US and Vietnam tighten the bond – ISN
August 17th, 2010
One-time enemies, the US and Vietnam are developing new-found links as both countries take stock of China’s rise.
Just over fifteen years after the US and Vietnam normalised relations marred by war, the naval destroyer USS John S. McCain docked in Da Nang last week to mark the anniversary. The ship is named after the grandfather of 2008 US presidential candidate John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam. Commanding officer Jeffrey Kim said that “over the last 15 years, we’ve established trust, a mutual respect, and I know that, in the coming years, our friendship and relationship will continue to become better.”
According to a Vietnamese scholar who requested anonymity, the tighter relations are seen as a good thing inside the country. “Vietnamese view the US rather positive as the war is becoming history in the memory of a new generation”, he said in an email.
Trading off civil liberties?
From a low base, US-Vietnam relations have grown during the decade-and-a-half since normalisation, with both Presidents Clinton and Bush II visiting Vietnam while in office. However, human rights activists have criticised what seems to be a bipartisan drive in Washington to develop ties with the one-party state. (more…)
Two Reminders From Indonesia – ISN
August 12th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=120027
While Indonesia has made notable strides in the twelve years since the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, radical ideology and elitist cronyism could stall further progress
It is sometimes said that Indonesia is the most important country that the world knows least about. It might be clichéd to remind that the country is “the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy”, but in truth the world’s fourth-biggest country remains little-known relative to its size.
Earlier this week came two reminders why this knowledge deficit probably needs addressing. Former Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader Abu Bakr Basyir was arrested on Monday for allegedly backing an al-Qaeda linked training camp in the country, with this coming after a series of terrorist-related shoot-outs and arrests in recent months. Almost simultaneously, Jim O’Neill, the economist who coined the term BRICs to categorise the large emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, said that Indonesia, along with Turkey, would likely emerge next as a major global economic player. (more…)
Cambodia’s Teflon Tribunal – ISN
July 27th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=119423
The first conviction against one of the lead perpetrators of mass murder under the Khmer Rouge was issued Monday, but questions remain about the tribunal process.
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) , a hybrid UN-Cambodian war crimes tribunal sentenced ‘Comrade Duch’, a former Khmer Rouge chief jailer and executioner to 35 years in prison Monday for overseeing the deaths of thousands of people in the gristly ‘S-21′ detention and torture center during the height of the Pol Pot regime. An estimated 1.7 million people, a quarter of the country’s population, were killed during the Communist Khmer Rouge era, as Pol Pot and his lieutenants sought to return the country to ‘Year Zero’, abolishing money and property and herding people out of cities and into massive labour camps. Across the country, an estimated 5 million survivors of the Khmer Rouge era remain, alongside thousands of Khmer Rouge officers and footsoldiers.
Relatives of victims wept as the verdict was handed out, but for some, the catharsis turned to anger and disappointment as it became apparent that Kaing Guek Eav, to give his real name, may serve no more than 18-19 years, by which time he will be 85-86 years old. (more…)
No textual healing for Thailand – ISN
July 21st, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=119092
Two months after Thailand’s army routed the anti-Government redshirt protest movement from central Bangkok, sixteen provinces including Bangkok remain under emergency law. Thai media carried Government claims that sabotage and political assassinations remained possible, as the now-dormant redshirt movement goes underground.
The retention of emergency law will be reviewed by the Government on a week-by-week, district-by-district basis. Nonetheless, keeping emergency powers has come under fire. William Burns, the third most senior official in the US State Dept. spoke at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University on July 16, saying that the retention of emergency powers “not healthy for a democratic system”
Thailand’s already-shaky press freedom is coming under renewed pressure. According to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), 26 more radio stations were recently closed by authorities using the emergency powers. Many of these are linked to the redshirts and stand accused of fomenting protestors to come to Bangkok to take part in the March 12-May 19 rallies, which turned violent on April 10 when black-clad ‘ronin’ seemingly-allied to the protestors fought with Thai troops near one Bangkok’s best-known backpacker haunts. (more…)
Both sides of the wall – ISN
June 24th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=117949
Simon Roughneen in Ramallah – It might be unwitting irony, but the coffee-shop overlooking central Ramallah tips its hat to an American consumer icon, in what might otherwise be deemed an outpost of anti-Americanism.
Stars and Bucks cafe in downtown Ramallah is branded with same colour scheme as the global chain, simultaneously a
Inside Stars and Bucks, Ramallah. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
hue pretty-close to Islamic green. Hummus and labaneh are on the menu should the customer want a more “authentic” experience than just downing a Middle East macchiato. Inside a mixture of western and Arabic-dressed women kept to their own tables, appearing inscrutable behind outsized sunglasses. Some men lounged on sofas, puffing on shishas while watching the Portugal-North Korea World Cup mismatch.
Outside traffic crawled through the streets and pedestrians meandered in the 34 degree heat. Downhill from Ramallah’s centre-point at al-Manara square and the faux-iconic coffee shop, a lush fruit and vegetable market is packed high with greens and reds, browns and yellows, while shoppers browsed melons, tomatoes, onions. “You need to ask if you want to take photos here”, said Ashraf, leaning out over his stall to make himself heard over the din of hagglers, before happily posing behind his produce.
Since 2008, the Palestinian Authority has implemented some institutional reforms and economic development, supported by more than US$3 billion in foreign donor assistance. (more…)
Thailand, Reconciled to Division? – ISN
June 8th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=117160
A government peace plan is viewed with skepticism by opposition leaders as the fallout from recent political violence continues.
Protester from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in August 2008 (CC/Flickr)
By Simon Roughneen in Bangkok for ISN Security Watch
Three weeks after a violent conclusion to a two-month political protest in downtown Bangkok, the Thai government says it wants to implement a five-point reconciliation plan, which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva believes will address some of the grievances anti-Government redshirts say motivated their mass rally in the capital.
The plan was first proposed on 3 May, and while leaders initially welcomed it as “quite constructive,” they turned it down in the end. The deal pledges constitutional amendments, an independent investigation into the recent political violence, increased social spending and the establishment of a media monitoring body.
Prime Minister Abhisit rescinded an offer to hold early elections after the negative response, but then appeared to revive the prospect of early polls while speaking in Vietnam last weekend. The redshirts regard his administration as illegitimate, as it came to power after courts dissolved the redshirt-aligned party, which was in power up to the end of 2008. Smaller parties then backed Abhisit’s Democrat Party, enabling it form a coalition government. (more…)
Thai army moves in for the kill – ISN
May 19th, 2010
Much of central Bangkok is a no-go area after recent street fighting. A senate mediation proposal has fallen flat, and this morning the Thai army is moving in on the main protest site.
Protestors fire crude home-made weapons at Thai troops on Bangkok's Rama 4 road. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
By Simon Roughneen in Bangkok for ISN Security Watch
As deadly clashes continue in central Bangkok, another proposed mediation effort has gone awry.Thai senators offered to act as go-betweens in the hope that this would bring the government and the redshirts back to the table. The redshirts welcomed this, after exiled de facto leader Thaksin Shinawatra called for UN intervention and asked the government to rein in the army. However, the government says it will not talk to the redshirt leaders – most of whom face terrorism charges – until the thousands of demonstrators leave the downtown shopping and hotel area they have occupied for six weeks.
The redshirts have said they will not go anywhere until the army withdraws from Bangkok’s streets. But food and supplies are running low, and an unknown number of protesters have gone home. Some of the remainder, estimated at less than 5,000, are sheltering in a Buddhist temple within the rally site, now designated as a safe haven.
The political standoff comes after six days of protester-soldier clashes at a number of flashpoints around central Bangkok. In response to an army drive to blockade the rally site, redshirts have set up a new, smaller rally on a highway two miles from the main zone. Fighting has taken place at several other locations on the fringes of the main rally site, as the protesters impede and counter the army’s attempted blockade. (more…)
No Deus ex Machina in Manila – ISN
May 7th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=115980
A Presidential race depicted as a run-off between a saint, a CEO and a faded movie-star is being overshadowed by worries over a computerised vote-counting system.
Artwork depicting former Philippine president Corazon Aquino (ISN/CC/BY)
Simon Roughneen in Manila – In a first for The Philippines – a country with intermittent electricity supply and a history of electoral fraud – a computerised system is being used instead of the manual count used in most other countries. Despite 11th-hour glitches meant the recall and re-programming of 76000 flash cards used to scan votes in the optical scan machines, the electoral oversight body (Comelec) remained confident that “the elections will go through”, according to Comelec chair Jose Melo.
Whether the equipment will be ready and distributed across the whole archipelago in time, remains to be seen. However Comelec is resisting calls from candidates and media to conduct a manual count in parallel and as a back-up to the computerised alternative.
The ‘saint’ in question is Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino, son of former President and democracy icon Cory, who died in August 2009. A poll published this morning Friday put Mr Aquino on 41%, over double that of the second-place candidate. Aquino has capitalised on the family lineage – an aura of martyrdom, heroism and clean hands that dates back to the 1986 People’s Power Revolution – in a country listed by Transparency International as more graft-prone than Pakistan or Liberia. (more…)
Makeovers and Takeovers in Burma – ISN
May 5th, 2010
Burma’s military elites are ditching their uniforms so they can run as civilians in elections scheduled for later this year. That makeover might be just cosmetic, but is likely to guarantee continued army rule in what is being slammed in some quarters as a ‘military election’.
The junta is encountering problems, however, in its takeover bid with the country’s ethnic militias, the largest of whom have defied five deadlines to stand down and become part of the country’s border guard forces.
Since June 2009, the stakes have been raised by army attacks on rebel-held areas, in some cases carried out in partnership with proxy militias working with the regime. These attacks drove thousands from their homes, with Karen refugees fleeing to the jungle or across the border to Thailand, in a grisly re-enactment of large-scale displacements during the 1990s and later.
In August, the junta’s army made light work of a small ethnic Chinese or Kokang militia, but angered Beijing in the process. This was seen as a test run and a warning shot – aimed at unsettling the larger militias such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and the Shan State Army – North (SSA-N). However these groups would be unlikely to cave in so quickly. Threats from Napyidaw, the new isolated jungle capital built by the regime, have prompted talk of a multi-ethnic alliance if the junta tries to settle the border guard issue by force. (more…)
Confrontations and Conspiracies in Thailand – ISN
April 30th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=115676
Redshirts get armed with slingshots inside their main rally area. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
The next steps in Thailand’s political face-off are becoming increasingly hard to predict. After seven weeks of occupying various sections of Bangkok’s commercial and tourist heartland, where can the anti-government redshirts strike next?
On Thursday, the redshirts called off a rally scheduled to take place at one of Thailand’s news stations, which they accuse of biased reporting. However late on Thursday night, a group of around two hundred redshirts invaded Chulalongkorn Hospital, claiming they were searching for soldiers hiding inside. They did not find any, and a redshirt leader later apologised for the action. This came after a gunfight on a highway north of the city, close to the old international airport, when redshirts baited the government by attempting to send around 2,000 of their group to a market north of Bangkok.
After royalist yellowshirts had defied an emergency decree with impunity by holding several small rallies around Bangkok, urging the government to remove the redshirts now seven weeks into their mass rally in the heart of the city, it appears the redshirts sought to test the security force reaction by sending a convoy onto the northbound highway.
A predictable skirmish ensued, and 18 protesters were injured and one soldier killed amid a shoot-out on the highway close to the city’s old international airport. It was the third serious incident of violence since the redshirt rally started over a week ago, following explosions that rocked the financial area of the city. On 10 April street fighting left 25 dead, after gunmen among the redshirts targeted an army officer closely connected to the country’s royal family. (more…)
