 | DJOKE/GORGOL, 17 July 2012 (IRIN) - The fragrance of cooking food wafts from a communal kitchen as the villagers of Djoke, in the Gorgol region of Mauritania, talk about how hunger and drought took them by surprise. Gorgol, Brakna and Assaba form the Triangle of Poverty, where at least 60 percent of the population live on less than one US dollar a day. "We did not even know the rains were going to fail us [in 2011], we did not receive any warning," said Sao Moussa, a village elder. |
Jul 19, 2012
MAURITANIA: Sharing to survive
MAURITANIA: Sharing to survive:
SOMALIA: Return to Mogadishu*
SOMALIA: Return to Mogadishu*:
 | MOGADISHU, 17 July 2012 (IRIN) - Thousands of people who fled insecurity and fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu have returned to the city since August 2011, after the departure of Al-Shabab insurgents, say officials. |
EGYPT: No ID, no government services
EGYPT: No ID, no government services:
 | CAIRO, 18 July 2012 (IRIN) - Most Bedouins from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula never think to register their marriages. A palm leaf from the father of the bride to the groom is enough to mark the union; families and tribal elders stand witness to the ceremony. |
HRW - Venezuela: Concentration and Abuse of Power Under Chávez
Venezuela: Concentration and Abuse of Power Under Chávez:
The concentration of power under President Hugo Chávez has taken a heavy toll on human rights in Venezuela, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
read more
The concentration of power under President Hugo Chávez has taken a heavy toll on human rights in Venezuela.
read more
HRW - Philippines: Killings of Environment Advocates Unpunished
Philippines: Killings of Environment Advocates Unpunished:
(New York) – The Philippine government’s failure to address threats and killings of environmental advocates worsens a climate of lawlessness just as the Aquino administration is pushing for new mining investments.
read more
The Philippine government’s failure to address threats and killings of environmental advocates worsens a climate of lawlessness just as the Aquino administration is pushing for new mining investments.
read more
HRW - Bangladesh: Rights Abuses Under Washington Spotlight
Bangladesh: Rights Abuses Under Washington Spotlight:
(Washington DC) – The US government should continue to press Bangladesh to improve on labor issues and women’s rights, reform abusive security forces, and meet its obligations to refugees, Human Rights Watch said today in a hearing before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Comm
read more
The US government should continue to press Bangladesh to improve on labor issues and women’s rights, reform abusive security forces, and meet its obligations to refugees, Human Rights Watch said today in a hearing before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress.
read more
ICG - How Indonesian Extremists Regroup
How Indonesian Extremists Regroup: Almost ten years after the 2002 Bali bombing, Indonesian extremists are weak and divided but still finding partners for new operations.
ICG - Mali: Avoiding Escalation
Mali: Avoiding Escalation: Calls for military intervention in Mali are increasing but it could sink the state, which is already on the brink of dissolution, further into chaos.
Iranian Journalist Nazila Fathi: “There were always ways to circumvent the restrictions and write”
Iranian Journalist Nazila Fathi: “There were always ways to circumvent the restrictions and write”:
Nazila Fathi. Photo: Camila CentenoNazila Fathi was an Iran-based correspondent for two decades. In her portfolio—if she has such a thing—there would be 2,000 articles she wrote for the New York Times, plus all her pieces that appeared in publications like The New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, Nieman Reports, and Open Democracy. In 2009, when Fathi was covering what she describes as the most important story of her life—the massive protests following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial victory—she was forced to leave her country: 16 men sent by the government were following her steps. Her experience and analyses will soon be compiled in a nonfiction book (untitled as yet) that she has been writing since 2010, when she started a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard.
On May 5, Fathi participated in City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s Exiled Voices of Iran and sat with Sampsonia Way to talk about her experiences as a persecuted journalist, including her work inside and outside Iran. Also included, a video of a thoughtful conversation between Fathi and Steve Sokol, Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, recorded at the COA/P event.
Can you tell us more about why and how you left Iran?
After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced as the winner of Iran’s election there were these spontaneous protests. The authorities had let in a lot of foreign reporters to cover the election, so there were all these visiting reporters. The New York Times luckily, or unluckily for the Iranian government, even had its executive editor, Bill Keller, present.
Three days after the election, the protests reached their peak. The ministry of culture, who was responsible for monitoring foreign reporters, sent out letters saying that those who were on visas had to leave. Then the government forbade resident journalists like me—who were half-Iranian or had Iranian citizenship—from leaving their offices anymore.
But most of us, the resident journalists, kept going out, except for members of big news agencies that had a bureau. Their headquarters could come under attack, and they wanted to keep them open, which is important strategically.
Then one of our colleagues was arrested and many others left the country. At one point I was the only person on the ground, and I received a call from a siege commander of the militia force who told me that snipers would shoot me if I kept going out. I didn’t take it seriously. I was mesmerized by the size of the protest. But one morning I was going out, and I noticed that I was being followed. That really scared me. I went back and looked and all these men kept coming. They just stood outside my home. They came around 8:00 in the morning and left every night at 12:00. Because they hadn’t seen me go to a travel agency to buy a ticket and my internet was disconnected, they didn’t think I had the means to leave the country. But I had bought tickets a long time ago for a long–planned vacation to Canada. On the night of July 1st, after they left, I went to the airport with my two children and my husband. We left the country.
So you thought you were leaving for a little while, yet three years have already passed…
Yes. We left thinking that we would go back. We left with a couple of t–shirts, and we just kept postponing our return by a month. After six months we realized it was impossible for us to go back without facing serious risks. I continued working for the New York Times from Toronto, until I got the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard in 2010. Since then we moved to Boston, and I’ve been in Cambridge. I did another fellowship at the Kennedy School at Harvard this year.
But my journey was much easier than the journey of a lot of my colleagues. They were stranded in northern Iraq or Turkey for a long time until they finally got asylum somewhere. And that’s not the end of the story. Many of them still cannot work.
Lets go back to before the 2009 elections, to those days when you were covering a less convulsed Iran for the New York Times. Which stories gave you the most trouble then?
It hasn’t always been the political stuff that has gotten me into trouble, and getting into trouble with the government hasn’t been the most annoying thing. The government was very sensitive about specific topics, and they would ask me, “Why did you write about the arrests of activists?” or “Why did you focus on human rights violations so much?” But I had more trouble with the cultural stories I wrote. I was viciously attacked by people who felt jealous about the person I was writing about.
Do you have a specific example in mind?
I wrote about [Mohsen Namjoo], an artist/musician who was extremely talented. He had this protest music that was very metaphorical, very new. He was combining blues and jazz with traditional Persian music. He was also very popular. You could hear his music in other people’s cars while you were in traffic, and this is illegal in Iran. I wrote a story about him and called him the Bob Dylan of Iran. Then I was attacked so viciously by other musicians who did not think he was even worth mentioning in the New York Times.
What about writing on women’s rights?
Women’s rights was always one of my very favorite topics, particularly because women have gone through immense changes in Iran. The government warned me not to write about women activism, so I tried to find other angles. For instance, when I wrote a story about female novelists I used parts of their books to say how far they’ve come and how Iranian society has changed. I was working on a story about female singers before I left the country, but I couldn’t finish it.
It was possible to write about women’s rights without the government thinking you were writing about political issues?
Every topic related with women’s rights is extremely politicized. Let’s not forget women are symbols of the Islamic republic. They carry its symbols: The headscarf, the coat that they wear. If they don’t wear those then who would know that this is the Islamic Republic of Iran? The issue of women, like everything, is politicized in Iran.
How did you deal with the restrictions imposed by the government, and even by society?
When I was in Iran I always found a way to report what I thought was important, except for a couple of stories that meant the end of my career. I still worked on those, but they were not published under my name. There were other colleagues in New York who wrote the stories.
I wouldn’t say that Iran was a country where you could not work. There were always ways to circumvent the restrictions and write. And I really enjoyed what I was doing. I found other creative ways. Under that kind of repression creativity flourishes and leads to powerful works. The music, literature, and art that is produced in Iran is a lot more powerful than what is produced outside the country.
Now, things have become very difficult in Iran. Pressure and repression have become a lot worse than when I was there.
But I bet that at the middle of 2009, when the protests were repressed, your sources were in fear…
Towards my last days in Iran I couldn’t work. Nobody wanted to speak to me because the minute they spoke they were picked up by authorities and put in jail. If they picked up their cell phones the government could track them. And then towards the end, I was sort of under house arrest and my internet was not safe. I was afraid to leave the house. I had no idea what those guys would do to me. That was the worst part.
What was your relationship with those sources when you left Iran?
As soon as I left the country people started reaching out to me because I was still working for the New York Times. All those people who didn’t want to speak to me when I was in Iran found a way to get on Skype, which was considered a more secure way of communication.
During the year that I covered what happened after the protests for the New York Times it was much easier to work, to have access to people, and to write about the story from outside the country.
But this is not doable all the time…
It was a very special time. People were voluntarily reaching out to give you the story and citizen journalism was very much out there. I could watch videos that people were posting from the protests on the same day that they were happening. But that is not the case anymore. The people who were posting those videos have other jobs. They’ve gone back to their normal lives. Now it’s very hard to cover Iran from outside the country. You need to be there and on the ground.
I understand you are still writing on Iran…
Harvard opened a totally different door for me. I started looking at my experience in a much deeper way. I’m writing a book now—a memoir—to tell the bigger story of Iran through my experience as a journalist.
Does the book have a title?
It has had a million different titles. I’m sure it’s going to keep changing until it comes out.
Can you tell us some highlights of the story?
I’d prefer not to talk about that because editors eventually make so many changes. But I’m writing about the events of 2009. The reason I decided to write this book was because people kept asking me, “So why did the uprising fail?” “Why didn’t the green revolution overthrow the regime?” First of all, it was not a revolution. Second, people had no intention of overthrowing the regime. Third, people are afraid of institutional breakdown. After events in Egypt, everybody raised this question again: “So Iranians failed, but did Egyptians succeed?”
They are very different countries…
They’re not even comparable. It would be very hard for Iranians to pose a serious threat to the regime, considering how well–equipped the Iranian regime is to repress any kind of dissent. Egyptians, on the other hand, managed to get workers on their side. Even workers in the Suez Canal went on strike. Iranians were never able to get any kind of union or guild on their side, partly because there are no independent guilds and unions. Without those groups, they cannot really bring the movement to a point where it can pose a threat.
The most important thing was that the Iranian uprising did not have the kind of leadership that had overthrowing the regime on its agenda. The two leaders were very loyal to the system, all they wanted, and all people wanted, were new elections. They thought Ahmadinejad had stolen the election and they wanted new ones. Iranians have gone through a bloody war, through a bloody revolution, in the past three decades. The majority of the population remembers those experiences, and they don’t want to live through it again.
What would you say to the people who think that Iranian protesters didn’t have the same courage as the people of Egypt?
During the Iranian uprising, six months from beginning to end, about 150 people died, maybe less. So far in Egypt, over 1,500 have died. We called ours a bloody uprising and they call theirs a peaceful one. They’re very different countries. They have different goals. The Egyptians haven’t had a revolution since 1960. They haven’t had it for a long time.
This idea that democracy has to be grassroots, that reform has to come from bottom–up, has become a very acceptable notion in Iran. Iranians want the regime to adapt to change, rather than Iranians changing the regime, because they wonder “What will come next?” A new group could hijack the next revolution again.
Lets talk about the alarming declarations on the Iranian Nuclear Program. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak just said that Iran is working toward a ‘threshold status’ of being able to produce a nuclear bomb with 60 days notice.
That is not true. That is highly exaggerated. It’s not a unanimous message coming out of Israel. It’s Netanyahu and Barak who have been making these exaggerated assessments of Iranian capabilities. Actually another Israeli defense minister official recently said there was no evidence that Iran had intentions to make a weapon. Its weaponization is one question, and whether Iran is going to work to have the capability is another question. No hard evidence has been found that Iran is moving towards any of those directions.
What is your opinion the Iranian Nuclear Program?
The Iranian government wants to see the sanctions lifted because without the oil revenue they would be crippled. It’s not that the revenue’s going to end, because they have found ways to sell their oil, but it’s going to decrease by about 50 percent and that will be very hard for the country. They might compromise to a point where they see the sanctions softened. But unfortunately the Iranian government has never looked at its long–term interests.
Everything for Iran, all the decisions that have been made inside the government and its foreign policy, have been based on very short–term survival. If Iran was going to make a wise decision, it would give up its nuclear enrichment program because it doesn’t make any financial sense. The reactor in Tehran that needs the enriched uranium is old. The technology is from the 1960s. It doesn’t make sense for Iran to invest so much money in a program just to produce fuel for this old reactor. They are doing things that financially and logically don’t make any sense.
There are activists in Washington that are arguing to “lift the sanctions…”
I think they’re right because the sanctions are hurting civil society more than the government. The Iranian regime has been an expert at circumventing restrictions and sanctions because they’ve been faced with some kind of sanction since the 1979 revolution.
They have been in touch with all these front companies in Europe, even in London and Rome, who have been buying things for them. They have bought banks in the Gulf countries to circumvent the restrictions that are imposed on the Iranian banking system. They were prepared for the sanctions. They have become masters at circumventing them.
But China and Russia are the countries that always came out as supporters of Iran…
China and Russia, of course, have been the worst allies. But the point is that even Germany, France, and Britain talk to Iran in different voices.
Germany kept its economic ties with Iran. France was talking in a very, tough voice with Iran politically, but all these French companies were still operating in Iran. They didn’t want to pull out. Britain was tougher on Iran. The United States kept asking for tough sanctions on Iran and on European companies. But It was not until recently that even the Dutch Shell company pulled out of Iran’s oil investment. It’s been very hard to get all these countries to act unanimously and get these other, private companies that had high stakes in Iran, to pull out.
Can the West help Iranian people on human rights issues?
We know that the Iranian government has been responsive to pressure. The reason they wanted to get rid of all journalists in 2009 was because they wanted to stop the flow of information outside the country. Journalists were causing a huge embarrassment for the regime.
They kept on claiming that they are the best model of religious democracy, that they respected human rights, but the truth was, they were using extreme violence against their own people. They picked up all sorts of people: Poets, musicians, activists, writers, economists, anyone whose work was critical of the regime in any way.
And a lot of them are still in prison. Just look around you: Novelists whose work was not even directly political have been forced to leave the country because everything in Iran has become politicized. But if the West keeps pressing Iran over its human rights violations, they will respond. There was an example in 2010: A woman was sentenced to death by stoning on charges of murdering her husband. I don’t know what happened, but she was really very close to getting executed by stoning, which is quite barbaric. Eventually the Iranians had to stop her execution. I think she’s in prison now. She survived it because of the pressure from the West.
What is your opinion of the recent parliamentary elections?
I have no expectations for this parliament. I had no expectations for the previous parliament. The previous parliament was extremely obedient to the leader. The last election in February was a big loss for Ahmadinejad and that was the only difference. The supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] who became the ultimate decision maker in the country, practically hand–picked all its members. Ahmadinejad used to have about seventy members who supported him, but now he has less than a dozen, which means he has lost all his influence in parliament. We can expect a new parliament that is very obedient to Khamenei and will approve whatever he asks for. Khamenei has suggested that maybe the position of president should be abolished. So if they take a bill on that to parliament, we might expect it to be approved easily.
Would you go back to Iran if it became possible?
Iran is my home. Nobody can keep me away.
How do you see the future of Iran?
I’m basically a very positive person. I’m very optimistic. No authoritarian regime has lasted forever. Democratic regimes last much longer. If we can call the change in the people a revolution, then a huge revolution has taken place in Iranian society. That was the greatest thing about the 2009 uprising: Massive numbers of people came out on the streets in very civilized, nonviolent ways. And they had very reasonable expectations and demands. Then they very wisely retreated from the streets. I think change has already taken place. This population, 70 percent of them under the age of 35, is ready for a much more democratic system than what they have. I’m sure what happens next is going to be much better. This system is rotten from within. It’s going to collapse one day.
Nazila Fathi. Photo: Camila Centeno
On May 5, Fathi participated in City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s Exiled Voices of Iran and sat with Sampsonia Way to talk about her experiences as a persecuted journalist, including her work inside and outside Iran. Also included, a video of a thoughtful conversation between Fathi and Steve Sokol, Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, recorded at the COA/P event.
Can you tell us more about why and how you left Iran?
After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced as the winner of Iran’s election there were these spontaneous protests. The authorities had let in a lot of foreign reporters to cover the election, so there were all these visiting reporters. The New York Times luckily, or unluckily for the Iranian government, even had its executive editor, Bill Keller, present.
Three days after the election, the protests reached their peak. The ministry of culture, who was responsible for monitoring foreign reporters, sent out letters saying that those who were on visas had to leave. Then the government forbade resident journalists like me—who were half-Iranian or had Iranian citizenship—from leaving their offices anymore.
But most of us, the resident journalists, kept going out, except for members of big news agencies that had a bureau. Their headquarters could come under attack, and they wanted to keep them open, which is important strategically.
Then one of our colleagues was arrested and many others left the country. At one point I was the only person on the ground, and I received a call from a siege commander of the militia force who told me that snipers would shoot me if I kept going out. I didn’t take it seriously. I was mesmerized by the size of the protest. But one morning I was going out, and I noticed that I was being followed. That really scared me. I went back and looked and all these men kept coming. They just stood outside my home. They came around 8:00 in the morning and left every night at 12:00. Because they hadn’t seen me go to a travel agency to buy a ticket and my internet was disconnected, they didn’t think I had the means to leave the country. But I had bought tickets a long time ago for a long–planned vacation to Canada. On the night of July 1st, after they left, I went to the airport with my two children and my husband. We left the country.
So you thought you were leaving for a little while, yet three years have already passed…
Yes. We left thinking that we would go back. We left with a couple of t–shirts, and we just kept postponing our return by a month. After six months we realized it was impossible for us to go back without facing serious risks. I continued working for the New York Times from Toronto, until I got the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard in 2010. Since then we moved to Boston, and I’ve been in Cambridge. I did another fellowship at the Kennedy School at Harvard this year.
But my journey was much easier than the journey of a lot of my colleagues. They were stranded in northern Iraq or Turkey for a long time until they finally got asylum somewhere. And that’s not the end of the story. Many of them still cannot work.
Lets go back to before the 2009 elections, to those days when you were covering a less convulsed Iran for the New York Times. Which stories gave you the most trouble then?
It hasn’t always been the political stuff that has gotten me into trouble, and getting into trouble with the government hasn’t been the most annoying thing. The government was very sensitive about specific topics, and they would ask me, “Why did you write about the arrests of activists?” or “Why did you focus on human rights violations so much?” But I had more trouble with the cultural stories I wrote. I was viciously attacked by people who felt jealous about the person I was writing about.
Do you have a specific example in mind?
I wrote about [Mohsen Namjoo], an artist/musician who was extremely talented. He had this protest music that was very metaphorical, very new. He was combining blues and jazz with traditional Persian music. He was also very popular. You could hear his music in other people’s cars while you were in traffic, and this is illegal in Iran. I wrote a story about him and called him the Bob Dylan of Iran. Then I was attacked so viciously by other musicians who did not think he was even worth mentioning in the New York Times.
What about writing on women’s rights?
Women’s rights was always one of my very favorite topics, particularly because women have gone through immense changes in Iran. The government warned me not to write about women activism, so I tried to find other angles. For instance, when I wrote a story about female novelists I used parts of their books to say how far they’ve come and how Iranian society has changed. I was working on a story about female singers before I left the country, but I couldn’t finish it.
It was possible to write about women’s rights without the government thinking you were writing about political issues?
Every topic related with women’s rights is extremely politicized. Let’s not forget women are symbols of the Islamic republic. They carry its symbols: The headscarf, the coat that they wear. If they don’t wear those then who would know that this is the Islamic Republic of Iran? The issue of women, like everything, is politicized in Iran.
How did you deal with the restrictions imposed by the government, and even by society?
When I was in Iran I always found a way to report what I thought was important, except for a couple of stories that meant the end of my career. I still worked on those, but they were not published under my name. There were other colleagues in New York who wrote the stories.
I wouldn’t say that Iran was a country where you could not work. There were always ways to circumvent the restrictions and write. And I really enjoyed what I was doing. I found other creative ways. Under that kind of repression creativity flourishes and leads to powerful works. The music, literature, and art that is produced in Iran is a lot more powerful than what is produced outside the country.
Now, things have become very difficult in Iran. Pressure and repression have become a lot worse than when I was there.
But I bet that at the middle of 2009, when the protests were repressed, your sources were in fear…
Towards my last days in Iran I couldn’t work. Nobody wanted to speak to me because the minute they spoke they were picked up by authorities and put in jail. If they picked up their cell phones the government could track them. And then towards the end, I was sort of under house arrest and my internet was not safe. I was afraid to leave the house. I had no idea what those guys would do to me. That was the worst part.
What was your relationship with those sources when you left Iran?
As soon as I left the country people started reaching out to me because I was still working for the New York Times. All those people who didn’t want to speak to me when I was in Iran found a way to get on Skype, which was considered a more secure way of communication.
During the year that I covered what happened after the protests for the New York Times it was much easier to work, to have access to people, and to write about the story from outside the country.
But this is not doable all the time…
It was a very special time. People were voluntarily reaching out to give you the story and citizen journalism was very much out there. I could watch videos that people were posting from the protests on the same day that they were happening. But that is not the case anymore. The people who were posting those videos have other jobs. They’ve gone back to their normal lives. Now it’s very hard to cover Iran from outside the country. You need to be there and on the ground.
I understand you are still writing on Iran…
Harvard opened a totally different door for me. I started looking at my experience in a much deeper way. I’m writing a book now—a memoir—to tell the bigger story of Iran through my experience as a journalist.
Does the book have a title?
It has had a million different titles. I’m sure it’s going to keep changing until it comes out.
Can you tell us some highlights of the story?
I’d prefer not to talk about that because editors eventually make so many changes. But I’m writing about the events of 2009. The reason I decided to write this book was because people kept asking me, “So why did the uprising fail?” “Why didn’t the green revolution overthrow the regime?” First of all, it was not a revolution. Second, people had no intention of overthrowing the regime. Third, people are afraid of institutional breakdown. After events in Egypt, everybody raised this question again: “So Iranians failed, but did Egyptians succeed?”
They are very different countries…
They’re not even comparable. It would be very hard for Iranians to pose a serious threat to the regime, considering how well–equipped the Iranian regime is to repress any kind of dissent. Egyptians, on the other hand, managed to get workers on their side. Even workers in the Suez Canal went on strike. Iranians were never able to get any kind of union or guild on their side, partly because there are no independent guilds and unions. Without those groups, they cannot really bring the movement to a point where it can pose a threat.
The most important thing was that the Iranian uprising did not have the kind of leadership that had overthrowing the regime on its agenda. The two leaders were very loyal to the system, all they wanted, and all people wanted, were new elections. They thought Ahmadinejad had stolen the election and they wanted new ones. Iranians have gone through a bloody war, through a bloody revolution, in the past three decades. The majority of the population remembers those experiences, and they don’t want to live through it again.
What would you say to the people who think that Iranian protesters didn’t have the same courage as the people of Egypt?
During the Iranian uprising, six months from beginning to end, about 150 people died, maybe less. So far in Egypt, over 1,500 have died. We called ours a bloody uprising and they call theirs a peaceful one. They’re very different countries. They have different goals. The Egyptians haven’t had a revolution since 1960. They haven’t had it for a long time.
This idea that democracy has to be grassroots, that reform has to come from bottom–up, has become a very acceptable notion in Iran. Iranians want the regime to adapt to change, rather than Iranians changing the regime, because they wonder “What will come next?” A new group could hijack the next revolution again.
Lets talk about the alarming declarations on the Iranian Nuclear Program. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak just said that Iran is working toward a ‘threshold status’ of being able to produce a nuclear bomb with 60 days notice.
That is not true. That is highly exaggerated. It’s not a unanimous message coming out of Israel. It’s Netanyahu and Barak who have been making these exaggerated assessments of Iranian capabilities. Actually another Israeli defense minister official recently said there was no evidence that Iran had intentions to make a weapon. Its weaponization is one question, and whether Iran is going to work to have the capability is another question. No hard evidence has been found that Iran is moving towards any of those directions.
What is your opinion the Iranian Nuclear Program?
The Iranian government wants to see the sanctions lifted because without the oil revenue they would be crippled. It’s not that the revenue’s going to end, because they have found ways to sell their oil, but it’s going to decrease by about 50 percent and that will be very hard for the country. They might compromise to a point where they see the sanctions softened. But unfortunately the Iranian government has never looked at its long–term interests.
Everything for Iran, all the decisions that have been made inside the government and its foreign policy, have been based on very short–term survival. If Iran was going to make a wise decision, it would give up its nuclear enrichment program because it doesn’t make any financial sense. The reactor in Tehran that needs the enriched uranium is old. The technology is from the 1960s. It doesn’t make sense for Iran to invest so much money in a program just to produce fuel for this old reactor. They are doing things that financially and logically don’t make any sense.
There are activists in Washington that are arguing to “lift the sanctions…”
I think they’re right because the sanctions are hurting civil society more than the government. The Iranian regime has been an expert at circumventing restrictions and sanctions because they’ve been faced with some kind of sanction since the 1979 revolution.
They have been in touch with all these front companies in Europe, even in London and Rome, who have been buying things for them. They have bought banks in the Gulf countries to circumvent the restrictions that are imposed on the Iranian banking system. They were prepared for the sanctions. They have become masters at circumventing them.
But China and Russia are the countries that always came out as supporters of Iran…
China and Russia, of course, have been the worst allies. But the point is that even Germany, France, and Britain talk to Iran in different voices.
Germany kept its economic ties with Iran. France was talking in a very, tough voice with Iran politically, but all these French companies were still operating in Iran. They didn’t want to pull out. Britain was tougher on Iran. The United States kept asking for tough sanctions on Iran and on European companies. But It was not until recently that even the Dutch Shell company pulled out of Iran’s oil investment. It’s been very hard to get all these countries to act unanimously and get these other, private companies that had high stakes in Iran, to pull out.
Can the West help Iranian people on human rights issues?
We know that the Iranian government has been responsive to pressure. The reason they wanted to get rid of all journalists in 2009 was because they wanted to stop the flow of information outside the country. Journalists were causing a huge embarrassment for the regime.
They kept on claiming that they are the best model of religious democracy, that they respected human rights, but the truth was, they were using extreme violence against their own people. They picked up all sorts of people: Poets, musicians, activists, writers, economists, anyone whose work was critical of the regime in any way.
And a lot of them are still in prison. Just look around you: Novelists whose work was not even directly political have been forced to leave the country because everything in Iran has become politicized. But if the West keeps pressing Iran over its human rights violations, they will respond. There was an example in 2010: A woman was sentenced to death by stoning on charges of murdering her husband. I don’t know what happened, but she was really very close to getting executed by stoning, which is quite barbaric. Eventually the Iranians had to stop her execution. I think she’s in prison now. She survived it because of the pressure from the West.
What is your opinion of the recent parliamentary elections?
I have no expectations for this parliament. I had no expectations for the previous parliament. The previous parliament was extremely obedient to the leader. The last election in February was a big loss for Ahmadinejad and that was the only difference. The supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] who became the ultimate decision maker in the country, practically hand–picked all its members. Ahmadinejad used to have about seventy members who supported him, but now he has less than a dozen, which means he has lost all his influence in parliament. We can expect a new parliament that is very obedient to Khamenei and will approve whatever he asks for. Khamenei has suggested that maybe the position of president should be abolished. So if they take a bill on that to parliament, we might expect it to be approved easily.
Would you go back to Iran if it became possible?
Iran is my home. Nobody can keep me away.
How do you see the future of Iran?
I’m basically a very positive person. I’m very optimistic. No authoritarian regime has lasted forever. Democratic regimes last much longer. If we can call the change in the people a revolution, then a huge revolution has taken place in Iranian society. That was the greatest thing about the 2009 uprising: Massive numbers of people came out on the streets in very civilized, nonviolent ways. And they had very reasonable expectations and demands. Then they very wisely retreated from the streets. I think change has already taken place. This population, 70 percent of them under the age of 35, is ready for a much more democratic system than what they have. I’m sure what happens next is going to be much better. This system is rotten from within. It’s going to collapse one day.
Call to Abolish Bilateral Treaty
Call to Abolish Bilateral Treaty:
Dissident groups called on the authorities in Laos Wednesday to rescind a 35-year-old bilateral treaty with Vietnam, claiming that Vietnamese soldiers remain in the country under the pact and should be expelled.
On the 35th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, the French-based Lao National Council for Democracy and the U.S.-based Lao New Generation Movement said the agreement had robbed Laos of its sovereignty.
The treaty signed on July 18, 1977 provided for the stationing of Vietnamese army troops and advisers in Laos after the end of the Vietnam War.
Eleven years later, the Lao government announced that all the Vietnamese troops had withdrawn from Laos but the dissident groups claim they remained.
"The Vietnamese government has, in fact, flouted all the Lao peace treaties and independence agreements by retaining an army of over 70,000 soldiers in Laos and occupying the border regions by setting many thousands of Vietnamese families to plunder our heritage and exploit our mineral resources," a statement from the Lao National Council for Democracy said.
It also called on the international community to help restore democracy in Laos, a one-party communist state which tolerates almost no opposition and maintains strict control over the media.
The Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation effectively "handed over all sovereignty to Vietnam," said a leader of the Lao New Generation Movement, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Top investor
Vietnam-Laos ties have blossomed over the years, with Vietnam emerging the second largest investor in the neighboring state, after China, another major ally of Laos.
In Hanoi this week, leaders of Vietnam and Laos agreed to further consolidate and strengthen ties, Vietnamese media reported.
Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan and her Lao counterpart Bounnhang Vorachith, who was on an official visit, signed a pact to continue increasing high-ranking visits and exchanges, promoting cooperation at state, local, and business levels and raising public awareness of the "history of special ties," reports said.
Vietnam held a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday to mark the 35th anniversary of the controversial treaty and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Le Thanh Hai, a key communist party official in Ho Chih Minh City, said bilateral ties are "an invaluable asset of the two nations."
Reported by RFA's Lao service. Translated by Viengsay Luangkhot and Max Avary. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
Dissident groups called on the authorities in Laos Wednesday to rescind a 35-year-old bilateral treaty with Vietnam, claiming that Vietnamese soldiers remain in the country under the pact and should be expelled.
On the 35th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, the French-based Lao National Council for Democracy and the U.S.-based Lao New Generation Movement said the agreement had robbed Laos of its sovereignty.
The treaty signed on July 18, 1977 provided for the stationing of Vietnamese army troops and advisers in Laos after the end of the Vietnam War.
Eleven years later, the Lao government announced that all the Vietnamese troops had withdrawn from Laos but the dissident groups claim they remained.
"The Vietnamese government has, in fact, flouted all the Lao peace treaties and independence agreements by retaining an army of over 70,000 soldiers in Laos and occupying the border regions by setting many thousands of Vietnamese families to plunder our heritage and exploit our mineral resources," a statement from the Lao National Council for Democracy said.
It also called on the international community to help restore democracy in Laos, a one-party communist state which tolerates almost no opposition and maintains strict control over the media.
The Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation effectively "handed over all sovereignty to Vietnam," said a leader of the Lao New Generation Movement, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Top investor
Vietnam-Laos ties have blossomed over the years, with Vietnam emerging the second largest investor in the neighboring state, after China, another major ally of Laos.
In Hanoi this week, leaders of Vietnam and Laos agreed to further consolidate and strengthen ties, Vietnamese media reported.
Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan and her Lao counterpart Bounnhang Vorachith, who was on an official visit, signed a pact to continue increasing high-ranking visits and exchanges, promoting cooperation at state, local, and business levels and raising public awareness of the "history of special ties," reports said.
Vietnam held a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday to mark the 35th anniversary of the controversial treaty and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Le Thanh Hai, a key communist party official in Ho Chih Minh City, said bilateral ties are "an invaluable asset of the two nations."
Reported by RFA's Lao service. Translated by Viengsay Luangkhot and Max Avary. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
Troops Leave Border Temple
Troops Leave Border Temple:
Cambodia and Thailand on Wednesday withdrew troops from a disputed area near an ancient temple on their border which had been the site of deadly cross-border clashes, honoring a ruling handed down by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) a year ago.
The troops had been stationed along the border near Preah Vihear Temple for more than four years.
Cambodia’s Defense Minister Tea Banh presided over a redeployment ceremony near the temple, saying that nearly 500 soldiers had worked hard to protect Cambodian sovereignty and that their withdrawal from the demilitarized zone showed that the country respected the ICJ’s decision of July last year.
“We are the owner [of the temple area],” Tea Banh said.
“We have the duty to protect our heritage and we have complied with the court order.”
Thailand’s Defense Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat traveled to the Thai side of the border to take part in the country's own ceremony marking the withdrawal of an unknown number of troops.
On July 18, 2011 the ICJ created a 17 square kilometer (6.6 square mile) Provisional Demilitarized Zone (PDZ) around the temple and ordered the removal of Cambodian and Thai troops.
Cambodian troops stationed at the border, where fighting killed 28 people last year, said they were happy to be returning home after so many years.
One soldier, who asked to remain anonymous, said he didn’t want to see further bloodshed between the Thai and Cambodian militaries.
“I am very happy with the withdrawal. I will see my wife and children,” he said.
“I don’t want war, we want to have peace. I want to go back and farm my land.”
Pullback
Suos Yara, a Cambodian official in charge of the ceasefire, said 485 Cambodian troops had been redeployed from four separate locations near the border.
In their stead, authorities will deploy about 300 police and guards to protect the temple site, he said.
Cambodia will continue to administer the thousand-year-old Hindu temple, which the ICJ awarded to Cambodia in a ruling in 1962.
The two sides have exchanged several rounds of fire since 2008, when the temple, located atop a cliff in the Dangrek Mountains, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Tensions have eased over the past year with the installation of a new Thai government that is more sympathetic to Cambodia, but both countries still have disputing claims to the 4.6 square kilometers (1.8 square miles) of land around the temple.
Reported by Hang Sayvouth for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Cambodia and Thailand on Wednesday withdrew troops from a disputed area near an ancient temple on their border which had been the site of deadly cross-border clashes, honoring a ruling handed down by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) a year ago.
The troops had been stationed along the border near Preah Vihear Temple for more than four years.
Cambodia’s Defense Minister Tea Banh presided over a redeployment ceremony near the temple, saying that nearly 500 soldiers had worked hard to protect Cambodian sovereignty and that their withdrawal from the demilitarized zone showed that the country respected the ICJ’s decision of July last year.
“We are the owner [of the temple area],” Tea Banh said.
“We have the duty to protect our heritage and we have complied with the court order.”
Thailand’s Defense Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat traveled to the Thai side of the border to take part in the country's own ceremony marking the withdrawal of an unknown number of troops.
On July 18, 2011 the ICJ created a 17 square kilometer (6.6 square mile) Provisional Demilitarized Zone (PDZ) around the temple and ordered the removal of Cambodian and Thai troops.
Cambodian troops stationed at the border, where fighting killed 28 people last year, said they were happy to be returning home after so many years.
One soldier, who asked to remain anonymous, said he didn’t want to see further bloodshed between the Thai and Cambodian militaries.
“I am very happy with the withdrawal. I will see my wife and children,” he said.
“I don’t want war, we want to have peace. I want to go back and farm my land.”
Pullback
Suos Yara, a Cambodian official in charge of the ceasefire, said 485 Cambodian troops had been redeployed from four separate locations near the border.
In their stead, authorities will deploy about 300 police and guards to protect the temple site, he said.
Cambodia will continue to administer the thousand-year-old Hindu temple, which the ICJ awarded to Cambodia in a ruling in 1962.
The two sides have exchanged several rounds of fire since 2008, when the temple, located atop a cliff in the Dangrek Mountains, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Tensions have eased over the past year with the installation of a new Thai government that is more sympathetic to Cambodia, but both countries still have disputing claims to the 4.6 square kilometers (1.8 square miles) of land around the temple.
Reported by Hang Sayvouth for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Schools Closed Over Virus Fears
Schools Closed Over Virus Fears:
Cambodia closed all kindergarten and primary schools nationwide on Wednesday to check the spread of a deadly virus that causes a severe form of hand, foot, and mouth disease, principals and officials said.
The Education Ministry issued a statement saying the schools would get an early start to the scheduled July 31 vacation, without giving a reason except to say Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered them shut.
But school principals said the closures were intended to prevent infected students from spreading the disease, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) has killed at least 55 children among 61 reported infections in the country since April.
In the capital Phnom Penh, students were dismissed two hours into their classes on Wednesday, with some students and parents left not knowing why.
One mother, Khat Oum, said she was not aware of the reason for the early dismissal when she came to pick her second-grader up from the Boeung Trabet primary school.
“I will respect the ministry’s order, but if they would allow my child to study, I would have my child stay,” she said.
One 10-year-old boy outside the school said teachers wouldn’t say why the vacation was starting unexpectedly.
“My teacher said school will be closed through August. My teacher didn’t say the reason but that he would tell me after I return,” he said.
Under control
The WHO said Wednesday it had not recommended school closures and was concerned they could cause panic, according to the Reuters news agency.
A spokesman said the disease was under control in the country and no new cases were reported.
The spate of children’s deaths had sparked fears of a “mystery” illness until the WHO and the Ministry of Health said last Monday that most of the victims had tested positive for a lethal strain of Enterovirus-71 (EV-71), which causes the disease.
The victims were between three months and 11 years old, with most under three years of age.
Chan Sophea, director of the Ministry of Education’s primary schools department, refused to comment on the reason for the early dismissal.
“I only authorized to issue a statement allowing students to begin the break early,” he said, adding that the early vacation would post little harm because most schools have already completed the year’s curriculum.
But another Ministry of Education official who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity said the closures, which affect tens of thousands of students, were to prevent an epidemic.
“[W]e are working to make sure that children would not be infected,” he said.
EV-71, which is fairly common in Asia, is contagious and spread from person to person by direct contact with most bodily fluids.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease mainly occurs in children under 10 years of age, in particular those under five years.
Symptoms generally include fever, painful sores in the mouth, and a rash with blisters on the hands, feet, and buttocks.
There is no specific treatment available, but the illness is typically mild and most children recover quickly.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease has spread through the Asian region recently, sickening more than 110,000 and killing 166 in neighboring Vietnam last year and killing more than 240 in China this year.
Reported by So Chivi for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Cambodia closed all kindergarten and primary schools nationwide on Wednesday to check the spread of a deadly virus that causes a severe form of hand, foot, and mouth disease, principals and officials said.
The Education Ministry issued a statement saying the schools would get an early start to the scheduled July 31 vacation, without giving a reason except to say Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered them shut.
But school principals said the closures were intended to prevent infected students from spreading the disease, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) has killed at least 55 children among 61 reported infections in the country since April.
In the capital Phnom Penh, students were dismissed two hours into their classes on Wednesday, with some students and parents left not knowing why.
One mother, Khat Oum, said she was not aware of the reason for the early dismissal when she came to pick her second-grader up from the Boeung Trabet primary school.
“I will respect the ministry’s order, but if they would allow my child to study, I would have my child stay,” she said.
One 10-year-old boy outside the school said teachers wouldn’t say why the vacation was starting unexpectedly.
“My teacher said school will be closed through August. My teacher didn’t say the reason but that he would tell me after I return,” he said.
Under control
The WHO said Wednesday it had not recommended school closures and was concerned they could cause panic, according to the Reuters news agency.
A spokesman said the disease was under control in the country and no new cases were reported.
The spate of children’s deaths had sparked fears of a “mystery” illness until the WHO and the Ministry of Health said last Monday that most of the victims had tested positive for a lethal strain of Enterovirus-71 (EV-71), which causes the disease.
The victims were between three months and 11 years old, with most under three years of age.
Chan Sophea, director of the Ministry of Education’s primary schools department, refused to comment on the reason for the early dismissal.
“I only authorized to issue a statement allowing students to begin the break early,” he said, adding that the early vacation would post little harm because most schools have already completed the year’s curriculum.
But another Ministry of Education official who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity said the closures, which affect tens of thousands of students, were to prevent an epidemic.
“[W]e are working to make sure that children would not be infected,” he said.
EV-71, which is fairly common in Asia, is contagious and spread from person to person by direct contact with most bodily fluids.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease mainly occurs in children under 10 years of age, in particular those under five years.
Symptoms generally include fever, painful sores in the mouth, and a rash with blisters on the hands, feet, and buttocks.
There is no specific treatment available, but the illness is typically mild and most children recover quickly.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease has spread through the Asian region recently, sickening more than 110,000 and killing 166 in neighboring Vietnam last year and killing more than 240 in China this year.
Reported by So Chivi for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Power Struggle in North Korea?
Power Struggle in North Korea?:
Seven months after the death of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Il, a power struggle appears to be taking place in Pyongyang, reigniting concerns about the future of the nuclear-armed regime.
Indications of a scramble for power stemmed from the abrupt removal at the weekend of North Korea's veteran military chief Ri Yong Ho and the subsequent promotion of a relatively new general, Hyon Yong Chol, to become a vice marshal in the 1.2 million strong Korean People's Army, among the world's largest.
And Kim's successor son Kim Jong Un, already the supreme military commander, was on Wednesday made marshal in a move clearly seen as aimed at beefing up his authority over the military and tightening his grip on power.
While Ri's dismissal, decided at a rare weekend meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, is the first purge of a senior figure since Kim Jong Un assumed full power last April, it is less clear who stands to gain from the move or whether it would trigger more changes.
This is making Western powers uneasy again about the transition of power in one of the world's most reclusive nations following the December death of Kim Jong Il after 17 years at the helm.
"The uncertainties over the structure and stability of the North Korean leadership is worrisome to the U.S. and its allies because we don't know how secure the regime is—whether there is a power struggle going on and how that will play out with regards to North Korea policy," Bruce Klingner, a former chief of the CIA's Korea branch, told RFA.
"It could leave North Korea to be even more volatile and provocative than in the past," warned Klingner, now a Northeast Asia expert at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.
Further changes in the political and military leadership are "very possible," he said, citing reports that during the past two years, more than 200 North Korean officials have been removed from office.
Some analysts wonder why Ri was ousted when he was among the closest of officials to Kim Jong Un and was appointed by the new leader's father as the apparent guardian of a plan to implement a transition to a third generation of Kim's family leadership.
The 69-year-old Ri had backed and nurtured the junior Kim since his father's death and was among a select few party and military cadres who accompanied him when he walked alongside the hearse carrying Kim Jong Il.
"For the Workers Party senior leadership to have had to meet on a Sunday in order to review the situation suggests that something highly unusual was going on in here," Evans Revere, a former top Asia diplomat at the U.S. State Department with extensive experience in negotiations with North Korea, told RFA.
It may be an indication that Kim Jong Un, in his late 20's, feels confident enough about his control over the military and other institutions that he is now able to make some very significant changes, said Revere, now an expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
The announcement on Ri's dismissal was made by the two key organs that the young Kim is head of—the Workers Party's Central Military Commission and the National Defense Commission.
"I think it is fairly easy to see this as a manifestation of his exercising of his power over appointment and dismissal," Revere said.
The official announcement cited "illness" as the reason for Ri's removal, but he was seen with Kim and senior military officials paying tribute to North Korean founder Kim Il Sung just a week before—on the July 8 anniversary of his death in 1994.
It is highly unusual for anybody in the hierarchy in North Korea to be removed for health reasons.
Ri's removal invites new scrutiny of North Korean leadership stability and cohesiveness, and once again raises uncertainty regarding the future of the regime, said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
"If the guardian of the succession and one of Kim Jong Il's eight pallbearers can be removed exactly one week after having joined top luminaries in a ceremony on the anniversary of Kim Il Sung's death and after having accompanied Kim Jong Un on at least half of his public appearances since his father's death almost seven months ago, who else among Ri's support network might be at risk?" Snyder asked.
"Is the purge of Ri Yong Ho the beginning of the end of stability in North Korea or is it the end of the beginning [a sign that power has been consolidated, at least for the time being]," he further asked.
Snyder warned that if Ri's removal sparked new challenges or incites rivalries at the top of the North Korean leadership, the country may become a truly volatile and unpredictable source of instability at a time when election-focused South Korea and the United States can least afford a North Korean crisis.
If Ri's ouster is an indication of a more confident and more secure Kim Jong Un being able to purge even those from the inner most circle of power in order to further consolidate his rule, it could also signal that the old guard is pushing back against the inexperienced Kim, Klingner noted.
Ri seems to have had a foot in many camps.
He was a member of the old guard, having been appointed by Kim Jong Il, and was both a military and political figure, having been the chief of the general staff of the army but also a member of the Presidium of the Politburo of the Workers Party Central Committee and a vice chairman of the
Central Military Commission.
It is likely that Vice Marshal Hyon, a little-known career military officer, will eventually take over all of Ri posts as he takes on a higher profile.
"He's come out of nowhere, but interestingly enough he was the commander of the KPA's [Korea People's Army's] Eighth Army, which would put him in charge of some of the border areas of North Korea during a period in which North Korea has been cracking down on bribery and on people trying to escape from the north into China," Revere said.
"To me that might suggest that he is not necessarily a soft-liner himself."
But Revere and other experts do not see the changes announced so far bringing about much-needed policy reforms.
Some take Kim Jong Un's growing-up years in Switzerland, as well as his more recent watching of a show of Walt Disney characters in Pyongyang, as indicative of his desire to implement reforms.
"Brutal dictators can like Western culture but it doesn't mean that their policies will be any more benevolent," Klingner said.
"We need to remember that Kim Jong Il as well as Joseph Stalin liked Western movies."
Revere also said that there was no evidence to support any notion that North Korea, as a result of the announced changes, will head in a different or better direction.
"So far, we have seen more of the same, and I think it is unfortunate, but there you have it," he said.
North Korean leaders realize that change is necessary and has to happen, but they also know that the very change that may happen could undermine the stability of the regime by removing its ability to strictly control everything in the country, Revere said.
"That's the conundrum that they face."
Seven months after the death of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Il, a power struggle appears to be taking place in Pyongyang, reigniting concerns about the future of the nuclear-armed regime.
Indications of a scramble for power stemmed from the abrupt removal at the weekend of North Korea's veteran military chief Ri Yong Ho and the subsequent promotion of a relatively new general, Hyon Yong Chol, to become a vice marshal in the 1.2 million strong Korean People's Army, among the world's largest.
And Kim's successor son Kim Jong Un, already the supreme military commander, was on Wednesday made marshal in a move clearly seen as aimed at beefing up his authority over the military and tightening his grip on power.
While Ri's dismissal, decided at a rare weekend meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, is the first purge of a senior figure since Kim Jong Un assumed full power last April, it is less clear who stands to gain from the move or whether it would trigger more changes.
This is making Western powers uneasy again about the transition of power in one of the world's most reclusive nations following the December death of Kim Jong Il after 17 years at the helm.
"The uncertainties over the structure and stability of the North Korean leadership is worrisome to the U.S. and its allies because we don't know how secure the regime is—whether there is a power struggle going on and how that will play out with regards to North Korea policy," Bruce Klingner, a former chief of the CIA's Korea branch, told RFA.
"It could leave North Korea to be even more volatile and provocative than in the past," warned Klingner, now a Northeast Asia expert at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.
Further changes in the political and military leadership are "very possible," he said, citing reports that during the past two years, more than 200 North Korean officials have been removed from office.
Some analysts wonder why Ri was ousted when he was among the closest of officials to Kim Jong Un and was appointed by the new leader's father as the apparent guardian of a plan to implement a transition to a third generation of Kim's family leadership.
The 69-year-old Ri had backed and nurtured the junior Kim since his father's death and was among a select few party and military cadres who accompanied him when he walked alongside the hearse carrying Kim Jong Il.
"For the Workers Party senior leadership to have had to meet on a Sunday in order to review the situation suggests that something highly unusual was going on in here," Evans Revere, a former top Asia diplomat at the U.S. State Department with extensive experience in negotiations with North Korea, told RFA.
It may be an indication that Kim Jong Un, in his late 20's, feels confident enough about his control over the military and other institutions that he is now able to make some very significant changes, said Revere, now an expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
The announcement on Ri's dismissal was made by the two key organs that the young Kim is head of—the Workers Party's Central Military Commission and the National Defense Commission.
"I think it is fairly easy to see this as a manifestation of his exercising of his power over appointment and dismissal," Revere said.
The official announcement cited "illness" as the reason for Ri's removal, but he was seen with Kim and senior military officials paying tribute to North Korean founder Kim Il Sung just a week before—on the July 8 anniversary of his death in 1994.
It is highly unusual for anybody in the hierarchy in North Korea to be removed for health reasons.
Ri's removal invites new scrutiny of North Korean leadership stability and cohesiveness, and once again raises uncertainty regarding the future of the regime, said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
"If the guardian of the succession and one of Kim Jong Il's eight pallbearers can be removed exactly one week after having joined top luminaries in a ceremony on the anniversary of Kim Il Sung's death and after having accompanied Kim Jong Un on at least half of his public appearances since his father's death almost seven months ago, who else among Ri's support network might be at risk?" Snyder asked.
"Is the purge of Ri Yong Ho the beginning of the end of stability in North Korea or is it the end of the beginning [a sign that power has been consolidated, at least for the time being]," he further asked.
Snyder warned that if Ri's removal sparked new challenges or incites rivalries at the top of the North Korean leadership, the country may become a truly volatile and unpredictable source of instability at a time when election-focused South Korea and the United States can least afford a North Korean crisis.
If Ri's ouster is an indication of a more confident and more secure Kim Jong Un being able to purge even those from the inner most circle of power in order to further consolidate his rule, it could also signal that the old guard is pushing back against the inexperienced Kim, Klingner noted.
Ri seems to have had a foot in many camps.
He was a member of the old guard, having been appointed by Kim Jong Il, and was both a military and political figure, having been the chief of the general staff of the army but also a member of the Presidium of the Politburo of the Workers Party Central Committee and a vice chairman of the
Central Military Commission.
It is likely that Vice Marshal Hyon, a little-known career military officer, will eventually take over all of Ri posts as he takes on a higher profile.
"He's come out of nowhere, but interestingly enough he was the commander of the KPA's [Korea People's Army's] Eighth Army, which would put him in charge of some of the border areas of North Korea during a period in which North Korea has been cracking down on bribery and on people trying to escape from the north into China," Revere said.
"To me that might suggest that he is not necessarily a soft-liner himself."
But Revere and other experts do not see the changes announced so far bringing about much-needed policy reforms.
Some take Kim Jong Un's growing-up years in Switzerland, as well as his more recent watching of a show of Walt Disney characters in Pyongyang, as indicative of his desire to implement reforms.
"Brutal dictators can like Western culture but it doesn't mean that their policies will be any more benevolent," Klingner said.
"We need to remember that Kim Jong Il as well as Joseph Stalin liked Western movies."
Revere also said that there was no evidence to support any notion that North Korea, as a result of the announced changes, will head in a different or better direction.
"So far, we have seen more of the same, and I think it is unfortunate, but there you have it," he said.
North Korean leaders realize that change is necessary and has to happen, but they also know that the very change that may happen could undermine the stability of the regime by removing its ability to strictly control everything in the country, Revere said.
"That's the conundrum that they face."
Opposition Parties Ink Merger
Opposition Parties Ink Merger:
Leaders from the two main opposition parties in Cambodia signed an agreement Tuesday to merge their groups and to work towards the return of top opposition leader Sam Rainsy from exile ahead of the country’s 2013 general elections.
Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) president Sam Rainsy and his Human Rights Party (HRP) counterpart Kem Sokha inked the deal in the Philippine capital Manila after two days of meetings, the two groups confirmed in a joint statement detailing their intentions.
“The two parties are working to merge the two parties into one new single party. Democrats and nationalists will participate in the new party to bring about democracy and to protect national interests,” the statement read.
The SRP and HRP had tried unsuccessfully to unite over the last two years, but expressed confidence Tuesday that together they could pose a significant challenge to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
“The two parties think that regime change must be done peacefully through a free and fair election,” the statement read, adding that they would work toward making the National Election Committee (NEC), which oversees elections in the country, more independent.
The parties had previously criticized the NEC, saying its members are biased toward the ruling CPP, which has ruled the country for three decades, and which easily won the country’s commune-level elections in 2002, 2007, and 2012 amidst political violence and other problems.
The two parties also pledged to work together to guarantee the return of self-exiled party leader Sam Rainsy ahead of the parliamentary polls slated for mid-2013.
Sam Rainsy currently lives in exile in France and is facing a two-year jail sentence for uprooting markers at the border with Vietnam in 2009, if he returns. He has said that he plans to return for the elections to lead the opposition against the CPP.
The statement said the parties would call for an end to what they alleged was the Cambodian government’s use of the country’s judicial system to intimidate politicians and human rights activists.
New partnership
Later on Tuesday, during a joint video conference from Manila, Sam Rainsy told reporters that the two parties had decided to merge to “rescue” Cambodia.
“We must start our work to rescue the country because our country is being ruled by dictators,” he said, claiming that Cambodia’s current leaders had “ceded part of the country to Vietnam.”
Leaders of Vietnam and Cambodia plan to finalize the demarcation of their shared border, which would result in each side exchanging swaths of land.
Many Cambodians are wary of Vietnam’s influence over their country’s affairs.
An estimated 1.7 million people, or one in four Cambodians, died in what came to be called the “Killing Fields” after the ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. The regime was unseated when Vietnam invaded the country four years later.
Vietnam occupied the country for a decade before withdrawing its troops and signing the Paris Peace Agreement to restore sovereignty and stability to Cambodia.
Sam Rainsy went on to say that he would lead the new party as president, while Kem Sokha would act as the party’s deputy president.
He declined to provide any schedule for formally establishing the new party, though Kem Sokha said it would be “soon.”
“We are establishing a new party according to a democratic structure with legislative, executive, and judicial committees to allow for checks and balances so that other democrats will join as well,” Kem Sokha said.
Merger welcomed
The merger was praised by democracy groups on Tuesday, though more cautiously by the ruling party.
Hang Puthea, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia, called the merger “a historic event” and said that the two parties are likely to increase the number of their votes in upcoming elections.
Government spokesman and senior CPP official Phay Siphan also welcomed the merger Tuesday, but said it was unlikely that the new group would win out against the ruling party.
“Even though the two parties will merge, they can’t compete with the CPP,” he said.
The SRP and HRP attempted to merge ahead of local-level elections for commune council chiefs held last month, but were unable to decide upon common goals. The parties set the wheels in motion for a merger nearly two years ago, but had so far been unwilling to see eye-to-eye.
The SRP won 22 commune council chief positions in June’s election while the HRP won 18. The SRP holds 26 seats in the National Assembly, or parliament, compared to three HRP seats. By contrast, the CPP won an estimated 1,592 of 1,633 commune chief positions and holds 90 of 123 National Assembly seats.
Experts have said that the united parties will face difficulty in next year’s election without their leader, Sam Rainsy, heading the election campaign.
Reported by Zakariya Tin for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Leaders from the two main opposition parties in Cambodia signed an agreement Tuesday to merge their groups and to work towards the return of top opposition leader Sam Rainsy from exile ahead of the country’s 2013 general elections.
Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) president Sam Rainsy and his Human Rights Party (HRP) counterpart Kem Sokha inked the deal in the Philippine capital Manila after two days of meetings, the two groups confirmed in a joint statement detailing their intentions.
“The two parties are working to merge the two parties into one new single party. Democrats and nationalists will participate in the new party to bring about democracy and to protect national interests,” the statement read.
The SRP and HRP had tried unsuccessfully to unite over the last two years, but expressed confidence Tuesday that together they could pose a significant challenge to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
“The two parties think that regime change must be done peacefully through a free and fair election,” the statement read, adding that they would work toward making the National Election Committee (NEC), which oversees elections in the country, more independent.
The parties had previously criticized the NEC, saying its members are biased toward the ruling CPP, which has ruled the country for three decades, and which easily won the country’s commune-level elections in 2002, 2007, and 2012 amidst political violence and other problems.
The two parties also pledged to work together to guarantee the return of self-exiled party leader Sam Rainsy ahead of the parliamentary polls slated for mid-2013.
Sam Rainsy currently lives in exile in France and is facing a two-year jail sentence for uprooting markers at the border with Vietnam in 2009, if he returns. He has said that he plans to return for the elections to lead the opposition against the CPP.
The statement said the parties would call for an end to what they alleged was the Cambodian government’s use of the country’s judicial system to intimidate politicians and human rights activists.
New partnership
Later on Tuesday, during a joint video conference from Manila, Sam Rainsy told reporters that the two parties had decided to merge to “rescue” Cambodia.
“We must start our work to rescue the country because our country is being ruled by dictators,” he said, claiming that Cambodia’s current leaders had “ceded part of the country to Vietnam.”
Leaders of Vietnam and Cambodia plan to finalize the demarcation of their shared border, which would result in each side exchanging swaths of land.
Many Cambodians are wary of Vietnam’s influence over their country’s affairs.
An estimated 1.7 million people, or one in four Cambodians, died in what came to be called the “Killing Fields” after the ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. The regime was unseated when Vietnam invaded the country four years later.
Vietnam occupied the country for a decade before withdrawing its troops and signing the Paris Peace Agreement to restore sovereignty and stability to Cambodia.
Sam Rainsy went on to say that he would lead the new party as president, while Kem Sokha would act as the party’s deputy president.
He declined to provide any schedule for formally establishing the new party, though Kem Sokha said it would be “soon.”
“We are establishing a new party according to a democratic structure with legislative, executive, and judicial committees to allow for checks and balances so that other democrats will join as well,” Kem Sokha said.
Merger welcomed
The merger was praised by democracy groups on Tuesday, though more cautiously by the ruling party.
Hang Puthea, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia, called the merger “a historic event” and said that the two parties are likely to increase the number of their votes in upcoming elections.
Government spokesman and senior CPP official Phay Siphan also welcomed the merger Tuesday, but said it was unlikely that the new group would win out against the ruling party.
“Even though the two parties will merge, they can’t compete with the CPP,” he said.
The SRP and HRP attempted to merge ahead of local-level elections for commune council chiefs held last month, but were unable to decide upon common goals. The parties set the wheels in motion for a merger nearly two years ago, but had so far been unwilling to see eye-to-eye.
The SRP won 22 commune council chief positions in June’s election while the HRP won 18. The SRP holds 26 seats in the National Assembly, or parliament, compared to three HRP seats. By contrast, the CPP won an estimated 1,592 of 1,633 commune chief positions and holds 90 of 123 National Assembly seats.
Experts have said that the united parties will face difficulty in next year’s election without their leader, Sam Rainsy, heading the election campaign.
Reported by Zakariya Tin for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Jul 16, 2012
Measuring the Effects of Voter Identification Laws
Measuring the Effects of Voter Identification Laws: Stricter laws, like those that require photo identification, do seem to decrease voter turnout by about 2 percent, and the effects are worse for Democrats - though not as bad as some imply.
July 16: Obama Gains Ground From Ohio Poll
July 16: Obama Gains Ground From Ohio Poll: President Obama's chances of winning the Electoral College are now listed at 68.7 percent by the forecast model, up from 67.0 percent on Saturday.
Swing-State Poll: Obama Leads By 2 Overall; Up In Ohio, Colorado And Virginia
Swing-State Poll: Obama Leads By 2 Overall; Up In Ohio, Colorado And Virginia: 
President Barack Obama holds a slim 2-point lead over Mitt Romney in a composite poll of 12 states, including narrow leads in Ohio, Colorado and Virginia.
The latest Purple Strategies poll released Monday shows Obama leading Romney, 48 percent to 46 percent, among a combined sample of likely voters in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. The cumulative results show Obama's lead unchanged from the previous Purple Strategies poll in June, in which Obama also led Romney 48 percent to 46 percent.
Among the state-specific samples, Obama leads by 3 points in Ohio, 2 points in Virginia and 1 point in Colorado. Romney leads in Florida, 48 percent to 45 percent. The poll confirms two of the 2012 campaign prevailing truisms: The presidential race will be extremely close, and the outcome may be contingent on voters' impression of the national economy.
From Purple Strategies:
Obama, 4% favor Romney. And among those who say it is getting worse, Romney leads Obama 84% to 7%. Indeed, this question is now more predictive of vote choice than any other question we ask -- including partisanship.
Each candidate faces his own unique political liability. Obama nurses tepid approval ratings in Ohio, Colorado, Virginia and Florida. His negative 46-49 percent job rating in Ohio is the best of the four states. Romney, meanwhile, continues to be vexed by a personality problem. In Ohio and Colorado, his favorability rating stands at an anemic 37 percent, while at least 50 percent of likely voters in each state have an unfavorable view of Romney.
Purple Strategies conducted its poll July 9-13 using automated telephone interviews with a combined sample of 2,412 likely voters in 12 swing states. The margin of error is 1.6 percentage points.
President Barack Obama holds a slim 2-point lead over Mitt Romney in a composite poll of 12 states, including narrow leads in Ohio, Colorado and Virginia.
The latest Purple Strategies poll released Monday shows Obama leading Romney, 48 percent to 46 percent, among a combined sample of likely voters in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. The cumulative results show Obama's lead unchanged from the previous Purple Strategies poll in June, in which Obama also led Romney 48 percent to 46 percent.
Among the state-specific samples, Obama leads by 3 points in Ohio, 2 points in Virginia and 1 point in Colorado. Romney leads in Florida, 48 percent to 45 percent. The poll confirms two of the 2012 campaign prevailing truisms: The presidential race will be extremely close, and the outcome may be contingent on voters' impression of the national economy.
From Purple Strategies:
Voters' concerns about the economy continue to loom large, and their outlook is becoming gloomier. Just 28% of voters believe that the economy is getting better, a decline of 8 points from April. Forty-two percent (42%) believe that the economy is getting worse, up 7 points from April.The impact of voters' perception of the economy on their presidential choice is dramatic. Among those who believe the economy is getting better, 93% support
Obama, 4% favor Romney. And among those who say it is getting worse, Romney leads Obama 84% to 7%. Indeed, this question is now more predictive of vote choice than any other question we ask -- including partisanship.
Each candidate faces his own unique political liability. Obama nurses tepid approval ratings in Ohio, Colorado, Virginia and Florida. His negative 46-49 percent job rating in Ohio is the best of the four states. Romney, meanwhile, continues to be vexed by a personality problem. In Ohio and Colorado, his favorability rating stands at an anemic 37 percent, while at least 50 percent of likely voters in each state have an unfavorable view of Romney.
Purple Strategies conducted its poll July 9-13 using automated telephone interviews with a combined sample of 2,412 likely voters in 12 swing states. The margin of error is 1.6 percentage points.
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In Mongolia’s Boom Town, Hope and Fear
In Mongolia’s Boom Town, Hope and Fear: Development of its mining sector has brought new wealth to this remote, landlocked country, but also concerns about corruption and materialism.
The Challenge of Making Friends as an Adult
The Challenge of Making Friends as an Adult: The period for making B.F.F.’s, the way you did in your teens or early 20s, is pretty much over. It’s time to resign yourself to situational adult friends.
Lens Blog: Gordon Parks's Alternative Civil Rights Photographs
Lens Blog: Gordon Parks's Alternative Civil Rights Photographs: Gordon Parks's photographs of blacks in the South at the height of the Jim Crow era showed African-Americans living "in a complete universe." Many, however, were unpublished or unseen until now.
Yale-Singapore Venture to Forbid Political Protest
Yale-Singapore Venture to Forbid Political Protest: As Yale breaks ground for its joint venture with the National University of Singapore, critics are increasingly concerned about students' rights on the new campus.
Republicans Turn Against John Roberts, U.S. Supreme Court
Republicans Turn Against John Roberts, U.S. Supreme Court: Republicans have significantly more negative views of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and the court itself after the recent ruling on the U.S. healthcare law. Democrats are now more positive about both.
Official legal translation services required | East Timor Law and ...
Official legal translation services required | East Timor Law and ...: East Timor Legal News 16 July 2012 Source: The Dili Weekly 16 July 2012 14:37 Written by Venidora Oliveira - Fundasaun Mahein (FM) suggest the new Government create a Legal Translation Department in order to ensure ...
East Timor peaceful after weekend's violence, says UN | East Timor ...
East Timor peaceful after weekend's violence, says UN | East Timor ...: East Timor Legal News 16 July 2012 Source: Radio Australia 16 July 2012, 14:37 AEST - There have been reports of violence over the weekend in East Timor, as the Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao announced he'll be ...
In Syria, an oasis from the war
In Syria, an oasis from the war:
The flag of the revolution flies high above this prosperous town in southwestern Syria. Each week, thousands take to the streets to demonstrate peacefully. Rebels roam freely — but without weapons.
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost control of Yabrud. But unlike Homs, Hama and countless other places where pro-Assad forces have unleashed furious assaults to keep their grip amid a 16-month-long rebellion, Yabrud appears to have been given up to the rebels. Here, at least for the time being, the revolution has been won. And it was won without a fight.
Read full article >>
The flag of the revolution flies high above this prosperous town in southwestern Syria. Each week, thousands take to the streets to demonstrate peacefully. Rebels roam freely — but without weapons.
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost control of Yabrud. But unlike Homs, Hama and countless other places where pro-Assad forces have unleashed furious assaults to keep their grip amid a 16-month-long rebellion, Yabrud appears to have been given up to the rebels. Here, at least for the time being, the revolution has been won. And it was won without a fight.
Read full article >>
YouTube is an important source of video news, says new report
YouTube is an important source of video news, says new report:
One of the world’s biggest and most important video news organizations employs no reporters or anchormen, owns no satellite trucks and doesn’t even report the news itself.
In just seven years of existence, YouTube — which has made viral sensations out of cute baby videos and Justin Bieber music videos — has grown into an important source of news, drawing audiences that rival those of traditional TV news networks and creating “a new kind of visual journalism,” according to a new study that assesses the site’s role as an information provider.
Read full article >>
One of the world’s biggest and most important video news organizations employs no reporters or anchormen, owns no satellite trucks and doesn’t even report the news itself.
In just seven years of existence, YouTube — which has made viral sensations out of cute baby videos and Justin Bieber music videos — has grown into an important source of news, drawing audiences that rival those of traditional TV news networks and creating “a new kind of visual journalism,” according to a new study that assesses the site’s role as an information provider.
Read full article >>
In surprise move, N. Korea strips military chief of all duties
In surprise move, N. Korea strips military chief of all duties:
BEIJING — With a terse four-paragraph statement, North Korea on Monday announced the dismissal of its top military leader, the latest in what analysts describe as a series of increasingly bold shake-ups to strengthen support for young leader Kim Jong Eun.
Read full article >>
BEIJING — With a terse four-paragraph statement, North Korea on Monday announced the dismissal of its top military leader, the latest in what analysts describe as a series of increasingly bold shake-ups to strengthen support for young leader Kim Jong Eun.
Read full article >>
Mormons, African Americans face substantial prejudice, poll finds
Mormons, African Americans face substantial prejudice, poll finds:
Substantial prejudice still exists for both Mormons and African Americans, despite shifting views on both groups since Barack Obama and Mitt Romney first ran for president four years ago.
Sizable pockets of voters say they would be uncomfortable with a close family member marrying someone who is black or Mormon, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, with Mormons facing slightly more distrust from people outside their community.
Read full article >>
Substantial prejudice still exists for both Mormons and African Americans, despite shifting views on both groups since Barack Obama and Mitt Romney first ran for president four years ago.
Sizable pockets of voters say they would be uncomfortable with a close family member marrying someone who is black or Mormon, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, with Mormons facing slightly more distrust from people outside their community.
Read full article >>
Premier Palestinian medical school graduates struggle to work in Jerusalem
Premier Palestinian medical school graduates struggle to work in Jerusalem:
JERUSALEM — Basel Nassar, a young Palestinian doctor from this city, is not allowed to practice medicine here. So instead, he flew to Houston last week to take the last phase of a licensing exam that will qualify him to work in the United States.
Read full article >>
JERUSALEM — Basel Nassar, a young Palestinian doctor from this city, is not allowed to practice medicine here. So instead, he flew to Houston last week to take the last phase of a licensing exam that will qualify him to work in the United States.
Read full article >>
IMF: China, India, other developing countries show signs of slowdown
IMF: China, India, other developing countries show signs of slowdown:
The crisis in Europe and a sluggish U.S. recovery have begun sapping growth across the rest of the world as China, India and other major developing countries join in an evolving global slowdown.
In its latest world economic projections, the International Monetary Fund sounded a newly cautious note about a situation where rounds of government stimulus spending and low interest rates have failed to take hold, and left countries with saddled with debt and other problems that give them little room to maneuver if conditions get worse.
Read full article >>
The crisis in Europe and a sluggish U.S. recovery have begun sapping growth across the rest of the world as China, India and other major developing countries join in an evolving global slowdown.
In its latest world economic projections, the International Monetary Fund sounded a newly cautious note about a situation where rounds of government stimulus spending and low interest rates have failed to take hold, and left countries with saddled with debt and other problems that give them little room to maneuver if conditions get worse.
Read full article >>
Cambodian Radio Station Chief Held
Cambodian Radio Station Chief Held:
The head of a Cambodian radio station was arrested Sunday for allegedly instigating villagers to be involved in armed clashes with security forces over a land dispute.
The government accused Mam Sonando, the director of FM station 105, also known as Beehive Radio, of orchestrating a mass occupation of land in Broma village in Kratie province’s Chhlong district that triggered a security crackdown and bloody clashes in May, officials said.
The clashes occurred after some 1,000 village families refused a government order to vacate state land they had used for farming and which activists said had been awarded as a concession to Russian firm Casotim, which plans to set up a rubber plantation.
A non-governmental organization, Association of Democrats, led by Mam Sonando, has been accused of sparking the land revolt and the ensuing clashes in which in an innocent teenage girl was fatally shot by security forces.
"This morning, at 8:58, 7 cars and [a] score of police came to arrest Mr. Mam Sonando at his residence. Please be informed about this," the radio station chief said in a brief email to RFA.
Europe
Mam Sonando, in his 60's, was in Europe when the security forces surrounded Broma village and moved to evict the villagers on May 16 in a violent crackdown. He returned home on July 12. He had earlier rejected any links to the revolt in an interview with RFA.
Prime Minister Hun Sen had last month insinuated that Mam Sonando should be arrested, saying he had been leading a "secession" plot and attempting to establish "a state within a state."
According to Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak, the Kratie provincial court issued a warrant of arrest on Mam Sonando on July 2 but it could not be served on him because he was abroad.
Human rights groups protested the arrest, saying it was politically motivated.
"It's shocking that Mam Sonando was arrested for encouraging people for the land grabbing, which is what the government claims," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"The biggest land grabber in Cambodia is the prime minister and his business cronies who are taking land from poor people all over the country. So, it's really sheer hypocrisy that this has happened."
Mam Sonando "has done nothing wrong over the years except to run a radio station that broadcasts news that sometimes the prime minister and the people around the prime minister don't like," Adams said.
Driven out
Several thousand Cambodians are driven every year from farmland or urban areas to make way for real estate developments or mining and agricultural projects, reports have said.
Economic land concessions granted to private developers have been at the root of several high-profile disputes in recent years, including in the Boeung Kak Lake and Borei Kela areas of Phnom Penh, where residents say they were forced from their homes.
Ou Virak, the president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, called Mam Sonando's arrest groundless, saying the government wants to use Sonando as a "scapegoat" over the land crisis in Kratie province.
He felt the government delayed the arrest to wait for the conclusion Friday of the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations held in Phonm Penh and attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other international dignitaries.
"I think the government waited until the ASEAN summit is over. It does not want to arrest Mr. Mam Sonando while the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top ASEAN diplomats along with many journalists are present in Cambodia," Ou Virak said.
Twice arrested
Mam Sonando has been arrested twice before.
In 2003, he was arrested and charged with giving "false" information and inciting people to "discriminate" and "commit crimes."
In 2005, he was held and charged with defamation over a radio interview that elicited criticism of Hun Sen's Cambodian border control issues with Vietnam.
Reported by Chea Sotheacheath and Vichey Anandh for RFA's Khmer service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
The head of a Cambodian radio station was arrested Sunday for allegedly instigating villagers to be involved in armed clashes with security forces over a land dispute.
The government accused Mam Sonando, the director of FM station 105, also known as Beehive Radio, of orchestrating a mass occupation of land in Broma village in Kratie province’s Chhlong district that triggered a security crackdown and bloody clashes in May, officials said.
The clashes occurred after some 1,000 village families refused a government order to vacate state land they had used for farming and which activists said had been awarded as a concession to Russian firm Casotim, which plans to set up a rubber plantation.
A non-governmental organization, Association of Democrats, led by Mam Sonando, has been accused of sparking the land revolt and the ensuing clashes in which in an innocent teenage girl was fatally shot by security forces.
"This morning, at 8:58, 7 cars and [a] score of police came to arrest Mr. Mam Sonando at his residence. Please be informed about this," the radio station chief said in a brief email to RFA.
Europe
Mam Sonando, in his 60's, was in Europe when the security forces surrounded Broma village and moved to evict the villagers on May 16 in a violent crackdown. He returned home on July 12. He had earlier rejected any links to the revolt in an interview with RFA.
Prime Minister Hun Sen had last month insinuated that Mam Sonando should be arrested, saying he had been leading a "secession" plot and attempting to establish "a state within a state."
According to Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak, the Kratie provincial court issued a warrant of arrest on Mam Sonando on July 2 but it could not be served on him because he was abroad.
Human rights groups protested the arrest, saying it was politically motivated.
"It's shocking that Mam Sonando was arrested for encouraging people for the land grabbing, which is what the government claims," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"The biggest land grabber in Cambodia is the prime minister and his business cronies who are taking land from poor people all over the country. So, it's really sheer hypocrisy that this has happened."
Mam Sonando "has done nothing wrong over the years except to run a radio station that broadcasts news that sometimes the prime minister and the people around the prime minister don't like," Adams said.
Driven out
Several thousand Cambodians are driven every year from farmland or urban areas to make way for real estate developments or mining and agricultural projects, reports have said.
Economic land concessions granted to private developers have been at the root of several high-profile disputes in recent years, including in the Boeung Kak Lake and Borei Kela areas of Phnom Penh, where residents say they were forced from their homes.
Ou Virak, the president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, called Mam Sonando's arrest groundless, saying the government wants to use Sonando as a "scapegoat" over the land crisis in Kratie province.
He felt the government delayed the arrest to wait for the conclusion Friday of the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations held in Phonm Penh and attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other international dignitaries.
"I think the government waited until the ASEAN summit is over. It does not want to arrest Mr. Mam Sonando while the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top ASEAN diplomats along with many journalists are present in Cambodia," Ou Virak said.
Twice arrested
Mam Sonando has been arrested twice before.
In 2003, he was arrested and charged with giving "false" information and inciting people to "discriminate" and "commit crimes."
In 2005, he was held and charged with defamation over a radio interview that elicited criticism of Hun Sen's Cambodian border control issues with Vietnam.
Reported by Chea Sotheacheath and Vichey Anandh for RFA's Khmer service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
Jul 15, 2012
Illegal Immigrants Slip Into Europe by Way of Greek Border
Illegal Immigrants Slip Into Europe by Way of Greek Border: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African immigrants have streamed across the 126-mile border between Turkey and Greece into the European Union, making its member countries resentful.
We see all immigrants as legal or illegal. Big mistake.
We see all immigrants as legal or illegal. Big mistake.:
Acentury ago, the immigrants from across the Atlantic included settlers and sojourners. Along with the many folks looking to make a permanent home in the United States came those who had no intention to stay, and who would make some money and then go home. Between 1908 and 1915, about 7 million people arrived while about 2 million departed. About a quarter of all Italian immigrants, for example, eventually returned to Italy for good. They even had an affectionate nickname, “uccelli di passaggio,” birds of passage.
Read full article >>
Acentury ago, the immigrants from across the Atlantic included settlers and sojourners. Along with the many folks looking to make a permanent home in the United States came those who had no intention to stay, and who would make some money and then go home. Between 1908 and 1915, about 7 million people arrived while about 2 million departed. About a quarter of all Italian immigrants, for example, eventually returned to Italy for good. They even had an affectionate nickname, “uccelli di passaggio,” birds of passage.
Read full article >>
Where Obama failed on forging peace in the Middle East
Where Obama failed on forging peace in the Middle East:
It was their first meeting with the new president, and the dozen or so Jewish leaders picked to attend had made an agreement among themselves: No arguing — either with each other or their host.
The pledge would be hard to keep.
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It was their first meeting with the new president, and the dozen or so Jewish leaders picked to attend had made an agreement among themselves: No arguing — either with each other or their host.
The pledge would be hard to keep.
Read full article >>
Wikimania hits D.C. as Wikipedia faces changes
Wikimania hits D.C. as Wikipedia faces changes:
Over 1,000 self-proclaimed Wikipedians from 87 countries descended on George Washington University’s campus to an annual meeting on all things Wikipedia. It was as if one of the site’s Talk pages — where people argue over the finer points of online articles — had come to life. Attendees in every presentation shot up their hands in the middle of speeches, eager to add their input.
Read full article >>
Over 1,000 self-proclaimed Wikipedians from 87 countries descended on George Washington University’s campus to an annual meeting on all things Wikipedia. It was as if one of the site’s Talk pages — where people argue over the finer points of online articles — had come to life. Attendees in every presentation shot up their hands in the middle of speeches, eager to add their input.
Read full article >>
Sri Lanka is descending toward dictatorship, rights activists and opposition leaders say; U.S. is determined to remain engaged
Sri Lanka is descending toward dictatorship, rights activists and opposition leaders say; U.S. is determined to remain engaged:
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The defeat of one of the world’s largest and most lethal terrorist organizations — and the end of a three-decade civil war — should have heralded a bright new dawn for the tropical Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The defeat of one of the world’s largest and most lethal terrorist organizations — and the end of a three-decade civil war — should have heralded a bright new dawn for the tropical Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka.
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Jul 14, 2012
They are just Papuans
They are just Papuans:
The statement by President Yudhoyono that recent violent incidents in Papua are ‘small-scale incidents compared to those in the Middle East’ (Jakarta Post, 12 June 2012) is worrying. The worry is not only that, by comparing Papuans and people in the Middle East in this way, he appeared to confuse his constitutional duty to protect Indonesian nationals with his role as observer of world politics. It is also because his comment suggests the president views Papuans as living ‘bare lives.’
First coined by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, a ‘bare life’ denotes a life that is limited to its biological and physiological dimensions. The term emphasises the emptiness of such life, a life that is devoid of meaning and value. Lived bare, the life of an individual is equivalent to a piece of meat. If someone destroys this life, it makes no difference because a bare life that is ended cannot be transformed into sacrifice. It has no higher meaning or significance.
Whenever a Papuan is killed in violent conflict in Papua, this attitude is on public display. Government officials proclaim their concern about ‘national integrity’ or ‘security’, in abstract and formal terms. We never, or rarely, hear them expressing sympathy for the victims, or acknowledging that their lives were valuable and dignified. Human
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Recent violence shows the authorities share a disturbing mindset about the residents of Papua
Budi Hernawan
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A student demonstration in JayapuraBudi Hernawan |
First coined by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, a ‘bare life’ denotes a life that is limited to its biological and physiological dimensions. The term emphasises the emptiness of such life, a life that is devoid of meaning and value. Lived bare, the life of an individual is equivalent to a piece of meat. If someone destroys this life, it makes no difference because a bare life that is ended cannot be transformed into sacrifice. It has no higher meaning or significance.
Whenever a Papuan is killed in violent conflict in Papua, this attitude is on public display. Government officials proclaim their concern about ‘national integrity’ or ‘security’, in abstract and formal terms. We never, or rarely, hear them expressing sympathy for the victims, or acknowledging that their lives were valuable and dignified. Human
Read more...
Women and development
Women and development:
Indonesian women have been the target of hundreds of gender-focused development programs but to what effect?
Over recent decades Indonesia’s 120 million women have been the target of a veritable barrage of gender-focused development initiatives designed to help reach the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal of achieving ‘gender equity’ by 2015. Yet as this deadline looms, has the situation for women really improved? Are women any better equipped to gain access to work, healthcare, resources or government support?
This special edition of Inside Indonesia presents a variety of views on the extent to which gender-focused initiatives have improved or otherwise changed the day-to-day lives of Indonesian women. A number of the articles focus on the gap between those women who have benefited from development and those who are left behind. Some question the rationale underpinning particular development programs or the true effect of gender-focused government initiatives on women. Others focus on the marginalised women who benefit from development initiatives and consider the ways in which this is occurring.
Rosser sets the scene, writing about how government schemes which provide maternal healthcare to low-income women fail to provide an adequate level of support. He contends that these schemes cannot be fixed with more funding alone, but that they must also concentrate on empowering the mothers they aim to help. In
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Indonesian women have been the target of hundreds of gender-focused development programs but to what effect?
Nikki Edwards
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Mixed reactions as women document a community development initiative in Bangka BelitungNikki Edwards |
This special edition of Inside Indonesia presents a variety of views on the extent to which gender-focused initiatives have improved or otherwise changed the day-to-day lives of Indonesian women. A number of the articles focus on the gap between those women who have benefited from development and those who are left behind. Some question the rationale underpinning particular development programs or the true effect of gender-focused government initiatives on women. Others focus on the marginalised women who benefit from development initiatives and consider the ways in which this is occurring.
Rosser sets the scene, writing about how government schemes which provide maternal healthcare to low-income women fail to provide an adequate level of support. He contends that these schemes cannot be fixed with more funding alone, but that they must also concentrate on empowering the mothers they aim to help. In
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Labouring for development
Labouring for development:
Working-class women, especially domestic workers, have borne much of the burden of achieving Indonesia’s middle-income country status
Their labour force participation rate may still lag well behind that of Indonesian men, but Indonesian women have increasingly made the shift from traditional forms of economic activity to waged work. At a time when the green revolution and increased mechanisation of wet rice agriculture had eliminated many of the tasks traditionally undertaken by rural women, foreign investors began establishing the factories that drew a generation of young women away from the villages into the urban industrial workforce for the first time. Although many working-class women are engaged in informal sector activities like petty trade, millions now occupy low-skilled positions in the light manufacturing industries – particularly in garments and footwear, the industries that have underpinned Indonesia’s foray into export-oriented industrialisation.
Changes in the economy as a result of the subsequent growth of tertiary industries also created new white-collar opportunities for women, who are now well represented in professional and technical occupations. Overall, in 2010, women comprised around 36 per cent of Indonesia’s workforce of almost 113 million. The percentage was much higher among the university educated in paid employment, where women account for over 46 per cent.
The experiences of working class and middle class women could not be more different. Indonesian working women of all classes
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Working-class women, especially domestic workers, have borne much of the burden of achieving Indonesia’s middle-income country status
Michele Ford
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Working-class women bear the brunt in an unequal societyMichele Ford |
Changes in the economy as a result of the subsequent growth of tertiary industries also created new white-collar opportunities for women, who are now well represented in professional and technical occupations. Overall, in 2010, women comprised around 36 per cent of Indonesia’s workforce of almost 113 million. The percentage was much higher among the university educated in paid employment, where women account for over 46 per cent.
The experiences of working class and middle class women could not be more different. Indonesian working women of all classes
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Finding ecological justice for women
Finding ecological justice for women:
As Indonesia’s rural poor are increasingly threatened by dispossession, is it time to adopt a more radical agenda for women and the environment?
During International Women’s Day this year, women representing four of Indonesia’s leading environmental and agrarian NGOs called for women across the archipelago to unite and demand a more just and environmentally sustainable economic order. In a joint statement, representatives from WALHI (the Indonesian Forum for the Environment), the Indonesian Peasants Union (SPI), Indonesian Green Union (SHI) and People's Coalition for Fisheries Justice (KIARA) argued that as women bear the brunt of environmental problems, it is women who should take the lead in preventing or solving them.
While women’s NGOs have tended to focus on issues such as health, economic empowerment and domestic violence, this statement is indicative of a new effort to link women with environmental and social justice agendas. This new alliance is inspired by the radical values of ecofeminism, according to which the exploitation of women and the environment is inextricably linked to the capitalist economic system. But at the same time this is just one of an array of competing agendas currently being promoted in Indonesia which attempt to connect women with the environment in a variety of ways.
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As Indonesia’s rural poor are increasingly threatened by dispossession, is it time to adopt a more radical agenda for women and the environment?
Rebecca Elmhirst
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Fisherwomen are hard-hit by environmental degradation in West Sumatra.Rebecca Elmhirst |
While women’s NGOs have tended to focus on issues such as health, economic empowerment and domestic violence, this statement is indicative of a new effort to link women with environmental and social justice agendas. This new alliance is inspired by the radical values of ecofeminism, according to which the exploitation of women and the environment is inextricably linked to the capitalist economic system. But at the same time this is just one of an array of competing agendas currently being promoted in Indonesia which attempt to connect women with the environment in a variety of ways.
Women and environmental crises
WALHI, SPI, SHI and KIARA’s joint statement echoes successive reports documenting how women have been disproportionately affectedRead more...
Reality or just rhetoric?
Reality or just rhetoric?:
The Indonesian government has come a long way when it comes to legislating for gender mainstreaming, but not enough has changed in terms of development practice
The term ‘gender’ has become part of the every day vocabulary of Indonesian policy-makers. But most of them don’t really know what it means. When they talk about gender mainstreaming in development, they usually mean some kind of women’s empowerment initiative. As a result, gender mainstreaming tends to be thought of in terms of programs for women. This approach results in the establishment of separate programs or a dedicated component for women in a broader project. This ‘add women and stir’ method is a long-established one in the international development community, but one whose time is long gone.
The gender mainstreaming approach recognises that both women and men benefit from the systematic inclusion of a gender perspective in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development policies and programs. In theory, it is very different from women’s empowerment programs in terms of its scope, the actors involved, and its impact. In terms of its scope, the women’s empowerment programs of the past were very much at the periphery, while gender mainstreaming is positioned at the centre. In terms of actors, all bureaucrats at
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The Indonesian government has come a long way when it comes to legislating for gender mainstreaming, but not enough has changed in terms of development practice
Nurul Ilmi Idrus
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Mostly women attend a meeting at the Bureau for the Empowerment of Women and Family PlanningKoleksi Badan Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Keluarga Berencana, Provinsi Sulawesi Selatan |
The gender mainstreaming approach recognises that both women and men benefit from the systematic inclusion of a gender perspective in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development policies and programs. In theory, it is very different from women’s empowerment programs in terms of its scope, the actors involved, and its impact. In terms of its scope, the women’s empowerment programs of the past were very much at the periphery, while gender mainstreaming is positioned at the centre. In terms of actors, all bureaucrats at
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Is state ibuism still relevant?
Is state ibuism still relevant?:
The New Order may have fallen, but women’s roles are still being manipulated for political purposes
In authoritarian contexts, the state seeks to control its subjects and deploy them to support regime goals. Indonesia’s New Order, often labelled an ‘authoritarian developmentalist’ regime, prioritised economic development. Politics was therefore seen as a risk to national stability, which the regime saw as a prerequisite for that development. Making up half of the population, women – including poor women – were depoliticised and mobilised to support the New Order’s developmentalist goals through a series of highly interventionist state institutions.
Under Suharto’s New Order, a corrupt and oppressive state therefore came to dominate all aspects of life – including the social construction of womanhood. In 1988, I wrote an MA thesis about this, called ‘State Ibuism: the Social Construction of Womanhood in New Order Indonesia’. The first gendered analysis of the New Order, the thesis was an attempt to look at the inappropriateness for poor village women of state-engineered programs imbued with middle-class values. In it, I argued that while women were not taken into account in formal politics, the social and political engineering of women was, in fact, an integral part of the New Order State’s stranglehold on Indonesian society. The dominant gender ideology defined women as wives and mothers, as epitomised in Dharma Wanita, the state-sanctioned organisation for civil servants’ wives. In the formal hierarchy of this
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The New Order may have fallen, but women’s roles are still being manipulated for political purposes
Julia Suryakusuma
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Under Suharto’s New Order, a corrupt and oppressive state therefore came to dominate all aspects of life – including the social construction of womanhood. In 1988, I wrote an MA thesis about this, called ‘State Ibuism: the Social Construction of Womanhood in New Order Indonesia’. The first gendered analysis of the New Order, the thesis was an attempt to look at the inappropriateness for poor village women of state-engineered programs imbued with middle-class values. In it, I argued that while women were not taken into account in formal politics, the social and political engineering of women was, in fact, an integral part of the New Order State’s stranglehold on Indonesian society. The dominant gender ideology defined women as wives and mothers, as epitomised in Dharma Wanita, the state-sanctioned organisation for civil servants’ wives. In the formal hierarchy of this
Read more...
Loans for change
Loans for change:
A little help can go a long way when it comes to helping poor women to get ahead
Ibu Yuliana and her family live in the rural village of Lempo in Tana Toraja. Her days remain busy even though her four adult children now live away from home. She and her husband are subsistence farmers, and grow their own rice, coffee and vegetables. They produce enough to put food on the table but seldom enough to make a profit, so they rely on their eldest son to send them money to supplement their income. Like most of Indonesia’s low income population, this means that it is almost impossible for them to save money to cover large expenditures such as education for all their children.
But things looked up for Ibu Yuliana last year when she was among a group of women who received a National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM) loan from the local government. Most micro credit programs focus on income-generating activities, but PNPM loans are very flexible. Ibu Yuliana used her share to finance home improvements and pay her three daughters’ fees at a local university. She then pays back the loan from the money she receives from her son every two months.
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A little help can go a long way when it comes to helping poor women to get ahead
Joanne Morton
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Ibu Yuliana collects cassava for breakfast every morningJoanne Morton |
But things looked up for Ibu Yuliana last year when she was among a group of women who received a National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM) loan from the local government. Most micro credit programs focus on income-generating activities, but PNPM loans are very flexible. Ibu Yuliana used her share to finance home improvements and pay her three daughters’ fees at a local university. She then pays back the loan from the money she receives from her son every two months.
The PNPM program
PNPM is a national government program that was initiated in 2007 with the aim of alleviating poverty throughRead more...
Because women deserve better
Because women deserve better:
Two non-profit organisations work together to help women headed households break out of the poverty cycle
About 9 million Indonesian households were headed by women in 2010. These households typically consist of up to six dependents and are poor, with many living below the poverty line. Female heads are between 20 to 60 years of age, and almost 40 per cent have never gone to school. These women are typically widows or have been abandoned by their husbands. With growing numbers of Indonesian men going abroad to work, some provinces have seen sharp increases in women headed households as migrant worker husbands start new families elsewhere and never return.
These Indonesian women, who are the sole providers for their families, face a range of discriminatory practices. To start with, female-headed households are not legally recognised under the 1974 Marriage Law, which states that men are heads of family. This makes it difficult for female heads to access government provisions for the poor, such as cash transfer schemes (Bantuan Langsung Tunai) or community health insurance (Jamkesmas). At the same time, expensive court fees stop women from accessing their own marriage or birth certificates, thereby preventing them from obtaining legal divorces or seeking any kind of compensation. The absence of mechanisms to assist female-headed households traps these marginalised women
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Two non-profit organisations work together to help women headed households break out of the poverty cycle
Cindy Nawilis
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A Pekka member in Lombok tests out a solar-powered light bulb for the first timeWillow Paule |
These Indonesian women, who are the sole providers for their families, face a range of discriminatory practices. To start with, female-headed households are not legally recognised under the 1974 Marriage Law, which states that men are heads of family. This makes it difficult for female heads to access government provisions for the poor, such as cash transfer schemes (Bantuan Langsung Tunai) or community health insurance (Jamkesmas). At the same time, expensive court fees stop women from accessing their own marriage or birth certificates, thereby preventing them from obtaining legal divorces or seeking any kind of compensation. The absence of mechanisms to assist female-headed households traps these marginalised women
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Unsafe motherhood
Unsafe motherhood:
For poor women in Indonesia, giving birth can be a life-threatening experience
In late November last year, according to online news service Okezone, a poor woman named Yusleni arrived at Banda Aceh Women and Children’s Hospital to give birth to her second child. She was admitted to the emergency room and given an infusion. While in the emergency room, her husband completed the necessary paperwork to register her and arrange for the birth to be covered by Jamkesmas, a national health insurance scheme for poor people that pays hospitals a much lower rate than they are able to charge other patients. About an hour later, a hospital medical officer advised them that there were no beds available and that they would have to look for another maternity hospital. With Yusleni in advanced labour, she and her sister hailed a becak and, in the middle of the night, started looking for a local midwife to deliver the baby. Barely 300 metres down the road they were forced to turn back after her sister noticed that the baby’s head was already visible. This time the hospital found her a bed in the emergency room, and took care of the remainder of the delivery. Yusleni survived the
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For poor women in Indonesia, giving birth can be a life-threatening experience
Andrew Rosser
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The cover of Eko Prasetyo's book, Poor People Are Forbidden to be Sick, captures well the challenge that poor people in Indonesia face in gaining access to health care |
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Dealing with social exclusion
Dealing with social exclusion:
Ariel is a squatter. When we met in Pademangan Timur, a sub-district of North Jakarta, I asked her if this was where she lived. ‘Yes,’ she replied with a nervous laugh, ‘but I’m actually here illegally. I’m officially registered in the legal area, but my house is over there.’ She pointed in the direction of an area commonly called Bongkaran. Today this poor neighbourhood is home to approximately 2000 people, families of both long-time city dwellers and recent immigrants.
Declaring that they live in the sub-district where they are registered is a common way for illegal squatters to circumvent government regulations. Despite what many people think, most squatters are not illegal immigrants, but people who have been living in Jakarta for decades or even generations. Upheavals in Jakarta's poor neighbourhoods mean that their inhabitants often have to move on, looking for somewhere to live where they can still get to their places of employment. In fact, the name Bongkaran derives from the Indonesian word bongkar, which means take apart or uproot. The name alludes to the place's origins, but it also foreshadows its future destruction.
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Illegal squatters in Jakarta struggle for recognition of their homes and livelihoods
Lukas Ley
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The inhabitants of Bongkaran provide a cheap labour forceLukas Ley |
Declaring that they live in the sub-district where they are registered is a common way for illegal squatters to circumvent government regulations. Despite what many people think, most squatters are not illegal immigrants, but people who have been living in Jakarta for decades or even generations. Upheavals in Jakarta's poor neighbourhoods mean that their inhabitants often have to move on, looking for somewhere to live where they can still get to their places of employment. In fact, the name Bongkaran derives from the Indonesian word bongkar, which means take apart or uproot. The name alludes to the place's origins, but it also foreshadows its future destruction.
Localised self-government
Bongkaran, which covers an area of approximately 4 hectares, emerged on land which is subject to a total ban on construction of any kind. Twelve yearsRead more...
Cuba receives first US shipment in 50 years
Cuba receives first US shipment in 50 years: Fifty-year US trade embargo on Caribbean island over ideological differences ends with delivery of humanitarian aid.
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