China's Offshore Military Drills Seen as 'a Show Intended For Japan'

 
China's live-fire military wargames in the East China Sea, which have resulted in massive flight disruptions in and around Shanghai, are purely a form of psychological warfare aimed at Japan, experts said.

Beijing's Ministry of Defense announced the five days of drills that began on Tuesday off the eastern seaboard opposite Japan, sparking a red alert by civil aviation authorities and a partial shutdown of some 19 airports in the region.

Among those affected were Shanghai's two international airports, which have a throughput of tens of thousands of passengers daily.

Live-fire drills are also slated for the Gulf of Tonkin, near Vietnam, and the Bohai Strait and Yellow Sea, opposite Korea, according to official media reports.

But the drills are still largely aimed at showing China's military muscle to Tokyo, Yang Liyu, professor of East Asian Studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, told RFA's Mandarin Service.

"They are showing off their military might, and I think that this is psychological warfare," Yang said.

The moves will feed into growing fears among the international community that President Xi Jinping is aiming for global superpower status, in stark contrast to previous administrations, who have pursued low-key foreign policies.

"Public opinion in the West is increasingly concerned [about Xi Jinping]," Yang said. "Only the day before yesterday, there was an article in the Washington Post saying that Xi Jinping is very hard line."

"The Western media has seen that Xi Jinping is even more formidable and difficult to deal with than [Russian president Vladimir] Putin."

Zhu Yongde, honorary professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, agreed.

"Right now it's all about dealing with Japan," Zhu said.

"There is widespread support for opposition to Japan inside China."

Japan looms so large in Chinese foreign policy
He said Japan looms so large in Beijing's foreign policy that the ruling Chinese Communist Party would make other sacrifices not to be seen as weak on Tokyo, including backing off from territorial disputes over disputed island chains in the South China Sea.

"China is getting ready to put the South China Sea dispute to one side," Zhu said.

Yang said Xi seemed very worried about showing any kind of weakness.

"Of course these military exercises are intended as a warning to Japan;they're aimed at the Japanese," he said.

"They are also a warning to the United States, that China has its own military capability and its own strategic priorities; we're not low-maintenance [any more]."

He said concern in the West has been fueled by the People's Liberation Army's growing missile capabilities.

"China's missile capability is pretty formidable," Yang said. "Its entire defense strategy depends on the Long March rocket."

Tokyo was quick to play down the significance of the drills, however.

"For any country, conducting drills in nearby seas is what they routinely do," Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Tuesday.

"We ourselves carry out exercises in a solid manner. We take this as China's routine exercise," he said.

"It is our understanding that this is not the kind of exercise aimed at a particular country or a particular situation."

China is increasingly at loggerheads with Japan over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu island chain, recent visits by Japanese leaders to the Yasukuni Shrine, and an ongoing war of words over Tokyo's past military aggression in East Asia.

Nanjing massacre
Beijing typically holds Germany up as an example of a country that has faced up to the atrocities of its past, while criticizing politicians in Japan who pay respects at war shrines and historians who take issue with international accounts of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.

China says 300,000 people died as advancing Japanese troops rampaged through the city, while an international military tribunal in 1948 estimated that more than 200,000 Chinese were killed.

Beijing recently applied to have its historical archives on the massacre and the widespread forcing of "comfort women" into prostitution to serve the Japanese military admitted to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

Japan has acknowledged that the Nanjing massacre took place, though its historians say Beijing has inflated the figures.

Beijing's ties with Tokyo have soured over competing claims to a string of uninhabited islets, known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan, in the East China Sea.

Earlier this month, China removed an oil rig from the disputed Paracel Islands after several confrontations with Vietnamese vessels that had led to collisions, including the ramming of a Vietnamese fishing boat in May by Chinese patrol vessels, which caused it to capsize.

The dispute had lowered relations between China and Vietnam to their worst level since the two communist nations fought a brief border war in 1979.

Violent anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam following the rig deployment had left at least four people dead and the destruction of factories believed to be operated by Chinese companies, though many were Taiwanese-owned.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, rejecting rival claims from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Lengthy standoff ends in tragedy

 
The last words of 6-year-old Pha Chharan were still ringing in his mother’s ears hours after the child was pronounced dead on arrival at Tbong Khmum Provincial Hospital early yesterday morning.
“Mum, please hug me and help me.”
“He did not tell me how hurt he was,” Yam Sophorn, his 31-year-old mother, said. “He kept repeating to himself for more than half an hour on the way to the hospital. Then my son died.”
The death marked the tragic end of an hours-long standoff with police on Tuesday night, when the young boy was stabbed and slashed by his mentally disturbed uncle, who was then brought down in a hail of bullets.

Chharan had gone to Kak commune’s Kanche village at about 10am on Tuesday to visit his uncle, Him Sokna, 22.He often rode his bike along the 2-kilometre road from the family home in neighbouring Bosti village to visit the man, who would give him money, his mother said. What he didn’t know was that Sokna had not been himself recently.“I was shocked when my neighbour phoned me to tell me that my son was being held prisoner and had had his hands and legs bound,” she added.Rushing to the scene, Sophorn pleaded wtih her brother-in-law to release the child.
“When I arrived there, I begged him to release my son, but he brandished knives and threatened me. He told me not to worry, that he would release him,” she said.

Hundreds of onlookers and police joined in the calls for Sokna to stand down, but to no avail.
Yem Run, Kanche village chief, yesterday described the scene.“We asked him what he wanted, but he did not tell us. He only ordered us to get away from the boy or he would kill him,” he said.
Mao Pov, police chief of Tbong Khmum, said provincial, military and Interior Ministry police tried to trick Sokna into taking sedatives.“At first, we put sleeping medicine in an energy drink, but he did not drink it. We also put it in some in food,” he said.Police then filled the house with smoke to make Sokna pass out.“After that, police came up from behind the house to help the boy. They got to him, but unfortunately he was tied by rope to a pillar in the house,” Run said.
“The man [Sokna] ran towards two police officers to stab them. Seeing him, they ran out of the house.”

Before police could devise a new strategy, Sokna began to slice at Chharan with two knives, before running at them.“The police shot him when they heard he had cut my son’s throat. Then I had no fear anymore, and I went to hug my son. I saw that his hands were tied with a krama and his legs with a rope. His legs were hacked at many times,” Sophorn said.Police chief Pov said the authorities “did not want to shoot him, but we wanted to defend ourselves when he chased us. So we shot him in the legs, shoulder and stomach until he died. We regret this”.Kanche villagers had grown increasingly wary of Sokna over the past three months, claiming he had been loved by all until he began making death threats and acting erratically in May.

Three days before the attack, Sokna had beaten his mother and tried to strangle his father, villager Om Yot, 53, said. “Everyone in the village feared him.”
His parents had since stopped sleeping in the house, his father said.
“My wife and I dared not to sleep at home for three days already, because he had choked me and beat my wife,” he said, adding that the family had sought intervention from a traditional healer many times.

“Had I known Chharan was coming, I wouldn’t have allowed him to enter the house. I deeply regret what happened. I lost my grandson and son, but I could not help when it happened.”
Grieving mother Sophorn cradled a photo of her son under the house where he was killed yesterday afternoon, shortly after his funeral was held.
“I’ll never forget my son’s last words. But, he did not cry,” she said.

City Hall says thanks to all those who cracked down

 
Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong yesterday passed out hundreds of millions of riel – purportedly provided by Prime Minister Hun Sen – to more than 2,000 police officials as a token of thanks for their work in maintaining order in the 12 months since the 2013 general elections.
Since the July 28 poll last year, the capital has been rocked by frequent demonstrations – many related to the election results and the ongoing fight for improved wages in the garment sector.
Police crackdowns have resulted in countless injuries and the deaths of at least seven civilians, some of them not even participants in the unrest.

According to City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche, however, Socheatvong praised the 2,400 officials at a gathering at the Olympic Stadium for preventing a slide into lawlessness.
“The political deadlock after the national election went on for more than a year, and caused many demonstrations and strikes, and sometimes, those strikes and demonstrations nearly caused Phnom Penh to fall into anarchy and a chaotic situation,” Socheatvong said, according to city spokesman Long Dimanche.At the gathering, Phnom Penh police chief Chhuon Sovann thanked the police for managing the year’s demonstrations – of which there were 445, he added, 80 of which were instigated by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party – and commiserated with attendees over the abuse they suffered.

“On top of the forceful clashing with the protesters, the police forces were cursed and insulted seriously,” he said.Dimanche said that at the ceremony, attendees with the rank of deputy district chief or lower were each given 100,000 riel (about $25). Those above that rank were each given 200,000.Am Sam Ath, a legal adviser with the rights group Licadho, said that offering incentives to officials for performing their duties well was understandable.
“However, previously, the prevention of gatherings and demonstrations caused many deaths and injuries, so offering money as encouragement for that could cause confusion and criticism,” he said.

New hearings begin

 
Evidentiary hearings in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Case 002/02 could come hot on the heels of the August 7 verdict in Case 002/01, starting as early as “late September”, parties to the proceedings confirmed at the case’s initial hearing yesterday.
When prompted by trial chamber president Nil Nonn to “explore the possibility of commencing evidentiary hearings in late September”, national co-prosecutor Chea Leang said that her team had been waiting for the start of the case and would be available through 2015.
Nuon Chea defender Victor Koppe concurred, and new civil party lead co-lawyer Marie Guiraud said that her team could start in “September or October”. Khieu Samphan counsel Anta Guisse, however, reregistered her team’s position that the next case shouldn’t begin until lingering legal issues are resolved.

The potential time frame for opening Case 002/02 was just one of many glimpses of the upcoming trial offered by yesterday’s initial hearing.Civil parties spent a portion of the morning session outlining potential reparations projects they intend to seek. “Bolstered by the lessons” of Case 002/01, in the words of Guiraud, the team laid out proposals for both physical and mental health initiatives, vocational training for the children of forced marriages and a plan to help Vietnamese civil parties regain Cambodian citizenship lost as a result of forced deportations under the Khmer Rouge.
Parties also obliquely referenced the imminent resignation of judge Silvia Cartwright, the first public acknowledgement of her long-rumoured departure. Court legal communications officer Lars Olsen confirmed yesterday that Cartwright had “resigned, effective the 1st of September”.
On the subject of the sequence of the trial, the prosecution and defence yesterday put forth essentially opposing plans. The prosecution argued that evidence of the roles of the accused in an alleged joint criminal enterprise (JCE) should be the first order of business, followed by segments pertaining to each charge.

Koppe, however, suggested ending the case on the subject of JCE, and beginning with evidence of international and internal armed conflicts in Democratic Kampuchea, hinting at the team’s plan to argue that the Khmer Rouge faced a legitimate security threat and was riven by rogue factions.
The nature of the conflict, he said, could “fundamentally affect the arguments parties may put forth” and was furthermore “at the very heart of our case”.
Yesterday’s session ended with prolonged wrangling over witness lists, most notably over three witnesses on the Nuon Chea defence team’s list who declined to appear when summonsed in Case 002/01 – senior government officials and former Khmer Rouge cadres Heng Samrin and Chea Sim, and former justice minister Ouk Bunchhoeun.
The refusal of government officials to answer summonses has long been a source of criticism for the court, but Leang, the national prosecutor, unilaterally objected to their inclusion in Case 002/02.
International co-prosecutor Nicholas Koumjian, meanwhile, noted that he hadn’t objected to any of the defence’s witnesses.

Tornado ravages over 100 houses in Can Tho

Mr. Tran Van Tranh, the town’s chair, said the at least 56 houses collapsed, 91 houses were damaged and 40 electric poles were knocked down in the tornado.Local residents said the tornado appeared in small rain at 7.10am. When many people were about to live home for work, they heard the wind howling from afar, then swept away the roofs."My wife, I and our two children had just run to the street only several seconds before the house fell down," said Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son, a resident in Thoi Thuan hamlet.After the disaster, more than 100 officers and soldiers of the Military Region 9 and the local authorities helped people clean up the scene and rebuild damaged houses.

Six categories of Vietnamese not allowed to work for foreign employers

Illustrative image. -- Photo: DatViet

The decree, signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on July 27 and to take effect as from September 15, guides the implementation of several articles of the Labour Code on the recruitment of management of Vietnamese working for foreign organisations and individuals operating in the country.
Accordingly, the first category includes officers, soldiers and those working for the Vietnamese People’s Army and People’s Police, as well as the government information security system.
Officials and public servants as stipulated in the Law on Public Employees belong to the second category.
The third and fourth categories are those who are working in sectors relating to state secrets and their husbands or wives.
In the fifth category are all those who have been disciplined for leaking state secrets or national security, while the sixth one groups those who are subject to criminal proceedings or are carrying out their criminal sentences, as well as those who are banned from doing certain jobs under criminal laws.
The decree also makes clear that foreign organisations and individuals include diplomatic agencies, foreign consulates, representative offices of the United Nations’ agencies and organisations, regional organisations, international organisations and inter-governmental, foreign governmental and foreign non-governmental organisations. It also covers resident offices of foreign news agencies, radio and television stations, no-profit representative offices of foreign organisations operating in economics, trade, finance, banking, insurance, science-technology, culture, education, health, and legal consulting.

Vietnam, US meet over MIA search

At the meeting, Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Thanh Cung who is deputy head of Committee 1237, affirmed that the Vietnamese Government will continue to facilitate and effectively cooperate with the US in the search for remains of both sides' soldiers missing in action (MIA).He noted that Viet Nam has announced the list and opened almost all sites where Americans were believed to have gone missing during the war. In 2009 and 2011, the country allowed the US Navy's oceanographic research ship to join the search for MIA remains in the waters offshore central Viet Nam.

To date, Viet Nam has delivered 952 boxes of remains to the US, of which more than 700 sets of remains have been identified.At present, Viet Nam and the US are conducting their 116th joint field activities with seven search teams.The Deputy Defence Minister expressed his wish that the JPAC will promptly provide the Vietnamese side with information on dead and missing Vietnamese military men (about 200,000) as well as exchange experience in searching for MIA.
He added that Viet Nam wants to accelerate the joint search for fallen or missing Vietnamese soldiers as time has brought about great changes in landscape and many witnesses have passed away.
For his part, Lieut. Gen. Kelley Mc Keagne, JPAC Commander spoke highly of the effective cooperation between the two Governments in this field.
He proposed cooperation in training Vietnamese staff in forensic anthropology and scientific exchange.He asked Viet Nam to continue assisting the US's search teams when they conduct two large-scale excavations in Viet Nam in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Girl hit by plane on Florida beach dies from her injuries

 

The 9-year-old girl critically injured when an airplane struck her on a Florida beach last weekend has died, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.The girl, Oceana Irizarry, and her father, Ommy Irizarry, 36, of Georgia were struck Sunday afternoon by a plane making an emergency landing, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The father died at the scene, and the girl was rushed to a hospital.Venice Municipal Airport officials reported a plane in distress Sunday afternoon, sheriff's spokeswoman Wendy Rose said.

The pilot of a 1972 Piper Cherokee radioed that he would be unable to make it back to the airport and that he was instead going to attempt a landing on Caspersen Beach, just to the south.

The pilot, Karl Kokomoor, and his passenger, David Theen, were uninjured. They are from Englewood, Florida.Kokomoor -- the president and CEO of local engineering firm -- is "emotionally distraught and devastated," his pastor, Victor Willis, said Tuesday.

"Words cannot express the sorrow I feel," said a statement that was read by Willis.

'Never saw them'

Kokomoor said that he was losing altitude fast and had little time to make a decision. He said he aimed for an area on the water's edge that appeared to be remote.

"I never saw them," he said. "It was only after I landed and we exited the plane that I realized that there were people on the beach."The investigation into the crash is being conducted by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.The death investigation -- which is being conducted by the sheriff's office -- will determine if Kokomoor will face any charges, said Rose.

"I send my heartfelt apologies to the Irizarry family for my role in this tragic accident," the statement read. "I will fully cooperate with the FAA and NTSB in their investigations."

Family was celebrating wedding anniversary

On the same day he died, Ommy Irizarry posted a love message on Facebook to his wife, as they were celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary.

"Thank you for being with me through thick and thin. I love you with all my heart, mi Roma. I am very happy and can't wait to see what the next 100 have in store for us," Irizarry wrote.

According to his Facebook page, Irizarry was originally from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He was an Army sergeant first class stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

He was a platoon sergeant assigned to Fort Stewart's Warrior Transition Battalion, the Army said. He twice deployed to Iraq since joining the Army in 2002.

"This is a heart-wrenching situation, especially losing loved ones while on vacation to celebrate a family milestone," said Maj. Gen. Mike Murray, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division and Stewart-Hunter. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Irizarry family."

Cambodian Parties Pick Rights Activist as Key NEC Member

Cambodia's ruling and opposition parties agreed Monday to nominate a top local human rights campaigner as a key member of a national election body in a significant move following an agreement on electoral reforms that broke a one-year political deadlock, officials said.

Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to a proposal by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) that prominent rights group Licadho chief Pung Chhiv Kek be the ninth member of the new National Election Committee (NEC).

Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and the CNRP also agreed to a set of conditions that she had laid out in a bid to ensure that the election panel operates independently from the government.

Pung Chhiv Kek told RFA's Khmer Service that the CPP late Monday informed her that it would agree to all her conditions for accepting the post, saying she wants to perform her duties in a "neutral" and "independent" manner.

Her acceptance of the post and Hun Sen's agreeing to her conditions give a big boost to the agreement reached last week between the prime minister and Sam Rainsy.

Under the pact, elected lawmakers from the CNRP agreed to end their nearly one-year boycott of parliament after Hun Sen accepted the party's proposal to revamp the government-appointed NEC.

The NEC, which is currently controlled by the CPP, had declared the ruling party the victor in the July 2013 general elections despite criticism that the polls had been rigged.

Hun Sen and Sam Rainsy had agreed in their pact that the election body will be revamped with four members each selected by the CPP and the CNRP, and the appointment of the ninth and final member by consensus between the rival parties.

Preconditions

In a letter to both parties, Pung Chhiv Kek said she would agree to become the ninth member if NEC members are given immunity from prosecution, guaranteed independent decision-making, given the right to recruit expert staff ,and allowed to operate autonomous budgets.

Sam Rainsy and deputy CNRP chief Kem Sokha had agreed to Pung Chhiv Kek's conditions in writing before the CPP gave the green light late Monday.

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said that the human rights campaigner would be a great asset to the NEC as she had played an important role in campaigning for election reforms in Cambodia.

“The CNRP stance is to warmly welcome Dr. Pung for accepting the CNRP proposal to become a new member of the NEC [which is to be an independent and neutral body]," he said. "The CNRP fully agrees to Dr. Pung‘s preconditions."

Hun Sen confirmed to reporters at the National Assembly (parliament) building early Monday that the CPP and CNRP had agreed to the choice of the ninth member of the NEC.

All the NEC members will have to be endorsed by parliament with an absolute majority as part of the electoral reforms.

Kem Sokha said among CNRP's candidates for the NEC is Kuoy Bunroeun—a lawmaker who vacated his seat for Sam Rainsy, who was not able to contest the 2013 elections.

The National Assembly on Monday endorsed Sam Rainsy as a lawmaker following approval last week from the NEC.

Veteran activist

Pung Chhiv Kek's Licadho group has been at the forefront of efforts to protect the civil, political, economic, and social rights of Cambodians.

She was living in exile in France in the 1980s when she arranged negotiations between Hun Sen and then-deposed King Norodom Sihanouk at the height of Cambodia's civil war.

The negotiations eventually led to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991, which mandated a United Nations mission to Cambodia to supervise elections and resolve the long-standing conflict.

In the wake of the peace agreement, Pung Chhiv Kek and other Cambodians living abroad returned home.

In 1992, she founded the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, known by its French acronym Licadho—one of the first human rights organizations established in the new civil society made possible by the U.N. mission.

Myanmar Parliament Sets Up Panel to Study Divisive Electoral System

 
Myanmar’s parliament on Tuesday agreed to set up a committee to consider the possibility of introducing a controversial proportional representation (PR) electoral system in next year's polls, as Speaker Shwe Mann cautioned that it could fracture ethnic unity in the fledgling democracy.

The decision by the Lower House to form the panel followed three days of debate on a proposal to change the electoral system by a lawmaker from the tiny National Democratic Force (NDF) party and supported by the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which dominates parliament.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party and several ethnic minority parties instead favor the current “first-past-the-post” electoral system, in which candidates who receive the highest number of votes are elected.

Shwe Mann on Tuesday said he did not agree with the proposal to adopt the PR system, warning it could hurt Myanmar’s bid to achieve a national reconciliation among varied ethnic groups President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government has said is essential to a democratic union.

“I have talked to ethnic leaders [several times in the past] and I am always thinking this way—it is necessary to avoid disintegrating ethnic unity,” he said.

“It is also necessary to achieve national reconciliation, as well as peace and rule of law in our country. Because of these reasons, I don’t agree with the PR proposal, which advocates the use of different electoral systems in regions (home to ethnic majority Burmans) and states (ethnic minority areas).”

According to NDF leader Aung Zin, the PR system should only be used in regions, while the states, where most ethnic minorities live, should continue to use the first-past-the-post system. The NLD has said that the entire country should use the same electoral system.

Shwe Mann, who is USDP chief, recommended that a committee of experts be set up to discuss the PR system and the proposal was agreed to by lawmakers, including Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD members of parliament.

No details were provided on how the commission would be formed or who it would include.

A house divided

Last month, the Upper House approved the PR proposal and set up its own panel of lawmakers to consider the system, which the USDP has backed in a bid to prevent a highly likely landslide win by the NLD in the 2015 general elections, according to some reports.

Political pundits believe that the NLD, which did not participate in the last elections in 2010, could sweep to power in next year's polls under the existing first-past-the-post electoral system.

But the proposal has led to a fiery debate in the Lower House, with about 20 MPs from ethnic parties, including from the Nationalities Brotherhood Federation (NBF)—an alliance of 15 ethnic parties—boycotting sessions at which it was discussed.

The NBF had said earlier that the PR system would allow major parties with sufficient resources to grab seats from smaller, local ethnic parties.

The Irrawaddy online journal quoted Khin Saw Wai, a lawmaker from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, as saying that more than 40 MPs spoke in total on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday, with about an equal number in support of or against the PR system.

Military MPs who spoke in parliament on Monday said the proposal would “destabilize” the country, and could “endanger ethnic unity and the union,” adding that it was “too early” to introduce a PR electoral system in such a young democratic state.

Other opponents have said that a PR system would place too much focus on a party and not its candidate, and that the proposal could sideline smaller ethnic parties.

Thein Sein’s government took power from the former military junta in 2011 and has ushered in a host of democratic reforms since then.

But his ruling USDP has been slow to accept proposed reforms to Myanmar’s constitution, including a clause that gives the military veto power over changes to the charter and another which bars Aung San Suu Kyi from running for president in next year’s election because her two sons hold British citizenship.

Fire destroys 20 houses in Central Highlands

More than 200 firefighters and 15 fire engines working closely with other emergency response agencies responded to the blaze.According to initial reports, the fire broke out inside a footwear shop at No 97 Y Jut street, and quickly spread to nearby houses and swept through shops selling electronics and timber products.Buon Ma Thuot airport sent two fire engines to combat the ferocious blaze that threatened thousands of local residents.Dak Lak provincial Police Department Deputy Director Nguyen Van Dinh said that firefighters and emergency response agencies quickly contained the blaze and it has been completely stomped out.
Some pictures of the incident:



 
 

 
 


 


 
 

 

China ambassador pledges to cement ties with Vietnam

At a reception in Hanoi on July 29 hosted by Nguyen Thien Nhan, Political Bureau member and President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Hong said the China-Vietnam relationship, founded by late Presidents Mao Zedong of China and Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, is a valuable asset of the two nations which should be further developed for future generations.
He expressed his desire to receive support from the Vietnam Fatherland Front, as well as from relevant Vietnamese agencies, to accomplish his mission, so as to promote bilateral relations.
For his part, Nhan welcomed Hong’s new term in Vietnam and expected the ambassador will work hard to foster Vietnam-China relations in the interest of the two peoples and contributing to peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

The Party, State and people of Vietnam attach great importance to the ties of friendship, neighbourliness and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, he said.
While in Hanoi, Nhan and Hong visited the Ho Chi Minh Relic Complex where President Ho Chi Minh received many senior Chinese Party and State leaders such as Liu Shaoqi and Premier Zhou Enlai during his lifetime.Ambassador Hong also visited House 67 (H.67) where Chinese doctors wholeheartedly took care of President Ho’s health when he was ill.“This is a chance for me to know more about the revolutionary cause and life of President Ho Chi Minh – a great leader of Vietnamese people,” he said.Ambassador Hong Xiaoyong took office in Hanoi in May 2014 to succeed Kong Xuanyou.

Dozens killed, injured in China terror attack

 

A gang wielding knives and axes attacked civilians, a police station, government offices and smashed vehicles in a restive region of China, the country's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday, citing local police.The incident -- called an "organized and premeditated" terror attack -- occurred Monday in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.Police officers at the scene shot dead dozens of people in the mob. Thirty-one cars were vandalized, including six that were set ablaze.It was not immediately known how many people were killed and injured.

The location, Shache County, is where nine people authorities describe as terrorists attacked a police station, hurled explosives and torched police cars in December. Police shot and killed eight people in that attack.

There have been other attacks in the region in recent months.Twenty-nine people were killed and 130 injured when men armed with long knives stormed a train station in Kunming in March. The next month, an attack on a train station in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, left three dead, including the attackers, and an attack on an Urumqi market in May killed at least 39 people.There have been longstanding tensions between Uyghur Muslims, a Turkic people, and Chinese Han people in Xinjiang.Some Uyghurs have expressed resentment toward China's Han majority in recent years over what they say is harsh treatment from Chinese security forces and Han people taking the lion's share of economic opportunities in Xinjiang.Amnesty International said Uyghurs face widespread discrimination, including in employment, housing and educational opportunities, as well as curtailed religious freedom and political marginalization.

U.S., EU hit Russia with more sanctions as Ukraine fighting continues

 

Russia became more isolated Tuesday than it has been at any time since the end of the Cold War after new, hard-hitting sanctions were announced by the European Union and the United States, U.S. officials said.U.S. President Barack Obama said the measures would take an "even bigger bite" out of the stagnant Russian economy than sanctions Washington and the EU had already implemented against Russia over its disputed annexation of Crimea and its support of pro-Russian rebels fighting the Ukrainian government."The major sanctions we're announcing today will continue to ratchet up the pressure on Russia including the cronies and companies supporting Russia's illegal activities in the Ukraine," he said from the White House South Lawn. "In other words, today Russia is once again isolating itself from the international community, setting back decades of genuine progress."

He said the EU sanctions showed to him a waning patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the impact of the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which had many Europeans among the 298 people on board when it exploded over volatile eastern Ukraine.

Some of the new EU sanctions target eight "cronies" of Putin and three "entities" by limiting their access to EU capital markets, an EU official said on condition of anonymity. The people and entities will be named Wednesday, the official said.Three state-owned banks named Tuesday by Washington means five of the top six financial institutions in Russia were on the sanctions list, according to a senior Obama administration official. Four-fifths of their debt is in U.S. dollars, the official said.

New sanctions will also impact the future of Russia's important oil businesses with technology licensing restrictions, another senior administration official said. Restrictions will affect Russia's ability to produce oil from deep-water wells and shale fields, sectors it is only beginning to explore.

The sanctions, however, are not part of a new Cold War, Obama said.

"What it is, is a very specific issue related to Russia's unwillingness to recognize that Ukraine can chart its own path," Obama said.

The EU sanctions also will block new arms contracts between Europe and Russia, prohibit the export of European goods that can be used for both civilian and military purposes and limit the export of energy-related equipment, the EU said in a written statement Tuesday evening.

The European Union had previously been reluctant to issue harsher sanctions against Russia because both regions rely on one another for about $500 billion in trade and investment each year, according to CNNMoney."It is meant as a strong warning: Illegal annexation of territory and deliberate destabilization of a neighboring sovereign country cannot be accepted in 21st century Europe," the European Council's statement reads.One of the senior administration officials said Russia hasn't been this isolated "since the end of the Cold War."Obama said Russia could choose a different path.

"It didn't have to come to this. It does not have to be this way," Obama said. "This is a choice that Russia and President Putin in particular has made. ... The path for a peaceful resolution to this crisis involves recognizing the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the independence of the Ukrainian people."

Investigators thwarted again

Meanwhile, international investigators and observers were prevented for the third straight day from reaching the MH17 crash site.The Dutch Justice Ministry said its team was unable to leave the city of Donetsk because of violence.The 50-strong team of Dutch and Australian experts, accompanied by monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, was also forced to abandon its attempts to reach the site Sunday and Monday.Dutch investigators have yet to lay eyes on the wreckage or the human remains believed still to be strewn across the huge debris field near the town of Torez.U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said that a Russian-made missile system was used to shoot down MH17 from rebel territory. Russia and the rebels have disputed the allegations and blamed Ukraine for the crash.Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte asked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a phone call Tuesday morning to halt the fighting around the crash site so that investigators can access it, Rutte spokesman Jean Fransman said.

UN Envoy Slams 'Deplorable' Conditions in Myanmar Camps

 
A senior United Nations envoy on human rights has criticized what she called “deplorable” conditions in displaced-persons camps in Myanmar’s communal-violence-wracked Rakhine state following a 10-day visit in which she also noted “backsliding” on democratic reforms in the formerly military-ruled country.

Yanghee Lee—Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar—said that thousands of Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims made homeless by fighting in Rakhine state over the last two years still languish without rights in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.

“The situation is deplorable,” Lee, a South Korean, said at the conclusion of her visit—her first to Myanmar since being appointed to her post last month.

“Many have remained in the camps for two years, and I do not believe that there is adequate access to basic services,” she said In a statement released at the weekend before leaving the country.

Though poor conditions—including lack of access to adequate sanitation and health care—prevail in all the camps she visited, “the health situation in the Muslim IDP camps is of particular concern,” Lee said.

“I have received disturbing reports of people dying in camps due to the lack of access to emergency medical assistance and due to preventable, chronic or pregnancy-related conditions.”

Rights groups have also said in the past that Rohingyas in severely restricted northern Rakhine state suffer from soaring malnutrition and maternal mortality rates.

Rohingyas, who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, often cannot travel, marry, or seek medical treatment without official permission.

Lee also said that restrictions on freedom of movement in both Buddhist and Muslim IDP camps in Rakhine have had negative impacts on other basic rights such as access to livelihood, food, water, and education.

Communal violence

Sectarian violence in largely Buddhist Myanmar has left up to 280 people dead and another 140,000 homeless since 2012—mostly Muslims, according to rights groups. Much of the violence was in Rakhine state.

Muslims account for about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people.

During Lee’s visit, the Rakhine government announced that it had invited Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) back to the state following its expulsion in February and also called for the return of other international aid organizations which fled a month later after Buddhist mobs disrupted their work helping displaced Rohingyas.

In March, Buddhist mobs in the Rakhine capital Sittwe attacked the offices of various international nongovernmental organizations [INGOs], including the U.N., reportedly sparked by the removal of a Buddhist flag from the building of German medical aid group Malteser International.

Buddhist flags have been flown as symbols of opposition to the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority, who Rakhines perceive as receiving preferential treatment from INGOs.

“More must be done to stop misinformation which only serves to heighten tensions and hostility and to increase the sense of [favored] treatment,” Lee said, adding, “The conditions of both camps and the situation of both communities must be accurately reflected and seen for what they are.”

Official discrimination

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s Muslim community in Rakhine continues to face official discrimination, including restrictions on travel and on marriages and birth registrations, Lee said.

“I have received continuing allegations of violations against the Muslim community, including arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment in detention, death in detention, the denial of due process and fair trial rights and rape and sexual violence.”

“I believe these allegations are serious and merit investigation, with perpetrators held to account,” she said.

Lee also noted “worrying  signs of possible backtracking” in Myanmar on media freedoms and the right to protest despite political reforms enacted over the last three years by President Thein Sein’s administration.

These included efforts made to harass and intimidate journalists reporting on corruption and other politically sensitive issues and activists campaigning against land grabs “or trying to help communities affected by large-scale development projects,” Lee said.

“The enjoyment of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association and peaceful assembly are essential ingredients for Myanmar’s democracy and for debating and resolving political issues,” Lee said—particularly in the run-up to national elections next year.

Religious Curbs in Xinjiang ‘Increases Potential’ For Violent Extremism

 
Beijing’s new religious freedom restrictions on ethnic minority Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang amid an anti-terror campaign could trigger new violence in the already restive region, the United States warned Monday, as it released an annual report on international religious freedom.The U.S. State Department report, aside from listing various religious curbs in China, also identified Myanmar as undergoing a “troubling” trend in which sectarian violence was displacing families and devastating communities.

In launching the report, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Chinese authorities were harassing Christians, arresting Tibetan Buddhists simply for possessing the Dalai Lama’s photograph and preventing Uyghur Muslims from providing religious education to their children or fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.Speaking at a press conference, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski said the Chinese Government “severely restricts the religious practices of Uyghur Muslims.”

He cited the ban by authorities on fasting particularly for civil servants and teachers.“Broadly targeting an entire religious or ethnic community in response to the actions of a few only increases the potential for violent extremism,” he said.Beijing in May launched a “strike hard” campaign against “terrorism” in Xinjiang aimed at stamping out attacks the government has linked to religious extremism.

Around 200 people have died in unrest in Xinjiang in the past year or so, the government says, including in a May 22 bombing in the region's capital Urumqi, which killed 31 people and injured 90, and which prompted the launch of the anti-terror campaign.Many Uyghurs complain that they are subject to political, cultural, and religious repression for opposing Chinese rule in the resource-rich region.According to the report, Chinese officials cited concerns over “separatism, religious extremism, and terrorism as a pretext to enforce repressive restrictions” on the religious practices of Uyghur Muslims.

“Authorities often failed to distinguish between peaceful religious practice and criminal or terrorist activities,” the report said.“It remained difficult to determine whether particular raids, detentions, arrests, or judicial punishments targeted those seeking political goals, the right to worship, or criminal acts.”Local authorities reportedly fined individuals for studying the Quran in unauthorized sessions, detained people for “illegal” religious activities or carrying “illegal” religious materials, and stationed security personnel in and around mosques to restrict attendance to local residents, the report said.

China reportedly sought the forced repatriation of ethnic Uyghurs living outside the country, many of whom had sought asylum for religious persecution, the report said, adding that in some cases third countries complied with Chinese requests, which reportedly led to imprisonment and torture of returnees.

According to the report, government respect for and protection of religious freedom in the Tibet Autonomous Region and other Tibetan areas of China were “poor,” with widespread official interference in religious practice—especially in Buddhist monasteries and nunneries.It said that authorities prosecuted family members and colleagues of Tibetans who self-immolated in protest against Chinese rule on charges of “intentional homicide.”

Local authorities also used a variety of means, including administrative detention, to punish members of unregistered religious and spiritual groups, such as house churches and Falun Gong, the report said.The State Department has designated China as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) since 1999. CPC states are considered among the worst violators of religious freedom in the world.

Myanmar

Myanmar, or Burma, has also been designated a CPC since 1999 and, despite significant democratic reforms since President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government took power from the military regime in 2011, continued to impose severe limitations on religious freedom, the report said.Malinowski said that those who are resistant to change in Myanmar have sought to hold back progress by focusing national attention on issues of religious differences.“In [Myanmar], if you fear or oppose your country’s forward political progress, you’re probably not going to convince too many people to be against democracy,” he said.

“But you might get somewhere by trying to divide people across religious and racial lines, focusing political discourse on issues such as interfaith marriage and religious conversion.”He cited the example of the monks-led “969” movement, which claims Myanmar’s minority Muslims are threatening the Buddhist majority, saying it was fueling “anti-Muslim sentiment and violence in a country that has had a long tradition of different communities living together.”

Rights groups say Muslim Rohingyas in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state have borne the brunt of bloody communal violence that has left more than 280 people dead and tens of thousands displaced since 2012.The report also cited “policies prohibiting or impeding Muslim land ownership in some areas,” as well as reports of local government officials participating in anti-Muslim discrimination and failing to stop violence in Rakhine state.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, “individuals and congregations of multiple faiths reported harassment, detentions and surveillance throughout the year,” Malinowski said.“Many requests by religious groups for registration remained unanswered or were denied, usually at the provincial or village levels,” the report said.

It said that several religious groups reported abuses, with a “particularly high number of reports” of beatings, arrests, detentions and criminal convictions coming from groups in the Central and Northwest Highlands.The State Department included Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern in 2004 but removed it from the blacklist two years later and has since ignored repeated calls by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) to reinstate the country’s designation.

Laos

The report said that while the constitution and some laws and policies in Laos protect religious freedom, “enforcement of these laws and policies at the district and local levels was mixed.”

It cited reports of attempted forced renunciations, imprisonment, detention, and assaults in detention, and said that, while the law does not recognize a state religion, government financial support and promotion efforts “elevated the status of Buddhism.”“District and local authorities in some of the country’s 17 provinces continued to be suspicious of non-Buddhist or non-animist religious groups and occasionally displayed intolerance for minority religious groups,” it said.This was especially true in the case of Protestant congregations, “whether or not officially recognized,” the report said.

North Korea

In North Korea, which has been designated a CPC since 2001, “the government continued to severely restrict religious activity,” except for some officially recognized groups tightly supervised by the government, the report said.It cited reports which indicated that religious persons who engaged in proselytizing in the country and those in contact with missionaries were arrested and subjected to extremely harsh penalties, “including executions.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the North “stands out again … for its absolute and brutal repression of religious activity.”“Members of religious minorities are ripped from their families and isolated in political prison camps. They are arrest and beaten, tortured and killed,” he said, adding that some individuals have reportedly been arrested for “doing nothing more than carrying a bible.”North Korea says it plans to prosecute two American tourists that it detained earlier this year, accusing them of "perpetrating hostile acts."

The North Korean government had previously said it was holding the two U.S. citizens, Jeffrey Fowle and Matthew Miller, but hadn't said what it planned to do with them.North Korea is currently holding three American citizens, including Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary who was sentenced to 15 years hard labor in 2013 by a court that said he had carried out acts aimed at bringing down the regime of leader Kim Jong Un.

District guards back on beat

 
Daun Penh security guards were back on their City Hall beat yesterday – and back to using violence against protesters.Guards used stun guns and batons in a confrontation with land-rights protesters outside the Monivong Boulevard offices, leaving two women, both from the Borei Keila community, unconscious.The violence came less than two weeks after guards were themselves beaten during an opposition demonstration. That incident led to the arrests of opposition lawmakers, who were released last Tuesday when the political deadlock over last year’s national election was resolved.

Ee Sarom from NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, said yesterday that it was disappointing to see that despite the resolution state violence, which became a hallmark of the deadlock was continuing.
“They’re still using violence against civilians,” he said. “None of this helps these communities find a resolution to their problems.”

Protesters from Boeung Kak and Borei Keila gathered in the morning to demand City Hall honour its promises to resolve the years-long disputes.Tensions flared, however, when Boeung Kak activist Chan Vuthisak, one of 23 people arrested and tried during the protests in early January, taunted security guards.A clash broke out after guards attempted to detain him among the crowd.
Violent and unpunished crackdowns by the guards have become more frequent since men matching their description dismantled an opposition protest camp in Freedom Park on January 4.
As has been the case before, the district security guards yesterday were accompanied by police who were not involved in the clash. Some of the guards were dressed in their usual navy blue outfits and helmets.

Others that Post reporters have seen in that attire before – including one man with a stun gun – were wearing beige and camouflaged clothing.
The women knocked unconscious, Prak Sipha, 45 and Khem Srey, 33, said upon waking that their bodies felt “numb”. They were taken to an NGO’s clinic.
Following the clash, City Hall invited 10 representatives from the communities in for talks.
Chhay Kemhorn, from Borei Keila, said officials had told her that they had delayed a resolution for villagers because of the violence on July 15.
“We are so disappointed . . .
That dispute had nothing to do with us,” she said, adding officials had made a fresh offer to set up a “public forum” about their grievances on August 12. City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said he had received “no information” about yesterday’s clash.

Fire at garment factory kills 1

 
An early-morning blaze killed one Chinese national and injured three others at a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district yesterday.The fire that burned the Chang Sheng factory to the ground, killing clothing inspector, Zing Zangsun, 42 – who lived there – was caused by an electrical malfunction, said Net Vatha, director of Phnom Penh’s fire department.
“People should learn from this fire, because it was mostly caused by the factory’s electrical connection,” Vatha said. “Electrical wires should be connected correctly and fire extinguishers should be available for protection.”

About 80 per cent of the building was burned, he said.Damage from the fire had not been calculated as of yesterday, said Hel Phalla, an administrative staffer at Chang Sheng. But Vatha estimated the loss to be about $2 million, he said.Security guard Sun Vanny yesterday said he immediately called the fire department at about 4am when he saw smoke coming through the crack of a door, he told a Post reporter yesterday.Fire officials say the building likely became fully engulfed about an hour later.Chin Ravy, a villager who lives in and rents rooms out of a house neighbouring the factory said many of his tenants ran away from the rental property when they saw the fire next door.

A fire crew rests after extinguising the blaze that destroyed the Chang Sheng factory Phnom Penh.

“Nothing [at my house] was damaged, but I am scared and have packed my belongings already,” Ravy said yesterday morning, as flames continued to torch the factory. “The people who rent rooms in my house just ran away, because they were so scared.”

While the approximately 900 employees who work for the factory are reeling from the fire and Zangsun’s death, most are also nervous about how this will affect their monthly salary, which is due in a few days, said Lon Ry, a 47-year-old Chang Sheng worker whose daughter also works there.
“I hope the factory thinks about the employees’ salaries, because [workers] will not have enough money to pay their housing and food expenses,” Ry said yesterday. “But the factory officials will meet us Tuesday.”After nearly 27 trucks put out the fire, responding officials removed two iron safes full of money, Vatha said.Because Chang Sheng is so close to several other factories, some will remain closed for a few days while the acrid smoke clears out from rooms and corridors, said a worker at T&K, which abuts the burned factory.Considering the cause of the fire, Dave Welsh, factory owners and the government should be more vigilant about fire safety, especially in the country’s most lucrative industry.“There’s a responsibility to make sure that... [employees’] right to work in a safe environment is upheld,” Welsh said.

Vietnam pledges effective use of Japanese ODA

 
Receiving Toshihiro Nikai, chairman of the Lower House Budget Committee, in Hanoi on July 28, Hung thanked the government and people of Japan for their valuable assistance to Vietnam, especially ODA to development projects in the country.
He said bilateral relations have developed strongly since the two countries established the extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia in March 2013.
He appreciated Japan’s support for Vietnam at international forums, and hoped the parliamentary friendship groups of both countries will maintain visit exchanges to share experience and boost cooperation.
The NA chief also proposed that Vietnam and Japan expand cooperation in culture, education, security and national defence, alongside economics.
For his part, Toshihiro Nikai, who is also president of the Japan-Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Group, acknowledged the quality of Nhat Tan Bridge and other Japanese-funded projects in Vietnam, saying their success will help promote bilateral economic cooperation.
He said the two countries need to work closely to move Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement negotiations forward, while increasing cooperation in preventing natural disasters.
Regarding the recent tension in the East Sea, both host and guest shared the view that Vietnam and Japan will cooperate closely in maintaining a peaceful environment of peace and cooperation in the region.
They also showed their strong resolve to defend national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Vietnam-Japan agreements running smoothly
President Truong Tan Sang welcomed Chairman of the Budget Committee of the Lower House of Japan Toshihiro Nikai in Hanoi on July 28, saying that agreements reached by the two countries’ leaders are being carried out smoothly.
The State leader said Vietnam and Japan have been gaining high mutual trust in various fields, particularly in politics.
He noted the two sides are working together in defence-security and economics-trade, while their cooperation in fishing tuna off the coast of central Vietnam has made important strides.
Vietnam has also completed procedures for the establishment of a Japan-Vietnam university, he added.
Toshihiro Nikai valued the host country’s favourable conditions for the school, which he deemed a symbol of their friendship.
He asked for more support from Vietnamese leaders for Japanese agencies and enterprises operating in Vietnam as well as his country’s hosting of the Olympics and Paralympics.
The legislator said Japan, as a close friend of Vietnam, always supports the country and is willing to help it improve traffic infrastructure.
At the meeting, Japanese parliamentarians applauded effectively implemented cooperation projects and touched upon the potential of collaborating in crop and animal husbandry and close coordination in negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Concerns Grow Over China's Confucius Institutes

 
Once lauded as the jewel in the crown of China's "soft power" cultural diplomacy, Confucius Institutes have sprung up at hundreds of colleges and teaching institutions around the world.Partnering with local academic centers, their aim is to teach people to speak Chinese, as well as broadening people's experience of Chinese culture in general.But a recent warning from a group of U.S. professors suggests some 90 Confucius Institutes across the U.S. may also be seeking to instill in students the ruling Chinese Communist Party's views.

"Confucius Institutes function as an arm of the Chinese state," the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) wrote in a report issued in June."Most agreements establishing Confucius Institutes feature nondisclosure clauses and unacceptable concessions to the political aims and practices of the government of China," it said.It said such political agendas are typically allowed to flourish in U.S. colleges and universities, even when curriculum choices and academic debate are restricted as a result.Confucius Institutes may appear at first glance to resemble the British Council, the Goethe Institut or the Alliance Franςaise, but their potential threat to academic freedom lies specifically in the fact that they base themselves out of universities, the AAUP said.

While their European counterparts are clearly aligned with "soft power" objectives and national agendas, they aren't permitted to influence academic freedom in the countries where they operate, it said."Allowing any third-party control of academic matters is inconsistent with principles of academic freedom, shared governance, and the institutional autonomy of colleges and universities," the group said.It called on U.S. universities to break ties with Confucius Institutes unless they can renegotiate agreements to win back unilateral control of their curricula, staff hiring policies and choice of texts.

China's state media has hit back at the report in defense of some 327 Confucius Institutes that currently operate in 93 countries and regions around the world."Such claims expose not so much communist propaganda as their own intolerance of exotic cultures and biased preconceived notions to smear and isolate the [Communist Party]," the official Xinhua news agency wrote in a June editorial."Those seeking to stem Confucius Institutes as disseminators of world culture are trying to hold back a pure form of human communication," it said.

'Machinery of a dictatorship'

U.S.-based rights activist and political commentator Harry Wu agreed with the AAUP, however."This is a state-backed organization, and as such is part of the machinery of a dictatorship," Wu told RFA in a recent interview.He said staff employed to teach Chinese overseas are given an official training program before they leave the country."[For example, on issues like] on the question of Tibet, on overseas pro-democracy movements and on the question of Uyghurs in Xinjiang," Wu said. "It also covers the question of religious freedom."Meanwhile, U.K.-based scholar Wu Kegang said communication between hosting institutions and the Confucius Institutes is insufficient.

"Even if institutions did want to make them part of their own system, how are they going to communicate?""If they aren't familiar with the way they're run, it will be very difficult," Wu said.Peter Kwong, professor at Hunter College and the City University of New York, said the main aim of re-evaluating Confucius Institutes would be to give hosting institutions more of a say in their running."[The question is], do we have any real power in the running of these institutes that are here [on our campuses]?" Kwong said."Perhaps it would be in our interest to get involved in some of their decision-making?"

'Fake history'

Zhu Yongde, honorary professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said attempts have been made to influence the hiring of teachers at the institutes in the direction of academic freedom.But he appeared to suggest they had yet to result in any meaningful change."There are a lot of issues around the time of language used to express ideas, and some examples of incorrect modes of expression," Zhu said.U.S.-based activist and former China national basketball player Chen Kai said he found it hard to believe that the Confucius Institutes had been given so much power in the first place.

"How can an academically free campus permit educational materials to be supplied by a dictatorship?" Chen said."They're not allowed to talk about the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976], they're not allowed to discuss the [1989] Tiananmen Square massacre, nor the [banned] Falun Gong [spiritual movement], nor the anti-rightist campaigns [of the 1950s]," he said."The history they teach is history turned on its head," Chen said."Surely bringing their fake history to American campuses, to American high schools counts as brainwashing?"

A ninth candidate is eyed

 

A candidate to fill the crucial ninth position of a reformed National Election Committee will likely be announced today, roughly 24 hours after an opposition party congress involving members from across the country took place in Phnom Penh.Opposition sources refrained from revealing the name of the candidate who is the subject of ongoing discussions between the Cambodia National Rescue Party and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.But CNRP president Sam Rainsy said it was likely that the candidate, who will hold the balance of power in the bipartisan election body, will be announced following a meeting between the negotiating teams today.“I think the ninth member will be made public [today],” he said, adding that it was not certain that a final decision would be made at the meeting. Party spokesman Yim Sovann dismissed suggestions that choosing the ninth member would lead to a stalemate in which both sides proposed partisan candidates.“I am very sure that an agreement will be reached,” he said. “There may be some indication after the meeting.”

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan declined to comment on the proposals for a ninth NEC member, while Prum Sokha, secretary of state at the Interior Ministry, and National Assembly spokesman Chheang Vun, could not be reached yesterday.Speaking to thousands of supporters in the capital’s Wat Botum Park yesterday morning, CNRP vice president Kem Sokha said that while Prime Minister Hun Sen had indicated a willingness to come to an agreement over the ninth member, the CNRP wouldn’t take its seats in parliament until a final decision had been made.“If we cannot find the ninth individual for the NEC by agreement together, the CNRP lawmakers-elect will not take their seats in parliament,” he said.Hun Sen, Sokha added, had suggested during negotiations last Tuesday that the two parties were more than capable of finding consensus.As today’s anniversary of the disputed July 2013 national election approached, the opposition on Tuesday agreed to end its 10-month-long parliamentary boycott and “work together” with the ruling CPP.

Sokha added that coming to an accord with the CPP would herald a new phase of pressure on the authorities.“From now on, the Cambodian People’s Party cannot do whatever it wishes,” he said.

The opposition used yesterday’s congress to gain approval for a seven-point platform, including policy priorities it will pursue once its elected members become lawmakers. Some of these policies resembled the CNRP’s pre-election promises, which included higher salaries for civil servants and the armed forces, state pensions for the elderly and free medical care for the poor.

Government spokesman Siphan, however, said the congress was more of a public relations stunt than an exercise in democratic freedom.

Wearing hats with the Cambodia National Rescue Party logo, supporters of the opposition listen to speeches at a party congress yesterday at Wat Botum Park. Pha Lina

“It is part of their campaign for popularity,” he said. “The government has already been working on a number of reforms, and the CNRP now has to work through parliament to achieve what it wants. We work through the system – we don’t try to be popular.”

The expected arrival of the CNRP in the National Assembly prompted some reshuffling of leadership positions within the CPP yesterday. 

Senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said that the assembly’s current deputy president, Nguon Nhel, who as part of the deal will relinquish that position to the CNRP, will become second deputy president. The current second deputy and the heads of the four commissions offered to the CNRP will be bumped back down to regular members of parliament. Minister of Information and sometimes-CPP spokesman Khieu Kanharith confirmed the moves yesterday.

At the congress yesterday, the opposition leaders pledged to supporters they would seek justice for the victims of land disputes and take strong measures to weed out graft at the helm of a planned anti-corruption commission in parliament.

Rainsy said the practicalities of establishing the commission were yet to be decided.

“We cannot say how it will operate yet … We have the CPP-aligned Anti-Corruption Unit, but it’s far from effective. We will take the initiative to investigate all ministries, all departments. I have put a lot of hope in this project.”The party leader will attend an extraordinary session of parliament today to be officially confirmed as an opposition lawmaker, replacing Kuoy Bunroeun, who was elected to a seat in Kampong Cham province and is one of four members chosen by the CNRP to sit on the reformed NEC.The congress also proved an opportunity for party members to express their mixed feelings about joining a parliament dominated by the CPP following more than 10 months of protest since an election the opposition believes was rigged.

Kem Vuthy, 53, an activist from Siem Reap city, said he did not know “if this decision will be good or not in the long term”.“We will need to wait and see, but I hope the leaders stay strong and stick to their principles. I don’t know if there are deep divisions in the party. Now more than ever we should be united.”Other activists said they were not satisfied.“We need to wait and see the result. I am disappointed about some things [in the agreement],” said Eang Vannath, 31, from Battambang city.

Kuch Vandy, 24, a CNRP activist from Phnom Penh, said the party should have held out for a better deal.“I think they gave too much away. We should have waited longer and gone back to the street if we must. Now we will have to wait for years before the government changes. A lot can happen before that.”

Rights monitor tapped for 'neutral' NEC seat

 
Licadho president Pung Chhiv Kek has been selected as the ninth member of the reformed National Election Committee following a cross-party meeting this morning, a government official and sources in the rights group she heads have said.Kek, who has yet to officially accept the role on the election body, could not be immediately reached, but senior Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yeap confirmed that she had been approached for the job.

“This morning, [Prime Minister] Hun Sen met with [Cambodia National Rescue Party president] Sam Rainsy to agree on the ninth member,” he said. “They choose Pung Chhiv Kek.”
Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator for Licadho, said Kek had yet to receive an official letter offering her the position.“I cannot say on her behalf, because it is her decision. But the official letter will be coming this afternoon or tomorrow,” he said.Another Licadho staff member, who declined to be named, said that the long-time human rights advocate would make an announcement tomorrow following a “long internal meeting” today.

“She has not made a decision yet. But she will say something tomorrow about this,” the staff member said.The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, known as Licadho, was founded by Kek in 1992 after she helped broker the Paris Peace Accords between Hun Sen and King Norodom Sihanouk, ending the civil war of the 1980s.Opposition CNRP president Sam Rainsy, however, said he could not reveal a name but that a candidate had been selected.
“I am waiting for an official acceptance from the person concerned. If the person accepts, it could be as soon as one hour. But until that time I would not like to comment on the name.”

Experts call for legal action against China

 
Viet Nam should prepare to take its case against China to the international court of justice, even though it has moved its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig out of the country's exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, the two-day conference held in HCM City heard on Saturday.
Pierre Schifferli, deputy judge of the Court of Appeals in Geneva, said: "China has already moved its oil rig out of Viet Nam. But it's not the end of the story.""All the documents of the past presented in front of the Reunification Palace today show it is clear that the right of Viet Nam on Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago are recognised around the world. It is obvious from the history and legal viewpoints," he said.

"Viet Nam should bring the case to the international court of justice even though China could refuse the jurisdiction in the case," he added.He said Viet Nam should also try to create a strong group within ASEAN to try to settle the dispute by peaceful measures.Mai Hong Quy, rector of the HCM City University of Law, said although the oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 was moved out of Viet Nam waters on July 15, this action caused bad precedence in international legal relations.
The conference, with the participation of some 50 legal scholars, was a chance for Viet Nam to hear from experts in international law about the possible legal solutions to settle disputes in the East Sea peacefully.

Jeanne Mirer, president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, said the conference was unprecedented as it was the first time such a large number of legal experts were assembled to speak about the East Sea issue.She said it was important to ensure that the dispute did not escalate into a much broader military confrontation.She said that international law provides that every country "shall have a 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone from its coastal line".
"The oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 was placed within the Exclusive Economic and Continental Shelf of Viet Nam and that is the major reason why it was a violation of the international law."
"China has many excuses for what it did, but those excuses really do not support international law," she added.

Chito Sta. Romana, president of the Philippines Association for Chinese Studies, told Viet Nam News on the sidelines of the conference that Viet Nam should learn from the experience of the Philippines in filing a lawsuit to China over the dispute on East Sea.The event, which was organised by HCM City Law University and Viet Nam Bar Association, included three sessions on major topics, including international law and China's oil rig placement in the East Sea, settlement of disputes by political and diplomatic measures under international law, and settlement of disputes by legal measures in accordance with international law.

It was attended by international law experts from research centres, institutes and universities from the US, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Thailand, South Korea, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and Singapore.The East Sea is the world's second busiest sea lane through which more than half of the world's supertankers and $5.3 trillion worth of annual trade passes.
There are ongoing sovereignty disputes in the sea between China and several of its neighbouring nations, including Viet Nam and the Philippines.

Fighting rages in Ukraine town; 2 children among 13 dead

 

More death and violence were reported in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, as some investigators stood ready but were unable to go to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, downed more than a week ago.At least 13 people, including two children, were killed in fighting on Sunday between pro-Russian rebels and Ukraine government forces in and near the Ukrainian city of Horlivka, according to the Donetsk Regional Authority, citing preliminary information from the local health care department.Ukraine separatists are using Grad rockets on residential areas of Horlivka, according to Ukraine's Counter-Terrorist Operations Press Center in a statement.

Ukraine's military does not use artillery fire inside city centers to avoid civilian casualties, the statement said. Horlivka is surrounded by government forces.Pro-Russian militant commander OE Khasanov responded to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh's questions about the attacks in Horlivka by saying that the separatists are defending the city.At least 332 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and nearly 1,300 have been injured since April 7, according to Ukraine's National Defense and Security Council and law enforcement agencies.There is no known figure for the number of separatists killed. 

Crash site remains 'still under control of terrorists'

Sunday's bloodshed comes more than a week after the Malaysia Airlines Flight went down July 17 in eastern Ukraine. All 298 on board were killed.Though some investigators from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe have been at the scene, Malaysian investigators haven't been able to access the entire crash site, officials said Sunday. 

Malaysia has struck an agreement with pro-Russian separatists in the area to allow international police to protect investigators, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Sunday, through a statement from his office. But he said he is "deeply concerned" those investigators still are not on scene due to the "volatile security situation."He implored that "the human remains are removed from the site, identified and repatriated."Everyone who was on board MH17 must be afforded proper dignity and respect," he said. Forty-three of the people on MH17 were Malaysian, including two infants and 15 crew members.

The crash site remained Sunday "still under control of terrorists," Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council told reporters.The OSCE deputy mission head, Alexander Hug, told reporters that the team stopped on the road to the crash site because they heard and saw the impact of artillery. He said it was unclear who was firing.The OSCE has been in contact with the separatists and the government to take another try at reaching the site Monday, he said. 

Hug said rebels have offered a train to transport bodies that the investigators find at the scene.

Dutch investigators -- among them a team of 30 forensic experts -- are remaining for the moment in the city of Donetsk, which is about 75 kilometers (50 miles) from Hrabove. Some 40 Dutch police officers are also positioned in Donetsk for now.About two-thirds of the people who died in the plane crash, 193 of the 298, were from the Netherlands.