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 ...
New turns in South China Sea debate – The Irrawaddy
September 28th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22155
BANGKOK – The ongoing wrangle between China and a number of smaller neighbours over jurisdiction on the disputed South China Sea took a new turn yesterday with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III meeting Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Tokyo.
Without mentioning China, PM Noda told reporters after the summit that both countries would increase “cooperation between coastguards and defense-related authorities”. According to a joint statement issued after the meeting, both countries “confirmed that freedom of navigation, unimpeded commerce, and compliance with established international law including the UNCLOS (the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) and the peaceful settlement of disputes serve the interests of the two countries and the whole region”. (more…)
Thailand’s lèse-majesté crackdown chills dissent – Christian Science Monitor
September 21st, 2011
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44615661/ns/world_news-christian_science_monitor/#.Tnqzvezcwr4
Royalist anti-Government protestors are back on streets, in small numbers for now. Taken last week at Bangkok's Victory Monument(Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Bangkok, Thailand. Billboard-size images of Thailand’s royal family are draped over court buildings in Bangkok’s Ladphrao area, where on Wednesday morning the webmaster of a current affairs website testified on charges of insulting the country’s monarch.
The thing is: Chiranuch Premchaiporn did not say or write anything offensive herself. She is accused of failing to delete posts made by others on the Prachatai online forum quickly enough.
Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws, which include prohibitions against posting anti-monarchy slurs on the web, are among the world’s strictest, meriting jail terms of 3 to 15 years. And Ms. Chiranuch’s situation is but one in a spike in these lèse-majesté and related cases in recent years. Although official figures are hard to come by, it is estimated that caseload runs well into the hundreds. (more…)
Cables shed light as more Catholics arrested – National Catholic Register
September 19th, 2011
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/vietnamese-catholics-plight/
St.Joseph Cathedral in Hanoi (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Leaked U.S. embassy cables reveal power struggle between communist government and the Holy See as more believers are arrested on vague charges.
Weeks after the arrest and jailing of 12 Catholics in Vietnam for allegedly “attempting to overthrow the government,” it has emerged that American officials believe that Catholics who disagree with the communist regime are being “thrown under the popemobile.”
The lurid image headlined one of a tranche of recently leaked diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. According to the same document, dated Nov. 25, 2009, then-Holy See under secretary for Relations With States Archbishop Pietro Parolin (now the Holy See representative in Venezuela) “sharply criticized” former Hanoi Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet over his handling of land-rights disputes with city officials — remarks which U.S. officials speculated contributed to the archbishop’s subsequent resignation.
In 2008, Hanoi’s Thai Ha Church was the scene of 15,000-strong prayer vigils to try to save the church grounds — the former residence of the papal nuncio — from confiscation by the state. However, the meetings were forcibly broken up by police and security forces in the form of state-sponsored gangs, with most of the church grounds subsequently transformed into a public park. (more…)
Malaysia’s unlikely reformer – The Huffington Post
September 16th, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/simon-roughneen/malaysias-unlikely-reform_b_965775.html
Today is Malaysia’s 54th birthday, and last night, on the eve of the Merdeka (independence) celebrations, under-pressure Prime Minister Najib Razak caused a stir by announcing a basket of political reforms, including amending the country’s draconian detention-without-trial laws and pledging to end the practice by which media must apply annually to have their licences renewed (which free speech advocates say tames Malaysian newspapers and TV). (more…)
In Malaysia, Najib punts on reform – Asia Times
September 16th, 2011
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MI17Ae01.html
By Anil Netto and Simon Roughneen
Police arrest protestor at July 9 reform rally in Kuala Lumpur (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
PENANG and BANGKOK – Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has thrown down the gauntlet to the country’s political opposition with a bold-sounding reform package aimed at winning back lost popular support ahead of general elections due by 2013. Analysts believe the reform vows signal a move towards early polls, with some speculating they could be called as early as the fourth quarter of this year.
The amendments, announced last night in a speech on the eve of Malaysia Day and Merdeka (independence) Day celebrations, will entail the replacement of tough security laws, such as the Internal Security Act (ISA) and Emergency Ordinance, which have historically been used and abused by authorities to squash public dissent through provisions that allow for detention without trial.
Najib also promised to update a media code that requires publications to apply for permits every year, a regulation has created a culture of self-censorship among Malaysian journalists, and bring laws governing public assemblies in line with international norms. (more…)
Journalists under pressure in southeast Asia – The Irrawaddy
September 15th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22079
BANGKOK – Legal curbs on free speech, litigious politicians and self-censorship are making life tough for writers and journalists in southeast Asia. That was the message at an award ceremony in Bangkok yesterday, honouring under-pressure cartoonists, bloggers, editors, poets, musicians, webmasters from the region and beyond.
One winner, Chiranuch Premchaiporn of Thailand-based current affairs website Prachatai, is currently in court over alleged breaches of Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act, which makes it an offence for websites to contain content that breaches the country’s separate laws against defaming the monarchy. She was joined by Heng Chakra, a Cambodian journalist whose muckraking exposés of the country’s politicians and businessmen have earned him numerous lawsuits and physical threats, and by Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ul Haque. Better-known as Zunar, the latter is a Malaysian cartoonist and commentator whose work appears in Malaysiakini, a well-known news website that counters the usually-meek line toed by the country’s older print media, which are linked to the Malaysia’s governing parties. (more…)
Burma and Reform: All Talk and no Walk? – The Huffington Post
September 14th, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-roughneen/burma-and-reform-all-talk_b_961267.html
BANGKOK – It isn’t easy working as a journalist under Burma’s military rulers. The army has run the country since 1962, and although there were elections in November 2010 – the first in two decades – the army’s party won easily and the new Government is headed by Thein Sein, a former General and Prime Minister under the ancien regime.
On the face of it, the new man in charge is trying to ‘do reform’. He recently met with Aung San Suu Kyi – the extra-parliamentary opposition leader and now subject of a Luc Besson-directed film. She in turn praised Thein Sein, and to some, the new President is cautious ‘reformist’, apparently battling against ‘hardliners’ elsewhere in the Burmese Government. (more…)
Burma pivotal as amphetamine use soars – The Irrawaddy
September 14th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22072
BANGKOK – Burma’s increasing amphetamine production is contributing to the worldwide rise of synthetic drugs use, with the Mekong River now a key route for drug trafficking from the Golden Triangle, a drug-producing region in the Burma, Laos and Thailand borderlands.
Burma is the prime source for the growing use of amphetamines across southeast Asia in particular, with 133 million pills seized by police in 2010, up from 94 million the previous year and 32 million in 2008.
In February 2010, Laos authorities made a single seizure of 21.8 million pills, which was “believed to have originated from Myanmar” and was “evidently headed for Thailand”, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which adds that “the majority of the methamphetamine pills found in the country is sourced from Myanmar.” (more…)
Censorship prevails in ‘new’ Burma, despite reform talk – PBS Mediashift
September 13th, 2011
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/09/censorship-prevails-in-new-burma-despite-reform-talk256.html
BANGKOK - A handful of protestors gathered outside the Burmese embassy in Bangkok last Friday to vent their anger against the detention of 17 journalists in Burma, some of whom have been given multiple-decade prison terms for what activists describe as “no more than doing their jobs”.
Protestors outside the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on Friday. The mask depicts Zarganar, a popular comedian and social commentator jailed for criticising the Burmese Government response to a May 2008 cyclone, which killed more than 140,000 people (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
The jailed reporters worked for Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a Burmese media organization with personnel in Norway and Thailand. Decades of military rule in Burma incorporates vice-like press controls, and though these have been loosened of late, there are questions over whether this apparent liberalization is any more than rhetorical.
Those questions are highlighted by the case of Hla Hla Win, a 27 year old DVB reporter jailed for a 27 years for breaching motorbike rules and shooting video. DVB Chief Editor Aye Chaing Naing said “there is no legal justification to arrest Hla Hla Win and she should not have been arrested in the first place.”
Talk, but no walk on reform
Hla Hla Win and the 16 other DVB reporters are among what the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners– a Thailand-based organization staffed by ex-political prisoners from Burma — calculates to be 1,995 political prisoners or prisoners of conscience still in jail in Burma. (more…)
Sudan wars seem far from over – The Huffington Post
September 8th, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/simon-roughneen/sudan-wars-seem-far-from-_b_953395.html
Renewed fighting in Blue Nile could undermine even small gains, such as this numeracy class run by GOAL near Kurmuk, in Blue Nile State (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
After a murderous almost-six decade forced-marriage with what is now the (relative to before) the rump state of ‘northern’ Sudan, the Republic of South Sudan (RoSS) was founded on July 9 2011, six months after the Texas-sized region voted to secede from what was Africa’s largest state.
The death-toll (over 2 million) and destruction (total) wrought on what is now RoSS during the fighting has been well-documented – if obscured somewhat in the years since 2003 when the Darfur war began. With RoSS taking 3/4′s of what was the old Sudan’s oil with it, independence and its aftermath was always likely to be a fraught affair, even if secession was mandated by a 2005 peace agreement.
There was fighting along the border in January – in the still-disputed Abyei region – as the referendum took place. Both the Khartoum Government and the Juba (then-regional) administration distanced themselves from those skirmishes, putting them down to long-standing local disputes between farmers and herders over grazing and passage rights. (more…)
