Hong Kong Marks Tiananmen 25th Anniversary As China Clamps Down

 
At least 100,000 people gathered in downtown Hong Kong on Wednesday for a candlelight vigil to commemorate those who died 25 years ago when People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops brought a bloody end to weeks of student-led mass democracy protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.Amid banners which read, "Overturn the verdict on June 4!" the crowds, who filled six soccer fields in Hong Kong's Victoria Park, chanted and sang songs, before holding a one-minute silence in front of a replica statue of the student movement's Goddess of Democracy.

Some of the names of those who died were read out over a public address system, while footage of the crackdown was played on large, open-air screens, as participants bowed to show respect to the dead.Police said 99,500 people were present during the event's most crowded period, while organizers said 180,000 had turned out, local media reported. The rally ended with a mass rendition of a Cantonese version of "Can you hear the people sing?" from the musical Les Miserables.

Main organizer and Labour Party chairman Lee Cheuk-Yan called on the crowd to raise their candles so Chinese President Xi Jinping would see their lights, telling them: "I don't know what the government fears, banning all discussion about June 4, but here in Hong Kong, we will keep fighting to the end."The rally came amid a massive, nationwide security operation across the internal border in mainland China which saw hundreds of activists detained or placed under surveillance, while online censors blocked and deleted posts, searches and links related to the 25th anniversary.

In Beijing, the authorities deployed thousands of police and volunteers to set up security checkpoints and patrol the streets, especially in the vicinity of Tiananmen Square, while foreign news outlets have been warned off covering the anniversary or risk visa problems next time they try to renew.

Mainland China

Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia said he was under virtual house arrest at his home."There are two plainclothes police sitting in the corridor outside my apartment," Hu said. "Yesterday, when I went down to throw out the trash, I found four or five officers sitting in the grounds, as well as marked and unmarked police cars."

"They weren't only plainclothes police there either," Hu said.A number of Chinese netizens posted pictures of themselves wearing black clothes and glasses on Tiananmen Square, he said.

Meanwhile, police took the families of victims to pay their respects at their graves."It was the same as last year," Zhang Xianling, a member of the Tiananmen Mothers victims' group, told RFA. "The only difference was that this year they took us in a regular car and not in a police car."

She said she and her husband had laid wreaths at the grave of their dead son under the watchful gaze of dozens of plainclothes police at the cemetery."They had people posted at every entrance," Zhang said. "There were a lot of people around us, but they didn't interfere."

"This was such a huge tragedy, and so many people's lives were affected," she said. "And yet this huge ruling party of this huge country can't face up to the reality of history."

Information suppressed

The ruling Chinese Communist Party has ignored growing calls for a reappraisal of the June 4 crackdown, suppressing any attempt at public memorials.Mainland Chinese resident Wang Zang said he knew little about the events of the "Beijing Spring" of 1989 until he stumbled upon photos of the crackdown on the Internet.

"The oppression, the massacre of June 4, 1989 hasn't disappeared with all this time," Wang said. "It was a special event, very special.""Now it is taking on new forms; it's changing all the time," he said. "It's not over."Hong Kong, where a museum dedicated to the 1989 student movement and subsequent crackdown opened in April, remains one of the few places in China where the violence is openly commemorated.

The annual vigil is increasingly attended by visitors from China, including a mainland tourist who gave only his surname Li."The police called me yesterday and said I'd have to report to them when I get back," Li said."I don't know how things will go after I get back; I'll have to see when I get there," he said.Others, like one mainland tourist surnamed Wang, stumbled across the event by accident after arriving in the former British colony for some other purpose.

"We haven't had much information about June 4 [in China]," Wang said. "I just happened to be passing by and saw the scene."He added: "If there's any trouble, I'll leave, but if not, I'll stay awhile."A Hong Kong student surnamed Xu who came with a group of classmates said they had been encouraged to attend by their teachers.

"According to what I saw on TV, a lot of people died on Tiananmen Square, that's all I know," Xu said."Our school didn't give an opinion; they just said we should come here and observe, and learn for ourselves what June 4 is all about," he added.

Marking the anniversary

Earlier on Wednesday, Lee Cheuk-yan called on the territory's lawmakers in the Legislative Council (LegCo) to stand for a minute's silence in honor of the victims of June 4, but was ruled out of order by the chairman, who called a two-minute recess to allow legislators to do as they wished.

"I felt that the Legislative Council should honor our compatriots who died with a minute's silence, but it's too bad that he stopped me from doing it," Lee told RFA in an interview earlier in the day.

"It would show that we supported the demands of the victims for a democratic China," he said. "But [the chairman] said it wasn't our custom, and that we only did it for serious disasters."

"But we think June 4, 1989 was a terrible disaster."

Hong Kong political commentator Wu Yisan said it had been no mean feat for the city to keep alive the memory of those events.

"It's really admirable that democratic legislators call year after year for a minute's silence," he said, adding that the LegCo chairman should show more responsibility for Hong Kong's democracy.

In Taiwan, President Ma Ying-jeou described the events of 25 years ago as an "enormous historical wound," and called on the Chinese Communist Party to address the issue.

Beijing should "speedily redress the wrongs to ensure that such a tragedy will never happen again," Ma said, echoing criticism of the crackdown from former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a White House statement said the United States would continue to "urge the Chinese government to guarantee the universal rights and fundamental freedoms that are the birthright of all Chinese citizens."

Nutrition projects ‘need funds’

 

Despite sustained levels of high economic growth, most people in Cambodia are still eating rice at every meal, with little meat, fish or vegetables, meaning undernutrition will remain high and stunting common among children if the government does not scale up targeted health programs, a new report says.Undernutrition remains stubbornly high in the country, anti-poverty group RESULTS contends in the report, titled Undernutrition in the Land of Rice.The group is calling on the government to recognise that “expenditure on reducing undernutrition is an investment” in the country’s future, given that the cost of malnutrition has been estimated at $419 million annually.They want the government to spend more of its own funds instead of relying almost wholly on donors.

“One thing that has been made really clear to us is that even if national economic performance is really, really strong, and Cambodia’s has been for a relatively long period of time now, it does not directly improve the nutrition of children,” Samantha Chivers, nutrition head at RESULTS Australia, said yesterday.The report says domestic financing for nutrition programs is “worryingly low”, and while the government has prepared a new National Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition (NSFSN) for 2014-2018, it is yet to be fully priced or implemented.

Sok Silo, deputy director-general of the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development, said the government would likely be spending more in coming years, given that the NSFSN will soon be launched.

“I think the trend is to increase the budget for nutrition . . . [Because] without the increased budget on nutrition, we cannot scale up. [But] now the government has decided to scale up already, so we hope that the government will [direct] more funds to nutrition,” he said. “But we cannot work alone, we need partnership with development partners and NGOs.”According to RESULTS, one long-neglected area has been the link between water, sanitation and hygiene, and stunting. In Cambodia, 58 per cent of people still defecate in the open, polluting water sources and making children sick.

“Even if you are eating the right food, if you are constantly flushing it out with diarrhoea and needing that extra kick of nutrition – that’s not helping you grow,” Chivers said.

According to Silo, the NSFSN will see the government focusing on this area, in addition to items used in the fortification of staple foods, such as soy and fish sauce. Cash and food vouchers will also be provided to the rural poor and women to buy nutritious food.

A nutrition action and investment plan will be completed later this year, he added.

East Sea claimants must observe international law: scholar

In the disputed area (Source: VNA)

The appeal, cited in a commentary by Col. Vu Khanh, an expert on international studies, came as China continues illegally running its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou- 981 in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, raising regional and global alarm.
According to Khanh, sprawling nearly 3 million sq.km, the East Sea is of strategic importance to nations both in and outside the region, but also contains the risk of conflict due to territorial disputes among regional nations.

As for the nine littoral countries, namely China (including Taiwan) to the north, the Philippines to the east, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei to the south, and Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the west, the East Sea bears significant values in terms of economics, society and environment.
Stakeholder nations, regionally and globally, for the interests of the region and international community as well as their own, have formed policies which generally seek the utmost restraint and avoid any conflict.

Apart from bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms fully in place, ASEAN member states have strived to realise the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and finalise a legally-binding Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) as soon as possible.
However, challenges still lie ahead, with some pursuing immediate interests in the area irrespective of common interests of the region and the world as a whole. There remain different interpretations of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which stipulates rights and responsibilities of parties concerned in the East Sea.
In regards to China’s illegal drilling activity in Vietnam’s waters, backed by vessels of various kinds, including warships, coast guard and fishing boats ready to use high-pressure water cannons to spray Vietnamese ships, Khanh criticised it as a serious violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty rights and jurisdiction over the East Sea as well as the United Nations Charter.
As a UNCLOS member, China must take full responsibility observing its terms and show a gesture of willingness and concession in the settlement of disputes, he said, calling on the country to fully realise the DOC, the principles guiding the implementation of DOC, and finalise the COC with ASEAN soon.

According to him, the settlement of disputes by peaceful means is an inevitable and undeniable trend that wins the support of almost countries around the world, during which concerned parties should show perseverance and exercise restraint in the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, without the use of force or threat to use force.He suggested that regional security mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Minister’s Meeting Plus (ADMM+) and the Shangri La Dialogue should be utilised to the full.

He also criticised China’s sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat in Vietnam’s waters on May 26 as inhumane, citing that many Vietnamese fishing ships have also been rammed by Chinese vessels and robbed of money, equipment and fuel, with some fishermen even being held captive.
China must withdraw its rig and vessels from Vietnam’s waters immediately and commit to stopping similar hindrances to economic and trade activities at sea while waiting for the COC to be adopted, Khanh urged.

3 suspects confess in India gang rape; community outraged

 

Three brothers have confessed to involvement in the gang rape of two teenage girls in India, a police officer told CNN.The men have pleaded guilty to the rape charges but have not admitted to killing the girls, local police spokesman Mukesh Saxena said Sunday.All five known suspects, including two police officers, have been arrested, he said.The police complaint also names two unknown people in the case. Investigations are trying to determine their identity, Saxena said.The assault on the cousins, ages 14 and 16, sparked outrage in the community in Uttar Pradesh state. After being gang raped, they were hanged from a mango tree, police said.

The initial post-mortem report suggests that the two girls were alive when they were hanged, Saxena told CNN on Wednesday."The (autopsy) report is the basis of our investigation. The cause of the death is also being verified further through various other forensic and scientific methods," he said.

Villagers streamed into the homes of the girls' relatives, weeping behind their customary veils. The mother of one of the girls said her daughter wanted to become a doctor to escape grinding poverty.

The attackers, she said, deserved the same fate that befell her daughter.

"Hang them in public," she said.

CNN cannot identify the relatives or victims under Indian law.

In the northern village where the attack occurred, crowds surrounded the girls for hours after their bodies were found on May 28. They accused authorities of siding with the suspects and blocked them from taking the girls down from their nooses unless arrests were made.

In addition to possible rape and murder charges, the officers face charges of conspiracy in the crime and negligence of duty after villagers accused them of failing to respond when they first pinpointed the suspects.An autopsy confirmed that the girls had been raped and strangled, according to authorities. They were cremated the same day the bodies were found, in line with Hindu customs, Saxena said."We are scared," said Renu Devi, a woman in the village where the attack occurred.

"If this could happen to them, it could happen to us also."

Police under scrutiny

Devi has reason to fear. The girls were in an orchard relieving themselves the night of May 27 when the attackers grabbed them, authorities said.

Toilets are rare in the village, forcing women to wander away into fields in the dead of night.

"There's no toilet. Where can the girls go?" shouted Jamuni Devi, another woman from the village. "No one has done anything for sanitation."

\

Indians have more access to mobile phones than to toilets, according to a United Nations report four years ago."India has some 545 million cell phones, enough to serve about 45% of the population," according to the U.N.But it also has the highest number of people in the world -- an estimated 620 million -- who defecate in the open, according to UNICEF.The lack of indoor plumbing leaves women in rural areas vulnerable to frequent rapes and beatings."It is a tragic irony to think that in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones, about half cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said Zafar Adeel, chairman of the organization U.N.-Water.

Unable to stop abduction

Some people saw the abduction but were unable to stop it, police spokesman Saxena said, citing witnesses.His account echoed that of the father of the older victim, who alleged that a scuffle broke out between a relative and the three brothers suspected of the attack."They scared my cousin away with a locally made pistol," he said.The daughter he lost was his only child.The victims' relatives accused local police of failing to respond and siding with the suspects when the parents reported the case. The allegations have fueled anger among the villagers."If police wanted, my daughter would have been alive today," he said.

'Endemic' violence

This Uttar Pradesh rape is the latest of several that have drawn the world's attention to India in recent years.The horrific gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi in late 2012 shook India, sparking campaigns against violent crimes against women in the country, the world's second most populous, after China.

The case prompted protests in many cities, soul-searching in the media and changes to law. But shocking instances of sexual violence continue to come to light."Laws can only do so much when you have to end something which is as endemic and as entrenched as violence against women," said Divya Iyer, a senior researcher for Amnesty International in Bangalore, India.The country's new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has said he wants to take steps to ensure that women are safe, particularly in rural India. But women's rights groups have criticized what they say is a lack of specific proposals to tackle the problem, suggesting that gender inequality doesn't appear to be high on his list of priorities.