LVHS IR/GSI Blog: East Asia and Oceania (1st): Ariel Santikarma

Showing posts with label Ariel Santikarma. Show all posts

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Islamic State claims role in Jakarta attacks as officials probe reach in Asia

Militants staged suicide bombings and opened fire in Indonesia’s capital on Thursday in possible attempts by Islamic State followers to stage a Paris-style rampage through the teeming streets of Jakarta, officials said. Five attackers were among the seven dead.

A spokesman for Indonesia’s national police, Maj. Gen. Anton Charilyan, said the assailants have been identified and were “affiliated” with the Islamic State — possibly linked to an Indonesian faction that has sent volunteers to fight in Syria.

A message purportedly posted by the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites. Earlier, a group with ties to the Islamic State, the Aamaaq news agency, posted an Internet message claiming the attacks were carried out by “Islamic State fighters.” The claims could not immediately be confirmed.

[Islamic State finds resistance in militant haven Pakistan]

If verified, however, the Islamic State’s involvement would mark one of the group’s deepest reaches into Asia — and the capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation — after spilling blood in North Africa, Europe and possibly Turkey with Tuesday’s suicide blast that killed 10 German tourists in the shadow of Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque.

The Jakarta assailants appeared outfitted for a running siege: armed with handguns, grenades and homemade bombs, police said. They also followed tactics that have become a hallmark of recent urban terrorism — hitting targets with limited security.

[Jakarta attacks sign of Islamic State’s global strategy]

The mayhem began with a suicide blast at a Starbucks coffee shop while gunmen outside opened fire, killing a Canadian man, said Jakarta’s police chief, Maj. Gen. Tito Karnavian. Moments later, two suicide bombers struck a traffic police post, killing themselves and an Indonesian man.

As police swarmed the area, the remaining attackers opened fire, touching off a 15-minute gun battle that left two assailants dead, Karnavian said. At least 19 people were wounded in the chaos that unfolded amid luxury hotels, shops and office towers.

[Malaysia police on alert after Jakarta attack]

Security forces later put the streets on lockdown, including areas near the U.S. and French embassies and other diplomatic sites.

Authorities said they found a large, undetonated bomb and five smaller devices in a building near the Starbucks, the Associated Press reported.

“So we think … their plan was to attack people and follow it up with a larger explosion when more people gathered,” said the police spokesman Charilyan. “But thank God it didn’t happen.”

He said the range of weapons and targets suggested an attempt to copy the Nov. 13 terror attacks across Paris that left 130 people dead.

Karnavian, the police chief, identified the suspected lead plotter as Indonesian fugitive Bahrun Naim, who is believed to be in the Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold, Raqqa. Naim is described as the leader of Katibah Nusantara, a Southeast Asian-based armed faction with Islamic State connections.

The scene after suspected Islamic State affiliates stormed Indonesia’s capital

Monday, January 11, 2016

Threat from deadly bushfire eases in Western Australia

A massive bushfire in Western Australia that killed two people continues to burn, but milder conditions are helping firefighters bring it under control.

The fire engulfed the entire town of Yarloop near Perth last week, destroying at least 128 homes.
Police say the bodies of two men in their 70s have been discovered in the debris of burnt-out houses.
More favourable conditions on Sunday allowed firefighters to set up containment lines.
The fire perimeter is currently around 232km (144 miles), the Department of Fire & Emergency Service (DFES) said.

Image copyright AFP Firefighter's account of Australia Waroona fire
How events unfolded
Fighting Australia's bushfire threat
In pictures: Bushfire devastates swathes of Western Australia
The alert for the region has been downgraded to "watch and act", with residents of Harvey and Waroona being told they can return to their homes.
"It's not under control yet but we are very optimistic about the next 24 hours as well," Western Australia's Emergency Services Minister Joe Francis said.
The fire was sparked by a lightning strike on Wednesday. Some 67,000 hectares (166,000 acres) of land has been destroyed.

Authorities' handling of the fire has come under heavy criticism from residents, who have complained of a lack of communication and emergency warnings, and a lack of water.
But officials have pointed out that many of the small towns affected by the fire had their own water grids which were knocked out when the fire cut power.
Western Australia fire commissioner Wayne Gregson told reporters: "There will be plenty of people who will come out with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. There'll be no shortage of armchair generals to tell you what you should have, could have or might have done."
He said they had given warnings up to two days before the fire, and had told residents not to rely on the power or water mains supplies to defend their homes.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-35259733

Giant golden statue of Mao demolished in central China

A village in central China has abruptly demolished a statue of the country's founder, Mao Zedong, after images of the structure covered in gold paint and looming 37 meters high over farmland attracted heated discussion on social media.

Although the official reason for the demolition is unknown, with even a high-level Communist Party newspaper struggling to explain the episode, the rise and fall of the Mao monument in rural Henan province highlights the political sensitivities in China surrounding a historical figure alternatively revered and criticized by both the public and the government.

The project, reportedly financed by entrepreneurs, cost US$460,000 and was near completion last week when it was nixed by local officials after images of the statue elicited mixed reactions on Chinese social media, and the story was picked up by domestic and international media.

The People's Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper, said the statue may have lacked approval from cultural management authorities, though it also cited an official as saying that did not appear to be the reason. Local officials could not be reached for comment on Monday, and some agencies' publicly listed telephone numbers appeared to be disconnected.

Since his death in 1976, Mao has been both revered as a founding father and blamed for political turmoil and disastrous economic policies that claimed millions of lives. Successors including Deng Xiaoping, China's paramount leader during the 1980s, openly rebuked the cult of personality that had been built around Mao and warned cadres about the risk of overly concentrated influence.

Even as China's current president, Xi Jinping, consolidates power to a degree that has drawn comparisons to Mao, he warned in a 2013 speech against "worshipping" revolutionary leaders without pointing out their mistakes.

Still, Mao, known as the "Great Helmsman," has kept a firm grip on the imagination for a large swath of the population, particularly the dissatisfied, rural poor, drawing notice of central authorities.

Last month, the Global Times, a Communist Party tabloid, reported on the latest Mao statue to rise in rural northwestern China, where villagers sang revolutionary songs in a quasi-religious ceremony that featured "ecstatic dance" and a shamanistic figure brandishing a sword.

"Building Mao temples is not encouraged by the central government or local authorities," the article noted.
- See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/11/giant-golden-statue-mao-demolished-central-china.html#sthash.zpyTWBwq.dpuf

Strong earthquake struck off Indonesia's Talaud islands

A strong earthquake struck off North Sulawesi province in central Indonesia, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.4 quake hit 265 kilometers (165 miles) north-northwest of Indonesian town in North Maluku province, or 233 kilometers (145 miles) southeast of Sarangani in the Philippines, at a depth of 12.9 kilometers (8 miles).

The Indonesia Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the quake which struck just 22 minutes before midnight (16:3 GMT) 8Monday, centered about 58 kilometers (36 miles) southeast of Talaud islands in North Sulawesi province, has no potential to trigger tsunami.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. (kes)

- See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/12/strong-earthquake-struck-indonesias-talaud-islands.html#sthash.Lm0ifVn9.dpuf

China shares nosedive triggering new trading halt

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/chinese-markets-suspended-time-week-160107031427586.html

Chinese stock markets tumbled by more than seven percent, forcing exchanges to suspend trading for the second time in a week.
The official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday that trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges was frozen for the day.
The drop is being linked to poor economic figures, tensions after North Korea's nuclear test and the spat between the Arab world and Iran.
Reporting from Beijing, Al Jazeera's Adrian Brown, said that just 15 minutes of trading were possible on Thursday.
"There is evidence to show that China's currency, the yuan, is continuing to weaken which provides further confirmation that,the world's second largest economy is continuing to slow even more," Brown said.

"Also, there were reports on Thursday that the head of one of the country's big security exchanges was under investigation for corruption and insider trading," he added.
"And then, of course, on Wednesday North Korea claimed that it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb and that didn't exactly improve market sentiment".

Lifting restrictions

Song Seng Wun, a regional economist for CIMB Private Banking in Singapore, told Al Jazeera the catalyst for the nosedive in the share-price came from concerns over the state of the Chinese economy.
"Then, of course, with the lockdown on shares supposedly expiring this Friday, there is a general worry that there could be this stampede through the door.

"If the macro-fundamentals haven’t really improved, there will be more selling ... this has set the stage for the current sell-down," he said.

The restriction on selling shares came into force during the market turmoil in August and the fear is that if a lot of cheap stock enters the market on Friday, the prices of shares would continue to tumble.
The so-called "circuit breakers", which took effect on January 1 intended to curb volatility, also kicked in on Monday to halt stock trading.

Regulators announced in December that they would introduce the emergency measures, which are aimed at preventing huge price swings.

Beijing has been trying to restore investor confidence after markets plunged in June following huge gains in the preceding year. The market meltdown has prompted a panicked, multibillion-dollar government intervention.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 7.3 percent to 3,115.89 before trading was halted.
The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index slumped 8.3 percent to 1,955.88.
The negative sentiment on the Chinese mainland spread to other major Asian markets.
Japanese shares were dragged down by a stronger yen and the heavy losses in China.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 423.98 points, or 2.33 per cent, to end at 17,767.34, hitting the lowest in three months. The broader Topix index was down 30.9 points, or 2.08 per
cent, at 1,457.94.
The main indexes of the Hong Kong stock exchange were down over 2.5 per cent.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Sydney storms: tornado warning as hail hits, flash flooding fears

Sydney’s desalination plant has been damaged and three people are injured after a tornado tore through the city’s south with winds of more than 200km/h.
The desalination plant in Kurnell was evacuated after reportedly sustaining significant damage and workers were also cleared out of the Caltex refinery.
The strong and unusually high winds hit Kurnell just after 10.30am today along with heavy rain and hail the size of golf balls.
About 7000 businesses are without power, including Kurnell Public School. The SES has received over 160 call outs, with 65 from the Sutherland shire.
Sydney airport was closely monitoring the storm activity with passengers being advised to check flight details with their airlines, an airport spokeswoman said.
Qantas has delayed some flights until the storm clears up, a Qantas spokesman said.

A massive storm front has closed in on Sydney. Picture: Twitter

A second storm cell was moving north up the coast and expected to hit Wollongong around 12.30pm.
The NSW Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning at 8am, saying severe thunderstorms were forecast for parts of Sydney, the Illawarra and Hunter regions.
A Bureau warning at 11.13am warned that “very dangerous thunderstorms” were detected near Sydney airport and in waters off Bondi Beach.

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Tornado sweeps through Sydney

A 40-year-old man suffered head injuries in Kurnell and ambulance NSW said officers treated two other people.
They were all transferred to Sutherland Hospital in a stable condition.
A strong wind warning is in place for parts of Sydney and the Macquarie coast area and flash flooding may occur across Gosford, Sydney, Wollongong and the NSW south coast, the BOM said.
The storm is moving north, and warnings are also in place for the Sydney suburbs of Gordon, Mona Vale and Terrey Hills.

A massive storm front near Bexley, in Sydney’s south-west. Picture: Twitter

The SES has warned people to move cars and stay away from trees, and to stay away from trees.
They have also been warned to avoid creeks and stormwater drains.
Westpac Life Saver Helicopter CEO, Stephen Leahy, said winds changed significantly within five minutes.
“If the storms and wind collide there is potential for a tornado,” Mr Leahy told AAP.
VIDEO: NSW Golf Club lashed by rain, hail

The NSW Bureau of Meteorology’s blunt warning.

Lightning strikes have hit the Wollongong region with thunderstorms set to move up the coast throughout the day, BOM said.
State Emergency Services are advising residents to secure their homes and to remain indoors as storms sweep across the affected area on Wednesday.
80mm of rain fell in one hour near Nowra, 160km south of Sydney.
.

Large hail has hit Cronulla, in Sydney’s south. Picture: Instagram

A balcony in Maroubra in Sydney’s eastern suburbs collapsed and the roof of a unit was damaged as storms travelled north.
Jenny Zhou, who works at the local Friendly Grocer in Kurnell, said the roof leaked and the shop flooded.
“I think about 10am, a big storm came,” she said. “There is water everywhere .. all through the shop.”
The CEO of Sydney’s Desalination plant Keith Davies said no workers were seriously hurt.
“Site operators were able to get into a safe place during the storm, and are in the process of making the site safe now,” Mr Davies said.
“No-one has been seriously injured but one person has been taken to local hospital with minor injuries.” Mr Davies said it was too early to determine the precise extent of the damage, or the repair bill.
He said it was an extraordinary event.
“Right now, people’s safety is coming first,” he said.

Wind damage to a unit block at Mauroubra, in Sydney’s east. Picture: John Grainger

The storm cell moves north.

Beth, who lives and works in Cronulla in the city’s south, said “golf ball-size hail” fell on St Andrew’s Anglican Church.
“We had some brown-outs, lots of thunder and lightning, and some large hail,” she said.
“The wind was strong and it was hitting our glass windows. I have a big dint in the front of my car.”

Twitter pictures of Storm damage after a Tornado passed through Kurnell. Picture: Twitter

Kurnell’s Bridges St has been particularly hard hit with a number of homes suffering significant damage, a Fire & Rescue spokeswoman told AAP.
BOM issued a midday warning for a severe thunderstorm which is due to hit the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury regions within the following hour.http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/sydney-storms-tornado-warning-as-hail-hits-flash-flooding-fears/news-story/4acd0f356f5726f84666379f93bd2691

Why are Chinese fishermen destroying coral reefs in the South China Sea?

What I came across on a reef far out in the middle of the South China Sea has left me shocked and confused.

I'd been told that Chinese fishermen were deliberately destroying reefs near a group of Philippine-controlled atolls in the Spratly Islands but I was not convinced.
"It goes on day and night, month after month," a Filipino mayor told me on the island of Palawan.
"I think it is deliberate. It is like they are punishing us by destroying our reefs."
I didn't take it seriously. I thought it might be anti-Chinese bile from a politician keen to blame everything on his disliked neighbour - a neighbour that claims most of the South China Sea as its own.
But then, as our little aircraft descended towards the tiny Philippine-controlled island of Pagasa, I looked out of my window and saw it. At least a dozen boats were anchored on a nearby reef. Long plumes of sand and gravel were trailing out behind them.

Image caption Pale plumes stretch out behind the small boats in the foreground

"Look," I said to my cameraman, Jiro. "That's what the mayor was talking about, that's the reef mining!"
Even so, I was unprepared for what we found when we got out on the water.
A Filipino boatman guided his tiny fishing boat right into the midst of the Chinese poachers.
They had chained their boats to the reef and were revving their engines hard. Clouds of black diesel smoke poured into the air.

"What are they doing?" I asked the boatman.
"They are using their propellers to break the reef," he said.
Again I was sceptical. The only way to see for sure was to get in the water.
It was murky and filled with dust and sand. I could just make out a steel propeller spinning in the distance on the end of long shaft, but it was impossible to tell exactly how the destruction was being carried out.
The result was clear, though. Complete devastation.
This place had once been a rich coral ecosystem. Now the sea floor was covered in a thick layer of debris, millions of smashed fragments of coral, white and dead like bits of bone.

I swam on and on. In every direction the destruction stretched for hundreds of metres, piles and piles of shattered white coral branches. It seemed so illogical. Why would fishermen, even poachers, destroy a whole coral system like this?
Then, down below me, I spotted two of the poachers, wearing masks and trailing long breathing hoses behind them. They were manhandling something heavy.
As they struggled up the sandy underwater slope, through a stream of bubbles, I caught sight of what they were carrying - a massive giant clam, at least 1m (3ft) across.
They dropped it on to a pile near their boat. Next to it lay three others they had pulled out earlier. Clams of this size are probably 100 years old, and - as I discovered later on an internet auction site - can sell for between $1,000 (£665) and $2,000 a pair.
We motored out to a group of much larger fishing boats anchored just off the reef. These are "mother ships" to the small poacher boats on the reef. On board the big boats I could see hundreds of clam shells stacked high.

On the stern of each boat, two large Chinese characters spelled out the name, Tanmen.
I'd heard of Tanmen before. It's a fishing port on the large Chinese island of Hainan.

In May 2014 another boat from Tanmen had been caught by Philippine police on another reef close to the Philippines called Half Moon Shoal. On board, the police had found 500 Hawksbill sea turtles, most of them dead.
Hawksbill turtles are critically endangered and protected under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Image copyright Getty Images A Philippine court sentenced the nine Chinese poachers to a year in prison.
Beijing was furious. The foreign ministry demanded the convicted poachers be immediately released and accused the Philippines of "severely violating China's sovereignty… by illegally detaining Chinese fishing vessels and fishermen in waters off China's Nansha Islands".
None of this proves China is protecting the poachers. But nor does Beijing appear to be doing anything to stop them. The poachers we saw showed absolutely no sign of fear when they saw our cameras filming them.
Back on Pagasa, a Philippine marine corps officer told me the destruction of the reef has been going on for at least two years, day and night.
"You men are armed," I said to him. "Why don't you go over there in your speedboat and chase them off or arrest them?"
"It's too dangerous," he said. "We don't want to start a shooting war with the Chinese Navy."
I still found it hard to understand why these Chinese fishermen, who have a long tradition of fishing on these reefs, are now destroying them.

Greed may be one answer. In newly wealthy China there is far more money to be made from looting and trading in endangered species than in catching fish.
There is another sad fact about what is going on out here.
However shocking the reef plundering I witnessed, it is as nothing compared to the environmental destruction wrought by China's massive island building programme nearby.
The latest island China has just completed at Mischief Reef is more than 9km (six miles) long. That is 9km of living reef that is now buried under millions of tonnes of sand and gravel.

Images: CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative / DigitalGlobe

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Thursday, December 10, 2015

Fugitive South Korean union boss in temple surrenders

Police in South Korea have detained a trade union leader who has been taking refuge in a Buddhist Temple in Seoul for almost a month.

Han Sang-gyun, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), surrendered to police on Thursday
He is accused of inciting violence at an anti-government rally on 14 November.
On Wednesday police began an operation to enter the temple to arrest him but delayed it on the request of the monks.
The monks warned said it would be an act of religious persecution for police to raid the temple.
"If the police raid the temple, it... will be tantamount to a state clampdown on the Jogye Order and on the whole Buddhist movement in South Korea," temple officials said in a statement.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption The police operation to seize him had already begun when the temple said Mr Han would surrender

As hundreds of police surrounded the temple on Wednesday evening, the executive chief of the temple held a press conference saying the Jogye Order would resolve the issue by noon on Thursday, after which police suspended the raid.
On Thursday, Mr Han finally emerged, paid his respects at the main temple, addressed his supporters and the media, and then gave himself up to waiting police.
South Korean religious venues, particularly Christian churches, were often used by political activists seeking refuge in the 1980s. There is no law preventing police from raiding such buildings but they have often opted not to.

Image copyright AP

Image caption The rally was one of the biggest in the city in years

Those at the protest in November had a diverse range of grievances, from President Park Geun-hye's plans to make it easier to sack workers, to a decision to use only one, state-approved history textbook in the nation's schools.
The rally, which the government says was illegal, saw clashes between police using pepper spray and water cannon, and protesters, some of whom were armed with metal pipes and sharpened bamboo sticks.
The subsequent police crackdown prompted a smaller demonstration on Saturday - 14,000 people, rather than the 60,000 estimated at November's protest - to demand an apology from the president.
Ms Park has drawn the ire of labour unions and farmers for planning to make it easier to dismiss workers and to cap the salaries of senior employees. However, many of her labour market policies are more popular with the general public, according to polls.
The BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul says there is an increasingly bitter division between South Korea's conservative government and its left-wing critics, who accuse it of diminishing democracy.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35058281

Myanmar stock exchange signals new economic era

Myanmar opened its first stock exchange on Wednesday, despite having no companies listed until next year.

Six groups have been approved, but delays in confirming underwriters pushed back the timeframe for listings.
The Yangon Stock Exchange is housed in a newly restored colonial-era building.
It underlines Myanmar's drive to revitalise its economy, following the victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party in elections last month.

China denies Australia Bureau of Meteorology 'hack'

China has denied it was behind an alleged cyber-attack on Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).

The Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported a "massive" hack on Wednesday, saying it had been told by "multiple official sources" it almost certainly came from China.
The BoM, which owns one of Australia's largest supercomputers, said it would not comment on security matters.

Flood waters cut off 600 residents in Rantau Panjang

Road links to four villages in Rantau Panjang have been cut off Sungai Golok overflowed its bank last night.

Rantau Panjang Fire and Rescue station chief Rahmat Kamaruzzaman said the four villages were Kampung Tersang, Kampung Bongor, Kampung Jawi and Kampung Putat Tujuh, involving more than 600 residents.

“The villages were cut off after the road linking the villages to the main road in Lubok Jong was under about one metre of water.

“However, the situation in under control, with no resident being evacuated so far,” he said when met at the station here today.

Meanwhile, checks by Bernama on the affected villages found residents making the necessary preparations, like moving their vehicles to higher ground.

Apart from that, residents living near Jalan Lubok Jong have started building wooden bridges from the road to their houses to facilitate evacuation.

A resident, Jasmin Hasan, 55, of Kampung Lubok Jong here said heavy rain since Friday caused flash floods with water up to a metre high.

“However, I am not evacuating yet. I will wait. If the water level continues to rise and there are instructions to evacuate, then I will do so,” he added.

Another resident, Mah Long, 56, said floods in the area was normal during the monsoon season.

“For the time being, I’ll remain in my house. At this time of the year, rainy days are normal,” she added.

As at 4pm, the water level at Sungai Golok in Rantau Panjang was 9.60 metres, which exceeded the danger level of 9 metres.

Dept prepares cabin trailers for food distribution to flood victims

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1, 2015:

The Social Welfare Department (JKM) will provide cabin trailers as a new initiative to distribute food to 1.6 million flood victims this year.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim announced the initiative after launching the World Disaster Report (WDR) 2015 at the Red Crescent head office here today.

She said JKM was providing five food depots for five flood-prone areas in Kedah, Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu and Muar in Johor.

“The food supply at these depots will be distributed to 5,152 flood relief centres nationwide.

“68 mini depots will also be prepared near these areas to ease food distribution to the victims,” she said.

Meanwhile efforts to care for the welfare of flood victims had been met by preparing 15,000 portable dividers for daily activities.

“With the dividers, they can complete their solat and care for their children and the elderly.

“Other facilities like mats and safety jackets will also be provided.”

About 22,000 volunteers are ready to assist with the floods this year.

Sri Lanka to launch special court to probe war crimes

Sri Lanka will launch a special war crimes court early next year to investigate major atrocities during the bloody finale to its decades-long ethnic war, a top official said Tuesday.
Former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, who heads the office of national unity and reconciliation, said her work cannot be done without justice for victims of the 37-year conflict that ended in May 2009.
“We have ended the war nearly seven years ago, but we have not won the peace,” Kumaratunga told reporters. “No reconciliation is possible without accepting the mistakes of the past.”
She said tens of thousands of victims of the Tamil separatist conflict would not accept reconciliation unless war criminals are brought to justice.
A special court is set to begin work by January, two months before a UN Human Rights Council review of Sri Lanka's progress in implementing a September resolution calling for accountability for war crimes, she said.
“Enormous amount of work has been done and the special court should start its work by the end of this month or by early January,” she said.
“They (the court) will not be chasing behind every soldier, but the main line of command will be looked at,” she said, adding that surviving Tamil rebel leaders would also be hauled up to answer allegations of “horrendous crimes” by the rebels.
International rights groups as well as Tamils had pressed for international judges and prosecutors to be involved in a Sri Lankan war crimes probe, but the government has firmly rejected this.
Kumaratunga said she personally believed that involving independent foreign judges was preferable, as suggested in a UN Human Rights Council resolution adopted in October. Local and international rights groups have accused both sides in the war of targeting civilians. At least 100,000 civilians were killed in the conflict between 1972 and 2009.
Some of the bloodiest fighting came in the last two months when troops unleashed a no-holds-barred onslaught against the rebels, with rights group saying tens of thousands of people may have been killed.
Kumaratunga, who ruled between 1994 and 2005, said her office was working on building bridges between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils to ensure ethnic peace after decades of war.
“Reconciliation and accountability will have to go hand in hand,” Kumaratunga said. “You cannot have one without the other.”

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Indonesian writers' festival forced to cancel events linked to 1965 massacre

Indonesia’s largest writers’ festival has been forced to cancel a series of events marking the 1965 massacre of alleged communists, after threats by authorities to revoke its operating permit.
The announcement by organisers on Friday was unprecedented in the 12-year history of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and signalled heightened sensitivities in Indonesia around the 50th anniversary of the mass killings, in which about 500,000 people died.
The festival’s founder and director, Janet DeNeefe, said she was “extremely disappointed” to cancel the events, which included three panels, an art exhibit and a book launch.
The Guardian understands the screening of an award-winning documentary on the subject, The Look of Silence, had already been cancelled after threats of arrest by police and security services.
“1965 is an event that has and continues to influence many Indonesians and as such, we chose to dedicate a proportion of the program to enriching our understanding about this, through themes of reconciliation and remembrance,” DeNeefe said.

Embassy tells RI students not to attend 1965 tribunal

The government has allegedly tried to ban Indonesian students from attending a “people’s tribunal” on the 1965 Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) purge in The Hague.

The head of the tribunal’s organizing committee, human rights lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, said on Wednesday that the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague had warned the Indonesian Students Association (PPI) in Leiden, The Netherlands, not to attend the tribunal, to be held from Nov. 10 to 13.

“I received a letter that says ‘our Indonesian students were called to the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague and told they will lose their scholarships if they join us. The embassy itself has decided it is a form of resurrecting communism’,” she told The Jakarta Post.

Nursyahbani said the embassy had no business intimidating Indonesian students and had no right to revoke their scholarships.

Likewise, Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) chairman Haris Azhar lambasted the reported actions of the embassy.

“I’ve heard about it and I believe it’s such an unnecessary thing to do. For me, it shows an archaic mentality. Why does our government, which is paid for by the people’s money, block its own people’s initiative [to seek justice]?” he told the Post on Wednesday.

The embassy and the PPI were not able to be reached for comments on the allegation.

Fifty years ago, following the events of Oct. 1, 1965, an estimated 500,000 Indonesians accused of being members or supporters of the PKI were killed, and many hundreds of thousands of people were detained without trial or exiled. The mass killings, and the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, has long been enveloped in social and political amnesia.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has maintained that the government will not resort to any judicial mechanism to resolve past human rights abuse cases, including the 1965 purge.

Luhut said the government was still exploring what he called “a format that fit the Indonesian way” to deal with past rights abuse cases.

Since there has been no official attempt to find out who was behind the killings, who the victims were exactly, and where they are buried, a number of Indonesian and local researchers, activists and 1965 victims at home and in various countries in Europe have taken the initiative to hold the tribunal called the “International People’s Tribunal [IPT] for the 1965 crimes against humanity”.

“The tribunal’s mission is to examine the evidence for these crimes against humanity, develop an accurate historical and scientific record and apply principles of international law to the collected evidence. Testimonies will be given by a selected number of victims and survivors both from Indonesia and political exiles currently living elsewhere,” a press statement from the organizing committee said.

However, since the IPT is not a criminal court, it has no mandate to provide justice or compensation to the victims.

“It will endeavor to push the state to take its responsibility toward the victims and their families, and toward Indonesian society as a whole,” the organizing committee said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir denied the allegation. “The information [that we receive] from the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague says that the news is not true. There’s never been intimidation or banning,” he told the Post on Wednesday. - See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/11/05/embassy-tells-ri-students-not-attend-1965-tribunal.html#sthash.5HWE1pg0.dpuf

Abu Sayyaf frees one Malaysian hostage, authorities negotiating release of another

KOTA KINABALU, Nov 9, 2015:

After nearly half a year in captivity, Thien Nyuk Fun, 50, has been released and reunited with her family in Sandakan.

Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman in confirming the report in a statement today said it was made possible as a result of months of negotiations and a coordinated effort among the relevant authorities at many levels to secure the two hostages’ release.

EU Observers Denied Access to Military Votes

RANGOON – European Union election observers said Tuesday that voting in Burma’s general election on Sunday was “generally well-run,” while citing several shortcomings including the process for advance voting and denial of access to ballot stations in military cantonment areas.
On election day, EU observers were posted at around 500 polling stations throughout the country, with 95 percent rating the voting process as “good” or “very good,” according to a statement released by the observation team on Tuesday.
However, the EU team said the process for advance voting “lacked transparency” and adequate safeguards and observers were “denied the right to observe out-of-constituency voting in military barracks.”
In September, Burma Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing pledged to facilitate a free and fair vote at polling stations in military cantonment areas, while conceding there would be some security restrictions.
“Apart from the restrictions, we will stick to UEC regulations,” Min Aung Hlaing told reporters on Sept. 22.
The EU observation mission said it requested authorization to observe advance voting in military barracks but was denied permission by the UEC to do so, despite an earlier agreement and an “assurance from the Commander-in-Chief.”
“Out of-constituency advance voting lacked transparency and due to the modalities for military voting the regular procedures were not applied,” the EU team said.
The EU delegation, led by Alexander Graf Lambsdorf, a member of the European Parliament, also noted the disproportionate number of Muslim candidates that had their bids to run in Sunday’s poll rejected by election sub-commissions on “unreasonable” citizenship and residency grounds.
“The management of appeals during candidate nomination lacked transparency, and some decisions appeared to be arbitrary, with a notable percentage of Muslim candidates being rejected,” the EU team said in Tuesday’s statement.
The observers’ preliminary findings were presented at a press conference in Rangoon on Tuesday, with a final statement, including assessment of the vote count and the handling of complaints, to be issued at a later date.

China central bank chief sees yuan as global currency by 2020 on deepening reforms

[SHANGHAI] China will deliver a slew of economic and financial reforms over the next five years, which will help the yuan become an international currency by 2020, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in an article.
The reforms will also include improving central bank communications and guiding market expectations to enhance monetary policy, Mr Zhou wrote in the Caixin article published on the magazine's website.
Mr Zhou said the government will strengthen supervision of its financial system to prevent "systemic risk", explaining China's proposed 13th Five-Year economic plan for the years 2016 to 2020.
The comments around policy priorities come amid growing doubts in global markets about China's commitment to see through comprehensive financial reforms.

Those doubts were sparked after Beijing intervened in the stock markets during a share price rout that started in June and saw the main Shanghai Composite Index plunge as much as 40 per cent.
Beijing has also intervened in its currency market after an abrupt devaluation by the central bank in August caused widespread worries over the yuan's future value.
Mr Zhou said China will foster new mechanisms to promote financial liberalisation and development, as well as "enhance the efficiency of the financial system to serve the real economy." "It will effectively use and develop financial risk control tools, and reduce levels of leverage so as to prevent systemic risk," he said.
Mr Zhou pledged to improve central bank communications on policy intentions, but didn't offer details on whether policy makers will provide routine briefings to accompany rate announcements similar to other developed economies.

LVHS IR/GSI Blog: East Asia and Oceania (1st)