Vietnam’s new crackdown

Authorities in Vietnam (nervous, perhaps, that skyrocketing inflation may make the country a powder-keg for unrest) have detained dozens of rights activists and anti-Chinese protesters in recent days, interrogating some while confining others to their homes or neighborhoods, according to my colleagues in RFA’s Vietnamese service.

Several activists, including writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia, college student Ngo Quynh, Pham Van Troi, and Nguyen Van Tuc, have been arrested. Others, including Phan Thanh Nghien, poet Tran Duc Thach, Nghe An, and schoolteacher Vu Hung, have been continually summoned to “working sessions” with police.

Burma: Buddhist relief efforts expand

RFA’s Burmese service had this interview with Thigadu Sayardaw, a senior figure in Burmese Buddhism, whose organisation is helping as much as possible with the relief effort for those made homeless by Tropical Cyclone Nargis:

Interviewer: Could you please tell us the situation of the cyclone victims that the Thidagu group is helping?

Sayadaw (senior monk): We started on May 9. On June 9, our aid work completed one month. So I made the end-of-the-month list. We have been helping Bogalay, Mawlamyaing Gyun, Pyapon, Amah, Kungyan-gon, and Day-da-yeh townships. When we’re done with Day-da-yeh, we will have worked with over one thousand monasteries. Also in the villages that are in the area of the monasteries, we assign one monk and one leader of the village and distribute through the monks for the use of everyone in the village rice, oil, salt, chili peppers, onions, blankets, mosquito nets, and clothing.

Burma: Refugees ‘told to leave shelters by May 14’

More recent interviews from RFA’s Burmese service:

Announcer: The storm victims, who lost their houses, are now facing severe starvation, but they cannot enjoy the help from the international community right away. Instead the families of the military are getting the help first. A person close to the military families in the airforce in Mingaladon, Rangoon told RFA this. The anonymous woman told RFA as follows that some of the families from the Mingaladon airforce lost their roofs in the storm, and the engineering troops from GE unit put up new zinc sheets and made roofing and walls, as well as distributed food:

Burma: Urgent call for aid from survivors

General Aye Khaing, a member of the military junta, is from Hpya-pone city. He’s from 55 Division 9. His father’s house totally collapsed too. Also, General Maung Maung Aye from Division 66. His older brother Ko Hla Soe drowned in Byaing-ga-zee village. Other villages and people died horrifically, and there are many deaths. There are corpses floating in a row along the Hpya-pone river. We can’t find my sister-in-law’s body.

— Surviving resident of cyclone-hit area

This former resident of Hpya-pone, right in the delta area worst hit by Cyclone Nargis at the weekend, describes looting and the threat of starvation in the city in the wake of the storm, which aid workers say may result in the deaths of 100,000 people. He told RFA’s Burmese service about the scenes of devastation in the towns and villages of the Irrawaddy delta:

Tibet, China: Dialogue is crucial, says lama

This is a continuation of an RFA Mandarin service report from Wei Si:

The monks in the lamasery in Daofu county, Sichuan province, also tell us that a group of reporters arrived a few days ago, but were turned away by Chinese security forces who were guarding the gates. Such incidents have become commonplace since the Tibetan anti-Chinese protests which began on March the 14th in Lhasa, they say.

Tibet, China: Monks want Dalai Lama to come home

This report was filed for RFA’s Mandarin service, at considerable risk to the reporter, Wei Si:

It’s a journey of about 400 kilometres along highway from Kangding to Ganzi, in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. The road is liberally dotted with Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples.

Bao Tong: On Beijing’s decision to talk to the Dalai Lama

On the decision by central government to have contact and discussions with the Dalai Lama

by Bao Tong

In the face of a major social upheaval, there are generally two roads to take. One is dialogue, and the other is opposition. Dialogue can lead to reconciliation, whereas opposition inevitably results in an exacerbation of the conflict. Whichever path we take depends on the ultimate aims of those making the decisions.

China, Tibet: Patriotism planned at Potala Palace torch rally

From RFA’s Cantonese service. Reporter: Hai Nan. Translated by Shiny Li and Luisetta Mudie:

Authorities in Tibet are planning a mass rally of Han Chinese government supporters to support the arrival of the Olympic torch in Tibet’s iconic Potala Palace, former home of the exiled Dalai Lama.

Travel agencies in the Tibetan capital said they had received approval from the ruling Communist Party’s Youth League to organize a “patriotic activity” on the arrival of the torch at the palace, formerly the heart of Tibetan Buddhism.

China, Tibet: Interview with Grace Wang

A Chinese student at Duke University in North Carolina who wrote “Free Tibet” on the back of an anti-Chinese protester during an attempt to mediate a campus dispute over Tibet is now hated by former classmates and teachers alike, a former teacher said.

China, Tibet: Interview with a Qinghai Tibetan youth

From RFA Mandarin service reporter Ding Xiao in Hong Kong. Translated by Chen Ping.

After the Tibet riots, the communications of Tibetans living in China are under surveillance, and they don’t dare to express their views for fear of retribution for the authorities, as talking to foreign media might get them punished. However, a Tibetan youth who lives in the Mgo Log (in Chinese, Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in the northwestern province of Qinghai, told us some of his thoughts on the recent unrest:

Tibetan: Recently the tensions have been subsided pretty much, and we can cross into neighboring province. For example, we can travel to Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province with an ID of any kind. However, soldiers are currently going around temples, several in a group, always.

RFA: Any reduction of security forces?

Tibetan: No, it is still the same. Probably they will withdraw after September. We inevitably feel oppressed as troops are everywhere and we cannot go out easily.

RFA: Do you Tibetans discuss the current situation?

Tibetan: Normally we don’t talk about it. There was never any freedom of speech in China in the first place.