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 ...
Borders around reporters – The Irrawaddy
April 18th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21124
PHNOM PENH—Ross Dunkley, the sole foreign owner invested in Burma’s state-controlled media, faces charges of assaulting a woman and
Journalism students editing video at the Dept of Media and Communications, Royal University of Phnom Penh (Photo: Simon Roughneen
breaches of the country’s immigration laws, in what many observers, including some of Dunkley’s own business partners, view as a power play aimed at ousting the Australian from his stake in the Myanmar Times.
Dunkley has since been released on bail, part of which was paid by his Burmese business partner, Tin Tun Oo, who was named CEO of the Myanmar Times in the days after Dunkley’s initial arrest. Dunkley has subsequently downplayed the conspiracy angle, and hopes to be acquitted soon.
He is well known in media circles in Cambodia after buying into the Phnom Penh Post, one of the country’s two English language dailies, back in 2007.
Cambodia is a challenging media market with freedom of expression under threat from a combination of formal and informal codes that inhibit the country’s press, according to several observers. (more…)
Scars from brutal regime still run deep in Cambodia – Sunday Business Post
April 10th, 2011
http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/scars-from-brutal-regime-still-run-deep-in-cambodia-55599.html
Downtown Phnom Penh at rush hour (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
SIMON ROUGHNEEN IN PHNOM PENH – For Norng Sarath, the story about a girl named Chea who was kidnapped by the Khmer Rouge and gang-raped in a woodland outside Phnom Penh brought back memories of similar atrocities in Pursat, where he lived during the KR’s brutal 1975-79 rule.
“They took many people, babies, the young, the old, and shot them in the forest”, he said. “No-one knows how many died there”. Around a quarter of Cambodia’s population were murdered by the Khmer Rouge before the invading Vietnamese Army felled Pol Pot’s regime.
At the end of March, the only man so far convicted of crimes committed during the terror appealed the 18 year sentence handed down last July. Comrade Duch, the head of the S-21 detention centre in Phnom Penh, now a museum, says he was compelled to murder by the Khmer Rouge leaders. Norng Sarath disagrees: “Duch ought to get a life sentence”, he said, speaking just hours after the appeal concluded last Wednesday. (more…)
Cambodia’s NGO blues – The Diplomat
April 9th, 2011
http://the-diplomat.com/2011/04/09/cambodia%E2%80%99s-ngo-blues/
PHNOM PENH – ‘This isn’t right at all’, says Mr Ponlok, owner of a waterfront cafe at Boeung Kok lake in Phnom Penh. ‘People are being forced out and the compensation is way too small’.
At the lakeshore, Boeung Kak in Phnom Penh (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Lakeside residents are being driven from their homes as developers try to fill the landmark lake in Cambodia’s capital with earth and sand, prior to turning it into a residential and shopping complex. In deal signed between Shukaku Inc. and the Cambodian Government, a 99-year lease to the 103-hectare lake site was granted to the developers, a location that sits under the noses of the nearby British and French Embassies. (more…)
Embassy Donates to Migrant Crash Fund – The Irrawaddy
April 8th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21103
BANGKOK—In a departure from policy, officials from the Burmese embassy in Bangkok have made a small official contribution to a fund for victims of the truck crash on Monday in Thailand’s Samut Sakorn District that killed 6 Burmese and injured more than 60.
According to Preeyaporn Khankumnere, a project coordinator with the Human Rights Development Foundation who works closely with the affected Burmese migrant workers, an officer from the embassy went to the hospitals where the injured are being treated, and initially offered to donate 1,000 baht (US $35) to some of the injured. According to Preeyaporn, some of the injured have left hospital already, though others are in a serious condition.
When informed that migrant workers had already set up a fund to raise money for the injured, the Embassy official instead made a lump 16,000 baht ($560) donation to the fund. (more…)
Un-clogging the airwaves in Cambodia – PBS Mediashift
April 5th, 2011
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — A blog criticizing Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has been at the center
Interviewing Khmer Rouge survivors at Tik Panhao (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
of a recent controversy in Cambodia, shedding light on a deteriorating environment for freedom of expression in the Southeast Asian country. World Food Programme (WFP) employee Seng Kunnaka received a six month sentence for handing out copies of material from the KI Media blog, which came soon after Hun Sen berated the WFP for suggesting that Cambodia is vulnerable to food shortages.
KI Media has been blocked by some ISPs since the dispute, though the government has not formally banned the site. In Phnom Penh last week, the site was available in some places, depending on the ISP, but in others a message appeared saying the web page was unreachable.
Whatever his feelings about KI Media, Hun Sen has long had a tetchy relationship with UN agencies, principally due to tensions over the hybrid Cambodian-international court set up to try the four main surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. (more…)
If Samuel Beckett met Pol Pot – Asia Sentinel/Irish Examiner
April 1st, 2011
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3101&Itemid=207
TIK PANHAO - 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 Ek outside the city. All told, an estimated 2 million people died during Pol Pot’s terror.
Breaking the silence onstage (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
On Wednesday evening, Tik Panhao was the scene of a searing, stark drama in the dimly-lit marketplace in front of the village pagoda, a bumpy hour’s motorcycle ride outside Phnom Penh. Tears run down Nhem Roeun’s face as she watched and listened to the performers on a makeshift stage.
“Where was my father? Where did you kill him?”, a woman asks. The Khmer Rouge cadre she accuses deny any foul play, or knowing where the missing man is. Later, as the drama moves through its seven mini-plays, all played by the same group of actors and actresses, the impact of ‘Breaking the Silence’ becomes apparent. (more…)
Echoes from the Killing Fields – The Irrawaddy
March 31st, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21047&Submit=Submit
As an appeal hearing ends in the case of the only person convicted so far for crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia awaits the trial of the still-living KR leaders
Section of billboard showing interrogation rules for detainees at S-21 (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
PHNOM PENH – Clad in a blue shirt under a cream jacket, Kaing Guak Eav sat back, seemingly relaxed to the point of boredom. The judge, prosecution and defence debated the finer points of the relationship between Cambodia’s penal code and the tribunal set up to examine crimes committed under Khmer Rouge rule, while the man known as Comrade Duch, sitting alone two rows behind his legal team, punctuated a usually impassive stillness with the occasional bout of fidgety restlessness.
As head of the S-21 torture camp, Duch – pronounced ‘Doik’ – oversaw the torture of around 16,000 prisoners at the former school, now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Most of the detainees were later murdered at Choeung Ek, one of the country’s thousands of mass graves or “Killing Fields”, around 15 miles outside the city centre. S-21 was only one of over 190 similar detention, torture and murder camps set up all over Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era.
Duch was not part of the Khmer Rouge leadership and is the only one of the five accused to have expressed remorse for his crimes, offering at one point to face a public stoning and to allow victims to visit him in jail. But he made a u-turn on the final day of his trial in November 2009, asking to be acquitted and freed, which left many wondering if his contrition was sincere.
After being sentenced to 35 years in prison last July, both defence and prosecution launched appeals, the former saying the sentence is too long, and the latter claiming an unwarranted lenience. In effect the sentence means that Duch will serve around 18 years, or roughly 11 hours jail time for each person killed at S-21. “We reiterate our request that the sentence be increased to something more appropriate to the crimes committed”, said prosecution lawyer Chea Leang, speaking in Khmer. (more…)
Burma’s old wine in new bottles – Sunday Business Post
March 27th, 2011
http://sbpost.ie/news/world/earthquake-adds-to-burmese-woe-55315.html
Simon Roughneen in Bangkok. As Burma comes to terms with an earthquake on Thursday evening that killed at least 75 people, the country’s seemingly never-ending political crisis goes on. Speaking to German media last week, opposition figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi asked European countries not to remove sanctions on the country’s rulers unless significant reforms are undertaken. “Sanctions must remain in place. Sanctions should only be lifted when something has changed here”, said the 1991 Nobel peace laureate.
European Union member-states, including Ireland, will decide whether to retain the measures at the bloc’s annual review of Burma policy next month. Suu Kyi’s comments came days after she met with a group of EU-country diplomats about sanctions on Burma.
Think-tanks such as Chatham House – which is part-funded by Total and Chevron, companies with energy investments in Burma – have spoken against the measures, saying that the establishment of a new parliament signals that there is some hope for reform in Burma, which has been ruled by the Army since 1962. (more…)
After an earthquake, confusion over storms in Burma – RTÉ World Report
March 27th, 2011
http://www.rte.ie/news/player.html?worldreport#programme=World%20Report
“We all ran outside, our windows fell in, the walls are cracked, most of the buildings in the town have been damaged”
That was the account given over the phone by a man in Tachilek in Burma’s Shan State, close to the epicentre of Thursday evening’s 6.8 earthquake. The disaster caused damage in northern Thailand, with one woman killed near the border with Burma.
By Saturday afternoon the death-toll in Burma itself was over 70, but, as ever, the lack of reliable information from inside the country means that it is difficult to gauge the full extent of the destruction, in a hilly and remote region. (more…)
Freedom of association laws a litmus test for ‘new’ Burma – The Irrawaddy
March 25th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21011
BANGKOK—After a one-day strike by factory workers in Rangoon earlier this week proceeded unimpeded by Burmese police, thoughts are turning to the possible introduction of trade union legislation in the military-ruled country.
The recent downing of tools by around 500 mostly female workers at a Rangoon shoe factory follows a number of strikes during 2010 in a country where large public gatherings are rare and peaceful dissent is usually not tolerated. (more…)
