing of a Muslim Uyghur youth by armed police, who fired on an angry protest by local people.

According to Sweden-based Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, local sources said that local residents had faced off with police over continual raids on Uyghur homes.

"Clashes broke out when the Uyghurs were protesting continual raids by the Chinese, and the Chinese armed police fired first, killing a young Uyghur man, which prompted [the violence]," Raxit said.

"The Chinese armed police rushed to the scene to suppress the [protest], and shot dead a Uyghur," he said.

Dilxat Raxit said the authorities were using allegations of terrorism as a way of covering up the armed crackdown on protesters.

"They are trying to make it [appear] legitimate," he said.

'Suspicious individuals'

According to the Chinese authorities, however, three community-level officials who discovered "suspicious individuals" and knives in the home of a local resident were attacked and killed after they called for back-up.

Xinjiang regional government spokeswoman Hou said that the community workers were carrying out "routine checks" on homes in the area, when they were told that "suspicious people" had been seen in a nearby house.

They called for help after finding knives on the premises, and were set upon by 14 Uyghur "rioters," whose actions appeared to be planned, she said.

Xinhua said that both police officers and officials were killed by the suspects, who then burned down the house.

Local businesses closed

The violence is believed to be the worst since ethnic clashes between Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese rocked Xinjiang's regional capital of Urumqi in 2009, killing nearly 200.

A Han Chinese shop owner near the scene of the incident said he had heard gunshots and immediately took cover inside his shop.

"They just smashed up the police station," he said. "They didn't do anything to us regular citizens."

The shop owner said the community officials "were killed as soon as they stepped outside."

Calls to the municipal police department in Kashgar, which administers Maralbeshi county, went unanswered during office hours on Wednesday.

Local businesses remained closed following the violence, residents said, with the town on high alert for "terrorist attacks."

An employee who answered the phone at a hotel in Siriqbuya said it had been ordered to close for several days by police.

Investigation urged

Meanwhile, the United States urged China to carry out a transparent probe of the violence and "take steps to reduce tensions and promote long-term stability in Xinjiang."

"We urge the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of this incident and to provide all Chinese citizens—including Uyghurs—the due-process protections to which they're entitled," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying hit out at "violent terrorist acts."

"The current situation in Xinjiang is good, but a small group of terrorist forces is still trying every possible means to disturb and destroy the present stability and trend of development in Xinjiang," Hua said.

Last week, a U.S. State Department annual report on global human rights practices said that China is waging an "increasingly harsh repression" against Tibetans and Uyghurs.

In Xinjiang, rights groups say that the Chinese authorities are indiscriminately jailing Uyghurs in the name of fighting terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism, and are intensifying the influx of Han Chinese in the region.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness.

Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur Service, Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service, and Hai Nan for the Cantonese Service. Translated by Dolkun Kamberi, Luisetta Mudie, and Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Luisetta Mudie and Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

Leaders of Cambodia’s main opposition party held a mass protest in the capital Wednesday in a push for electoral reforms but called off a march after the country’s electoral body agreed to study demands for changes in election procedures ahead of upcoming national polls.

The National Rescue Party (NRP), a coalition set to challenge Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party in July elections, had earlier threatened to march from Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park to the offices of the National Election Committee (NEC), defying warnings by the authorities.

The proposed march by some 3,000 people who had gathered at the park was shelved after the NEC agreed to look into reform demands, party officials said, warning that another mammoth protest would be held if the demands were rejected.

The authorities had permitted the NRP to hold a sit-in demonstration at the park, which NRP-aligned lawmaker Mu Sochua said was aimed at forcing the NEC to accept reforms recommended by rights groups and the U.N. to ensure a legitimate vote in July.

“We are protesting for free and fair elections, and for our future and the future of our country,” she told RFA’s Khmer Service, as demonstrators held banners warning of polls partial towards Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

NRP Deputy President Kem Sokha said Cambodia’s electoral system was in need of sweeping changes.

“We are holding this demonstration because we want to see a legal new government formed after the election, regardless of which political party wins,” he said.

Shortly after the protest had started, NEC officials met the group at the park and agreed to accept its list of demands, which included a review of voter registration lists, reform of the NEC to make it more transparent, and permission for exiled NRP leader Sam Rainsy to return to Cambodia to participate in the election.

The NEC’s Legal and Dispute Director San Taing Sidoeun pledged to submit the list to the electoral body’s senior leadership, but refused to elaborate on the likelihood that the NEC would adopt the recommendations.

“I will take these recommendations to the NEC for consideration,” he said.

Kem Sokha addresses protesters in Phnom Penh, April 24, 2013. Credit: RFA

List of demands

Kem Sokha said the NRP had called on the NEC to address reports by The Committee for Fair and Free Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) and the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) of irregularities in voting lists. The NRP says as many as 1 million people are missing from the lists.

“If the NEC and the government continue to use irregular voting lists without improving them, it is walking away from the pluralistic process and will lead Cambodia into political, economic and social instability,” he said.

The opposition party also called on the government to reform the NEC and demanded that the electoral body allow Sam Rainsy to participate in the election, according to recommendations by U.N. Special Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia Surya Subedi.

Local rights groups have charged that the NEC is biased toward the ruling party, but the NEC maintains that its nine members—who were approved by a CPP-dominated parliament last year—are independent and do not need to be changed.

Sam Rainsy has been living in self-imposed exile in France since 2009, facing a total of 11 years in prison over a string of convictions that critics contend are politically motivated. The NEC has said that he cannot stand in the coming elections because of his convictions.

Kem Sokha vowed to call another “massive demonstration” if the NEC ignored the NRP’s demands.

Agence France-Presse quoted the NRP deputy president as saying that his party would “not end our demands until the NEC introduces reforms and amends the voter list so that all Cambodian people can vote freely.”

He also appealed to the international community to pressure the Cambodian government over the demands, saying the NRP would refuse to accept election results if the polls were deemed unfair and Sam Rainsy was denied the right to participate.

Long-ruling leader

The NEC has called the NRP’s accusations “politically-motivated” and a move to drum up support for the newly-formed opposition party ahead of the polls. The electoral body maintains that it has no say in whether Sam Rainsy can return to Cambodia.

Hun Sen said last week that Cambodia could descend into civil war if the opposition wins the upcoming election, following a pledge by Sam Rainsy to convict unnamed members of the government over their alleged roles under the bloody 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime.

An ex-member of the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen is the longest-serving leader in Southeast Asia, having ruled Cambodia since 1985. In 2009 said he would continue to stand as a candidate until 2023.

Reported by Den Ayuthya and Samean Yun for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Updated at 11:30 a.m. ET on 2013-04-25

Two monks set themselves ablaze and died Wednesday in Sichuan province’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan Autonomous  Prefecture in protests against Chinese rule, sources in the region and in exile said.

An earlier RFA report that a 23-year-old Tibetan woman protester set herself on fire and died in Sichuan’s Dzamthang (in Chinese, Rangtang) county in Ngaba on Wednesday was found to be inaccurate.  

Tibetan writer Woeser, one of the sources of the report, later said there could have been a mix-up over a fatal self-immolation protest by a woman named Chugtso near Dzamthang county’s Jonang monastery on April 16.

"After investigation it was learned that it was not factually accurate," she said in her latest blog entry. "Therefore, I have deleted my previous blog entry."

The burning protests by the monks bring to 118 the number of Tibetan self-immolations since the wave of fiery protests began in February 2009.

The two monks from the Tagtsang Lhamo Kirti monastery in Dzoege [in Chinese, Ruo’ergai] county set themselves alight and died near the monastery, a Tibetan living in India told RFA’s Tibetan Service, citing sources in the region.

They staged “a fiery protest against Chinese policy in Tibet,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They died at around 6:30 p.m. local time near the main assembly hall of the monastery.”

Sources identified the monks as Lobsang Dawa, 20, and Konchog Woeser, 23.

Lobsang Dawa came originally from Dzaru Menma village in Dzoege country, while Konchog Woeser was a native of Tsakho village in the Kirti Kangchu township in Ngaba (Aba) county, one source said.

Monks hold prayers

Their bodies were moved to the monastery, where monks held prayers for them, said India-based monks Kanyag Tsering and Lobsang Yeshe, citing contacts in the region.

Lobsang Dawa, 20, was the son of Dorje Khandro, 62, while Konchog Woeser, 23, was the son of Tsering Norbu and Samdrub Drolma, according to Tsering and Yeshe.

They will be cremated on Thursday, the two monks said.

No options?

Tibetans resort to self-immolations because they are left with no options in their demand for better rights, according to rights groups  

Though self-immolation protests by Tibetans under Chinese rule are no longer unexpected, “each individual’s choice to undertake this most extreme form of protest remains deeply important,” said Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, director of the London-based advocacy group Free Tibet.

“All the Tibetans who resort to self-immolation do so because they feel they have no other way to make China and the rest of the world listen to their country’s call for freedom,” Byrne-Rosengren said in a Wednesday statement.

“As yet, China is still turning a deaf ear, but the rest of the world must not,” Byrne-Rosengren said.

Chinese authorities have tightened controls in Tibet and in Tibetan prefectures in Chinese provinces to check the self-immolations, cutting communication links with outside areas and jailing Tibetans they believe to be linked to the burnings.

More than a dozen have been jailed so far, with some handed jail terms of up to 15 years.

Reported by Lumbum Tashi and Yangdon Demo for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story had inaccurately said that a Tibetan woman had also self-immolated. A key source of the report now indicates there may have been a mix-up with the self-immolation of a woman earlier this month.

Three Tibetans—two monks and a woman—set themselves ablaze and died Wednesday in Sichuan province’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan Autonomous  Prefecture in one of the worst fatal self-immolation protests to date against Chinese rule, sources in the region and in exile said.

The burnings bring to 119 the number of Tibetan self-immolations since the wave of fiery protests began in February 2009.

The two monks from the Tagtsang Lhamo Kirti monastery in Dzoege [in Chinese, Ruo’ergai] county set themselves alight and died near the monastery, a Tibetan living in India told RFA’s Tibetan Service, citing sources in the region.

They staged “a fiery protest against Chinese policy in Tibet,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They died at around 6:30 p.m. local time near the main assembly hall of the monastery.”

Sources identified the monks as Lobsang Dawa, 20, and Konchog Woeser, 23.

Lobsang Dawa came originally from Dzaru Menma village in Dzoege country, while Konchog Woeser was a native of Tsakho village in the Kirti Kangchu township in Ngaba (Aba) county, one source said.

Monks hold prayers

Their bodies were moved to the monastery, where monks held prayers for them, said India-based monks Kanyag Tsering and Lobsang Yeshe, citing contacts in the region.

Lobsang Dawa, 20, was the son of Dorje Khandro, 62, while Konchog Woeser, 23, was the son of Tsering Norbu and Samdrub Drolma, according to Tsering and Yeshe.

They will be cremated on Thursday, the two monks said.

Also on Wednesday, at about 2:00 p.m., a 23–year-old Tibetan woman set herself on fire and died in a protest against Chinese rule in Sichuan’s Dzamthang (Rangtang) county, Tibetan sources said.

The woman’s name and other details of her protest are still unknown.

Well-known Tibetan poet and blogger Woeser confirmed the woman’s protest, describing her in a blog entry as a “shepherdess.”

No options?

Tibetans resort to self-immolations because they are left with no options in their demand for better rights, according to rights groups  

Though self-immolation protests by Tibetans under Chinese rule are no longer unexpected, “each individual’s choice to undertake this most extreme form of protest remains deeply important,” said Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, director of the London-based advocacy group Free Tibet.

“All the Tibetans who resort to self-immolation do so because they feel they have no other way to make China and the rest of the world listen to their country’s call for freedom,” Byrne-Rosengren said in a Wednesday statement.

“As yet, China is still turning a deaf ear, but the rest of the world must not,” Byrne-Rosengren said.

The last time a triple self-immolation protest occurred on the same day was on Nov. 7, 2012, when three teenage monks from Ngoshul monastery, also in Ngaba, set themselves on fire to protest Beijing’s rule in Tibetan areas.

Chinese authorities have tightened controls in Tibet and in Tibetan prefectures in Chinese provinces to check the self-immolations, cutting communication links with outside areas and jailing Tibetans they believe to be linked to the burnings.

More than a dozen have been jailed so far, with some handed jail terms of up to 15 years.

Reported by Lumbum Tashi and Yangdon Demo for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have warned local businesses and shut down a noodle shop after it became the focus of an angry protest over skyrocketing food prices in the wake of an earthquake over the weekend which left hundreds dead or missing.

Police were called in to disperse a crowd of survivors and rescue volunteers in the quake-hit county town of Lushan after more than 1,000 people gathered outside the shop, known as "Fatty Yang's," angered over increased prices.

"There were a lot of people outside his shop on [Tuesday] evening," said a resident of Yingjing county, who gave only her surname, Liu.

"They wanted to tear down his sign, but then the local police came to the scene, as well as the relevant officials, and sorted it out," she said.

"[Local officials] withdrew his business license and other licenses," she said.

Online posts said "Fatty Yang's" had hiked the price of a bowl of noodles from five yuan (U.S. $0.81) to 20 yuan (U.S. $3.24) in the wake of the magnitude 7 earthquake which hit the area around Ya'an city on Saturday, leaving more than 200 people dead or missing, and thousands injured and homeless.

But the shop's owner denied the reports.

"More than 1,000 people attacked my shop and smashed it up," he said in an interview on Wednesday. "I called the police, but when they came, they pulled down my sign. The government pulled it down [too]."

"My view is that I was made a scapegoat," he said. "The government could have told the truth, but they pulled down [my sign], which is the same as telling people that I really did such a bad thing, isn't it?"

He said the government had listened to online rumors. "They closed my business down without any evidence," Yang said. "This never happened, but it went viral on the microblogs, and couldn't be undone."

"I feel very unjustly treated."

Rumors of hikes

Liu said she had seen "more than 1,000" at the scene, and "more than 100" police officers.

She said she had also heard that the price of noodles at Yang's had risen to 20 yuan, while a dumpling shop two blocks away was charging at least three times as much for its dumplings as before the quake.

"We local people went to tell them that that this isn't acceptable; that's it's damaging the reputation of our county town," Liu said.

An employee at a supermarket on the same street said police had reasoned with the crowd, promising that the government would take the matter in hand.

"Then the government pulled down the shop's sign using an earth-digger," she said. "After that, people calmed down a bit and then they left."

Photos posted online of the incident showed a large crowd gathered, blocking a street, facing off with a police car, while others showed police sealing off the scene with incident tape.

Online comments were largely supportive of the protest. "They should smash it," wrote microblog user @pengkang. "The disaster should be first and foremost, but they are putting up prices. Where is their compassion?"

In response, the Yingjing county government posted on its official account on the Twitter-like service Sina Weibo: "All of the people of Yingjing county protest the illegal and profiteering price-hikes by individual food sellers, and we are very angry about this too."

It said commercial affairs officials had shut down some offending businesses for investigation, and temporarily withdrawn their business licenses, promising "severe punishment" for businesses that acted outside the law.

Repeated calls to the Yingjing county government went unanswered during office hours on Wednesday.

Lacking relief

Five days after the earthquake, measured by China's earthquake administration at magnitude 7.0 and by the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6, hit Lushan county near Ya'an, many villagers say they still lack sufficient relief supplies.

Survivors of Saturday's tremor have been protesting severe food shortages, as well as a lack of warm bedding, bottled water and tents, amid widespread power outages.

Heavy rainfall and landslides in the mountainous quake zone have hampered relief efforts since Sunday, prompting quake survivors to demonstrate with placards.

In Baoxing county, more than 100 villagers surrounded local officials, holding up cardboard signs and banners which read: "Freezing to death, starving to death," and "The officials get fat, and don't care any more."

A Baoxing-based volunteer surnamed Xu said local people had converged on the local police station for relief supplies, prompting clashes on one occasion.

"That day, I had just got to Lingtang village, and there were more than 1,000 villagers there without any material resources at all," she said.

"All the survivors are very upset and anxious, so they went to the county government leaders and the police station to demand that they hand out supplies and sort things out."

She said supplies of bottled water were particular tight, forcing villagers to fall back on local streams and rivers, which were known to be polluted.

"That water isn't fit for drinking," Xu said. "But they are a long way from the county town, and the power and water supplies have been cut off."

"They have been drinking that water, and they have diarrhea."

Shortage of supplies

Meanwhile, a resident of Wangjia village surnamed Zheng said their supply of tents had arrived late on Tuesday, and were still not enough to give shelter to all amid continuing rainstorms.

"We still don't have any quilts, and we don't have enough water," he said. "The tents came on Tuesday evening, so now we are 10 to a tent, sometimes more than that."

"There was a huge rainstorm on Tuesday evening, so the temperature is falling. It's very cold."

An official who answered the phone at the Sichuan provincial emergency response center said 21 people were still missing following the quake.

"All departments are doing everything they can to find out what happened to them," she said."

"All efforts to move relief supplies [to the quake-hit area] are continuing," she added.

Saturday's quake struck along the same fault-line as a devastating 7.9 quake in May 2008, which left 90,000 people dead or missing.

Reported by Lin Jing and Fung Yat-yiu for RFA's Cantonese service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

The University of Sydney, one of Australia’s top institutions of higher learning, has reversed a decision taken earlier this month to cancel a talk by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and will now allow the exiled religious figure to speak.

Fear of angering China, which regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist, or “splittist,” was widely believed to have been behind the university’s earlier decision to cancel the talk.

The university’s Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (IDHR) will now host an “on-campus lecture” by the Dalai Lama for students at the University of Sydney in mid-June, Professor John Keane, IDHR director, said in a statement.

“This will be the first engagement of the Dalai Lama during his Australian tour,” Keane said, adding that the Tibetan spiritual leader will speak on the topic “Education Matters.”

The Dalai Lama will visit Australia from June 14-23 and is scheduled to give talks and religious teachings in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Darwin.

'Free to invite'

“The University of Sydney and IDHR remain firmly committed to the principle that academics are free to invite to our campus anyone who has a legitimate contribution to make to public debate,” Keane said in announcing the spiritual leader’s newly scheduled appearance at the university.

“It is hoped the mid-June event will form part of a determined commitment of the University of Sydney to develop a constructive dialogue on matters concerning Tibet and the wider region.”

Australia’s national public broadcaster ABC News reported last week that it had obtained copies of an e-mail exchange between the IDHR head and the university’s vice chancellor confirming the initial decision to cancel the Dalai Lama’s originally scheduled talk.

The vice chancellor’s reply exuded a sense of relief, according to ABC, saying the university has close ties with China.

“The only explanation for this shocking decision is that the University has caved in to pressure from China,” Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), an advocacy group, said on April 19 as it launched a worldwide petition drive calling on the university to “rectify their mistake.”

In a statement on Wednesday, SFT thanked “all those who took part in signing the petition and making those direct calls to Sydney University to voice your concerns.”

“A big lesson for all universities to remember:  propaganda is cheap, academic freedom is priceless,” SFT said.

Two young Laotians are touring the U.S. to educate Americans on the dangers of unexploded bombs dropped on their country by the U.S. during the Vietnam War and to raise funding for the removal of these dangerous explosives.

Thoummy Silamphan, 26, who lost a limb to unexploded ordinance, and Manixia Thor, a 25-year-old leader of a female bomb clearance team, joined Washington-based nongovernmental organization Legacies of War on its “Voices of Laos” tour across a dozen cities.

The U.S. military dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos over a nine-year period up to 1973 while attempting to disrupt the Vietcong supply line known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War.

Experts estimate that about 30 percent of cluster bombs failed to explode after they were dropped from high-flying U.S. aircraft over Laos and much of the country’s northern region and its eastern border with Vietnam remain contaminated with the explosives.

“To this day there are 600 living survivors of UXO [unexploded ordnance] explosions and many of them are children, Thoummy told RFA’s Lao Service in an interview last week.

“Of the 600 survivors, less than 100 have received any aid and are in desperate need of it,” he said.

The Voices of Laos tour kicked off on April 3 in New York when the United Nations marked the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

Funded by the U.S. State Department, the trip has taken the two young Lao speakers through California, Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota, and culminates in the U.S. capital on April 30—the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

They have held discussions along the way on how individuals and communities in Laos are affected by unexploded Vietnam War-era ordnance and bombs, how the problem is being addressed in the country, and ways in which people in the U.S. can help to clear Laos of bombs and support survivors of accidents.

In need of aid

Thoummy said that without support, many of the victims of the unexploded bombs feel that they have become a burden on their loved ones—draining the family’s resources.

“Some could not live [with themselves after] the explosion and ended their own lives. They felt worthless for not being able to help their families because they could not farm as they used to,” he said.

“It’s so sad what remains from the war—that legacy still harms innocent Lao people, even though the war is long over.”

Thoummy lost his left arm to a cluster bomb at the age of eight while digging for bamboo shoots to make soup near his home in Xiengkhouang province.

After the accident, he was viewed with pity by his community and no longer dared to go to school. He said that he fell into a deep depression and wanted nothing other than to die.

But he said that his family worked hard to help him adapt and that one day he was lucky enough to receive assistance from an American who supported him financially through high school and university in Vientiane.

Thoummy went on to serve as a field assistant for World Education, specifically working on UXO survivor assistance, and now heads the Quality of Life Association in Xiengkhouang—the first association to serve UXO victims in Laos.

The Quality of Life Association pays for most of the medical expenses incurred by victims of UXO, and helps them cope with their handicaps both mentally and physically.

Educating Americans

Thoummy realizes that he is lucky to have been one of the very few to receive aid and said he wants other victims in Laos to receive the same opportunities that he did.

“I would like Americans to be aware of the UXO problems in Laos and help us out,” he told RFA.

“We need to find additional sources of aid for UXO clearance and for the victims.”

Manixia, who is ethnic Hmong and has a 2-year-old son, works for the British charity Mines Advisory Group.

She told the Associated Press that 15 years ago her uncle lost his left hand while attempting to extract ball bearings from inside a cluster bomb.

“I came here because I want to share with people the continuing dangers of UXO in Laos,” she told AP.

“There's still a lot of work to do [to clear UXO] and not enough resources to do it. I don't want people to be injured like my uncle was, or for my son to grow up and also be hurt.”

Thoummy said that during the Voices from Laos tour he has discussed issues related to UXO that very few Americans were aware of. But he said that his audiences were eager to learn and many expressed an interest in helping clear Laos of ordinance.

He said he was eager to travel to Washington to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill before returning to Laos at the end of the month.

Widespread contamination

Around 20,000 civilians are believed to have been killed or injured by explosives since the end of the war. Some 40 percent of the victims in the past 10 years have been children.

International assistance for bomb clearance in Laos only began in earnest about 20 years ago and experts believe that it will take many more decades to ensure that affected areas are safe.

Since 1997, the U.S. has provided U.S. $47 million in assistance, including U.S. $9 million in 2012.

Last July, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos since 1955. She met with the victim of a cluster bomb and pledged to deliver more assistance to the country for clearance efforts.

Reported by Manichanh Phimphachanh for RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Manichanh Phimphachanh. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.