Southeast Asia: News, Culture, Voices
Sri Lanka: US State Dept. Reports on Possible War Crimes
Leave a Comment
Human rights groups have been calling for an investigation into possible war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the fighting between the government and Tamil Tigers earlier this year. Now the US State Department has issued a report that details a series of alleged crimes – including the killing of children and the use of cluster bombs on civilians.
The displaced in Sri Lanka remain in government camps - five months after fighting has ended. (Photo: HRW)
I spoke to James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, for Free Speech Radio News. He says the report should send “a clear message” to the Sri Lankan government that the US will take these allegations seriously.
Listen to our conversation here.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government is keeping hundreds of thousands of displaced people in camps. They have remained there since the fighting ended in May.
FSRN’s reporter in Sri Lanka, Ponniah Manikavasagam, filed a great story this week that has the voices of refugees on the ground. As one woman says, “We’ve had enough…we don’t want to suffer anymore.” You can hear it here.
Sign up for podcasts of Free Speech Radio News here or listen daily on your local station.
The Jakarta Bombings: What’s Next for Indonesia?
Leave a Comment
This week, I spoke on WBAI’s Asia Pacific Forum about the recent attacks on the Marriot Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton in south Jakarta and what the country faces in the days ahead.
(Photo source: washingtonpost.com)
Listen to the segment below:
Asia Pacific Forum, WBAI 99.5fm, July 21, 2009, New York City. Hosts: Leyla Mei and Irene Tung.
On the morning of the bombings, I received an email from a friend in the city. “I’m so angry,” he said. “We’ve been working so hard to make things better for our country.” It’s a sentiment of frustration that I think is shared by many in the country. But questions linger: Who is responsible? Will the violence of the recent past return? How will the country’s neighbors – the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore – react?
A new briefing, released by the International Crisis Group today, concludes that after last week’s bombings “The easiest step and the most unwise would be to turn the anti-terrorism law into an internal security act that allowed for lengthy preventive detention.”
The ICG has long pressed the government on one item in particular: prison reform. Without it, the country’s deradicalization program – which so far has received praise for its work – could be undermined. When I spoke with Sydney Jones, project director of the Southeast Asia region, in her Jakarta office last year, she emphasized this point.
Indonesian media and the Wall Street Journal have identified one of the suspects of the recent bombings as a graduate of the Al-Mukmin school in Central Java. (The school responded to the Jakarta Globe here.) I visited the school last October and spoke with the leader, Ustadz Wayhuddin. I filed a report for World Politics Review in November 2008. Also, you can see a blog post and listen to a radio report from February here.
Southeast Asian Refugees in the Bronx
Leave a Comment
In 1980 – as tens of thousands of refugees fled violence in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos – President Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act. He declared that the United States would finally take responsibility for the devastating effects of its policies in the region.
Touch Roth, 65, a refugee from Cambodia, with her granddaughter in their Bronx apartment. (D Merina)
Within ten years, more than one million refugees arrived to American cities. But over two decades later, America’s promise remains unfulfilled.
I spent the last few months reporting on the Southeast Asian refugee community in the Bronx and produced a half-hour radio documentary called Mekong in the Bronx. You can listen here. It airs nationwide on July 3rd on Free Speech Radio News.
Also, check out a short clip of a song by rapper, Boomer. He’s one of the Cambodian American youth who was deported back to Cambodia under a secret agreement between the US and Cambodian governments.
Philippines One of Deadliest Peacetime Nations for Journalists
Leave a Comment
More than 24 journalist murders have gone unsolved in the Philippines in the last decade. That’s according to a new report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Shawn Crispin, CPJ Senior Representative for Southeast Asia, told ABS-CBN news that the findings should prompt the Arroyo administration to act:
“Our research shows that the impunity rate in killed journalists’ cases here still hovers above 90 percent, one of the highest in the world,” he said.
From the CPJ report, released March 23rd:
At least 24 journalist murders have gone unsolved in the last decade. This pervasive climate of impunity has led to repeated attacks on the press, with renewed levels of violence recorded in 2008. In just one week in August 2008, radio journalists Martin Roxas and Dennis Cuesta were fatally shot. CPJ research has shown local courts to be ineffective in trying journalist murders. Witnesses have been threatened, attacked, and killed while cases were being tried in local courts. Local judges have been reluctant to proceed with cases involving influential public figures.
Check out the full report here. The only other country listed with more unsolved murders is Iraq, with 88. Other countries in the region listed as dangerous for journalists are Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.
New Court Ruling Connects Philippine Government to Disappearances
Leave a Comment
James Balao (Photo source: Cordillera Peoples Alliance, http://www.cpaphils.org)
This month, a regional trial judge in Benguet issued a writ of amparo in the case of disappeared activist, James Balao. The judge ordered the government to “disclose where [Balao] is detained or confined [and] release [him] considering his unlawful detention since his abduction.”
Respondents in the case include President Macapagal-Arroyo, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Alexander Yano. A writ of amparo is essentially a petition to force the government to protect the constitutional rights of a citizen. In essence, the judge’s decision contradicts earlier statements in which the government denied knowledge of Balao’s whereabouts. It puts the responsibility squarely on Arroyo and the other officials named in the case.
Recently, I interviewed Bernadette Ellorin, the Secretary-General of BAYAN USA, on WBAI’s Asia Pacific Forum. We talked about Arroyo’s move to make changes to the Philippine Constitution. Listen to an excerpt of our interivew below.
Balao, the co-founder of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, was abducted by armed men last September 17. According to his brother, Balao was aware of being under survellience in the the weeks leading up to his disappearance. At the time, the government claimed he was a communist leader – a charge his family and friends deny.
This court decision is part of the larger trend of killings and disappearances under the Arroyo Administration. In 2007, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions issued a report that linked the Arroyo government to human rights violations. (Download the PDF report here.) And late last year, the United Nations Human Rights Committee concluded that the Arroyo government was involved in the 2003 murder of Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy in Mindoro.
Now, despite this significant ruling, the killings and disappearances continue.
Justice or Intimidation in Munir Case?
Leave a Comment
Even after his death, the threats kept coming. On November 20th, 2004, Munir Said Thalib’s widow, Suciwati, received the severed head of a chicken with a note that warned her not to connect the Indonesian armed forces to her husband’s death.
“Do you want to end up like this?” the note asked menacingly.
Munir's widow, Suciwati, after the verdict. Photo by Berto Wedhatama/JP
This past week, the South Jakarta District Court acquitted retired Maj. General Muchdi Purwopranjono – formerly of the National Intelligence Agency – of all charges in the case of Munir’s murder.
“I have already lost my husband,” said Suciwati after the verdict. “Now, I lost justice.”
Munir, a lawyer, founded the human rights group, Kontras, and was known for his pursuit of human rights abuses committed during the Suharto era – a role which earned him plenty of enemies.
Did the warning and the threatening messages finally have an influence?
During the trial, five witnesses revoked their statements in the case. And, as Usman Hamid (the current director of Kontras) points out, prosecuters decided not to include a voice recording connecting Muchdi with Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto. Pollycarpus, the pilot of the Geruda flight on which Munir was poisoned, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder.
The National Police has said that the investigation dossiers had only been returned by prosecutors once in the lead up to the trial, suggesting that the evidence against Muchdi was solid.
Following Munir’s death in 2004, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono did the right thing by ordering a special investigative team to look into the matter. Now, following the startling verdict, he has “summoned” the National Police chief and the Attorney General for clarification into the decision. With a national election mere months away, the government cannot afford to gloss over this case.
But it remains to be seen if justice can still be salvaged – or if the work of anonymous threats will win out.
Wearing Jilbab While Reporting: A video interview with my interpreter
Leave a Comment
“I would describe myself as a student, as a learner,” said Mita, 25, who accompanied me as an interpreter as I visited pesantrens in Central Java. “I’m open-minded.”
When I asked her to compare her experience of wearing jilbab while reporting with not wearing it during her regular life, she thought about it for a second.
“Yes, of course I feel different,” she said.
Watch our short video interview below.
Weekly Radio Report: News from Southeast Asia
Leave a Comment
In Southern Thailand, Muslim militants clash with authorities…In Malaysia, the foreign minister retracts from barring Nobel-prize winner Shirin Ebadi from visit to a local university…Prominent journalist Saw Myint Than released from one-month detention in Burma…and Indonesians prepare for the executions of the three Bali bombers.
Listen to the 3-minute news round up, broadcast on WBAI’s Asia Pacific Forum (99.5 FM, New York City) this week.
Interview with Baby Jim Aditya: Porn Bill Targets Women, Could Affect Sex Education
Leave a Comment
Hardline groups had pushed to pass the Porn Bill by the end of Ramadan, but a coalition of cultural activists, artists and women rights group have put pressure on the government to include more discussion about the controversial legislation before a vote. Among other things, the bill features an expansive view of pornography – one that would outlaw any form of “communicative message” that threatens the “normative values of society.”
The government now promises to hold forums – in Maluku, South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan and Jakarta – before voting on the bill.
I sat down with Baby Jim Aditya this week to discuss her views of the bill. Aditya is the founder and project director for Partisipasi Kemanusiaan, a group that works with Jakarta’s prison population. She has been doing HIV/AIDs education with sex workers and other high risk groups since the early 1990s.
Listen to Aditya speak about how the bill targets women (0:49).
Listen to Aditya speak about how the bill could affect sex education in Indonesia. (1:30)
Irfan Prawira: Witness to Violence and Hope
Leave a Comment
In the Jakarta riots of 1998, Irfan Prawira’s family was one of those targeted by anti-Chinese violence. His father’s restaurant was burned to the ground. The family was forced to declare bankruptcy and moved into a makeshift home with other Indonesians.
“We all had to live in one room together,” said Irfan of the family of six. “It was very difficult.”
But the experience only strengthened Irfan’s connection to his country.
“I don’t see you as a native, I don’t see you as Chinese,” he said a decade later. “We’re all the same.” Read the full profile of Irfan in today’s Jakarta Post…
Watch excerpts from an interview with Irfan below:
