NUG: Stepping Up

Published on Mar 20, 2023 by Luke Hunt

Ever since the West turned on the military taps and flooded Ukraine with weapons capable of stopping the Russian advance, the backers of Myanmar’s ousted government have asked: “what about us?” It’s an understandable question. Luke Hunt writes for The Diplomat.The National Unity Government (NUG) and its armed wing, the People’s Defense Force (PDF), are in dire need of weaponry as they push the civil war from the jungles into junta-held provincial zones where the military responds with Russian-made fighter jets and artillery.But the Western response has been limited to sanctions.The latest sanctions just announced by the European Union include travel bans on 16 individuals and entities, including the junta’s energy minister, high-ranking officers, the ministry of defense and private companies....

Testifying Against Pol Pot

Published on Feb 22, 2023 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Kerry Hamill. The Khmer Rouge tribunal is all but over with the final appeal in the genocide case against the regime’s former head of state Khieu Samphan dismissed and legislation passed to wind up the legalities and consign volumes of evidence to the history books.For many of Pol Pot’s victims, the time has come to move on – and that includes Rob Hamill, a New Zealander who testified against Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, who ran the S-21 extermination center and was responsible for the death of his brother Kerry.Kerry Hamill talks with Luke Hunt about justice and the Khmer Rouge.Listen here..

Tatmadaw Brutality

Published on Jan 6, 2023 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Scott Johnson, an Australia-based lawyer, journalist, and human rights advocate with more than 20 years of experience focusing on indigenous groups and geopolitical issues in Southeast Asia, in particular Myanmar, which he still calls Burma.His work began in the 1990s with human rights campaigns for The Montagnard Foundation, which included lobbying in the United Nations, Geneva, Washington, D.C. and Brussels. He also established the Tribal Action Group, which advocates on behalf of indigenous groups in Southeast Asia.Over the last decade, Johnson has been involved with Burma and its many ethnic groups, who have vowed to fight the military junta that seized power from an elected government early last year. Johnson spoke with Luke Hunt. Listen here.

Terrorism; Far Out

Published on May 24, 2022 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Charlotte McDonald-Gibson. Security laws imposed around the world to curb the spread of COVID-19 enabled the authorities to crackdown on militancy, which resulted in a brief respite from they type of terrorist attacks that had become all too familiar during the first two decades of this century.But as author Charlotte McDonald-Gibson notes, the pandemic could lend itself to increased isolation and the same factors that have enabled groups like the Islamic State (IS), al-Qaida, and the now defunct Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia to find support from remote corners of the globe.In her latest book, “Far Out: Encounters with Extremists,“ the veteran foreign correspondent chronicles the lives of eight people who succumbed to the influence of hardliners,....

War & Hypersonics

Published on Apr 2, 2022 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Carl Schuster, an adjunct faculty instructor at Hawaii Pacific University since 2000, after his retirement as a captain with the United States Navy, and he has since earned an academic reputation for his research on China, Russia, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).His specialties also includes hypersonic weapons, which Russia claims to have used in combat in Ukraine. China is also developing similar weapons.However, Schuster – Chief of Pacific Command’s Intelligence Operations and Director of Operations at the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific from 1994-1999 – remains skeptical about Moscow’s claims and its production capabilities.He spoke with Luke Hunt about Russia’s relationship with China and the impact that is having on broader ties with the Association....