PM counsels perseverance and peaceful means of defending sovereignty

China’s rig has been moved to a new location but it still lies entirely in the exclusive economic zone of Vietnam.

The head of government stressed that the Party, the State and the people of Vietnam are determined to defend the country’s sovereignty by all peaceful means and in accordance with international law.
"The Constitution affirms that the country’s independence and sovereignty are sacred and inviolable, so they cannot be traded off for anything. In accordance, I have stated unequivocally that Vietnam will never relinquish its independence and sovereignty for some kind of elusive, dependent peace and quasi-friendship," the Prime Minister reiterated.

As China moved its illegal drilling rig to a new location, one which is still entirely in the exclusive economic zone of Vietnam, the Prime Minister outlined three sets of solutions for the coming days.
On the field, the vessels of the Vietnamese law enforcement forces must always be available at the new location. "Though Chinese ships will continue ramming ours, we must stay resolute and maintain our restraint," the Prime Minister said. He went on to inform attendants that, to date, 30 ships of Vietnam’s law enforcement forces had been damaged by attacks by Chinese ships. The Prime Minister appreciated the frequent presence of dozens of independent fishing boats near this area to help assert the country's sovereignty.On the diplomatic front, the Prime Minister insisted that Vietnam will persevere and continue the fight at the highest level to make clear the wrongdoing of China, and will continue to demand that Beijing pull the rig out of Vietnam’s waters.With the struggle over public opinion, the Prime Minister asked the relevant bodies to provide complete, truthful and convincing evidence of the wrongful acts of China to the international community.

"Legal actions are also peaceful means. This approach will be used at the right time, in accordance with the UN Charter and international law," he added.
Reviewing Vietnam’s actions over the past month, the Prime Minister said that Vietnam had contacted China’s representatives over 30 times to ask them to withdraw the rig from Vietnam’s waters. Vietnam has informed the international community of China’s misconduct as well as Vietnam’s good will efforts to solve the tensions by peaceful means. Voices from the international community have expressed their support for Vietnam and condemned China's actions.
Deputy head of the Central Information and Public Relations  Committee, Mr. Nguyen The Ky, said in a recent month, four foreign news agencies and 14 international newspapers sent reporters to Vietnam to cover the news of China’s illegal actions in Vietnamese waters.
Economic cooperation continues

Vietnam will continue to attach importance to friendly cooperation with China and Chinese in other fields in a normal way, the Prime Minister noted.He cited two specific examples to demonstrate this spirit: the active participation of the Vietnam delegation, led by Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan, at an international conference in Shanghai; and most recently, the operational launch of a steel plant with a capacity of 500,000 tons, and 49% Chinese funding, in Lao Cai Province.
"The fight for sovereignty must continue but business cooperation will be still maintained," said the Prime Minister.Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang said many power and chemical projects with the participation of Chinese contractors are still being implemented normally. And trade across the Vietnam-China border areas is still bustling.

Thai military releases former interim PM days after coup

 

Former interim Thai Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan is among the latest batch of people that the military has released following last week's coup, a military officer said Thursday.Also among the 31 people recently released was former Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul, Col. Sirichan Ngathong told reporters.The military had summoned, and in some cases detained, scores of political officials and other prominent figures after the May 22 coup, which the military carried out after months of unrest that had destabilized the elected government and caused outbursts of deadly violence in Bangkok.But the sudden intervention by the armed forces -- the latest in a series of coups that have punctuated modern Thai history -- has been criticized by human rights activists and foreign governments, including the United States.

Small groups of protesters also have gathered in Bangkok in recent days, with demonstrators calling for democratic elections. But security forces sealed off one of the main protest sites -- a monument -- on Thursday, days after the officer who led the coup suggested that the military wouldn't tolerate public displays of dissent indefinitely.Boonsongpaisan was interim prime minister when the military conducted the coup. The military, which tore up the country's constitution and declared martial law, says it so far has summoned at least 280 people, and about 200 of them -- including former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra -- turned themselves in.

The military says it has released about 155 people so far, including Yingluck, who was in office when the current phase of political turmoil began in November.Yingluck, who was removed from office by the courts earlier this month, was released from a military facility over the weekend after she followed a summons to report to military authorities on Friday.A military source said Yingluck was asked to "help us maintain peace and order and not to get involved with protesters or any political movement" and now has freedom of movement and communication. But a close aide to Yingluck disagreed with the assertion that she was free to move and communicate.

 

The military has said it would impress upon the summoned people the negative consequences their actions have had for the country in the sometimes bloody conflict of the last seven months.

Detainees determined to have no significant link to conflict and who find "common ground" for the good of the country will be released, a military spokesman previously said.

The recent unrest was driven by months of protests against Yingluck's government.

The protest leaders said they wanted to rid Thailand of the influence of Yingluck and her wealthy brother, the exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in the country's last military coup in 2006.

The siblings' powerful political movement, which has dominated elections for more than a decade, draws its support from Thailand's populous rural regions in the north and northeast.

But it is unpopular among the Bangkok elites, who accuse it of buying votes through ill-judged, populist policies.The protesters who campaigned against Yingluck's government claimed Thailand needed reforms to be imposed by an unelected council before any further elections could take place.

With the military's intervention, they appear to have gotten their wish, although some of the protest leaders were taken into custody after the coup.On Monday, the officer who led the coup, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters there was "no set time period" for when new elections might be held, and he outlined the steps he said his junta plan to take, including setting up a committee to introduce reforms.

READ: Thai general warns protesters after announcing royal endorsement

Hun Sen Rules Out Hosting Exile Thai Gov’t

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday rejected speculation that Cambodia could play host to an exile government formed by the forces loyal to former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who were ousted in a coup d’etat last week.In a speech delivered at Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich at a ceremony for graduates from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Mr. Hun Sen also warned Mr. Thaksin, his long-term ally and friend, of the instability that could be caused by forming a government-in-exile. 

“Firstly, Cambodia regards the Thai situation as Thailand’s internal problem, and Cambodia will not interfere and has not interfered in Thailand’s internal problems,” Mr. Hun Sen said at the ceremony.

The prime minister explained that he had been in Shanghai when the Thai military declared martial law at 3 a.m. on Tuesday and had phoned instructions immediately back to Phnom Penh.

“When there was a coup, I contacted [Deputy Prime Minister] Sar Kheng and asked him to issue a directive for the armed forces along the border to maintain a normal relationship and to not deploy armed forces to avoid any misunderstandings,” Mr. Hun Sen said.

“Our attitude is to work hard to keep a normal relationship with the Thais whether there is a civilian government or military government,” he added. “Now I hear that the Thai king signed [off the military] to lead the country, so it is finished because their king has signed to lead the country.”

“I hope that former prime ministers Yingluck and Thaksin will understand about Cambodia’s stance, because now Yingluck and Thaksin are not the prime ministers leading their country,” Mr. Hun Sen said.

Mr. Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was ousted as prime minister three weeks ago in a highly politicized decision from Thailand’s Constitutional Court. On Thursday, the Thai military then ousted the rest of her government and assumed power.Mr. Thaksin was ousted as prime minister in a military coup in 2006 and fled to Dubai to avoid charges of corruption.Mr. Hun Sen, who has for many years cultivated a close personal relationship with Mr. Thaksin—whom he once dubbed his “eternal friend”—had promised the former Thai leader and his followers safe passage and sanctuary in Cambodia, and even allowed Mr. Thaksin and his red-shirt supporters to rally at Angkor Wat in 2012.

“Prime Minister Hun Sen has an iron heart and it is lucky for the neighboring country,” Mr. Thaksin told supporters at the time. “If he did not have [an] iron heart like this, thousands of you could not come here.”The friendship led to speculation in international media earlier this week that Mr. Thaksin could be allowed to organize forces in Cambodia.Mr. Thaksin’s international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, was on Sunday quoted by Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, as saying Ms. Yingluck’s ousted government and Mr. Thaksin’s supporters were planning to set up a government-in-exile to oppose the military junta. The ABC openly speculated that Cambodia could play host.

At Tuesday’s ceremony, however, Mr. Hun Sen put the kibosh on rumors that Mr. Thaksin’s forces could be allowed to organize in Cambodia. Instead, he called on the red shirts in Thailand to wait for the junta to call fresh elections in the country in “a year and a half or two years.”

“I confirm that Cambodia is not the location to provide any countries or any group of Thais or any countries to create an exile government, and the Cambodian Constitution does not allow Cambodia to become a location opposed to any countries,” Mr. Hun Sen said.

Mr. Hun Sen also said a government-in-exile could lead Ms. Yingluck, Mr. Thaksin and their Pheu Thai party to “meet with an incident” and called on the pair to reject Mr. Amsterdam’s public claim.

“This opinion, if I were Thaksin, I would reject now,” Mr. Hun Sen said, before explaining that he was offering the advice in his capacity as a political analyst and not as Cambodia’s prime minister. “If I were Yingluck, I would reject it now because it is a very dangerous opinion.”“This opinion, it could make Yingluck and Thaksin die,” he added.The prime minister called on Cambodians living in Thailand to follow the orders handed down by the Thai military and to avoid joining in activities that could be perceived as political or insurrectionary.“Please don’t join any groups to oppose any other groups,” he said.

Mr. Hun Sen cut his teeth as prime minister under the Vietnamese-backed People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), which fought through the 1980s and early 1990s against a Cambodian government-in-exile on the Thai border formed from remnants of regimes from the 1960s and 1970s.

The exiled forces were backed by Thailand, the U.S. and China and frequently withdrew into Thai territory to the protection of the country’s strong military when attacked by the forces of the Vietnamese and PRK.The Foreign Affairs Ministry also released a statement Tuesday informing Cambodians living in Thailand of the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew imposed by the Thai military and announcing that Cambodia’s embassy in Bangkok had set up a hotline for anyone facing “emergency problems.”“There will be no problems if our Cambodian people respect their rules and laws,” said Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong.

Two Uyghur Teens Shot Dead After Kashgar Knife Attack

 

Authorities in northwestern China’s Xinjiang on Wednesday shot and killed two teenage Uyghur suspects who allegedly injured two people in a knife attack, police said, in the latest violence to hit the restive region.The incident occurred around 8:00 p.m. local time in Kashgar city, southwest of the regional capital Urumqi, after police attempted to arrest the two armed men in response to a public complaint, local authorities told RFA’s Uyghur Service.“We arrived at the spot after the public report and we encircled the suspects, as they were holding knives,” said Alimjan, chief of police at Kashgar’s Yengibazar (in Chinese, Dongmen) police station.

“However, they attacked the public upon seeing us, injuring two Han Chinese, so we fired on the suspects,” he said, adding that the action was based on the government’s “shoot to kill” order following increasingly deadly violence attributed to “separatist” groups in the region.Alimjan said that one of the suspects died at the scene, while the other succumbed to gunshot wounds during treatment at an area hospital.

The police chief said that his unit had only been called in to “keep order and calm the situation,” so he was unclear about the identification of the two suspects.“When I saw them, they looked like they were 17 or 18 years old. Later, I was told by investigators that they were both born in 1996,” he said, before referring further questions to the Kashgar prefectural police department.

The chief of police for Kashgar’s Yawagh district told RFA that the knife attack had been carried out by “separatists,” referring to Uyghurs who chafe under Chinese rule in the Xinjiang region.“We are so busy after … [the] separatist attack,” he said.“Right now we are tightening our checks and surveillance of the entire city.”Dawutjan Hoshur, chief of Kashgar’s Kumbagh police department, said that the incident occurred 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from his station, near a hospital for the treatment of respiratory diseases.

“Han Chinese traders reported [the suspects] to the authorities, so the Yengibazar police, together with a SWAT team, dealt with the suspects,” he said.“I do not know the details of the incident. This happened in the Yengibazar police jurisdiction, so they know more information.”

Recent violence

The latest incident occurred less than a week after a bomb exploded in front of a police department and four other bombs were defused by authorities in Yarkand (Shache) county in Kashgar prefecture on May 23.

A day earlier, five suicide bombers carried out an attack on a vegetable market in Urumqi, leaving 39 people dead and more than 90 others injured in the worst violence in Xinjiang in years amid tensions between ethnic minority Uyghurs and Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in China.Uyghurs in Xinjiang say they are subjected to discriminatory and often violent checks and searches and restrictive religious and cultural policies and suffer from a lack of economic opportunity.

China Central Television recently reported that the elite Politburo, a decision-making body of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, had met under the chairmanship of President Xi Jinping and discussed measures to counter "extremists" in Xinjiang in the wake of last week’s explosions.Beijing has announced a one-year crackdown to hunt down and punish "terrorists" in Xinjiang and "prevent terrorism and extremism from spreading to other regions."

Mysterious bones stoke conspiracy

 
A package containing charred human remains was delivered to the Cambodia National Rescue Party office in Phnom Penh yesterday morning.Despite a seeming complete absence of hard evidence, some are convinced the remains – found on Saturday at a mountain in Kampong Speu – belong to 16-year-old garment worker Khim Saphath, last seen with blood pouring from his chest after police opened fire with live ammunition during a January 3 garment strike crackdown on Veng Sreng Boulevard.

Dim Keang, a local CNRP activist, retrieved the remains from Mareas Prov mountain in Samrong Tong district on Saturday, after being led there by local villager Mao Touch.Because locals say they saw a truck travelling to the vicinity on the night of January 3, followed by what appeared to be the glow of a fire, Keang said he believes that Saphath’s body was burned there by soldiers, despite no examination of the remains having been carried out to this point.Yesterday, just hours after making the trip from Kampong Speu with the remains in tow, Keang went into hiding after learning that Touch had been detained by police for questioning.“Police took my son this morning at 7am, and to this point he has not returned,” Yim Sorn, Touch’s father-in-law, said yesterday evening.

“They took him to the commune police station and now to the provincial police station. “My son did not do anything wrong, he just found the area [where the body was burned].”
According to Preap Porn, a CNRP official who sits on the council of Srang commune, where Touch lives, and who accompanied Keang to Phnom Penh with the remains, Keang is now in hiding because he fears being arrested.But Sam Sak, head of the Kampong Speu provincial police’s serious crime department, said officers had merely called in Touch to clarify what he had found at Mareas Prov mountain.“We want him to clarify and show us what he saw at the place where the incident took place. He has clarified differently from [what] Dim Keang has claimed. He said that he has never met Dim Keang although Dim Keang has said that he went to [the site] with Mao Touch. He also said that he only found ashes there and no remains,” he said.

Sak added that Touch would be released tomorrow and that police now wished to speak with Keang.
Teang Sien, an opposition provincial councillor in Kampong Speu province, told the Post yesterday that he, Keang and Porn had brought the remains to Phnom Penh in a car yesterday on the orders of Nuth Romdoul, a CNRP lawmaker-elect in Kampong Speu.A Post reporter also saw a package allegedly containing those remains – which are said to include a skull and several bones – on the table of an office at CNRP headquarters yesterday morning.Both Romdoul and CNRP spokesman Yem Ponharith declined to comment yesterday as to what they were going to do with the remains or why the party was keeping them.Kim Souern, the father of Khim Saphath, whose family held a funeral for their missing son soon after he disappeared in January, said yesterday that he had no idea whether the remains belonged to Saphath.

He also revealed that weeks after Saphath disappeared, the family received an anonymous phone call saying that two to three bodies had been burned near Mareas Prov mountain, not far from an army barracks.“They said that two or three dead bodies were burnt in a fire with car tyres. But I don’t know whether or not either of them were my son,” he said.“I have nothing more to say. I just have regret. If someone asks me to examine the remains I will.”Providing further fodder for conspiracy theorists, police and rights groups attempting to access the site where the remains were found yesterday were blocked by soldiers, who said that they were conducting a training exercise with live ammunition.
Investigators from rights groups Adhoc and Licadho both said that soldiers from the elite Brigade 70 unit had blocked them from entering the site.
“The soldiers guarding there did not even allow police to examine the location where the body was burned.… I think the allegation that the army is training is just a pretext,” Rath Thavy, a senior investigator for rights group Adhoc, said.
But Sak, of the Kampong Speu police unit that is investigating the case, said that after the military exercise concluded today, police would be allowed to enter to investigate.
Adhoc has also called for the remains to be sent to Thailand for DNA testing.
“We cannot know if the remains belong to anyone until we do a DNA test,” Ny Chakrya, head of human rights and legal aid at the organisation, said.
Mao Sophan, commander of Brigade 70, could not be reached yesterday.

Royal documents affirms Vietnam’s sovereignty over sea, islands

The acknowledgement was announced at the sixth working session of the Asia Pacific Regional Committee for the Memory of the World Programme held in Guangzhou, China.

According to Deputy Secretary-General of Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO Nguyen Manh Thang, the heritage won the UNESCO vote thanks to its accuracy and uniqueness, as well as its role in Vietnam’s relations with foreign countries.The documents, which were formulated as part of the State management under the Nguyen dynasty (1802 -1945) - the country’s last monarchy, comprised more than 700 original collections of papers circulated in 11 out of 13 reigns of the dynasty.They were categorised into documents submitted by central and local agencies for the King’sapproval, those promulgated by the King, and diplomatic documents.The papers contain rich and trustworthy information which fully reflects all aspects in Vietnam’s social life from early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, from politics, economy, diplomacy, public security and defence, to culture, education and health.Notably, the heritage is among rare documents stored all over the world that had autographs of the Kings, providing viewers with a closer approach to the literary styles, thoughts and opinions of the Kings about specific issues.

The collection is also a treasured source of reference for further research on the domestic and foreign policies of the Nguyen dynasty.Furthermore, the documents gathered much information on diplomacy, agreements and trade agreements signed between the Nguyen dynasty and foreign countries, such as China, Laos, Thailand, France and Spain. They were also made of reports presented to the Kings by envoys after their visits abroad.A strong evidence of Vietnam’s sovereignty over its sea and islandsThe dossier of the collection was submitted to the UNESCO on October 31, 2013, by the National Archives Centre. However, the documents had drawn much attention from historical researchers decades ago.

The researchers have found a source of information written in the documents reflecting the Nguyen dynasty’s exercise of sovereignty over its sea and islands, particularly over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos.These documents were a link to a historical fact that since 1816, King Gia Long – the founder of the Nguyen dynasty, assigned naval forces to carry out surveys in the Hoang Sa archipelago.The surveys in the archipelago became a general rule in the following reigns, as a number of the documents revealed the measurement, mapping, tree planting, temple construction, and coral exploitation conducted by the soldiers.

Most of the papers referring to the Hoang Sa archipelago were seen under King Minh Mang’s reign (1820 -1841), including the paper dated June 27, 1830, on the rescue of a French merchant ship sunk in the archipelago, one dated on April 2, 1838, on weather forecasting in preparation for an upcoming survey, and another dated July 19, 1838, to ask for tax exemption for ships on missions to Hoang Sa.

Under King Bao Dai’s reign (1925 -1945) – the last King of the Nguyen dynasty – the issue was also mentioned in some of the documents, such as the paper dated December 15, 1939, on bestowing a medal to Liuis Pontan, a French officer who died while performing his duty in Hoang Sa, and the paper dated February 10, 1939 on the King’s approval to honour a troop for their contributions to establishing a military post in Hoang Sa.Therefore, the King Nguyen approved papers not only took effect in the country’s administration but are also legal instruments asserting the undeniable sovereignty of Vietnam over its sea and islands.UNESCO’s recognition for the heritage is a significant step representing the world’s appreciation for the fact that Vietnam has exercised its sovereignty over its sea and island throughout the country’s history.