Testifying Against Pol Pot

Published on Feb 22, 2023 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Kerry Hamill. The Khmer Rouge tribunal is all but over with the final appeal in the genocide case against the regime’s former head of state Khieu Samphan dismissed and legislation passed to wind up the legalities and consign volumes of evidence to the history books.For many of Pol Pot’s victims, the time has come to move on – and that includes Rob Hamill, a New Zealander who testified against Kaing Guek Eav, or Duch, who ran the S-21 extermination center and was responsible for the death of his brother Kerry.Kerry Hamill talks with Luke Hunt about justice and the Khmer Rouge.Listen here..

Leaving Cambodia

Published on Jan 6, 2023 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Margaret Bywater. A prominent figure in Cambodian civil society for more than three decades, Bywater has worked with refugees and helped to rebuild the education sector, primarily through libraries and the establishment of information services.During the 1980s she toured refugee camps in Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong before arriving in what was then known as Kampuchea in 1986. She later undertook a consultancy for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Afghanistan.Working with Quaker Service Australia, Bywater lobbied for recognition of the Soviet-backed People’s Republic of Kampuchea and restoration of government aid, while backing efforts to find a peaceful solution to the long-running political impasse during the final years of the Cold War.Bywater spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke....

Tatmadaw Brutality

Published on Jan 6, 2023 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Scott Johnson, an Australia-based lawyer, journalist, and human rights advocate with more than 20 years of experience focusing on indigenous groups and geopolitical issues in Southeast Asia, in particular Myanmar, which he still calls Burma.His work began in the 1990s with human rights campaigns for The Montagnard Foundation, which included lobbying in the United Nations, Geneva, Washington, D.C. and Brussels. He also established the Tribal Action Group, which advocates on behalf of indigenous groups in Southeast Asia.Over the last decade, Johnson has been involved with Burma and its many ethnic groups, who have vowed to fight the military junta that seized power from an elected government early last year. Johnson spoke with Luke Hunt. Listen here.

Mekong Mercy

Published on Jan 6, 2023 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with British journalist and filmmaker Tom Fawthrop who has delivered his latest documentary on the plight of the Mekong River amid ongoing dam construction, climate change, and a drought that appears to have ended with this year’s heavy rains.“A River Screams for Mercy: Murdering the Mekong” follows efforts by local activists demanding a moratorium on dam construction, but their calls too often fall on deaf ears among authorities who stand to profit.Working for a range of publications – including Mongabay, The Ecologist, The Diplomat, China Dialogue, and the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter blog – Fawthrop has covered Southeast Asia since 1979, reporting on conflicts and peacemaking in Cambodia, Timor-Leste, and the Philippines. He spoke with Luke Hunt. Listen here.

Timor-Leste in ASEAN

Published on Jan 6, 2023 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Kupa Lopez. Timor-Leste initially applied for membership to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 11 years ago, but since then Dili has been frustrated and disappointed, finding entry into the club of 10 nations a difficult ask.This prompted Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta to remark earlier this year that: “It seems as if to reach ASEAN, you have to fulfill all the criteria to enter heaven. And then the next step is ASEAN.”Membership seemed assured this year after Cambodia assumed the role of ASEAN’s rotating chair, with Prime Minister Hun Sen promising to do all he could to ensure Timor-Leste’s admittance as the bloc’s eleventh member state. That was not to be.Luke Hunt spoke with Kupa Lopes,....

Three Asian Summits

Published on Jan 6, 2023 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Brad Murg. Southeast Asia recently played host to an unprecedented group of summits that firmly put the West and its U.S.-led foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific on the front foot.Bradley Murg, distinguished senior research fellow at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, speaks with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about the key takeaways and questions that arose after world leaders converged on Phnom Penh, Bali, and Bangkok.Listen here.

Sri Lanka's Political Implosion

Published on Aug 27, 2022 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Ganeshan Wignaraja. Sri Lanka has been imperiled by a collapsing economy amid allegations of gross corruption by the Rajapaksa family which had ruled the island-nation for 17 years.Ganeshan Wignaraja is an internationally known development economist. He is a non-resident senior fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and a senior research associate at ODI Global in London.He spoke with Luke Hunt in Colombo about the plight of his country. Listen here..

Vigilantes Saving Rainforests

Published on Jun 1, 2022 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Karl Malakunas. Palawan island in the Philippines has emerged as a battlefield for a tiny network of environmental crusaders and vigilantes who are trying to protect its spectacular natural resources, powder-white beaches, and lush forests, which have made it one of Asia’s hot new tourist destinations.They are also the subject of a new feature-length documentary “Delikado” from director Karl Malakunas who pressed ahead with its production after one of the vigilantes was shot dead in 2011.“Delikado” follows Bobby, Tata, and Nieves as they risk their lives in trying to stop politicians and businessmen from destroying what is perhaps the Philippines’ last ecological frontier.The documentary also exposes how outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte’s notorious “war on drugs” has been....

Terrorism; Far Out

Published on May 24, 2022 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Charlotte McDonald-Gibson. Security laws imposed around the world to curb the spread of COVID-19 enabled the authorities to crackdown on militancy, which resulted in a brief respite from they type of terrorist attacks that had become all too familiar during the first two decades of this century.But as author Charlotte McDonald-Gibson notes, the pandemic could lend itself to increased isolation and the same factors that have enabled groups like the Islamic State (IS), al-Qaida, and the now defunct Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia to find support from remote corners of the globe.In her latest book, “Far Out: Encounters with Extremists,“ the veteran foreign correspondent chronicles the lives of eight people who succumbed to the influence of hardliners,....

ASEAN's Place

Published on May 20, 2022 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Carl Thayer. Last weekend’s U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit ended with the usual round of handshakes, backslapping and a watered-down joint statement, which again failed to name countries of concern, China and Russia.Carl Thayer, Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about the summit and Vietnam, which is in an awkward position due to its reliance on Russian military hardware.He says efforts to maintain a “free and open Indo-Pacific” have been complicated by the Southeast Asian nations and their desire to be seen at the center of the framework, despite their growing and at times intractable differences.There are also issues with raising U.S.-ASEAN....