Rights Group Cites ‘Major Concerns’ in Cambodia-Australia Refugee Deal

An international human rights group said Tuesday that Cambodia cannot be trusted in upholding the rights of refugees to be resettled in the country from Australia under a controversial bilateral deal.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch questioned Cambodia’s ability to safely resettle asylum seekers bound for Australia even after the government gave a reassurance Tuesday that it would only accept refugees who voluntarily agree to come to the country.

“There are major concerns because it’s quite clear that Cambodia would not be able to provide the same level of protection or services for any refugees that were transferred from Australia,” Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director, told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“Cambodia is a very poor country. There are a number of refugees who are already there … and many of them are close to destitute. They don’t have work authorization and they have a real struggle to survive,” he said.

Robertson also criticized Cambodia’s “major problem with failing to effectively protect refugee rights in the past,” citing the country’s forced deportation in 2009 to China of 20 ethnic Uyghurs who had already been deemed “persons of concern” by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) after they fled Xinjiang following protests that were brutally suppressed by authorities.

He also referred to Cambodia’s forced return of activists representing the Khmer Krom—who are ethnically similar to Cambodians and say they face persecution in Vietnam—into the hands of Vietnamese security services.

“The Australian government should be ashamed for proposing this,” he said.

“They should take on the responsibilities of protecting refugees in line with their own commitments to the refugee convention and not try to transfer responsibility to another country.”

Human Rights Watch made the criticism as Phnom Penh and Canberra appeared close to clinching an agreement to take refugees bound for Australia, which is stemming the tide of asylum seekers arriving in the continent under a hard-line policy.

The deal could see up to 1,000 refugees settled in impoverished Cambodia, some reports have suggested.

Australia at present denies would-be refugees resettlement by sending them to camps in neighboring Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Consent required

Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has told the Australian media that refugees would not be forced to go to Cambodia and that they would be required to fill out consent forms and personal data forms and submit them to immigration officials before being permitted to resettle.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Kuy Kuong on Tuesday confirmed the statement from Hor Namhong, who is also Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister, suggesting that the two countries were close to signing an agreement.

“As the deputy prime minister stated, when the refugee deal is reached, Cambodia will only accept those refugees who have volunteered to come to our country,” he told RFA.

“Those who don’t want to come, we won’t accept.”

When asked whether Cambodia would be able to guarantee their protection, Kuy Kuong said that the government is “aware what we should and shouldn’t do.”

“We are in the process of discussing the issue,” he said.

Kuy Kuong declined to comment on whether the Cambodian government had been promised financial incentives by Australia in response to agreeing to resettle the country’s refugees.

“I don’t have any information about that,” he said.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s administration came to power last year partly based on his vow to stop a flood of asylum seekers, and during a visit in February, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop asked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen if his country could take on some of the intercepted migrants.

Australia has come under criticism by international rights groups and the United Nations for unsafe conditions at the detention centers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

‘Final stage’ of talks

According to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald, Hor Namhong said Tuesday that talks with Australia were in the “final stage” after authorities in Phnom Penh sent the Abbott administration a draft of the agreement.
He said a memorandum of understanding and operational guidelines would be put in place but declined to give details.

“The refugees' permanent and voluntary resettlement in Cambodia is fundamentally undertaken on the humanitarian spirit,” Hor Namhong told the Herald.

He said Cambodia’s authorities will investigate the backgrounds of refugees Canberra plans to send to the country and will insist that any who come to settle be approved as genuine asylum seekers under the 1951 Convention on refugees.

Hor Namhong also welcomed any support from humanitarian organizations—including the UNHCR, which has only a two-person office in the country—in caring for the refugees.

Cambodia, which itself saw an exodus of refugees fleeing war and starvation during the bloody Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s, has said that the government would reach a decision based on humanitarian needs and its ability to ensure that no refugees seek asylum for economic reasons.

Officials have also said that they will refuse entry to political asylum seekers and to those who might use the country as a base for a campaign against a foreign power.

Australia has not made public any details about the plan, which has drawn criticism from rights groups, nongovernmental organizations and Cambodia’s opposition parties.

Rights concerns

In a statement last month, Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch’s Australia director, slammed the rights record of Cambodia, where she said freedom of expression, assembly and association “are under regular attack” and corruption is “rampant,” adding that matters in the country’s courts are “decided by bribes and political influence, not law and facts.”

“[This] raise[s] serious questions about how refugees sent to Cambodia will be treated,” she said, adding that many questions remain unanswered about where they would be housed in the country, which ministry would oversee their care and whether they would be free to integrate as they please.

“Australia should help Cambodia become a rights-respecting, safe and stable place—but the best way is by holding the government to account for its abuses while providing capacity-building assistance.”

Statues’ 40-year reunion

 
Three of Cambodia’s ancient sandstone warriors were welcomed back to their birthplace yesterday, greeted by lotus wreathes and a troupe of traditional dancers adorned in gold.
The ceremony marked the end of a 40-year absence for the Duryodhana, Bhima and Balarama statues. The mammoth, 10th-century characters all belong to the same tableau of mythological Hindu figures once locked in battle at Prasat Chen, a remote jungle temple in Preah Vihear.
Over the past year, Cambodia has regained five of the nine statues pillaged from the temple’s Eastern entrance, haphazardly hacked from their pedestals and sold on to international art markets during the Khmer Rouge era.“Surviving civil wars, looting, smuggling and travelling the world, these three have now regained their freedom and returned home,” Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said during yesterday’s repatriation ceremony.One of the temple centrepieces, the Duryodhana, arrived back in Cambodia after a two-year legal battle ended in a settlement, with Sotheby’s surrendering the sculpture, which it had once tried to auction for $3 million. The statue was transferred to Cambodian officials during a ceremony in New York last month.

The Duryodhana’s sparring partner, the Bhima statue, was voluntarily returned by the Norton Simon Museum in California, where it had been housed since 1976. The museum agreed to repatriate the statue just last month, following a lengthy debate and a “good-faith disagreement” over the provenance of the “Temple Wrestler”.“It’s quite moving actually to see it [in Cambodia],” Walter Timoshuk, president of the Norton Simon Museum told the Post on the sidelines of yesterday’s ceremony. “His Excellency Chan Tani [secretary of state at the Council of Ministers] helped me and the museum trustees to better understand the value and importance of this incredible statue to Cambodia.”One of six onlookers to the Duryodhana and Bhima’s epic battle, the Balarama statue was given to Cambodia as a gift from Christie’s, which had originally sold the figure to an anonymous collector in 2009 for more than $140,000. Christie’s bought the statue back earlier this year after learning that it may have been illicitly taken from Cambodia, according to a museum spokesperson.

The Duryodhana statue sits at the Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh following its unveiling. Pha Lina“You see, this is not only lip service, but evidence of real action,” Sok An said yesterday.

Before the trio’s return, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art began the rush of Prasat Chen repatriations last year with an unprecedented move to voluntarily send two kneeling attendants that had been in the museum’s collection since the 1980s back to Cambodia. Known as the Pandavas, the museumt’s attendants form part of a collection of four flanking their brother Bhima, the battle’s eventual victor who ascended to rule the kingdom.

“The pillaging of Cambodia’s historical legacy has rightly been called a brutal attack on the soul of the nation,” Jeff Daigle, deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, said.
“Although it took more than two years … the repatriation of these statues demonstrates the strengthening commitment of American collectors and institutions to adhere to the highest ethical and legal standards in acquiring objects.”Cambodian officials have claimed that two other American museums hold statues from another scene at Prasat Chen. The Cleveland Museum of Art sent a curator to investigate the origin claim of the Hanuman at the beginning of this year, but she concluded from attempted pedestal matchings that the statue and temple don’t make a fit. The Denver Museum, meanwhile, said it has not received evidence its statue is a looted work.
Cambodia hopes to recover all nine of the looted cast that once depicted the battle from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata, and to eventually reunite them at the entrance to Prasat Chen. The Kingdom has successfully recovered five, and owns a sixth – the single statue from the scene that remained in its homeland. Two of the missing three are in private collections, according to UNESCO, and the location of a third is unknown.For now, the six recovered works will be reunited at the National Museum before eventually being returned to their original home.“It may not be the full happy ending yet, but it’s definitely an achievement,” Anne LeMaistre, country director for UNESCO, said.

After jail, Pov gains following

Before he was arrested in January, Vorn Pov and the union he created were not widely known outside of activist circles.But when he emerged from Phnom Penh’s CC1 prison on Friday, he walked away as one of the highest-profile unionists in the country, and a minor celebrity.According to Pov, his Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA) has recruited more than 1,000 new members since he was beaten and dragged away by soldiers outside the Yakjin garment factory amid worker protests on January 3.That his group has since burgeoned in popularity is not surprising. The 23 protesters and activists who were imprisoned during January’s demonstrations, and finally released on Friday with suspended sentences, became a cause célèbre, drawing widespread attention from local and global unions, rights groups, brands, embassies and media.

 

At the centre of the firestorm surrounding the group was Pov, who underwent surgery late last year and was said to be suffering from serious health problems after the beating.

“A lot of people are paying attention to my union now, because they know that I was unjustly put behind bars,” Pov, who launched IDEA in 2005 to represent informal workers ranging from tuk-tuk drivers to recyclables collectors and now has more than 10,000 members, said yesterday.

“A lot of people want to meet me now, especially when I go down to the market to thank the vendors who supported me while I was detained in prison. They want to know me, and they say they are proud of me because what I have done is not personal. I did it for the workers and society.

“I think the reason I became the symbol of the 23 is because I had done a lot of work in the past to help workers and moto taxi drivers. So when I was arrested … they thought about me first.”

Hin Phearun, 30, has driven a tuk-tuk for seven years but says he only joined IDEA after Pov was sent to prison.“I never thought to join Vorn Pov’s union before. But after he was imprisoned, I know him and I know he fights for workers. So last month, we all went to his association to become members,” he says, gesturing to a group of seven other motodops and tuk-tuk drivers who work on the same Tonle Bassac commune street corner.

“Now we are all employees of Vorn Pov. He is the leader and we are the members.”

Pov has long been a well-known local activist but has gained a much higher profile since his arrest, said Moeun Tola, head of the labour rights program at the Community Legal Education Center.

“I think it’s true [that average Cambodians are now more likely to know his name], because more and more people have approached me and asked me about him after he was arrested, especially our international friends and Cambodians that live abroad.”On Sunday, opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party deputy president Kem Sokha said that he would invite Pov to the US to meet with Khmer communities living there.Tola compared Pov to Boueng Kak land activist Yorm Bopha, whose profile skyrocketed after she was convicted of aggravated violence in 2012 in a case widely believed to be linked to her political activism.

According to Human Rights Watch, based on testimony from members of the security forces, Pov is “on a blacklist of social activists, journalists, and human rights defenders [that] the security forces have been compiling as possible targets for prosecution and imprisonment since the second half of 2013”.Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan yesterday rejected that allegation in no uncertain terms.“Whoever [thinks] he is on a blacklist of the government can submit [a complaint] to the court, because they don’t allow anyone to do like that. It’s against citizens’ rights. Whoever is saying that is sort of defaming the government. We have no such thing like that, it’s nonsense,” he said.

“We understand what is wrong and we want to fix the problem. We will go to the source of the problem – the [minimum wage pay] raise..… Getting rid of one person wouldn’t mean you get rid of the problem.”

Chhay Chhunly, head of the human rights defenders project at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said that while Pov had already been subject to threats before his arrest, he could now be better protected.“Having a higher profile among the international community and the media since his arrest might actually make him safer. It means that if the government threatens you or arrests you, there will be a bigger reaction and more pressure,” she said.But for IDEA members like tuk-tuk driver Ly Sovan, Pov’s newfound fame will mean little if their lot doesn’t improve.“I don’t care about his reputation or whether he is famous or not. It’s about moto drivers and tuk-tuk drivers benefiting.”

Expert speaks about Vietnam’s maritime security policy

China’s illegal placement of its drilling rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 deep inside Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf and its aggressive actions targeting Vietnamese fishermen have been threatening peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation in the East Sea. This has prompted Colonel Vu Khanh, an expert in international relations, to make clear Vietnam’s maritime security policy.

According to Khanh, maritime security forms part of national, regional and global security and is associated closely with land security. With 70 percent of the world’s population living in coastal areas about 100 miles from the shore and the world’s most developed regions lying by the sea, maritime security has increasingly impacted on land security in particular and national security in general.
Now that an acknowledged term defining maritime security is still absent globally, the concept of “maritime security” can be comprehended as a state of stability and safety without threats coming from seas or mainland to the normal activities at sea of countries, organisations and individuals, or sea-borne threats to normal activities on the mainland of countries, organisations and individuals.
Like land security, maritime security encompasses traditional and non-traditional security, Khanh explained.

For Vietnam, the country faces the sea easterly, southerly and south-westerly with a coastline stretching up to 3,260 kilometres. Close to 3,000 islands and islets, including the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos, are scattered in the country’s territorial sea, contiguous zones, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf.In a resolution adopted at the 10th Party Central Committee’s 4 th session, the Party laid down general goals of the national sea strategy, defining that by 2020 the country would become sea-basedly powerful and prosperous and able to firmly defend the national sovereignty and sovereign rights in the sea, thus making important contributions to the national industrialisation and modernisation.

The Party underscored that during the national construction and defence, the development of the sea-borne economy has been regarded as a spearhead in the national economic development strategy, while waters and islands are viewed as the nation’s crucial defence line.
Regarding the settlement of sovereignty disputes in the East Sea, Khanh talked about the four major issues pertaining to Vietnam.The first touched upon the dispute concerning sovereignty over Hoang Sa archipelago between Vietnam and China. Khanh confirmed that Vietnam’s feudal reigns had occupied and managed the archipelago peacefully and continuously since the 16 th century. In 1956, China used force to seize a cluster of islands east of the archipelago. In 1974, it continued using force to take hold of the islands west of Vietnam’s archipelago.

The second related to the area off the Tonkin Gulf. After signing an agreement on the delineation of the Tonkin Gulf and another on fisheries cooperation in 2001, both Vietnam and China were unanimous on pressing ahead with negotiations to demarcate the area off the Gulf. Through seven negotiation rounds, both sides have so far failed to agree on an end to the matter. During the negotiation course, China viewed the area as a “disputed” area and unilaterally launched surveying and exploration activities in the western part of the “assumed” median line (which is closer to Vietnam).

The third was the dispute in the Truong Sa archipelago, which has seen the involvement of Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan (China). In March 1988, China used force to occupy several islands in the archipelago.The fourth focused on China’s “nine-dash” line claim, which is totally groundless and unrecognised internationally. The claim covers the continental shelves and interests of many coastal states as well as international security and navigation freedom, the expert added.For the settlement of the sovereignty disputes in the East Sea, Vietnam holds that the parties concerned need to comply with international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (1982 UNCLOS), the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), ASEAN’s Six-Point Principle on the East Sea and work towards shaping a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

These legal documents are important since they will serve as a legal foundation for the parties involved to exchange views when handling sea-related issues. In cases where the countries concerned pursue stances quite different from each other, the 1982 UNCLOS will be employed as a standard for these countries to cross-check and redefine their claims to make them right.
For the sea-related disputes between the two parties only, bilateral negotiations should be conducted. For those involving multiple parties, the sides concerned should sit down to work together to seek solutions. To encourage maritime freedom and rights and interests of all sides both in and outside the region, broader participation of the related parties is required.

Vietnam and China have been negotiating on how to delineate the overlapping area off the Tonkin Gulf. The two sides have also been discussing the less-sensitive areas and have reaped good results from their cooperation in the fields. These issues are only related to the two countries and the outcomes gained are productive.In recent times, the sovereignty disputes in the East Sea have become complex, fuelled by clashes between the countries involved, including Vietnam and China. In particular, China’s illegal deployment of its oil rig deep inside Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf brazenly violates Vietnam’s sovereign right and jurisdiction, as well as international law and Vietnamese law.

Vietnam is an independent nation, having sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity that cover its mainland, islands, waters and air space. Therefore, Vietnam resolutely does not allow any nation or any force to intrude into its sovereignty.Vietnam will take every necessary and proper measure to safeguard its legitimate rights and benefits. The country always shows her goodwill and patience in settling disputes satisfactorily through negotiations, dialogues and other peaceful means in accordance with the common perception agreed by high-ranking leaders of the two countries, international norms and law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS and the DOC.

To deal with non-traditional security challenges at sea, Vietnam plans to maximise her internal strength along with expanding her international cooperation with all countries across the globe, upholding the principles of respect for independence, sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity and non-intervention into each other’s internal affairs.The country has worked hard to raise awareness of the harms stemming from non-traditional security challenges as well, and promote individual rights and responsibilities in preventing and overcoming these challenges to ensure the nation’s sustainable development.

Vietnam will look to handle harmoniously the inter-relation between traditional security and non-traditional security challenges in the context of globalisation.Colonel Khanh referred to the need to step up research and analysis to promptly forecast the impact of non-traditional security challenges at sea, especially climate change, trans-national crimes, terrorism, and the trafficking of women and children.Vietnam has participated in an active and responsible manner in regional and international cooperation designed to prevent and counter the non-traditional security challenges, prioritising multilateral affiliation.

In addition, the country has enthusiastically joined regional and international dialogue mechanisms to expand her cooperation within ASEAN, and between the grouping and its partners, in preventing and dealing with non-traditional security challenges at sea.Such mechanisms as the ASEAN Summit, ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, and Shangri La Dialogue, have served as strategic dialogue channels for ASEAN member states to exchange their viewpoints within the group and with their dialogue partners to reach a consensus in perception and cooperative methods and policies to fight off common non-traditional security challenges and those at sea.Vietnam has highly praised and taken an active part in cooperation activities within the framework of the ADMM+6, which focuses on humanitarian assistance and disaster aid relief, counter-terrorism, maritime security, military medicine, peace-keeping, and humanitarian mine action.

Maintaining and ensuring security in the East Sea at present and in the future will cope with an array of new difficulties and challenges, requiring collective efforts of all regional countries, Khanh said.
In doing so, the countries need to abide by international law; handling disputes and conflicts via peaceful negotiations and not using force or threatening to use force. This will build the East Sea into an area of peace, stability and cooperation, contributing to establishing an environment of peace and propensity in the Asia-Pacific.

China’s apparent intentions emerge one month after oil-rig deployment

On May 1, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) deployed the Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig in Vietnam’s continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone and announced that it would maintain the oil rig until August 15.Vietnam stated that according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS), the oil rig is located deep in the continental shelf and the EEZ of 200 nautical miles. Vietnam demanded China immediately remove its rig out of Vietnam’s waters.

In response, China said it is the normal exploitation of natural resources in the waters of China and slandered Vietnam as the aggressive party. 

China has continued to increase the number of its vessels, including naval and warships in Vietnam’s waters, and has attacked Vietnamese vessels with water cannons.The position of the HD-981 oil rig is 130 nautical miles from the coast of Vietnam and 119 nautical miles from Vietnam’s Ly Son Island. The rig is off the coast of Hainan by 182 nautical miles; 17 nautical miles from Tri Ton Island of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa Archipelago (Paracel Islands); and Phu Lam Islands (also part of Hoang Sa) by 103 nautical miles.According to UNCLOS of which Vietnam and China are members, each country has the right to have an EEZ of 200 nautical miles and the continental shelf from the baseline.

From Vietnam’s coast and China’s Hainan Island, the position is located in the overlapping area in the EEZ of the two sides. However, UNCLOS clearly defines that, in the overlapping areas, the parties are not allowed to have unilateral exploration beyond the median line.

The fact shows that islands rarely enjoy the same effect as land territory. So, based on both fact and the theory, in the correlation between Vietnam’s coast and the Hainan Island of China, this position lies deep in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of Vietnam or at least in Vietnam’s waters through the median line.The issue becomes more complex when it comes to the correlation between the Vietnam’s coast and the Hoang Sa Archipelago.Vietnam has established its sovereignty over this archipelago from the 17th century, but it has been under the management of China since 1974 after China invaded the archipelago of the Republic of Vietnam by force.

China announced a baseline for the islands in 1996, and Tri Ton Island protrudes the most to the south of that baseline.

This statement has been criticized by the world for adopting a national baseline for a disputed island. However, China has always said that Xisha (Paracel Islands) belongs to them and there is neither dispute nor negotiation.More seriously, in July 2012, China announced the establishment of Sansha City based on Phu Lam Island to control the entire waters in its U-shaped line or nine-dotted line that covers 80 percent of the East Sea.Vietnam has never accepted Phu Lam Island, Tri Ton Island and the Paracel Islands belonging to China. Applying Article 121 (3) of the UNCLOS, islands not suitable for humans to live or have no economic life as Tri Ton will possess only 12 nautical miles of territorial water, without a separate exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

Even for the 200ha Phu Lam Island, if it has a separate exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, it would be very small. In the delimitation of the Tonkin Gulf, the island of 2.5 km Bach Long Vy Island only enjoys one-quarter. In the delimitation of the Gulf of Thailand, the island of Tho Chu enjoys only one-third.The judgment by the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has confirmed the trend that islands have no equal effect in relation to the mainland in delimitation of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

In the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, the coastal states have sovereign rights over natural resources and jurisdiction of the installation, use, maintenance and repair of equipment on the sea.

Therefore, China’s unilateral implementation of exploration acts in the waters of Vietnam is considered a provocative violation.Since 1988, the time of the latest conflict between Vietnam and China, there have been a few noteworthy points related to this incident.First, China's actions are aggressive and are against international law and the latest agreements between it and Vietnam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).Second, Vietnam’s response has been restrained, and has not used military measures, but Vietnam’s attitude is the most determined, not only in the field.For the first time, the Vietnamese Prime Minister criticized China's illegal activities in Vietnam’s waters at ASEAN and international forums.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung also stated: "We always want peace and friendship but this must ensure independence, self-reliance, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and maritime zones. These are sacred and we will never trade them off for some kind of elusive, dependent peace and friendship".

Third, the international community has reacted strongly to China's actions. The criticisms came from Washington, the EU, Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia.Fourth, ASEAN has expressed itself as a united block in front of China’s pressure with a separate statement of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers on the East Sea after 19 years since the Mischief Reef incident in 1995. 

Beijing does not want to internationalize the East Sea dispute. And contrary to its calculations, ASEAN showed its strength of unity by adding East Sea tensions in the documents of the ASEAN Summit (Nay Pyi Daw statement and the Chairman's statement) in May.Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged ASEAN to express common views on the East Sea as the "conflicts have happened right at our gate."Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa confirmed that China must respect its commitment to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC).

According to the foreign minister, Beijing wants to resolve the East Sea disputes on a bilateral basis and does not want to have the participation of a third party. However, its illegal deployment of the HD-981 oil rig in Vietnam’s waters is not a bilateral issue but an issue of the region, so ASEAN has "special responsibility" to ensure that both parties will enter into a dialogue to resolve the situation.

Five, the demonstrations showing patriotism of the Vietnamese people broke out not only in Vietnam but over the world. Vietnam has won the support of its people and the world community.

Obama urges Putin to make choice over Ukraine

 

President Barack Obama wants Vladimir Putin to take steps to rebuild the trust shattered by Russia's actions in Ukraine.Obama's comment came as he visited Poland on Tuesday, the first stop on his three-country European trip which is intended, in part, to reassure allies in Eastern Europe unnerved by Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.Putin "has a choice to make" on Ukraine, Obama said during a news conference in Warsaw, calling on the Russian President to continue to pull back troops from the border with Ukraine, persuade pro-Russian separatists to stand down and back Ukraine's recent presidential election.If the United States sees "responsible behavior" from Russia, Obama said, "I think it is possible for us to try to rebuild some of the trust that has been shattered." But he warned that it will take "quite some time."

Kiev and the West have said the separatists in Ukraine are coordinated and supplied by Russia, a claim that Moscow denies.Obama's visit comes a day after a deadly attack on a regional headquarters building in Donetsk that has been taken over by separatists calling themselves the People's Republic of Luhansk. Five women and three men, all of them civilians, were killed in the attack, which Kiev has blamed on separatists.A munitions expert who accompanied a CNN crew to the scene, however, said the damage to the building was indicative of an airstrike.Social media video shows an aircraft overhead after the attacks, trees are splintered as if they were hit from above and craters in a nearby square leading to the building appear to have been the result of heavy cannon fire from the air. 

A meeting in France?

Obama, speaking alongside Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, said he had always had a "business-like relationship" with Putin and that he had conveyed the same messages to him in private conversations as were made in public.He said Washington wanted good relations, but added that sanctions imposed over Russia's Crimea excursion would be maintained and that more have been drawn up in case of further destabilization in the east.Obama added that he was "sure" he would cross paths with Putin while both are in France at the end of the week for events to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Obama said he was looking forward to meeting with Ukraine's President-elect Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday, adding that his election last month "gives us some momentum to build on as we move forward."He also stressed the need for Ukraine to pursue economic as well as political reform, including taking steps to reduce its reliance on natural gas from Russia.

At the same news conference, Obama announced that he is asking Congress for a fund of up to $1 billion to allow for a "European Reassurance Initiative" to bolster the security of NATO allies.

This would help the United States undertake increased training exercises, explore the pre-positioning of military equipment, and build the capacity of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine to partner with the United States and NATO.More U.S. Air Force and Army personnel will be rotated through allied countries in central and eastern Europe, Obama said.He urged all NATO nations to live up to their commitment to the alliance when member states are threatened, and commended Poland for its contribution.

How covering June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown kicked off 'CNN Effect'

 
It was 2:30 a.m. on the morning of June 4, 1989. From a balcony of the Beijing Hotel, I looked down Chang'an Avenue towards Tiananmen Square a few hundred meters away. Red tracer bullets whizzed through the air. The crackle of gunfire echoed through the humid Beijing night.

I could see armored vehicles of the People's Liberation Army moving just in front of the famous portrait of Chairman Mao hanging above the vast square.Below me crowds gathered, surged forward, and then broke and dispersed as soldiers opened fire at them. Several people were hit. I watched as others loaded the dead and wounded onto flatbed bicycle carts.

WATCH: "Assignment China"

As the drama unfolded, my colleagues and I reported it live on CNN over a scratchy phone line to transfixed TV audiences around the world.The events that night were a turning point for China, as well as a watershed moment in the history of the media.

A girl wounded during the military crackdown in Beijing on June 4, 1989, is carried away on a bicycle cart.

Weeks of student-led protests had become the largest movement for political reform in the history of the People's Republic. The military crackdown I covered had far-reaching consequences, not only for China's development but also for its relations with the rest of the world.

Global coverage

The protests generated unparalleled international coverage, and became a defining moment in the Information Age. It was the first time a popular uprising in an authoritarian state was broadcast live across the globe.According to Bernard Shaw, who anchored CNN's live round-the-clock coverage from Beijing for much of the crisis: "You could say that that was the beginning of the 'CNN effect'" -- the idea, which became widespread after Tiananmen Square, that the immediacy of live TV news available 24 hours a day played a crucial role in influencing the behavior of key players during major crises.The images from that time -- the Goddess of Democracy, the man in front of the tank -- became enduring symbols of popular resistance to injustice.In the United States, the coverage of Tiananmen redefined the relationship between the press, public opinion, and foreign policy-making, and brought an end to the romance in Sino-American relations that had begun with Richard Nixon's trip in 1972.

Student leaders Wu'er Kaixi (left) and Wang Dan (center), from "Assignment: China."

To this day, the event and the images continue to shape international perceptions of the country.

It was no accident that at a U.S. Congressional hearing on Tiananmen in late May, lawmakers from both parties emphasized how the television coverage from 25 years ago had influenced popular views of China.

Tiananmen legacy

Inside China, Tiananmen also continues to exert a profound influence.

The crisis in 1989 led paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to purge liberal officials who had sympathized with the students, and replace them with more conservative figures.

Yet for Deng, a central lesson of Tiananmen was that public confidence in the Chinese Communist Party could only be maintained by continuing the market-oriented economic reforms begun in the 1980s. In the wake of Tiananmen, Deng pushed to revive and accelerate the reform process, triggering a bitter fight with the very conservatives he had relied on to back his decision to crack down in 1989.

Mike Chinoy, former CNN Beijing Bureau Chief, reported live from Tiananmen Square in 1989.

In what was his last great political battle, Deng triumphed, and his efforts paved the way for China's emergence as an economic powerhouse.Yet for the same reason -- ensuring the Party's survival -- Deng also stifled any new moves towards political reform, as did those who followed him.

In particular, fearing that the events of that June could undermine the Party's legitimacy, Beijing has relentlessly sought to erase June 4 from public memory. All public discussion of the crisis is banned. Every Spring, the authorities move against anyone seeking to raise the issue, whether dissidents, lawyers, or relatives of those who died.

The Communist Party in effect offered the Chinese people a bargain: greater economic opportunity and more personal -- as opposed to political -- freedom in return for not challenging the Party's monopoly on power.

'Suffocating control'

Despite pervasive political repression, it is a bargain many Chinese have accepted.

And with the passage of time, the suffocating control of any public discussion, along with stunning economic growth, has meant that for the vast majority of Chinese, the events of 1989 have faded from memory.

The day after the lethal crackdown: Torched tanks cooling in the streets.

An entire generation knows little but the official government version of what occurred. Yet memories of 1989 still haunt the Communist Party. Ensuring that nothing like it occurs again remains a central feature of Beijing's policies on a host of issues.This can be seen in the exceptionally nervous reactions to the Arab spring and so-called "color revolutions" in parts of the former Soviet Union, the growth of the internal security services, the intense repression in Tibet and Xinjiang, the harsh actions against dissidents like the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, and the government's management of the thousands of protests over local issues that occur in China every year.

So far, Beijing's approach has generally worked and the Chinese leadership has proved itself to be more skillful and resilient than many in 1989 would have predicted.

However, with the country's economy slowing, social and economic tensions rising, and the Internet and other new forms of communication giving citizens new tools to voice their opinions and generate political pressure, the Communist Party is facing new challenges -- which could give new resonance to the legacy of Tiananmen Square.Beijing's approach to June 4 therefore remains a paradox. A quarter of a century later, the Communist Party still feels compelled to use all the powers of the state to convince people inside China that nothing worth remembering happened on a date that, outside the country, will be an occasion for reflection and analysis of what remains the gravest crisis the Party has faced since the revolution of 1949.