August 5-11, 2024

NORTHEAST ASIA

Correcting a long-overdue act of injustice

Taiwan’s highest oversight body, the Control Yuan, alongside bereaved families, is demanding a fresh probe into the “March 7, or Donggang ” incident, a 1987 massacre that claimed the lives of 20 Vietnamese refugees. The call comes amid growing frustration over the lack of justice and the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense’s persistent denial of responsibility.

FAST FACTS

• Thirty-seven years ago, a vessel carrying 20 Vietnamese refugees escaping Hong Kong was intercepted and destroyed by the ROC military near Kinmen island.  Three refugees, including a pregnant woman, who had reached the shore were killed. The remaining passengers were massacred aboard the vessel. 
• The victims were believed to be part of an exodus of ethnic Chinese Vietnamese nationals fleeing the prolonged aftermath of the 1979 Sino-Vietnam War. At the time, Kinmen was under martial law and heavily militarized against a possible People’s Liberation Army attack. Taiwanese authorities had imposed a “no accept and repatriation” policy for refugees – but this was never practiced as most were killed in the defense zone. 
• Subsequent military investigations were denounced for being perfunctory, as the Ministry of National Defense (MND) did not access documents related to the incidents.
• The four military personnel convicted received lenient sentences of 20-22 months, which were ultimately suspended.
• The massacre occurred during Taiwan’s authoritarian era, a time of widespread human rights abuses and military impunity, including the unsolved killings of prominent figures like dissident politician Lin Yi-hsiung’s family (1980) and activist Chen Wen-cheng (1981).

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• Relatives of the victims, including Tran Quoc Dung, are calling for a full reinvestigation into a “historic mistake” and the return of victims’ belongings confiscated from the vessel.
• Control Yuan member Kao Yung-cheng supports the call for a reinvestigation and believes the Ministry of National Defense has not been fully cooperative.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Stopping the stream of revenues to the junta

Myanmar’s shadow government, the National Unity Government, has called on its neighboring country to stop allowing the junta from interfering in the affairs of overseas Burmese workers, whom they said were being unfairly taxed so the junta could prolong its grip on power.  

FAST FACTS

• On Aug. 5, the NUG – which was set up by prodemocracy politicians after the 2021 coup, is accusing the junta of imposing additional requirements and fees through the process of getting certificates of identity (CI) – a document issued to undocumented Myanmar migrants to allow them to work legally in Thailand. 
• Some of the workers say the embassy is now “unfairly asking for extensive paperwork when the CI system was set up to process undocumented migrants,” reported Radio Free Asia. 
• This policy could affect the 4 million Burmese workers in Thailand, at least half of whom are undocumented. 
• A similar policy was enforced by the junta in September 2023 requiring overseas workers to remit a quarter of their salaries back to Myanmar, which the NUG says are being used to fund “their (junta) brutal terrorism.” 

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• The NUG urged the Thai government to stop the junta from forcibly collecting income tax from Myanmar citizens. This is because Thailand requires workers to renew their permits every four years, and the renewal process requires that they show proof that they have remitted part of their salaries. 
• The NUG also called on Thailand to issue non-Thai identification cards, called “pink cards,” to undocumented migrants “as soon as possible.” The pink cards are generally given to foreign workers from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and specifically Myanmar nationals who entered Thailand illegally after the coup, so they can become legal workers. 

SOUTH ASIA

Stop meddling in neighbors’ affairs, India urged

Five intellectuals from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka jointly called on India to stop interfering with their internal politics, saying the involvement of New Delhi’s “political, bureaucratic and intelligence operatives in Colombo, Dhaka, and Kathmandu’s internal politics” compromises their democracies and destabilizes their government. 

FAST FACTS

• Bangladeshi scholars Firdous Azim and Manzoor Hasan; Nepali writer and editor Kanak Mani Dixit; Sri Lankan journalist and social activist Lakshman Gunasekara; and former Nepali human rights commissioner Sushil Pyakurel issued the statement shortly after the whirlwind protests in Bangladesh that led to the resignation of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is believed to be backed by neighboring India.
• They accused India of “actively propping up” Hasina’s autocratic government; of pushing businesses in Sri Lanka and interfering in its politics; and of “manufacturing consent” within Nepal to gain control of its water resources. 
• They said that India’s interference, while critical to the formation of their democracies long ago, now benefits autocratic regimes and hinder their socioeconomic development. 

India as benefactor, obstacle to its neighbors

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• The five have asked India to “abandon its overt and covert interference in the internal affairs of its neighbors” and to instead be “supportive of the democratic aspirations of South Asia’s peoples and let them build their individual paths to the future.”
• They also assert that their home countries are “not and should not be in the sphere of influence of China, India or any other power.”

GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Cooling down a rapidly heating planet

The U.N. has called for “greater cooperation” between governments, the private sector, and civil society in dealing with heat stresses amid a new report showing over 2.4 billion people – or over 70 percent of the world’s workforce – are at risk from extreme heat that’s driven largely by a fossil-fuel charged climate crisis. The same report also estimated that heatwaves could claim 1.6 million lives globally by 2050. 

FAST FACTS

• The U.N. report comes on the heels of yet another record-breaking summer heat, especially in South and Southeast Asia, prompting region-wide school closures, power outages, and even heat-related deaths. 
• Just last month, U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterres appealed for international cooperation to reduce the risk of extreme heat, which he said was “having an extreme impact on people and the planet.”
• In a separate report, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said that about 23 million workplace injuries worldwide are caused by excessive heat, making it an “invisible killer.” Health consequences include cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, kidney dysfunction, and mental health conditions. 
• Currently, the WHO co-sponsors the Global Heat Health Information Network bringing together U.N. agencies, governments, experts, and civil society partners to share knowledge and scale solutions for protecting communities from extreme heat worldwide. 

Global burden of climate-related risks, 2024

Source: International Labour Organization

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• Guterres calls for greater international cooperation in four areas: caring for the vulnerable, protecting workers, increased use of data and science to boost resilience, and shifting to renewables.
• For shorter-term goals, the ILO has also suggested updating obsolete workplace regulations and developing heat-stress policies to protect billions of workers.