UN: Drug Use Soars

Published on Sep 27, 2011 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has confirmed what to many has been clear for some time – that the production and use of synthetic drugs like amphetamines is widespread and growing globally, particularly in Southeast Asia. A UNODC report singles out Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia as primary places for production and trafficking. It also notes that seizures of methamphetamine pills across the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) increased to 133 million in 2010, from 32 million in 2008. Read more in The Diplomat. .

Death Penalty Tests India

Published on Sep 22, 2011 by Luke Hunt

Are three men about to be unfairly executed? AsiaWATCH reports from southern India. AsiaWATCH — Throughout the civilised world, the issuing of a death sentence is usually greeted by some controversy and India, a country known for its peaceful yet chaotic democracy, is no different. In August, India’s President Pratibha Patil formally rejected clemency pleas made by three men sentenced to death for their involvement in the 1991 assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The decision came after a lengthy ten years of contemplation and was met by huge protests, particularly in the normally laid-back southern state of Tamil Nadu. Whilst these protests highlight the underlining tensions that have long existed between southern India and the remainder of the sub-continent,....

Dutch Pay for Indon Massacre

Published on Sep 17, 2011 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — A decade ago, when the United Nations and Cambodia were attempting to kick start the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, those against it would often argue the crimes committed by Pol Pot back in the 1970s were committed too long ago, were fading from memory, and so it was a waste of good money. These people disturbed me. My standard response was: ’I’m sure you’d feel the same way if your parents or children were tortured, bludgeoned to death and dumped in a mass grave. Read more in The Diplomat. .

Brits on Death March

Published on Sep 15, 2011 by Luke Hunt

ASIAWATCH — It’s quite possibly the toughest hike in the world, and it had never been completed in its entirety until this weekend when 14 British soldiers emerged from the Borneo jungle after retracing the steps of the infamous death marches forced on prisoners of war towards the end of World War II. Luke Hunt Reports. Only six Australians survived three marches that claimed another 1,781 Australian and 641 British troops as the Japanese _ who feared an allied invasion _ attempted to transfer POWs from Sandakan on the northeast coast of Borneo to camps in the interior. All were malnourished, many afflicted with malaria or beriberi. They were lucky to get 85g of rice a day, were beaten along....

Did Arroyo Rig Election?

Published on Sep 14, 2011 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Speculation that the Philippines’ 2004 presidential election was rigged has rarely abated despite a concerted effort by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to convince a sceptical electorate that everything political was, and always had been, above board. She still insists nothing untoward was done at the polls. Any evidence to the contrary was always going to be difficult to produce until her tenure ended last year with the election of Benigno Aquino as president, a man who is anything but an Arroyo cheerleader. Read more in The Diplomat. .