Rodrigo Duterte Condemned for Rape Comments

Published on Apr 19, 2016 by Luke Hunt

The frontrunner to be elected president of the Philippines has joked about an Australian missionary who was raped and had her throat slashed during a jail siege. The comments by tough-talking mayor Rodrigo Duterte​ – a self confessed womaniser – provoked immediate condemnation only three weeks before Filipinos go to the polls in an election seen as crucial to the nation’s future.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch in The Age.

Detained Christians in Thailand: ASEAN’s Latest Refugee Issue

Published on Mar 8, 2016 by Luke Hunt

Southeast Asia, with its ten countries squeezed into an area half the size of China and a volatile mix of politics and old-fashioned hatreds, has no shortage of issues with refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, smugglers, and traffickers.Its porous borders and overstretched police mean there is no shortage of people prepared to try their luck in search of a safer, and perhaps more prosperous, life, as witnessed by the exodus of Rohingya Muslims out of Myanmar last year which left thousands stranded at sea.Their story holds a familiar ring. BBC News has detailed the plight of thousands of Christian refugees from Pakistan, arrested and detained in Thailand after fleeing persecution in their own home. Some were....

Sand Wars: Singapore Growth Costs its Neighbours

Published on Feb 29, 2016 by Luke Hunt

Just two years ago a small sandbar could be seen jutting out of the narrow straits separating Singapore and Malaysia’s Johor.Then the barges came, disgorging tonnes of sand, the beginning of a $60 billion, 20-year Malaysian development of four man-made islands designed for 700,000 residents and 25,000 workers, called Forest City.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch in The Age. .

Khmer Rouge Survivor Films Return to his Childhood

Published on Feb 29, 2016 by Luke Hunt

Bunhom Chhorn saw the black-uniformed killers in his nightmares as he was growing up in Melbourne.“They appeared stark and terrifyingly real, always trying to catch me or do me harm,” he says.Bunhom tried to push the images away as he studied, worked night-shift in a factory and then won a place in a documentary-making course.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch in The Age.

Malaysia, Philippines Face a New Sultan at a Bad Time

Published on Feb 28, 2016 by Luke Hunt

War against Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia has too often been complicated by layers of nationalism, provincial politics and tribal culture. It’s a thorn in Southern Thailand, Indonesia and in particular the Southern Philippines, where peace talks have struggled to accommodate all and end decades of conflict that feeds off of old tribal hatreds.The importance of the tribes can’t be underestimated, and this was highlighted by a recent appointment among the Sulu clans.Phugdalun Kiram II has been named as the next Sultan of Sulu, a clan position with pretensions to royal ownership of huge swathes of land including much of Sabah in Malaysia’s far east. He took the helm following the death of Esmail Kiram II last year.Read more from....