Nov 9, 2012
Nov 8, 2012
Four Tibetans Self-immolate in One Day
Four Tibetans Self-immolate in One Day:
Tibet pro-independence activists demonstrate in Brussels in September. (Photo: Reuters)BEIJING—Three teenage monks and a Tibetan woman set fire to themselves in the largest number of confirmed self-immolations protesting Chinese rule over the Himalayan region in a single day, a London-based rights group said.
Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said the group expects Tibetan protests to continue to escalate as the Communist Party’s congress—a weeklong conference that will unveil China’s new leaders—began Thursday.
The three monks set fire to themselves on Wednesday afternoon outside a police station in southwest Sichuan Province calling for freedom for Tibet and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, Free Tibet said in a statement. It said it was the first documented case of a triple self-immolation.
The youngest monk, identified as 15-year-old Dorjee, died at the scene and his companions, Samdup and Dorjee Kyab, both 16, were taken to a hospital by security forces and their conditions were unknown, said Free Tibet.
Then in the evening a 23-year-old Tibetan nomadic woman, Tamdin Tso, died after self-immolating in another ethnically Tibetan area in western Qinghai Province, it said. She took petrol from a motorbike and set fire to herself in the family’s winter pasture near Tongren, a monastery town, and her body was taken back to her family’s home whether people gathered to pray, it said. She had a five-year-old son.
Since March 2011, dozens of ethnic Tibetans have self-immolated in ethnically Tibetan areas to protest what activists say is China’s heavy-handed rule over the region.
Chinese authorities routinely deny Tibetan claims of repression and have accused supporters of the Dalai Lama of encouraging the self-immolations. The Dalai Lama and representatives of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile in India say they oppose all violence.
Free Tibet said the three boys came from a village in Aba county, a region of high-altitude valleys grazed by yaks on the Tibetan plateau, and belonged to Ngoshul Monastery, which houses around 130 monks and is approximately 10 kilometers (six miles) from Ngaba town where other self-immolations have taken place.
Free Tibet said security forces had been deployed to the monastery and the nearby town of Gomang, and already heavy restrictions in Ngaba County have been intensified, with people unable to leave or enter Ngaba Town.
“In just one day, on the eve of the Communist Party Congress, four Tibetans have set fire to themselves,” Brigden said. “These protests are aimed at sending the next generation of China’s unelected regime a clear signal that Tibetans will continue to fight for their freedom despite China’s efforts to suppress and intimidate them.”
Free Tibet says over two thirds of those who have self-immolated are younger than 25 and have grown up under Chinese rule. “Their protests belie China’s propaganda that Tibetans are happy and thriving. Tibetans young and old, men and women from all walks of life across a vast area of Tibet are setting fire to themselves in protest at China’s occupation,” it said in a statement.
Calls to Aba Prefecture’s communist party propaganda department and the Qinghai provincial government’s news office rang unanswered on Thursday morning.
Tibet pro-independence activists demonstrate in Brussels in September. (Photo: Reuters)
Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said the group expects Tibetan protests to continue to escalate as the Communist Party’s congress—a weeklong conference that will unveil China’s new leaders—began Thursday.
The three monks set fire to themselves on Wednesday afternoon outside a police station in southwest Sichuan Province calling for freedom for Tibet and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, Free Tibet said in a statement. It said it was the first documented case of a triple self-immolation.
The youngest monk, identified as 15-year-old Dorjee, died at the scene and his companions, Samdup and Dorjee Kyab, both 16, were taken to a hospital by security forces and their conditions were unknown, said Free Tibet.
Then in the evening a 23-year-old Tibetan nomadic woman, Tamdin Tso, died after self-immolating in another ethnically Tibetan area in western Qinghai Province, it said. She took petrol from a motorbike and set fire to herself in the family’s winter pasture near Tongren, a monastery town, and her body was taken back to her family’s home whether people gathered to pray, it said. She had a five-year-old son.
Since March 2011, dozens of ethnic Tibetans have self-immolated in ethnically Tibetan areas to protest what activists say is China’s heavy-handed rule over the region.
Chinese authorities routinely deny Tibetan claims of repression and have accused supporters of the Dalai Lama of encouraging the self-immolations. The Dalai Lama and representatives of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile in India say they oppose all violence.
Free Tibet said the three boys came from a village in Aba county, a region of high-altitude valleys grazed by yaks on the Tibetan plateau, and belonged to Ngoshul Monastery, which houses around 130 monks and is approximately 10 kilometers (six miles) from Ngaba town where other self-immolations have taken place.
Free Tibet said security forces had been deployed to the monastery and the nearby town of Gomang, and already heavy restrictions in Ngaba County have been intensified, with people unable to leave or enter Ngaba Town.
“In just one day, on the eve of the Communist Party Congress, four Tibetans have set fire to themselves,” Brigden said. “These protests are aimed at sending the next generation of China’s unelected regime a clear signal that Tibetans will continue to fight for their freedom despite China’s efforts to suppress and intimidate them.”
Free Tibet says over two thirds of those who have self-immolated are younger than 25 and have grown up under Chinese rule. “Their protests belie China’s propaganda that Tibetans are happy and thriving. Tibetans young and old, men and women from all walks of life across a vast area of Tibet are setting fire to themselves in protest at China’s occupation,” it said in a statement.
Calls to Aba Prefecture’s communist party propaganda department and the Qinghai provincial government’s news office rang unanswered on Thursday morning.
Obama Second Term to Sustain Asia Pivot
Obama Second Term to Sustain Asia Pivot:
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama’s re-election means he can sustain the strategic shift toward the Asia-Pacific started during his first term but the attention and resources the region gets may be hostage to instability in the Middle East and budget battles in Washington.
Obama is slated to attend a summit of East Asian leaders in Cambodia this month, underscoring his commitment to the region. He could also make a side-trip to Myanmar, becoming the first US president to visit that military-dominated country to reward its democratic reforms.
Many Asian governments are likely to welcome Obama’s victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Concerned about China’s rising power and assertive behavior, they have supported the Obama administration’s “pivot” to the region as the US disentangles from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Still, they also want the US to get along with China, the hub of the Asian economy. Romney’s more confrontational stance, based on his threat to designate China as a currency manipulator, could have set back US-China relations and even sparked a trade war.
Romney’s defeat will be greeted with quiet relief in Beijing, which wants stability in its most critical bilateral relationship as it undergoes its own leadership transition that kicks off at a Communist Party Congress on Thursday.
Whether Asia policy gets the kind of attention from the US as during the first term will depend partly on who succeeds Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has made at least a dozen trips to the region and championed the view that U.S. interests lie in more ties with that booming continent. Her hard-charging top diplomat for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, is also expected to move on.
The agenda of the next secretary of state, who is yet to be named, could be at the mercy of events.
Walter Lohman, director of Asian studies at the Heritage Foundation think tank, said China is the main long-term strategic threat for the US, but the most immediate foreign policy concern is Iran’s nuclear program. A conflict there would suck up resources and could upset what the administration wants to achieve elsewhere, he said.
Fighting in neighboring Syria also shows no sign of abating. Security in Iraq remains fragile, and in Afghanistan, a withdrawal of US combat forces by 2014 leaves it vulnerable to the kind of civil war that blighted the country in the 1990s and led to a Taliban takeover.
Political problems at home could also cramp Obama’s outreach to Asia.
His most immediate domestic challenge is an impending showdown over tackling the national debt that economists say could send the world’s biggest economy back into recession.
Even before Obama gets to his second inaugural on Jan. 20, he must reach a budget deal with Republicans to prevent a combination of automatic tax increases and steep across-the-board spending cuts—dubbed a “fiscal cliff”—set to take effect in January.
That would entail nearly US $500 billion in defense spending cuts over a decade that could undermine plans to devote more military assets to the Asia-Pacific, where the increased capabilities of Chinese forces pose a growing challenge to US pre-eminence in the region.
China is already acting with growing assertiveness in the seas of East Asia.
Its territorial dispute over islands administered by US treaty ally Japan could trigger a military confrontation between Asia’s two biggest economies. This year, China has already faced down the Philippines over sovereignty of a reef in the South China Sea, where the competition among China and its neighbors for fish and potential underwater oil and gas reserves could also sow seeds of conflict.
Two years ago, Clinton announced US national interest in the peaceful resolution of South China Sea disputes. That step irked Beijing, and managing those diplomatic tensions will be of growing importance in the second term. Washington supports efforts by Southeast Asian nations to negotiate collectively with China on the disputes, but China remains reluctant to play ball.
A strident nationalistic tone in China’s state rhetoric in its dispute with Japan has fueled concerns that the Communist Party could increasingly resort to such patriotic appeals if China’s juggernaut economy slows and public dissatisfaction with the party grows further.
Obama has attempted a balancing act in relations with Beijing, seeking deeper ties and encouraging it to play by international norms to ward off the possibility of confrontation, but also stepping up trade complaints in an effort to protect the interests of US companies.
His second term is likely to see more attention on economic ties with Asia. The US will be looking to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-nation regional trade pact that excludes China. In a time of bitter partisanship in Washington, that could be an issue where Obama finds common cause with Republicans.
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama’s re-election means he can sustain the strategic shift toward the Asia-Pacific started during his first term but the attention and resources the region gets may be hostage to instability in the Middle East and budget battles in Washington.
Obama is slated to attend a summit of East Asian leaders in Cambodia this month, underscoring his commitment to the region. He could also make a side-trip to Myanmar, becoming the first US president to visit that military-dominated country to reward its democratic reforms.
Many Asian governments are likely to welcome Obama’s victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Concerned about China’s rising power and assertive behavior, they have supported the Obama administration’s “pivot” to the region as the US disentangles from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Still, they also want the US to get along with China, the hub of the Asian economy. Romney’s more confrontational stance, based on his threat to designate China as a currency manipulator, could have set back US-China relations and even sparked a trade war.
Romney’s defeat will be greeted with quiet relief in Beijing, which wants stability in its most critical bilateral relationship as it undergoes its own leadership transition that kicks off at a Communist Party Congress on Thursday.
Whether Asia policy gets the kind of attention from the US as during the first term will depend partly on who succeeds Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has made at least a dozen trips to the region and championed the view that U.S. interests lie in more ties with that booming continent. Her hard-charging top diplomat for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, is also expected to move on.
The agenda of the next secretary of state, who is yet to be named, could be at the mercy of events.
Walter Lohman, director of Asian studies at the Heritage Foundation think tank, said China is the main long-term strategic threat for the US, but the most immediate foreign policy concern is Iran’s nuclear program. A conflict there would suck up resources and could upset what the administration wants to achieve elsewhere, he said.
Fighting in neighboring Syria also shows no sign of abating. Security in Iraq remains fragile, and in Afghanistan, a withdrawal of US combat forces by 2014 leaves it vulnerable to the kind of civil war that blighted the country in the 1990s and led to a Taliban takeover.
Political problems at home could also cramp Obama’s outreach to Asia.
His most immediate domestic challenge is an impending showdown over tackling the national debt that economists say could send the world’s biggest economy back into recession.
Even before Obama gets to his second inaugural on Jan. 20, he must reach a budget deal with Republicans to prevent a combination of automatic tax increases and steep across-the-board spending cuts—dubbed a “fiscal cliff”—set to take effect in January.
That would entail nearly US $500 billion in defense spending cuts over a decade that could undermine plans to devote more military assets to the Asia-Pacific, where the increased capabilities of Chinese forces pose a growing challenge to US pre-eminence in the region.
China is already acting with growing assertiveness in the seas of East Asia.
Its territorial dispute over islands administered by US treaty ally Japan could trigger a military confrontation between Asia’s two biggest economies. This year, China has already faced down the Philippines over sovereignty of a reef in the South China Sea, where the competition among China and its neighbors for fish and potential underwater oil and gas reserves could also sow seeds of conflict.
Two years ago, Clinton announced US national interest in the peaceful resolution of South China Sea disputes. That step irked Beijing, and managing those diplomatic tensions will be of growing importance in the second term. Washington supports efforts by Southeast Asian nations to negotiate collectively with China on the disputes, but China remains reluctant to play ball.
A strident nationalistic tone in China’s state rhetoric in its dispute with Japan has fueled concerns that the Communist Party could increasingly resort to such patriotic appeals if China’s juggernaut economy slows and public dissatisfaction with the party grows further.
Obama has attempted a balancing act in relations with Beijing, seeking deeper ties and encouraging it to play by international norms to ward off the possibility of confrontation, but also stepping up trade complaints in an effort to protect the interests of US companies.
His second term is likely to see more attention on economic ties with Asia. The US will be looking to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-nation regional trade pact that excludes China. In a time of bitter partisanship in Washington, that could be an issue where Obama finds common cause with Republicans.
Purges Keep Regime Alive
Purges Keep Regime Alive: 
Unconfirmed reports in North Korea suggest that Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho, the former North Korean army chief, was a spy. They claim that he was purged after being caught trying to overthrow the state by gathering military forces. What’s more, it is said that Ri’s aides have also disappeared.
Ri’s dismissal is the latest example of quite a few conflicts and spy incidents in North Korean history.
The first person purged as a high-ranking official was probably Pak Hon Yong. In 1953, North Korea announced that the leaders of the Workers Party of South Korea (Namrodang), including Pak and another figure Yi Sung Yop, were spies working on behalf of the United States and blamed them for North Korea’s defeat in the war.
Between 1956 and 1958, officials who had participated in the anti-Japanese revolution in the coastal area of China, and those in the Soviet faction who were working abroad to build the party and the state right after liberation from Japan’s colonial rule, were purged. Their crime was that they were revisionist elements following Khrushchev, who opposed Stalin’s cult of personality.
From May of 1967 to 1969, anti-Japanese Korean resistance fighters who fought in Kim Il Sung’s army were also ousted on charges of following revisionism, feudalism, and warlordism.
In the 1970s, officials who had maintained contacts with Kim Pyong Il instead of Kim Jong Il were all eliminated. Even Kim Jong Il’s brothers had to leave the country simply because they were related to Kim.
In the early 1990s, students who were studying in Eastern European countries, especially in Russia, became the target of liquidation.
In addition, in the late 1990s, officials who had been supporting Kim Il Sung were accused of being South Korean spies and died during the interrogation. In 2010, Park Nam Gi, who was North Korea’s finance chief, was removed after being held responsible for the failure of the attempt at currency reform.
And now, while the impact of this Park incident is still lingering, the purge of Ri, who had been considered the second in the line to power, has come up.
North Korea is governed by a system of one-man rule, something unparalleled in the world. People the world over are amazed at how such a system could exist.
There are of course many reasons for how the system manages to survive but I think one of the most important reasons has to be the merciless political purges.
Park Hon Yong, who led the Workers Party of South Korea after liberation from Japan, could have become a top leader had the communist regime been established in Seoul. He also helped lead the Korean War with Kim Il Sung but in the end disappeared after becoming an enemy of Kim’s.
Other anti-Japan fighters who shed blood together with Kim Il Sung on the road to liberation were also purged when they were no longer helpful to Kim’s one-man regime.
Mun Song Sul, who was loyal to Kim Il Sung for many years, serving at the party’s central committee, also disappeared after incurring Kim Jong Il’s wrath.
Also, when a scapegoat was needed, Park Nam Gi was offered as a sacrifice.
Now this time, Ri who has greatly contributed to creating Kim Jong Un’s regime, has been labeled a spy. These men were purged not because they were spies, but because they were obstacles to maintaining the dictatorship.
In a democratic system, people with different ideas can participate in politics.
They may differ greatly or slightly in ideology. Different politicians voice different opinions and get involved in debates, and people can watch those debates and pick and choose what they like.
This system certainly costs time and money, but it is the only way to minimize human error.
North Korea has sustained its current system of leadership by victimizing many of its comrades.
But the result has been the absence of human rights and extreme poverty.
These purges will undoubtedly be re-evaluated over the course of history.
North Korean defector Kim Hyun A is the vice president of North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity in Seoul and a regular contributor to RFA.
Unconfirmed reports in North Korea suggest that Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho, the former North Korean army chief, was a spy. They claim that he was purged after being caught trying to overthrow the state by gathering military forces. What’s more, it is said that Ri’s aides have also disappeared.
Ri’s dismissal is the latest example of quite a few conflicts and spy incidents in North Korean history.
The first person purged as a high-ranking official was probably Pak Hon Yong. In 1953, North Korea announced that the leaders of the Workers Party of South Korea (Namrodang), including Pak and another figure Yi Sung Yop, were spies working on behalf of the United States and blamed them for North Korea’s defeat in the war.
Between 1956 and 1958, officials who had participated in the anti-Japanese revolution in the coastal area of China, and those in the Soviet faction who were working abroad to build the party and the state right after liberation from Japan’s colonial rule, were purged. Their crime was that they were revisionist elements following Khrushchev, who opposed Stalin’s cult of personality.
From May of 1967 to 1969, anti-Japanese Korean resistance fighters who fought in Kim Il Sung’s army were also ousted on charges of following revisionism, feudalism, and warlordism.
In the 1970s, officials who had maintained contacts with Kim Pyong Il instead of Kim Jong Il were all eliminated. Even Kim Jong Il’s brothers had to leave the country simply because they were related to Kim.
In the early 1990s, students who were studying in Eastern European countries, especially in Russia, became the target of liquidation.
In addition, in the late 1990s, officials who had been supporting Kim Il Sung were accused of being South Korean spies and died during the interrogation. In 2010, Park Nam Gi, who was North Korea’s finance chief, was removed after being held responsible for the failure of the attempt at currency reform.
And now, while the impact of this Park incident is still lingering, the purge of Ri, who had been considered the second in the line to power, has come up.
North Korea is governed by a system of one-man rule, something unparalleled in the world. People the world over are amazed at how such a system could exist.
There are of course many reasons for how the system manages to survive but I think one of the most important reasons has to be the merciless political purges.
Park Hon Yong, who led the Workers Party of South Korea after liberation from Japan, could have become a top leader had the communist regime been established in Seoul. He also helped lead the Korean War with Kim Il Sung but in the end disappeared after becoming an enemy of Kim’s.
Other anti-Japan fighters who shed blood together with Kim Il Sung on the road to liberation were also purged when they were no longer helpful to Kim’s one-man regime.
Mun Song Sul, who was loyal to Kim Il Sung for many years, serving at the party’s central committee, also disappeared after incurring Kim Jong Il’s wrath.
Also, when a scapegoat was needed, Park Nam Gi was offered as a sacrifice.
Now this time, Ri who has greatly contributed to creating Kim Jong Un’s regime, has been labeled a spy. These men were purged not because they were spies, but because they were obstacles to maintaining the dictatorship.
In a democratic system, people with different ideas can participate in politics.
They may differ greatly or slightly in ideology. Different politicians voice different opinions and get involved in debates, and people can watch those debates and pick and choose what they like.
This system certainly costs time and money, but it is the only way to minimize human error.
North Korea has sustained its current system of leadership by victimizing many of its comrades.
But the result has been the absence of human rights and extreme poverty.
These purges will undoubtedly be re-evaluated over the course of history.
North Korean defector Kim Hyun A is the vice president of North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity in Seoul and a regular contributor to RFA.
Hu Speech 'Empty' Without Reform
Hu Speech 'Empty' Without Reform: 
Chinese rights activists and political commentators dismissed outgoing president Hu Jintao's warnings about corruption in his state-of-the-nation address Thursday as nothing new, saying that any pledges of reform should be based on concrete plans with adherence to the rule of law.
In his speech to the 18th national congress that sets in motion a once-in-a-decade leadership change, Hu warned that the ruling Chinese Communist Party could be brought down by public anger over corruption, promising the Party would carry out "reform of the political structure."
But political commentators said the lip service to reform had been heard before.
"There is nothing new here; they have said all of this many times over ... including the warning about corruption bringing the Party down," said Xiao Jiansheng, editor of the state-run Hunan Daily newspaper.
He said the speech was empty in comparison with the work report delivered by late disgraced premier Zhao Ziyang to the 13th Party Congress in 1987.
"That [speech] was far more progressive, because it dealt with a division between Party and state," Xiao said. "A lot of Party committees in various organizations were abolished at that time."
"It also set up mechanisms for consultation with ordinary people and with students."
Xiao said that while Hu had also mentioned "consultation," the meaning was very far from the sense intended by Zhao, who had genuinely been working towards a change in China's political culture.
"Political reform is a core concept which inevitably will put limitations, checks and balances on power," he said. "It would also result in the protection of the rights of the individual."
'No progress'
Zhu Ruifeng, editor-in-chief of the anti-corruption website Supervision by the People, said Hu's speech had more to do with the recent ouster of former rising political star Bo Xilai and internal conflict within the Party, than with genuine anti-graft measures.
"If they are serious about fighting corruption, then they need to implement the rule of law," he said.
Hong Kong political commentator Fang Dehao agreed. "There has been no progress whatsoever on political reform, and no timetable," he said. "There are no actual plans to achieve it, other than an idea in principle."
Fang said that moves to include more grass-roots delegates in China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), amounted to no more than internal Party housekeeping.
"Under the current system, the delegates selected for the NPC are unable to act as genuine representatives of the people," he said.
'A joke'
Beijing-based veteran journalist Gao Yu said Hu's speech was "a joke."
"These guys have been in power for a decade, under the leadership of the Party, and corruption is far worse now than it was 10 years ago, let alone during the 1989 pro-democracy movement," she said.
"It's far worse than during the administration of Jiang Zemin, and they've been focusing on this, focusing on that, on improving the quality of Party members," Gao said.
"The responsibility lies with him; he's the president," she said. "Any talk of reform is in conflict with the leadership of the Party."
Gao also compared Hu's speech with that of Zhao at the 13th Party Congress.
"At the 13th Party Congress they were talking about separating Party and state, and limiting the Party's power to governing its own affairs," she said.
"The government was supposed to get more and more power, and civil groups were supposed to have the right to petition the government."
"That would be the path of reform, one step at a time," Gao said.
Protest march
Meanwhile, activists in Hong Kong marched to Beijing's liaison office in the territory to petition the government to do more to protect the rights of its citizens.
Chanting "End forced evictions!", "Protect religious freedom!" and "Release all dissidents!" among other slogans, the group also called for an end to one-party rule in China.
Hong Kong legislator and trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, who heads the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, said a failure on the part of Beijing to implement genuine political reform would have an impact on the former British colony, which was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 amid promises it would keep its traditional freedoms.
"It's not enough for Hong Kong to pursue democracy; we want China to become democratic too," Lee said. "Only then can Hong Kong's freedom and democratic way of life be guaranteed."
"We hope that the Chinese people will stand up and fight for the power that is rightfully theirs."
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service, and by Grace Kei Lai-see and Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Chinese rights activists and political commentators dismissed outgoing president Hu Jintao's warnings about corruption in his state-of-the-nation address Thursday as nothing new, saying that any pledges of reform should be based on concrete plans with adherence to the rule of law.
In his speech to the 18th national congress that sets in motion a once-in-a-decade leadership change, Hu warned that the ruling Chinese Communist Party could be brought down by public anger over corruption, promising the Party would carry out "reform of the political structure."
But political commentators said the lip service to reform had been heard before.
"There is nothing new here; they have said all of this many times over ... including the warning about corruption bringing the Party down," said Xiao Jiansheng, editor of the state-run Hunan Daily newspaper.
He said the speech was empty in comparison with the work report delivered by late disgraced premier Zhao Ziyang to the 13th Party Congress in 1987.
"That [speech] was far more progressive, because it dealt with a division between Party and state," Xiao said. "A lot of Party committees in various organizations were abolished at that time."
"It also set up mechanisms for consultation with ordinary people and with students."
Xiao said that while Hu had also mentioned "consultation," the meaning was very far from the sense intended by Zhao, who had genuinely been working towards a change in China's political culture.
"Political reform is a core concept which inevitably will put limitations, checks and balances on power," he said. "It would also result in the protection of the rights of the individual."
'No progress'
Zhu Ruifeng, editor-in-chief of the anti-corruption website Supervision by the People, said Hu's speech had more to do with the recent ouster of former rising political star Bo Xilai and internal conflict within the Party, than with genuine anti-graft measures.
"If they are serious about fighting corruption, then they need to implement the rule of law," he said.
Hong Kong political commentator Fang Dehao agreed. "There has been no progress whatsoever on political reform, and no timetable," he said. "There are no actual plans to achieve it, other than an idea in principle."
Fang said that moves to include more grass-roots delegates in China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), amounted to no more than internal Party housekeeping.
"Under the current system, the delegates selected for the NPC are unable to act as genuine representatives of the people," he said.
'A joke'
Beijing-based veteran journalist Gao Yu said Hu's speech was "a joke."
"These guys have been in power for a decade, under the leadership of the Party, and corruption is far worse now than it was 10 years ago, let alone during the 1989 pro-democracy movement," she said.
"It's far worse than during the administration of Jiang Zemin, and they've been focusing on this, focusing on that, on improving the quality of Party members," Gao said.
"The responsibility lies with him; he's the president," she said. "Any talk of reform is in conflict with the leadership of the Party."
Gao also compared Hu's speech with that of Zhao at the 13th Party Congress.
"At the 13th Party Congress they were talking about separating Party and state, and limiting the Party's power to governing its own affairs," she said.
"The government was supposed to get more and more power, and civil groups were supposed to have the right to petition the government."
"That would be the path of reform, one step at a time," Gao said.
Protest march
Meanwhile, activists in Hong Kong marched to Beijing's liaison office in the territory to petition the government to do more to protect the rights of its citizens.
Chanting "End forced evictions!", "Protect religious freedom!" and "Release all dissidents!" among other slogans, the group also called for an end to one-party rule in China.
Hong Kong legislator and trade unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, who heads the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, said a failure on the part of Beijing to implement genuine political reform would have an impact on the former British colony, which was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 amid promises it would keep its traditional freedoms.
"It's not enough for Hong Kong to pursue democracy; we want China to become democratic too," Lee said. "Only then can Hong Kong's freedom and democratic way of life be guaranteed."
"We hope that the Chinese people will stand up and fight for the power that is rightfully theirs."
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service, and by Grace Kei Lai-see and Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Troop Buildup After New Burning
Troop Buildup After New Burning: 
Chinese paramilitary forces are pouring into a restive Tibetan county in Gansu province where thousands of Tibetan villagers have converged following a new fatal self-immolation protest against Chinese rule on Thursday, sources said.
The burning was the third in the county in the last week and the sixth in Tibetan-populated areas over the last two days.
Kalsang Jinpa, 18, set himself ablaze at around 4:00 p.m. at Dolma Square in front of the Rongwo monastery in Rebgong (in Chinese, Tongren) county, Tibetan sources said amid concerns over possible clashes between security forces and Tibetan villagers.
“As he burned, he shouted slogans calling for the return to Tibet of [exiled spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama, and he died at the scene,” Shawo Dorje, a Tibetan living in exile in Switzerland said, citing contacts in the region.
“Immediately afterward, around 5,000 Tibetans assembled at Dolma Square and shouted slogans such as ‘Long live the Dalai Lama!’ and then took Kalsang Jinpa’s body to the Dongya-la funeral ground for cremation,” said Dorje Wangchuk, a Tibetan living in India, also citing local sources.
Plainclothes police officers mingled with the growing crowd, and local Tibetans, fearing a possible clash with security forces, kept the gathering under control, Wangchuk said.
Party Congress
Jinpa’s protest came after a young Tibetan mother, Tamdrin Tso, 23, burned herself to death on Thursday in Rebgong while calling for the Dalai Lama’s return.
It also came four days after a Tibetan traditional artist, Dorje Lhundrub, 25, set himself ablaze in Rebgong while shouting slogans against Chinese rule.
Also on Thursday, three teenage Tibetan monks set themselves on fire in protests in Sichuan province’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture and a still unidentified Tibetan self-immolated in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Driru county.
The burnings on Wednesday and Thursday—which have raised the self-immolation total to 69 so far—come as the ruling Chinese Communist Party began holding its highly anticipated 18th Party Congress on Thursday.
The meeting is expected to endorse a once-in-a-decade national leadership transition.
'Grave concerns'
Chinese paramilitary trucks are now heading toward Kalsang Jinpa’s Dowa township in Rebgong, as more people from the town attempt to get to Rongwo, the site of Jinpa’s protest, said Stephanie Brigden, director of the London-based Free Tibet advocacy group.
“We have grave concerns for the safety of the people of Rebgong county,” Brigden said.
She noted that Chinese security forces have announced they will do “whatever it takes” to crush protests in the region while the Communist Party holds its meeting in Beijing.
“Now those same forces are being deployed in Rebgong, where thousands of Tibetans are gathered in peaceful protest,” Brigden said.
“As Congress opens, China must be held accountable for its actions in Tibet.”
Reported by Chakmo Tso, Lobsang Sherab, and Palden Gyal for RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Chinese paramilitary forces are pouring into a restive Tibetan county in Gansu province where thousands of Tibetan villagers have converged following a new fatal self-immolation protest against Chinese rule on Thursday, sources said.
The burning was the third in the county in the last week and the sixth in Tibetan-populated areas over the last two days.
Kalsang Jinpa, 18, set himself ablaze at around 4:00 p.m. at Dolma Square in front of the Rongwo monastery in Rebgong (in Chinese, Tongren) county, Tibetan sources said amid concerns over possible clashes between security forces and Tibetan villagers.
“As he burned, he shouted slogans calling for the return to Tibet of [exiled spiritual leader] the Dalai Lama, and he died at the scene,” Shawo Dorje, a Tibetan living in exile in Switzerland said, citing contacts in the region.
“Immediately afterward, around 5,000 Tibetans assembled at Dolma Square and shouted slogans such as ‘Long live the Dalai Lama!’ and then took Kalsang Jinpa’s body to the Dongya-la funeral ground for cremation,” said Dorje Wangchuk, a Tibetan living in India, also citing local sources.
An undated photo of Kalsang Jinpa.
Plainclothes police officers mingled with the growing crowd, and local Tibetans, fearing a possible clash with security forces, kept the gathering under control, Wangchuk said.
Party Congress
Jinpa’s protest came after a young Tibetan mother, Tamdrin Tso, 23, burned herself to death on Thursday in Rebgong while calling for the Dalai Lama’s return.
It also came four days after a Tibetan traditional artist, Dorje Lhundrub, 25, set himself ablaze in Rebgong while shouting slogans against Chinese rule.
Also on Thursday, three teenage Tibetan monks set themselves on fire in protests in Sichuan province’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture and a still unidentified Tibetan self-immolated in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Driru county.
The burnings on Wednesday and Thursday—which have raised the self-immolation total to 69 so far—come as the ruling Chinese Communist Party began holding its highly anticipated 18th Party Congress on Thursday.
The meeting is expected to endorse a once-in-a-decade national leadership transition.
'Grave concerns'
Chinese paramilitary trucks are now heading toward Kalsang Jinpa’s Dowa township in Rebgong, as more people from the town attempt to get to Rongwo, the site of Jinpa’s protest, said Stephanie Brigden, director of the London-based Free Tibet advocacy group.
“We have grave concerns for the safety of the people of Rebgong county,” Brigden said.
She noted that Chinese security forces have announced they will do “whatever it takes” to crush protests in the region while the Communist Party holds its meeting in Beijing.
“Now those same forces are being deployed in Rebgong, where thousands of Tibetans are gathered in peaceful protest,” Brigden said.
“As Congress opens, China must be held accountable for its actions in Tibet.”
Reported by Chakmo Tso, Lobsang Sherab, and Palden Gyal for RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Hu Warns Party Over Graft
Hu Warns Party Over Graft: 
China on Thursday set in motion a once-in-a-decade leadership transition amid dire warnings to the ruling Chinese Communist Party by outgoing president Hu Jintao on rampant official corruption, and a pledge to narrow a widening gap between rich and poor.
In a state-of-the-nation address to more than 2,000 hand-picked delegates to the 18th Party Congress, Hu said graft was "a major political issue of great concern to the people."
"Nobody is above the law," said Hu, speaking from a carefully edited script under the Party's golden hammer-and-sickle symbol and flanked by veteran revolutionaries in Mao jackets, including his still-powerful predecessor Jiang Zemin.
"If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the Party, and even cause the collapse of the Party and the fall of the state," said Hu, who is expected to step down at this Congress to be replaced by vice-president Xi Jinping.
Hu's warning comes as the Party struggles to manage a major political scandal, widespread social unrest and slowing economic growth.
As the Party reels in the wake of the purge of its former political star Bo Xilai, reports of the crash of a luxury car belonging to the son of a close Hu aide, and of huge wealth connected to the families of Xi Jinping and premier Wen Jiabao have also brought its highest-ranking political elite into the spotlight.
Hu called on Party officials at all levels to "exercise strict self-discipline and strengthen education and supervision over their families and their staff."
"They should never seek any privilege," he told the Congress.
But while Hu pledged to carry out reforms to "the political structure," he ruled out any adoption of parliamentary democracy.
"We will never copy a Western political system," he said.
Fat-trimming
According to Willy Wo-lap Lam, former China editor of the South China Morning Post and author of five books on China, recent references by Hu and Wen to "political reform" in effect mean little more than some bureaucratic fat-trimming.
"This means no reforms, period," Lam said. "They may reduce the number of State Council departments."
"But these won't mean a thing to ordinary people, especially the lower classes," he added.
U.S.-based veteran dissident and rights activist Wei Jingsheng also dismissed the notion of reform, as used by China's leaders.
"Wen Jiabao has talked about reforms, but they are just lies to make people feel good," he wrote in a recent commentary on RFA's Mandarin service. "He totally lacks the courage to put them into practice; maybe he never had any intention of doing so."
"How else could he have spent a happy 10 years in office amid rampant official corruption the length and breadth of China?"
Both Hu's speech and official media coverage focused instead on the economy as the key challenge facing the new generation of Chinese leaders, with Hu pledging to build a "moderately prosperous society" by 2020.
"On the basis of making China's development much more balanced, coordinated and sustainable, we should double its 2010 GDP and per capita income for both urban and rural residents," Hu said.
The official Xinhua news agency said in an analysis that China now stood at a "critical point of restructuring."
"China's leaders will have to counter a slew of challenges lurking up ahead," it said, citing the slowing of economic growth to 7.8 percent in the first half of the year, growing "public complaints and frictions" sparked by official corruption, pollution and the widening wealth gap.
However, Shandong-based commentator Li Xiangyang said the wealth gap-, which official figures say approaches 'dangerous' levels in rural China as calculated by the Gini coefficient, is likely far worse than officials admit.
"International measures of the divide between rich and poor have shown that China's wealth divide has already crossed the line," said Li, who works for the nongovernmental pro-democracy Mr. De Research Institute in Beijing.
"The rich-poor gap will continue to exist, and will continue to worsen," Li predicted. "[This is] because of the ceaseless plunder carried out by the vested interests of those in power, so that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer."
Li's colleague at the institute, Zhang Jiankang, said that a small number of Chinese families now controlled the majority of its wealth.
"Changing this network of interconnected interests is very risky for politicians," Zhang said. "The new generation of Chinese leaders are themselves a part of this network of interest groups, and they would experience a powerful backlash if they tried to touch it."
Open letter
Activists in exile penned an open letter to China's leaders ahead of the Congress, calling for sweeping political change to do away with the current system of political and financial privilege.
"As the ruling party in China, the Communist Party has a monopoly on political power, and your Congress is not only the internal affair of a political elite," the letter said. "It will have an impact on the lives and fate of ordinary Chinese people."
"As Chinese citizens, we do not wish to be the passive recipients of politics," it said.
Nine members of China's highest decision-making body, the Politburo standing committee, are due to step down at the Congress, where 2,270 delegates begin meeting over five days to vote on their replacements, although delegates rarely vote against leadership guidelines.
Hu and Wen will retire, while Xi and vice-premier Li Keqiang, who is widely tipped to replace Wen, are expected to have a place on the new committee, which reports say could number only seven.
The Party last month expelled fallen Chinese political star Bo from its ranks following accusations of corruption and sexual misconduct, removing his parliamentary privilege and paving the way for a criminal trial.
Bo was also judged to bear "major responsibility" in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, for which his wife Gu Kailai was handed a suspended death sentence on Aug. 20.
His former police chief and right-hand man Wang Lijun was jailed for 15 years in September for "bending the law for selfish ends," "abuse of power," and "defection," after his Feb. 6 visit to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu brought the scandal to public attention.
Reported by Xin Yu and Wen Jian for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
China on Thursday set in motion a once-in-a-decade leadership transition amid dire warnings to the ruling Chinese Communist Party by outgoing president Hu Jintao on rampant official corruption, and a pledge to narrow a widening gap between rich and poor.
In a state-of-the-nation address to more than 2,000 hand-picked delegates to the 18th Party Congress, Hu said graft was "a major political issue of great concern to the people."
"Nobody is above the law," said Hu, speaking from a carefully edited script under the Party's golden hammer-and-sickle symbol and flanked by veteran revolutionaries in Mao jackets, including his still-powerful predecessor Jiang Zemin.
"If we fail to handle this issue well, it could prove fatal to the Party, and even cause the collapse of the Party and the fall of the state," said Hu, who is expected to step down at this Congress to be replaced by vice-president Xi Jinping.
Hu's warning comes as the Party struggles to manage a major political scandal, widespread social unrest and slowing economic growth.
As the Party reels in the wake of the purge of its former political star Bo Xilai, reports of the crash of a luxury car belonging to the son of a close Hu aide, and of huge wealth connected to the families of Xi Jinping and premier Wen Jiabao have also brought its highest-ranking political elite into the spotlight.
Hu called on Party officials at all levels to "exercise strict self-discipline and strengthen education and supervision over their families and their staff."
"They should never seek any privilege," he told the Congress.
But while Hu pledged to carry out reforms to "the political structure," he ruled out any adoption of parliamentary democracy.
"We will never copy a Western political system," he said.
Fat-trimming
According to Willy Wo-lap Lam, former China editor of the South China Morning Post and author of five books on China, recent references by Hu and Wen to "political reform" in effect mean little more than some bureaucratic fat-trimming.
"This means no reforms, period," Lam said. "They may reduce the number of State Council departments."
"But these won't mean a thing to ordinary people, especially the lower classes," he added.
U.S.-based veteran dissident and rights activist Wei Jingsheng also dismissed the notion of reform, as used by China's leaders.
"Wen Jiabao has talked about reforms, but they are just lies to make people feel good," he wrote in a recent commentary on RFA's Mandarin service. "He totally lacks the courage to put them into practice; maybe he never had any intention of doing so."
"How else could he have spent a happy 10 years in office amid rampant official corruption the length and breadth of China?"
Both Hu's speech and official media coverage focused instead on the economy as the key challenge facing the new generation of Chinese leaders, with Hu pledging to build a "moderately prosperous society" by 2020.
"On the basis of making China's development much more balanced, coordinated and sustainable, we should double its 2010 GDP and per capita income for both urban and rural residents," Hu said.
The official Xinhua news agency said in an analysis that China now stood at a "critical point of restructuring."
"China's leaders will have to counter a slew of challenges lurking up ahead," it said, citing the slowing of economic growth to 7.8 percent in the first half of the year, growing "public complaints and frictions" sparked by official corruption, pollution and the widening wealth gap.
However, Shandong-based commentator Li Xiangyang said the wealth gap-, which official figures say approaches 'dangerous' levels in rural China as calculated by the Gini coefficient, is likely far worse than officials admit.
"International measures of the divide between rich and poor have shown that China's wealth divide has already crossed the line," said Li, who works for the nongovernmental pro-democracy Mr. De Research Institute in Beijing.
"The rich-poor gap will continue to exist, and will continue to worsen," Li predicted. "[This is] because of the ceaseless plunder carried out by the vested interests of those in power, so that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer."
Li's colleague at the institute, Zhang Jiankang, said that a small number of Chinese families now controlled the majority of its wealth.
"Changing this network of interconnected interests is very risky for politicians," Zhang said. "The new generation of Chinese leaders are themselves a part of this network of interest groups, and they would experience a powerful backlash if they tried to touch it."
Open letter
Activists in exile penned an open letter to China's leaders ahead of the Congress, calling for sweeping political change to do away with the current system of political and financial privilege.
"As the ruling party in China, the Communist Party has a monopoly on political power, and your Congress is not only the internal affair of a political elite," the letter said. "It will have an impact on the lives and fate of ordinary Chinese people."
"As Chinese citizens, we do not wish to be the passive recipients of politics," it said.
Nine members of China's highest decision-making body, the Politburo standing committee, are due to step down at the Congress, where 2,270 delegates begin meeting over five days to vote on their replacements, although delegates rarely vote against leadership guidelines.
Hu and Wen will retire, while Xi and vice-premier Li Keqiang, who is widely tipped to replace Wen, are expected to have a place on the new committee, which reports say could number only seven.
The Party last month expelled fallen Chinese political star Bo from its ranks following accusations of corruption and sexual misconduct, removing his parliamentary privilege and paving the way for a criminal trial.
Bo was also judged to bear "major responsibility" in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, for which his wife Gu Kailai was handed a suspended death sentence on Aug. 20.
His former police chief and right-hand man Wang Lijun was jailed for 15 years in September for "bending the law for selfish ends," "abuse of power," and "defection," after his Feb. 6 visit to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu brought the scandal to public attention.
Reported by Xin Yu and Wen Jian for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Dissident’s Wife, Son ‘Disappear’
Dissident’s Wife, Son ‘Disappear’: 
The activist wife and son of ong-imprisoned and ailing prominent Inner Mongolian dissident Hada have disappeared after speaking out about official restrictions on their family, a U.S.-based rights group said Wednesday.
The U.S.-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), which monitors the human rights situation in China's northern region of Inner Mongolia, said it has lost contact with Hada’s wife Xinna and son Uiles.
They have been incommunicado for the past two weeks, with telephone calls ringing unanswered.
“Prior to their latest disappearance, Xinna and Uiles managed to get appeals out to the international community by giving interviews to several news agencies calling attention to the violation of their human rights and the authorities’ refusal to address Hada’s deteriorating health condition,” the group said.
One of the appeals included a lengthy interview with SMHRIC on Oct. 22 in which Xinna detailed Hada’s condition when she was allowed to visit him in September and restrictions authorities placed on her and Uiles.
She said that Hada, who served 15 years in jail since 1996 for "splittism" and "espionage" for his advocacy on behalf of ethnic Mongols living in China, is currently being held under extrajudicial detention at the Jinye Ecological Park in the regional capital of Hohhot and is suffering from poor health.
She also noted that authorities have threatened to arrest her if she continues to speak to foreign media.
Following the interview and other contacts with media and rights groups, calls to Xinna and Uiles have rung unanswered for the past two weeks, SMHRIC said.
Xinna and Uiles were both detained shortly before Hada’s scheduled release in December 2010, when authorities raided the family’s Mongol-language bookstore.
Xinna was held on charges of “conducting illegal business” and Uiles for alleged drug possession. The two were later released but kept under official surveillance.
Hada's uncle
Hada’s uncle, Haschuluu, told SMHRIC he has not been able to contact Xinna or Uiles for the past six months.
“My request to visit Hada has continually been denied. I have contacted the Hohhot City Public Security Bureau about the whereabouts of Xinna and Uiles. They refused to tell me about this.”
Haschuluu said that authorities had cut off his phone line and threatened to take him into custody as well.
“I urged them multiple times to restore my phone line. Not only do they continue to ignore my requests but also they threaten me with arrest and detention,” he said.
Mongols are a recognized ethnic minority in China and number around six million in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region according to government statistics.
Before his arrest Hada had founded the Mongolian Culture Rescue Committee, later known as the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance, which sought greater autonomy for ethnic Mongols in China.
His continued detention comes after large-scale protests by herders and students across the region in the summer of last year, triggered by the killing of a herdsman in a standoff with mining company staff.
Official documents described the protests by thousands of ethnic Mongolians in the region's major cities as the work of "external hostile forces."
Reported by Rachel Vandenbrink.
The activist wife and son of ong-imprisoned and ailing prominent Inner Mongolian dissident Hada have disappeared after speaking out about official restrictions on their family, a U.S.-based rights group said Wednesday.
The U.S.-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), which monitors the human rights situation in China's northern region of Inner Mongolia, said it has lost contact with Hada’s wife Xinna and son Uiles.
They have been incommunicado for the past two weeks, with telephone calls ringing unanswered.
“Prior to their latest disappearance, Xinna and Uiles managed to get appeals out to the international community by giving interviews to several news agencies calling attention to the violation of their human rights and the authorities’ refusal to address Hada’s deteriorating health condition,” the group said.
One of the appeals included a lengthy interview with SMHRIC on Oct. 22 in which Xinna detailed Hada’s condition when she was allowed to visit him in September and restrictions authorities placed on her and Uiles.
She said that Hada, who served 15 years in jail since 1996 for "splittism" and "espionage" for his advocacy on behalf of ethnic Mongols living in China, is currently being held under extrajudicial detention at the Jinye Ecological Park in the regional capital of Hohhot and is suffering from poor health.
She also noted that authorities have threatened to arrest her if she continues to speak to foreign media.
Following the interview and other contacts with media and rights groups, calls to Xinna and Uiles have rung unanswered for the past two weeks, SMHRIC said.
Xinna and Uiles were both detained shortly before Hada’s scheduled release in December 2010, when authorities raided the family’s Mongol-language bookstore.
Xinna was held on charges of “conducting illegal business” and Uiles for alleged drug possession. The two were later released but kept under official surveillance.
Hada's uncle
Hada’s uncle, Haschuluu, told SMHRIC he has not been able to contact Xinna or Uiles for the past six months.
“My request to visit Hada has continually been denied. I have contacted the Hohhot City Public Security Bureau about the whereabouts of Xinna and Uiles. They refused to tell me about this.”
Haschuluu said that authorities had cut off his phone line and threatened to take him into custody as well.
“I urged them multiple times to restore my phone line. Not only do they continue to ignore my requests but also they threaten me with arrest and detention,” he said.
Mongols are a recognized ethnic minority in China and number around six million in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region according to government statistics.
Before his arrest Hada had founded the Mongolian Culture Rescue Committee, later known as the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance, which sought greater autonomy for ethnic Mongols in China.
His continued detention comes after large-scale protests by herders and students across the region in the summer of last year, triggered by the killing of a herdsman in a standoff with mining company staff.
Official documents described the protests by thousands of ethnic Mongolians in the region's major cities as the work of "external hostile forces."
Reported by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Opposition Head Appeals Verdict
Opposition Head Appeals Verdict: 
Exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy has filed an appeal with Cambodia’s Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision finding him guilty of destroying border markings with Vietnam which he said was part of a government campaign of political persecution, according to his lawyer Wednesday.
Attorney Choung Chou Ngy said Sam Rainsy, 63, had decided to appeal because he found the verdict against him “unjust”.
Sam Rainsy is president of the National Rescue Party (NRP)—a united opposition coalition established to challenge Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) in elections next year.
The government has warned that the opposition leader, currently living in self-imposed exile in Paris, could be imprisoned for up to 11 years on his return to Cambodia following the conviction on the border issue with Vietnam and for various other offenses.
In January 2010, a lower court in eastern Cambodia’s Svay Rieng province had sentenced the opposition leader to two years in prison and fined him 8 million riels (U.S. $2,000) in absentia for removing the temporary border markings in 2009. An appeals court upheld the decision in October 2010.
He filed a complaint with the Supreme Court in March of 2011, but the court has so far failed to investigate the matter.
“Sam Rainsy wants the Supreme Court to review his case because [the ruling] was unjust,” Choung Chou Ngy said of the new motion to appeal the 2010 verdict.
Sam Rainsy has vowed to return to Cambodia by the end of the year to help lead the opposition in an effort to unseat the prime minister in next year’s polls.
Last month, Cambodia’s government effectively refused Sam Rainsy’s requests to return home to pay his last respects to the country’s former king Norodom Sihanouk, who died of a heart attack in October, drawing protests from the dissident’s supporters at home.
Obama influence
On Wednesday, government spokesman and Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said that Sam Rainsy could not expect any lenience on his sentence, despite appeals to reelected U.S. President Barack Obama to pressure Hun Sen on improving Cambodia’s rights record.
Last week, Sam Rainsy called on Obama to use his influence to end human rights abuses and ensure free and fair elections in Cambodia if he attends the East Asia Summit meeting to be hosted by the country on Nov. 18-20.
The plea followed a commentary published in The New York Times, in which the opposition leader urged the U.S. president not to attend the summit to avoid internationally legitimizing the rule of Hun Sen— the longest-serving leader in Southeast Asia.
Khieu Kanharith rejected suggestions that the U.S. would influence Cambodia into allowing Sam Rainsy to return ahead of the 2013 elections.
“U.S. President Barack Obama is not Hun Sen’s boss,” he said, adding that the government has never prevented Sam Rainsy from returning to Cambodia to face his sentence.
“I have the feeling Sam Rainsy thinks that Obama is Hun Sen’s boss.”
Last week, Council Minister Phay Siphan said the government will explain “Cambodia’s situation” to Obama during his visit—specifically focusing on Sam Rainsy’s case and adding that, according to the law, Sam Rainsy must serve his prison term.
He said that the Cambodian government has no “gift” for the reelected president “in terms of a Sam Rainsy return.”
Earlier this week, Cambodia’s National Election Committee, which oversees elections in the country, ruled in favor of a motion by Phnom Penh commune councilors to delete Sam Rainsy from voting lists, meaning he will be unable to stand as candidate or vote in 2013.
Reported by Den Ayuthya and Ke Soknorng for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy has filed an appeal with Cambodia’s Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision finding him guilty of destroying border markings with Vietnam which he said was part of a government campaign of political persecution, according to his lawyer Wednesday.
Attorney Choung Chou Ngy said Sam Rainsy, 63, had decided to appeal because he found the verdict against him “unjust”.
Sam Rainsy is president of the National Rescue Party (NRP)—a united opposition coalition established to challenge Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) in elections next year.
The government has warned that the opposition leader, currently living in self-imposed exile in Paris, could be imprisoned for up to 11 years on his return to Cambodia following the conviction on the border issue with Vietnam and for various other offenses.
In January 2010, a lower court in eastern Cambodia’s Svay Rieng province had sentenced the opposition leader to two years in prison and fined him 8 million riels (U.S. $2,000) in absentia for removing the temporary border markings in 2009. An appeals court upheld the decision in October 2010.
He filed a complaint with the Supreme Court in March of 2011, but the court has so far failed to investigate the matter.
“Sam Rainsy wants the Supreme Court to review his case because [the ruling] was unjust,” Choung Chou Ngy said of the new motion to appeal the 2010 verdict.
Sam Rainsy has vowed to return to Cambodia by the end of the year to help lead the opposition in an effort to unseat the prime minister in next year’s polls.
Last month, Cambodia’s government effectively refused Sam Rainsy’s requests to return home to pay his last respects to the country’s former king Norodom Sihanouk, who died of a heart attack in October, drawing protests from the dissident’s supporters at home.
Obama influence
On Wednesday, government spokesman and Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said that Sam Rainsy could not expect any lenience on his sentence, despite appeals to reelected U.S. President Barack Obama to pressure Hun Sen on improving Cambodia’s rights record.
Last week, Sam Rainsy called on Obama to use his influence to end human rights abuses and ensure free and fair elections in Cambodia if he attends the East Asia Summit meeting to be hosted by the country on Nov. 18-20.
The plea followed a commentary published in The New York Times, in which the opposition leader urged the U.S. president not to attend the summit to avoid internationally legitimizing the rule of Hun Sen— the longest-serving leader in Southeast Asia.
Khieu Kanharith rejected suggestions that the U.S. would influence Cambodia into allowing Sam Rainsy to return ahead of the 2013 elections.
“U.S. President Barack Obama is not Hun Sen’s boss,” he said, adding that the government has never prevented Sam Rainsy from returning to Cambodia to face his sentence.
“I have the feeling Sam Rainsy thinks that Obama is Hun Sen’s boss.”
Last week, Council Minister Phay Siphan said the government will explain “Cambodia’s situation” to Obama during his visit—specifically focusing on Sam Rainsy’s case and adding that, according to the law, Sam Rainsy must serve his prison term.
He said that the Cambodian government has no “gift” for the reelected president “in terms of a Sam Rainsy return.”
Earlier this week, Cambodia’s National Election Committee, which oversees elections in the country, ruled in favor of a motion by Phnom Penh commune councilors to delete Sam Rainsy from voting lists, meaning he will be unable to stand as candidate or vote in 2013.
Reported by Den Ayuthya and Ke Soknorng for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Ground Broken on Xayaburi
Ground Broken on Xayaburi: 
Laos held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for the Xayaburi megadam on the Mekong River despite objection to the project from environmental groups and neighboring countries.
Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad presided over a religious ceremony marking the official launch of work on the $3.5 billion hydropower dam, which has faced sharp criticism from downstream Cambodia and Vietnam.
“We had the opportunity to listen to the views and opinions of different countries along the river. We have come to an agreement and chose today to be the first day to begin the project," Somsavat Lengsavad said, according to Reuters news agency.
Senior officials from the Lao government and diplomats from Vietnam and Cambodia also attended the ceremony, according to The New York Times.
Environmental groups say the dam, the first on the main stream of the Lower Mekong, will block fish migration and sediment flow, affecting the millions of people in Southeast Asia who rely on the river’s ecosystem for their food and livelihoods.
International conservation group the World Wildlife Fund said Wednesday that “serious concerns” about “grave risks” posed by the dam remained as Laos broke ground on the project.
“If the region’s governments fail now to reaffirm their concerns on Xayaburi, they risk resting the future of the Mekong on flawed analysis and gaps in critical data that could have dire consequences for the millions of people living in the Mekong River basin,” the group’s freshwater program director Li Lifeng said in a statement.
The public launch marks the start of a stage of construction that will directly affect the Mekong riverbed, after nearly two years of preliminary construction around the dam site.
Since initial work on roads and workers’ facilities at the site began in late 2010, officials had given contradictory statements about whether or not Laos was awaiting further study and international consensus before allowing the dam project to proceed.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong denied reports that there would be a groundbreaking ceremony, telling the Wall Street Journal that the event was simply a visit for journalists and scientists and that plans for the dam are still subject to “further study.”
But a banner at Wednesday’s event described it as a groundbreaking ceremony, according to Reuters.
Protest
The event followed a two-day meeting in Vientiane of leaders from 49 countries for an Asia-Europe summit beginning Monday.
Some 250 Thai villagers representing riparian communities that will be affected by the dam protested at the summit, carrying banners and posters on a flotilla of 50 boats across from the meeting venue on the Thai side of the Mekong River where it flows past Vientiane.
The 1,200 megawatt dam is being financed by companies in Thailand, where 95 percent of the dam’s electricity will be sent, and built by the Bangkok-based Ch. Karnchang in cooperation with Laos’s Xayaburi Power Co.
Critics fear the Xayaburi project will pave the way for nearly a dozen other dams that have been proposed on the mainstream Lower Mekong, in addition to five already built on the upper part of the river in China.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental body including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam which manages development along Southeast Asia's main waterway, ruled at a meeting on the Xayaburi dam last year that there is “a need for further study on the sustainable development and management of the Mekong River including impact from mainstream hydropower development projects."
The decision followed an earlier recommendation by an expert study group for a 10-year moratorium on all mainstream Mekong dams due to a need for further research on their potentially catastrophic environmental and socioeconomic impact.
Redesign
When announcing plans for the groundbreaking ceremony this week, Lao Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Viraponh Viravong said the dam’s design had been revised and improved “to reassure neighboring countries.”
"I am very confident that we will not have any adverse impacts on the Mekong River," he told the BBC, adding that concerns had been addressed through revisions providing for fish ladders and sediment gates.
"We can sense that Vietnam and Cambodia now understand how we have addressed their concerns. We did address this properly with openness and put all our engineers at their disposal. We are convinced we are developing a very good dam," he said.
But environmental groups have said that adequate studies on dam’s impact have not been conducted and the effects on downstream communities have not been studied.
“Laos has never even collected basic information about the ways that people depend on the river, so how can it say that there will be no impacts?” Arne Trandem, the Southeast Asia program director for global conservation group International Rivers said in a statement Monday.
“None of Vietnam and Cambodia’s environmental and social concerns have been taken seriously,” she said.
“Laos said it would cooperate with neighboring countries, but this was never genuine.”
The dam has also faced sharp criticism from the U.S. State Department, which issued a statement this week criticizing the decision to move forward with the project and urging Laos to " uphold its pledge to work with its neighbors” in addressing remaining questions on the dam.
"While these are sovereign development decisions, we are concerned that construction is proceeding before impact studies have been completed," it said.
Reported by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Laos held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for the Xayaburi megadam on the Mekong River despite objection to the project from environmental groups and neighboring countries.
Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad presided over a religious ceremony marking the official launch of work on the $3.5 billion hydropower dam, which has faced sharp criticism from downstream Cambodia and Vietnam.
“We had the opportunity to listen to the views and opinions of different countries along the river. We have come to an agreement and chose today to be the first day to begin the project," Somsavat Lengsavad said, according to Reuters news agency.
Senior officials from the Lao government and diplomats from Vietnam and Cambodia also attended the ceremony, according to The New York Times.
Environmental groups say the dam, the first on the main stream of the Lower Mekong, will block fish migration and sediment flow, affecting the millions of people in Southeast Asia who rely on the river’s ecosystem for their food and livelihoods.
International conservation group the World Wildlife Fund said Wednesday that “serious concerns” about “grave risks” posed by the dam remained as Laos broke ground on the project.
“If the region’s governments fail now to reaffirm their concerns on Xayaburi, they risk resting the future of the Mekong on flawed analysis and gaps in critical data that could have dire consequences for the millions of people living in the Mekong River basin,” the group’s freshwater program director Li Lifeng said in a statement.
The public launch marks the start of a stage of construction that will directly affect the Mekong riverbed, after nearly two years of preliminary construction around the dam site.
Since initial work on roads and workers’ facilities at the site began in late 2010, officials had given contradictory statements about whether or not Laos was awaiting further study and international consensus before allowing the dam project to proceed.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong denied reports that there would be a groundbreaking ceremony, telling the Wall Street Journal that the event was simply a visit for journalists and scientists and that plans for the dam are still subject to “further study.”
But a banner at Wednesday’s event described it as a groundbreaking ceremony, according to Reuters.
Protest
The event followed a two-day meeting in Vientiane of leaders from 49 countries for an Asia-Europe summit beginning Monday.
Some 250 Thai villagers representing riparian communities that will be affected by the dam protested at the summit, carrying banners and posters on a flotilla of 50 boats across from the meeting venue on the Thai side of the Mekong River where it flows past Vientiane.
The 1,200 megawatt dam is being financed by companies in Thailand, where 95 percent of the dam’s electricity will be sent, and built by the Bangkok-based Ch. Karnchang in cooperation with Laos’s Xayaburi Power Co.
Critics fear the Xayaburi project will pave the way for nearly a dozen other dams that have been proposed on the mainstream Lower Mekong, in addition to five already built on the upper part of the river in China.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental body including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam which manages development along Southeast Asia's main waterway, ruled at a meeting on the Xayaburi dam last year that there is “a need for further study on the sustainable development and management of the Mekong River including impact from mainstream hydropower development projects."
The decision followed an earlier recommendation by an expert study group for a 10-year moratorium on all mainstream Mekong dams due to a need for further research on their potentially catastrophic environmental and socioeconomic impact.
Redesign
When announcing plans for the groundbreaking ceremony this week, Lao Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Viraponh Viravong said the dam’s design had been revised and improved “to reassure neighboring countries.”
"I am very confident that we will not have any adverse impacts on the Mekong River," he told the BBC, adding that concerns had been addressed through revisions providing for fish ladders and sediment gates.
"We can sense that Vietnam and Cambodia now understand how we have addressed their concerns. We did address this properly with openness and put all our engineers at their disposal. We are convinced we are developing a very good dam," he said.
But environmental groups have said that adequate studies on dam’s impact have not been conducted and the effects on downstream communities have not been studied.
“Laos has never even collected basic information about the ways that people depend on the river, so how can it say that there will be no impacts?” Arne Trandem, the Southeast Asia program director for global conservation group International Rivers said in a statement Monday.
“None of Vietnam and Cambodia’s environmental and social concerns have been taken seriously,” she said.
“Laos said it would cooperate with neighboring countries, but this was never genuine.”
The dam has also faced sharp criticism from the U.S. State Department, which issued a statement this week criticizing the decision to move forward with the project and urging Laos to " uphold its pledge to work with its neighbors” in addressing remaining questions on the dam.
"While these are sovereign development decisions, we are concerned that construction is proceeding before impact studies have been completed," it said.
Reported by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Nov 7, 2012
Flying with Wings Air
Flying with Wings Air:
Chris takes off with Indonesia's biggest regional airline, and is pleasantly surprised.
Wings Air is the partner airline of Indonesia's most popular airline, Lion Air. It specialises in flights to smaller airports, e.g. Labuan Bajo, Nias, Malang, Sumba and Sumbawa, Maluku and West Papua. These airports have shorter runways, so it uses smaller aircraft:
Wings Air ATR72-500, with 68 seatsWhy Propellor Planes?
Sometimes, clients are concerned about flying a plane with propellors, not jet engines. They consider it to be "old" technology, or perhaps they have never flown on a similar aircraft in their home country.
However, propellor planes (a.k.a. turboprops) are still used frequently throughout the world for shorter routes and remote locations/smaller airstrips. ATR is part-owned by EADS, the parent company of Airbus. ATR aircraft are IATA-certified and permitted to fly in EU airspace.
After an initial purchase of 30 ATR72-500 aircraft in 2009, last year Wings Air agreed to buy 30 more. At the signing ceremony in Jakarta, the purchase was witnessed by then French Finance Minister (now IMF Director) Christine Lagarde. This suggests both Wings Air and the French government are confident in the safety and reliability of the aircraft.
Other more well-known airlines that operate ATR72 aircraft include:
Smaller aircraft also have certain strategic advantages over larger aircraft. Many Indonesian airports in smaller cities have runways that are too short for larger aircraft. Building larger airports or extending runways is often not possible due to problems with land acquisition and obtaining adequate financing. This situation is unlikely to change soon.
Garuda Bombadier CRJ1000 NextGen, with 102 seatsEven Garuda Indonesia is starting to use smaller aircraft for smaller airports and shorter routes. The first of 18 Bombadier CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft recently arrived in Makassar.
Personal Experience
Of course, it is one thing to say, but another thing to do.
So, yours truly tried flying with Wings Air earlier this month (on a work trip, not a freebie).
Wings Air was recently found to have the second-best rate of on-time performance: 83.8%. Perhaps Wings Air has a slightly unfair advantage in this area. It commenced boarding at the usual time: 30 minutes before departure. However, the Wings Air plane has only 68 seats, or about half those in e.g. a Boeing 737. All passengers had boarded (even the slow ones) 15 minutes before departure, and the flight left 10 minutes early. On the return journey, the flight still departed on time even though boarding started late. The smaller plane had another fringe benefit: no queue when checking-in. As seasoned Indonesian travellers can attest, this doesn't happen often.
One different feature was having to board at the rear of the plane. The only doors at the front are the emergency exits and the cargo/baggage door. Talking about baggage, the baggage allowance is a loosely-enforced 15kg for checked baggage, 7kg for hand luggage.
In-flight comfort was better than on Lion Air planes. Legroom was adequate; every seat had an in-flight magazine and the usual items, including invocation card. The flight was quiet and smooth, apart from the occasional wobble during take-off and descent (same as for larger aircraft). Like Lion Air, there is no in-flight food or drink for free or for sale, but flights are short enough that this is not a problem. There were two air hostesses; apart from the safety demonstration, ascent and descent, they were invisible. Curiously, there were no announcements to the passengers from the pilots, so everyone was blissfully unaware about our cruising altitude, the weather at our destination, etc.
To summarise, this passenger had a positive experience flying Wings Air and would happily do so again.
Would you like to fly Wings Air? Please make an enquiry here.
Flying with Wings Air is brought to you by Indonesia Matters, where you can book flights in Indonesia, and features listings of Indonesian hotels, like Kuta hotels, Sanur hotels, hotels in Jakarta and near Jakarta airport, and more.
Chris takes off with Indonesia's biggest regional airline, and is pleasantly surprised.
Wings Air is the partner airline of Indonesia's most popular airline, Lion Air. It specialises in flights to smaller airports, e.g. Labuan Bajo, Nias, Malang, Sumba and Sumbawa, Maluku and West Papua. These airports have shorter runways, so it uses smaller aircraft:
Wings Air ATR72-500, with 68 seats
Sometimes, clients are concerned about flying a plane with propellors, not jet engines. They consider it to be "old" technology, or perhaps they have never flown on a similar aircraft in their home country.
However, propellor planes (a.k.a. turboprops) are still used frequently throughout the world for shorter routes and remote locations/smaller airstrips. ATR is part-owned by EADS, the parent company of Airbus. ATR aircraft are IATA-certified and permitted to fly in EU airspace.
Other more well-known airlines that operate ATR72 aircraft include:
Garuda Bombadier CRJ1000 NextGen, with 102 seats
Personal Experience
Of course, it is one thing to say, but another thing to do.
So, yours truly tried flying with Wings Air earlier this month (on a work trip, not a freebie).
Wings Air was recently found to have the second-best rate of on-time performance: 83.8%. Perhaps Wings Air has a slightly unfair advantage in this area. It commenced boarding at the usual time: 30 minutes before departure. However, the Wings Air plane has only 68 seats, or about half those in e.g. a Boeing 737. All passengers had boarded (even the slow ones) 15 minutes before departure, and the flight left 10 minutes early. On the return journey, the flight still departed on time even though boarding started late. The smaller plane had another fringe benefit: no queue when checking-in. As seasoned Indonesian travellers can attest, this doesn't happen often.
One different feature was having to board at the rear of the plane. The only doors at the front are the emergency exits and the cargo/baggage door. Talking about baggage, the baggage allowance is a loosely-enforced 15kg for checked baggage, 7kg for hand luggage.
In-flight comfort was better than on Lion Air planes. Legroom was adequate; every seat had an in-flight magazine and the usual items, including invocation card. The flight was quiet and smooth, apart from the occasional wobble during take-off and descent (same as for larger aircraft). Like Lion Air, there is no in-flight food or drink for free or for sale, but flights are short enough that this is not a problem. There were two air hostesses; apart from the safety demonstration, ascent and descent, they were invisible. Curiously, there were no announcements to the passengers from the pilots, so everyone was blissfully unaware about our cruising altitude, the weather at our destination, etc. To summarise, this passenger had a positive experience flying Wings Air and would happily do so again.
Would you like to fly Wings Air? Please make an enquiry here.
Flying with Wings Air is brought to you by Indonesia Matters, where you can book flights in Indonesia, and features listings of Indonesian hotels, like Kuta hotels, Sanur hotels, hotels in Jakarta and near Jakarta airport, and more.
Exit Polls Show Asian Americans Backed Obama by Wide Margin
Exit Polls Show Asian Americans Backed Obama by Wide Margin: Exit polls suggest Asian Americans overwhelmingly voted for President Barack Obama in Tuesday's election that handed the incumbent Democrat a second term in the White House.
Preliminary national exit poll data suggested that 73 percent of Asian Americans voted for President Obama, while only 26 percent supported his Republican rival, Mitt Romney.
The figures were in line with the voting decisions of other larger U.S. minority groups. Seventy-one percent of Latinos said they supported ...
Preliminary national exit poll data suggested that 73 percent of Asian Americans voted for President Obama, while only 26 percent supported his Republican rival, Mitt Romney.
The figures were in line with the voting decisions of other larger U.S. minority groups. Seventy-one percent of Latinos said they supported ...
Organs Ban Could Take Decades
Organs Ban Could Take Decades: 
China's plans to ban the use of organs harvested from executed prisoners could lead to a stronger culture of donation in the wider population, although the reform could take two decades to implement, according to a former top doctor.
Beijing will set up a national organ donation network in early 2013, according to health officials, while phasing out the use of organs from executed prisoners for transplants.
Interviewed in the World Health Organization's journal Bulletin, top health expert Wang Haibo said that Beijing acknowledges that there are ethical problems with the use of organs from executed prisoners, and that such a system isn't sustainable.
The Red Cross Society of China has run a pilot organ donation scheme over the past two years in some part of China, and the government plans to roll it out nationwide by early next year.
Wang told the journal that a consensus now exists among China’s transplant community that the system should move away from its current "reliance on organs from executed convicts."
According to Wang, who was appointed last year to lead a research center tasked with designing the organ donation network, the "old practice" will be phased out and the new system implemented at around the same time.
'Immoral'
Zeng Jun, a former doctor at Guangzhou's No. 1 People's Hospital, said he believes the use of organs from death-row prisoners is "immoral."
"I think that the decision to ban the use of organs from executed prisoners is very good progress," Zeng said.
"Ordinary people are more and more willing to donate organs, although we still have a very long way to go," he said. "I would guess it will take another 15-20 years before organ donation becomes widely accepted."
In the meantime, a shortage of legally sourced organs for transplant means that the illegal organ trade has become an open secret in today's China, with advertisements clearly visible on the Internet for people wishing to sell kidneys or livers.
Rights groups have long charged China with a deliberate policy of linking the criminal justice system and local hospitals in an attempt to meet the growing demand for transplants after Chinese hospitals became proficient at performing them in the early 1990s.
They also accuse the authorities of skipping over the question of consent, either with coerced agreements before the prisoner is executed, or simply by cremating the bodies of those executed so no evidence remains.
Waiting list
According to the government, 1.5 million patients are on the waiting list for transplant organs in China in any given year, but willing donors are very thin on the ground.
Zeng said that only 15,000 people have signed up for the Red Cross donation scheme so far, however, citing official figures.
"That's a tiny number," he said, adding that cultural beliefs about bodily integrity as a condition for admission to the afterlife often stand in the way of surgical operations, even for patients who need an organ removed.
"I have seen a lot of patients who needed an organ removed in order to stay alive, but their relatives have refused to allow the surgeons to cut away an organ," he said.
"This is because they believe that...the person's body won't be complete after death," he said. "They believe that after you die, you go to a different world, and that you must have bodily integrity...to exist there."
He said that many family members refuse to donate organs to a loved one because of these beliefs, leaving hospitals to rely on organs from people who die suddenly.
"I think it will be hard to change the views of this generation of ordinary people, at least," Zeng said. "But I think in 20 years' time, the next generation will have had a scientific education, and a certain level of acceptance of organ donation."
But he added that there is still no reliable distribution method for organs that will ensure that rich and poor have equal access to the service.
Within five years
According to vice-minister for health Huang Jiefu, China will abolish the transplanting of organs from executed prisoners within five years and try to encourage more citizens to donate, official media reported recently.
Organ transplantation in China has long been criticized as opaque, profit-driven, and unethical. Critics argue death row inmates may feel pressured to become donors, violating personal, religious, or cultural beliefs.
China has also been extracting organs from living prisoners in addition to its much publicized and criticized practice of taking vital body parts from executed convicts, experts told a U.S. congressional hearing in September.
Two-thirds of transplant organs in China come from prisoners, according to researcher Ethan Gutman, who has conducted interviews with Chinese medical professionals, law enforcement personnel, and over 50 former prisoners of China’s laogai labor-camp system since 2006.
Gutman said he believes that the practice of taking organs from Chinese prisoners began in the remote Xinjiang region—where ethnic Uyghurs say they are discriminated against by Han Chinese—in the 1990s and had expanded nationwide by 2001.
Though at first the victims of this practice were executed prisoners, he said, doctors began to take organs from living prisoners as well, he told the Oversight and Investigation and Human Rights Subcommittees of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
Beijing strongly denies that it deliberately kills prisoners to harvest organs.
Reported by Gao Shan for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
China's plans to ban the use of organs harvested from executed prisoners could lead to a stronger culture of donation in the wider population, although the reform could take two decades to implement, according to a former top doctor.
Beijing will set up a national organ donation network in early 2013, according to health officials, while phasing out the use of organs from executed prisoners for transplants.
Interviewed in the World Health Organization's journal Bulletin, top health expert Wang Haibo said that Beijing acknowledges that there are ethical problems with the use of organs from executed prisoners, and that such a system isn't sustainable.
The Red Cross Society of China has run a pilot organ donation scheme over the past two years in some part of China, and the government plans to roll it out nationwide by early next year.
Wang told the journal that a consensus now exists among China’s transplant community that the system should move away from its current "reliance on organs from executed convicts."
According to Wang, who was appointed last year to lead a research center tasked with designing the organ donation network, the "old practice" will be phased out and the new system implemented at around the same time.
'Immoral'
Zeng Jun, a former doctor at Guangzhou's No. 1 People's Hospital, said he believes the use of organs from death-row prisoners is "immoral."
"I think that the decision to ban the use of organs from executed prisoners is very good progress," Zeng said.
"Ordinary people are more and more willing to donate organs, although we still have a very long way to go," he said. "I would guess it will take another 15-20 years before organ donation becomes widely accepted."
In the meantime, a shortage of legally sourced organs for transplant means that the illegal organ trade has become an open secret in today's China, with advertisements clearly visible on the Internet for people wishing to sell kidneys or livers.
Rights groups have long charged China with a deliberate policy of linking the criminal justice system and local hospitals in an attempt to meet the growing demand for transplants after Chinese hospitals became proficient at performing them in the early 1990s.
They also accuse the authorities of skipping over the question of consent, either with coerced agreements before the prisoner is executed, or simply by cremating the bodies of those executed so no evidence remains.
Waiting list
According to the government, 1.5 million patients are on the waiting list for transplant organs in China in any given year, but willing donors are very thin on the ground.
Zeng said that only 15,000 people have signed up for the Red Cross donation scheme so far, however, citing official figures.
"That's a tiny number," he said, adding that cultural beliefs about bodily integrity as a condition for admission to the afterlife often stand in the way of surgical operations, even for patients who need an organ removed.
"I have seen a lot of patients who needed an organ removed in order to stay alive, but their relatives have refused to allow the surgeons to cut away an organ," he said.
"This is because they believe that...the person's body won't be complete after death," he said. "They believe that after you die, you go to a different world, and that you must have bodily integrity...to exist there."
He said that many family members refuse to donate organs to a loved one because of these beliefs, leaving hospitals to rely on organs from people who die suddenly.
"I think it will be hard to change the views of this generation of ordinary people, at least," Zeng said. "But I think in 20 years' time, the next generation will have had a scientific education, and a certain level of acceptance of organ donation."
But he added that there is still no reliable distribution method for organs that will ensure that rich and poor have equal access to the service.
Within five years
According to vice-minister for health Huang Jiefu, China will abolish the transplanting of organs from executed prisoners within five years and try to encourage more citizens to donate, official media reported recently.
Organ transplantation in China has long been criticized as opaque, profit-driven, and unethical. Critics argue death row inmates may feel pressured to become donors, violating personal, religious, or cultural beliefs.
China has also been extracting organs from living prisoners in addition to its much publicized and criticized practice of taking vital body parts from executed convicts, experts told a U.S. congressional hearing in September.
Two-thirds of transplant organs in China come from prisoners, according to researcher Ethan Gutman, who has conducted interviews with Chinese medical professionals, law enforcement personnel, and over 50 former prisoners of China’s laogai labor-camp system since 2006.
Gutman said he believes that the practice of taking organs from Chinese prisoners began in the remote Xinjiang region—where ethnic Uyghurs say they are discriminated against by Han Chinese—in the 1990s and had expanded nationwide by 2001.
Though at first the victims of this practice were executed prisoners, he said, doctors began to take organs from living prisoners as well, he told the Oversight and Investigation and Human Rights Subcommittees of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
Beijing strongly denies that it deliberately kills prisoners to harvest organs.
Reported by Gao Shan for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
ASEAN Rights Charter Slammed
ASEAN Rights Charter Slammed: 
A group of international rights organizations on Monday urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to put off the adoption of its first-ever Human Rights Declaration, saying the charter is not up to international standards and would fail to protect rights in the region.
The consortium of NGOs, which included the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and London-based Amnesty International, called for a review of the declaration in an open letter to the ASEAN Heads of State, who are expected to adopt the charter at a summit on Nov. 18-20 in Cambodia.
Cambodia is the current chair of ASEAN, which also includes member states Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
All rights allowed by the declaration could be restricted on vaguely worded grounds, including “national security” and “public morality,” the letter said.
Of particular concern, it said, are provisions in the declaration which stipulate that the enjoyment of rights is to be “balanced” subject to “national and regional contexts” and to considerations of “different cultural, religious and historical backgrounds.”
Wilder Tayler, secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists, said the idea that all human rights are to be “balanced” against individual responsibilities goes against the idea of human rights agreed upon in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The ASEAN member states had affirmed the Universal Declaration in 1993.
“Balancing human rights with responsibilities turns on its head the entire raison d’être of human rights,” Tayler said.
International law prohibits government from deviating from a broad set of rights, the letter said, while imposing on all ASEAN member states the duty to respect and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Souhayr Belhassen, president of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, said the declaration in its current form “purports to make a significant and worrying departure from existing international human rights law and standards, including those found in other regional human rights instruments, in Europe, the Americas, and Africa.”
Michael Bochenek, director of Amnesty International’s Law and Policy Program, said that approving the declaration as is would go completely against the purpose of the document.
“Unless significant changes are made to the text, ASEAN will be adopting in 2012 a Human Rights Declaration that grants ASEAN Member States additional powers to violate human rights instead of providing the region’s people with additional safeguards against such violations.”
The organizations urged ASEAN leaders to return the draft to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights with clear instructions to redraft it “in a transparent, deliberate and inclusive process, in full consultation with all stakeholders, so that it does not fall below internationally recognized human rights law and standards.”
Avoiding ‘failure’
As the current chair of ASEAN, Cambodia is eager to avoid a second gaffe after an unprecedented failure to issue a joint communiqué at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in July over the region's dispute with Beijing on overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Some diplomats from ASEAN had charged that Cambodia was influenced by its giant ally China not to incorporate the views of ASEAN member states the Philippines and Vietnam in the statement, causing an impasse at the meeting.
It is believed that Cambodia is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that the declaration is adopted later this month during the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh.
ASEAN established its human rights body, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in 2009, with one of its key mandates to prepare a draft of the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights. Its adoption would be a defining moment in the association’s 45-year-old history.
Om Yin Tieng, who is the rotating chairman of the Intergovernmental ASEAN Human Rights Commission and also heads Cambodia’s Human Rights Committee, stressed on Monday that the declaration is not a legally binding document.
“The declaration on ASEAN human rights is a document on the political will of the leaders of the ten member states,” he said.
“It is not a legal document.”
Om Yin Tieng had announced in late October that the declaration would be officially adopted during the ASEAN summit.
Recent criticism
But the draft has drawn criticism from a number of rights groups, including in summit host Cambodia, in addition to those that issued the open letter on Monday.
Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor for Cambodian rights group Licadho, said the wording of the declaration is too broad because of the political differences of the ASEAN member states.
“Countries in ASEAN—some are democratic and some are communist,” he said.
“Thus, the declaration on ASEAN human rights was compiled in accordance with these two political systems, making it fall short of the international standard. That is our main concern.”
Last month, NGOs gathered in Phnom Penh expressed concern that time is running out to rid the proposed draft of clauses that would restrict peoples’ rights.
The Jakarta Post quoted Nay Vanda, deputy head of the monitoring section of Cambodian rights group ADHOC, as saying that civil society groups need more opportunities to consult with leaders on the wording of the declaration.
“The [declaration] can be a success for the government … if it is equal or higher than [the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights],” he said.
“If it is lower, it can ruin the reputation of Cambodia.”
Rights groups have also complained that the drafting process has lacked transparency. The only glimpse NGOs and the public have had of the draft declaration was by way of a leaked document.
Reported by Tin Zakariya for RFA’s Khmer service and by Joshua Lipes. Translated by Yanny Hin. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
A group of international rights organizations on Monday urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to put off the adoption of its first-ever Human Rights Declaration, saying the charter is not up to international standards and would fail to protect rights in the region.
The consortium of NGOs, which included the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and London-based Amnesty International, called for a review of the declaration in an open letter to the ASEAN Heads of State, who are expected to adopt the charter at a summit on Nov. 18-20 in Cambodia.
Cambodia is the current chair of ASEAN, which also includes member states Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
All rights allowed by the declaration could be restricted on vaguely worded grounds, including “national security” and “public morality,” the letter said.
Of particular concern, it said, are provisions in the declaration which stipulate that the enjoyment of rights is to be “balanced” subject to “national and regional contexts” and to considerations of “different cultural, religious and historical backgrounds.”
Wilder Tayler, secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists, said the idea that all human rights are to be “balanced” against individual responsibilities goes against the idea of human rights agreed upon in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The ASEAN member states had affirmed the Universal Declaration in 1993.
“Balancing human rights with responsibilities turns on its head the entire raison d’être of human rights,” Tayler said.
International law prohibits government from deviating from a broad set of rights, the letter said, while imposing on all ASEAN member states the duty to respect and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Souhayr Belhassen, president of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, said the declaration in its current form “purports to make a significant and worrying departure from existing international human rights law and standards, including those found in other regional human rights instruments, in Europe, the Americas, and Africa.”
Michael Bochenek, director of Amnesty International’s Law and Policy Program, said that approving the declaration as is would go completely against the purpose of the document.
“Unless significant changes are made to the text, ASEAN will be adopting in 2012 a Human Rights Declaration that grants ASEAN Member States additional powers to violate human rights instead of providing the region’s people with additional safeguards against such violations.”
The organizations urged ASEAN leaders to return the draft to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights with clear instructions to redraft it “in a transparent, deliberate and inclusive process, in full consultation with all stakeholders, so that it does not fall below internationally recognized human rights law and standards.”
Avoiding ‘failure’
As the current chair of ASEAN, Cambodia is eager to avoid a second gaffe after an unprecedented failure to issue a joint communiqué at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in July over the region's dispute with Beijing on overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Some diplomats from ASEAN had charged that Cambodia was influenced by its giant ally China not to incorporate the views of ASEAN member states the Philippines and Vietnam in the statement, causing an impasse at the meeting.
It is believed that Cambodia is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that the declaration is adopted later this month during the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh.
ASEAN established its human rights body, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in 2009, with one of its key mandates to prepare a draft of the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights. Its adoption would be a defining moment in the association’s 45-year-old history.
Om Yin Tieng, who is the rotating chairman of the Intergovernmental ASEAN Human Rights Commission and also heads Cambodia’s Human Rights Committee, stressed on Monday that the declaration is not a legally binding document.
“The declaration on ASEAN human rights is a document on the political will of the leaders of the ten member states,” he said.
“It is not a legal document.”
Om Yin Tieng had announced in late October that the declaration would be officially adopted during the ASEAN summit.
Recent criticism
But the draft has drawn criticism from a number of rights groups, including in summit host Cambodia, in addition to those that issued the open letter on Monday.
Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor for Cambodian rights group Licadho, said the wording of the declaration is too broad because of the political differences of the ASEAN member states.
“Countries in ASEAN—some are democratic and some are communist,” he said.
“Thus, the declaration on ASEAN human rights was compiled in accordance with these two political systems, making it fall short of the international standard. That is our main concern.”
Last month, NGOs gathered in Phnom Penh expressed concern that time is running out to rid the proposed draft of clauses that would restrict peoples’ rights.
The Jakarta Post quoted Nay Vanda, deputy head of the monitoring section of Cambodian rights group ADHOC, as saying that civil society groups need more opportunities to consult with leaders on the wording of the declaration.
“The [declaration] can be a success for the government … if it is equal or higher than [the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights],” he said.
“If it is lower, it can ruin the reputation of Cambodia.”
Rights groups have also complained that the drafting process has lacked transparency. The only glimpse NGOs and the public have had of the draft declaration was by way of a leaked document.
Reported by Tin Zakariya for RFA’s Khmer service and by Joshua Lipes. Translated by Yanny Hin. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Ban on Gatherings, Internet
Ban on Gatherings, Internet: 
Chinese authorities have banned religious festivals and public gatherings and cut communication links in two restive Tibetan-populated areas in Sichuan and Gansu provinces, the scenes of Tibetan self-immolations challenging Chinese rule, according to sources.
The actions came ahead of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
Festivals and other large gatherings are now prohibited in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) prefecture of Sichuan, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a rights group said communications have been cut and Tibetan schoolchildren had been barred from going home for the holidays in Gansu province’s Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the scene of seven self-immolation protests during the last month.
“Usually for three months in the winter, Tibetans in Kardze observe various religious ceremonies including fasting, mass prayers, and mantra recitations in the villages and towns,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“But a few days ago, local Chinese officials told Tibetans living in the area that such large gatherings are forbidden during the time of the Party Congress,” beginning on Nov. 8 as President Hu Jintao prepares to transfer power to Vice-President Xi Jinping, his long-designated successor.
Tibetans who stage protests or engage in other unlawful activities during this period will be “severely punished,” according to the source, a resident of the area.
“So, the local Tibetans are going to cancel all religious gatherings,” the source said, adding, “They are very disappointed.”
Communications cut
Separately, the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reported on Monday that Chinese officials have imposed a “near-total information blockade” in Gansu province’s Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
“Sources from the area have also reported the closure of Internet cafes and weak or no mobile phone signals,” TCHRD said in a Nov. 5 statement from its office in Dharamsala, home of Tibet’s government-in-exile.
“Residents say mobile phone signals work only when they cross the Kanlho border,” the rights group said.
“Local authorities have also restricted the sale of petrol and other flammable liquids,” making travel difficult for Tibetans who rely on motorcycles and other gas-driven vehicles, TCHRD said.
Kanlho has been the scene of frequent anti-China protests by Tibetans, with seven setting themselves ablaze in October to call for Tibetan freedom and the return to Tibet of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
In Kanlho’s Tsoe (in Chinese, Hezuo) county, authorities have barred Tibetan schoolchildren from going home for the holidays, turning area schools into “mini prisons,” TCHRD said.
Permission to leave school grounds is granted “sparingly [and only for] a couple of hours.”
Prison terms
In a separate report, TCHRD said on Tuesday that Chinese authorities have handed down prison terms to five Tibetan monks sentenced for their involvement in Jan. 23 protests in Draggo (in Chinese, Luhuo) county in Sichuan’s Kardze prefecture.
Tulku Lobsang Tenzin, 40, of Gochen monastery was given a seven-year term, while Geshe Tsewang Namgyal, 42, and Tashi Thubwang, 31 and also called Dralha—both from Draggo monastery—were sentenced to six years each.
Monastery shop manager Trinlay was handed a five-year term, and senior caretaker Geshe Tenzin Palsang, also known as Tenga, was sentenced to six years.
Chinese security personnel used lethal force to suppress the Jan. 23 protest, killing at least six Tibetans and injuring 43.
Three Tibetans—Yonten Sangpo, Tashi Dargye, and Namgyal Dondrub—remain missing after being detained following the protest, TCHRD said.
Reported by Norbu Damdul Dorjee for RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Chinese authorities have banned religious festivals and public gatherings and cut communication links in two restive Tibetan-populated areas in Sichuan and Gansu provinces, the scenes of Tibetan self-immolations challenging Chinese rule, according to sources.
The actions came ahead of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
Festivals and other large gatherings are now prohibited in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) prefecture of Sichuan, a Tibetan living in the area told RFA on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a rights group said communications have been cut and Tibetan schoolchildren had been barred from going home for the holidays in Gansu province’s Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the scene of seven self-immolation protests during the last month.
“Usually for three months in the winter, Tibetans in Kardze observe various religious ceremonies including fasting, mass prayers, and mantra recitations in the villages and towns,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“But a few days ago, local Chinese officials told Tibetans living in the area that such large gatherings are forbidden during the time of the Party Congress,” beginning on Nov. 8 as President Hu Jintao prepares to transfer power to Vice-President Xi Jinping, his long-designated successor.
Tibetans who stage protests or engage in other unlawful activities during this period will be “severely punished,” according to the source, a resident of the area.
“So, the local Tibetans are going to cancel all religious gatherings,” the source said, adding, “They are very disappointed.”
Communications cut
Separately, the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reported on Monday that Chinese officials have imposed a “near-total information blockade” in Gansu province’s Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
“Sources from the area have also reported the closure of Internet cafes and weak or no mobile phone signals,” TCHRD said in a Nov. 5 statement from its office in Dharamsala, home of Tibet’s government-in-exile.
“Residents say mobile phone signals work only when they cross the Kanlho border,” the rights group said.
“Local authorities have also restricted the sale of petrol and other flammable liquids,” making travel difficult for Tibetans who rely on motorcycles and other gas-driven vehicles, TCHRD said.
Kanlho has been the scene of frequent anti-China protests by Tibetans, with seven setting themselves ablaze in October to call for Tibetan freedom and the return to Tibet of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
In Kanlho’s Tsoe (in Chinese, Hezuo) county, authorities have barred Tibetan schoolchildren from going home for the holidays, turning area schools into “mini prisons,” TCHRD said.
Permission to leave school grounds is granted “sparingly [and only for] a couple of hours.”
Prison terms
In a separate report, TCHRD said on Tuesday that Chinese authorities have handed down prison terms to five Tibetan monks sentenced for their involvement in Jan. 23 protests in Draggo (in Chinese, Luhuo) county in Sichuan’s Kardze prefecture.
Tulku Lobsang Tenzin, 40, of Gochen monastery was given a seven-year term, while Geshe Tsewang Namgyal, 42, and Tashi Thubwang, 31 and also called Dralha—both from Draggo monastery—were sentenced to six years each.
Monastery shop manager Trinlay was handed a five-year term, and senior caretaker Geshe Tenzin Palsang, also known as Tenga, was sentenced to six years.
Chinese security personnel used lethal force to suppress the Jan. 23 protest, killing at least six Tibetans and injuring 43.
Three Tibetans—Yonten Sangpo, Tashi Dargye, and Namgyal Dondrub—remain missing after being detained following the protest, TCHRD said.
Reported by Norbu Damdul Dorjee for RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Prevent Military Aid Abuse: NGO
Prevent Military Aid Abuse: NGO: 
Washington must put measures in place to ensure that military assistance provided to Cambodia will not be used by authorities to commit rights abuses, a nongovernmental organization said Tuesday, as U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta prepares to visit the country next week.
Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator with Cambodian rights group Licadho, said Panetta should work harder to guarantee that U.S. military aid to the country is used for “the right purposes” and not to protect private property or to assist in forced evictions of residents living on land granted as concessions to companies.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense will hold bilateral talks with his Cambodian counterpart, General Tea Banh, during a one-day visit to Phnom Penh on Nov. 16. His visit will coincide with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers' Meeting Retreat, also to be held in the capital, on Nov. 15-17.
The talks will be held ahead of an expected visit to Cambodia by President Barack Obama to attend the East Asia Summit in the capital on Nov. 18-20.
“We request that [Washington] negotiate to ensure the use of U.S military assistance for the right purposes—in order to prevent human rights abuses,” Am Sam Ath told RFA's Khmer service in an interview.
“Some individuals have used U.S military assistance against Ministry [of Defense] guidelines. They have been used to abuse human rights,” he said, adding that Licadho had reported several incidents of rights violations committed by soldiers.
“We have seen private companies use military police and soldiers to protect private property. This goes against the code of conduct for soldiers who are supposed to protect our country,” Am Sam Ath said.
“We have seen U.S. trucks, which were given as military aid, used to transport soldiers to protect private companies or for forced evictions.”
Nem Sowath, director general of Cambodia’s Defence Ministry’s policy and foreign affairs department, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post Tuesday as saying that the bolstering of military ties and “co-operation in military human resources development” would be among the topics of discussions during Panetta’s trip.
The paper said that military aid spending in Cambodia almost tripled this year to U.S. $18.2 million. It did not provide details.
According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, U.S. material assistance to Cambodia has ended up in the hands of “rights-abusing military units” such as “Brigade 31 … which in 2008 used U.S.-donated trucks to forcibly move villagers evicted from their land in Kampot province.”
In 2008, the U.S government donated at least 31 military trucks to the Cambodian military, according to the U.S. Embassy.
Two years later, the Obama administration suspended a shipment of military vehicles to Cambodia, after Phnom Penh repatriated 20 ethnic Uyghur asylum-seekers to China despite an outcry from Western countries and the United Nations.
Following the suspension, China promptly donated more than 250 military trucks to the Southeast Asian nation.
In November last year, Cambodia's military police and the United States Marines conducted a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise in Cambodia, aimed at strengthening the two countries' military ties.
Am Sam Ath requested that American defense officials who train Cambodian military personnel in the U.S. work to ensure that the soldiers use their new skills to protect the country and serve the people, rather than to protect private companies.
Cambodian Minister of Defense Tea Banh could not be reached for comment. The spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia referred questions about military aid and training to the Department of Defense in Washington.
Surprise shipment
Panetta’s visit comes as Cambodia beefs up its military.
The Cambodian government had recently received a shipment of tanks and armored personnel carriers (APCs) from Europe.
Tea Banh confirmed the purchase of the vehicles, but did not provide details of their origin or cost. He said that the equipment is needed to upgrade Cambodia’s military capability.
News of the shipment drew criticism from opposition Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann, who called on the government to make all future military acquisitions transparent and through the country’s parliament, adding that he could see no reason why the purchase had been kept a secret.
The ASEAN defense ministers from the 10 member states are expected to discuss national defense and regional security issues, according to a statement released Monday by Cambodia’s Ministry of Defense.
Cambodia currently holds the chair of ASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
At the last defense ministers meeting held on May 28-30 in Phnom Penh, China agreed to establish a military training facility in Cambodia and provide other defense aid to its Southeast Asian ally.
During next week’s retreat, Cambodia will hand over the role as chair of the talks to Brunei.
Reported by Samean Yun for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Washington must put measures in place to ensure that military assistance provided to Cambodia will not be used by authorities to commit rights abuses, a nongovernmental organization said Tuesday, as U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta prepares to visit the country next week.
Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator with Cambodian rights group Licadho, said Panetta should work harder to guarantee that U.S. military aid to the country is used for “the right purposes” and not to protect private property or to assist in forced evictions of residents living on land granted as concessions to companies.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense will hold bilateral talks with his Cambodian counterpart, General Tea Banh, during a one-day visit to Phnom Penh on Nov. 16. His visit will coincide with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers' Meeting Retreat, also to be held in the capital, on Nov. 15-17.
The talks will be held ahead of an expected visit to Cambodia by President Barack Obama to attend the East Asia Summit in the capital on Nov. 18-20.
“We request that [Washington] negotiate to ensure the use of U.S military assistance for the right purposes—in order to prevent human rights abuses,” Am Sam Ath told RFA's Khmer service in an interview.
“Some individuals have used U.S military assistance against Ministry [of Defense] guidelines. They have been used to abuse human rights,” he said, adding that Licadho had reported several incidents of rights violations committed by soldiers.
“We have seen private companies use military police and soldiers to protect private property. This goes against the code of conduct for soldiers who are supposed to protect our country,” Am Sam Ath said.
“We have seen U.S. trucks, which were given as military aid, used to transport soldiers to protect private companies or for forced evictions.”
Nem Sowath, director general of Cambodia’s Defence Ministry’s policy and foreign affairs department, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post Tuesday as saying that the bolstering of military ties and “co-operation in military human resources development” would be among the topics of discussions during Panetta’s trip.
The paper said that military aid spending in Cambodia almost tripled this year to U.S. $18.2 million. It did not provide details.
According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, U.S. material assistance to Cambodia has ended up in the hands of “rights-abusing military units” such as “Brigade 31 … which in 2008 used U.S.-donated trucks to forcibly move villagers evicted from their land in Kampot province.”
In 2008, the U.S government donated at least 31 military trucks to the Cambodian military, according to the U.S. Embassy.
Two years later, the Obama administration suspended a shipment of military vehicles to Cambodia, after Phnom Penh repatriated 20 ethnic Uyghur asylum-seekers to China despite an outcry from Western countries and the United Nations.
Following the suspension, China promptly donated more than 250 military trucks to the Southeast Asian nation.
In November last year, Cambodia's military police and the United States Marines conducted a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise in Cambodia, aimed at strengthening the two countries' military ties.
Am Sam Ath requested that American defense officials who train Cambodian military personnel in the U.S. work to ensure that the soldiers use their new skills to protect the country and serve the people, rather than to protect private companies.
Cambodian Minister of Defense Tea Banh could not be reached for comment. The spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia referred questions about military aid and training to the Department of Defense in Washington.
Surprise shipment
Panetta’s visit comes as Cambodia beefs up its military.
The Cambodian government had recently received a shipment of tanks and armored personnel carriers (APCs) from Europe.
Tea Banh confirmed the purchase of the vehicles, but did not provide details of their origin or cost. He said that the equipment is needed to upgrade Cambodia’s military capability.
News of the shipment drew criticism from opposition Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann, who called on the government to make all future military acquisitions transparent and through the country’s parliament, adding that he could see no reason why the purchase had been kept a secret.
The ASEAN defense ministers from the 10 member states are expected to discuss national defense and regional security issues, according to a statement released Monday by Cambodia’s Ministry of Defense.
Cambodia currently holds the chair of ASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
At the last defense ministers meeting held on May 28-30 in Phnom Penh, China agreed to establish a military training facility in Cambodia and provide other defense aid to its Southeast Asian ally.
During next week’s retreat, Cambodia will hand over the role as chair of the talks to Brunei.
Reported by Samean Yun for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
China's Netizens 'Vote' Obama
China's Netizens 'Vote' Obama: 
Chinese netizens, perhaps because their own leadership is in the throes of a highly secretive transition to the next generation of unelected leaders, have paid particularly close attention to this year's U.S. presidential race, showing strong support for re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama in online polls.
Unofficial online polls carried out by social media platform Sina Weibo found that 81 percent of 4,500 respondents 'voted' for Obama, while a similar poll on the Global Times' website showed that 78 percent of the 2,500 replies were in favor of a second term for the incumbent candidate.
The U.S. elections have been a trending topic in many online platforms.
A video by a well-known pop-star explaining the intricacies of the electoral college system garnered more than one million page views in recent days, while Sina Weibo's Twitter-like service counted more than 90,000 posts with the keyword "Obama" and more than 63,000 with the keyword "U.S. election" on Wednesday alone.
Official welcome
China's official media gave a cautious welcome on Wednesday to Obama's election victory over Republican Mitt Romney.
An editorial from the state-run news agency Xinhua hit out at the China-bashing rhetoric that was a feature of the presidential campaigns, and called on Obama to work to build "a more rational and constructive relationship with China."
"The new Obama administration perhaps should bear in mind that a stronger and more dynamic China-U.S. relationship, especially in trade, will not only provide U.S. investment with rich business opportunities, but also help to revive the sagging global economy," the agency said in a commentary that was carried in a number of major Chinese newspapers.
It added that "the most pressing task confronting America is to energize the slack economic recovery and slash stubbornly high unemployment."
The article also sounded a warning note over Obama's "pivot to Asia" foreign policy, calling on the U.S. to ensure that "China's legitimate and core interests and rightful requests to sustain growth [are] truly respected."
'Unstoppable tide'
Meanwhile, some journalists drew political parallels with China's own imminent leadership transition.
Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times newspaper, called democracy an "unstoppable tide" that would force China into chaos if ignored, before adding that being swept up in it could bring chaos even faster.
But some netizens disagreed.
"What sort of thinking is that?" replied user @rilihua to the article. "Does he think it will fool an illiterate public?"
"In America, the common people carry guns and they're not afraid of descending into chaos, while in China, you have to register with your real name to buy a vegetable knife: of course they fear chaos."
Other replies quoted Obama's speech about the "messiness" of the democratic process, and his reference to people in "distant lands" who were risking their lives for a chance to argue, or to vote.
Ai Weiwei
Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei penned an opinion article for CNN, in which he warned that U.S. democracy, while ultimately desirable, was vulnerable to distortion caused by the huge amounts of money spent on campaigns.
"Democracy is a societal practice, and elections are only a part of it," Ai wrote. "The U.S. elections are certainly an exercise in democracy, but wealthy individuals and corporations can now pour significant amounts of money and advertising into manipulating the public."
Chinese blogger Li Chengpeng meanwhile penned a withering, though indirect, attack on China's behind-closed-doors political decision-making.
"Every time I see someone say ‘swing state,’ it’s a disgrace," wrote Li, in a post translated by blogger Tea Leaf Nation.
"How can there not be unity about something that important in a great country? We have ‘firm support, eternal following, and absolute loyalty’ in every province, city, and administrative region. [Representatives from our Chinese Communist Party] won't ‘swing,’ they will pass [measures] unanimously without blinking."
Leadership change
Nine members of China's highest decision-making body, the Politburo standing committee, are due to step down at the 18th National Congress of the ruling Chinese Communist Party on Thursday, when 2,270 delegates will begin meeting over several days to vote on the new generation of leaders.
However, delegates to such congresses rarely vote against the Party leadership, and debates and power struggles within Party ranks are largely kept from public view.
President Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao will be among those leaving their positions, while vice president Xi Jinping and vice-premier Li Keqiang are widely tipped to replace them.
Sino-US ties
Joseph Cheng, political science professor at Hong Kong's City University, said U.S.-China relations were unlikely to be greatly affected by Obama's re-election.
"Basically, things are stable," Cheng said. "There are some economic frictions, but these can be resolved through negotiation."
Cheng said China's chief concern is the territorial disputes over the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea and the Diaoyu islands—known in Japan as the Senkaku islands—in the East China Sea.
"The suspicion of China among its neighbors will lead to an increase in military ties with the United States, and the U.S. will use this as a way of curbing China," he said. "At the very least, this will dampen Chinese influence in the region."
Hong Kong-based international affairs researcher Feng Zhizheng said there were a number of regional relationships that would affect Obama's policy in Asia, including improving ties with Burma and Indonesia.
But he said he also saw Obama's policies as being aimed at curbing China's military power in the region.
"Obama will be working in future with third countries to contain China, which will see growing tensions with its neighbors because of the U.S.," he said.
Feng said Beijing had been trying for years to minimize the influence of its human rights record on the bilateral relationship.
"For the past two or three years, China has brought out its own report that criticizes the human rights situation in the United States," he said.
Reported by Grace Kei Lai-see for RFA's Cantonese service, with additional reporting and translation by Luisetta Mudie.
Chinese netizens, perhaps because their own leadership is in the throes of a highly secretive transition to the next generation of unelected leaders, have paid particularly close attention to this year's U.S. presidential race, showing strong support for re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama in online polls.
Unofficial online polls carried out by social media platform Sina Weibo found that 81 percent of 4,500 respondents 'voted' for Obama, while a similar poll on the Global Times' website showed that 78 percent of the 2,500 replies were in favor of a second term for the incumbent candidate.
The U.S. elections have been a trending topic in many online platforms.
A video by a well-known pop-star explaining the intricacies of the electoral college system garnered more than one million page views in recent days, while Sina Weibo's Twitter-like service counted more than 90,000 posts with the keyword "Obama" and more than 63,000 with the keyword "U.S. election" on Wednesday alone.
Official welcome
China's official media gave a cautious welcome on Wednesday to Obama's election victory over Republican Mitt Romney.
An editorial from the state-run news agency Xinhua hit out at the China-bashing rhetoric that was a feature of the presidential campaigns, and called on Obama to work to build "a more rational and constructive relationship with China."
"The new Obama administration perhaps should bear in mind that a stronger and more dynamic China-U.S. relationship, especially in trade, will not only provide U.S. investment with rich business opportunities, but also help to revive the sagging global economy," the agency said in a commentary that was carried in a number of major Chinese newspapers.
It added that "the most pressing task confronting America is to energize the slack economic recovery and slash stubbornly high unemployment."
The article also sounded a warning note over Obama's "pivot to Asia" foreign policy, calling on the U.S. to ensure that "China's legitimate and core interests and rightful requests to sustain growth [are] truly respected."
'Unstoppable tide'
Meanwhile, some journalists drew political parallels with China's own imminent leadership transition.
Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times newspaper, called democracy an "unstoppable tide" that would force China into chaos if ignored, before adding that being swept up in it could bring chaos even faster.
But some netizens disagreed.
"What sort of thinking is that?" replied user @rilihua to the article. "Does he think it will fool an illiterate public?"
"In America, the common people carry guns and they're not afraid of descending into chaos, while in China, you have to register with your real name to buy a vegetable knife: of course they fear chaos."
Other replies quoted Obama's speech about the "messiness" of the democratic process, and his reference to people in "distant lands" who were risking their lives for a chance to argue, or to vote.
Ai Weiwei
Outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei penned an opinion article for CNN, in which he warned that U.S. democracy, while ultimately desirable, was vulnerable to distortion caused by the huge amounts of money spent on campaigns.
"Democracy is a societal practice, and elections are only a part of it," Ai wrote. "The U.S. elections are certainly an exercise in democracy, but wealthy individuals and corporations can now pour significant amounts of money and advertising into manipulating the public."
Chinese blogger Li Chengpeng meanwhile penned a withering, though indirect, attack on China's behind-closed-doors political decision-making.
"Every time I see someone say ‘swing state,’ it’s a disgrace," wrote Li, in a post translated by blogger Tea Leaf Nation.
"How can there not be unity about something that important in a great country? We have ‘firm support, eternal following, and absolute loyalty’ in every province, city, and administrative region. [Representatives from our Chinese Communist Party] won't ‘swing,’ they will pass [measures] unanimously without blinking."
Leadership change
Nine members of China's highest decision-making body, the Politburo standing committee, are due to step down at the 18th National Congress of the ruling Chinese Communist Party on Thursday, when 2,270 delegates will begin meeting over several days to vote on the new generation of leaders.
However, delegates to such congresses rarely vote against the Party leadership, and debates and power struggles within Party ranks are largely kept from public view.
President Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao will be among those leaving their positions, while vice president Xi Jinping and vice-premier Li Keqiang are widely tipped to replace them.
Sino-US ties
Joseph Cheng, political science professor at Hong Kong's City University, said U.S.-China relations were unlikely to be greatly affected by Obama's re-election.
"Basically, things are stable," Cheng said. "There are some economic frictions, but these can be resolved through negotiation."
Cheng said China's chief concern is the territorial disputes over the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea and the Diaoyu islands—known in Japan as the Senkaku islands—in the East China Sea.
"The suspicion of China among its neighbors will lead to an increase in military ties with the United States, and the U.S. will use this as a way of curbing China," he said. "At the very least, this will dampen Chinese influence in the region."
Hong Kong-based international affairs researcher Feng Zhizheng said there were a number of regional relationships that would affect Obama's policy in Asia, including improving ties with Burma and Indonesia.
But he said he also saw Obama's policies as being aimed at curbing China's military power in the region.
"Obama will be working in future with third countries to contain China, which will see growing tensions with its neighbors because of the U.S.," he said.
Feng said Beijing had been trying for years to minimize the influence of its human rights record on the bilateral relationship.
"For the past two or three years, China has brought out its own report that criticizes the human rights situation in the United States," he said.
Reported by Grace Kei Lai-see for RFA's Cantonese service, with additional reporting and translation by Luisetta Mudie.
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