Kapanda, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster Notre Chaîne de Radio and the Identitenews news site, told CPJ that the death threats related to his coverage of the National Fund for the Repair of Victims of Sexual Violence and Crimes against Peace and Security of Humanity (FONAREV).

Established by the government in 2022, the fund has worked in response to the Kamuina Nsapu rebellion that erupted in August 2016 in Kasaï province, which killed thousands and displaced millions. Kapanda’s reporting has alleged fraud, manipulation, and nepotism by FONAREV Regional Coordinator Myrhant Mulumba, as Kapanda uncovered the identities of victims of the Kamuina Nsapu militias. 

“Journalists in the DRC too regularly face threats and intimidation from public officials. Authorities must investigate the death threats against journalist Sadam Kapanda wa Kapanda and ensure his safety,” said CPJ Regional Director Angela Quintal, from New York. “Reporting on matters of public interest, especially amid conflict, is essential for those with power to be held accountable and for the public to be informed about issues and actors that affect their lives.”

In separate calls and messages on July 2, 2025, Mulumba and Kasaï provincial Minister of the Interior Peter Tshisuaka threatened to kill Kapanda if he did not halt his critical coverage of the fund, according to the journalist and messages reviewed by CPJ. Kapanda said that Mulumba also offered him a job with the fund if he agreed to stop criticizing their operations, which Kapanda refused. 

Tshisuaka responded to CPJ’s request for comment by messaging app saying that, “The journalist does his job, and I do my job too, Kapanda should look for work elsewhere.” CPJ’s calls and messages to Mulumba went unanswered.

A third, unknown caller on July 2 threatened to have Kapanda killed, Kapanda told CPJ. On July 9, Kapanda said he received an additional death threat from an unidentified caller.

Around 2 a.m. on July 15, two unidentified, armed men arrived at Kapanda’s home and sought to enter, but fled when his neighbors began shouting, the journalist told CPJ. On July 16 and 17, Kapanda received further death threats via phone calls and messages, copies of which CPJ reviewed.

Kapanda told CPJ that he was unaware of police having opened an investigation into the threats.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

In the morning, unidentified gunmen broke into Baloch’s home in the Mashkay Tehsil subdivision of Awaran district and shot him dead, according to the local nonprofit Rural Media Network Pakistan. Baloch was struck by four bullets, according to a BBC report, and the four attackers used AK-47 rifles in the assault.

Local police informed the media that an investigation into the killing was underway. The motive remains unclear.

“Pakistani authorities must immediately investigate the reasons behind Latif Baloch’s killing and determine whether it was linked to his work as a journalist,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia regional director. “Journalists in Pakistan face growing violence and intimidation from both state and non-state actors. The government must ensure the safety and freedom of journalists in Balochistan and across the country.”

Baloch was affiliated with major media outlets, including Daily Intekhab, AAJ News, and ARY News, covering the volatile province.

The Balochistan police Inspector General, Moazzam Jah Ansari, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment via messaging app.

Pakistan remains a dangerous environment for journalists, with heightened risks for those reporting critically on militancy, powerful entities, the military establishment, public corruption, and crime.

CPJ has documented 75 journalists and media workers who have been killed in Pakistan in connection with their work since 1992. Pakistan ranked 12th on CPJ’s 2024 Global Impunity Index, which highlights countries where members of the press are targeted for murder and the perpetrators go unpunished.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

White House etiquette is something else. I was quite taken aback by viewing how Donald Trump and JD Vance ganged up on their Ukrainian guest Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This is not to side with Zelenskyy who is a disagreeable personage to me; by refusing a security agreement, he set the stage for an unwinnable war against Russia which has condemned hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men to death.

Zelenskyy made some bizarre and distorted utterances during the videoed meeting. Nonetheless, there is a proper way for Trump and Vance to express disagreement. But diplomacy, etiquette, and niceties are often rare in the bullyverse of Trump.

Moreover, an often heard complaint from Trump is that things are not fair. Was it fair to have two native English speakers against one non-native English speaker?

Fairness

A common saying tells us that bees are more attracted to honey than vinegar. Maybe the Trump-led administration doesn’t give credence to this saying, or it believes it can bully others into submission — probably the latter. Trump believes he can use tariffs as a big stick to gain an upper hand in trade. Given the size of the US economy and its willingness to resort to violence to back its demands, smaller countries find themselves in a precarious situation. Without another big country’s backing, smaller countries are susceptible to regime change operations. Witness was happened to the Syrian government in late 2024.

Fortunately, China is willing to engage in win-win trade with other nations. The Chinese honey appears to be preferable for much of the Global South to the American vinegar. China is also a military power, and it can readily defend itself against any US military provocations. China is unlikely to let the US physically interfere in its trade arrangements with willing partners. Neither is Russia about to do this. This has led to a global realignment, one feature of which is the deepening relationships of China and Russia with African countries.

But the record shows that Donald Trump does not limit himself to smaller countries. During his first administration, Trump began a trade war with China, and he does not look to be letting up this time. Trump, however, considers the world as his oyster, to deal with as he pleases. Even the US’s erstwhile allies are targeted, including its northern neighbor, Canada.

Will Canada Supplicate Trump?

United States President Donald Trump sounded off during the first cabinet meeting of his second term, among other topics was that of Canadian sovereignty:

I say Canada should be our 51st state. There’s no tariffs, no nothing. And I say that we give them military protection. They have a very small military; they spend very little money on military. On NATO they are just about last in terms of payment because it’s not fair. It’s not fair that they’re not paying their way. And if they had to pay their way, they couldn’t exist.

Upon what basis does Trump claim that the US is protecting Canada? Because Canada is a member of NATO and NORAD? The latter allows the US military access into Canada, the junior partner in the relationship. And just who are these enemies that the US is purportedly protecting Canada from? Is there any country posing a credible military threat to Canada? If so, it seems that the US would come first to mind. If Canada is a willing and uncoerced member of certain military organizations, then Canada should abide by its agreed upon commitments. Canada does come up short of the 2% minimum of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to defence spending in NATO, but that 2% minimum is a guideline and not a hard-and-fast obligation. Trump speaks about fairness, but how fair is it that one NATO member gripes about what it determines another member’s contribution should be?

And why is Trump demanding 5% of each NATO member’s GDP as a contribution? This is alluded to by NATO:

To carry out its missions and tasks, NATO needs Allies to invest in interoperable, cutting-edge and cost-effective equipment. To that end, NATO plays an important role in helping countries decide how and where to invest in their defence.

Which country is best situated to reap the financial benefits of demanding interoperability among NATO members? According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the world’s leading seller of arms, the US, increased its arms sales from 34% in the period of 2014 to 2018 to 42% in the period of 2019 t0 2023. Adhering to the Trumpian definition of economic fairness, is it fair that the US with 4% of the world’s population should dominate arms sales, especially considering that interoperability is expected among NATO members?

The National Post listed Trump’s fickle justifications for engulfing Canada:

The rationale, at various points, have included: building up domestic American industry, preventing the illegal importation of fentanyl, stopping illegal border crossings, and reducing the United States’ modest trade deficit with Canada. Trump has also complained about the access of U.S. banks to Canadian markets and the amount of money the U.S. spends on continental defence.

The National Post questioned Trump’s facts: “he often says the United States subsidizes Canada between $100 billion and $200 billion. The trade deficit, in fact, is more like $32 billion, while America’s global trade deficit [is] around $1 trillion.”

Trump is unrestrained vis-à-vis the US’s biggest trade partner: “We don’t need them for the cars, we don’t need them for lumber. We don’t need them for anything. We don’t need them for energy, we have more energy than they do.”

Although Trump has claimed the US doesn’t need Canadian oil, economics analyst Sean Foo makes the case that the threat of tariffs is about getting more Canadian cheap oil.

A Snowball’s Chance in Hell

Among the many reasons, there is one area of deep importance that suffices to emphatically underline why Canadians will never allow themselves to become Americans under present conditions. Canadians are very fond of their medical-care-for-all system. The system is not perfect, and Canadians will complain about when the governments (health is a provincial jurisdiction) curtail funding; long waiting times; and the shortages of doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers. However, many Canadians have heard about the financial horrors that can be visited upon susceptible Americans who are without medical coverage. That is something the vast majority of Canadians would never countenance in their country.

Given the desire of most Americans for medical care for all (62% according to a Gallup poll conducted 6-20 November 2024) maybe they ought to clamor to become Canada’s 11th province.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Kim Petersen.

New Caledonia’s mothballed northern nickel plant, Koniambo Nickel (KNS), has appointed a new chairman to steer a shareholding transfer amid the territory’s industry troubles.

He is Alexandre Rousseau, who was until now the company’s vice-president.

The company said in a release it had this month replaced Neil Meadows, who has held the position for the past three years.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia nickel reports

Rousseau has been with the company for the past 15 years.

Like his predecessor, his main task will be to supervise the company’s main shareholder Anglo-Swiss Glencore’s transfer of shares to a yet-to-be-identified buyer.

The nickel plant, located in the north of New Caledonia’s main island, was mothballed in late August 2024, leaving about 1200 employees unemployed.

Glencore announced early last year its decision to withdraw from the venture, which had accumulated a staggering loss of 13.7 billion euros (NZ$25 billion) in 10 years of operation.

Seeking potential buyers
KNS has since been searching for potential buyers for Glencore’s 49 percent shares.

The majority shareholder (51 percent) remains Société Minière du Sud Pacifique (SMSP), which is the financial arm of New Caledonia’s Northern Province.

KNS said talks were ongoing with at least two interested international companies, which had sent inspection delegations on site during the last quarter of 2024.

Another nickel mining plant, Prony Resource, in the south of New Caledonia’s main island, is also seeking potential buyers for parts of its stock.

The most advanced talks are with South Africa’s precious metals producer Sibanye-Stillwater, which said it was considering Prony as a possible source for battery-grade nickel.

While Prony had to cease production for several months due to New Caledonia’s insurrection last year, it managed to gradually resume operations last month.

This is in view of a planned inspection visit from a Sibanye-Stillwater delegation, who want to see a functioning factory.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Last week, residents of other provinces living in Champassak took to social media to complain that local authorities are making them pay nearly 55,000 kip (US$2.50) per month — a substantial amount in a nation in the midst of an economic downturn with a minimum wage of 1.6 million kip (US$73) per month — to live in their villages.

When asked about the payments, a village-level official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA Lao that such “staying fees” are “part of local rules to ensure authorities can provide security” in their communities.

But a migrant from another province living in Champassak, who also declined to be named, told RFA that “there should be no staying fee collection” for Lao nationals, suggesting that “authorities just want to make some extra money” to pad their salaries.

“If they collect a staying fee from foreigners or visitors from other countries, that is something justified,” he said. “What I’ve observed is that authorities try to collect as much as they can for this fee ... but residents can only afford to pay around US$2.50 per month.”

(Ye Aung Thu/AFP)

The migrant said that while authorities have no right to collect such high fees, people end up paying them because they want to avoid trouble and have no way to lodge a formal complaint.

“Residents can’t say anything and simply have to pay the fee as ordered,” he said.

An official from Champassak’s Pakse district told RFA that she believes public frustration with the staying fees is due to some corrupt officials asking for more than what local laws allow.

According to the law, she said, officials can only collect staying fees of 40,000 kip (US$1.80) per month for up to three consecutive months, and are required to provide documentation certifying temporary residency.

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But government salaries start at 1.85 million kip (US$84.50) per month, or only slightly above minimum wage, so many officials are looking for ways to supplement their pay, she said.

“Not all officials perform their duties as prescribed in the policy,” she said. “It’s because their salaries are so low — that’s why they want to earn extra money.“

The official said that provincial police “are investigating this issue,” as it falls under their jurisdiction.

“If authorities are found to have abused their power to take money from residents, they will ... face punishment according to the law,” she added.

Village-level officials in other provinces told RFA that they do not charge Lao migrants a staying fee to reside in their communities.

“There is no such policy for us to do so,” said one official from a village in Savannakhet province. “We only collect money from businesses in the amount they are comfortable to donate when we need funds to build roads, schools, and small hospitals.”

Attempts by local officials to collect staying fees from Lao migrants have been shut down by central authorities in the past.

In 2018, authorities in some villages in Vientiane’s Sikhottabong district required residents from other provinces to pay 55,000 kip per family or 48,000 kip (US$2.20) per individual for three months to live there.

Shortly after the staying fees were announced, the central government ordered local authorities to end the policy.

Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Phouvong for RFA Laos.

“The tragic killing of Janan Hussain underscores the alarming risks faced by journalists in Pakistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “This horrific attack is a stark reminder of the deteriorating climate for press freedom in the country. The Pakistani government must urgently act to protect journalists and ensure their safety as they carry out their essential work.”

Hussain, who had 11,000 followers on Facebook, regularly reported on local issues in Parachinar, the capital of Kurram. CPJ was unable to confirm further details about Hussain’s killing.

CPJ’s text messages to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar requesting comment did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The insurgent Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, captured the junta’s military headquarters in Lashio in July. In August, it took full control of the town, which serves as an important commercial gateway near the Chinese border.

The MNDAA’s leader, Peng Daxun, traveled to Yunnan province in late October for medical treatment and was later detained by Chinese authorities, according to the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“He is under detention to negotiate withdrawal of his troops from Lashio,” the source said.

The detention followed a meeting in Yunnan in late October between Peng Daxun and Deng Xijun, the special representative for Asian Affairs at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, according to another source.

A source close to the military junta regime told RFA that Peng Daxun was being held at a hotel in Yunnan that’s owned by his father.

China’s interests

The MNDAA is part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, a group of three ethnic minority insurgent forces that launched its highly effective Operation 1027 offensive in October 2023, which has since captured vast swathes of junta-held territory.

A renewal of the offensive in June led to the capture of the junta’s northeastern command headquarters near Lashio – the only one of 14 such regional military command headquarters to fall into rebel hands.

The MNDAA took control of Lashio on Aug. 3, one of the most significant victories for the three-party alliance. Junta efforts to recapture the town have focused on frequent airstrikes and shelling.

China has since tried to protect its interests in the region by brokering several temporary ceasefires between the junta and alliance members.

On Aug. 27, Deng Xijun invited Zhao Guo-ang, the vice-chairman of the United Wa State Party – Myanmar’s largest ethnic army – to Yunnan province to ask for help pressuring for the withdrawal of MNDAA forces.

The UWSA vowed last year to remain neutral as the Three Brotherhood Alliance began its large-scale operation against junta forces. But in July, its troops entered Lashio without incident after MNDAA forces had taken over most of the city.

China has also cut off shipments of fuel, medicine and food items through its border into the MNDAA-controlled areas in Shan state.

In September, the MNDAA said it had cut ties with Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government. It said it would work with China to bring peace, but days later the junta bombed Lashio and peace talks never took place.

Beijing has recently stepped up its support for the military junta, and earlier this month, junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing traveled to Kunming – the capital of Yunnan – for talks with provincial officials.

RFA has reached out via email to the Chinese Embassy in Yangon and the MNDAA’s information team for comments but neither immediately responded.

Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.

“The Taliban’s latest ban on television and filming and photography in Takhar should trouble anyone who cares about media freedom worldwide” said CPJ’s program director, Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “The citizens of Afghanistan deserve fundamental rights, and the international community must cease its passive observation of the country’s rapid regression.” 

The ban was approved by senior officials from the Taliban’s provincial General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), directorates of Information and Culture, and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as well as the governor’s office of Takhar province.

Takhar is the second province in Afghanistan to institute such a ban. Previously, the Taliban implemented a similar ban in Kandahar province, its unofficial capital and the residence of the group’s leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, according to a Kandahar-based journalist who also spoke to CPJ under the condition of anonymity for fear of Taliban retaliation.

Saif ul Islam Khyber, a spokesman for the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, confirmed to the Associated Press that media outlets in the provinces of Takhar, Maidan Wardak, and Kandahar had been “advised not to broadcast or display images of anything possessing a soul—meaning humans and animals,” according to the AP. Khyber said the directive is part of the implementation of a recently ratified morality law. 

Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada signed the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice bill into law on July 31, though the news was not made public until August 21, when it was published on the Ministry of Justice’s website.

Article 17 of the law details the restrictions on the media, including a ban on publishing or broadcasting images of living people and animals, which the Taliban regards as un-Islamic. Other sections order women to cover their bodies and faces and travel with a male guardian, while men are not allowed to shave their beards. The punishment for breaking the law is up to three days in prison or a penalty “considered appropriate by the public prosecutor.”

On October 14, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the director of Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), informed senior management of Kabul’s national TV station that a phased strategy to implement the new law had already begun. TV stations across Afghanistan’s provinces will be gradually closed and converted to radio stations, with plans to eventually extend the ban to Kabul, where RTA and other major national broadcasters operate, according to two journalists familiar with the meeting and a report by the London-based independent outlet, Afghanistan International. 

On October 19, during a visit to Sheikh Zahid University in Khost province, Neda Mohammad Nadim, the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, barred the filming of the event, according to the London-based Afghanistan International.

On October 23, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense launched the broadcast of Radio Sada-e-Khalid, which is managed by the ministry and operates from the 201st Corps of the Taliban army.

Since taking power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the Taliban has employed a gradual strategy to suppress media activity in the country, with the General Directorate of Intelligence forcing compliance with stringent regulations.  These include bans on music and soap operas, bans on women’s voices in the media, the imposition of mask-wearing for female presenters, a ban on live broadcasts of political shows, the closure of television stations, and the jamming or boycotting of independent international networks broadcasting to Afghanistan. To enforce these policies, the Taliban have detained, assaulted, and threatened journalists and media workers throughout the country.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

A deadly ambush unfolded in Enga province between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. last night, leaving multiple people dead after a bus was attacked by armed men.

Police confirmed to the Post-Courier that bodies were found both inside the bus and scattered in nearby bushland. Men and women attempting to flee the gunfire were gunned down before they could get far.

Witnesses reported that the bus, a public motor vehicle (PMV), was riddled with bullets during the ambush.

• READ MORE: Other Enga violence reports
• Crisis 24 report

Blood and bodies lay strewn across the area when a distress call alerted police at Surunki station to the tragic scene.

The PMV was later escorted to Wabag General Hospital, where the bodies were removed. Hospital staff have warned that more victims may still arrive.

Local MP Aimos Akem attributed the deaths to escalating violence linked to ongoing conflict in Porgera, saying it continues to take a heavy toll on the people of Lagaip.

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The two problems can be traced to the economic crisis gripping Laos amid soaring inflation and living costs, a declining currency, poor job prospects and swelling debt from dams and other infrastructure projects.

More than 300 teachers in Savannakhet province recently retired, Gov. Bounhom Oubonpaseuth said at a Sept. 9 meeting with other high-ranking provincial officials. That number includes volunteer teachers who help staff many classrooms.

In Laos’ centrally planned economy, school staff are government employees, and many young people work as volunteer teachers in classrooms until there is an opening for salaried staff.

But rampant inflation has made it less likely that volunteers will be offered a full-time state teaching job, and more volunteer educators have been walking away from the profession.

Interior Minister Vilayvong Boutdakham told lawmakers in the capital Vientiane last week that the government must cut more than 3,000 positions for nurses, teachers and other state workers by the end of 2025.

The lack of teachers has been a growing issue in Savannakhet – with more than 1 million inhabitants – and elsewhere in the country since at least 2017, when the national government began reducing state employee quotas because of its shrinking budget.

One teacher for several classrooms

Earlier this year, the province began paying a living allowance of 1.5 million kip (US$68) a month to volunteer teachers. But that hasn’t been enough to keep enough volunteers in the schools.

In the province’s Xayphouthong district, so many have quit that most kindergartens have no teachers and some schools have no teachers at all, a district education official said. 

In Sepon district, officials need to bring in 123 volunteer and salaried teachers, an education official there told Radio Free Asia. There are 109 schools in the district’s rural areas, where it’s especially hard to hire and keep teachers, he said.

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“Only nine schools have enough teachers – the rest don’t,” he said. “One teacher has to teach many classes or grades at the same time.”

Other provinces are facing the same issues. Northern Oudomxay Province has a shortage of 273 teachers. Central Bolikhamxay province has openings for 413 teachers, according to Phophet Kounnavong, deputy director of the province’s Department of Education and Sports.

One teacher in Bolikhamxay who recently resigned said the salary of 1 million kip (US$45) a month wasn’t enough to meet living expenses.

“I quit to set up a small business,” she said. “Many volunteer teachers have also quit. They couldn’t wait. Those who continue will have to teach many classes at the same time – especially in rural areas.”

Nationwide, last year’s teacher shortage was 2,778, according to official statistics published by the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports.

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

A South African company is reported to be the most probable bidder for shares in New Caledonia’s Prony Resources.

As part of an already advanced takeover of the ailing southern plant of Prony Resources, the most probable bidder is reported to be South African group Sibaneye-Stillwater, local new media report.

Just like the other two major mining plants and smelters in New Caledonia, Prony Resources is facing acute hardships due to the emergence of Indonesia as a major player on the world market, compounded with New Caledonia’s violent unrest that broke out in May.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia mining reports

Prony Resources has been trying to find a possible company to take over the shares held by Swiss trader Trafigura (19 percent).

The process was recently described as very favourable to a “seriously interested” buyer.

Citing reliable sources, daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes yesterday named South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater.

The Johannesburg-based entity is a significant player on the minerals world market (including nickel, platinum and palladium) and owns, amongst other assets, a hydro-metallurgic processing plant in Sandouville (near Le Havre, western France) with a production capacity of 12,000 tonnes per year of high-grade nickel which it bought in February 2022 from French mining giant Eramet for 85 million euros (NZ$153 million).

The ultimate goal would be, for the South African player, to become a leader on the production market for innovative electric vehicles batteries, especially on the European market.

Southern Province President Sonia Backès had already hinted last week that one buyer had now been found and that one bidder had successfully reached advanced stages in the due diligence process.

If the deal eventuated, the new entity would take over the shares held by Swiss trader Trafigura (19 percent) and another block of shares held by the Southern Province to reach a total of 74 percent participation in Prony Resources stock, as part of a major restructuration of the company’s capital.

Prony Resources, in full operation mode, employs about 1300 staff.

Another 1700 are employed indirectly through sub-contractors.

It has paused its production to retain only up to 300 staff, in safety and maintenance mode, partly due to New Caledonia’s current unrest.

New Caledonian consortium’s surprise bid for mothballed Northern plant
Meanwhile, a local consortium of New Caledonian investors is reported to have made an 11-hour offer to take over and restart activity for the now mothballed Koniambo (KNS) nickel plant.

The plant’s furnaces were placed in “cold care and maintenance” mode at the end of August, six months after major shareholder Anglo-Swiss Glencore announced it wanted to withdraw and sell the 49 percent shares it has in the project.

This caused close to 1200 job losses and further 600 among sub-contractors.

Other bidders still interested
KNS claimed at least three foreign investors were still interested at this stage, but none of these have so far materialised.

Talks were however reported to continue behind the scenes, with interested parties even ready to travel and visit on-site, KNS Vice-President and spokesman Alexandre Rousseau told Reuters news agency earlier this month.

‘Okelani Group One’
But a so-called “Okelani Group One” (OGO), made up of three local partners, said their offer could revive the project with a different business model.

They say they have made an offer to KNS’s majority shareholder SMSP (Société Minière du Sud Pacifique, New Caledonia’s Northern province financial arm).

OGO president Florent Tavernier told public broadcaster NC la 1ère much depended on what Glencore intended to do with the staggering debt of some US$13.7 billion which KNS had accumulated over the past 10 years.

Another OGO partner, Gilles Hernandez, explained: “We would be targeting a niche market of very high quality nickel used in aeronautics and edge-cutting technologies, especially in Europe, where nickel is now classified as ‘strategic metal’.”

Although KNS was designed to produce 60,000 tonnes of nickel a year, that target was never reached.

OGO said it would only aim for 15,000 tonnes per year and would only re-employ 400 of the 1200 laid-off staff.

New Caledonia’s third nickel plant, owned by historic Société Le Nickel (SLN, a subsidiary of French mining giant Eramet), which is also facing major hardships for the same reasons, is said to currently operate at minimal capacity.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The government said the schools were operating illegally with teachers who didn’t have the legal right to live and work in Thailand. Children from the closed schools can enroll in public schools in the province, the government said in an Sept. 8 announcement.

A labor activist working on the issue of migrant workers in Thailand said 24 teachers were being investigated by Thai authorities and may face legal action under Thai law.

Thai officials also apparently don’t want the children singing Myanmar’s national anthem or dressed in different uniforms than at Thai schools, according to the founder of one of the schools who asked to remain anonymous so as not to draw attention from Thai authorities.

“They want the education system to be integrated with the Thai system, where a Thai teacher should lead the school, only the Thai national anthem should be sung, and the image of the King must be properly maintained,” he said.

One of the schools closed in Surat Thani last week served more than 1,000 students, according to Zaw Khaing Myo, the school’s principal. The Myittar Yeik School was established in 2022, he said.

“We have many children, and they are facing many difficulties. Now, parents cannot leave their children at home or take them to work, making it impossible for them to work without constant worry,” he said.

Children have already missed at least two years of education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Thein Aye, the father of two students at Myittar Yeik School. 

“It is sad that this is happening just as they were finally able to return to school,” he said.

The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand on Sept. 8 called for a review of the school closures and emphasized the need to ensure that migrant children have access to education. 

Aid workers specializing in migrant issues estimate that at least 50,000 Myanmar migrant children are currently studying in Thailand.

The Thai Ministry of Education has instructed local authorities to inspect other schools for Myanmar migrants to verify whether teachers have a permit to work in Thailand. 

As a result, migrant schools in other parts of Thailand – such as Mae Sot – are now worried that they will be shut down, according to the Myanmar migrant school founder.

RFA has contacted both the Thai Embassy in Yangon and the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok to inquire about this situation, but no response was immediately received.

Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Heavy rains in Tibetan areas of central China’s Qinghai province have triggered severe flooding, destroying infrastructure and killing at least nine people and hundreds of livestock, three Tibetans from inside Tibet said.

The rains have drenched the area since Sept. 2, flooding roads, damaging bridges and causing landslides, they said. Chinese state media reported that heavy rains have  inundated houses and swept away vehicles.

Tibet is experiencing heavier annual rainfalls and flooding than in the past, which some Tibetan rights groups say is due to climate change.

Six people died in Trelnag township of Serchen (Gonghe in Chinese) County in Tsolho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the sources said, insisting on not being identified to avoid reprisals from authorities.

Five of them died while traveling in a vehicle when a bridge collapsed, one source said.

Three others died due to a landslide in Honaguk village in Minhe county of Tsoshar (Haidong in Chinese) prefecture. 

Some areas experienced severe hailstorms, which shattered windows and glass panes in the homes of nomads, the sources said.

Livestock dies

The flooding killed livestock as well. Nearly 400 cattle and sheep died In Tsekhok (Zekog) county in the Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. 

Residents there needed help pulling dead cattle from the water and mud.

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In Minhe district, houses were damaged, and highways and bridges were washed over, while grasslands were covered by mud.

As of Sept. 4, the Chinese government elevated the weather-damage alert for Qinghai from level 4 to level 3. 

Chinese state media reported a level-one flood warning has been issued for Siling (Xining) city as well as Tathang, Kumbum and Tongkor counties. As a result, officials suspended bus transportation from Siling to these areas.

Roads and bridges connecting Tongkor and Siling have been severely damaged by the flooding, the sources said.

Additionally, roads leading from Dashi (Haiyan) and Kangtsa (Gangcha) counties of Tsojang (Haibei) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and Themchen (Tianjun) county of Tsonub (Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) to Siling (Xining) city have been cut off, making travel in and out of these areas impossible.

The areas have been hit by flooding before.

In 2022, five people died and over 2,000 head of livestock died due to flooding in parts of Qinghai province, including Mangra (Guinan), Serkog and Rebgong counties, as well as Labrang town in Sanchu (Xiahe) County of Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu province.

Additional reporting and translation by Tashi Wangchuk and Tenzin Dickyi. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chakmo Tso and Dickey Kundol for RFA Tibetan.

“Local authorities in the DRC’s Lomami province should cease efforts to intimidate journalists Martin Kasongo and Michaël Tenende and allow them to freely report on issues of public interest,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “Officials’ focus should be on protecting the press, not on censorship efforts when their governance is scrutinized.”

On August 17, the mayor of the city of Kabinda, Marie-Anne Tshiabu, called Kasongo and said she would have him arrested or “use another way,” demanded that he give her the content of his show for review before it was broadcast, and threatened to close the privately owned radio station, Kasongo told CPJ. Tshiabu’s threats came in response to a broadcast that day during which Kasongo had accused the mayor of illegally collecting taxes from motorcycle taxis and mistreating central market vendors, the journalist said.

Separately, on August 18, Ananias Mukanz, a territorial inspector in the province, along with four unidentified people, forcibly entered the studio of the privately owned Top Lomami station as Tenende was on air criticizing the disappearance of a vehicle chartered by the president’s office to transport local civil servants, Tenende told CPJ.

Before halting the broadcast, Tenende informed the audience of the attack, and several listeners arrived at the station and intervened to prevent his arrest. Mukanz and the other intruders nevertheless seized two recording devices, a phone, and a computer from the studio.

CPJ’s calls to Mukanz, Tshiabu, and Lomami Governor Iron-Van Kalombo Musoko did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

SPECIAL REPORT: By Scott Waide, RNZ Pacific PNG correspondent

The nauseating stench of dried blood hung in the air as we arrived in Karida village, a few kilometers outside of Tari in Papua New Guinea’s Hela province.

Through the landcruiser window, I could see two men carrying a corpse wrapped in blue cloth and a tarpaulin. They were walking towards the hastily dug graveyard.

This was July 2019.

• READ MORE: Five arrested in connection with deadly Papua New Guinea massacre
• Other PNG tribal warfare reports

A longstanding tribal fight by various factions in the Tagali area of the Hela province had triggered this attack. Several armed men came at dawn. The residents, mostly women and children, bore the brunt of the brutality.

The then Provincial Administrator, William Bando, advised us against travelling alone when we arrived in Tari. He requested a section of the PNG Defence Force to take us to Karida where the killings had happened less than 24 hours before.

Two men carrying the corpse, hesitated as we arrived with the soldiers. One of the soldiers ordered the men to disarm. The others who carried weapons fled into the nearby bush.

On the side of the road, the bodies of 15 women and one man lay tightly wrapped in cloth. The older men and women came out to meet the soldiers.

The village chief, Hokoko Minape, distraught by the unimaginable loss, wept beside the vehicle as he tried to explain what had happened.

“This, I have never seen in my life. This is new,” he said in Tok Pisin.

Complexity of tribal conflicts and media attention
For an outsider, the roots of tribal conflicts in Papua New Guinea are difficult to understand. There are myriad factors at play, including the province, district, tribe, clan and customs.

But what’s visible is the violence.

The conflicts are usually reported on when large numbers of people are killed. The intense media focus lasts for days . . . maybe a month . . . and then, news priorities shift in the daily grind of local and international coverage.

Some conflicts rage for years and sporadic payback killings continue. It is subtle as it doesn’t attract national attention. It is insidious and cancerous — slowly destroying families and communities. In many instances, police record the one off murders as the result of alcohol related brawls or some other cause.

The tensions simmer just below boiling point. But it affects the education of children and dictates where people congregate and who they associate with.

Although, the villagers at Karida were not directly involved in the fighting, they were accused of providing refuge to people who fled from neighboring villagers. The attackers came looking for the refugees and found women and children instead.

The ‘hire man’ and small arms
Over the next few weeks, local community leaders drew attention to the use of “hire men” in the conflicts. They are mercenaries who are paid by warring tribes to fight on their behalf. Their most valued possessions are either assault rifles or shotguns paid for by political and non-political sponsors.

The Deputy Commissioner for Police responsible for specialist operations, Donald Yamasombi, who has personally investigated instances of arms smuggling, said the traditional trade of drugs for guns along the eastern and southern borders of Papua New Guinea is largely a thing of the past.

“People are paying cash for guns. They are bringing in the weapons and then legitimising them through licensing,” Yamasombi said. “The businessmen who fund them actually run legitimate businesses.”

The involvement of political players is a subject many will state only behind closed doors.

In the highlands, the hire men are a recent addition to the complex socio-political ecosystem of tribal and national politics. Political power and money have come to determine how hire men are used during elections. They are tools of intimidation and coercion. The occupation is a lucrative means of money making during what is supposed to be a “free and fair” electoral process.

“Money drives people to fight,” Yamasombi said. “Without the source of money, there would be no incentive. There is incentive to fight.”

Rules of war
At the end of elections, the hire men usually end up back in the communities and continue the cycle of violence.

In February, Papua New Guineans on social media watched in horror as the death toll from a tribal clash in Enga province rose from a few dozen to 70 in a space of a few hours as police retrieved bodies from nearby bushes.

The majority of the men killed were members of a tribe who had been ambushed as they staged an attack.

Traditional Engan society is highly structured. The Enga cultural center in the center of Wabag town, the Take Anda, documents the rules of war that dictated the conduct of warriors.

Traditionally, mass killings or killings in general were avoided. The economic cost of reparations were too high, the ongoing conflicts were always hard to manage and were, obviously, detrimental to both parties in the long run.

Engans, who I spoke to on the condition of anonymity, said high powered guns had changed the traditional dynamics.

Chiefs and elders who once commanded power and status were now replaced by younger men with money and the means to buy and own weapons. This has had a direct influence on provincial and national politics as well as traditional governance structures.

Tribal conflicts, not restricted to the Highlands
In 2022, a land dispute between two clans on Kiriwina Island, Milne Bay province, escalated into a full on battle in which 30 people were killed.

The unusual level of violence and the use of guns left many Papua New Guineans confused. Milne Bay province, widely known as a peaceful tourism hub, suffered a massive PR hit with embassies issuing travel warnings to their citizens.

In Pindiu, Morobe province, the widespread use of homemade weapons resulted in the deaths of a local peace officer and women and children in a long running conflict in 2015.

The Morobe Provincial Government sent mediators to Pindiu to facilitate peace negotiations. Provincial and national government are usually hesitant to intervene directly in tribal conflicts by arresting the perpetrators of violence.

This is largely due to the government’s inability to maintain security presence in tribal fighting areas for long periods.

Angoram killings
Two weeks ago, 26 women and children were killed in yet another attack in Angoram, East Sepik.

Five people have been arrested over the killings. But locals who did not wish to be named said the ring leaders of the gang of 30 are still at large.

Angoram is a classic example of a district that is difficult to police.

The villages are spread out over the vast wetlands of the Sepik River. While additional police from Wewak have been deployed, there is no real guarantee that the men and women who witnessed the violence will be protected if they choose to testify in court.

Will new legislations and policy help?
The Enga massacre dominated the February sitting of Parliament. Recent changes were made to gun laws and stricter penalties prescribed. But while legislators have responded, enforcement remains weak.

The killers of the 16 people at Karida remain at large. Many of those responsible for the massacre in Enga have not been arrested even with widely circulated video footage available on social media.

In April, the EU, UN and the PNG government hosted a seminar aimed at formulating a national gun control policy.

The seminar revisited recommendations made by former PNG Defence Force Commander, retired Major-General Jerry Singirok.

One of the recommendations was for the licensing powers of the Police Commissioner as Registrar of Firearms to be taken away and for a mechanism to buy back firearms in the community.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

New Caledonia’s mothballed nickel plant in Koniambo (north of the main island of Grande Terre) has announced it has started mass sackings of some 1200 staff, despite efforts to identify a potential buyer.

Koniambo (KNS-Koniambo Nickel SAS) operations had already been mothballed after the announcement, in February, from its major financier, Anglo-Swiss giant Glencore, that it wanted out.

KNS is jointly owned by Glencore (49 percent) and New Caledonia’s Northern province (51 percent).

• READ MORE: Other nickel mine industry reports

While making the announcement, Glencore signalled a 6-month delay in the implementation of its decision, including payment of salaries.

The same timeframe was also supposed to be used to find potential buyers for the shares owned by Glencore.

Glencore said in February that keeping its stake in KNS was no longer sustainable.

It also recalled that the plant, in more than 10 years of existence and operation, had never made a profit.

Staggering debt
Over the past decade, KNS had accumulated a staggering 13.5 billion euros (NZ$25 billion) in debt.

As the August 31 deadline looms at the end of the six-month respite, what had been the symbol of New Caledonia’s Northern province empowerment and wealth “re-balancing” of the French Pacific archipelago’s provinces is now faced with a bleak reality.

Koniambo’s wealth relies on the Tiébaghi nickel massif, believed to hold about one quarter of New Caledonia’s nickel reserves.

Koniambo: a highly political symbol
KNS was born from a political and financial deal, including France — the “Bercy Accord” signed in December 1997, just months before the political Nouméa autonomy Accord was signed in 1998.

The deal was de facto enacting the transfer of the Tiébaghi massif to New Caledonia’s Northern province and its financial arm, the Société Minière du Sud Pacifique (SMSP).

It was the financial translation of the will to restore some balance between the affluent Southern Province and the less favoured Northern Province of New Caledonia, mostly populated by the indigenous Kanak community.

Since the Koniambo project and its construction started, the new activity has had a stimulating effect on the whole region, especially in the small towns of Voh, Koné and Pouembout.

The number of local companies increased, as well as the population.

In announcing the official lay-offs on Friday, KNS still wanted to appear optimistic: “Even though we are pursuing the search process for a potential buyer, and that three groups continue to display an interest for our company, we do not have at this stage a finalised offer”, the company admitted.

“We are therefore compelled to go ahead with the collective lay-off process on economic grounds”.

‘Cold’ sleep process
Beyond August 31, only a group of about 50 workers will remain employed in maintenance work on what will then be described as “cold” sleep process.

“But the fact that three world-class groups are still in discussions show that Koniambo Nickel still represents a strong interest for potential takeovers”, an optimistic KNS vice-president Alexandre Rousseau, told public broadcaster NC la 1ère on Saturday.

On top of the wave of sackings announced by KNS, some 600 contractors relying on the plant’s activities have also lost their jobs since February.

Local unrest – world nickel crisis
The announcement comes as New Caledonia’s economy is in a critical situation.

It has suffered a major blow, on top of an already grave financial situation.

Since May 13, violent unrest has been ongoing in New Caledonia, with a backdrop of protests against French-proposed modifications of voters’ eligibility for provincial elections, regarded by pro-independence movements as a bid to reduce the political voice of the indigenous Kanak community.

Since the riots, destruction, looting and arson began, more than 700 businesses have been destroyed, 10 people killed (eight civilians and two French gendarmes), and the overall cost of the unrest has topped 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4 billion).

During the riots and unrest, nickel mining sites have been specifically targeted several times.

Entire nickel sector in crisis
New Caledonia’s nickel industry has also been in profound turmoil over past years.

Its other two plants — in the Southern province (Prony Resources) and historic operator Société le Nickel (SLN) in Doniambo near Nouméa — owned by French mining giant Eramet — are also on the verge of collapse.

The situation comes from a world nickel market now dominated by Indonesian units, which have started to produce nickel in mass quantities and at a much lower price.

The result was a collapse of the world nickel price — it slumped by 48 per cent in 2023.

New Caledonia’s production, in this context, was also regarded as too expensive, prompting efforts for a deep reform, especially on the cost structure such as electricity.

A French assistance plan proposed in 2023 by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, including a 200 million euro (NZ$367 million) package, was declined by local authorities, who said too much was being asked by France in terms of strings attached to the massive funding loan.

The French-proposed reform also intended to diversify New Caledonia’s nickel buyers from an almost-entire reliance on Asian clients and instead turn to more European buyers, mostly car manufacturers for the purposes of production of batteries for electric cars.

Other plants on the verge of collapse
As a result of the combined effects of the current situation (the ongoing riots and the pre-existing nickel crisis), Prony Resources’ operations are at a standstill.

Eramet, which in recent months had made no secret of its desire to disengage from SLN, earlier reported a net loss of some 72 million euros (NZ$133 million) for the first half of the financial year.

New Caledonia’s nickel industry is believed to employ about 25 percent of the French Pacific archipelago’s workforce.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The voters in the second round of France’s national elections last weekend staved off an expected shift to the far-right. But the result in the Pacific territory Kanaky New Caledonia was also in many ways historic.

Of the two assembly representatives decided, a position fell on either side of the deep polarisation evident in the territory — one for loyalists, one for supporters of independence. But it is the independence side that will take the most from the result.

Turnout in the vote was remarkable, not only because of the violence in New Caledonia over recent months, which has curbed movement and public transport across the territory, but also because national elections have been seen particularly by independence parties as less relevant locally.

Not this time.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

The two rounds of the elections saw voters arrive in droves, with 60 percent and 71 percent turnout respectively, compared to typically low levels of 35-40 percent in New Caledonia. Images showed long queues with many young people.

Voting was generally peaceful, although a blockade prevented voting in one Kanak commune during the first round.

After winning the first round, a hardline loyalist and independence candidate faced off in each constituency. The second round therefore presented a binary choice, effectively becoming a barometer of views around independence.

Sobering results for loyalists
While clearly not a referendum, it was the first chance to measure sentiment in this manner since the boycotted referendum in 2021, which had followed two independence votes narrowly favouring staying with France.

The resulting impasse about the future of the territory had erupted into violent protests in May this year, when President Emmanuel Macron sought unilaterally to broaden voter eligibility to the detriment of indigenous representation. Only Macron then called snap national elections.

These are sobering results for loyalists.

So the contest, as it unfolded in New Caledonia, represented high stakes for both sides.

In the event, loyalist Nicolas Metzdorf won 52.4 percent in the first constituency (Noumea and islands) over the independence candidate’s 47.6 percent. Independence candidate Emmanuel Tjibaou won 57.4 percent to the loyalist’s 42.6 percent in the second (Northern Province and outer suburbs of Noumea).

The results, a surprise even to independence leaders, were significant.

It is notable that in these national elections, all citizens are eligible to vote. Only local assembly elections apply the controversial voter eligibility provisions which provoked the current violence, provisions that advantage longstanding residents and thus indigenous independence supporters.

Independence parties’ success
Yet without the benefit of this restriction, independence parties won, securing a majority 53 percent (83,123 votes) to the loyalists’ 47 percent (72,897) of valid votes cast across the territory. They had won 43 percent and 47 percent in the two non-boycotted referendums.

Even in the constituency won by the loyalist, the independence candidate Omayra Naisseline, daughter-in-law of early independence fighter Nidoïsh Naisseline, won 47 percent of the vote.

These are sobering results for loyalists.

Independence party candidate Emmanuel Tjibaou, 48, carried particular symbolism. The son of the assassinated founding father of the independence movement Jean-Marie Tjibaou, Emmanuel had eschewed politics to this point, instead taking on cultural roles including as head of the Kanak cultural development agency.

He is a galvanising figure for independence supporters.

Emmanuel Tjibaou is now the first independence assembly representative in 38 years. He won notwithstanding France redesigning the two constituencies in 1988 specifically to prevent an independence representative win by including part of mainly loyalist Noumea in each.

A loyalist stronghold has been broken.

Further strain on both sides
While both a loyalist and independence parliamentarian will now sit in Paris and represent their different perspectives, the result will further strain the two sides.

Pro-independence supporters will be energised by the strong performance and this will increase expectations, especially among the young. The responsibility on elders is heavy. Tjibaou described the vote as  “a call for help, a cry of hope”. He has urged a return to the path of dialogue.

At the same time, loyalists will be concerned by independence party success. Insecurity and fear, already sharpened by recent violence, may intensify. While he referred to the need for dialogue, Nicolas Metzdorf is known for his tough uncompromising line.

Paradoxically the ongoing violence means an increased reliance on France for the reconstruction that will be a vital underpinning for talks. Estimates for rebuilding have  exceeded 2 billion euros (NZ$3.6 billion), with more than 800 businesses, countless schools and houses attacked, many destroyed.

Yet France itself is reeling after the snap elections returned no clear winner. Three blocs are vying for power, and are divided within their own ranks over how government should be formed. While French presidents have had to “cohabit” with an assembly majority of the opposite persuasion three times before, never has a president faced no clear majority.

It will take time, perhaps months, for a workable solution to emerge, during which New Caledonia is hardly likely to take precedence.

As New Caledonia’s neighbours prepare to meet for the annual Pacific Islands Forum summit next month, all will be hoping that the main parties can soon overcome their deep differences and find a peaceful local way forward.

Denise Fisher is a visiting fellow at ANU’s Centre for European Studies. She was an Australian diplomat for 30 years, serving in Australian diplomatic missions as a political and economic policy analyst in many capitals. The Australian Consul-General in Noumea, New Caledonia (2001-2004), she is the author of France in the South Pacific: Power and Politics (2013).

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

All eight Members of Parliament from Vanuatu’s Tafea Province have made a bold and powerful call to French President Emmanuel Macron to “stop the violence and killing” being committed against the Kanak people of New Caledonia.

The MPs include Trade Minister Bob Loughman, a former prime minister; Internal Affairs Minister Johnny Koanapo; Youth and Sports Minister Tomker Netvunei; Agriculture Minister Nako Natuman; Jotham Napat; Andrew Napuat; Xavier Harry; and Simil Johnson.

“We, the MPs of Tafea Province, in this 13th Legislature of the Parliament of the Republic of Vanuatu, make the following statement based on the undeniable historical cultural links, which has existed from time immemorial between our people of Tafea and the Kanaky people of New Caledonia . . .,” their signed statement said.

• READ MORE: Kanaky New Caledonia unrest: Pro-independence militant leaders arrested
• Other New Caledonia unrest reports

Nine people have been killed during the unrest that began on May 13, five of them Kanaks and two were gendarmes.

“As Melanesians to call for greater solidarity and bring to the spotlight the despicable acts of France as a colonial power that still colonises the island nations and maritime boundaries of our nations,” the statement said.

“The recent events in New Caledonia is provoked by various ingredients which France has been cunningly cooking on their agenda over the years including the amendment of the electoral list which they understand very well that the Melanesians living in their own Kanaky mother land in New Caledonia are strongly opposed to it.

“Because they know that France is deliberately using ways to alienate their voices in their own motherland.”

‘Honour Nouméa Accord’ call to France
The MPs called on France to honour its commitment under the Nouméa Accord and engage in political dialogue, as was the custom in Melanesia and the Pacific.

The MPs said it was “unfair to the helpless people of New Caledonia to be confronted by a world military power such as France and shoot, imprison, and expose them to fear in such a manner that we have recently witnessed”.

They said France could not and must not act like this in the Pacific.

“France simply needs to dialogue with the Kanak leaders, listen and respect them as equals,” their statement said.

“The Kanaky [sic] are not their subjects of unequals. They are asking for their political autonomy. That’s all.

“Why is France still colonising countries when the world has gone past the colonisation decade? Why can’t they choose to colonise another country in Europe?

“France as an old democracy must end colonising people in this day and age. If the colonised people are yearning for freedom and they cannot fight with weapons to get their right to freedom, France must not act like a dictator to silence the dissenting voices who are yearning for freedom.

‘Listen . . . not silence them’
“We call on France to listen, learn [from] the voices of the people, and not silence them with the barrel of a gun and other military weapons.

“We want to see France as a civilised state to take responsibility and not shoot Melanesians from land and air as if they are in a war. Stop killing Melanesians.”

The leaders from TAFEA also call on Kanaky leaders, both Independentists and non-independentists, to come together and discuss a common solution.

“We see dialogue as a fundamental part of our Melanesian culture, and the state and all political parties must recognise the value of political dialogue,” they said.

“. . . [We] ask all the people of the Republic of Vanuatu, including the government, chiefs, and churches, to stand in solidarity with our Melanesian families in New Caledonia.

“We ask all praying Christians to pray for God’s intervention in the situation in New Caledonia, to restore peace, and to bring calm to the people of New Caledonia. God bless the people of New Caledonia.”

Republished from the Vanuatu Daily Post with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

On Saturday, June 8, acting Punjab governor and speaker of the provincial assembly Malik Ahmad Khan, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party member, approved a defamation law passed on May 20 despite concerns from journalists, human rights organizations, and opposition lawmakers, according to news reports.

The law, which is being challenged by journalists and press bodies in the Lahore High Court, replaces Punjab’s Defamation Ordinance, 2002 and loosely defines “defamation” and “broadcasting” to include social media platforms. 

Separately, on June 5, Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued show-cause notices to 34 news channels, asking them to explain, within two weeks, why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for airing press conferences by two parliamentarians who criticized the judiciary, according to multiple news reports.

The court issued the order while hearing a contempt case against the two parliamentarians, who questioned senior judges alleging the ISI– Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency– was interfering in judicial matters.

“Pakistan’s Punjab government must swiftly repeal the recently enacted defamation law and ensure that any such legislation does not impinge on press freedom,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The media must also be allowed to broadcast key political speeches and developments without interference or fear of reprisal.”

Under Punjab’s new defamation law, claimants may initiate legal action “without proof of actual damage or loss.” Penalties range from three million rupees (US $10,792) to punitive damages 10 times that amount. Tribunals may also order defendants to tender an unconditional apology or issue a directive to suspend or block the social media account or website where the alleged defamatory content was disseminated. 

Pakistan has intermittently blocked access to X, formerly Twitter, since February.

The law also mandates special tribunals, whose members will be appointed by the Punjab government in consultation with the chief justice of the Lahore High Court to adjudicate offenses within 180 days. 

According to Farieha Aziz, a freelance journalist and co-founder of the digital rights organization Bolo Bhi, the appointment procedure represented a conflict of interest because those who select tribunal members can also be complainants.

The law further authorizes the tribunal to pass a preliminary decree against a defendant if they do not obtain a leave to defend, or permission to defend themselves against the accusations, at the outset of trial. Moreover, the law bars commenting on pending proceedings, which Aziz called a “gag order.”

“If a public official has brought a case under the law, it is in public interest to know,” Aziz said.

Defamation claims filed by a “constitutional office” holder such as the prime minister, Supreme Court and Lahore High Court judges, and army chiefs, will be tried through a separate procedure, raising concerns surrounding violations of constitutional rights.

Pakistan’s political environment remains volatile after February elections– widely described as flawed– led to the formation of a coalition government of the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party, with the former taking power in Punjab.

Punjab governor Sardar Saleem Haider, a PPP member who was abroad when the defamation law was enacted, earlier stated on June 5 that the provincial government would address the concerns of journalists and other stakeholders, suggesting the legislation would be sent back to the assembly for further consultation.

Punjab information minister Azma Zahid Bokhari did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The prisoners had been arrested in neighboring Preah Vihear province after they crossed an international checkpoint between Laos and Cambodia on Jan. 30, Stung Treng Provincial Court spokesman Som Seang Hak told RFA.

The seven men and one woman told police they were smuggled across the border and planned to travel to Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville to find jobs, according to Som Seang Hak.

After their arrest, they were brought to Stung Treng, where they were convicted of trespassing on Feb. 10 and sentenced by the provincial court to four months in prison. 

Stung Treng province lies in Cambodia’s northeastern corner and is split by the Mekong River and two other major rivers. It includes a highway – National Route 7 – that connects with Laos through the Trapaing Kreal border checkpoint.

But on Feb. 27, the court’s deputy prosecutor, Chea Sopheak, ordered the release of the Chinese nationals, according to Som Seang Hak, who didn’t have an answer when asked for the reason behind the decision.

“As far as the release procedure is concerned, since the eight foreigners have already been tried, it would be better to ask the prosecution,” Som Seang Hak told RFA and then refused to give further comment.

‘This is a large case’

A 12-member committee with officials from both the Justice Ministry and the Interior Ministry will investigate the actions of the provincial court and the provincial prison leading up to the release, an order signed by Interior Minister Sar Sokha on May 2 said.

“The committee will investigate the warrant of the release of the eight Chinese from the court prosecutor, and the order from the prison that released the suspects without informing immigration authorities,” the order said.

Immigration officials had intended to expel the eight Chinese nationals after they completed their sentence, according to the order. They have not been rearrested and their whereabouts were still unknown this week.

“The case is still under investigation. It has not yet been concluded, and I cannot determine when it will end,” Ministry of Interior spokesman Touch Sokhak told The Phnom Penh Post on Thursday. “This is a large case, with links to the involvement of many parties.”

The release almost certainly involves some kind of official corruption, said Chak Chetra, the coordinating officer for human rights group Adhoc in Stung Treng. 

“We request that the ministry tighten the independent investigation to bring the perpetrators or officials who committed these acts to justice to prevent double standards for implementing the law,” he told RFA. 

RFA was unable to reach Chea Sopheak for comment on Thursday.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

“Air raid? I panicked because I thought they were talking about some kind of attack,” a resident of the city of Paju who received the alert told Radio Free Asia, referring to the English-language phrase “Air raid preliminary warning” in the alert.

Paju is just south of Panmunjeom, a village on the de facto border between the two Koreas, where for decades the armies of North and South Korea have faced off.

The alert told residents to report any unidentified objects, which turned out to be more than 200 balloons floated over the border from North Korea carrying trash and manure.

Authorities later announced that the phrase “air raid” had been used in error. 

Balloons with trash

North Koreans defectors based in the South and rights activists have for years sent balloons over the border into the North, invariably trying to stir up dissent and opposition to the North Korean state.

The balloons from the South infuriate the North, which regularly demands a stop to them and threatens retaliation.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, or JCS, said on Wednesday that North Korea had sent more than 200 balloons over the border carrying various pieces of trash such as plastic bottles, batteries, shoe parts and even animal dung. The JCS advised residents to report any strange objects and not to touch anything.

Beginning late on Tuesday, the balloons drifted south over various parts of South Korea, as far as the southeastern province of South Gyeongsang, scattering their trash as they came down to earth, the JCS said.

The JCS said the balloons could be dangerous, noting damage to a vehicle and a roof in 2016 caused by North Korean balloons.

“These acts by North Korea clearly violate international law and seriously threaten our people's safety,” the JCS said. “We sternly warn North Korea to immediately stop its inhumane and vulgar act.”

It added that it would draft safety measures with the police and  government, noting that it was closely cooperating with the U.S.-led U.N. Command in charge of overseeing the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.

The latest balloons from the South were floated into the North this month by the Seoul-based Fighters for a Free North Korea. The group said on May 13 it had sent 300,000 leaflets and 2,000 USBs containing K-pop music videos to the North by suspending them from 20 big balloons.

A banner attached to the balloon accused the North’s leader of treachery:  “Kim Jong Un, you are nothing but an unchangeable traitor, an enemy of the Korean people.”

North Korea said on Sunday it would scatter “mounds of wastepaper and filth” over the border areas in a “tit-for-tat action” against the latest anti-Pyongyang leaflets.

Analysts say isolated North Korea fears that outside information could threaten the grip of its leadership. 

The balloons have long been another source of tension between the two Koreas, which are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.

The French-proposed “pact” to salvage New Caledonia’s beleaguered nickel industry is still in limbo as the local Congress has decided to refer the whole document to a “special committee” for re-examination.

The committee was set up on Thursday during a Congress special sitting.

The pact has been proposed to rescue New Caledonia’s nickel industry, which faces grave difficulties.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia nickel industry reports

One of its three processing plants and smelters, Koniambo (KNS) located in the Northern province, has already been mothballed due to the decision from major financier Glencore to pull out and sell its 49 percent shares within the next six months.

This has already affected more than 1000 jobs.

This comes as a result of significant changes in the world nickel industry production market, which is now dominated by Indonesia, with the ability to produce nickel in large quantities and at a much lower price.

The other two processing plants, Prony Resources and historical player Société le Nickel (SLN, a subsidiary of French mining giant Eramet), also face a critical situation and the risk of closing down within the next few months.

Prony’s Swiss stakeholder Trafigura is also on the way out and Eramet has clearly indicated it no longer intends to further finance SLN.

Emergency assistance
The “pact” is an attempt by French Finance minister Bruno Le Maire (who visited New Caledonia on a fact-finding mission in November 2023) to provide some €200 million (NZ$365 million) in emergency assistance, provided New Caledonia’s nickel industry commits to major reforms in order to reduce its production costs and finds new market outlets, possibly in Europe.

Le Maire initially scheduled the signing of this pact for the end of January 2024.

But since, the document has still not been signed.

Even though France and most pro-France parties in New Caledonia have since urged local authorities to urgently sign the document, it now faces more opposition from the pro-independence parties there, as well as one of the pro-French parties (Calédonie Ensemble).

They argue that the pact, in its present form, is not asking enough commitment from the nickel industry companies and that it also required New Caledonia to dig into its coffers and find over 65 million US dollars to finance a cost-cutting electricity exercise, which would require raison new taxes and therefore adding to the burden of the local population.

SLN’s extraction sites blockaded
For more than a week also, SLN is facing more hardships as it is barred from extracting nickel for its Nouméa smelter in the Northern province.

This comes after a decision from Northern province President Paul Néaoutyine, who has invoked several late payments of an administrative provision designed to guarantee possible environmental damage.

Eramet has since held several emergency meetings in Paris and released sufficient funds for a short-term payment.

But Néaoutyine has since demanded that those payments cover a longer period.

Meanwhile, SLN’s extraction activities on Northern sites have ground to a halt.

Only maintenance and security work is remaining.

This places SLN’s Nouméa smelter in a reduced activity mode with a real danger of slow suffocation if normal levels of nickel supply don’t resume soon enough.

Over the past week, tension has significantly escalated on SLN’s extraction sites, where blockades have sometimes prevented SLN employees to access Northern extraction sites.

Some of the SLN staff have also been verbally “insulted” and assaulted” by local villagers in the rural mining towns of Canala, La Foa and Kouaoua, SLN said earlier this week in a release.

Nickel turns political again
New Caledonia’s Congress (with a pro-independence majority of members) on Thursday resolved to initiate a process of “formulating complementary” and “alternative” propositions to the French nickel pact.

During sometimes heated debates, pro-pact parties Les Loyalistes and Rassemblement have expressed strong reservations about the new process, saying the signature was urgent and that thousands of jobs were at stake.

Last week, New Caledonia’s government President Louis Mapou, even though a member of the pro-independence side, urged the Congress pro-independence majority members to vote for the signing of the pact.

He accused them of ignoring economic reality and of wanting to turn the whole issue into a political one.

The nickel pact issue has since become a major bone of contention in the more general political confrontation between pro-independence and pro-France parties, including over a French-proposed change in voters eligibility for local elections.

Talks between all local parties in order to address New Caledonia’s long-term political future have been stalled.

On April 13, those issues were at the centre of two simultaneous demonstrations when the marches, one organised by pro-independence movements and the other by pro-France parties, brought at least 40,000 people to the streets of Nouméa.

The Congress’s new Special Committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Monday, 22 April 2024.

No date has been announced that would indicate a specific duration for its debates.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

A Solomon Islands politician ousted as premier of the Pacific island country’s most populous province after opposing diplomatic recognition of China has been reelected to its provincial assembly, according to preliminary election results released Friday.

The results from Malaita province are among the first to be made public since the voting in national, provincial and capital city elections took place Wednesday. Electoral Commission officials have said they hope that many results will be known by the middle of next week.

Daniel Suidani won the most votes in his provincial constituency, an Electoral Commission spokesman Ednal Palmer told RFA-affiliated news organization BenarNews. Martin Fini, the politician who replaced Suidani as premier following his ouster in a no confidence vote in February last year, was not reelected, according to a separately announced vote count for his constituency.

The election in the Pacific island country of 700,000 people was the first since its combative, pro-Beijing prime minister Manasseh Sogavare switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 2019 and signed a secretive security pact with the Asian superpower.

Under Suidani, Malaita’s provincial assembly opposed the diplomatic switch to Beijing and issued its Auki Communiqué banning China-funded projects in Malaita despite the island’s crumbling roads, rickety bridges and threadbare health system.

Suidani touted benefits from a United States development aid project in the province, but it was slow to produce tangible results. He remained popular and attracted large crowds to his campaign rallies in Malaita.

The central government’s ineffectiveness in providing basic services and the struggle to earn enough money to survive was preoccupying many voters when they headed to the polls on Wednesday. Whether Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare will stay in power is also keenly watched by governments from China to Australia and the U.S. 

Once vote counting is completed, members of Parliament decide the prime minister so leadership of the Solomon Islands may not be known until May.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Stephen Wright for BenarNews.

The fire, which began on the evening of March 15 on the slopes of a mountain near Petse village, forced Tibetans from about a dozen villages in three areas of Nyagchu county, or Yajiang in Chinese, to leave their homes.

The county lies in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the traditional Kham region of eastern Tibet. Tibetans made up the majority of the county’s total population of over 51,000, according to 2020 census data. 

The cause of the fire, which quickly spread to multiple mountain ridges due to strong winds on March 16, is still unknown, sources told Radio Free Asia. 

One of three main sections of the fire has been extinguished, China Daily reported Monday.  

But more than 11 Tibetan villages at the foot of the mountains are still in danger as the wildfire continues to spread rapidly across the area covered mostly by pine trees, while residents are being evacuated, said the first source from inside Tibet. 

Although the fire burned down several houses in nearby communities and harmed animals on the mountains, no human casualties have been reported, said two sources inside the country and a third from the exile community with knowledge of the situation.

Firefighters arrived at the scene on Sunday, said the first source from inside Tibet. That same day, the Ministry of Emergency Management declared a Level-4 emergency response.  

Firefighters dispatched

Chinese state media reported that more than 1,200 firefighters and eight helicopters had been dispatched to fight the fire, with a reinforcement of 750 more firefighters expected from neighboring Yunnan province, according to Chinese media. 

The Jamyang Choekhorling Monastery, founded by popular Tibetan religious leader and activist Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, as well as the Pamo Monastery near Paomo Mountain, are located close to an area where the fire is spreading rapidly, the sources said.

The fire also has burned to the ground about 30 houses in the nearby villages, said the second source from inside Tibet. 

“The fire is spreading very fast because of the direction of the wind,” he told RFA. “If we put it out in one area, it starts in another.”

Firefighters, local Chinese authorities and Tibetan residents are all working to stem the spread of the fire and to ensure minimum damage to homes, monasteries and animals, he added.  

Chinese authorities have warned Tibetans not to share photos or videos of the fire on social media platforms or with contacts abroad, or face arrest, said the first source from inside Tibet. 

State media reported that authorities temporarily closed a highway passing through the region and that communication with a hydroelectric station has been interrupted. 

Written by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar and Lhuboom for RFA Tibetan.

But women who are unmarried or do not have a "mahram," or male guardian, face even tougher restrictions and have been cut off from access to health care, banned from traveling long distances, and pressured to quit their jobs.

The Taliban's mahram rules prohibit women from leaving their home without a male chaperone, often a husband or a close relative such as a father, brother, or uncle.

Single and unaccompanied women, including an estimated 2 million widows, say they are essentially prisoners in their homes and unable to carry out the even the most basic of tasks.

Among them is Nadia, a divorced woman from the northern province of Kunduz. The mother of four has no surviving male relatives.

"These restrictions are stifling for women who now cannot do the simple things independently," Nadia told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.

The 35-year-old said women also need to have a male escort to visit a doctor, go to government offices, or even rent a house.

She said she had to pay a man to be her chaperone in order to meet a realtor and sign a rental agreement.

Nadia also paid a man in her neighborhood around 1,000 afghanis, or $15, to accompany her to the local passport office. But the Taliban refused her passport application and ordered her to return with her father, who died years ago.

"Even visiting the doctor is becoming impossible," she said. "We can only plead [with the Taliban] or pray. All doors are closed to us."

Mahram Crackdown

Women who violate the Taliban's mahram requirements have been detained or arrested and are often released only after signing a pledge that they will not break the rules again in the future.

In its latest report, the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said the Taliban's notorious religious police was enforcing the rules by carrying out inspections in public spaces, offices, and education facilities as well as setting up checkpoints in cities.

Released on January 22, the report said three female health-care workers were detained in October because they were traveling to work without a mahram.

In December, women without male chaperones were stopped from accessing health-care facilities in the southeastern province of Paktia, the report said.

And in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban visited a bus terminal and checked if women were traveling with a male relative, the report said.

In late 2021, the Taliban said women seeking to travel more than 72 kilometers should not be offered transport unless they were accompanied by a close male relative.

In another incident, the Taliban advised a woman to get married if she wanted to keep her job at a health-care facility, saying it was inappropriate for a single woman to work, the report said.

In a report issued on January 18, the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) said the Taliban's restrictions on single and unaccompanied women has ensured that female-led households receive less income and food.

"Their share of employment has nearly halved, decreasing from 11 percent in 2022 to 6 percent" in 2023, the report said.

The report noted that female-headed households typically care for more children and get paid less for their work and consume lower quantities of food.

"Female-headed households have greater needs for humanitarian assistance and yet report more restrictions to accessing such assistance," the report said.

"Unaccompanied access by women to public places such as health facilities, water points, and markets has declined in the past two years," the report added.

'Deeply Insulting'

Parisa, an unmarried woman, takes care of her elderly parents in the northeastern province of Takhar.

With her father bedridden and her two brothers working in neighboring Iran, she has been forced to take care of the family's needs.

But she said she has been repeatedly harassed by the Taliban while trying to buy groceries in the local market, located some 10 kilometers away from her house.

"What can women do when men in their families are forced to leave the country for work?" she told Radio Azadi, giving only her first name for security reasons.

"I have no choice but to look after my family's basic needs. The Taliban's attitude is deeply insulting and extremely aggressive."

Parisa said she has pleaded with local Taliban leaders to relax the mahram requirements. But she said her efforts have been in vain.

"They start abusing and threatening us whenever we try to tell them that we have to leave our houses to meet our basic needs," she said.

Parasto, a resident of Kabul, said the Taliban's restrictions are preventing single women from seeking the limited health care that is available.

"The doctors in the hospitals and clinics are reluctant to see unaccompanied women," she told Radio Azadi.

Parasto said the Taliban's mounting restrictions on women, especially those who are unmarried or do not have a male guardian, have made life unbearable.

"Single women are trying to survive without rights and opportunities," she said.

Written by Abubakar Siddique in Prague based on reporting by Naqiba Barakzai, Abida Spozhmai, and Khujasta Kabiri of RFE/RL's Radio Azadi

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

The foreign ministry said people smugglers had taken advantage of Indonesia’s generosity over the years in allowing in members of the stateless and persecuted minority group from Myanmar, while police said that locals were complaining about bad behavior by some among the 1,000-odd Rohingya sheltering in Aceh.

The wooden boat, which had been adrift for several days, first made its appearance on Thursday near the shore of Bireuen district, where police and the military tried to persuade villagers to let the refugees land on humanitarian grounds, said a spokesman for the Bireuen police.

But the villagers refused, saying they had unpleasant experiences with Rohingya who arrived on previous occasions and had been “troublesome,” said spokesman Marzuki, who goes by one name.

“We negotiated, but the locals refused to accept them,” the police official told BenarNews.

The police and the military have the power to override the locals, but Marzuki didn’t say why officials did not use that authority.

Jolly Ronny Mamarimbing, an intelligence officer for the Bireuen police, said the Rohingya were given food and drinks, and five of them who appeared very unwell were allowed to disembark and stay on in the village.

The boat then left and attempted to dock at Lhokseumawe, in northern Aceh, but was met with similar resistance from locals there, said Salman Alfarisi, a local police spokesman.

“They were going to [set] sail again, but their boat had engine trouble,” he said.

This latest group of Rohingya followed the more than 400 others who arrived in Aceh by sea on Monday and Tuesday. The Aceh police and the local fishing community said they provided food, water, medical care and temporary shelter to the people who disembarked from the first two boats.

According to fishermen, Rohingya on those boats had sailed from the refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh. One of the refugees on the boat that was turned away on Thursday, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that its passengers had also left Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district near the Myanmar border, where the crowded camps are located. 

The camps host some 1 million Rohingya, nearly 740,000 of whom escaped a military crackdown in 2017, which the U.N. later described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” A Muslim minority, the Rohingya have faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, has a history of welcoming Rohingya, who are considered one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. 

In 2015, Indonesia allowed thousands of Rohingya to disembark on its shores, along with migrants from Bangladesh, after they were stranded at sea for months.

Indonesia has no legal or practical obligation to host refugees, nor can it offer them a permanent solution, because it is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry.

“Ironically, many countries that are parties to the convention have closed their doors and even implemented push-back policies against the refugees,” he said in a statement Thursday.

“Indonesia’s kindness in providing temporary shelter has been exploited by people smugglers who seek financial gain from the refugees without caring about the high risk they face, especially vulnerable groups such as women and children,” he said.

UNHCR ready to assist

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) urged the Indonesian government to keep its borders open to refugees.

“UNHCR is ready to assist the government, the authorities and the community in carrying out efforts to save the lives of refugees,” Mitra Salima, spokeswoman for the agency in Indonesia, told BenarNews.

“But we hope they will still provide assistance, considering there are many vulnerable women and children.”

In January, Jakarta called for regional cooperation to conduct rescue operations for Rohingya stranded at sea, so that Indonesia wouldn’t have to disproportionately bear the burden of this task. 

Indonesia does not grant asylum or legal status to refugees. 

Refugees who arrive in Indonesia are usually confined to temporary shelters or detention centers, and face an uncertain future, as they have no access to formal education and jobs.

Meanwhile, human rights groups have said that the numbers of Rohingya leaving for third countries further highlight the dire conditions at the Cox’s Bazar camps and the deteriorating situation in Myanmar after the February 2021 military coup.

Many Rohingya have grown desperate because they see no hope of being repatriated to Myanmar, which is convulsed with violence following the coup, human rights advocates and NGOs in the region have said. 

In Bangladesh, the refugees cannot work or properly educate their children.

To flee what feels like a hopeless situation, many undertake perilous journeys by sea, often on ramshackle boats, so they can lead a better life in one of the Southeast Asian nations, where they can access schools and jobs. 

Last year was the deadliest since 2014 for Rohingya attempting such sea voyages. At least 348 individuals died or went missing at sea, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pizaro Gozali Idrus for BenarNews.

The move could lead to the extinction of the language in the regions – and could endanger its viability across the country, Tibetan activists fear. 

The Chinese government ordered the ban in government-run schools in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, starting with the fall semester that began in September, a Tibetan source said.

Middle school students currently enrolled can finish the next two years of studies in Tibetan, but starting in 2025, all classes will be held in Mandarin, the person said.

Previously, state-run schools in the region taught Tibetan language classes to students, and subjects including mathematics, science, physics, geography, history and social studies were conducted in Tibetan. Mandarin was also taught as a language course.

But now, the Chinese government has expedited the teaching of all school subjects in Mandarin in schools in the 12 counties comprising Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in what it said was an effort to raise education standards, teachers and parents of students said.

‘Soft atrocity’

The ban is part of Beijing’s wider “Sinicization” program that has also restricted the language and culture of Uyghurs and other minorities in China – despite protections in China’s Constitution that permit minority groups to use their own language in their own regions.

Another Tibetan source called the step a “soft atrocity.”

“On the pretext of the government’s program, China is trying to completely wipe out the Tibetan language,” said the person who, like others in this report, declined to be identified out of concern for their safety. 

“China’s use of soft atrocities, instead of forcible measures, is leading to the complete annihilation of Tibetan society and education, with no scope for revival,” the source said.

Radio Free Asia could not reach the education departments of Ngaba and Kardze for comment.

Reversal

Tibetan is widely spoken not just in the Tibetan Autonomous Region in the far western part of China, but also in neighboring parts of the country with large Tibetan populations. For example, about 90 percent of Karze prefecture’s 1 million inhabitants are Tibetan.

The ban reverses previous moves to promote the Tibetan language in the region.

Under the Karze Area Tibetan Language Regulation adopted in 2015, special emphasis was put on the formation of a Tibetan language task force in the Tibet Autonomous Region, with the promotion of Tibetan-language teaching in schools considered important. 

The news came as a surprise to many.

Teachers and parents were not officially informed about this major change in policy, but simply told verbally to implement it at the start of a new academic year, the sources said.  

After banning Tibetan instruction at the Chak-sam-kha Middle School, Tibetan language teachers were told to move to other areas where the government allows Tibetan to be used as the medium of instruction, the sources said.

School administrators did not inform students’ parents about the change in the language of instruction from Tibetan to Mandarin in various subjects, and they held a meeting with teachers who were suddenly instructed to teach their subjects in Mandarin, the sources said.

Middle schools in Zoege county, also part of the Tibetan traditional region of Amdo, are widely known for their high standard of Tibetan-language teaching but had to switch to Mandarin as the main language of instruction this year, said a Tibetan source from inside Tibet. 

All teachers at Zoege country middle schools have to implement the measure, the source said.

Resentment by the public and educators over a plan in 2020 to change the language of instruction to Mandarin from Tibetan in elementary and middle schools in Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture boiled over into a large protest, and the plan was put on hold.

Translated by Rigdhen Dolma for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pelbar for RFA Tibetan.

Members of Indonesia’s Nduga District Police and the Damai Cartenz Police Task Force have raided a residential house and the local head office of the Papuan Tabernacle Church (Kingmi Papua) in the town of Kenyam, Nduga Regency, Papua Pegunungan Province, reports Human Rights Monitor.

Before raiding the Kingmi Papua office on September 17, the police officers arbitrarily arrested Melince Wandikbo, Indinwiridnak Arabo, and Gira Gwijangge in their home in Kenyam.

They were tortured and forced to reveal the names of people who had attended a recent burial of several members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).

• READ MORE: Police officers raid residential house and Tabernacle Church office – full details, names of victims, photos
• Other West Papua human rights reports

After one of the suspects mentioned the name of Reverend Urbanus Kogeya, the police officers searched the Kingmi Papua Office in Kenyam.

They arrested three other Papuans without showing a warrant. Police officers reportedly beat them during arrest and subsequent detention at the Nduga District police headquarters.

Everybody detained were later released due to lack of evidence.

Local Kingmi Papua church leaders and congregation members slept inside the Kingmi head office that night because they were preparing for a church event.

Around 11:30 pm, the police officers forcefully entered the office, breaking the entrance door.

Excessive force
According to the church leaders, the officers used excessive force against the suspects and the office facilities during the raid. Nine people suffered injuries as a result of police violence during the raid at the Kingmi Papua office — including an 85-year-old man and four women.

As Reverend Nataniel Tabuni asked the officers why they had come at night and broken the entrance door, a police officer approached him and punched him three times in the face.

According to Reverend Tabuni, one of the police officers ssaid: “You are the Church of Satan, the Church of Terrorists! You are supporting Egianus Kogeya [TPNPB Commander in Nduga] under the pretext of praying.”

The acts of torture were witnessed by the head of Nduga Parliament (DPRD), Ikabus Gwijangge.

He reached the Kingmi Papua Office around 11:45 pm after hearing people shouting for help.

As Gwijangge saw the police officers beating and kicking suspects, he protested the use of excessive force and called on the officers to follow procedure.

‘I’ll come after you’
A Damai Cartenz officer reportedly pointed his finger at Gwijangge and threatened him, saying: “Stupid parliamentarian. I’ll come after you! Wherever you go, I will find out where you are. I’ll chase you!”

Another police officer pushed Gwijangge outside the building to prevent him from witnessing the police operation. After that, the police officers searched all the office rooms and broke another office door.

The Nduga police chief (Kapolres), Commissioner Vinsensius Jimmy, has apologised to the local church leaders for the misconduct of his men.

The victims demanded that the perpetrators be processed according to the law.

Congregation members in Kenyam carried out a spontaneous peaceful protest against the police raid and violence against four Kingmi Papua pastors.

The Human Rights Monitor (HRM) is an independent, international non-profit project promoting human rights through documentation and evidence-based advocacy. HRM is based in the European Union and active since 2022.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“I will surrender if you guarantee I will not be killed,” says Eugene Pakailasi, who took over leadership of Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay gang after Tommy Maeva Baker was killed in 2021.

He proclaimed this to Milne Bay Governor Gordon Wesley who met with the gang allegedly earlier this year in a daring secret meet-and-greet event in the Owen Stanley Range in Milne Bay Province.

The gang leader revealed his reasons for maintaining the gang and requesting police leniency.

• READ MORE: Other PNG crime reports

Assistant Police Commissioner (Southern region) Clement Dalla in an interview with the PNG Post-Courier confirmed the above picture, saying that it had been taken earlier this year.

“We are aware of these pictures. The Governor has stated that Pakailasi wants to surrender,” Assistant Commissioner Dalla said.

“The Governor must reach out to police and we can work together to facilitate any surrender and work out a possible arrangement of a surrender programme.”

Police said Pakailasi was wanted for a string of robberies within the provincial capital of Alotau with his alleged involvement in various shootouts with police during Baker’s reign.

Elusive gang leader
So far, the gang leader remains elusive as police continue to make calls for the surrender of all members.

According to Governor Wesley, after being contacted by the gang to meet up, he went up to the mountains “alone” and found their camp base where they had a conversation.

“Eugene had strange reasons for keeping the gang alive, some of which involve an agreement with some prominent public figures during previous elections,” Governor Wesley said.

“Eugene said the gang’s agenda remains the same as when the former gang leader Baker was leading before his death.

“He said they were not paid for the work they did for the people in the public office and therefore still hold a grudge,” he added.

Eugene later asked the Governor to inform the police that he was not guilty of all the criminal allegations against him and that he would surrender to clear his name but was afraid of being shot dead.

“I told [the gang] that the only way I could help them was to have them surrender and work with the police in lowering the crime rate in the province,” Governor Wesley said.

Against killings in province
He reiterated that this rare occasion was followed by his efforts to have some of the gang members surrender and also said that he was against killings in the province — whether by the gang or by police.

Governor Wesley said that was the reason why he wanted to work with both the police and the gang to allow justice to be served peacefully.

The Governor claimed: “We have seen about 300 to 400 men and boys surrender their weapons in the past months since the surrender programme started.

“We have also seen about 200 deaths of young men and women who were suspected to be part of the gang in the province this year.

“I told Eugene and his gang that unless they want to be added onto the death toll, they must surrender to police.”

Governor Wesley said he would be sending an in-depth report to the provincial police commander of his conversation with the gang.

He would seek lenience from the Police Commissioner and the Prime Minister on the gang’s behalf to accommodate a peaceful surrender.

Melyne Baroi is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Northern Governor Gary Juffa has joined Papua New Guinea’s police chief and the Prime Minister in calling for Papua New Guineans to lay down arms and cease acts of local terrorism.

“I stand with the Commissioner of Police, David Manning, and Prime Minister James Marape to apply the full force of the law to quell all forms of local terrorism in PNG and, particularly, in Northern Province.

“I am particularly concerned as a few weeks ago my Oro Bay RPSC (rural police station commander) Sergeant Terry Giwaya was ruthlessly gunned down only a few kilometres away from his station,” Governor Juffa said.

• READ MORE: Other PNG crime reports

“I commend Commissioner Manning and his ACP Southern Clement Dalla for their swift action in responding to our plight, seeing through the proficient capture of the alleged thugs and the recovery of an alleged police firearm.

“The success of this operation is attributed also to the provincial police command, our local Northern police personnel,” Juffa said

“All gloves off” was not an order given lightly by any police commissioner or prime minister but with “our ignorance of the rule of law” and the disrespect to its enforcement machinery — the RPNGC — such an order was “timely and very necessary”.

Law and order priority
Juffa added that law and order in Northern Province would always be a priority on a par with health, infrastructure and education and had seen the Northern provincial government spending close to 1 million kina to date.

“Every citizen has a right to move freely without fear and to engage in commerce with the full covering of the laws of our country,” Juffa said.

“I stand with my prime minister and our police commissioner to clamp down on local terrorism and elements that fuel the atrocities.”

Governor Juffa indicated plans were afoot to take the body of Sergeant Giwaya back home, including an official programme scheduled to take place after the September 16 independence celebrations next weekend.

Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

While Japan’s discharge of nuclear waste waters into the Pacific from its Fukushima nuclear plant has been drawing flak across the Pacific, a high-powered delegation of Chinese ocean and marine scientists and Asia-Pacific scholars from Shandong Province visited Fiji to promote South-South cooperation to mitigate climate change — the Pacific island nations’ biggest security threat.

Facilitated by the Chinese Embassy in Suva, Shandong Province and Fiji signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to exchange scholars and experts from the provincial institution to assist the Pacific Island nation in the agriculture sector.

At the signing event, Agriculture Minister Vatimi Rayalu said Fiji and China had a successful history of cooperating in agriculture.

• READ MORE: China in the Pacific

He told the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation that this initiative was critical to agricultural production to promote heightened collaboration among key stakeholders and help Fiji connect to the vast Chinese market.

Shandong Province has a 3000 km coastline with a population of 100 million. It is China’s third largest provincial economy, with a GDP of CNY 8.3 trillion (US$1.3 trillion) in 2021—equivalent to Mexico’s GDP.

The province has also played a major role in Chinese civilisation and is a cultural center for Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism.

On August 30, during a day-long conference at the University of the South Pacific under the theme of sustainable development of small island states, scholars from Shandong Province and the Pacific exchanged ideas on cooperation in the sphere of the ocean and marine sciences, and education, development and cultural areas.

Chinese assistance welcomed
In a keynote address to the conference, Fiji’s Education Minister Aseri Radrodro welcomed China’s assistance to foster a scholars exchange programme and share best practices for improved teaching and learning processes.

He said: “We are restrategising our diplomatic relations via education platforms disturbed by the pandemic.”

Emphasising that respect is an essential ingredient of Pacific cultures, he welcomed Chinese interest in Pacific cultures.

Also, he invited China to assist Fiji and the region in areas such as marine sciences, counselling, medical services, IT, human resource management, and education policies and management.

“Overall, sustainable development for Small Island States requires a realistic approach that integrates social, economic, and environmental considerations and collaborations among governments, civil society, international organisations, and the private sector that is essential for achieving sustainable development goals,” he told delegates.

Radrodro invited more Chinese scholars to visit the Pacific to increase cultural understanding between the regions and suggested developing a school exchange programme between Fiji and China for young people to understand each other.

The Chinese ambassador to Fiji, Zhou Jian, pointed out that China and the Pacific Island Countries (PICs), were connected by the Pacific Ocean and in a spirit of South-South cooperation, China already had more than 20 development cooperation projects in the region (he listed them) and 10 sister city arrangements across the region.

Building a human community
Pointing out that his province’s institutions have some of the prominent scholars in the world on climatic change action and marine technology, the Vice-Chairman of Shandong Provincial Committee, Wang Shujian, said he hoped that these institutions would help to build a human community with a shared future in the Pacific.

Many Chinese speakers reflected in their presentations that their cooperative ventures would be in line with the Chinese government’s current international collaboration push known as the “Global Development Initiative”.

This initiative has eight priority areas: poverty alleviation, food security, pandemic response and vaccines, financing for development, climate change and green development, industrialisation, digital economy, and connectivity in the digital era.

Jope Koroisavou of the Ministry of iTaukei (indigenous) affairs explained that the “Blue Pacific” leaders in the region talk about is a way of life that “bridges our past with our future,” and it was important to re-establish the balance between taking and giving to nature.

He listed three takeaways in this respect: cultural resilience and preservation, eco-system stewardship and conservation, and community component and inclusive decision-making.

Professor Yang Jingpeng from the Centre for South Pacific Studies at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications acknowledged that they needed to learn from indigenous knowledge, where indigenous people were closely connected to the environment.

Bio-diversity, climate action, South-South cooperation
“They play an important role in protecting biodiversity,” he noted. “Their knowledge of nature will be greatly beneficial to address climatic change”.

He expressed the wish that under South-South cooperation, their centre would be able to work with this knowledge and scientific methodologies to mitigate climatic change.

Mesake Koroi of the FBC noted that Pacific Islanders needed to get over the idea that because indigenous villagers practice subsistence farming, they were poor when, in fact, they were rich in traditional knowledge, which was important to address the development and environmental challenges of today.

“Using this traditional knowledge, people don’t go out fishing when the winds are blowing in the wrong direction or the moon is not in the correct place”, he noted.

“In my village, 10,000 trees will be planted this year to confront climatic change.”

On an angry note, he referred to Japan’s dumping of nuclear-contaminated water to the Pacific Ocean using a purely “scientific” argument, which he described as “inexcusable vulgar, crude and irresponsible”.

He asked if science said was so safe, why did they not use it for irrigation in Japan?

Nuclear tests suffering
Koroi lamented that historically, major powers had used the Pacific for nuclear testing without respect for the islanders’ welfare — who had to suffer from nuclear fallouts.

“The British, French, and Americans are all guilty of these atrocities, and now the Japanese”, noted Koroi.

Since China was coming to the Pacific without this baggage, he hoped this would transform into a desire to work with the people of the Pacific for their welfare.

Professor He Baogang, of Deaking University in Australia, noted that though the Chinese mindset acknowledged that dealing with climate change was a human right (health right) issue, it still needed to be central to their approach to the problem.

“This should be laid down as important, ” he argued, and suggested that this could be demonstrated by working on areas such as putting green shipping corridors into action.

“China and Pacific Island countries need to look at an agreement to decarbonise the shipping industry,” he argued. “This conference needs to address how to proceed (in that direction)”.

Pointing out that there was a long history — going back to more than 8000 years — of Chinese ancestry among some Pacific people, pointing out that some Māori traditional tattoos were similar to the Chinese tattoos, Professor Chen Xiaochen, executive deputy director, Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies, East China Normal University, noted “now we are looking for common ground for Pacific development needs”.

Knowing each other better
In an informal conversation with IDN, one of the professors from China said that the time had come for the people of China and the Pacific to come to know each other better.

“Chinese students hardly know about Pacific cultures and the people,” he told IDN, adding, “I suppose the Pacific people don’t know much of our cultures as well.”

He believes closer collaboration with universities in Shandong Provincial would be ideal “because it is a centre of Chinese civilisation”.

“Now the Pacific is looking north,” noted Professor Xiaochen, adding, “my flight from Hong Kong was full of Chinese tourists coming South to Fiji”.

Kalinga Seneviratne is a visiting consultant with the University of the South Pacific journalism programme. IDN-InDepthNews is the flagship news service of the nonprofit Inter Press Syndicate. Republished in collaboration with Asia Pacific Report.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Hoang Van Luan, 35, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with “abusing democratic freedoms,” according to a statement issued by Ky Anh district police to state media.

At least 15 people across Vietnam have been arrested this year and charged under Article 331, according to a Radio Free Asia tally. The statute has been widely criticized by international communities as being vague.

The arrests under Article 331 are a part of Vietnam’s efforts in recent years to stifle political dissent. Activists are also commonly charged with distributing propaganda against the state under Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Since 2018, Luan has led petition drives for 18 groups on issues presented to officials at the village, district and provincial levels, as well as at central government offices in Hanoi, Ky Anh police said.

The petitions have included the names of 981 people, police said.

In 2019, police in Hanoi’s Ha Dong district imposed an administration penalty with a warning against Luan, saying his group of petitioners were disrupting social order.

This week, the official People’s Police Newspaper ran a photo of Luan and other petitioners who urged authorities to complete a promised water supply project to improve the lives of residents in the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ky Anh district.

The Vung Ang zone was the site of a devastating toxic waste spill in 2016. The spill by Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group’s steel plant killed an estimated 115 tons of fish and left fishermen jobless in four coastal provinces, including Ha Tinh.

Luan has also organized petitions in the province that have nothing to do with his family interests, such as the North-South Highway, Ky Anh police said on Wednesday. The petitions have led to delays in land clearance for the project, police said.

Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

Pacific Media Watch

A controversial report by a French metropolitan not-for-profit about sexual and sexist violence in France’s overseas territories — including Kanaky New Caledonia — has had its findings reported in mainstream French media, stirring strong criticism by Kanak social justice and human rights advocates.

The report has led to a condemnation and accusations of “colonialism and racism” in an open letter directed at the NGO, En Avant Toute(s), and two mainstream media outlets that carried news about the findings, France 24 and France Info.

“It is really about journalism, feminism, and decolonisation of knowledge production,” says an Pacific Media Watch correspondent about the issue.

• READ MORE: Other sexual violence in the Pacific reports

“The problem is the organisation didn’t actually travel to New Caledonia. Instead, they conducted phone interviews with a select, small group of NGOs in New Caledonia’s Southern Province, leading to comments in the media about Kanak tradition and sexual abuse which were wrong.”

The open letter, sent to Asia Pacific Report, says:

We are gathering to send you this letter on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which aims to raise awareness among the public on the problems faced by Indigenous people.

Our approach is first rooted in our need to denounce the severity of the lies that have been mediatised and to minimise the harm done, but also to educate on the struggles of Indigenous peoples and the fight against sexual and sexist oppression, specifically in a colonial context, and so that the tools and resources that are deployed in these struggles serve the people who are affected first and foremost.

We are Indigenous, Kanak, French, women, men, people from Kanaky/New Caledonia committed to social justice in our country at a personal level, professional level, but also as volunteers, advocates and militants in associations.

Recently, we have come across the report “Des ponts entre les territoires d’outre-mer et l’hexagone” (“Bridges between overseas territories and the hexagone”) through French hexagonal media [the hexagon is a synonym for metropolitan France].

This report was produced by the French association named En Avant Toute(s) and it attempts to explore the contexts of the French overseas territories when it comes to sexual and sexist violence against women and LGBTQIA+ people.

It also assesses the needs for their chat service, currently mostly operating in hexagonal France. We are alarmed by two main points: 1/ Misinformation in the media; 2/ How weak the report is as well as its colonial approach, which shows a lack of understanding of French overseas territories, and of Kanaky/New Caledonia more specifically, since that is what affects us.

Misinformation in the media
In an interview published on July 12, 2023 by France Info, Aurélie Garnier-Brun declared: “customary law [is] being superimposed on common law.

“What will the victims turn to? Customary law or common law?… It is not the same text. Customary law is based on ancestral practices. Sometimes, victims must apologize to their perpetrator to settle conflicts within a clan.’”

This information is shared once again in an interview published on July 29, 2023 by France 24 in which Garnier-Brun indicates that “in New Caledonia, the co-existence of common law and customary law can represent a risk factor for women in terms of their exposure to violence” and that “some Kanak tribes have traditions which demand that the victims of violence ask their perpetrators’ for forgiveness”.

We would like to ask you the following questions: What are these allegations based on? This is a scoop that Kanak women and men are finding out about with surprise and horror from our dear islands on which you have not had the pleasure to set foot on to conduct your research.

What do you know about our traditions, about Kanak culture, about the stakes at play in the coexistence of customary and common law? What do you even know about violence against women in Kanaky/New Caledonia to draw such dangerous conclusions, make them into statements easily shareable by French media, which don’t even seriously fact check the information, especially when we know how important and worrying the topic of violence against women is?

Kanak custom condemns violence against women, and does not protect perpetrators, contrary to what is suggested in these interviews.

Then, in an interview published on July 18, 2023 by Causette magazine, la Case Juridique Kanak (ACJK) is described as a “local religious community”. For your information, the ACJK is an association of volunteer lawyers who are mobilised around questions of customary law. Therefore, it is not a “local religious community” as the interview suggests.

It is clear, and we regret it, that these declarations belong to a time we wished was in the past, but apparently persists since it is resurfacing through your narrative. It is part of a discourse that suggests that Indigenous and colonised peoples, including the Kanak people, supposedly have backward traditions, unaligned with Western civilisation, which is seen as the reference, given that it is supposedly more advanced on the question of gender equality.

The mediatisation of this type of discourse is an insult, an example of colonial ignorance, a major contribution to misinformation and the reproduction of a backward, discriminatory, racist and colonial vision of the French overseas territories. Consequently, this misinformation makes us question:

Firstly, the legitimacy of the En Avant Toute(s) representatives to speak about sexual and sexist violence in the overseas territories, and more specifically, in Kanaky/New Caledonia;

Secondly, the fact that this information is shared by French media without any control or verification with knowledge holders in the country.

The production of colonial knowledge
En Avant Toute(s) is clear in its motivations. As is indicated in a publication made on the association’s Linkedin page, one of the objectives of the report was to analyze the situation in the overseas territories to think about the implementation of their chat service Commentonsaime.fr in our territories.

En Avant Toute(s) did not travel to our countries but spoke to some associations through videoconferences. When it comes to Kanaky/New Caledonia, En Avant Toute(s) was in contact with two associations: Le Relais and Centre d’Information Droit des Femmes et Egalité (CIDFE), both associations based and funded by the Southern Province, one of the three provinces in the country.

According to us, having only spoken to a small number of associations, En Avant Toute(s) is not in a position to produce an empirical, informed and critical report, which would allow a better understanding of violence perpetrated against young women and the LGBTQIA+ community in Kanaky/New Caledonia.

For this to be the case, they should have been in conversation with many more actors and partners across the country, to have a more extensive and representative sample.

Looking at the lack of sufficient data and the primary aim which was to analyse different overseas contexts to assess the possible implementation of the chat service, it seems that calling the document a “report” is a little ambitious, if not inappropriate.

The approach does not come from our territories and is not led or co-produced with local populations or associations. It would be more appropriate to speak of the beginning of a market research or a feasibility survey. Here, words matter, since the publication of a report confers authority and suggests expertise.

However, in our context, we do not think that En Avant Toute(s) is able to speak about sexual or sexist violence in Kanaky/New Caledonia in the media, nor to produce a report on the topic. We would like to invite the members of En Avant Toute(s) who have participated to this survey as well as the media who have participated to its legitimisation to think about the conditions that authorise individuals who have never set foot on, nor are implicated in, our territories, to publish “reports” and be interviewed by national media as experts of our contexts.

In addition, we condemn that the launch of the so-called report took place in hexagonal [mainland] France and that many associations committed to the struggle against sexual and sexist violence in our country were not invited to participate.

Indeed, we only learnt about this study through the media. We denounce this type of colonial practices, where resources are extracted from our territories so that organisations, companies, associations in France can benefit from them, without us being directly implicated.

We understand that the stakes are the possible implementation of a tool which would complement what is already in place to tackle sexual and sexist violence in our territories, and that the intention is commendable. Nevertheless, without any real collaboration with the most affected and informed people, we remain sceptical of its possible results.

We also cannot be convinced of the efficacy of such a tool when we have no information regarding the performance of the chat service in hexagonal France, nor any about the ways in which En Avant Toute(s) would adapt it to our territories.

Faced with these alarming observations and in order to minimise the harm done to the Kanak people in the name of tribal Kanak women, whose voices are absent from the report and in the media, here are our demands:

• A statement written by En Avant Toute(s) to be published on all their social media platforms and on their website, which would refute the declarations made in relation to a so-called Kanak tradition that would require victims of sexual violence to ask their perpetrators for forgiveness in some tribes;
• The deletion of this misinformation in the interviews published by France Info and France 24, with an explanatory note; and
• A right of reply in the media that published this information, France Info and France 24, in order to deny these harmful declarations and enable the women who are involved in the struggle against sexist and sexual violence in Kanaky/New Caledonia to have their voices heard nationally.

Our primary aim remains social justice in our country, and it is only attainable if we pay attention to all the axes of oppression, including the ways in which colonialism and racism play a significant role in the oppression of women.

Racism and colonialism also impact [on] our relations as militants, advocates, members of feminist associations, and particularly when it comes to North/South and Hexagone/Overseas territories relations.

This requires that for all collaborative work with associations, groups and collective that are not based in our territories, there is a shared understanding of our historical and political contexts and of the power dynamics at play, an attention paid to not reproducing harmful discourses which participate in the silencing of colonised women, and the consideration of people who are involved in and from our territories as the most suitable to speak about the issues they face and struggle against.

Signatories
La Pause Décoloniale (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Union des Femmes Francophones d’Océanie (UFFO) NC (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Arnaud Chollet-Leakava, Porte-Parole du Mouvement des Océaniens Indépendantistes (MOI) (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Oriane Trolue, Chargée de la condition féminine de politique décoloniale du Mouvement des Océaniens Indépendantistes (MOI) (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Hugues Vhemavhe, Sénateur Coutumier de l’Aire Hoot Ma Whaap (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Rolande Trolue, feminist and resource person (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Fara Caillard, Marche Mondiale des Femmes (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Billy Wete, pastor (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Morgane Lepeu ép. Goromoedo (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Denis Pourawa, Kanak poet-writer (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Teva Avae, artist (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Ronny Kareni, West Papua Merdeka Support Network & Rise of the Morning Star (West Papua)
Florenda Nirikani, Militante Éducation Populaire CEMEA Pwârâ Wâro (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Virginie Murcia, president of the Union des Groupements Parents d’Élèves UGPE (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Doriane Nonmoira, Union des Femmes Francophone d’Océanie (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Wendy Nonke, Mouvement pour un Souriant Village Mélanésien (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Patrick Tara (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Justine-Rose Boaé Kéla (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Swänn Iché (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Laurent Lhermitte, Les Insoumis du Pacifique (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Raïssa Weiri (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Marie-Rose Yakobo, student (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Yvette Danguigny, Association Natte Kanak (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Nathanaëlle Maleko (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
David Robert, Union Calédonienne (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Alexia Babin (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Pierre Chanel Nonmoira, customary leader (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Gladys Nekiriai (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Sabrina Pwéré (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Xavier Nonmoira, young Kanak revolutionary (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Adeline Babin (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Ghislaine Pwapy (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Valentin Nemia (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Célestine Beleouvoudi (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Mériba Karé (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Présence Kanak (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Jacques Guione, Association Djors (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Ludmila Jean, Association Djors (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Yvette Poma (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Marie-Madeleine Guioné, Kanak woman (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Augusta Nonmoira, Kanak woman (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Lucien Sawaza (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Monique Poma (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Jean Rock Uhila (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Vaïana Tiaore, Corail Vivant Terre des Hommes (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Laurie Anne Le Pen (France)
Aaron Houchard Mitride (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Roger Nemia (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Atrune Palene (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Amandine Tieoue (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Iouanna Gopoea (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Sylviany M’boueri (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Valentine Wakanengo (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Simane (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Jacinthe Kaichou (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Romain Purue (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Pacific Media Watch

A controversial report by a French metropolitan not-for-profit about sexual and sexist violence in France’s overseas territories — including Kanaky New Caledonia — has had its findings reported in mainstream French media, stirring strong criticism by Kanak social justice and human rights advocates.

The report has led to a condemnation and accusations of “colonialism and racism” in an open letter directed at the NGO, En Avant Toute(s), and two mainstream media outlets that carried news about the findings, France 24 and France Info.

“It is really about journalism, feminism, and decolonisation of knowledge production,” says an Pacific Media Watch correspondent about the issue.

• READ MORE: Other sexual violence in the Pacific reports

“The problem is the organisation didn’t actually travel to New Caledonia. Instead, they conducted phone interviews with a select, small group of NGOs in New Caledonia’s Southern Province, leading to comments in the media about Kanak tradition and sexual abuse which were wrong.”

The open letter, sent to Asia Pacific Report, says:

We are gathering to send you this letter on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which aims to raise awareness among the public on the problems faced by Indigenous people.

Our approach is first rooted in our need to denounce the severity of the lies that have been mediatised and to minimise the harm done, but also to educate on the struggles of Indigenous peoples and the fight against sexual and sexist oppression, specifically in a colonial context, and so that the tools and resources that are deployed in these struggles serve the people who are affected first and foremost.

We are Indigenous, Kanak, French, women, men, people from Kanaky/New Caledonia committed to social justice in our country at a personal level, professional level, but also as volunteers, advocates and militants in associations.

Recently, we have come across the report “Des ponts entre les territoires d’outre-mer et l’hexagone” (“Bridges between overseas territories and the hexagone”) through French hexagonal media [the hexagon is a synonym for metropolitan France].

This report was produced by the French association named En Avant Toute(s) and it attempts to explore the contexts of the French overseas territories when it comes to sexual and sexist violence against women and LGBTQIA+ people.

It also assesses the needs for their chat service, currently mostly operating in hexagonal France. We are alarmed by two main points: 1/ Misinformation in the media; 2/ How weak the report is as well as its colonial approach, which shows a lack of understanding of French overseas territories, and of Kanaky/New Caledonia more specifically, since that is what affects us.

Misinformation in the media
In an interview published on July 12, 2023 by France Info, Aurélie Garnier-Brun declared: “customary law [is] being superimposed on common law.

“What will the victims turn to? Customary law or common law?… It is not the same text. Customary law is based on ancestral practices. Sometimes, victims must apologize to their perpetrator to settle conflicts within a clan.’”

This information is shared once again in an interview published on July 29, 2023 by France 24 in which Garnier-Brun indicates that “in New Caledonia, the co-existence of common law and customary law can represent a risk factor for women in terms of their exposure to violence” and that “some Kanak tribes have traditions which demand that the victims of violence ask their perpetrators’ for forgiveness”.

We would like to ask you the following questions: What are these allegations based on? This is a scoop that Kanak women and men are finding out about with surprise and horror from our dear islands on which you have not had the pleasure to set foot on to conduct your research.

What do you know about our traditions, about Kanak culture, about the stakes at play in the coexistence of customary and common law? What do you even know about violence against women in Kanaky/New Caledonia to draw such dangerous conclusions, make them into statements easily shareable by French media, which don’t even seriously fact check the information, especially when we know how important and worrying the topic of violence against women is?

Kanak custom condemns violence against women, and does not protect perpetrators, contrary to what is suggested in these interviews.

Then, in an interview published on July 18, 2023 by Causette magazine, la Case Juridique Kanak (ACJK) is described as a “local religious community”. For your information, the ACJK is an association of volunteer lawyers who are mobilised around questions of customary law. Therefore, it is not a “local religious community” as the interview suggests.

It is clear, and we regret it, that these declarations belong to a time we wished was in the past, but apparently persists since it is resurfacing through your narrative. It is part of a discourse that suggests that Indigenous and colonised peoples, including the Kanak people, supposedly have backward traditions, unaligned with Western civilisation, which is seen as the reference, given that it is supposedly more advanced on the question of gender equality.

The mediatisation of this type of discourse is an insult, an example of colonial ignorance, a major contribution to misinformation and the reproduction of a backward, discriminatory, racist and colonial vision of the French overseas territories. Consequently, this misinformation makes us question:

Firstly, the legitimacy of the En Avant Toute(s) representatives to speak about sexual and sexist violence in the overseas territories, and more specifically, in Kanaky/New Caledonia;

Secondly, the fact that this information is shared by French media without any control or verification with knowledge holders in the country.

The production of colonial knowledge
En Avant Toute(s) is clear in its motivations. As is indicated in a publication made on the association’s Linkedin page, one of the objectives of the report was to analyze the situation in the overseas territories to think about the implementation of their chat service Commentonsaime.fr in our territories.

En Avant Toute(s) did not travel to our countries but spoke to some associations through videoconferences. When it comes to Kanaky/New Caledonia, En Avant Toute(s) was in contact with two associations: Le Relais and Centre d’Information Droit des Femmes et Egalité (CIDFE), both associations based and funded by the Southern Province, one of the three provinces in the country.

According to us, having only spoken to a small number of associations, En Avant Toute(s) is not in a position to produce an empirical, informed and critical report, which would allow a better understanding of violence perpetrated against young women and the LGBTQIA+ community in Kanaky/New Caledonia.

For this to be the case, they should have been in conversation with many more actors and partners across the country, to have a more extensive and representative sample.

Looking at the lack of sufficient data and the primary aim which was to analyse different overseas contexts to assess the possible implementation of the chat service, it seems that calling the document a “report” is a little ambitious, if not inappropriate.

The approach does not come from our territories and is not led or co-produced with local populations or associations. It would be more appropriate to speak of the beginning of a market research or a feasibility survey. Here, words matter, since the publication of a report confers authority and suggests expertise.

However, in our context, we do not think that En Avant Toute(s) is able to speak about sexual or sexist violence in Kanaky/New Caledonia in the media, nor to produce a report on the topic. We would like to invite the members of En Avant Toute(s) who have participated to this survey as well as the media who have participated to its legitimisation to think about the conditions that authorise individuals who have never set foot on, nor are implicated in, our territories, to publish “reports” and be interviewed by national media as experts of our contexts.

In addition, we condemn that the launch of the so-called report took place in hexagonal [mainland] France and that many associations committed to the struggle against sexual and sexist violence in our country were not invited to participate.

Indeed, we only learnt about this study through the media. We denounce this type of colonial practices, where resources are extracted from our territories so that organisations, companies, associations in France can benefit from them, without us being directly implicated.

We understand that the stakes are the possible implementation of a tool which would complement what is already in place to tackle sexual and sexist violence in our territories, and that the intention is commendable. Nevertheless, without any real collaboration with the most affected and informed people, we remain sceptical of its possible results.

We also cannot be convinced of the efficacy of such a tool when we have no information regarding the performance of the chat service in hexagonal France, nor any about the ways in which En Avant Toute(s) would adapt it to our territories.

Faced with these alarming observations and in order to minimise the harm done to the Kanak people in the name of tribal Kanak women, whose voices are absent from the report and in the media, here are our demands:

• A statement written by En Avant Toute(s) to be published on all their social media platforms and on their website, which would refute the declarations made in relation to a so-called Kanak tradition that would require victims of sexual violence to ask their perpetrators for forgiveness in some tribes;
• The deletion of this misinformation in the interviews published by France Info and France 24, with an explanatory note; and
• A right of reply in the media that published this information, France Info and France 24, in order to deny these harmful declarations and enable the women who are involved in the struggle against sexist and sexual violence in Kanaky/New Caledonia to have their voices heard nationally.

Our primary aim remains social justice in our country, and it is only attainable if we pay attention to all the axes of oppression, including the ways in which colonialism and racism play a significant role in the oppression of women.

Racism and colonialism also impact [on] our relations as militants, advocates, members of feminist associations, and particularly when it comes to North/South and Hexagone/Overseas territories relations.

This requires that for all collaborative work with associations, groups and collective that are not based in our territories, there is a shared understanding of our historical and political contexts and of the power dynamics at play, an attention paid to not reproducing harmful discourses which participate in the silencing of colonised women, and the consideration of people who are involved in and from our territories as the most suitable to speak about the issues they face and struggle against.

Signatories
La Pause Décoloniale (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Union des Femmes Francophones d’Océanie (UFFO) NC (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Arnaud Chollet-Leakava, Porte-Parole du Mouvement des Océaniens Indépendantistes (MOI) (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Oriane Trolue, Chargée de la condition féminine de politique décoloniale du Mouvement des Océaniens Indépendantistes (MOI) (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Hugues Vhemavhe, Sénateur Coutumier de l’Aire Hoot Ma Whaap (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Rolande Trolue, feminist and resource person (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Fara Caillard, Marche Mondiale des Femmes (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Billy Wete, pastor (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Morgane Lepeu ép. Goromoedo (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Denis Pourawa, Kanak poet-writer (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Teva Avae, artist (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Ronny Kareni, West Papua Merdeka Support Network & Rise of the Morning Star (West Papua)
Florenda Nirikani, Militante Éducation Populaire CEMEA Pwârâ Wâro (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Virginie Murcia, president of the Union des Groupements Parents d’Élèves UGPE (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Doriane Nonmoira, Union des Femmes Francophone d’Océanie (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Wendy Nonke, Mouvement pour un Souriant Village Mélanésien (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Patrick Tara (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Justine-Rose Boaé Kéla (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Swänn Iché (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Laurent Lhermitte, Les Insoumis du Pacifique (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Raïssa Weiri (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Marie-Rose Yakobo, student (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Yvette Danguigny, Association Natte Kanak (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Nathanaëlle Maleko (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
David Robert, Union Calédonienne (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Alexia Babin (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Pierre Chanel Nonmoira, customary leader (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Gladys Nekiriai (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Sabrina Pwéré (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Xavier Nonmoira, young Kanak revolutionary (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Adeline Babin (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Ghislaine Pwapy (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Valentin Nemia (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Célestine Beleouvoudi (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Mériba Karé (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Présence Kanak (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Jacques Guione, Association Djors (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Ludmila Jean, Association Djors (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Yvette Poma (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Marie-Madeleine Guioné, Kanak woman (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Augusta Nonmoira, Kanak woman (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Lucien Sawaza (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Monique Poma (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Jean Rock Uhila (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Vaïana Tiaore, Corail Vivant Terre des Hommes (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Laurie Anne Le Pen (France)
Aaron Houchard Mitride (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Roger Nemia (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Atrune Palene (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Amandine Tieoue (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Iouanna Gopoea (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Sylviany M’boueri (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Valentine Wakanengo (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Simane (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Jacinthe Kaichou (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Romain Purue (Kanaky/Nouvelle-Calédonie)

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Video clips of scuffles, lengthy altercations and clashes with police have emerged on social media in recent days, showing embattled rural residents facing off with officials who want to flood their homes and farmland to protect Beijing, as well as ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's pet project -- Xiong'an New Area.

In one Aug. 2 clip posted to X by the citizen journalism account "Mr Li is not your teacher" residents of Ci village in Hebei demand an official letter from a demolition team leader getting ready to breach a dyke to allow floodwaters to inundate their village.

"This guy was trying to dig through our dyke sneakily," one villager says on the video. "We've been sitting out here protecting it through the night," says another. 

Another adds: "You don't actually have an official document, right?"

"On whose orders are you digging a hole here?" says another resident. "Who ordered this?"

They also complained they haven't been able to eat anything lately, and that they lack drinking water.

Scuffle over dyke

A later video from the same dispute showed villagers piling aboard a police bus, shoving and shouting.

In a similar dispute near worst-hit Zhuozhou city, a video clip shows a number of police vehicles on a road in the dark and rain, with the commentary: "The police have suppressed the villagers who were trying to stop them from breaching the dyke – they say that the dyke has to be breached."

"They're about to breach it now," the person shooting the clip, also dated Aug. 2, says.

Another social media video showed a similar dispute in Zhuzhuang village near Zhuozhou.

"We are here watching the levee so they can't come here and dig through it," one villager says on the clip. "If they do, it will destroy several villages."

"The excavator is parked right there, so we villagers have to protect ourselves."

A Hebei resident who gave only the surname He for fear of reprisals said public trust in the authorities is at a low ebb.

"We've seen so many disasters in our lives, whether it be earthquakes or floods, and nobody trusts them any more," he said. "Anyone with any sense knows [what they're like]."

"Somebody could just breach the dykes at any time with no regard for danger to people's lives," he said. 

Buffer for Beijing

The disputes came as China's water resources minister Li Guoying called for flood control measures to prioritize protecting Beijing, Daxing Airport and Xiong'an New Area, while Hebei provincial Communist Party secretary Ni Yuefeng called on officials to treat the province as a buffer zone for Beijing.

A water conservation expert who gave only the surname Sun for fear of reprisals said both statements were political rather than based on best practice.

"The second flood peak is hitting Zhuozhou now, and the water is nearly up to the level of the traffic lights at its deepest point," Sun said. "Basically [allowing the city to flood] will ... put pressure on the Haihe River basin downstream, around Tianjin."

"They should just come out and say why they want to protect Beijing at all costs," he said.

A compilation of clips from Zhuozhou showed the city and surrounding farmland under water on Friday, with residents walking along railway tracks from which the embankment had been washed away, and hundreds of residents of a tower block stranded, awaiting rescue.

The flooding of Zhuozhou comes after China's water resources minister Li Guoying called in an emergency meeting for the protection of Beijing, Daxing Airport and Xiong'an New Area to be prioritized, according to the official China.com news website.

"As the flood peaks in the Daqing and Yongding rivers ... move downstream, some designated flood storage areas have already been flooded, and some river embankments are in danger," Li was quoted as saying. "This is a critical moment for our flood defenses."

"We must take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the capital Beijing (including Daxing Airport), Xiong'an New Area, and the safety of those living in the flood storage areas," he said.

Politics in command

Meanwhile, Sun said there is still ongoing pressure on reservoirs upstream of Beijing's flooded western districts, and Zhuozhou, further downstream.

"The Shisanling Reservoir in Changping started raising the sluice gates this morning to free up storage capacity and protect Beijing," he said.

"Everything in this flooding crisis is being decided first and foremost by political considerations," he said.

Germany-based water conservation expert Wang Weiluo said the flooding that hit the western Beijing suburb of Mentougou earlier this week had barrelled down the Yongding River, while the flooding that hit Zhuozhou had come down the Juma River from the western Beijing district of Fangshan.

"It was set up this way because the highest priority is to protect Beijing, and it also protects Tianjin," Wang said.

Social media comments have complained in recent days that the Communist Party secretary and mayor of Zhuozhou haven't been seen in public for days.

"Desperately seeking the mayor and party secretary of Zhuozhou city," said a satirical "missing persons notice" circulating on social media.

"Someone needs to take charge of the situation and the people need to know what's really happening," it said.

Repeated calls to the volunteer flood hotline went unconnected, while repeated calls to the Zhuozhou municipal government hotline and flood control headquarters rang unanswered on Thursday.

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin.

At dawn on June 11, two groups of about 40 people armed with guns and knives attacked the headquarters of Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes, killing nine people including four policemen, two commune officials and three villagers. 

In all, authorities detained nearly 100 ethnic minorities for allegedly participating in terrorist attacks in which two commune officials and three civilians also were killed.

The attacks occurred in an area that is home to about 30 indigenous tribes known collectively as Montagnards, who have historically felt persecuted or oppressed. 

Last week, police announced that they arrested all six ringleaders wanted for their roles in the attacks.

Knapper’s remarks came Monday during a meeting with state media at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi to commemorate 10 years of comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the United States.

According to state media, Knapper said he “condemns the attack in the strongest possible terms.” 

When asked what he thought of the suspects’ possible connections to an organization in the United States, Knapper said that the embassy was "willing to work with the Government of Vietnam to clarify what is behind the incident."

In the aftermath of the attack, several Vietnamese officials suggested that there were foreign organizations behind it. 

In late June, RFA interviewed several overseas Montagnard organizations whose members denied involvement in the incident and condemned the violent attacks.

Sarcasm tolerated

Also in Dak Lak, police are dropping their case against a teacher who trolled the government and military on Facebook.

State media reported that the teacher, Nguyen Dat Thanh, posted a picture of himself standing next to a sign that read “National Defense and Security Education Sports Festival,” and attached the status line “Hello everyone.”

It was deemed to be very sarcastic in nature, and caused the deputy head of the province’s Internal Political Security Department to sign an official order on “rectifying the situation of conflict and disunity at Chu Van An High School.”

The order asked teachers at the school to file explanatory reports on the incident. The teachers, thinking the order to be excessive, did not comply.

The police consulted with other government organizations and decided not to pursue the case, state media reported.

Dak Lak’s Department of Education and Training said that the post did not violate Cybersecurity laws, so no further action by authorities was necessary.

Translated by An Nguyen. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

At dawn on June 11, two groups of about 40 people armed with guns and knives attacked the headquarters of Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes, killing nine people including four policemen, two commune officials and three villagers. 

In all, authorities detained nearly 100 ethnic minorities for allegedly participating in terrorist attacks in which two commune officials and three civilians also were killed.

The attacks occurred in an area that is home to about 30 indigenous tribes known collectively as Montagnards, who have historically felt persecuted or oppressed. 

Last week, police announced that they arrested all six ringleaders wanted for their roles in the attacks.

Knapper’s remarks came Monday during a meeting with state media at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi to commemorate 10 years of comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the United States.

According to state media, Knapper said he “condemns the attack in the strongest possible terms.” 

When asked what he thought of the suspects’ possible connections to an organization in the United States, Knapper said that the embassy was "willing to work with the Government of Vietnam to clarify what is behind the incident."

In the aftermath of the attack, several Vietnamese officials suggested that there were foreign organizations behind it. 

In late June, RFA interviewed several overseas Montagnard organizations whose members denied involvement in the incident and condemned the violent attacks.

Sarcasm tolerated

Also in Dak Lak, police are dropping their case against a teacher who trolled the government and military on Facebook.

State media reported that the teacher, Nguyen Dat Thanh, posted a picture of himself standing next to a sign that read “National Defense and Security Education Sports Festival,” and attached the status line “Hello everyone.”

It was deemed to be very sarcastic in nature, and caused the deputy head of the province’s Internal Political Security Department to sign an official order on “rectifying the situation of conflict and disunity at Chu Van An High School.”

The order asked teachers at the school to file explanatory reports on the incident. The teachers, thinking the order to be excessive, did not comply.

The police consulted with other government organizations and decided not to pursue the case, state media reported.

Dak Lak’s Department of Education and Training said that the post did not violate Cybersecurity laws, so no further action by authorities was necessary.

Translated by An Nguyen. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

Police say the six were leaders of two groups of about 40 people armed with guns and knives who conducted a dawn raid on the headquarters of Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes in Dak Lak’s Cu Kuin district on June 11. 

In all, authorities detained nearly 100 ethnic minorities for allegedly participating in terrorist attacks in which two commune officials and three civilians also were killed. The attackers also held three civilians hostage, but one escaped, and the other two later were freed.

Dak Lak Provincial Police Director Maj. Gen. Le Vinh Quy told state media that police arrested the three remaining wanted members of the group on Friday. They included Y Khing Lieng, Nay Duong and Y Hoal Eban.

Police arrested the other three wanted suspects Y Ju Nie, Nay Yen and Nay Tam on July 15.

In the days immediately following the attack, authorities had said those involved were young people who harbored delusions and extremist attitudes and had been incited and abetted by the ringleaders via the internet.

The attacks occurred in an area that is home to about 30 indigenous tribes known collectively as Montagnards, who have historically felt persecuted or oppressed.

Vietnamese state media had reported that the attackers were Montagnards, but the country’s Ministry of Public Security did not identify those arrested as such, Radio Free Asia reported earlier. 

In late June, RFA interviewed several overseas Montagnard organizations whose members denied involvement in the incident and condemned the violent attacks.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

On June 6, a local court of appeal in Mbandaka, the capital of the northwestern Equateur province, declared the closure of privately owned Radio Télévision Sarah illegal and ordered the outlet be permitted to reopen, according to a copy of the court order reviewed by CPJ and the outlet’s lawyer, Pontife Ikolombe, and its managing director, Steve Mwanyo, who both spoke to CPJ by phone. 

The outlet has been closed since November 15, 2021. The court order followed a May 30, 2023, lawsuit filed by the broadcaster against the Equateur government, Ikolombe said. 

On June 7, Equateur Governor Bobo Boloko Bolumbu sent the provincial Minister of Justice Imbambo Nzobali and armed police officers to block access to the broadcaster’s office, Ikolombe and Mwanyo said. As of Tuesday, June 13, the officers remained outside the office and denied the journalists entry. 

“Congolese authorities must ensure that the court ruling permitting Radio Télévision Sarah to reopen is respected,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “The nearly two years that Radio Télévision Sarah was kept off the air is an injustice and must not be prolonged.”

A few hours before police arrived at the outlet’s office on June 7, the outlets’ journalists accessed the office and found that broadcasting equipment, including a transmitter, microphones, and cameras, were missing, Mwanyo told CPJ. He said he believed provincial government authorities had taken the equipment as they were the only ones with access to the office since the closure.

In November 2021, Papy Ekate, the Equateur province minister of communication and media, accused the outlet of airing inflammatory programs and criticism of Bobo, and ordered the outlet closed for 60 days, according to Mwanyo and a report by local press freedom organization Journaliste en Danger. On January 15, 2022, the Equateur government extended the suspension indefinitely, Mwanyo said.

During a rally held in Mbandaka on December 21, 2022, President Felix Tshisekedi publicly asked Bobo to accept criticism, according to a report by privately owned website yabisonews.cd.

CPJ’s calls and requests for comment sent via messaging app to Nzobali, Bobo, and Rossy Bolekwa, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Monday, May 8, the provincial directorate of the Taliban-controlled Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the eastern province of Khost detained four journalists after summoning them for questioning, according to the exile-based media support group Afghanistan Journalists Center and the London-based broadcaster Afghanistan International.

Authorities accused the journalists of violating the Taliban’s media policies, according to the AFJC report, which cited an anonymous source that did not specify which policies they allegedly violated. CPJ could not immediately determine where the journalists are being held.

“The Taliban must immediately release four journalists recently detained in Khost province and stop the harassment and intimidation of the press in Afghanistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “The Taliban must abide by its own promise to protect press freedom. The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice should be held accountable for its crackdown on journalists.”

Those sources identified the journalists as Sakhi Sarwar Miakhel, editor-in-chief of the privately owned Gharghast Radio and TV; Mohammad ud Din Shah Khiali, editor-in-chief of the privately owned Wolas Ghag Radio; Pamir Andish Mohaidi, editor-in-chief of the privately owned Chinar Radio; and Abdul Rahman Ashna, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster Nan FM.

Shabir Ahmad Osmani, the Taliban’s director of information and public affairs in Khost, said the journalists had been summoned so authorities could share “some important issues” with them, and denied that they had been detained, according to AFJC.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but did not receive any response.

Afghanistan’s independent media have come under increasing pressure since the Taliban took back control of the country in 2021. On March 31, Taliban authorities shut down the women-run broadcaster Radio Sada e Banowan for allegedly playing music, which the Taliban banned after its return to power.  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

New Caledonia’s rival pro- and anti-independence factions both say they are satisfied with the week of separate talks with French government ministers in Paris.

After the rejection of full sovereignty in three referendums and the expiry of the 1998 Noumea Accord, a new statute for Kanaky New Caledonia needs to be created.

While the pro-independence parties want Paris to give a timetable to full independence, the anti-independence parties want Paris to realign the territory with France.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia independence reports

The discussions will be continued in Noumea in June when French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin plans his next visit.

His ministry said he would go to the United Nations in New York in May to discuss the situation in New Caledonia.

The territory has been on the UN decolonisation list since 1986, based on the Kanak people’s internationally recognised right to self-determination.

After this week’s talks in Paris, Victor Tutugoro of the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) told the AFP news agency all points raised by his side had been accepted for the negotiations in June.

FLNKS accepted invitation
The anti-independence parties expressed satisfaction that the FLNKS accepted the French invitation for this week’s bilateral discussions after shunning a dialogue in France since the third and last independence referendum in 2021.

The pro-independence side largely abstained from the third vote because of the pandemic and refuses to recognise the result as the legitimate outcome of the decolonisation process.

The anti-independence parties want the June talks to be trilateral after the pro-independence parties insisted on negotiating only with France about a path to sovereignty.

The president of the Southern Province, Sonia Backes, said Darmanin’s visit would make sense only if the pro-independence parties joined the anti-independence parties for discussions.

On key points, the two sides remain far apart.

The pro-independence parties say the restricted rolls for provincial election, which define New Caledonian citizenship and are enshrined in the French constitution, must stay.

The anti-independence parties want France to open the rolls for next year’s provincial elections to include people who settled since 1998.

They also want a statute preventing any future option for self-determination.

According to a New Caledonian member of the French National Assembly, Nicholas Metzdorf, Darmanin said either time would do the job, or he would do the job.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Authorities shuttered Sengdruk Taktse School, in Tibetan-populated Dharlag, or Dali in Chinese, in Golog county, or Guoluo, in Qinghai’s Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, amid a wider clampdown on schools promoting Tibetan culture and offering instruction in the Tibetan language. 

At the time, the students there were told to enroll in Chinese government-affiliated schools in the region that offer a Chinese curriculum, Radio Free Asia reported. 

Meanwhile, authorities have been surveilling and hounding the school’s cofounder, Khenpo Jigmey Kunga Gyaltsen, and teachers who taught there, said the two sources who declined to be identified for safety reasons.  

“Ever since the Chinese government shut down the Sengdruk Taktse School in 2021, the site has been kept unused,” said a Tibetan from inside Tibet. “All the teachers and affiliated staff from the school are constantly being summoned to the police station for interrogation and kept under tight scrutiny. They are also being monitored for who they meet with.” 

A Tibetan living in exile who has knowledge of the situation said most of the school’s former students are enrolled in Chinese government-run schools.

“Initially, when the government forcefully closed down the Sengdruk Taktse School, they said they were still going to use the school premises for education purposes under the supervision of the Chinese government, but it’s been almost two years, and the school remains idle,” the source said. 

The Chinese government closed down many private schools in Tibet between 2020 and 2021 and forbade the students from paying for outside instruction in the Tibetan language and Buddhist studies. 

About three weeks after authorities closed the school, they detained Rinchen Kyi, who had taught second- and third-graders, and took her to a hospital, citing an alleged mental illness. She was later charged with inciting separatism and arrested at her home, but eventually released in August 2022, RFA reported earlier.

Chinese authorities frequently use the charge of separatism against Tibetans who promote the preservation of Tibet’s language and culture in the face of domination by China’s majority Han population.

The forced shutdown of private Tibetan schools adds to decades-long concerns of shrinking space for Tibetans to exercise their freedom to learn their own language and practice their religion. 

Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses in the monasteries and towns deemed “illegal associations” and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok for RFA Tibetan.

Police arrested Venerable Soy Sat in Battambang province’s Moung Ruessei district on Thursday and took him to a local temple where he was defrocked for being affiliated with the opposition Candlelight Party, said fellow marcher Sim Mao.

They also arrested marcher Cheat Kamara, but later released him after Soy Sat’s defrocking. 

“The chief monks told Venerable Soy Sat that monks are supposed to eat and practice religion and not be involved with politics,” Cheat Kamara told Radio Free Asia.

Soy Sat said monks are supposed to pay attention to society and advocate for good social ethics and harmony, he added, calling the monk’s arrest a “brutal” action.

Police asked Soy Sat to return to Phnom Penh and get permission from the Ministry of Interior to continue his march through Battambang province, but the monk refused, according to In Kongchit, a provincial coordinator for the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, or Licadho.

“Venerable Soy Sat refused to go back, so he was defrocked,” he told Radio Free Asia. 

Also detained in Pursat

The 72-year-old began his latest march on March 1. He was also stopped for several hours on Tuesday and questioned by police in Pursat province. Earlier that day, Soy Sat had accepted a food donation from Candlelight Party Vice President Rong Chhun, who was in the area for a party meeting.

Soy Sat told officials on Tuesday that he did not participate in Rong Chhun’s party meeting. He also said the march wasn’t tied to any political party. 

During a previous peace march in early February, Soy Sat walked with Rong Chhun and other demonstrators from Phnom Penh to Pursat. They had permission for that march from the Interior Ministry. 

Several days later, he was expelled from his pagoda in Kampong Speu province by the pagoda’s chief, who accused him of incitement and of trying to destroy peace.

Buddhist monks, who occupy their own social class in Cambodia and are given a great deal of respect by the public, frequently participate in demonstrations, but defrocking them is unusual.

The move comes less than five months ahead of an election showdown between the opposition Candlelight Party and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party. In the run-up to the vote, authorities have been arresting opposition figures on what critics say are politically motivated charges.

Support for the CPP has fallen in the past decade amid chronic corruption within the party and the government, which opponents say has led to human rights violations, deteriorating social ethics and a culture of impunity.

RFA could not immediately reach Battambang provincial police chief Sat Kim San for comment on the monk’s latest arrest. 

Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Ni-Vanuatu residents have emerged battered but still standing after Cyclone Kevin swiped the country with a strong backhand.

“It was quite exhausting. Dealing with two cyclones in three days is pretty draining, you know,” Vanuatu journalist Dan McGarry told RNZ Pacific.

He said the gale-force winds have been rough. He woke early on Saturday morning to try and get a sense of the extent of the damage.

• READ MORE: PM Kalsakau in cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu declares emergency as new storm bears down
• Other Vanuatu storm reports

He went outside in the dark to charge his phone, and when the sun came up it was a real eyesore.

“Our own laneway is blocked off. We’ve got tree limbs all the way up and down,” he said.

After clearing the way, he was able to get out and about and have a look around.

Port Vila had been badly knocked about. McGarry came across a mango tree that landed directly on top of a minibus.

“And then the wind lifted the entire tree and dumped it a metre-and-a-half away,” he said.

Fuel was in short supply and a boil water order was in effect, McGarry said.

Many people were at the few hardware stores that were open, trying to buy tools to repair their properties, he said.

On Saturday evening, the Fiji Meteorological Office said the severe tropical storm remained a category five, and was centred in the ocean near Conway Reef.

Tafea province in Vanuatu, which was under a red alert as Kevin tracked south-east, had been given the all clear.

An Australian Air Force reconnaissance flight over Tafea province was reported to have shown some intact settlements and still some greenery.

Kevin s’approche de Port-Vila pic.twitter.com/yFiynj6X7j

— Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer (@jeangene_vilmer) March 3, 2023

No casualties had been immediately reported but hundreds of people fled to evacuation centres in the capital Port Vila, where Kevin blasted through as a category four storm.

Foreign aid needed
Vanuatu needs support from its international partners.

“There is going to be a significant need — this is not something Vanuatu can do alone, so the assistance of these partners is going to be critical to a speedy and effective response,” McGarry said.

He believed cooperation from donor partners was needed. France has already received a request to send a patrol plane, he said.

“I expect that New Zealand would be putting a P3 in the air before very long. Australia has already committed to sending a rapid assessment team.”

Stephen Meke, tropical cyclone forecaster with the Fiji Meteorological Service, said cyclone response teams and aid workers wanting to help should plan to travel to Vanuatu from Sunday onwards, as the weather system is forecast to lose momentum then.

“Kevin intensified into a category four system,” Meke said. “It was very close to just passing over Tanna. So it’s expected to continue diving southeastwards as a category four, then the weakening from from tomorrow onwards.”

A UNICEF spokesperson said its team was preparing to ship essential emergency supplies from Fiji in addition to emergency supplies already prepositioned in Vanuatu.

“These include tents, tarpaulins, education, and health supplies to support immediate response needs in the aftermath of the two devastating cyclones.”

New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was working with the Vanuatu government and partners to see what help it could offer.

An MFAT spokesperson said New Zealand had first-hand experience of the challenges Vanuatu faced in the coming days and weeks. It had been challenging making contact with people because of damaged communications systems, they said.

Sixty-three New Zealanders are registered on the SafeTravel website as being in Vanuatu.

Parts of Vanuatu have plunged into a six-month-long state of emergency.

Evacuations in Port Vila
The Fiji Meteorological Office said Port Vila experienced the full force of Kevin’s winds. Evacuations took place in the capital.

McGarry said he knew of one family that had to escape their property and shelter at a separate home.

“The entire group spent the entire night standing in the middle of the room because the place is just drenched with water.

“So it’s been an uncomfortable night for many, and possibly quite a dangerous one for some.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

pic.twitter.com/Pj7iIHeubW

— Dan McGarry (@dailypostdan) March 3, 2023

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

On Tuesday, February 21, Taliban officials, in a meeting with journalists in the southern province of Helmand, announced a ban on all media outlets—including Taliban-run Radio Television of Helmand and Bakhtar News Agency —preparing and distributing photos and videos, according to the media watchdog Nai and a journalist inside Afghanistan, who spoke to CPJ by messaging app on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal. Taliban authorities have not clarified whether text-based media activities are still allowed; however, Bakhtar News Agency has stopped operations in Helmand, because the ban on recording video and taking pictures has prevented them from producing any content.

Separately, on Monday, February 20, Taliban officials in northern Parwan province ordered the media to change their coverage to fall in line with what is reported by the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency, stifling all independent reporting, according to a local news report and another journalist inside Afghanistan, who spoke to CPJ by messaging app on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

“The Taliban’s severe restrictions imposed on the media in Helmand and Parwan provinces reflect an alarming escalation of local information control,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “The Taliban must immediately reverse these devastating orders and allow journalists to report without fear of retaliation. Access to information inside Afghanistan depends on it.”

Abdul Ahad Talib, the Taliban governor of Helmand, said during the February 21 meeting that recording videos and taking photos are forbidden in Islam, which is why the ban includes Taliban-run outlets, the journalist told CPJ. Taliban officials also warned the journalists attending the meeting not to discuss the order publicly.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but received no response. CPJ was unable to locate contact information for the Taliban governor of Helmand.

In August 2022, CPJ published a special report about the media crisis in Afghanistan, showing a rapid deterioration in press freedom since the Taliban retook control of the country one year earlier, marked by censorship, arrests, assaults, and restrictions on women journalists.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Since the start of Papua New Guinea’s Operation Stabilising Oro last month, 22 rape, murder and armed robbery suspects have been to date charged — and more are to follow.

There is also an estimated backlog of 105 outstanding cases that will be attended to over the next three to four weeks with more arrests to follow.

“We have confiscated home brew equipment, home and factory-made firearms, wire catapults and large quantities of drugs,” Oro provincial police commander Chief Inspector Ewai Segi said.

• READ MORE: Other PNG crime reports

“The fight against crime has commenced after several armed robberies, shootings and the tag of ‘cowboy country’ only fueled the rise in crime reports.

“Families, women and girls were victims of the so-called ‘don’t care’ gang who robbed anyone anywhere and struck fear in the hearts of many residents.

“Police have exhausted everything within their power to curb crime but failed miserably because of shortages in manpower and other resources, thus the entry of the support of the Water Police, NCD Forensics and police prosecution to rid crime and also move along criminal cases.

“Traffic enforcement using the latest charge sheet from the National Road Transport Authority are also in full swing where offenders face charges up to K2000 (NZ$890) and defaults of up to K10,000 (NZ$4,450) and or imprisonment and my orders are very concise.”

Joint operations briefing
Chief Inspector Segi made this observation during the joint operations briefing in Popondetta on Saturday, January 14, where he addressed members of the NCD contingent lead by Contingent Commander Justus Baupo and his special operations team.

Governor Gary Juffa who was with the team when they started operations two weeks ago also expressed his gratitude to the local police force for stepping up during very trying times to uphold the rule of law.

“I am proud of our local troops as despite very small numbers they continue to work tirelessly to uphold the law and maintain order in Oro,” Juffa said.

“With this additional support from NCD [National Capital District], I am confident our local troops will be able to triple their current efforts and rid our rural communities and urban settlements of ruthless criminal elements and regain the confidence of the wider community.”

According to Governor Juffa, there are plans already afoot to have support from NCD specific to Forensic and Prosecution to see through a lot of outstanding cases which the PPC had highlighted earlier.

“Operation Stabilising Oro is a full-scale operation where we deployed a traffic team, an Investigative Task Force (ITF) unit backed by an armed team from Water Police,” Chief Inspector Segi Segi said.

“I am very pleased to announce we have made a record number of arrests and charges laid successfully on perpetrators who had been on the run for some time and continuous raids on hotspot areas confiscating home brew implements, home and factory-made firearms, the infamous wire catapult and large quantities of drugs.

Rallied community support
“I have rallied the support of the wider community, especially clans and tribal chiefs, to stand with me and the Governor Gary Juffa to ensure Oro is stabilised and returned to normalcy before the first quarter of 2023 concludes.

“On the investigative task force front, we have made available full support to the joining ITF team through collaboration to reduce the vast number of pending and outstanding cases back some five years or more.

“Our collaboration in terms of information and intel sharing and interview records and access to our case database are priority areas and I am confident we will see successful prosecution in the coming days and weeks.”

Provincial Administrator Trevor Magei confirmed also that a lot of the ongoing criminal challenges were caused by the same known criminal elements.

“They continue to cause havoc because we lacked proper resourcing within our ITF and prosecution, but from my monitoring there is hope for Oro as we have a very good composition of police support from police headquarters,” he said.

Magei is also head of the provincial law and order working committee and has assured Chief Inspector Segi and staff from outside Oro of more collaboration as they continue in the coming weeks.

“The business community, the local chamber of commerce, our Chinese business association together with major employer Sime Darbie are all backing this special operation with whatever support and logistics they can contribute,” he said.

Miriam Zarriga is a senior PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The Protestant church is not one of the country’s approved religions and does not belong to the State-linked Vietnam Fatherland Front.

According to the Montagnard Stand for Justice Facebook page, early on Sunday morning, Y An Hdrue, 52, and fellow worshiper Y Pok Eban, 37, traveled to Cuor Knia 2 village in Buon Don district’s Ea Bar commune to attend a Christmas service at the invitation of the church.

The traffic police stopped them when they arrived, demanding to see their vehicle documents and driver's licenses.

Y An Hdrue is a former prisoner of conscience who served four years in prison for demanding religious freedom and fighting land grabs.

“Going to the gas station near Cuor Knia village, the traffic police and security forces stopped our motorbike and asked to check our papers,” he told RFA. “After checking our papers, they said they were fake."

Even though Y An Hdrue told them he had passed his driving test and been given a license by the police the two men were forced to go to Ea Bar commune’s police headquarters.

“They forced us into the commune. We were held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. before we were allowed to go home,” he said.

During the 10 hours, a group of five to six plainclothes policemen took turns questioning the two men, Y An Hdrue said. The officers refused to give their names, positions and places of work.

The police confiscated the men’s phones and searched through the files on them. Y An Hdrue told RFA his phone contained the International Human Rights Law and Vietnam's Law on Religion and Belief as well as some documents reporting human rights violations in Vietnam that he had collected and sent to foreign human rights groups.

Before they were released the two were forced to sign confessions.

Y An Hdrue admitted to storing information about human rights violations in Vietnam on his phone. The police then returned their papers and ordered them to drive home, keeping their phones.

Speaking from the U.S., Pastor Aga of the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ told RFA followers in Dak Lak province had planned to celebrate Christmas at the house of Ea Bar commune vice president Y Kreek Bya.

He said members of the congregation told him the police warned them not to attend the service.

“The Provincial Police called to threaten them, saying that if they left their homes to go to Cuor Knia village where Y Kreek Bya was, they would be sent to prison, making them very scared and confused,” he said. “Some people still went and some had their phones and motorbikes confiscated.”

Pastor Aga said some followers hung a celebratory banner written in the Ede language at Y Kreek’s house but local authorities sent someone to take it down.

Even after harassment by the police and local authorities, he said many believers from Ea Bar commune still attended the Christmas service.

RFA called the police in Buon Don district and Dak Lak province several times to try to verify the information, but no one answered the phone.

The Vietnamese government has repeatedly accused the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ of being reactionary and anti-State.

In January the People's Public Security newspaper published an article on its website accusing the religion of gathering dignitaries and ethnic minority followers in the Central Highlands and the U.S. "to establish their own religion and ethnic minority state in the Central Highlands," a claim the Evangelical Church has denied.

On Dec. 2, the U.S. State Department included Vietnam in the group of countries on its Special Watch List for religious freedom.

The State Department said there are not enough violations of religious freedom to label Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) which is the highest level of censure for countries that violate religious freedom. However, it said it would monitor the government closely and add it to the CPC if there was no improvement.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The trial took place at the headquarters of the People's Court of Nghe An province, according to state-controlled media. All seven residents of Binh Thuan parish were found guilty under Article 330 of the Criminal Code.

Bui Van Canh, 44, was sentenced to one year in prison. Ha Van Hanh, 42, Tran Thi Hoa, 52, and Tran Thi Thoa, 58, were sentenced to eight months. Tran Thi Nien, 38, and Ha Thi Hien, 35, were both sentenced to six months in prison. Bach Thi Hoa, 70, was sentenced to four months and 17 days -- exactly the same amount of time she spent in detention -- and was released.

On July 13, hundreds of riot police descended on the parish in Nghe An’s Nghi Thuan commune to stop protesters removing a fence blocking a road that connects the parish to a national highway. The road, which had been in use for more than 100 years, is located on land the government granted to a private company for a planned industrial zone.

According to the indictment, the defendants "and many other extremists strongly opposed and obstructed" construction workers who were trying to demolish the road and the police sent to protect them. The indictment said protesters were: “shouting, cursing, carrying beer bottles; picking up and gathering rocks and glass bottles to provide for other protesters to throw at the riot police who were guarding works; using their hands and sickles to push the barbed wire fence to widen the road for the opponents; and directly rushing in and using their hands to push and beat repeatedly on the shields of the riot police.” As a result, it said, five police officers were injured and had to be treated at the hospital.

The protesters’ version of events differs from that given by the police. Demonstrators said police threw smoke grenades and explosives at them. Of three people released over the next few days, one said he was beaten while in custody.

No lawyers, no families in court

The seven defendants had no legal counseling and their relatives said they were not permitted to attend last week’s trial.

“I went to the detention center on November 29 to send things to my wife, but they didn't say anything [about the following day’s trial],” Ha Thi Hien's husband Nguyen Minh Duc told RFA, adding that none of the defendants' families had been informed.

“On the morning of November 30, around 7:30 a.m., there were two commune policemen in plain clothes walking along the street saying: 'Today the trial is in the province, the families should go to see how it goes.' The families were about to go when Mrs. Hoa came back from the hearing. She said that the trial was held in the district and not in the province.”

Duc said his wife and other defendants did not have defense attorneys because the police had told their families that if they hired lawyers the sentences would be heavier.

The seven were held in a Nghe An provincial Police detention center for the past four months. During that time, Duc said he only saw his wife twice, for five minutes each time. He said the other six defendants were only allowed to see their families once for five minutes.

Duc called the sentences unfair and too long, saying the people of Binh Thuan parish just wanted to protect a road that has existed for more than 100 years and helped locals go about their business.

He said his wife did not take part in any of the actions listed in the indictment, fellow defendant Ha Van Hanh only recorded a video of police grabbing people, and Bach Thi Hoa was found guilty despite suffering two broken ribs during her non-violent protest.

Duc said the prison sentence will seriously affect his family's life because he has to take time off work to take care of his two children - a two-year-old and an eight-year-old.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The Guigang Municipal People's Court on Nov. 20 handed down a four-year, six-month jail term to Lu Huihuang -- who has previously also called for democratic reforms -- after finding him guilty of "incitement to subvert state power," the rights group Weiquanwang reported.

"[Lu] refused to accept the judgment and has expressed his intention to appeal," the report said, describing Lu as a "freelance and online writer, a dissident citizen, rights activist and political prisoner."

He was taken away from his home in Nanning city by police from Guigang on Feb. 18, 2022 "for calling on the ruling Chinese Communist Party to thoroughly investigate the case of the chained woman in Xuzhou," the site reported.

Lu is currently being held in the Guigang Detention Center in Batang township, Guigang, it said.

Guangxi resident Nong Dingcai said Lu's friends had been informed of his sentence, and of his intention to appeal, by the detention center.

"The detention center called some of his friends in China, saying that Lu Huihuang had been sentenced to four-and a half years," Nong told RFA.

"The charge was 'incitement to subvert state power.' He has requested an appeal."

Nong said not all of the information about Lu's case has been released, and his family members are under close surveillance.

Authorities have yet to release any official information about Lu's case. In China, the crime of "incitement to subvert state power" is considered confidential and related trials are held in secret.

Suggesting democratic reforms

According to Weiquanwang, Lu has written a number of essays and open letters to the Communist Party leadership since 2013, proffering suggestions on democratic reforms to China's political system.

"[The articles] suggested that the Communist Party carry out democratic and constitutional reforms as soon as possible, and found resonance with people online," it said, adding that the articles were extensively forwarded and read via groups on the QQ and WeChat social media platforms, as well as being published on overseas websites like Beijing Spring and China Labor Watch.

It said Lin had previously served a two-and-a-half year jail term in Guangdong's Conghua Prison, during which he was tortured with electric shocks, kept in manacles and forced to sleep on the floor for long periods of time because he refused to plead guilty or make a "confession."

Fellow dissident Lin Shengliang said Lu's criticism of the case of the chained woman was likely just an excuse for the authorities to re-detain him.

"It's thought that Lu Huihuang's secret detention was linked to the case of the chained woman, because he published too many posts about it on his group chats," Lin told RFA. "But given the harshness of the sentence, there were probably other baseless accusations too."

He said supporters who had tried to visit Lu's parents had also been detained.

"Given that his parents are under security measures, a lot of people who went to visit them were immediately taken away by local police and village officials," Lin said.

He said Lu has been unable to hire an independent lawyer, because his family are being "cooperative" with the authorities, which generally means agreeing to have him represented by a government-appointed lawyer.

"Lu Huihuang actually asked a prison guard to get a message to me asking me to help him find an attorney, but the local state security police didn't allow us to mail the instruction letter to Lu Huihuang so he could sign it," Lin said.

"We don't know what is happening with him, how legal the investigation, prosecution or trial were, nor whether he was tortured."

New era of authoritarian rule

Lin said the authorities have entered a new era of authoritarian rule.

"Under the new authoritarianism, the government uses a powerful state machine to crush dissidents," he said. "As the social and political environment continues to deteriorate, the crime of inciting subversion of state power will be more widely and freely used by China’s powerful agencies."

In December 2021, authorities in Guangxi handed down a three-year jail term to outspoken rights lawyer Chen Jiahong for "subversion," amid fears for his safety in detention. Chen had been a prominent critic of the government. 

On China's tightly controlled internet, Chen was known for inscribing the slogan "Set up an assassination detail, liquidate this evil bureaucracy and promote democracy" in Chinese calligraphy and posting it to social media.

Fellow Guangxi lawyer Qin Yongpei was detained in early November 2021 by the Nanning municipal police department during a raid on his Baijuying legal consultancy company, after speaking out many times about misconduct and injustices perpetrated by police and local judicial officials. 

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gao Feng for RFA Mandarin.

The population of the dolphins, which have a high rounded forehead and no beak, living in the area had dwindled to just four in 2020, the regional conservation agency said, and two died last year. The last one died in February after it was caught in a gill net and swept away to Cambodian territory.

“Taking Lao and foreign tourists to see the dolphins used to be a big business,” said a villager who owned and operated a hotel and a restaurant in the district, and who like others interviewed requested anonymity for safety reasons. 

“Now, there are no more dolphins, no more business,” he said. “My family and my employees suffer from the lack of income. My hotel was [their] only source of income.” 

The Irrawaddy dolphin is considered a sacred animal by both Laotians and Cambodians and had been an important source of income and jobs for communities involved in dolphin-watching ecotourism.

Irrawaddy dolphins are still found in other areas of Southeast Asia, although they are considered to be endangered species.

Populations of the aquatic mammal, also known as the Mekong River dolphin, survive downriver in Cambodia, in the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, and in the Mahakam River in Indonesian Borneo, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Less than 100 are believed to exist.

Thousands of tourists from Asia and Europe came to the area to see the dolphins, said an official from the provincial Information, Culture and Tourism Department.

“Now, some of them come here just to see the waterfall,” he told RFA.

“The impact of the [disappearance] is enormous,” a tour guide, who used to take visitors to watch the Irrawaddy dolphins swim in the Mekong. “There are no more tourists coming to see the dolphins.”

One villager told RFA in April that the construction of the massive Don Sahong Dam was to blame. 

Before the dam was built, dolphins would swim in waters in both Laos and Cambodia. But following construction, the structure created strong water currents in Laos, forcing the dolphins to migrate to calmer, circulating Cambodian waters, he said.

An official from the provincial Agriculture and Forestry Department told RFA that his department would request a new pair of Irrawaddy dolphins from Cambodia for a breeding program in the protected pool in Laos. 

But the plan has not yet been carried out due to a meeting postponement. 

Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

Authorities have not yet determined where these members of Myanmar’s stateless minority had fled from, but many Rohingya groups previously landed in Indonesia while en route to neighboring Malaysia or other destinations.

North Aceh regency spokesman Hamdani said the 111 refugees – 65 men, 27 women, and 19 children including a toddler – were transferred to mosques in Meunasah Baro village. Some news reports said the boat was carrying 110 refugees.

“Their condition was weak. We are currently checking their health,” Hamdani, who uses one name, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

He said local fishermen saw that the Rohingya had reached the shoreline at 3:25 a.m.

“The fishermen immediately contacted village officials to rescue the Rohingya refugees, then they were transferred to mosques in the village,” Hamdani said.

North Aceh police chief Herman Saputra said the Rohingya had been drifting at sea for nearly six weeks.

“They were 40 days at sea but we don’t know yet where they came from yet,” Herman told BenarNews.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said staff were in touch with the National Refugee Task Force, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and activists to assist the latest Rohingya arrivals.

“UNHCR really appreciates the Indonesian government for granting permission to land for more than 100 Rohingya in North Aceh this morning,” Mitra Salima Suryono, UNHCR spokeswoman in Indonesia, told BenarNews.

Mardani Ali Sera, an Indonesian MP, urged the government and civil society to help resolve the root causes of the Rohingya issue.

“The ASEAN-led communiqué calling for isolating the military junta leadership is good, but it’s not enough,” Mardani told BenarNews.

“There needs to be decisive action to stop the humanitarian crisis, for Rohingya in particular, and Myanmar in general.”

About 740,000 Rohingya fled to and are living in refugee camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, a district in southeastern Bangladesh, after the Myanmar military launched a bloody offensive against the community in the Rakhine state on Aug. 25, 2017.

The sprawling Cox’s Bazar camps are home to about 1 million Rohingya.

Hundreds of refugees have paid smugglers to transport them to Thailand and Malaysia, hoping to find work away from Myanmar or the crowded refugee camps of Bangladesh.

Indonesia is not a destination country for Rohingya, but they make the country a stopover before leaving for third nations such as Malaysia or Australia, says the UNHCR.

In March, a group of 114 Rohingya arrived in the Aceh region after spending 25 days at sea. Another group was rescued off the North Aceh coast in December 2021 after their boat engine failed.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pizaro Gozali Idrus for BenarNews.

Malaita province banned Chinese projects after the Solomon Islands government switched its diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taiwan in 2019. Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani’s anti-China Auki Communiqué was signed by every member of the provincial assembly, although at least one has since dissented.

“Accessing communication is a basic need in every province in Solomon Islands, especially for education purposes, but I cannot say much as the provincial assembly is just following the Auki Communiqué which states that the province will not accept any Chinese funded projects,” Malaita Deputy Premier Glen Waneta told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, on Monday.

In August, the Solomon Islands government agreed for Huawei and contractor China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. to construct 161 mobile broadband towers across the Pacific country, including 27 towers for Malaita. The project is paid for with a 20-year U.S. $65 million loan from Exim Bank of China at 1 percent interest.

The Solomons government expects nearly half of the towers to be erected before the Pacific Games in November next year, which would enable more people, especially in rural areas, to watch the games.

Existing mobile phone networks in the Solomon Islands cover at least 94 percent of the population but mobile broadband coverage is only 20 percent, according to 2018 figures from Telecommunications Commission Solomon Islands.

Moses Virivolomo, permanent secretary of the Solomon Islands Ministry of Communication and Aviation, said Malaita’s provincial government had rejected the most recent request to accept the tower rollout, Solomon Islands media reported last week.

Virivolomo was overseas and did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment.

The Solomon Islands has emerged as a hotspot in the U.S.-China rivalry in the Pacific. Its government signed a security pact with Beijing earlier this year and China, along with countries such as Indonesia and U.S. ally Australia, is helping to pay for the 2023 Pacific Games.

In 2018, Huawei was prevented from building an underseas communications cable for the Solomon Islands after Australia’s government intervened and offered to pay for the project. 

The United States and several other countries have banned or circumscribed Huawei from providing domestic communications infrastructure, because of concerns national security could be compromised.

Only Malaita’s provincial assembly can decide whether the province should change its stance on Chinese investment, Waneta said. 

“Malaita province will miss out on the opportunity to have better communication in the province unless the assembly revisit the Auki communiqué and amend it,” he said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gina Maka’a for BenarNews.

A Vanuatu Mobile Force’s officer who risked his life wading through chest-high water carrying ballot boxes, is calling on the new government to fund new bridges and roads for residents of central Santo.

Private Samuel Bani is part of the Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF), a group of volunteers in Vanuatu’s military who support the Vanuatu Police.

He was one of hundreds making sure the 2022 election was possible by delivering ballot boxes to remote areas.

• READ MORE: Other Vanuatu election reports

Some were sent by helicopter, others by truck and in some cases the journey was made by foot.

“The journey was so slippery — the road was flooded, there was no bridge, so we had to cross the river by foot. At some points the river reached my chest. It’s so dangerous while it’s raining,” Bani said.

“The journey was so tough, the current is so strong. We nearly lost the ballot boxes because the tide was so strong, it’s so dangerous,” he said.

Bani, an official based in Luganville, said his team risked their lives crossing the Jordan River to deliver boxes so people in remote villages could exercise their right to vote.

The team of three picked the boxes up in Sanma Province.

“We had to run four hours to reach the place, then we slept one night in a village then we walked seven to nine hours up the hill to reach Vunamele,” Bani said.

“These people have their rights, we just get the boxes up so they have their rights,” he said.

‘We put our life on the line’
With the swearing-in of the new government of Vanuatu looming this Friday, Private Bani is calling on leaders to learn from his experience and strengthen infrastructure in rural areas.

“We put our life on the line,” he said.

He wants elected representatives to make the journey he did to understand the hardship people go through just to have access to basic necessities like health care.

“There’s pregnant women walking down and when someone is dead they have to get the coffin back down,” Bani said.

Issues with infrastructure in parts of Santo is an ongoing issue, RNZ Pacific correspondent Hilaire Bule said.

People have died crossing the Jordan River, he added.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

A Vanuatu Mobile Force’s officer who risked his life wading through chest-high water carrying ballot boxes, is calling on the new government to fund new bridges and roads for residents of central Santo.

Private Samuel Bani is part of the Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF), a group of volunteers in Vanuatu’s military who support the Vanuatu Police.

He was one of hundreds making sure the 2022 election was possible by delivering ballot boxes to remote areas.

• READ MORE: Other Vanuatu election reports

Some were sent by helicopter, others by truck and in some cases the journey was made by foot.

“The journey was so slippery — the road was flooded, there was no bridge, so we had to cross the river by foot. At some points the river reached my chest. It’s so dangerous while it’s raining,” Bani said.

“The journey was so tough, the current is so strong. We nearly lost the ballot boxes because the tide was so strong, it’s so dangerous,” he said.

Bani, an official based in Luganville, said his team risked their lives crossing the Jordan River to deliver boxes so people in remote villages could exercise their right to vote.

The team of three picked the boxes up in Sanma Province.

“We had to run four hours to reach the place, then we slept one night in a village then we walked seven to nine hours up the hill to reach Vunamele,” Bani said.

“These people have their rights, we just get the boxes up so they have their rights,” he said.

‘We put our life on the line’
With the swearing-in of the new government of Vanuatu looming this Friday, Private Bani is calling on leaders to learn from his experience and strengthen infrastructure in rural areas.

“We put our life on the line,” he said.

He wants elected representatives to make the journey he did to understand the hardship people go through just to have access to basic necessities like health care.

“There’s pregnant women walking down and when someone is dead they have to get the coffin back down,” Bani said.

Issues with infrastructure in parts of Santo is an ongoing issue, RNZ Pacific correspondent Hilaire Bule said.

People have died crossing the Jordan River, he added.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

More than 30 people have been confirmed dead by Papua New Guinea government official Nelson Tauyuwada following tribal fighting on Kiriwina Island in the Trobriand archipelago.

Tauyuwada, the Kiriwina Island Area Manager, said the death toll would probably increase.

He believes a soccer game clash that took place last month sparked the fatal incident that happened yesterday.

• READ MORE: 30 killed, many injured in PNG ‘island of love’ tribal massacre
• Other reports on PNG tribal fighting

“There are many layers to the rivalry between the two tribes involved, including political lines,” he said.

However, Kabwaku United Church Committee member David Mudagada said the fighting broke out from general election related issues.

“The fighting broke out from general election related problems. That triggered some other small issues, social issues that’s why they started the fight and it’s quite a mess right now,” Mudagada said.

“What I heard from those people around the scene is that they started fighting from the government station and then they moved the people towards their villages and they are slashing them with knives and all this — and then they retaliated,” he said.

Chaotic situation
He said the situation was chaotic.

“The government authorities are also at the scene right now they are trying to stabilise the situation…..then get the police from the Alotau, capital of Milne Bay province, and then they go to the small island in the Trobriand Islands.

“We are not sure when they are going to arrive, there were a couple of police officers there but they were outnumbered,” he said.

PNG’s constabulary is still trying to get officers to the scene and is expected to update the media as more details come to hand.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Thirty people are reported to have been killed and many seriously injured in the worst tribal warfare on Kiriwina Island in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay Province yesterday.

The number of deaths will be the highest ever recorded during a tribal warfare on the island.

Douglas Tomuriesa, the member for Kiriwina-Goodenough and Deputy Opposition Leader,  confirmed that 30 people were dead and many were seriously injured.

• READ MORE: Other reports on PNG tribal fighting

He was organising an airline charter to transport police personnel from Alotau to fly in to the Kiriwina, known as the “island of love”, in the Trobriand group, to bring the situation under control.

The situation is reportedly tense and may escalate further due to the number of deaths.

A villager said a worse case scenario by this morning might be other villagers taking sides and joining the warfare.

According to him the district has only two police personnel, despite a number of fully furnished houses for police personnel on the island.

Firearms discharged
He also alleged that firearms were discharged in the fight resulting in the high number of casualties.

Confirming the fight in a WhatsApp message, Provincial Police Commander Peter Barkie  said: “Yes, received info daytime today about fighting on the island but police don’t have a boat, only dinghies, so we secured NMSA boat but logistics was slow and captain advised that, not safe to travel at night so police team will travel 5.00am at East Cape to Losuia.”

Commander Barkie also requested for reinforcements to be on standby and that a decision would be made when the police team arrives on the ground.

A concerned women leader, Joyce Grant, has appealed to Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili for urgent government intervention, describing the number of deaths as the highest ever recorded in the history of Kiriwina society.

Her WhatsApp message said: “Although I am not mandated leader, however as concerned leader of my community, it is with the saddest of hearts that I write to your high office to appeal and ask for urgent government intervention.”

According to Grant, the fight began at approximately 11am yesterday, Monday, 24 October 2022.

Three main villages of Wards 19 and 20 of Kiriwina LLG approached the district office at Losuia to express their anger over the consistent destruction of their gardens by known perpetrators of neighbouring villages.

Gardens ‘a focal point’
“Gardens in the villages are the focal point of community existence. Without a garden, you are not able to sustain your family’s livelihood,” she said.

“However, no government officials were on hand to mediate the matter, including non-presence of law-and-order committees as the police station is manned by limited police personnel only.

“The church elders were also present to assist to contain the situation but the neighbouring villages were also ready for confrontation, therefore the situation was not able to be contained.”

The issue had started almost two months ago, immediately after the 2022 national general elections, and involved a soccer match. That fight resulted with one death and several people seriously injured.

“A police mobile unit was sent to maintain peace however to date, no clear resolution was reached to mitigate the issue then,” Grant said.

“Please Minister, our people need the governments urgent intervention of Police presence on the ground for the sake of our people’s lives. People are dying and the question is ‘who is responsible?’

Tomuriesa appealed to both warring factions to lay down their arms.

He said that when police reinforcements arrive, they should be “honest with themselves” and assist police by identifying the original instigators to face the law.

Miriam Zarriga is PNG Post-Courier chief-of-staff. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Thirty people are reported to have been killed and many seriously injured in the worst tribal warfare on Kiriwina Island in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay Province yesterday.

The number of deaths will be the highest ever recorded during a tribal warfare on the island.

Douglas Tomuriesa, the member for Kiriwina-Goodenough and Deputy Opposition Leader,  confirmed that 30 people were dead and many were seriously injured.

• READ MORE: Other reports on PNG tribal fighting

He was organising an airline charter to transport police personnel from Alotau to fly in to the Kiriwina, known as the “island of love”, in the Trobriand group, to bring the situation under control.

The situation is reportedly tense and may escalate further due to the number of deaths.

A villager said a worse case scenario by this morning might be other villagers taking sides and joining the warfare.

According to him the district has only two police personnel, despite a number of fully furnished houses for police personnel on the island.

Firearms discharged
He also alleged that firearms were discharged in the fight resulting in the high number of casualties.

Confirming the fight in a WhatsApp message, Provincial Police Commander Peter Barkie  said: “Yes, received info daytime today about fighting on the island but police don’t have a boat, only dinghies, so we secured NMSA boat but logistics was slow and captain advised that, not safe to travel at night so police team will travel 5.00am at East Cape to Losuia.”

Commander Barkie also requested for reinforcements to be on standby and that a decision would be made when the police team arrives on the ground.

A concerned women leader, Joyce Grant, has appealed to Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili for urgent government intervention, describing the number of deaths as the highest ever recorded in the history of Kiriwina society.

Her WhatsApp message said: “Although I am not mandated leader, however as concerned leader of my community, it is with the saddest of hearts that I write to your high office to appeal and ask for urgent government intervention.”

According to Grant, the fight began at approximately 11am yesterday, Monday, 24 October 2022.

Three main villages of Wards 19 and 20 of Kiriwina LLG approached the district office at Losuia to express their anger over the consistent destruction of their gardens by known perpetrators of neighbouring villages.

Gardens ‘a focal point’
“Gardens in the villages are the focal point of community existence. Without a garden, you are not able to sustain your family’s livelihood,” she said.

“However, no government officials were on hand to mediate the matter, including non-presence of law-and-order committees as the police station is manned by limited police personnel only.

“The church elders were also present to assist to contain the situation but the neighbouring villages were also ready for confrontation, therefore the situation was not able to be contained.”

The issue had started almost two months ago, immediately after the 2022 national general elections, and involved a soccer match. That fight resulted with one death and several people seriously injured.

“A police mobile unit was sent to maintain peace however to date, no clear resolution was reached to mitigate the issue then,” Grant said.

“Please Minister, our people need the governments urgent intervention of Police presence on the ground for the sake of our people’s lives. People are dying and the question is ‘who is responsible?’

Tomuriesa appealed to both warring factions to lay down their arms.

He said that when police reinforcements arrive, they should be “honest with themselves” and assist police by identifying the original instigators to face the law.

Miriam Zarriga is PNG Post-Courier chief-of-staff. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The fine was handed down on Wednesday. State-controlled media reported  that the Internal Political Security Department of Quang Ninh province’s Police Department was the unit that tracked down the Facebook user and administered the fine.

Quang Ninh police said the Facebook post appeared on Oct. 8, the day after the news that Truong My Lan -- Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group -- had been arrested. T.H.Q.posted on his or her page that people reacted to the report by rushing to withdraw money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB).

Truong My Lan was arrested on fraud allegations related to the issuance and trading of bonds. Vietnamese media said SCB has made it clear that she has no executive position at the bank and a real estate firm that belongs to Van Thinh Phat Group is also not a SCB shareholder. 

In the past few days, police agencies in provinces and cities including Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Binh Thuan, Ha Nam and Binh Phuoc have clamped down on social media users who have been accused of spreading false information about people withdrawing money from SCB on their personal pages.

SCB is Vietnam's fifth-largest commercial bank, according to Bloomberg News.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

“They didn't say it directly, but they have restricted everyone from visiting us. They do not let us receive social support for the poor. When our region is hit by typhoons, local people receive a lot of financial and food aids but our family receives none.”

Hung said his troubles started in September 2015 when his sister-in-law Tran Thi Nhan was riding a motorbike, planning to sell seafood. Commune police illegally set up roadblocks to check local people’s movements, he said. Commune police seized Nhan's motorbike and seafood for no reason and brought it to the police station where they destroyed the goods and kept the bike, which has yet to be returned to the family, Hung said.

Hung's brother, Nguyen Dinh Hai, objected to the seizure of the vehicle and destruction of goods, as well as local police interrogating his sister-in-law. Hung said that led the then-commune police chief, Ho Xuan Que, to declare he would "punish” Hung even though he was not involved in this case.

On October 21, 2015, Hung was driving a motorbike without a helmet when Que hit him on the hand with a stick. When Hung stopped the bike, Hung said Que hit him with a stick many times and used a helmet to hit him in the stomach. The commune police chief also threatened to kill his family, Hung said. 

A few weeks later Hung was arrested by the Huong Khe district police on charges of "resisting an on-duty state official" and detained for two months. He was released on bail after just over a month and a half.

At the end of February 2016, Hung was convicted by the district court and sentenced to six months in prison even though his lawyer claimed wrongful conviction because Que did not have the authority to set up checkpoints and control traffic. Commune police also lacked written consent from the district police, which is against the law. 

Que later admitted that communal authorities decided to set up the roadblock, not the district police. However, at the appeal hearing later that year Que changed his testimony, affirming that he had performed tasks approved by the district police.

Hung appealed to the Ha Tinh Provincial Court, which transferred the file to the district authorities for re-investigation, and in the second hearing in October 2017, he was still found guilty by the district court with a six month suspended sentence.

Hung continued to appeal and in the second appeal in March 2018, the provincial court upheld the suspended sentence.

Hung told RFA that during the hearings, he accused a district police investigator named Phong of forcing him to admit fighting even though he was beaten by Que.

Hung said he did not accept the verdict and sent petitions to many agencies from the commune to the central level, including the Supreme People's Court, asking for fair hearing. He said that after submitting many petitions to the Supreme People's Court, he received a written receipt of application in 2019 but had heard nothing since.

Hung now works in agriculture and said his family faced many difficulties. Besides not being able to enjoy local benefits, he was also not allowed to do business even though he had served in the military.

“Local officials have done so much wrong, the corruption is so great and I denounced them for many things, so they hate me,” he said. “However, they can't do anything to me because I report the truth."

RFA called the Chief of Police of Dien My Commune, the Police of Huong Khe District, the Chairman of the People's Committee and the spokesman of the district as well as the Ha Tinh Provincial Court, but no one answered the phone. Tran Tuan Anh, Chief of the Office of the People's Council and People's Committee of Huong Khe District hung up after the reporter introduced himself. RFA also emailed District Chairman Ngo Xuan Ninh District Chairman but has not received a reply.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The Conflict group of islands in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay province cannot be sold to foreign interests, Parliament has been told.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Lands John Rosso said yesterday the privately-owned controversial islands would instead be turned into an environmental marine conservation area.

Irked by the potential sale of the islands for a substantial amount of money, Rosso has issued a ministerial directive for an immediate investigation into the acquisition of titles and the alleged sale.

• READ MORE: Other reports on PNG land sales

The 21 islands have been owned by retired Australian businessman Ian Gowrie-Smith who placed the atolls on the open market.

They include among the named islands Panasesa Island, Madiboiboi, Gabugabutau, Tubinagurm Island, Lutmatavi Island, Panaboal, Ginara Island, Panarakuum Island, Panarakiim Motina, Muniara Island, Auriria Island, Panamaiia, Parapaniian, Panaiiaii, Kisa, Itamarina and Ilai Islands.

The Conflict islands are in PNG which put them closer to the Australian mainland and the potential sale has raised alarm bells in that country, which has been wary of the controversial security pact between Solomon Islands and China — and also China’s rise in the Pacific.

In Parliament yesterday, Kiriwina-Goodenough MP Douglas Tomuriesa took Rosso to task, demanding action from the government to stop the sale of these atolls because of the cultural significance and traditional values they had on the local people.

Traditional hunting grounds
“This group of islands is the traditional hunting grounds for our people and our people cannot be allowed into these islands due to the owner being strict,” Tomuriesa said.

“These are traditionally resting and hunting grounds. Today, our people cannot do that.”

It is understood the islands were being sold for substantial amounts, a sale that has not only angered the locals but caused heartbeat to Australia as it poses a national and regional security risk to its sovereignty, given the Chinese conglomerates that have allegedly put up their hands to buy the islands.

Rosso told Parliament that these islands would never be sold under his watch and that the government would make sure they would be kept as conservative and protected areas.

He warned that the investigations could also lead to the revocation of the lease but was subject to the completion once initiated.

“The Conflict islands cannot be sold to non-citizens and that is my stand, and the PNG government stand, there will be an investigation to establish the status and the way the title was awarded in the first instance,” Rosso said.

“The islands will be declared as a conservative and protected area to be administered by special purpose vehicle to protect it for our children to benefit from in the future.

Status of titles probe
“I have already asked the Department of Lands to institute an investigation to establish the status of these titles which are freehold and ascertain the way these titles were created and granted to, we believe, a non-citizen.

“I would like to encourage the current titleholder to come forward voluntarily and discuss these issues with me.

“The position of the government of PNG through the Minister for Lands and Physical Planning is that these islands and the sea belong to the broader community because it is part of their marine and sea life to sustain the marine and pristine ecosystem.

“Therefore, PNG as a custodian of these parts of marine eco-system intends to declare the Conflict Islands as a conservation protected area to be administered by a special purpose vehicle that has the same status as Australia Great Barrier Reef, that is my view and I will be pursuing.

“I will be working closely with the Milne Bay provincial government to ensure that this is carried out.

“For the temporary timing, I will not allow the Conflict islands to be sold under my watch.

“I will be pursuing properly talks with the current owner to see a way forward for this but with a very firm view that we will not allow these islands to be sold, likewise other protected areas in PNG.

“The Conflict islands, the sales and transfer can be made only to a PNG citizen.

“How did the titleholder, believed to be [not] a PNG citizen come to own these freehold titles for 20 years.”

Gorethy Kenneth is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

They said the move was intended to prevent the establishment of other groups "like an oil slick." 

On Monday evening the Dan Tri online news site said the Standing Board of the Ha Tinh Provincial Party Committee had written a report to send to central agencies announcing its decision.

It said the reason given was that the association’s profile did not meet regulations concerning what Party members are allowed to do.

The Generals Association has 22 members including police and army generals, according to an article in the Ha Tinh newspaper, which was later withdrawn.

The association held its first congress this month to elect seven delegates to its executive board for a term running until 2027, the paper said.

Among those attending the congress were Sr. Lt. Gen. Vo Trong Viet, a former Deputy Minister of National Defense, and Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of Ha Tinh Provincial People's Committee, Vo Trong Hai.

The association said its goals included coming up with ideas to build the Communist Party, fight hostile forces and stamp out bureaucracy, corruption and waste.

A former officer of the General Department of Military Intelligence, Vu Minh Tri, told RFA that association is a constitutional right. He said it is normal for retired generals to form associations, which don’t usually break the law.

“I think the revocation is a clear violation of one of the constitutional rights of citizens,” he said. “It also shows the unanimity policy of the Communist Party and State of Vietnam, which is not to accept the right to freedom of association, demonstration, and speech.”

“This is not surprising because the Communist Party of Vietnam has long tried to maintain a monopoly on leadership of the state and society. To do that, it is willing to ignore the Constitution and the law.”

Journalist Vo Van Tao from Nha Trang, said the communist party’s executive committee is concerned about the phenomenon of ‘pluralism’. 

“The disbandment of the association is a suppression of ideas that differ from the orthodox direction of the current top leadership,” he said.

“It’s a precautionary measure. It means that Vietnamese citizens are restricted. Even generals are restricted."

Tao said the government was very concerned about the generals because they were people with important roles who had played a key part in the Vietnam War. He said they sat together and discussed things the current leadership did not like to hear.

He also said Vietnam's legal document system is not perfect, since many lower-level documents contradict higher-level documents.

Article 25 of the Vietnamese Constitution states that citizens “have the right to freedom of speech, press, assembly, association and demonstration. The State ensures the necessary material conditions for citizens to enjoy those rights.”

Vietnam's constitution is copied from many countries with full human and citizenship rights, but always "according to the law," Tao said.

There were mixed views on social media. On Facebook many people criticized the establishment of the association, saying the generals were too proud and did not want society to forget their names.

Others wondered if the association was like other groups which act in support of the regime and operate using funds from the state budget.

Vu Minh Tri, who was stripped of his role in the General Department of Defense and expelled from the Communist Party in 2009, said critics did not see that the establishment of the Generals Association was legal and beneficial to the development of civil society.

He said criticizing the establishment of the association was like "cutting off your own feet" because it gave the government more grounds to continue to violate the basic liberties of citizens.

In 1957, Ho Chi Minh, then president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, issued a decree stipulating that everyone has the right to form associations, except those who have lost their citizenship or are being prosecuted by the law.

In 2016, Vietnam's Ministry of Home Affairs presided over drafting the draft Law on Associations, but the National Assembly has repeatedly delayed its discussion or approval.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

There’s not enough funding to help all those in need, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has warned, adding that some have been forced to sleep out in the open, leaving them vulnerable to sexual abuse, which is widespread throughout the area. 

In an interview with UN News’ Daniel Johnson, the agency’s Head of External Relations, Dominique Hyde, described the desperate scenes she saw for herself in Ituri province last week. 

This content originally appeared on UN News and was authored by Daniel Johnson, UN News Geneva.

The president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua, Benny Wenda, has arrived to a warm welcome in Port Vila from London where he is based.

Representatives of the Vanuatu West Papua Independence Committee, who are organising his trip, made sure the media was present only during a welcome ceremony at the Shefa provincial government headquarters.

Shefa province has adopted the people of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) as “brothers and sisters of Vanuatu”.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua in Vanuatu reports

The movement’s Morning Star flag is flown alongside the Shefa provincial flag at its Headquarters in Port Vila.

It is not clear if Wenda will meet government leaders.

He will be in Port Vila for two weeks.

Vanuatu has donated a plot of land along with office facilities for use by ULMWP as its international office in Port Vila.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Lu cited the case of the Guizhou TV reporter detained and interrogated by police after arriving at the Tangshan railway station.

"Just a few days ago, they were interrogating [journalists] one by one as they arrived in Tangshan, and even treated some journalists roughly who went to report there," Lu said.

"The only reason for doing such things is to cover up the truth."
 
Hebei-based scholar Wang Zheng agreed, saying the move was an indirect way of putting pressure on news organizations and social media sites.

"Why do they want to crack down on fake news? Because they are the ones who are fake," Wang told RFA. "Some people want to report the truth, maybe citizen journalists, but they won't be allowed."

"Sometimes citizen journalists will volunteer to cover a certain story, sometimes for a fee, given that they have to take risks, that's very reasonable," he said.

A Zhejiang-based journalist surnamed Jiang said the local authorities are clearly keen to avoid any follow-up reporting of the Tangshan beatings, which prompted widespread shock and anger on social media.

"Naturally they need to lay down the law and frighten the media so as to suppress any follow-up reporting on the Tangshan beating incident," Jiang said.

"This comes along with the deletion of tens of thousands of posts from Sina Weibo relating to Tangshan in the past couple of days, and the closure of tens of thousands of accounts."

He added: "Shanghai lawyers have also gotten a notice from the municipal justice bureau saying they are banned from representing any of the victims of the Tangshan beatings," Jiang said.

Two beaten women still in hospital

Two of the four women beaten by a gang of thugs at the restaurant remain in hospital 11 days after the attack, despite claims from the authorities that they had sustained "second degree minor injuries."

The deputy chief of the Tangshan police Lubei branch, which was responsible for the initial handling of the case, has been fired, while the authorities have promised an investigation into the slow response to incidents and “serious violations of laws and discipline” by Tangshan's police department.

Police arrived at the scene 28 minutes after they received the report, by which time the injured had already been sent to hospital.

Video footage of the incident showed four women who had been eating at a late-night barbecue restaurant being brutally attacked by a group of men in the early hours of June 10, after one of them harassed a woman, who flapped a hand at her harasser and fought back after she was slapped, prompting the others to join in to repel the man.

The attackers shoved the women to the ground, kicked them, threw a chair at them, and later dragged one of the women out of the restaurant to continue beating her outside. One was taken away on a stretcher with a visibly bloodied and swollen face.

The claim that the women sustained "minor injuries" was met with skepticism on social media.

But the CCP-backed Global Times said the official classification of "minor injuries" could include anything up to broken ribs, perforated eyeballs or rupture of tissues and organs.

Nine suspects - seven men and two women - were formally arrested on June 12, it said.

It said five officials are being investigated for by the CCP's own discipline inspection and supervision arm, including Ma Aijun, the head of the public security bureau of Lubei district in Tangshan.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Qiao Long for RFA Mandarin and Chingman for RFA Cantonese.

Zhongtian Luye operates a rubber processing factory in Khua district in the northern province of Phongsaly along the border with China. The company created a contract farming system with rubber tree farmers in the area to maintain supply.

It pays farmers U.S. $0.56 per kilogram ($0.25 per pound) of natural rubber. Though it has contracts with local farmers for certain quantities of their yield, nothing is stopping them from selling the rest of their crop in nearby Oudomxay province, where prices are around 25% higher.

Employees of the rubber company blocked a road to prevent a car packed with raw rubber from leaving town, a villager told RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“They thought that the driver was shipping his output to sell in Oudomxay province [in breach of contract.] They also thought that he was trying to buy output from other villagers who have contracts with the company,” the villager said.

“That is why they stopped his car and took it to their camp area. Normally if a car is stopped and there is any kind of wrongdoing, it should be taken to the district police station,” he said.

Police showed up at the work camp to investigate, later ordering the company to release the driver. Zhongtian Luye did not have a contract with the man who was stopped, and the rubber was all from his own farm, the villager said.

Police fined the employees for blocking the road without permission.

A second villager said the company may feel justified in buying rubber at below market prices from local farmers because of the money it has invested in the area, including for road construction and to help farmers start producing rubber.

There also have been cases where the farmers broke their agreements with Zhongtian Luye to try to make more money elsewhere, the second villager said.

“They already signed agreements, but some farmers are not satisfied with the price set by the Chinese company,” the second source said.

“The company has a concession and the right to buy from the farmers as stated in the memorandum of understanding. However, when the trees are mature for harvesting, some farmers don’t want to sell for so low.”

A woman who used to do business with Zhongtian Luye told RFA that the company feels entitled to all the rubber produced in the area, even from farmers who are not under contract.

“They want them to sell it to their company only, even though they can get a higher price in Oudomxay,” she said.

RFA was able to contact Zhongtian Luye’s interpreter but he declined to comment on the issue.

Under the most common contract farming system in Laos, referred to as “3+2 contract farming,” companies provide funding, training and marketing services to producers, in addition to buying the product, while farmers provide land and labor. The central or local government is usually responsible for ensuring that neither party is taken advantage of.

An official from the Phongsaly province’s Department of Agriculture and Forests told RFA that Zhongtian Luye, the province and the farmers have signed production agreements. The company can decide to block roads to prevent the farmers from selling elsewhere, the official said.

“It is to up the provincial and district level authorities to consider how to solve this kind of problem and the district deputy governor will hold a meeting to find a solution,” the official said.

“But the agreement states that the rubber farmers who signed a contract-farming agreement cannot sell to other companies, but only this company,” he said, without explaining why the company has a right to prevent the farmers not under contract from selling elsewhere.

The official said the company does not tell his department the prices it pays, but said the department would meet with the company to double check that the contracts are fair.

Zhongtian Luye has been operating in Khua district since 2006. It is unknown how many farmers have contracts to produce rubber for the company.

According to the report from the Phongsaly province People’s Assembly, there are two Chinese rubber companies in the district.

Translated by Phouvong. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

Lhundrub, aged around 47 and formerly a monk at Rongwo monastery in Rebgong (Tongren) county in the Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, had been monitored by authorities for signs of political dissent before being detained, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA in a previous report.

Authorities arrested Lhundrub on Dec. 2, 2020, in western China’s Qinghai province while he was on his way to attend a religious debate in Rebgong. He was put in the back of a black car driven by Chinese police, according to a witness.

“We have learned that Gendun Lhundrub whose whereabouts remained unknown until now is being detained at a detention center in Siling,” said a Tibetan who lives inside the Tibet Autonomous Region. “However, his family members are still not allowed to see him, and no information about his condition has been revealed.”

Lhundrub is reportedly undergoing political re-education program for which he must translate Tibetan Buddhist scripts into Mandarin Chinese, the source said. The Chinese Communist Party requires Tibetan Buddhist studies to be taught exclusively in Chinese.

Chinese officials told Lhundrub’s family in a September 2021 phone call that the writer’s trial would soon be held but have not heard anything since, said a second Tibetan who lives in exile.

“According to a source close to Lhundrub, there is still no news about his trial, but he is being detained at a special detention center where his life is not under threat,” the source said.

Chinese authorities have frequently detained Tibetan writers and artists who promote Tibetan national identity and culture — with many sentenced to lengthy prison terms — following region-wide protests against Chinese rule that swept Tibet and Tibetan areas in western provinces of China in 2008.

Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses typically deemed “illegal associations” and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say.

Authorities have also issued orders to Buddhist monks and nuns about using Mandarin Chinese instead of Tibetan.

At a religious conference in Qinghai in September 2021, government authorities issued instructions that Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and study centers had to begin translating classroom texts from Tibetan into Mandarin Chinese, China’s “common language,” sources told RFA in a report at that time.

Monks and nuns were told that they must learn and speak to each other in Chinese instead of their native language, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call to Sinicize religion across the country.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Sangyal Kunchok.

On May 1, police officers in the Icchra area of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, assaulted and detained Hayat, a chief reporter for the privately owned daily newspaper Daily Business, according to a report by his outlet, video of the incident shared on social media, and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Police also detained Hayat’s wife and seven-year-old daughter, and released the family after about 45 minutes, according to those sources.

Hayat told CPJ that he believes the assault and detention were acts of retaliation for his work as a journalist, including his reporting on crime and alleged police malfeasance, which CPJ reviewed.

“Punjab police officers’ assault and detention of Jahangir Hayat, as well as their detention and harassment of his family, underscores the significant dangers that Pakistani journalists face for simply doing their jobs,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Authorities must conduct an immediate and impartial investigation into this incident, hold the perpetrators accountable, and demonstrate that such attacks will not continue with impunity.”

Hayat and his family were walking to their motorcycle when the journalist noticed that speedometer of his motorcycle had broken; he approached a police van nearby for help because he thought it had been vandalized, he said.

Hayat told CPJ that he showed the officers his press card as a form of identification, and the officers then recognized him, cursed at him, and one officer, whom Hayat identified as the station house officer of the Icchra Police Station, said he would “get rid of his journalism.”

Icchra Police Deputy Superintendent Zakaria Yusuf then arrived at the scene and ordered the officers to detain the journalist, Hayat told CPJ, saying the officers hit him in the ribs with their pistols, grabbed his neck, and threw him into a police vehicle, and escorted his wife and daughter into the vehicle as well.

The officers held the family in that vehicle for about 45 minutes and then brought them to the Icchra Police Station, where authorities released them without charge after a group of journalists gathered at the station’s gate, Hayat said.

The journalist sustained injuries to his ribs and neck from the attack, for which he took painkillers, he said, adding that his daughter was traumatized from the incident.

On May 9, Hayat registered complaints with the offices of Lahore Capital City Police Officer Bilal Kamyana, Senior Superintendent of the Lahore Police Operations Mustansar Feroze, and Inspector-General of the Punjab Police Sardar Ali Khan, the journalist said, adding that no action had been taken against the officers involved in his detention and assault.

Kamyana and Khan did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Kia ora Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi

It is unconscionable. A bewildering and grossly unfair crisis for 34 young Papuan students – 25 male and 9 female – the hope for the future of the West Papua region, the Melanesian half of Papua New Guinea island ruled by Indonesia.

They were part of a cohort of 93 Papuan students studying in Aotearoa New Zealand on local provincial autonomy government scholarships, preparing for their careers, and learning or improving their English along the way. They were also making Pacific friendships and contacts.

They were fast becoming a “bridge” to New Zealand. Ambassadors for their people.

• READ MORE:  West Papuan students in dire straits in NZ after Indonesia cuts funding
• West Papuan students fight to keep scholarships to study in Aotearoa
• Overcoming trauma, Papuan students in NZ now face new challenge
• Papuan students form global umbrella body, reaffirm campaign for education rights
• Papuan students succeed in NZ – ‘the golden generation from Papua’
• Mahasiswa Papua di luar negeri deklarasikan IAPSO – Tabloid Jubi [Bahasa Indonesian]
• Other reports on the Papuan education controversy
• WATCH: Te Ao Māori News video

And then it all changed. Suddenly through no fault of their own, 41 of them were told out of the blue their scholarships were being cancelled and they had to return home.

Their funds were cut with no warning. Many of them had accommodation bills to pay, university fees to cover and other student survival debts.

They were abandoned by their own government, some of them being close to completing their degrees of diplomas. Appeals to both the provincial governments in Papua and the central government in Jakarta – even to President Joko Widodo — were ignored.

Yes, it is unconscionable.

New Zealand help?
Surely New Zealand can respond to this Pacific plea for help?

Asia Pacific Report first published a story about the plight of these students back on January 27. Since then many stories have been written about the students’ struggle to complete their qualifications, including Māori Television, Newsroom, Tagata Pasifika, RNZ Pacific, and Wairarapa Times-Age, and Tabloid Jubi, Cendrawasi Pos and Suara Papua in Papua.

An interview by Laurens Ikinia with Tagata Pasifika last month.   Video: Sunpix

They must finish their studies here in New Zealand because returning home to a low wage economy, high unemployment, the ravages of the covid-19 pandemic, and an insurgency war for independence will ruin their education prospects.

Papuan students studying in Australia and New Zealand face tough and stressful challenges apart from the language barrier. As Yamin Kogoya, a Brisbane-based West Papuan commentator, says from first-hand experience:

“Papuan students abroad face many difficulties, including culture shock and adjustments, along with anxiety due to the deaths of their family members back in West Papua, which take a toll on their study.

“As well as inconsistencies and delays in Jakarta’s handling of funds, corruption, harassment, and intimidation also contribute to this crisis.”

At present, out of 17 students currently studying at the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) in Palmerston North, only 10 are able to attend classes. Seven students cannot attend because of their visa status and tuition fees which have not been paid.

Five students at AUT
At Auckland University of Technology, out of five students studying there, one is doing a masters degree, four are studying for diplomas and one is not enrolled because the government has not paid tuition fees.

Out of the 41 recalled students, the visas for some of them have already expired while others are expiring this month.

Of the 34 students still in New Zealand and determined to complete their studies, the breakdown is understood to be as follows:

UCOL Palmerston North – 15
Institute of the Pacific United (IPU) New Zealand – 6
AUT University – 4
Ardmore Flying School – 2
Waikato University – 2
Canterbury University – 1
Massey University – 1
Unitec – 1
Victoria University – 1
Awatapu College – 1

The students have rallied and are working hard to try to rescue their situation as they are optimistic about completing their studies. The Green Party has taken up advocacy on their behalf.

The Papuans are communicating with the NZ International Students Association, NZ Students Union and NZ Pasifika Students.

Community groups such as the Whānau Hub in Mt Roskill, Auckland, have assisted with food and living funds. A givealittle page has been set up for relief and has raised more than $6500 so far.

But far more is needed, and an urgent extension of their student visas is a must.

‘Grateful for support’
“We’re so grateful to all Kiwis across the country for their generous support for us at our time of desperate need,” says communication coordinator Laurens Ikinia of the International Alliance of Papuan Students Associations Overseas (IAPSAO) and who is a postgraduate student at AUT.

“We’re also grateful to all the tertiary institutions and universities for understanding the plight of the West Papuan students.”

Papuan students are speaking today on the issue at a Pacific “media lunch” in a double billing along with Fiji’s opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad at the Whānau Community Centre in Auckland’s Mt Roskill.

Just last Monday, many worried parents and families of students affected by this sudden change of scholarship policy gathered to meet Papua Governor Lukas Enembe in Jayapura to plead their case.

Hopefully, Indonesian Ambassador Fientje Maritje Suebu, ironically also a Papuan, will read this appeal too. The situation is an embarrassment for Indonesia at a time when the republic is trying to foster a better image with our Pacific neighbours.

Minister Faafoi, surely New Zealand can open its arms and embrace the Papuan students, offering them humanitarian assistance, first through extended visas, and second helping out with their financial plight.

Waaa waaa waaa.

Dr David Robie
Editor
Asia Pacific Report

• Donate to the givealittle page
• More information on the media event

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by David Robie.

The first female premier of a Solomon Islands province is appealing to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to help her country manage covid-19 in the community.

People travelling between Honiara and Isabel Province were being tested for the virus at four testing centres, and if they test positive they were isolated at a makeshift centre.

The Isabel Premier, Rhoda Sikilabu, said she was desperate for funding to make improvements to the isolation centres because “they’re filling up and are run down”.

• READ MORE: Solomon Islands elects Rhoda Sikilabu as first female premier

“I really, really need support. We have no place to … isolate these people,” Sikilabu said.

She wants New Zealand to provide funding for improvements for the centres.

“I, as a woman and a mother, I have so many worries and concerns for families offloading with babies, children,” she said.

“I really, really need support in covid. Please I would like to appeal to the Prime Minister.”

Focus on environmental and women’s issues
Sikilabu plans to focus on environmental and women’s issues, and is hopeful of bringing changes to her region as well as transform old mindsets.

She wants women to have authority to speak about their land and property in regards to resources.

“Reforestation is one of the priorities that I will tackle and maybe I can impact more on how women can address or say more on their property, their land ownership,” she said.

”The environment is very, very important to women just now.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

On Sunday, March 27, a group of around 10 men assaulted Rana, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Daily Ausaf, in the Bhakkar district in the northeast Punjab province, according to a bystander’s video of the incident; a statement by the National Press Club in Islamabad, Pakistan; a statement by the Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists, and Rana, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

Rana told CPJ that on March 22, he published a report, which he has since deleted, on his Facebook page – which has around 35,000 followers– alleging that relatives and political associates of Ameer Muhammad Khan, a member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) for the ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf party in Punjab province, were engaging in criminal activities. Rana said that in response to his report, police raided the home of one of Khan’s close political associates, who is also a member of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

On March 27, Rana was shopping in a local store when a group of 10 of Khan’s relatives and political associates pulled him onto the street and held him by his wrists, repeatedly whipping him with ropes, and pouring a chemical usually used for painting on his eyes and ears, the journalist told CPJ. Rana said he lost consciousness five minutes into the attack, and the attackers then left the scene.

On the day of the attack, police registered a first information report, which opens an investigation, against 10 individuals, six of whom are named, at the local Kallur Kot police station, according to a copy of the report reviewed by CPJ.

“Police must launch an immediate investigation into the assault against journalist Zahid Shareef Rana and not allow any possible political pressure to derail it,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities need to put an end to Pakistan’s long record of impunity for crimes against journalists, including beatings, disappearances and murder. With the attack on Rana caught on video, police can offer no excuse for a failed investigation.”

Rana said he received medical treatment at a local hospital following the attack, adding that he sustained lesions all over his body and has lost hearing from the chemical poured into his right ear.

Rana told CPJ that he was previously targeted on January 5 after conducting a live interview with an opposition politician with the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party, who accused Khan of corruption and abuse of power.

Rana said that about an hour after the interview aired, a car repeatedly attempted to ram into the vehicle he was traveling in, hitting the back twice before his friend managed to drive away. Rana, who documented the incident on his Facebook page at the time, said the car’s license plate was publicly registered to Khan’s first cousin.

The same day, police at the Kallur Kot station registered a first information report about the incident, Rana said, adding that the perpetrators have not yet been brought to justice.

CPJ emailed the office of MPA Khan and the Bhakkar district police office but did not immediately receive any replies.

[Editors’ Note: The second paragraph was updated to correct the location of the Punjab province.]

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Hundreds of Cendrawasih University (Uncen) students took to the streets last week to hold actions opposing the creation of new provinces in Papua, says Papua Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) director Emanuel Gobay.

He said that the actions were held at several places as well as a long march to the Papua Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) offices on Tuesday.

However, when the students wanted to hold the action, a joint unit of police was already on alert at each location with 20-30 officers on guard.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua reports

“During the action they planned to gather at several points, first at upper Uncen, lower Uncen, Expo and Abe. But since early morning police had already gathered at the places,” Gobay told CNN Indonesia.

Gobay explained that before the action was held, the students had already sent a notification to the district police that the action would be held peacefully.

But the police instead forcibly broke up the potests and sprayed the protesters with water cannon.

“When they used water cannon, the students ran into a boarding house located at Abepura,” he said.

“Then followed [the incident at] Uncen Abepura, where they were blocked by police. So the students couldn’t get out. In the end the Uncen Abepura [students] joined with those at Waena in Taruna Bakti. They gathered there, then those at Uncen also gathered at the Taruna Bakti senior high school,” he said.

Police ‘brutal’ with students
Gobay said the students tried to negotiate with police but were rebuffed. A joint unit of police kept forcing the protesters to disperse.

“What was most disappointing was that the head of the Jayapura district police intelligence unit was there and even he ordered them to disperse the protesters brutally,” he said.

“By brutal, I mean they didn’t heed one word from the students when they were invited to negotiate.”

According to Gobay, the police attitude showed that the democratic space for negotiating was not being heeded. Yet the right to negotiations was guaranteed under Law Number 19/1998 on the freedom to express an opinion in public.

Gobay said that the police should be “more human” and prioritise dialogue.

“There methods are excessive, as if they are dealing with a riot. This needs special attention from the Indonesian police chief to the Papua regional police chief, especially the Jayapura district police chief and the head of the intelligence unit.

“In particular, the use of firearms at peaceful actions.”

Papua regional police public relations chief Senior Commissioner Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said that the protests “proceeded normally”. He did not say how many police officers were deployed although the number “was sufficient”.

Papuans oppose provincial break-up plan
Earlier, Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian had said Papua would be split up into six provinces, although the plan was not yet final and was still being debated.

The six provinces proposed by the government are Southwest Papua, West Papua, Central Papua, the Central Highlands, South Papua and Papua Tabi Saireri.

The plan however has been strongly opposed by Papuans.

Papua People’s Council (MRP) member Minggus Madai said that the plan was being pushed through despite the Papua region not meeting the demographic and other criteria for being split up.

Minggus said that if the plan went ahead, it would only add new problems in Papua.

“The Papuan people refer to this as a ‘killing machine’ for the Papuan people. It’s not appropriate to force it through,” said Minggus.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was BLBH Sebut Demo Tolak Pemekaran di Papua Dibubarkan Secara rutal.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.