Land Activists Face Prison in Vietnam – Asia Sentinel
May 28th, 2011
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3221&Itemid=188
Board games in Saigon. Vietnam's dissidents play a much more dangerous game with the country's Government (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Ho Chi Minh City – Late on a Tuesday evening, sitting four floors up in a Ho Chi Minh City cafe overlooking the city’s landmark opera house, a worried man who used the pseudonym Long had the look of someone who thought he was being watched.
“I drove around the city for 45 minutes before heading here,” he said, hunched over and leaning forward on his seat in a restaurant that was almost empty. Looking around edgily, he said softly, “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being followed.”
At the heart of Long’s problems, and that of his fellow members of a Mennonite Church offshoot, is what they deem to be unfair land seizures that are then turned over to major companies for development by the Vietnamese government. The state maintains sole ownership of land and confiscation in the name of economic development is a continuing irritation. Landowners frequently complain about unfair compensation and criticize the laws on land use, which they say are often abused by corrupt local officials. (more…)
Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws under scrutiny – The Diplomat
May 27th, 2011
http://the-diplomat.com/2011/06/03/free-speech-in-thailand/
Redshirts against Article 112, pictured on May 19 (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK – Public debate around Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws and related restrictions on freedom of expression appears to be growing, even as the country’s election-focused political parties steer clear of the issue in advance of July 3 polls.
The head of the Thai Army, Gen Prayuth Chanocha, recently warned political parties against involving Thailand’s royal family in the election campaign. However, a number of separate civil society requests to amend the relevant section of the country’s Criminal Code are underway, with some writers and scholars – the latter known as the Nitirassadorn group – recently proposing amendments to the lèse-majesté laws, which would seemingly bring Thailand in line with constitutional monarchies elsewhere.
Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code concerns offences deemed to defame, insult or threaten the King, the Queen, the Heir Apparent or the Regent. Lèse-majesté carries a jail sentence of 3-15 years. (more…)
Meditations of a detained monk in Vietnam – Asia Times
May 23rd, 2011
http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/ME24Ae01.html
Thich Quang Do pictured inside the temple at the Thanh Minh Zen monastery. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
HO CHI MINH CITY – Emerging from the anterooms of the Thanh Minh Zen monastery, Thich Quang Do nodded and smiled, extending a handshake firm enough to belie his 83 years.
“Thank you for coming, you are right on time”, exclaimed the Supreme Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), glancing over my shoulder out onto the street behind. He beckoned me to follow him upstairs to a small meeting room above the temple area.
The site’s gateway opens onto a lively side-street in Ho Chi Minh City, where street-food vendors sell local snacks and passers-by sit inside fanned cafes sipping Vietnamese iced-coffee. Some of those inside the cafes, however, were not just relaxing over a mid-morning drink.
“You know there are police sitting outside across the street? I am sure they saw you enter the temple,” said Thich Quang Do. (more…)
UN Envoy Doubts Burma Govt Commitment – The Irrawaddy
May 23rd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21342
UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana pictured at Thailand's Foreign Correspondents Club (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK—Speaking in Bangkok on Monday at the end of his week-long mission to Thailand, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said that “the situation of ethnic minority groups in the border areas presents serious limitations to the government’s intention to transition to democracy.”
Expressing some optimism about recent political developments in Burma, the special rapporteur said that “these democratic institutions are very new, and I see some positive signs in them,” mentioning discussions of possible prisoner amnesty and the convening of an anti-poverty conference which took place in Naypyidaw on Monday.
However, he said that the “electoral process excluded several significant ethnic and opposition groups,” and despite the government’s claim that the parliament is “the only venue for discussion of national reconciliation,” added that violence continues in many ethnic minority areas. (more…)
Protest commemoration hints at fraught election – The Irrawaddy
May 20th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21330
Redshirts commemorate their dead from last year's protest, near the Erawan Shrine on Thursday evening (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK – As the searing late afternoon heat bore down on the massing crowd, three rows of orange-clad monks led the chanting, with thousands of red-clad demonstrators joining in, most with hands clasped and some with heads bowed. Their prayers were for the dead they had come to commemorate, a year ago to the day after the Thai Army dispersed their anti-Government demonstration, which had successively occupied two landmark sites in central Bangkok. (more…)
Haunting memorial or gratuitous commercialism? – CNN Go
May 18th, 2011
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/camdodia-killing-field-tourism-905731
From 1975 to 1979 an estimated 1.4 million Cambodians were killed under the despotic rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
The executions took place on what have become known as Cambodia’s Killing Fields. The best known of these is Choeung Ek, 17 kilometers from the center of Phnom Penh. Here, an estimated 17,000 men, women and children were butchered by the Khmer Rouge.
'Killing Tree' where babies and children were murdered at Cheoung Ek. To the bottom right are some human bone remains (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Burmese group launches campaign to free jailed reporters – PBS Mediashift
May 11th, 2011
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/05/burmese-media-launch-campaign-to-free-jailed-reporters130.html
Hla Hla Win, Sithu Zeya, Maung Maung Zeya, Ngwe Soe Lin and Win Maw are all undercover reporters in Burma, and all are serving jail sentences ranging from eight to 27 years after being caught in one of the world’s most draconian media dragnets.
To coincide with World Press Freedom Day last week on May 3, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) launched a campaign to have its jailed journalists freed.
According to the Burmese government and its supporters, a slow transition from authoritarian rule has begun. But DVB argues that if this is the case, journalists should not be jailed for merely doing their job, and is calling on Burmese authorities to release the detainees, as well as asking foreign governments to try to influence or pressure the regime. Visitors to the campaign website can add their name to a petition calling for the reporters’ release. (more…)
Elections loom for tense Thailand – The Irrawaddy
May 9th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21255
Thai Prime Minster Abhisit Vejajjiva will announce details of Thailand’s parliamentary elections later today, with a July 3 mooted as voting day after Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej endorsed the dissolution of the country’s parliament, which takes effect tomorrow. By law, the elections do not have to be held until the end of 2011, though an offer was made a year ago by Abhisit to hold a vote in October 2010. Early or late, Thailand’s parliamentary elections could offer a way out of the country’s five-year old cycle of protests and violence, or they could open a new chapter of division. (more…)
Leaked cables pre-empt EU-ASEAN meeting – The Irrawaddy
May 6th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21245
Following the May 5 business summit in Jakarta between the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)—combined with reports from recently leaked US diplomatic cables shedding light on several European countries’ policies on Burma—suggestions are that the EU’s post-election shift on Burma should not come as a major surprise.
The EU modified its sanctions against the Burmese authorities, relaxing visa restrictions against a number of officials, including the new foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lin, who is now deemed “an essential interlocutor” by the Council of the EU. The Council statement said that the amendments were intended “to encourage and respond to improvements in governance and progress, in the hope that a greater civilian character of the government will help in developing much needed new policies.” (more…)
Cables Reveal US, Canada in Sync on Burma – The Irrawaddy
May 3rd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21224&Submit=Submit
With Canada’s Conservatives set to retain power according to preliminary results of the country’s General Election, a series of US diplomatic cables has shed light on aspects of his administration’s foreign policy since it took office in 2006.
Burma comes up in most of the recently-released documents, which were made available to the public a week after the new Burmese Ambassador to Canada had his credentials accepted. On April 19 2011 Canada’s Governor-General David Johnston met U Kyaw Tin, Burma’s first Ambassador to Canada since 2004. The last incumbent, U Win Tin, was recalled to Burma after the arrest and detention of Gen Khin Nyunt and the purging of his intelligence personnel. Canada’s Ambassador in Thailand currently handles his country’s relations with the Burmese Government. (more…)
