UN Rights Chief Warns Burma Risks Faltering on Reform Path 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS| Thursday, February 26, 2015 |

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Jordan’s Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights pauses during a news conference at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva October 16, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

BERLIN — The United Nation’s top human right official says Burma is “headed in the wrong direction” amid a crackdown on dissidents and minorities.

The Southeast Asian nation’s military-backed government has pledged to introduce democratic reforms and hold elections later this year.

But U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned Wednesday that “recent developments relating to the human rights of minorities, the freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest are calling into question the direction of that reform, and even threatening to set it back.”

Zeid cited the jailing of peaceful protesters, journalists and opposition figures, as well as persecution of Burma’s Rohingya, a Muslim minority group.

He said “accountability for the military will be a key test for the transition.”

25 February 2015 Last updated at 00:28 ET

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Anwar Ibrahim's family seek Malaysia royal pardon

Anwar Ibrahim has said the charges were "complete fabrication"

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The family of jailed Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim say they have sought a royal pardon over his conviction for sodomy.

Anwar was jailed for five years earlier this month in a case which he has always maintained was brought to keep him out of politics.

His family said he was a political prisoner who had been "tyrannised" and that his health was at risk in prison.

The pardon bid means a delay in Anwar's disqualification from politics.

He has widely been seen as the only real threat to the ruling coalition, which insists that his conviction was fair.

'Justice will prevail'

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Anwar Ibrahim's daughter Nurul Izzah: "We have filled for a pardon based on a miscarriage of justice"

Under the constitution, Anwar would have been automatically banned from politics for five years within 14 days of his conviction, unless he sought an appeal.

He had previously said he would not seek a pardon, as that would imply an admission of guilt.

But in a statement on behalf of his family, Anwar's daughter Nurul Nuha Anwar said the case was a miscarriage of justice.

Anwar's family say he is a victim of government attempts to silence him

"We placed our confidence in the constitutional process and believe that justice will prevail when all the facts are scrutinised without political intervention," she said.

The pardon petition was submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Malaysia's elected monarch. The monarchy rotates between the hereditary rulers of nine Malaysian states.

Sodomy is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia, though very few people are ever prosecuted.

Anwar - who has already served one six-year term for another sodomy conviction that was later overturned - has always insisted he is innocent.

In a statement released after he was sent to jail on 10 February, he said the charge was "complete fabrication - coming from a political conspiracy to stop my political career" and that he would be silenced.

A spokesman for Anwar's People's Justice Party (PKR) said the party leadership "respects and fully understands" the decision to pursue a pardon, saying he had been "persecuted for his unrelenting challenge against the powerful ruling elite".

"We call on the Palace to acknowledge the blatant transgression in the judicial process and promptly step in to rectify the situation," said Vice-President Tian Chua. "There is no remedy to the miscarriage of justice except an immediate release of Anwar Ibrahim."

Timeline: Anwar Ibrahim

• 1993 to 1998 - Deputy Prime Minister, under Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad
• 1999 - Jailed for abuse of power, sparking huge street protests
• 2000 - Found guilty of sodomy with his wife's driver
• 2004 - Supreme Court overturns sodomy conviction, freeing him from jail. He quickly emerges as the de facto opposition leader
• March 2008 - ruling coalition narrowly wins general election, but with its worst results in 50 years. The opposition makes unprecedented gains
• Aug 2008 - Anwar charged with sodomy for a second time, but despite this is soon voted in as an MP
• Feb 2009 - Second trial for sodomy starts
• Jan 2012 - Acquitted of sodomy by High Court
• May 2013: Leads opposition to best-ever performance in general elections
• Mar 2014: 2012 acquittal overturned by court after government appeal

Death penalty part of Indonesian law: FM

Death penalty part of Indonesian law: FM English.news.cn   2015-02-18 01:29:45     JAKARTA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's foreign affairs minister on Tuesday said death penalty is part of Indonesian law, despite criticism of its decision to carry out executions against drug convicts. In a press conference in her office, Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi also said that the decision was not directed to any particular country or nationals of certain countries. "It should be underlined that the issue is purely law enforcement, law enforcement against serious crime, by a sovereign country, Indonesia," she said. The minister's comments came after Australia's requests to spare its nationals from executions. The two Australians, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, were scheduled to face the firing squad soon after their final appeal was rejected by an Indonesian court earlier this month. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has rejected to give them clemencies last month. The president said he has rejected clemency requests filed for 64 drug convicts. Indonesia has executed six of them last month in its campaign against rampant drug abuses. "The decision was issued by an independent and impartial judiciary system," the minister said, while saying that Indonesia understands the Australian government's position to make representation on their behalf. The minister expected the executions would not tarnish bilateral relations with Australia as the two nations already established cooperation in various areas, including trade, investment, security, education, culture and people-to-people contact. "Relations between the two nations should be mutually beneficial and based on mutual respects," she said. Australia earlier said it may recall its ambassador and its nationals might boycott visits to Indonesia, should the executions take place.

China imposes one-year ban on ivory imports

The African elephant population has been severely reduced because of hunting

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China has imposed a one-year ban on the import of ivory, amid criticism that demand among Chinese consumers is fuelling poaching in Africa.

The announcement was made by the State Forestry Administration, with officials saying they hoped it would be a first step towards protecting wild elephants.

Conservationists have warned the animal could be wiped out in parts of Africa in the next few years.

China is the world's largest importer of smuggled tusks.

However, the government says it has stepped up efforts to target illegal trading, which has been fuelled by a desire for ivory from an increasingly affluent population.

It is hoped the temporary ban on imports, which came into effect on Thursday, will help reduce demand for African tusks.

According to state media, a government official said China would evaluate the effect on elephant protection before taking further, more effective steps.

Criminal gangs

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) banned the ivory trade in 1989, but China is allowed to trade domestically and has around 150 licensed shops.

Six years ago, the government was also given permission to import one consignment of more than 60 tonnes of ivory from Africa.

Conservationists say this has fuelled demand and has led to an underground trade, with criminal gangs slaughtering elephants for Asian markets.

Earlier this month, broadcaster David Attenborough was one of several signatories of an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The letter called on the country's leader to outlaw the buying and selling of ivory completely and to provide Chinese citizens with information on the issue.

THAI CONSTITUTION DRAFTERS SAY SENATE TO BE UNELECTED

BANGKOK (AP) -- A committee appointed by Thailand's military rulers is laying the groundwork for a new method of choosing the country's leaders and lawmakers - and it involves giving voters less power to choose.

Thailand's new 200-member Senate will be not elected directly by voters and the prime minister will no longer have to be an elected lawmaker, according to the committee that is drafting a new constitution.

Although the proposals have to be approved by the military-appointed National Reform Council, the Cabinet and the junta leaders, critics called them a setback for their hopes for a return to democracy, saying it limits the people's power represented in Parliament.

Drafting of the new constitution is being carried out by a 36-person committee picked by the junta after it overthrew a civilian government and abolished the last charter in a coup last May.

The committee on Thursday agreed that under the new constitution the prime minister, who must receive more than half of the votes from the entire House of Representatives, does not have to be an elected lawmaker, in case of a crisis.

Maldives police drag former president into court 

Police in the Maldives have dragged the country's former president into a court which had ordered his detention while he is tried over his decision to arrest a top judge three years ago.

Mohamed Nasheed, now an opposition leader, fell to the ground after police pushed him in attempts to stop him from speaking to journalists gathered outside the Criminal Court in Male before his first hearing on Monday.

Nasheed was arrested on Sunday and charged under an anti-terrorism law for abusing his powers while president in 2012 by illegally using the military to arrest Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Mohamed. 

The three-judge panel gave Nasheed three days to name his lawyers.

The government says the anti-terrorism law covers not only violent terrorism, but a wide array of actions against the state.

Nasheed resigned as president in 2012 following weeks of public protests against his order to arrest Mohamed.

The judge was arrested after he released a detained opposition politician, and Nasheed's administration accused him of political bias and corruption.

Mohamed was later released from detention.

Court ignored

Nasheed became the country's first democratically elected leader in 2008, defeating Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom, who had ruled for 30 years.

Nasheed then lost to Gayyoom's half-brother, Yameen, in the 2013 presidential election.

The former president's detention comes weeks after a key ally defected from Yameen's ruling coalition to align with Nasheed's opposition Maldivian Democratic Party.

The party accuses the government of repeatedly violating the constitution.

Nasheed is also accused of detaining Mohamed for weeks without trial or legal counsel and ignoring a Supreme Court order to release him.

Dozens of Burma troops killed in clashes with rebels 

Latest update : 2015-02-14

Heavy fighting between Burma’s army and rebels near the border with China in the past few days has killed 47 soldiers, state-backed media said Friday, overshadowing hopes of forging ceasefires in the country's many ethnic minority conflicts.

Burma has informed Beijing about the clashes, which have raged since February 9, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar, marking a dramatic resurgence of conflict with largely ethnic Chinese rebels in the Kokang region in Shan State.

China has expressed concern about the clashes which have forced civilians to flee across the border.

Kokang fighters with "heavy weapons including anti-aircraft machine guns" attempted to capture the Kokang region's capital Laukkai, just a few miles from the Chinese border, but were repelled by the army, it said.

"So far, the fighting has left government forces with 47 dead, 73 wounded and five vehicles destroyed," the English language report said.

Since the fighting started, there have been more than13 clashes.

The resurgence of conflict in the Kokang area of Shan state, which had been largely dormant for nearly six years, is an ominous sign for the government as it attempts to forge a comprehensive ceasefire deal with the country's myriad ethnic armed groups.

According to the state media report, a 200-strong force of Kokang rebels attacked a military base in the Kongyan area on Thursday, shelling the headquarters. The army has carried out five airstrikes in retaliation.

Independent analyst Richard Horsey said attacks by the Kokang rebels appeared "quite audacious", adding that fighting was likely to continue.

"Having suffered such significant loses, local commanders are not going to want to give up on this one," he said.

He added that the description of the rebels as "renegades" in state media reporting could be an effort by the government to draw a distinction between the Kokang fighters and the ethnic armed groups taking part in ceasefire negotiations.

Ceasefire search undermined

Burma's quasi-civilian regime, which took power in 2011 after decades of military rule, has put ending the country's ethnic minority conflicts at the heart of its reform drive.

But conflict between the military and armed ethnic minority groups is also raging in other parts of Shan and northern Kachin states, casting doubts on the government's long-sought nationwide ceasefire deal.

It had hoped to sign a deal on Thursday, as the country celebrated its annual Union Day celebrations in Naypyidaw.

Instead, the government, military and some ethnic groups signed a commitment to continue talks, laying out an aim to build a union "based on democratic and federal principles".

Observers say the inclusion of the federal ideal, a key demand of ethnic minorities who have long fought for political autonomy, marks a watershed in the negotiations because the army had resisted signing up to any deal on federalism until now.

In Kachin state, some 100,000 people have been forced into displacement camps by heavy fighting between local rebels and the national army, which erupted in 2011 when a 17-year ceasefire crumbled.

The unrest has increasingly spread to various parts of northern Shan state, where last week the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) also accused Burma's army of using helicopter gunships to attack its positions.

Burma, which has more than 130 recognised ethnic minorities, has suffered the world's longest civil war, with pockets of unrest breaking out across the country soon after independence from colonial rule in 1948.

Burma's army, which seized power in 1962, used the unrest as a justification for its iron-fisted rule and has been accused of a litany of humanitarian abuses in border areas, where tussles over abundant resources have also added fuel to the fighting.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)

Date created : 2015-02-13

Imminent IS group 'terror plot' thwarted in Sydney, police say

Australian counter-terrorism police said on Wednesday they had thwarted an imminent attack linked to the so-called Islamic State after arresting two men in Sydney and seizing knives and a flag associated with the militant group.

Australia, a staunch ally of the United States and its action against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown Islamist radicals since last year.

It raised its national terror threat level to “high” for the first time in September, when hundreds of police conducted raids after receiving information that IS supporters planned to conduct a public beheading.

Police said the men, aged 24 and 25, were arrested after a raid on a home in a western Sydney suburb on Tuesday and had been charged with planning a terrorist act.

“When we did the search of the premises, a number of items were located, including a machete, a hunting knife, a home-made flag representing the proscribed terrorist organisation IS, and also a video which depicted a man talking about carrying out an attack,” New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn told reporters.

“We will allege that both of these men were preparing to do this act yesterday,” she said.

The men were not known to police, Burn said.

“This is indicative of the threat that we now have to live with and which we are now having to deal with,” she said. Australia believes at least 70 of its citizens are fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, backed by about 100 Australia-based “facilitators”.

The government of PRIME Minister Tony Abbott last year committed Australian aircraft and special forces to assist in the battle against IS in Iraq, introduced tough new laws on foreign fighters and gave security forces enhanced powers at home.

“Regrettably there are those out there, some living in our midst, who would do us harm but your government, at every level, will do whatever we humanly can to keep you safe,” Abbott told reporters in rural New South Wales.

In December, two hostages were killed when policed stormed a central Sydney cafe to end a 17-hour siege. The gunman, Man Haron Monis, a self-styled sheik who harboured deep grievances against the Australian government and sought to align himself with the Islamic State group, was also killed.

(REUTERS)

Thai legislature votes to impeach former PM Yingluck

Thailand’s military-appointed legislature has voted to impeach former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for her role in overseeing a government rice subsidy program that lost billions of dollars.

The vote, which means Yingluck will be banned from politics for five years, came just after the attorney general’s office announced separate plans to indict her on criminal charges for negligence related to losses and alleged corruption in the rice scheme.

No date has been set for the formal indictment, but if convicted, Yingluck could face 10 years in jail.

Yingluck’s supporters see the moves as part of an effort to deal a final blow to her political party after the military seized power in a coup in May, overthrowing a government elected by popular vote in 2011.

Impeachment required a three-fifths vote of the legislature’s 220 members, and on Friday 190 voted against Yingluck. Most members of the legislature are part of the military or political opponents of Yingluck and past governments allied with her brother, former PRIME Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

Yingluck did not immediately comment, but in an appearance before Parliament on Thursday, she denied she was responsible for any corruption and questioned the fairness of an INVESTIGATION by the anti-corruption commission, which had recommended she be charged.

“The rice subsidy scheme was run by groups of people. It was a resolution of the Cabinet ... why am I singled out?” Yingluck asked. “To bring the case against me alone, therefore, shows a hidden agenda under an unjust practice, and is a political agenda.”

She also said the anti-corruption commission lacked the legitimacy to judge her because the junta terminated the constitution when it took power on May 22.

National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Wicha Mahakhun told lawmakers Thursday that Yingluck was to blame. “Despite the warnings against it on several occasions, the PRIME minister, who should have stopped the damage, instead insisted on running the program until the damage became even more devastating.”

The rice subsidy program, which paid farmers double the market price for their crops, ultimately incurred national losses of more than $4 billion and temporarilyCOST Thailand’s place as the world’s leading exporter.

Supporters say the scheme was intended to benefit Thai farmers and reduce the INCOME equality gap in the country. The policy had helped Yingluck’s government win power in 2011.

Surasak Threerattrakul, director general of the attorney general’s Department of INVESTIGATION, said Friday that Yingluck will also face criminal charges for negligence of duty as a state official overseeing the scheme.

Surasak told reporters at a news conference in Bangkok that the attorney general had examined evidence and testimony against Yingluck “and found that the case was complete enough to prosecute.”

(AP)