Image: Chinese nationals who were arrested by the “Wa” police and handed over to the Chinese police for allegedly committing online crimes(Photo/WSTV)
Mizzima
The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) has urged the Vietnamese government to investigate cybercrime in the Wa area using Mytel telecommunication network, operated as a joint venture between the Burmese military and Viettel, which is owned by Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defence.
The SHRF made the remark in the report titled “Trapped in Hell” addressing human trafficking, slavery, and torture by Chinese criminal gangs in northern Shan State since the 2021 military coup. The report was released on October 18.
In the report, the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) has shed light on the experiences of people who fell victim to human trafficking, slavery, and torture orchestrated by Chinese criminal gangs in the northern Shan State of Myanmar, particularly in the Kokang and Wa areas.
These incidents occurred in the aftermath of the military coup in February 2021 and have exposed a collaboration between these criminal elements and local authorities.
A spokesperson of SHRF told Mizzima, “Personally, the Vietnamese government should force Viettel to withdraw the partnership with Mytel. Another thing is, from our collected data, many Vietnamese are currently subjected to sexual slavery. They should speak out for their citizens. Thus, I assume the Vietnamese government should help us.”
Despite the junta’s direct in-charge and extensive surveillance on the Mytel telecommunication, the network is largely used to commit cybercrimes in the Wa area.
The report pointed out this as a questionable situation where the junta takes no effective action. Mytel is a joint venture between the Vietnamese government-owned Viettel and the Myanmar Economic Corporation.
The “Trapped in Hell” report is based on interviews with three young women and two men who suffered torment by the Chinese criminal gangs operating online money laundering, gambling, and sexual entertainment in Kokang and Wa self-administered zones.
The victims faced physical torture and, in the case of the women, sexual assault when they dared to resist their captors.
In addition to permitting such atrocities, the authorities in Wa area even protect the criminal gangs, according to the interviewees in the report.
Similarly, an online scamming centre in Laukkai operated openly under the protection of the regime-aligned Kokang Militia Force.
In response to these findings, SHRF has also urged the Kokang and Wa authorities to cease their collusion with criminal groups and has called upon China to take more substantial action against its citizens involved in these illegal operations.
