Thai Court Agrees to Hear Lawsuit over Controversial Xayaburi Dam in Laos

A top court in Thailand agreed on Tuesday to hear a lawsuit brought by villagers against the country’s decision to purchase power from the planned Xayaburi mega dam in neighboring Laos, which green groups say could threaten the region’s environment and food security.

Overruling a lower court decision, the Thai Supreme Administrative Court said it had jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit filed by villagers living along the mighty Mekong River, on which the dam is to be built.  The case will have no direct impact on the Lao government’s decision to go ahead with the dam project.But any court decision in the future that questions the validity of a power purchase agreement signed between the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and the Xayaburi electricity generating company could dampen the U.S. $3.5 billion dam project.

EGAT will buy 95 percent of the power from the Xayaburi Power Company Limited under the agreement.

Thirty-seven Thai villagers had filed a case nearly two years ago against EGAT and the National Energy Policy Council and three other government bodies, saying the power purchase agreement is illegal, approved without an assessment of the project’s environmental and health impacts and without consultations in Thailand.The court on Tuesday accepted only one of the four points pursued in the lawsuit—that the National Energy Policy Council and EGAT failed to disclose all information on the power purchase agreement and on a survey of villagers that had been conducted along the Mekong, a lawyer for the villagers told reporters.

“The court feels it can accept the case, and the next step [is for] the court [to call] the five state agencies to come down and testify," lawyer Sor Rattanamanee Polkla said.The court however said it does not have jurisdiction to hear the villagers’ demand for a cancelation of the power purchase agreement between the EGAT and the Xayaburi company.“The court considered this an administrative matter which has nothing to do with the petitioners,” Sor said. “The court couldn't accept this."

Agreement review

Global environmental group International Rivers said the power purchase agreement was approved without an assessment of the project’s environmental and health impacts, and without consultations in Thailand, in violation of the Thai Constitution.  The villagers who brought forward the lawsuit come from areas along the Mekong River that would be directly impacted by the Xayaburi Dam, it said in a report.

It would be within the Thai court’s powers to suspend the agreement until transboundary impact studies are carried out and consultations are held in Thailand, International Rivers said. “Ultimately if the court finds that the [agreement] was approved illegally, it could cancel the agreement altogether.”The Nation, a leading Thai newspaper, said that “if the contract is cancelled, there is a possibility the ongoing construction may come to a halt.”“The Egat, after all, is a major buyer of electricity from this dam project.”

Regional impact

Laos officially launched construction on the Xayaburi dam in November 2012. It is the first dam across the main stem of the Lower Mekong.The move has met with criticism from its neighbors Cambodia and Vietnam as well as environmental groups.

The Xayaburi, along with another proposed Lao dam, in Don Sahong, also on the Mekong, poses a regional security threat for the some 60 million people in Southeast Asia who rely on fish and other products from the key regional artery for their nutrition and their livelihoods, environmental and conservation groups say.

Soure:RFA

UN Envoy Calls on Cambodia to Set Up an Independent Human Rights Body

A U.N. human rights envoy called on Cambodia’s government on Tuesday to form an independent institution to act as a focal point to “champion the people’s rights” and hold public institutions accountable.United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia Surya Subedi said there seemed to be a widely shared consensus on the need for such a mechanism in the country.But many he spoke to were concerned whether the body, if set up, would be truly independent under current political conditions. 

Subedi made the proposal for the “National Human Rights Institution” in a statement at the end of his 10-day fact-finding mission to the country to assess the government’s progress in improving human rights and democracy.He warned that if reforms are not effected soon, the country “runs the risk of a return to violence.”Subedi said that his investigations had led him to believe that the country’s judicial, legislative and executive branches are ineffective at promoting and protecting the rights of the people.

“In this context, I thought it timely to make an inquiry on the need, or desirability of establishing an independent National Human Rights Institution in Cambodia,” he said.The focus of the institution would be to “expand the scope of rights, act as a focal point to champion people’s rights, make policy recommendations to the Government and defend and protect people’s rights with the power to investigate cases of human rights violations.”

Subedi also called on the government to publishing findings of its probe into several incidents of deadly violence linked to crackdowns by security forces, including during a strike by garment workers in January in which police opened fire, leaving five people dead and scores wounded.A day later, security forces violently dispersed supporters of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) from Freedom Park in the capital Phnom Penh and closed the site, which has been the focus of protests against Hun Sen's rule following the disputed elections.

Subedi said in his statement that that he was sorry to see barbed wire surrounding Freedom Park on his visit, giving “the impression that there has been an attempt to put democracy in a cage in Cambodia,” and called on the government to reinstate the right to peaceful assembly, including at the site, for all Cambodians.

Voices stifled

But the envoy said the closure of the park was just one example of how Prime Minister Hun Sen’s administration and other government institutions had sought to stifle the voices of the people, according to feedback from  government officials, human rights organizations, opposition leaders, and members of the public.Subedi also warned the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) that if it “carries on with business as usual“ in parliament amid a boycott of the legislature by the opposition due to flawed elections, “this may have wider ramifications.”

The CNRP says it would only join parliament if the government holds fresh elections following allegations of fraud in the July 2013 polls. Negotiations between the two parties on reforms and other issues to break the political stalemate have not borne fruit.Cambodia Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan dismissed Subedi’s claims that the National Assembly, or parliament, had failed the people of Cambodia, blaming the CNRP’s decision to boycott the legislature for the crisis.

“For the failure of the National Assembly … this problem was because the CNRP did not join and held the National Assembly hostage, claiming it was for the sake of democracy,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service.Cambodia’s National Election Committee (NEC) had declared CPP the winner of last year’s election with 68 seats in parliament to the CNRP’s 55, despite widespread claims of fraud, prompting the opposition to boycott.

Phay Siphan also said that “it is not the government’s duty to respond” to Subedi’s concerns over a heavy-handed response by authorities to public protests.

Failed institutions

Subedi said that according to his investigations, “the judiciary did not seem to command the respect or trust of many people,” adding that for most ordinary people, the cost of accessing the courts was prohibitively expensive while marginalized groups experienced legal discrimination.

He also found “little direct linkage between the Members of the Parliament and the people,” saying that lawmakers in Cambodia’s National Assembly are “not able to hold the executive to account and thus are not able to represent the interest of their constituents in a meaningful manner.”“People said to me that: ‘We can’t go to the courts, the parliament, or the executive. The system is broken. The system of public administration is not functioning’,” he said.“I came to realize that the failure of the State institutions to uphold people’s rights is why, in every one of my missions, there are ordinary people coming to see me out of desperation to highlight their plight and petition me to help.”

He said the ineffectiveness of the country’s state institutions was also the reason why Cambodian’s bring petitions directly to Hun Sen’s home, to the United Nations and international embassies, and why they take to the streets to air their grievances.Subedi suggested that if all sides were committed to successfully establishing an independent human rights institution, it could be achieved, but stressed that such a mechanism would only bring value “if its independence is guaranteed both in law and in practice,” in full conformity with the U.N.’s Paris Principles for the promotion and protection of human rights.

Risk of violence

Subedi said that he believed a real reform in the approach to governance “is inevitable” in Cambodia, but warned the government that if it was unreceptive to such a process, “the country runs the risk of a return to violence.”
“I sense a deep rooted frustration amongst the population, especially the youth, rural poor and other disfranchised and dispossessed people, about the lack of progress on some of the promised reforms,” he said.Subedi will present his report on his latest mission, his 11th so far, to the U.N. Human Rights Council at its September 2014 session.

Soure:RFA

Big queues for $4 passport

A sub-decree aimed at stemming the massive influx of mostly undocumented Cambodian migrant workers returning from Thailand with a drastically reduced passport fee already appears to be generating an overwhelming response.

Yesterday, an estimated 200 workers lined up outside the Battambang provincial passport office to get what they hoped would be their $4 ticket to legal work abroad.

“We had to tell them that we are not ready yet,” Pan Dy, an official at the Battambang office, said. “[The ministry] just had an initial meeting [yesterday] morning and we cannot proceed until we have a registered worker list.”

Dy said vendors and ordinary Cambodians also stormed the office yesterday to get their $4 passports, not realising the reduction is only meant for workers and students.

In a closed-door meeting in the capital, meanwhile, Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng yesterday stressed the urgency of assisting the more than 220,000 migrants who have returned in the past two weeks.

Typically, the government issues 500 passports a day at the official fee of $124, according to Yov Khemara, director of Preah Sihanouk provincial labour department. But in addition to reducing the cost of one of the region’s most expensive passports, the ministry also wants to increase the number of applications it can process daily.

But amid all the excitement, rights workers warned that cheap passports aren’t a fix-all for the surge of undocumented workers.

“Reducing the passport fee is good, sure, but unless they solve the prohibitively high recruitment-agency fees, it’s going to be an absolutely useless measure,” Bankgok-based migration expert Andy Hall said.

He added that the passport fee is just one of several charges that results in workers’ debt bondage.

Chan Soveth, a senior investigator at rights’ group Adhoc, added that given earlier failures of subsidised passport orders, he is sceptical the current measure will succeed.

“The previous passport reduction at just over $20 for workers could not be done,” he said. “[But] if they can do it now, we welcome the help for the poor workers.”

Soure:phnom penhpost

Half-year protest shutters factory

A six-month protest over unpaid bonuses has seen production at a Por Sen Chey district box factory grind to a halt over the past four days, with more than 200 former employees blocking gates and preventing shipments.

Former employees at Harta Packaging Industries began barricading gates at the factory one week ago today, spurring Harta’s shutdown on Saturday, said Sorn Bora, Harta production manager and president of the Workers Friendship Union there.

The ongoing protest stems from a long-standing conflict between management and former senior employees over payouts they say should have been made when the factory changed ownership in 2012.

“We just need our seniority bonuses,” Bora said. “When we get our bonuses, we’ll stop protesting.”

When Harta’s former Malaysian owners sold to the current Japanese team, new management dismissed about 200 people, making good on seniority payments and other benefits. But an additional 285 workers eligible for seniority bonuses at dismissal insisted the new owners pay those benefits up front.

Factory management has fired most of those workers since February for protesting about the payments. Some 80 have sought new employment, while more than 200 have kept vigil in front of the factory.

If a company changes ownership, it is required to pay seniority bonuses at the time of purchase if the name is changed, Cambodian legal expert Sok Sam Oeun said. But if the name stays the same, new owners are only required to respect prior agreements made to senior employees.

Although the sign at the Harta building now reads “OGI Paper Asia”, the factory is still listed with the Ministry of Commerce as Harta Packaging Industries (Cambodia) Limited, administrative manager So Pheakdey said.

Commerce Ministry spokesman Ken Ratha yesterday could not confirm Harta’s official listing, but Arbitration Council Foundation spokesman Ly Sokheng’s official listing for the factory agreed with Pheakdey’s.

Despite this, the Arbitration Council ruled in favour of the 206 holdouts in a May 31 decision, ordering the factory to pay the bonuses.

Harta rejected the decision, which could bring the case in front of a Phnom Penh Municipal Judge.

“The Arbitration Council did not correctly rule on this case, which is why we can’t accept its decision,” Pheakdey said. “The workers are demanding the company pay out the bonuses because the name was changed, but we did not actually change the name.”

Harta officials have not yet complained to police about the former employees blocking gates and are paying their roughly 500 current employees during the production halt, Pheakdey said.

Soure:phnompenhpost

Photos: Vietnam rejects China’s East Sea wrongful allegations

Vice Chairman of the National Boundary Commission Tran Duy Hai stated that Vietnam has made every effort and shown every gesture of goodwill to solve the current tension in the East Sea, which was sparked by China’s illegal placement of its Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig  in Vietnam’s waters, via negotiations and peaceful solutions but China has responded in an unconstructive manner.

China has not only failed to respond to Vietnam’s goodwill but come up with baseless accusations that have distorted the facts and accused Vietnamese ships of ramming Chinese vessels more than 1,500 times, he said, adding that China has not provided any real proof to support its accusations.

Meanwhile, according to Hai, Vietnam has publicised many pieces of evidence, by photos and video clips, capturing China’s aggressive, violent acts such as ramming and firing water cannons at Vietnam’s ships, sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat, and injuring dozens of Vietnamese people.

“Once again, Vietnam resolutely demands China respect international law, immediately stop violations of the sovereign right and jurisdiction of Vietnam in its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, withdraw the Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig and escort vehicles from Vietnam’s waters, and never repeat similar acts in the future,” he stressed.

Vietnam continues to request China to solve all disputes through peaceful means in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), he added.

Nguyen Quoc Thap, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, declared that it is completely groundless for China to state that Vietnam’s 57 oil and gas lots are in disputed waters based on its “U-shaped line” claim that was not recognised internationally.

He added that China is intentionally turning undisputed areas into disputed ones with unreasonable claims.

In fact, these lots are totally within Vietnam’s 200-nautical mile continental shelf and exclusive economic zone, he affirmed.

This is not the first time China has conducted illegal activities violating Vietnam’s waters. Vietnam has opposed China’s previous violations via the diplomatic channel along with protesting in the field and launching communication campaigns to make it understand and not repeat similar violations.

Regarding the current situation at the site, Ngo Ngoc Thu, Deputy Commander of the Vietnam Coast Guard High Command, confirmed that Vietnam has not sent any frogmen to the site nor dropped any object there.

Nets and floating things fished out by Chinese ships were those left by Vietnamese fishing boats operating normally in Vietnam’s waters escaping from intimidation of Chinese vessels, said Thu.

Debris that were collected and brazenly claimed as evidence by the Chinese side were fragments from Vietnamese boats after being rammed and having high-pressure water cannons fired at them by Chinese ships, he added.

Although Chinese ships have kept on violently blocking, ramming and firing water cannons at Vietnamese ships, Vietnamese coast guard and fisheries surveillance authorities still practised utmost restraint, trying to avoid any clash with Chinese ships.

Vietnamese vessels have not fired water cannons back at Chinese ships, but only used spoken words to demand China remove its rig and all defending vessels from Vietnam’s waters, noted Thu.

According to Ha Le, Deputy Head of the Vietnam Fisheries Surveillance Department, Vietnamese fisheries surveillance ships at the site continued to keep calm and managed to avoid clashes with Chinese ships.

They also persistently used all peaceful measures to request that China withdraw from Vietnam’s waters that it is violating, he said.

Vietnamese ships will continue their law enforcement missions at sea, resolutely protecting the national sovereignty and safeguarding fishermen in their traditional fishing grounds, Le added.

The Chinese coast guard vessel attacks a Vietnamese fisheries surveillance vessel. The foreground of a Chinese vessel equipped with water cannons which is illegally operating in Vietnam’s waters. The Chinese coast guard vessels besiege a Vietnamese fisheries surveillance vessel. China’s vessel fires water cannons at a Vietnamese vessel. The Chinese coast guard  vessel 21101 besieges a Vietnamese fisheries surveillance vessel. The Chinese coast guard vessel 21101 fires high power water cannons at the Vietnamese fisheries surveillance vessel 768.  The Chinese vessel 31101 fires water cannons at a Vietnamese vessel. A Chinese coast guard vessel, which is well-equipped, fires high power water cannons at a Vietnamese vessel.  The Chinese coast guard vessel 46001 rams a Vietnamese  coast guard vessel. The Chinese coast guard vessel 46102 rams a Vietnamese coast guard vessel.   The Chinese coast guard vessel 44101 intentionally rams a Vietnamese coast guard vessel. A Chinese vessel is  willing to ram a Vietnamese vessel. The serious damage of the Vietnamese fisheries surveillance vessel 767 after being rammed by a Chinese vessel. The serious damage of the Vietnamese fisheries surveillance vessel 767 after being rammed by a Chinese vessel. China mobilised a large number of military vessels to protect its Haiyang Shiyou – 981 drilling rig. The Chinese coast guard vessels protect the illegally deployed Haiyang Shiyou – 981 drilling rig and are ready to prevent the Vietnamese vessels from law enforcement activities. Vietnam’s coast guard force has exercised the utmost restraint in the face of the Chinese ships’ aggressive acts. China’s aircraft flies right above the Vietnamese law enforcement vessels to intimidate and threaten them. China’s aircraft flies over Vietnam’s law enforcement vessels on May 31. China’s guardian rocket ship, a military vessel, is present in Vietnam’s waters where China illegally deployed its Haiyang Shiyou – 981 drill rig.

Soure:News Vietnamnet

Western-born jihadists rally to ISIS's fight in Iraq and Syria

The extremist Sunni militants sweeping across Iraq may have a singular goal, but there's a broad coalition of recruits from outside of the Middle East willing to help them achieve it.
The so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, wants to establish an Islamic state stretching from northern Syria into Iraq. And as the brutal terror group racks up victory after victory on the battlefield, more foreign fighters are considering joining their ranks.Who are they?Three young men we spoke to have traveled to Syria to answer the call to jihad. They agreed to speak to us from the northwestern city of Idlib over Skype, provided we masked their identities and didn't use their real names.
Abu Anwar, as he asked to be called, is 25 years old and from Britain.

"I'm from the south of England. I grew up in a middle class family," he told us. "Life was easy back home. I had a life. I had a car. But the thing is: You cannot practice Islam back home. We see all around us evil. We see pedophiles. We see homosexuality. We see crime. We see rape."SEE MAPS: Where ISIS has taken over in IraqWe spoke with Abu and his friends as so many of these young men do: online. Their posts, many featuring photos of them posing with guns, attempt to make jihad sound cool. And this is a big draw to many youngsters who want to be part of this war, but have little or no combat experience.

ISIS claims to be fighting for justice, but in reality their campaign is about brutality. The group has committed massacres and acts of terror so extreme -- including a recent boast about executing Iraqi soldiers in cold blood -- that even al Qaeda has disavowed them.I asked Abu if his family knows what he's doing in Syria."They are not happy with me being here. But when I give them Dawa (their interpretation of Islam), they see the reality, they hear the reality from me that they don't hear from the BBC," he replied, after a pause.There are thousands like Abu from all across Europe in Syria and Iraq, according to some estimates. The Soufan group, a security consulting firm, believes there are around 700 from France, 800 from Russia and almost 300 from Britain. But these figures relate to people analysts have been able to track, and the true numbers may be even higher. And as ISIS's onslaught in Iraq grows, there are fears even more foreigners will be drawn to fight.

Last month, U.S. officials said Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, a 22-year-old American known as Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki, drove a truck full of explosives into a Syrian army position and detonated it, killing himself in the process. Abu says he was a friend of Abu Hurayra's, and that they "clicked immediately" after they met to discuss their shared ideology."He was the best person I have ever met in my life. He had the best character," Abu said. "Abu Hurayra believed this would allow him to go in and kill many of the enemy, including himself. He wanted this more than a bullet. He told me, 'If I go on this martyrdom mission, don't go back to England. Ask Allah to keep you on this path.'"

We asked Abu Anwar what Abu Hurayra told him before he carried out the suicide attack. "He told me to just pray that Allah accepts me as a martyr," Abu told us. "He told me first that he wants this so much and we have many stories of this people who are in these kind of operations, where they've survived the explosion. And on the radio before he detonated the bomb he said, 'I see paradise and I can smell paradise.' This was seconds before he blew himself up."Abu, inspired by his friend, said he too wants to carry out a suicide attack -- what he calls a martyrdom mission. But when asked if he would return to Britain to carry out an attack, he said no.

"If I come back home, it will be when the black flag of Islam is flying over Downing Street," he said. "I know some people have the intention of come back to do attacks. But me personally, I only have the intention of coming back as a conqueror."Abu said his family is not aware of his plan to carry out a "martyr mission," but when his time comes to carry out the attack, he said he'll inform them.For now, Abu insisted that the immediate goal is to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. When I asked if he would now take up arms with ISIS, he said he was considering it. For Abu and others like him, the call to jihad is seemingly too strong to resist.

Soure:CNN