Stiletto by Max Kolbe — July, 2010

Published on Aug 1, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Fifty-nine journalists were killed because of their job in the first six months of 2010, the Switzerland-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) says, up from 53 for the same period in 2009. According to the Geneva-based organization, journalists are more in harm’s way in Mexico where they are hunted by organized crime while The Philippines, Pakistan, Honduras and Nigeria were not far behind. PEC Secretary General Blaise Lempen noted that journalists were exposed in countries which were witnessing internal problems. That goes for the likes of 75-year-old radio commentator, Jose Daguio. The Filipino was shot dead in his home in Tabuk City becoming the first journalist murdered during the Aquino administration. Police said a lone gunman attacked Daguio, a semi-retired reporter....

Justice at Last for Pol Pot’s Victims

Published on Jul 27, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Anne Barrowclough and Luke Hunt for The Times Standing motionless behind bulletproof glass and under the unforgiving gaze of hundreds of relatives of his victims, the Khmer Rouge’s notorious torturer-in-chief was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in prison in a ruling that reverberated through Cambodia. Kang Kek Ieu, or Duch, the ruthless .

Khmer Rouge Commandant Guilty

Published on Jul 26, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Judge Sylvia Cartwright Luke Hunt reports for World Politics Review PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Kang Guek Eav, a.k.a. Duch, the notorious commandant of Pol Pot’s S21 death camp where about 16,000 people were sent to their deaths, was found guilty on Monday of murder, torture and crimes against humanity by a United Nations-backed court. The decision was hailed by local and international authorities seeking justice for up to 2 million people who perished here between 1975 and 1979, amid one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century’s bloody history. .

Verdict Sets Khmer Rouge Stage

Published on Jul 25, 2010 by Luke Hunt

When Kang Guek Eav fronts the United Nations-sanctioned court tomorrow much will be at stake. For the former death camp commander, more widely known as Duch, his fate will finally be told. Luke Hunt reports for Spectrum. As chief torturer and executioner during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge rule, he faces a life sentence for the deaths of about 16,000 people who were processed at S21, headquarters of the secret police constructed within an abandoned high school in suburban Tuol Sleng. Prosecutors are demanding 40 years although time off for the 11 years already spent behind bars could see this whittled back substantially. Any reduction will anger the handful of S21 survivors. .

Burmese election has locals packing

Published on Jul 11, 2010 by Luke Hunt

There are strong fears among ethnic groups in particular that the junta’s exercise in participatory democracy is nothing but a sham, Luke Hunt reports for Spectrum in Bangkok. Hardest hit is the country’s Muslim population, and Temme Lee, refugee co-ordinator at the Malaysian human rights organisation Suaram, said Kachin, Karen and Chin had also joined the cross-border march. “There have also been reports of people heading across the border and into China,” she told Spectrum. “There is a lot of pressure on the communities.” Among those who fled Burma is Hamid bin Hatin, a 17-year-old Burmese Muslim. Bin Hatin was being press-ganged into the Burmese military, where he would be forced to perform menial labour and spend years away from....

Editor’s May Note

Published on May 21, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Plans are affot to preserve the natural habitat of the Maliau Basin. Contributions from Luke Hunt and Karl Wilson have been added which include coverage of the elections in The Philippines, Vietnam’s 35th anniversary commemorating the end of the Vietnam War with America and plans to win a World Heritage Listing for the Maliau Basin, also known as the Lost World hidden deep inside Borneo’s interior. Clients include The Times, The Diplomat, Radio Australia and Voice of America. Ed. .

Stiletto by Max Kolbe — May, 2010

Published on May 21, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Protests in Thailand and the bloody violence that most of us saw coming, claimed the lives of two foreign correspondents and injured a few more with the Thai government claiming victory over civilian protestors. The dead were Japanese journalist Hiroyaki Muramoto, a TV cameraman with Thomson Reuters killed on April 10 and Italian freelance photographer Fabio Polenghi who died on May 19 from gunshot wounds. Dutch radio and television journalist Michel Maas was injured while reporting on the violence in the Thai capital, as was Briton Andrew Buncombe and two Canadian journalists, Nelson Rand shot three times, and Chandler Vandergrift who suffered shrapnel wounds to the head. Three Thai photographers and one reporter were also wounded. The deaths were the....

Vietnam, China’s ‘Little Sister’

Published on May 11, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Vietnamese hate the moniker, reports Luke Hunt for The Diplomat. But their feelings about their big neighbor are a lot more complicated. The rooftop balcony of the Majestic Hotel commands sweeping views across the Saigon River where tinysampans mix with giant cargo ships and ply their trade. Loaded with history and nostalgia, its bar is also a venue for the Old Hacks Reunion—a once-in-five-year affair when Vietnam War era combat reporters get together and trade tales from the past and down a few of their favourite ales. Great survivors, like Peter Arnett, Jim Pringle and photographers Tim Page and Al Rockoff, were there this year. But their ranks, like their hairlines, are gray and thinning. .

Vietnam’s 35th

Published on Apr 30, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Snapshots from the 35th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. On April 30, 1975, Soviet-made tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon signalling the war with South Vietnam and its chief ally the United States was over. Significant commemorations are held every five years which includes a reunion of combat reporters who covered the era. .

Lost World for World Heritage

Published on Apr 26, 2010 by Luke Hunt

by Luke Hunt for The Times Malaysian authorities have ended years of tortuous debate and decided to nominate the Maliau Basin as a World Heritage Site, in effect saving the celebrated rainforests from the clutches of timber and mining interests.The basin, located deep within the remote interior of North Borneo, was discovered only in the 1970s and remains largely unexplored. Scientists hailed the decision, saying it was a victory for the environment and the species that remain undiscovered. .