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 ...
Wife of murdered Thai activist seeks justice – The Irrawaddy
August 11th, 2011
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21875
Thongmark Sawekjinda was sitting here when he was murdered (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand – Soft-spoken and appearing resolute despite her bereavement, Jomkwan Sawekjinda nods her head in the direction of the table to her left.
“That’s where he was shot’, she says, pointing at a concrete bench a metre away. On July 28 last, husband Thongnak Sawekjinda, an outspoken environmental campaigner in Samut Sakhon province, was about to make a mobile phone-call when two men pulled up on a motorcycle, turning in from the street outside.
The pillion passenger pulled out a gun and shot 47 year old Thongnak nine times with 9mm bullets, from behind, before the pair sped off. Thongnak died shortly afterwards in hospital. Seeking protection which never came, he told police he had been threatened during the weeks before he was murdered. The shooting came after he fronted several high-profile public protests against coal-related operations in the area. (more…)
Burmese baited into Thai fishing industry – The Irrawaddy
August 8th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21850
As the United Nations human trafficking representative begins her mission in Thailand, The Irrawaddy hears from Burmese trafficked into Thailand’s notorious fishing industry.
Burmese trafficking victim in Samut Sakhon shows scar from abuse inflicted at sea (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand – “The broker took 36,000 baht (US$1207) from us”, says Ma Than Nwe, a Tavoyan Burmese migrant worker in Thailand. “It was money that should have been paid to my husband”, she laments.
Her spouse Kyaw spent six months at sea on a Thai-run fishing vessel and the salary, which might seem a pittance to some, is a small fortune for people who earned the equivalent of US$1-2 per day in Burma. Or it would be, if it was paid at all. The promised 6000 baht per month was paid to a broker, a Burmese woman who cannot be named at this time for legal reasons. She kept the all money as payment for what Ma Than new – with understandable anger – sarcastically-describes as the broker’s “services” in helping her husband “find work” on the boat.
The broker and alleged trafficker and extortionist has since fled back to Burma. “We were afraid to do anything, as the police and the brokers work together to get money from us”, Ma Than Nwe says. (more…)
Still on the Run: Trafficked Burmese Recount Murder at Sea – The Irrawaddy
August 3rd, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21824
Escaped Burmese trafficking victims relax after work in their shack in Pathumthani (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
PATHUMTHANI, Thailand – As the wind-whipped rain made its staccato finger-drum rattle on the shack’s tin roof, *Saw and four Burmese co-workers sat cross-legged on the roughly-bonded plywood that had been pieced together to make an elevated floor.
Last year Saw spent seven months onboard a Thai fishing vessel, where he claims he witnessed the murder of two Burmese colleagues.
“I saw them throw two men to the sea”, recalls the 32 year old, almost-blurting out the revelation in his eagerness for catharsis. Frozen with fear at the time, he said that he was “too scared to move, to do anything”.
The two men, who Saw said were both in their early twenties, put up a final, futile, agonising struggle. “They fought, but with the noise from the engine and the sea, I could not hear, though I could see,” Saw continues.
“There were too many, the men who threw them in were Mon, they were like the right-hand men of the captain, a Thai.”
Pausing, as if having to tell himself that he really witnessed such horror that day, he repeated – “they just grabbed them and threw them into the waves. That was it.” (more…)
Row with Germany goes on as Thailand’s parliament opens – The Irrawaddy
August 1st, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21804
BANGKOK – An old commercial dispute has turned into a new diplomatic row between Germany and Thailand, putting the southeast Asian country’s monarchy in the spotlight as Thailand’s newly-elected parliament is inaugurated today.
Outgoing PM Abhisit Vejajjiva votes in Bangkok on election day (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
A Boeing 737 owned by Thailand’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn was impounded at Munich Airport on July 12 on the orders of a German court. The row goes back two decades, when a now-defunct German firm invested in a toll road to Bangkok’s old airport. The company’s liquidator was awarded €36m in damages by an international arbitration court in 2009 after successfully arguing that Bangkok breached the contract. Germany says the aircraft is Thai Government property, while Thailand says it belongs to the Crown Prince.
According to outgoing Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva, “the German government has no right to pressure Thailand to pay compensation in its dispute with a German contractor”, a brusque response to the impounding, which was followed by a demand by the Germany’s embassy in Bangkok that Thailand pay up and a warning that putative foreign investors might look elsewhere in southeast Asia. The prince has since said he would use his personal assets to settle the dispute, as he does not want to see Thai-German relations deteriorate. (more…)
Voices from Burma’s gulag – The Diplomat
July 30th, 2011
Ko Thet Oo is a a former bodyguard to Aung San Suu Kyi and ex-political prisoner in Burma. Pictured here at the AAPP office in Mae Sot, Thailand. He wears a hearing aid due to injuries sustained while in prison (Photo; Simon Roughneen)
http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/07/30/voices-from-burmas-gulag/
Following are reflections from three of Burma’s recently-released political prisoners, all of whom are still inside the country and therefore request that pseudonyms be used.
MAE SOT – Ko Zaw was one of 55 Burmese political prisoners freed as part of a controversial May 2011 announcement that saw almost 17,000 prisoners released from jail.
‘I was released on May 17 under the so-called amnesty,’ he says, after spending almost four years in Myingyan prison, far from his family in Arakan in Burma’s west, close to the border with Bangladesh. In a country that holds almost 2,000 political prisoners, where some sentences amount to almost a century of jail time, human rights groups and Burmese opposition figures criticised the releases, as most of those freed were nearing the end of their sentences in any case. (more…)
Australia-Malaysia refugee swap: offshoring the problem? – The Irrawaddy
July 28th, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21788
A refugee swap deal between Australia and Malaysia continues to attract criticism, even as both countries’ governments offer assurances that refugees’ rights will be respected.
BANGKOK — While a new refugee swap deal between Australia and Malaysia will offer hope to some of the tens of thousands of Burmese refugees in Malaysia, there are different views on whether the arrangement lives up to international standards.
The “Arrangement on Transfer and Resettlement” was signed in Kuala Lumpur on July 25 by Malaysia’s Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Australia’s Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Bowen. It will transfer 4,000 refugees in Malaysia to Australia over the next four years, in return for Malaysia taking in 800 asylum-seekers arriving in Australia or interdicted at sea en route to Australia after July 25. (more…)
More fuel for Malaysia’s fire – Asia Times
July 27th, 2011
United States diplomatic cables suggest Malaysia’s ruling party has been focused for years on avoiding overthrow by “people power”, throwing a spotlight on
Teargas fired during July 9 protest in Kuala Lumpur (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
controversial anti-riot methods seen in the crackdown on the opposition-backed Bersih 2.0 protests. Perhaps more damaging are allegations the party orchestrated religious controversies to foment sectarian divisions and increase its support among Malay voters.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MG28Ae01.html
BANGKOK – Recently-released United States diplomatic cables from 2008-2010 shed light on Malaysia’s political scene in the aftermath of a controversial crackdown on an opposition-backed electoral reform demonstration in Kuala Lumpur where over 1,600 people were arrested, including opposition politicians.
On July 9, Malaysia’s police fired teargas and water-cannon at thousands of protesters who defied a ban on the rally, which was organized by Bersih 2.0, a coalition of non-governmental organizations that says it wants changes to how Malaysia stages elections, including the mandatory use of indelible ink to prevent voters from casting multiple ballots. (more…)
War trumps investment in Myanmar – Asia Times
July 25th, 2011
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MG26Ae01.html
BANGKOK – Myanmar’s longest-standing ethnic minority militia, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), has forced a halt to the construction of a key roadway link to the US$8 billion Dawei port and industrial estate mega-project. The blockage comes amid recently intensified fighting between government forces and insurgent groups in areas scheduled for massive foreign investment initiatives.
The Thai-financed Dawei project aims to jump-start Myanmar’s moribund industrial sector through better integration with Thailand’s more developed economy and infrastructure. It also aims to leverage into fast growing trade and investment enabled by the recently enacted China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreement and to which Thailand has major regional hub ambitions. (more…)
Activists link Burma’s resource investments to ethnic fighting – The Irrawaddy
July 25th, 2011
Burmese environmentalists say that dozens of foreign investment projects linked to the country’s natural resources drive the recent increase in fighting between the army and ethnic minority groups in borderlands close to China and Thailand.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21756
BANGKOK - Speaking at the launch of Burma’s Environment:People, Problems, Policies, a new report from The Burma Environmental Working Group (BEWG), Naw La, a Kachin whose family has been driven from their home by fighting between the Burmese military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), said that fighting started after the Burmese Government apparently did not listen to Kachin concerns about Chinese-backed hydropower dams in the northern region of Burma.
“The KIO (Kachin Independence Organisation) sent many letters to Naypyidaw and to the Chinese Government, objecting to the Myitsone dam”, he said, “and warning that there could be civil war if the dam is not stopped”. (more…)
Burmese Gov. said that NLD could take part in election – The Irrawaddy
July 21st, 2011
Burma’s Foreign Minister told the Cambodian Ambassador that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party would be allowed run in the 2010 election. Leaked US cables highlight divergences between Western and ASEAN views on Burma, with Hun Sen sounded-out as a possible interlocutor with the Burmese junta.
Boeung Kak lake in Phnom Penh, where thousands of residents have been driven out to make way for a Chinese-backed development, adding to concerns about the Cambodian Gov's human rights record (Photo: Simon Roughneen
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21732
BANGKOK — In a meeting with Scott Marciel, the then-US ambassador for ASEAN Affairs and current ambassador to Indonesia, Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said “that the Burmese FM told the Cambodian ambassador recently that elections will be held in May 2010 and that 10 political parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s, would be allowed participate.”
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the party that won Burma’s previous election in 1990, only for the military to ignore the result, boycotted the 2010 election, partly due to the ban imposed on Suu Kyi from participating.
In any case, according to Burma’s state-run media, the NLD was officially proscribed on Sept 14, 2010, almost 2 months before the Nov 7, 2010 vote, which produced a landslide win for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in an election widely dismissed as rigged. (more…)
