China's new European trade hub: An Irish town of 18,000 - Christian Science Monitor
The Athlone Institute of Technology hosts more than 200 Chinese students – one of the links that helped bring the trade hub to the town, says Prof. Ciaran Ó Catháin, the president of the school and one of the players in the project negotiations. Professor Ó Catháin would not disclose ...
Vietnam’s Problems, Promises - Asia Sentinel/RTÉ World Report
“We tend to lose around 20% of our staff every year after Tet” (the Vietnamese New Year), said Kim Jung Hee, manager of a factory in Binh Duong province, an hour's drive from Saigon's centre. Her Korean company NB Blue employs a thousand workers, in a clean and well-lit factory ...
Thailand sentences American to prison for insulting king - Los Angeles Times
"In Thailand they put people in jail without proof," Lerpong said Thursday, his arms and legs shackled, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. "I was born in Thailand, but this does not mean I am Thai. I am proud to be an American citizen."
DMZ: Road trip to the world's most heavily armed border - CNNGo
SEOUL - As the tour bus moves from central Seoul to the city outskirts, the seamless transition from one of the world's biggest and most vibrant cities to the world's most heavily armed border is as surreal as it is functional, with roadside bus-stops giving way to military watchtowers even ...
Potent mix for Timor-Leste - Asia Times
DILI - Land, corruption and poverty are all on the table as Timor-Leste gets into political mode ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2012, with one controversial figure already throwing his hat into the ring.
If Samuel Beckett met Pol Pot - Asia Sentinel/Irish Examiner
TIK PANHAO, CAMBODIA - In some of Cambodia’s thousands of killing fields, the bones of the dead can sometimes be seen, rising to the surface after storms or rain, like grisly emblems of an unburied past. Perhaps 16,000 died at the s-21 Detention Camp in Phnom Penh, or at Choeung ...
Voting ends in southern Sudan referendum - Sunday Tribune
Kyeli, Blue Nile State, Sudan - “Soon after we married, my husband was killed during the war”, says Hawa Abdul-Gadr. Her eyes show a suppressed grief, but her demeanour is purposeful. That said, there is a perceptible sadness - long-kept under wraps but perhaps closer to the surface than she ...
An unbreakable bond? – Asia Times
JERUSALEM – In 'The Great Divorce' C.S. Lewis attempted to allegorise about a reality which he admitted he could not know, but tentatively hoped to suggest. The US-Israeli relationship, to most, seems like an unbreakable bond, and any potential divorce might be regarded as unimaginable. But when Israeli Prime Minister ...
Narcotic use, drought rob babies of food – The Washington Times
DIRE DAWA, Ethiopia | When drought and food shortages hit, it is the very young who suffer first, and most. Weighing only 10 pounds, Ayaan is among nearly 100,000 Ethiopian children whose lives are at risk. Just four days before her first birthday, she is lighter than an average 3-month-old ...
Corruption trumps tribalism – New York Times (IHT)
Kenyans were cynical about their political establishment long before the latest election violence. One wisecrack doing the rounds since last year says "there is more chance of a Luo becoming president of the United States than president of this country" - referring to Barack Obama, whose father hails from the ...
Than Shwe: Karma chameleon – The Irrawaddy
January 27th, 2012
Did Burma’s generals change their ways because their leader feared the karmic consequences of his actions while in power?
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22937
BANGKOK — “I’ve puzzled over that,” said Sen. John McCain, when asked his opinion on why Burma’s government has undertaken several landmark reforms in recent months.
Observers have been surprised by the changes—such as the freeing of political prisoners, relaxed press curbs and a newfound environmental and social awareness—described by McCain as unimaginable one year ago. The Burmese government says the new course is irreversible, while outside observers believe the reforms to be real, though many, like McCain, are no more than “cautiously optimistic” and remind that more needs to be done—such as fair elections, a free press and peace in ethnic borderlands.
Many exiled Burmese and even some recently freed political prisoners remain skeptical, reminding anyone who cares to listen that Burma’s 2008 Constitution vests ultimate authority with the country’s military, and that even if Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) win all 40 Lower House seats in a by-election slated for April 1, it will not affect power structures inside Burma.
Behind the scenes, an 11-man National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) is said to be exercising real control, leaving President Thein Sein as the moderate-sounding front man attempting to launder the reputation of a cabal of military strongmen nationalists, who want Western sanctions lifted and to reduce the influence of an increasingly powerful China on their country. (more…)
Thai Govt Will Not Meddle in Dawei Dispute – The Irrawaddy
January 24th, 2012
Thailand says it will continue backing the Dawei/Tavoy deep-sea port project in Burma despite recent setbacks, but won’t intervene on behalf of its Thai developer.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22910
BANGKOK—The Thai Government and key investors are backing the Dawei (Tavoy) harbor and economic zone project despite Naypyidaw’s recent cancellation of a 4,000MW coal-fired power station there and the Karen National Union (KNU) stalling a linking highway.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on the sidelines of a Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) forum in Bangkok, Kittirat Na Ranong, Thailand’s deputy prime minister—who was appointed finance minister in last week’s cabinet reshuffle—said that he remained hopeful that the US $58 billion project will proceed. He added, “Thailand will never interfere with any other country for the benefit of any business group.” (more…)
US Calls for International Observers at Burma By-elections – The Irrawaddy
January 23rd, 2012
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22902
BANGKOK—A US delegation fronted by Sen. John McCain and Sen. Joseph Lieberman will request that the Burmese government allow international observers to oversee April by-elections, which, if deemed free and fair, will almost certainly see the US remove some sanctions on the Burmese government.
“Obviously we will have to look carefully at the process of the elections,” said McCain, who conceded that Burma’s reforms in recent months—including the release of several hundred political prisoners—are “a dramatic change in policy and behaviour in as short a time as a year ago,” he said.
McCain confirmed that the delegation, which arrived in Burma on Sunday, would ask Burma’s government to allow international observation of the April by-elections, in response to a question about the issue from this correspondent. (more…)
Is it ‘Burma’ or ‘Myanmar’? U.S. officials start changing – Christian Science Monitor
January 22nd, 2012
Senators Lieberman and McCain after speaking to journalists in Bangkok on Saturday (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK, THAILAND – Burma or Myanmar? As the country’s military-backed government races headlong into reforms aimed at ending its long international isolation, US officials are changing their tone. For starters, they are beginning to use the government’s preferred name for the country, “Myanmar,” after two decades of sticking with “Burma.”
“We have visited the Philippines, Vietnam, we are here, we are going to Myanmar tomorrow morning,” said Sen. John McCain, opening a press conference given by four US senators for journalists in Bangkok on Saturday afternoon.
It may seem like a small point, but in the subtle world of diplomacy this is heady stuff. It would seem to signal US recognition of the changes afoot in Myanmar and a willingness to work with a regime it has shunned for decades. (more…)
Time for Burma’s exiles to go home? – The Diplomat
January 19th, 2012
http://the-diplomat.com/2012/01/19/time-for-burma-exiles-to-go-home/
Some await more reforms and a government role for Aung San Suu Kyi, as Burma’s foreign-based media eye up the home market. India-based Mizzima is hoping to set up an office in Burma, according to editor, Sein Win, who said “We’ll wait for the publication of the new press law, maybe in February or March. I’m hopeful they will abandon the censorship board.”
In the years since the Burmese authorities crushed a 1988 student-led uprising, killing perhaps 3,000 in the process, many of the country’s opposition figures have been jailed or worked from abroad – or sometimes both. Some of those jailed were freed, only to be swept up in a junta dragnet after the 2007 Saffron protests, which also saw the jailing of hundreds of monks.
As a result of Burma’s historic persecution of dissidents, hundreds – perhaps thousands – live abroad, along with hundreds of thousands of other refugees and several million migrant workers scattered across Southeast Asia. Bangkok, New Delhi, London, Washington DC, Brussels are all bases for Burmese dissidents, with a mini industry-sized network of NGOs, media, refugee support agencies, clinics – not to mention armed opposition groups – all operating along the Thailand-Burma border.
Could all that be about to change? Since taking office in March 2011, President Thein Sein has, it seems, steered his military-backed government on a reform route – reaching a truce with the country’s longest standing ethnic militia, relaxing censorship laws, allowing the formation of trade unions and, with limits, the holding of public demonstrations. (more…)
China Remains Key Despite Burma’s Western Focus – The Irrawaddy
January 17th, 2012
BANGKOK – Leadership changes and economic challenges facing China and the US this year will impact how far and fast Burma goes with its nascent political reforms.
A total of 302 political prisoners were freed on Friday with another 128 still in jail, according to Burmese government figures. Some have criticized the amnesty as incomplete, but it made international headlines and resulted in elated crowds greeting freed prisoners outside jails across Burma, as some of the country’s iconic dissidents emerged from detention.
In response, the US said it will appoint an ambassador to Burma for the first time since the bloody crackdown on student demonstrations in 1988. Leaders of these protests were among those freed last week, after spending many of the intervening years in jail.
However, it remains to be seen how far Burma’s reforms go and what the impact of geopolitical rivalries will be on Burma. Simon Tay, author of Asia Alone, a study US-Asian relations, said that Burma’s reforms are perhaps “an attempt to woo America and wean itself off China, rather than genuine attempt to reform domestic politics.” (more…)
US restores full diplomatic ties with Myanmar – Los Angeles Times
January 14th, 2012
Front page of LA Times, Jan 14. Right-click, save as to download .pdf
By Paul Richter, Simon Roughneen and Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-myanmar-prisoners-20120114,0,97902.story
Reporting from Washington, Bangkok and New Delhi — The Obama administration restored full diplomatic relations with Myanmar, moving swiftly to reward the military-backed government for reforms that include a cease-fire with ethnic insurgents and the release of political prisoners.
The move Friday came only six weeks after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a historic visit that highlighted Washington’s attempts to reengage with a strategic Asian nation that remains under strict sanctions for its dismal human rights record.
The White House was eager for rapprochement partly to pull the resource-rich country out of China’s political and economic orbit. Clinton flew to the capital, Naypyidaw, shortly after President Obama announced a “pivot” in U.S. military and diplomatic policy to reassure allies in the Asia-Pacific region who are nervous about China’s increasing assertiveness.
Diplomatic relations with Myanmar were kept to a minimal level over the last two decades but never severed. The administration now will send an ambassador to the country for the first time since 1990, and it invited the Myanmar government to send an envoy to Washington.
On Friday, Obama hailed Myanmar’s progress on several fronts, especially the announced release of 651 prisoners. Although U.S. officials could not confirm the total, or the identities of those released, they said it included some pro-democracy leaders who had languished in prison since authorities in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, crushed peaceful antigovernment protests in 1988.
In a statement, Obama called Friday’s release “a substantial step forward for democratic reform.”
“Much more remains to be done to meet the aspirations of the Burmese people,” he said, “but the United States is committed to continuing our engagement with the government.” (more…)
In surprise amnesty, Myanmar releases high-profile political prisoners – Christian Science Monitor
January 13th, 2012
BANGKOK, THAILAND - Myanmar’s government today freed hundreds of political prisoners in a landmark release that could see Western sanctions on the former military dictatorship relaxed.
The surprise amnesty, the second significant prisoner release since the current military-backed government was formed and new reforms implemented, comes amid growing rivalry between the US and China in Asia. Myanmar (Burma) has long been an economically and politically tied to China, but some see its rulers as chafing under Beijing’s influence, while the US is trying to recover lost ground in the region.
Singaporean academic Simon Tay says that Myanmar’s reforms, though promising, could be more about forming better relations with the West, which has long called on Myanmar’s rulers to bring about change, than about real democratic progress.
The timing and magnitude of today’s mass release came as a surprise to many analysts, including Aung Naing Oo, a former student protester from Myanmar who is now deputy director of the Vahu Development Institute in Thailand. “The military moves slowly, cautiously,” he says explaining why the release came after some recent smaller amnesties that many found disappointing. (more…)
An end to one of the world’s longest wars? Myanmar rebels cautious – Christian Science Monitor
January 12th, 2012
BANGKOK – After a six-decade war between the government of Myanmar (Burma) and one of the country’s ethnic minority militias, a historic peace is in reach after ceasefire talks today.
The deal would mark the end of one of the world’s longest wars – the Myanmar Army and a Karen ethnic minority’s army have fought since 1949 – and is being taken as another signal that the Myanmar government may be sincere about reforming its old authoritarian ways. But members of the Karen ethnic minority aren’t celebrating just yet.
General-Secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU) Army, Zipporah Sein, says that “we are happy to hear that the government wants to make an agreement,” but says that the deal being discussed in the Burmese town Pa’an has yet to be finalized. (more…)
Anwar verdict resets Malaysian politics – Asia Times
January 10th, 2012
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NA11Ae01.html
Leader of Malaysia's Islamist party PAS Abdul Hadi Awang arrives at the court Monday morning (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
KUALA LUMPUR – A not-guilty verdict in a sex scandal case against Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim could prove a game-changer in the run-up to elections due by 2013 but thought by many analysts to be held this year.
After months of railing against what he deemed trumped-up and politicized charges, Anwar cut an understandably cheerful and relieved dash on Monday morning when speaking to perhaps 3,000 supporters outside the Kuala Lumpur court where he was acquitted of charges of sodomizing a male party aide in 2008. Sodomy is a criminal offense punishable by 20 years in prison in Malaysia, where Muslim citizens are subject to sharia law. (more…)
