1st Khmer Rouge Trial begins in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The chief of a prison where some 16,000 men, women and children were tortured before being killed appeared Tuesday before Cambodia's genocide tribunal in its first trial over the Khmer Rouge reign of terror more than three decades ago.

Kaing Guek Eav _ better known as Duch _ is charged with crimes against humanity and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the U.N.-assisted court.

They were among a close-knit, ultra-communist clique that turned Cambodia into a vast slave labor camp and charnel house in which 1.7 million or more died of starvation, disease and execution.

The trial comes 30 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, 13 years after the tribunal was first proposed and nearly three years after the court was inaugurated.

Many victims feared that all the Khmer Rouge leaders would die before facing justice, and getting even one of them on trial is seen as a breakthrough. But there are concerns that the process is being politically manipulated and that thousands of killers will escape unpunished.

The Cambodian side in the tribunal has recently turned down recommendations from the international co-prosecutor to try other Khmer Rouge leaders, as many as six according to some reports. This has sparked criticism from human rights groups.

"The tribunal cannot bring justice to the millions of the Khmer Rouge's victims if it tries only a handful of the most notorious individuals, while scores of former Khmer Rouge officials and commanders remain free," the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a release Monday.

Others facing trial are Khieu Samphan, the group's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue.

All four have denied committing crimes.

Summing up Thailand's Rohinga Shame

Lame excuses add to shame

By: Sanitsuda Ekachai

Published: in Bangkok Post 22/01/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

Will someone please tell the army chief and the navy boss to stop making lame excuses? No one believes a word of it. The more they try to defend their horrific act with the Rohingya boat people, the bigger the hole they are digging for themselves. And the greater the harm they are doing to the country.

Thank you so very much for making the whole world see Thailand as a cold-blooded country.

At a time when Thailand badly needs to address its image problem from the coup, violent protests and the crazy airport closedown, the navy - apparently with full backing from other national security agencies - has shown the world how cruel we can be to poor migrant workers, especially when they are dark-skinned Muslims.

Thank you for forcing us to probe into our hearts to see if we can still call ourselves Buddhists.

Honestly, I am a bit annoyed by the way the news was played up in the foreign media, which often plays on sensationalism and moral superiority, feeding on bigotry. But there is not much we can do about that.

What we can do, however, is to look at our own bigotry, confront the problem and ask ourselves why we allow ourselves to be blind to such atrocities. For this was most certainly not the first time that the Rohingya boat people were pushed back to face death at sea. And it would not be the last had it not been exposed by the foreign press, which we must be thankful for.

But we see only denial and defensive reaction on the home front.

The navy and the army insist with deadpan faces that they did not violate any humanitarian standards.

Excuse me, sir. Is towing people out to the open seas, setting them adrift, and allowing them to starve to death your standard of humanity?

Wake up! You have already woken up to the fact that the world no longer accepts your coups. Now it is time to learn that your old-world standard is too poor to be acceptable, too.

The reaction from Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban is equally distressing. He says the whole thing is an attempt to discredit Thailand.

The responses from some local media are no less frustrating. In sum, they view the navy's move as an effort to protect the country from the influx of the Rohingya, who are feared to have links with the southern Muslim militants. Besides, Thailand is already swamped with immigrants and refugees from neighbouring countries. Overburdened, they say, Thailand needs help to deal with the massive migrant influx, not condemnation.

And if the international community wants to pin blame on someone, why Thailand and not Burma? Is the international community also to blame for failing to contain the atrocious Burmese junta, leading to the massive migration of the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities?

They may have some valid points. But what good are they if they are used to justify our heartlessness?

Personally, the most shocking reaction has come from my 13-year-old daughter: "But the Rohingya, aren't they illegal?"

They are, I said, but that is no reason to treat them so mercilessly.

Waging my personal war against racist nationalism which poisons my girl's head, I told her the Rohingya are a Muslim minority who are severely persecuted by the Burmese military junta. They are the fathers who dared to risk their lives to support their poor families back home. And if we cannot let them stay, we must deport them through legal channels, not make them die at sea.

Her question: Why cannot Thailand do something with Burma to end the mess?

Why not, indeed.

Thai nationalism is notorious for making Thais hate Burma. et our governments and military have mostly backed the Burmese generals. It is Burma's oil, gas, timber and gems. It is greed. It is ethnic prejudices that dictate our treatment of the powerless Burmese people.

If that is why, we are now paying dearly for it.

Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor (Outlook), Bangkok Post.

Another ethnic minority flees persecution in Myanmar

From the Associated Press:
The "forgotten" Chin people, Christians living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar, are subject to forced labor, torture, extrajudicial killings and religious persecution by the country's military regime, a human rights group said Wednesday.
A report by the New York-based Human Right Watch said tens of thousands have fled the Chin homeland into neighboring India, where they face abuse and the risk of being forced back into Myanmar.
"The Chin are unsafe in Burma and unprotected in India, but just because these abuses happen far from Delhi and Rangoon (Yangon) does not mean the Chin should remain `forgotten people,'" the report said.
It said the regime also continues to commit atrocities against its other ethnic minorities.
Myanmar's ruling junta has been widely accused of widespread human rights violations in ethnic minority areas where anti-government insurgent groups are fighting for autonomy. The government has repeatedly denied such charges, but an e-mailed request for comment on the new report was not immediately answered.
A top official for India's Mizoram state, Chief Secretary Vanhela Pachau, said he hadn't seen the report and could not comment.
Human Rights Watch said insurgents of the Chin National Front also committed abuses, including the extortion of money from villagers to fund their operations.
"(The police) hit me in my mouth and broke my front teeth. They split my head open and I was bleeding badly. They also shocked me with electricity. We kept telling them that we didn't know anything," said a Chin man accused of supporting the insurgents, who are small in number and largely ineffective.
He was one of some 140 Chin people interviewed by the human rights group from 2005 to 2008. The group said the names of those interviewed were withheld to prevent reprisals.
A number spoke of being forced out of their villages to serve as unpaid porters for the army or to build roads, sentry posts and army barracks.
"We are like slaves, we have to do everything (the army) tells us to do," another Chin man said.
The report said the regime, attempting to suppress minority cultures, was destroying churches, interfering with worship services and promoting Buddhism through threats and inducements. Some 90 percent of the Chin are Christians, most of them adherents to the American Baptist Church.
The suffering of the Chin, the report said, was compounded by recent food shortages and famine caused by a massive rat infestation in Chin State, already one of the poorest regions of Myanmar.
"For too long, ethnic groups like the Chin have borne the brunt of abusive military rule in Burma," said the report, using the former name for the country.
Ethnic insurgencies erupted in Myanmar in the late 1940s when the country gained independence from Great Britain.
Former junta member Gen. Khin Nyunt negotiated cease-fires with 17 of the insurgent groups before he was ousted by rival generals in 2004.
Among rebels still fighting are groups from the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Chin minorities.
At least half a million minority people have been internally displaced in eastern Myanmar as a result of the regime's brutal military campaigns while refugees continue to flee to the Thai-Myanmar border. More than 145,000 refugees receive international humanitarian assistance in Thai border camps.

NGO: corruption swallows up badly-needed funds in Cambodia

From the Associated Press:
BANGKOK, Thailand—The corrupt elite of Cambodia, one of the world's most impoverished nations, has laid the groundwork for siphoning off vast profits from a coming boom in mining and oil exploitation, a nongovernment organization said Thursday.
Britain-based Global Witness said that rights to exploit the resources have been allocated behind closed doors by a small number of power brokers around Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials. The report, titled "Country for Sale," said "the same political elite that pillaged the country's timber resources has now gained control of its mineral and petroleum wealth."
"Unless this is changed, there is a real risk that the opportunity to lift a whole generation out of poverty will be squandered," the report said.
The allegations were denied by Information Minister Khieu Kanharith and Suy Sem, the minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, who said Global Witness "always defames the government."
Global Witness, which has worked in Cambodia for more than a decade, said its findings were based on numerous interviews with industry insiders in the country and with others around the world over the course of 2008. The report's appendix also cites a number of academics, journals and newspaper reports.
Over the past few years, Cambodia has been buzzing with excitement -- and anxiety -- about an oil discovery by U.S. energy giant Chevron Corp. off the southwestern coast. There have also been discoveries of other minerals including bauxite, iron ore, copper and chromium, while onshore oil reserves are also being explored.
Some estimate that in coming years Cambodia may reap some $1 billion in annual oil revenues, enough to cut its ties to foreign development aid if the funds are properly utilized.
But others have raised concerns that rather than pulling Cambodia out of its "beggar status," the revenue windfall will further fuel already rampant corruption. The Berlin-based Transparency International ranked Cambodia 166 out of 180 on its 2008 world corruption index.
U.S. Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli told The Associated Press in 2006, shortly after the discovery, that Cambodia could fall victim to an "oil curse" that has afflicted other developing countries.
Yet the report said international donors, which prop up the country, have so far turned a blind eye to the looming "corruption disaster." Donors, including the United States, European Commission and the World Bank, pledged $1 billion in development aid two months ago, without using the opportunity to demand transparency in the emerging industries, it said.
More than 75 companies, including such internationals as Chevron Corp. and BHP Billiton, were already working in the mining and oil sectors and have paid upfront sums to the government, the report said.
"Companies need to come clean on what they have paid to the government to secure access to these natural resources, or risk becoming complicit in a corrupt system," the report said.
Of the mine sites investigated in 2008, Global Witness said every one was controlled or owned by members of Cambodia's political and military elite, including top military commanders and relatives of Hun Sen and cabinet ministers.
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith denied that anyone in Hun Sen's close circle had received any payments for concessions granted to individuals or oil and gas companies.
"But these companies, while conducting explorations, have been ordered to pay into a state social welfare fund and their money has been registered in state accounts," he said.
Suy Sem, the minister of Industry, Mines and Energy told The Associated Press in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh: "Regarding the exploration for oil and gas, we operate under procedures that are very fair and transparent and based on the rule of law."
Global Witness said it wrote to both Chevron and BHP asking them to reveal any payments made to the Cambodian government or government officials. Chevron, it said, did not respond while BHP said it had made no illegal payments related to its mining operations.
Chevron spokesman Gareth Johnstone told the AP on Thursday that the company could not comment until they had a chance to read the report.
The report said the government's actions duplicate the wholesale destruction of forests with few of the resulting profits ending up in national coffers or among the general population.

Exerpt from Bangkok Post

Goverment denies budget earmarked to destroy UDD

By: Bangkok Post

Published: 9/02/2009 at 06:39 AM

The prime minister denies his government has set aside two billion baht to support army operations to break up protests by the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship.

Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday no funds from the government budget had been set aside for such activities.

Rumours of the army planning to spend two billion baht to prevent protests by the UDD have been aired by Natthawut Saikuea, a UDD leader.

Somchai Petprasert, a member of the opposition Puea Thai party and chairman of the House armed forces committee, said he wanted military leaders to clarify whether the reports of a secret government fund were true.