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.