AEC Shamed by Toxic Haze and Laos Dams

Published on Nov 1, 2015 by Luke Hunt

A grand entrance by the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), when it launches in less than nine weeks, onto the world stage was supposed to herald the dawning of a prosperous new age for the more than 600 million people who live within the region.But the political realities are already delivering a different, unwanted take. Bad? Even Southeast Asia’s harshest critics are trying hard not to crow over the latest debacles, for fear of tempting fate with the region’s notoriously thin-skinned leaders.Most telling is the toxic smog which has been allowed to escalate for 20 years. A Wall Street Journal report quoting Greenpeace says 110,000 people die annually from haze-related illnesses.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat..

Is Modern History Biggest Resource Heist in Myanmar?

Published on Oct 24, 2015 by Luke Hunt

Global Witness has staked its reputation on significant investigations and reports into corruption by corporates and governments on a grand scale, particularly in Southeast Asia where objectivity and honest appraisals about the state of the environment are in short supply.Its work in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak – where long serving chief minister Taib Mahmud retired with a family fortune worth an estimated at US$20 billion – was widely applauded, as were investigations into land grabbing across Cambodia by Vietnamese rubber companies.Now the London-based environmental watchdog has set its sights on Myanmar, where it has revised the value of the illegal gem trade substantially higher, at US$31 billion in 2014 alone, almost half of the country’s entire GDP and....

Blame Game Continues, Malaysia’s Deadly Plane Crash

Published on Oct 24, 2015 by Luke Hunt

Dutch investigators have confirmed what much of the world already believed: That a Russian-made missile was used from rebel territory controlled by pro-Moscow forces in Ukraine to shoot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, killing all 298 people on board.Equally predictable was the Kremlin’s reaction to the tragedy and ensuing investigations which found a Russian-made Buk rocket system was deployed on July 17, 2014, even though it is impossible to say who did it.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat..

Evidence Mounts Over Khmer Rouge Genocide of Muslims and Vietnamese

Published on Oct 10, 2015 by Luke Hunt

Ever since Cambodia’s prime minister Hun Sen asked the United Nations in the late 1990s to back his plan for a trial of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, legal scholars, academics and journalists have argued whether genocide should have been included among the raft of charges that followed.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat..

Laos in the Spotlight Over Human Rights

Published on Oct 10, 2015 by Luke Hunt

Human rights violations are again an issue in Laos – and a thorn in the side of a government more concerned with centrally-planned economic policies – following the death 61-year-old Tiang Kwentianthong.Tiang was originally arrested for praying for a sick woman without government approval. Reports say he was denied medicine for diabetes. He was jailed nine months ago, released in March after his condition had deteriorated substantially, and died on September 17.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat..