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 ...
Vietnam: a dissident speaks – Asia Times
November 17th, 2010
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LK18Ae02.html
HANOI – In the lead-up to next year’s pivotal five-year Communist Party congress, Vietnam is doing its best to keep dissenting voices quiet, cowing lawyers, journalists, activists and aggrieved citizens with a combination of arrest, detention, intimidation and surveillance.
Hanoi's boom fuels heavy traffic, but it's less-hectic at rush hour around the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
At least 19 dissidents have been caught in the government’s dragnet since October. Those who remain free must take great care when airing their views or meeting with foreigners. Asia Times Online recently managed to speak face-to-face with one Hanoi-based dissident who requested anonymity and this story will refer to simply as “Ho”.
He immediately settled into some mordant observations about life as an enemy of the state. “In East Germany, under the Stasi, it was said that one in 50 of the population were spies,” Ho said. “In Vietnam today, it is more like one in 40.” (more…)
Chinese walls in Hong Kong – ISN
November 16th, 2010
In the run-up to the Communist Party plenum which ended 18 October, there was much anticipation that the authoritarian-ruled economic giant would announce some new political departure – especially after Prime Minister Wen Jiabao intimated in the weeks leading up to the conference that some reform might be necessary to maintain the ruling party’s legitimacy. Wen told CNN in a 7 October interview that China “should not only let people have freedom of speech” but “must create conditions to let them criticize the work of the government.”
Hong Kong's skyline at night (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
These astonishing comments perhaps generated more enthusiasm than was appropriate, and for China watchers the eventual conference outcome was a disappointment – though perhaps no surprise given the government’s shrill reaction to the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident Lia Xiaobo, whom Beijing regards as a criminal. (more…)
Hope for dissidents behind bars? – South China Morning Post
November 15th, 2010
Htein Lin's painting based on images of monks currently imprisoned by the Burmese junta
BANGKOK – On Saturday, artist and former political prisoner Htein Lin opened a new exhibition in Bangkok, with the event punctuated by word coming through from Yangon that Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s best-known detainee, had been freed from house arrest.
Htein Lin was jailed from 1998-2004, smuggling his art out of prison with the help of sympathetic guards, proof that even amid Myanmar’s seemingly-endless saga of oppression, humanity can prevail. “One guard took a big risk, and even came to my first exhibition in Rangoon after I was released”, he said. Overjoyed at Suu Kyi’s release, Htein Lin cautioned me that “there are lots of journalists, poets and other dissidents inside”. Myanmar has over 2200 political prisoners held in labour camps, decrepit jails and detention centres in the military-ruled country.
One of those is Myanmar’s iconic comedian, Zarganar, who Htein Lin describes as “my mentor”. Zarganar was given a 35 year jail sentence on charges of “public order offences”, after criticising the military Government’s response to the May 2008 Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 147000 people and left 3 million more homeless in the Irrawaddy delta.
Eight days later the junta pushed ahead with a referendum on a still-controversial Constitution, which in a foreshadow of last weekend’s much-derided landslide election win for the junta’s front party, passed by a 94% vote in favour amid allegations of ballot stuffing and forced voting. Over 300 of the detainees were rounded up in late 2008, as the military rulers took umbrage at criticism of their alleged callousness after Cyclone Nargis.
Conditions inside the country’s jails are thought to be harsh and many political detainees are forced into solitary confinement in in cramped and dark “dog cell”. (more…)
Suu Kyi on verge of release – RTÉ
November 12th, 2010
http://www.rte.ie/news/morningireland/ - Discussing Aung San Suu Kyi’s hoped-for release from house arrest in Burma. (Poor line quality)
Persecuted Church fends for itself – National Catholic Register
November 11th, 2010
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/a-persecuted-church-left-to-fend-for-itself/
Most of the old Thai Ha grounds have been taken by the Government (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam has the second largest population of Catholics in southeast Asia after the Philippines. But things seem to be getting harder for the Church here.
On Nov. 6, Cu Huy Vu, a lawyer who sought to defend six recently-jailed Catholic villagers, was detained on charges of “propaganda against the state,” according to state TV.
During the trial, the six, from Con Dau in central Vietnam, were denied a lawyer, after which Cu Huy Vu told the BBC that the verdict was pre-ordained. It is not clear if there is any link between Cu’s arrest and his attempts to defend the six.
But there has been a general crackdown on dissent in Vietnam ahead of the ruling Communist Party congress early next year. Prominent lawyers, journalists and activists have been arrested and jailed in recent months, while others remain under government surveillance.
Speaking in Hanoi last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the United States “remains concerned about the arrests, and the curbs on religious freedom in Vietnam,” before joining the country’s Deputy Prime Minister in extolling growing US-Vietnam trade and investment ties.
The Con Dau 6 were among 59 people arrested after clashes between around 500 Catholics and government agents at the parish cemetery of Con Dau in May. Catholics had conducted a funeral procession for an 82-year-old woman and tried to bury her in the cemetery, which had been seized by the local government to build a tourist resort. (more…)
New Burmese Government in 3 months, says Abhisit – The Irrawaddy
November 10th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddymedia.com/article.php?art_id=20026
Concerns raised about refugee repatriation amid more fighting inside Burma
Thai PM Abhisit Vejajjiva outside the IACC Conference today in Bangkok (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
BANGKOK – Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva believes that a new Burmese Government will be formed in three months, and anticipates that this “will help bring stability”, after recent fighting in Myawaddy sent 30000 Burmese refugees fleeing across the Thai border into Mae Sot. “We are led to believe there will be a transition period of about three months”, he said earlier today.
The refugees fled to Thailand on Nov. 8 after Tatmadaw forces moved to reclaim parts of the border town of Myawaddy from a splinter group from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), before being sent back to Burma yesterday by the Thai authorities.
Speaking in the sidelines of the 14th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Bangkok, Abhisit said that “we had anticipated some instability” after the November 7 elections in Burma, but did not elaborate on what contingency plans Thailand is making should fighting continue or spread to other ethnic areas inside Burma. Thailand hosts around 140000 Burmese refugees, and the prospect of renewed fighting in Burma would likely add to these numbers.
On Wednesday morning an estimated 3000 Karen and Mon refugees crossed into Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province after more fighting near Three Pagodas Pass, south of Myawaddy. A combined Karen and Mon force is reportedly exchanging fire with the Burmese Army, fuelling speculation that a multiethnic force could materialise in the border areas. (more…)
Myanmar’s white elephant election – South China Morning Post
November 9th, 2010
BANGKOK – Myanmar’s rulers left little to chance as they prepare to stage a much-criticised election on November 7, the county’s first in two decades. Perhaps unaware of the English meaning of the term, and hence the irony, on October 21 in Naypidaw they paraded a real-life white elephant named Nandavati, the fifth to be put on show in the service of the state.
The animals have a place in southeast Asian political lore, signifying virtuous and legitimate rulers. Dr Maung Zarni, a Burmese lecturer at the London School of Economics, said that “the General’s quest for albino elephants is partly rooted in history, as they try to portray themselves as the rightful descendants of the country’s feudal kings and emperors, who all treasured white elephants as symbols of power and virtue”.
The following day, in another ritual with political overtones, Senior General Than Shwe, the country’s military dictator, launched a new flag and renamed the country “The Republic of the Union of Myanmar”. According to Ingrid Jordt, an anthropologist who studies Burmese religion and culture, “this was done on the advice of soothsayers in order that the bad karma would follow the old government-nation-flag”, in an attempt to reverse the bad vibes generated by the regime’s crackdown on Buddhist monks and other protestors after the 2007 “Saffron Revolution”. (more…)
Myanmar holds first election in 20 years, but results are preordained – Los Angeles Times
November 8th, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-myanmar-election-20101108,0,5996111.story
The constitution and election rules favor the two main parties backed by the country’s military rulers. Some opposition groups call for a boycott, but the regime pressures citizens to turn out and vote for ‘candidates correctly.’
Myanmar held its first multiparty election in 20 years Sunday, as citizens chose among lions, peacocks, bamboo hats, eyeglasses and other party symbols in a carefully scripted contest unlikely to bring about significant change anytime soon.
While there was no immediate announcement of the results from Myanmar, also known as Burma, the outcome was never in question.
Opposition candidates were far outspent, outmanned and out-advertised by the two main parties backed by the country’s military rulers. Twenty-five percent of parliamentary seats are reserved for the military. And the government-crafted constitution and skewed election rules heavily favored the military government’s candidates.
Speaking to students in Mumbai, India, on the first stop of a four-nation Asian trip, President Obama termed Myanmar’s elections “anything but free and fair.” (more…)
Burma’s election: proxy parties and proxy coverage – The Irrawaddy
November 7th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19989
BANGKOK – Looking somewhere between flustered and bemused, the official at the Burmese embassy in Hanoi flicked through my passport, double-checking the
ANFREL Director Somsri Hananuntasuk updates journalists at the FCCT on what ANFREL volunteers are seeing on the ground in Burma today (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
details on the main page and scanning through the stamps and visas.
“We will not be able to give you a visa for Myanmar”, she said, after a a couple of minutes brow-furrowing and mouth-pursing, and likely, careful thought about what to tell me. “Why is that?” I asked. We were both playing at faux-innocence, a game where each side knows that the other is bluffing, but both pretend that everything is being taken at face-value. She hesitated. “Em, you, em, need a multiple entry visa for Vietnam sir”. “Oh I see”, I replied, “but what has my visa for Vietnam got to do with travelling to Myanmar?”
It does actually, but I thought I should try some forlorn bluffing of my own and prolong the masquerade. My Vietnam visa was granted to allow me cover the recent summits in Hanoi, so she knew I was a journalist, trying like many others to finagle a way into Burma to cover the elections taking place today, in the guise of a tourist.
“We cannot issue visas unless you are entitled to stay in Vietnam for six months”, she said, more confidently than before. “Perhaps you can try your home country for a visa”. Ireland does not host an embassy from Burma, but seeing that the conversation was going nowhere, I didn’t bother to push the point, and thanked her for her time.
For the first time since the devastating 2008 Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta, killing around 140000 people, Burma is the top story on most of the international news networks. (more…)
The General’s Election in Burma – Sunday Business Post
November 7th, 2010
http://www.sbpost.ie/news/world/little-hope-for-change-in-burma-elections-52677.html
Burmese PM Thein Sein at the recent ASEAN summit in Hanoi (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Simon Roughneen in Bangkok – Today Burma goes to polls in what most observers are dismissing as a sham aimed at putting a civilian varnish on continued military dictatorship. Most of the candidates taking part are recently-resigned soldiers, or are backed by the military, which in any case has a reserved quota of 25% of parliamentary seats. Key ministries are ring-fenced for the army, while the commander-in-chief will have the option to annul the civilian government based on an arbitrary assessment of national security.
In total, genuine opposition parties will contest only one-third of the remainder 75% of seats which are up for grabs. To illustrate, the army’s Union Solidarity and Development Party will field candidates for almost all 1,158 seats at regional, lower and upper house levels. However, the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Front, can muster a meagre 163, hampered by restrictive electoral laws and campaign curbs. The onerous US$500 registration per candidate is more than the average GDP per capita in one of the few Asian countries where poverty equals or exceeds sub-Saharan Africa, despite billions earned in oil and gas revenues from sales to Thailand, China and India.
In recent days, undercover Burmese reporters have relayed details of massive pre-election ballot-rigging and forced voting to colleagues here in Thailand. The end of the week saw internet and mobile phone connections closed down, an apparent attempt to prevent the type of citizen reporting that saw footage of the 2007 monk-led Saffron protests leaked out to international news networks. Foreign media cannot enter Burma to cover the elections, though many have tried, with this correspondent among the many denied a visa recently. (more…)
