More Rohingya survivors tell of Thai abuse

ugh. I haven’t been covering this story, so for background and details, I recommend checking New Mandala. In the meantime, this is a very upsetting video.

more about “More Rohingya survivors tell of Thai …“, posted with vodpod

UN Expert: Hears Hmong Complaints About Thai Graves

From Saint Paul to Thailand…

ST. PAUL, Minn. -— A United Nations human rights expert says he will present the concerns of Hmong immigrants in Minnesota about disturbed graves in Thailand to the Thai government.

U.N. Special Rapporteur James Anaya was in St. Paul on Wednesday hearing testimony from Hmong families about the desecration of those graves.

They described the emotional misery they´ve suffered since learning that hundreds of graves had been unearthed near a Buddhist temple where many Hmong refugees once lived.

Anaya calls their stories “disturbing,” but he finds their determination to have their rights respected encouraging.

Many Hmong families members say they want the Thai government to apologize. They also want promises that it won´t happen again.

via UN Expert: Hears Hmong Complaints About Thai Graves.

The Economist Article You Can’t Read in Thailand

Why not? ‘Cause it’s about a (very possibly dying) monarch:

Below the fold:

Southeast Asian Link Dump for D5

IHT article on the current use of Khmer Rouge-era canals:

“There has never been a modern regime that placed more emphasis and resources towards developing irrigation,” wrote Jeffrey Himel, a water resource engineer, in a recent study of Cambodia’s irrigation system.

“The Khmer Rouge emptied all cities and towns, and put practically the entire population to work planting rice and digging irrigation dikes and canals.” Some of the canals were poorly designed – “hydraulic nonsense,” says Alain Goffeau, a French irrigation expert with the Asian Development Bank. But many were viable.

The Khmer Rouge built around three-quarters of Cambodia’s more than 1,000 canal networks, according to a survey commissioned by the United Nations in the 1990s.

Now, across this impoverished nation of 14 million people, the canals are being rebuilt by a government hoping to take advantage of the world’s increasing demand for rice.

John Vink – photog extraordinaire, associated with Magnum and Ka-Set, had some of his photos censored by the Ministry of Culture during an exhibit at the French Cultural Center, for being ‘too political.’ Go check it out.

Awzar Thi at Rule of Lords has, as usual, the most compelling response to the recent judicial coup in Thailand. Thank goodness for Rule of Lords. Go. Read. Now.

Thailand’s Constitutional Court has again taken someone out of government, but it too has not added credibility to anyone or anything. Instead, it has once more played the fool, and once more made a mockery of the justice that it purportedly represents.

Did it have an alternative? Of course it did. It could, and should, simply have refused to decide. That it didn’t is not for want of an alternative. It’s because it wasn’t looking for one.

Videos on Bangkok Crisis from Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera’s reporting on Thailand’s political crisis has been unusually poor for that station. Riz Khan does his best to raise the level, but even he seems to be working without much background.

Protesters End Airport Siege As Tensions Simmer:

2-Part Interview by Riz Khan with leaders on “both sides of the conflict”, called “Democracy Overruled?”

Part One is an interview with Chaturon Chaisang, until yesterday Thai Deputy Prime Minister, member of the PPP ruling party coalition.

And part two is an interview with Kasit Piromya, adviser to the Democrat Party and former ambassador for Thailand to the USA.

Judicial Coup in Bangkok

At least, that what opponents of the PAD (I decline to call them, as so many have, ‘government supporters,’ though that is clearly the tactic of the moment) are calling it. (See here for ‘judicial coup’ in USA)

Check New Mandala, Prachatai, Bangkok Pundit, ThaiCrisis, and GoogleNews.

Bangkok – Go Read About It Elsewhere

UPDATE: Events in Thailand are ramping up. December 2nd (Tomorrow, as I write this) could be a particularly big moment, when the courts will decide whether to decertify the ruling parties. The police are proving ineffective and/or unwilling to oust the PAD from the airports, and the military is clearly unwilling to use its own forces to enforce the law.

I’m sticking this post to the front page of my blog until things start to calm down a bit, mostly as a reference to readers to go read other, better, sources on this ongoing drama.

Things are potentially coming to a head in Bangkok, as PAD mobs are finally being faced by police who are ordering them to disperse from the two civilian airports they have occupied, threatening to bring the entire national economy to a halt.

Don’t read about it here. Check the news sources. If you’re looking for someone else to sort through the rumor and sigh, check out these sources, and add more in the comments:

Bangkok Pundit (BP is liveblogging, and is therefore perhaps the most up-to-date source currently)

New Mandala (Great discussion in the comments, good roundup of Mainstream Media Stories)

Prachatai (Important Independent news source online, currently covering the entire shebang)

See also Thaicrisis, which seems to have a more sympathetic approach to the PAD.

Thai protestors demand government quit – 26 Nov 2008

Video below is from Al Jazeera.

The stupidity of the PAD is overwhelming (their latest statement here). Accusations of Fascism no longer seem even remotely far-fetched – upper-class bourgeois power attempting to (further) disenfranchise the popular (working and rural) classes, violently, under the sign of the king. So far, military leadership has been unwilling (and it must be said, unlicensed) to step in. This can’t last long.

more about “Thai protestors demand government qui…“, posted with vodpod

Arsenic in the Mekong: Not Good, Not Tasty, Not Right

After surveying wells along the Mekong, which flows through Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and governments concluded that as many as 1.7 million people were at risk of arsenic poisoning, whose long-term symptoms include skin lesions and cancer.

Twenty-one percent of the Vietnamese population is exposed to arsenic above the World Health Organization's acceptable level of 10ppb (parts per billion). It is found not just in groundwater but in bottled water, tap water, even fish, according to the Vietnam Ministry of Health.

In Cambodia and Laos, the precise numbers of people exposed to arsenic contamination is not yet known, though UNICEF and government agencies are compiling a report to be released later this year.

In some provinces along the Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia, residents are exposed to 30 times the acceptable level of arsenic, according to data from the Vietnam Ministry of Health.

Water containing arsenic above 300ppb could cause cancer within three to four years, the Health Ministry said.

via IRIN Asia | Asia | Cambodia | CAMBODIA: Arsenic in Mekong putting 1.7 million at risk | Early Warning Environment Health & Nutrition Water & Sanitation | News Item

Link Dump N13

Lots of unrelated subjects today:

A few stories running around of late about Cambodian soldiers using traditional yantra written on cloth as protection against bullets. Lots of these are written with a slightly hidden sneer, which is unfortunate. Still, yantra are cool.

Where Elephants Weep, a rock opera written by amazing Khmer composer (and nice guy) Him Sophy (who I had an opportunity to interview about Smout once) and Catherine Filloux, begins performances soon. I wish I was around for it. Mongkol has some highlights, along with a video, on his page.

Beyond Cambodia’s borders, which are under discussion again, finally, there is nasty news coming out of Burma’s courts. Awzar Thi of Rule of Lords writes that

It has been a frantic week in Burma’s closed courts. At least 60 people have in the past few days been sentenced for their roles in last year’s mass protests, including high-profile activists, monks, a blogger and a poet.

The blogger is Nay Phone Latt, who was sentenced to over 20 years in prison for posting a cartoon critical of Burma’s generals.

That’s a lot worse than what the RNC 8 are facing here (7.5 years) in Minnesota, but the principle is the same: none of the RNC 8, nor Nay Phone Latt, are accused of doing much more than using the internet and communicating with people who are opposed to current government practices and policies in their respective families. Article in local City Pages newspaper.

Two good articles on Indigenism from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (“Stop Saying This is a Nation of Immigrants!“) and Ward Churchill (Interview on Indigenism, Anarchism, and the State). The former from Dunbar-Ortiz’ own website, the latter from Upping The Anti. Both via Indigenous Solidarity: An (Un)Settler’s Place.

A group of workers at another Starbucks here in the Twin Cities has declared their affiliation with the Industrial Workers of the World’s Starbucks Workers Union. Press conference today at 11 AM. Congratulations, Fellow Workers.

Oh yeah – remember Hok Lundy’s death? (That post has started receiving more hits on a daily basis than the post which is far and away my most popular post – strangely, about Clint Eastwood. I only recently figured out the reason for this). Hun Sen’s niece’s husband Neth Savoeun has been selected as his replacement. Keep it in the family, folks.