From Jailhouse to Minefield – The Irrawaddy

July 13th, 2011

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21684

Burma’s army continues to use prisoners as porters in ethnic insurgency areas, in another violation of international humanitarian law.

BANGKOK — “The soldiers told us if we were alive tomorrow we would be lucky,” said Tun Tun Aung, a prisoner originally from a town near Mandalay who was press-ganged into front-line duty by the Burmese Army along with 29 other convicts from Meiktila prison in December 2010. He said there were about 1,000 prisoners in Karen State when his group arrived there, whereupon they were divided up into smaller units to carry bombs for the army. “We were never given food or water,” he said, recounting the arduous daily trek up mountains and through jungle, in the ever-dangerous region where Karen rebels have fought the Burmese Army since 1948.

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More protests to come in Malaysia? – The Irrawaddy

July 11th, 2011

A harsh police response to Saturday’s electoral reform rally in Kuala Lumpur might signal another shift in Malasyian politics.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21663

KUALA LUMPUR – Saturday’s electoral reform rally has raised political stakes in advance of elections in Malaysia, with the Government threatening to continue its crackdown on the opposition-linked protest movement.

In a defiant speech made on Sunday, PM Najib Razak said that the Government would implement electoral reform on its own terns, adding that “we want Malaysia and UMNO (the main governing party) to be respected by the world. So, go back, strengthen our unity and Insyallah, we will be successful in our struggle.” (more…)

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Malaysia nips an hibiscus uprising – Asia Times

July 11th, 2011

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MG12Ae01.html

KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government is on the defensive after Malaysia’s biggest opposition-aligned protest in almost four years was put down forcefully on Saturday by riot police, water-cannons and teargas in the national capital.

Over 1,600 people were arrested in the crackdown, including opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and the leadership of the protest organizers, Bersih 2.0, a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) seeking reform of the country’s electoral system. (more…)

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Thai PM-elect calls for reconciliation – The Irrawaddy

July 4th, 2011

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21617

BANGKOK – Attempting to widen her incoming Government’s appeal, Thailand’s Prime Minister-elect Yingluck Shinawatra today announced a five-party coalition that will control 299 seats out of 500 in the next Thai parliament.

Her Peua Thai party won 265 seats in Sunday’s election, enough to govern alone with a narrow majority. (more…)

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Thailand opposition wins election – Los Angeles Times

July 4th, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-thailand-election-20110704,0,4667812.story

Thailand’s first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is set to take office. She’s an admitted stand-in for her controversial brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin

Shinawatra. Supporters hope the victory will endure but fear ‘dark hands will take away our rights again’.

By Mark Magnier and Simon Roughneen

Reporting from Bangkok, Thailand— Thailand’s main opposition party won a fractious election Sunday, paving the way for the selection of the nation’s first female prime minister and the possible return from exile of her controversial brother, as disenfranchised voters laid down a new challenge to the nation’s political establishment.

Several hundred supporters mobbed party headquarters as word spread that the Puea Thai party, led by political novice Yingluck Shinawatra, 44, had secured more than 260 of parliament’s 500 seats in preliminary results. The ebullient crowd chanted, danced, blocked traffic and set off fireworks.

“There is a lot more hard work to do,” she told cheering fans. “There are many things to accomplish to make reconciliation possible.”

Shinawatra supporters hope this seeming victory will endure, having seen past elections undermined by judicial decisions, military pressure and parliamentary maneuvers engineered by royalist conservatives. (more…)

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Thailand goes to the polls – Los Angeles Times

July 3rd, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-thailand-election-20110703,0,6762985.story

By Mark Magnier and Simon Roughneen, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Bangkok— Only one outcome appears clear as Thailand goes to the polls Sunday: the risk of violence no matter who wins.

A year after more than 90 people died in street protests and a bloody crackdown, many of the tensions that exploded in a ritzy shopping district of Bangkok have barely been papered over in a country beset by vast social and economic disparities.

“Eventually, only some kind of a workable grand bargain can save Thailand from itself,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “It’s imperative to heal the wounds of conflict and confrontation.” (more…)

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Thailand readies for elections – The Diplomat

July 1st, 2011

http://the-diplomat.com/2011/07/01/thailand-readies-for-election/

BANGKOK – “I am not sure who to vote for”, said Nawa Lee, a bus station clerk in Bang Na district of Bangkok. Between 20% and 30% of the voters remain undecided, according to some opinion polls, and with forty parties contesting 500 seats, there are plenty of options for voters, based on raw numbers at least. (more…)

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After ordeal, Burma’s political prisoners tread softly – The Irrawaddy

June 30th, 2011

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21601

The Irrawaddy hears from three of Burma’s recently-released political prisoners, all of whom are still in Burma and therefore request that their identity be withheld.

MAE SOT – Z was one of fifty-five Burmese political prisoners freed as part of a controversial May 2011 amnesty that saw almost 17,000 people released from jail.

“I was released on May 17 under the so-called amnesty”, he says, after spending almost four years in Myingyan prison, far from his family in Arakan State. In a country that holds almost 2,000 political prisoners, some sentenced to almost a century of jail time, human rights groups and Burmese opposition figures criticised the recent releases, as most of those freed were nearing the end of their sentences in any case. (more…)

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To keep you is no gain, to lose you is no loss – New Mandala/RTÉ World Report

June 30th, 2011

http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2011/06/30/a-cathartic-moment-for-all-cambodians/

radio report here - http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0703/worldreport.html#page=3

“I don’t feel vengeful, but I am glad they are finally facing trial”, said Sao Yoeun, speaking to me at the Documentation Centre for Cambodia, an invaluable

resource for anyone looking back at the Khmer Rouge era. She travelled 200 miles from Kampong Thom province to see the four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge finally have their day in court, more than thirty years after the regime’s almost 4 year reign of terror caused the deaths of around a quarter of Cambodia’s people,

Now 55, Sao Yoeun survived being press-ganged into the Khmer Rouge labour force before 1975, when the rebels took control of the country and embarked on a destructive quest to turn Cambodia into an agrarian communist dystopia, emptying the country’s towns and cities in the process.

After 1975, she and others were forced to create medication from scratch and test it on themselves.
Those who refused were taken away to one of the country’s detention centres, where prisoners were interrogated, tortured and then killed in one of the 200 or so Killing Fields that have been discovered across the country. (more…)

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Khmer Rouge leaders on trial in Cambodia – RTÉ (Morning Ireland)

June 27th, 2011

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0627/morningireland.html -  Simon Roughneen, reporter in Cambodia, discusses the long-awaited trial of the four main surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge (last item)

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