Vietnam Deploys ‘Old Ladies’

Published on Apr 22, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Vietnamese authorities seeking to stop a well-known democracy activist from meeting an American diplomat last weekend deployed an unusual weapon — a group of elderly ladies. The women blocked the road leading to the dissident’s house, preventing a U.S. Embassy vehicle from reaching the house. The vehicle was supposed to take the dissident to a downtown hotel to meet with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dan Baer, who was trying to get first-hand accounts from activists and the families of those imprisoned inside the one-party, authoritarian country. Read more from Fox News. .

Preah Vihear and the Jungle Lines

Published on Apr 20, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — In the dusty frontier town of Sra Em, 27 kilometers from the Thai border and the disputed Preah Vihear Temple area, the sense of Cambodian nationalism is perhaps more palpable than anywhere else in the country. In the many restaurants and beer gardens that line the town’s two roads, off-duty soldiers drink to chants of “Preah Vihear! Kampuchea!” Army camouflage is en vogue, with caps, vests and other military attire donned proudly by the town’s residents. Read more from Kevin Ponniah in The Diplomat. .

Cambodia fires back at Thailand

Published on Apr 19, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Cambodia argued hard against Thailand’s evidence regarding Phnom Penh’s acceptance of the barbed-wire fence ordered to be put up by the Thai cabinet around Preah Vihear after the 1962 International Court of Justice ruling, and described the claim that Cambodia falsified maps as groundless. Read more from The Bangkok Post.   .

Laos US$5 Billion Loan Approved

Published on Apr 19, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — A U.S. $5 billion dollar loan for construction of a rail link across southern Laos between Thailand and Vietnam has reportedly been approved. The loan is worth more than half of Laos’ total Gross Domestic Product. New Zealand group Rich Banco Berhad has apparently approved the loan to Malaysian-based Giant Consolidated, which will build the 220-kilometer track linking the two borders. However, details surrounding the deal, the bank and its relationship with the Malaysian group are sketchy at best. Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat. .

Thailand says ICJ Should Ignore Preah Vihear Dispute

Published on Apr 18, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Thailand asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ)  to ignore the dispute with Cambodia over the land around the Preach Vihear temple or else rule there is nothing to interpret in the case. Surapong Tovichakchaikul, Thai Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister attending the trial on the temple dispute, rejected the claim there is a dispute between Thailand and Cambodia on the rights over what is the “vicinity” of the Preah Vihear temple. At a briefing at The Hague after Thailand wound up its first session of oral statement to the panel, he summarised the Thai position in six points. Read more from The Bangkok Post. .

Southeast Asia’s Missing Activists

Published on Apr 16, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit went missing on March 12, 2004. Filipino activist Jonas Burgos was last seen on April 28, 2007. Lao development economist and educator Sombath Somphone disappeared on December 15, 2012. The search for these missing activists has become a campaign for human rights promotion, not only in their respective countries but across Southeast Asia. Their names have become synonymous with the fight against enforced disappearances, kidnapping, torture, and other human rights atrocities, often carried out with apparent impunity. Read more from Mong Palatino in The Diplomat. .

Thai-Cambodia Border Clash Erupts in UN Court

Published on Apr 16, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — An explosive hearing into a territorial row between Thailand and Cambodia has began at the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague. The 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, lying between the two countries, has been the focus of an ownership battle which has seen tense fighting on the border. Read and hear more from Radio Australia. .

Landmines Blight SE Asia

Published on Apr 12, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Hundreds of people across Southeast Asia – often children or impoverished villagers looking for scrap metal –continue to be maimed or killed every year by land mines and unexploded bombs, despite a concerted effort by governments to rid the region of the scourge. Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat. .

Kopassus & Indonesian Impunity

Published on Apr 11, 2013 by Luke Hunt

FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Impunity and the ability of the well connected to flout laws and do as they like is a subject that Southeast Asian governments wish would just go away. It undermines democracy and that old chestnut the separation of powers, a foundation of democratic principles. Governments spend fortunes on public relations trying to convince people that the problem is merely a figment of critics’ imagination, parlayed by a media that simply doesn’t understand the true values and characteristics that are the making of their grand societies. Then along comes Kopassus. Read more from Luke Hunt at The Diplomat. .

Malaysian Poll Set for May 5

Published on Apr 10, 2013 by Luke Hunt

ASIAWATCH — Long awaited elections will be held in Malaysia on May 5, officials from the country’s Electoral Commission said. The decision ends months of speculation and follows a decision by Prime Minister Najib Razak to dissolve Parliament ahead of the poll, which is expected to the closest election since independence in 1957. .   .