Thailand's Southern Crisis - More Discussion with Malaysia

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday cautiously acknowledged the suggestion by his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Raza, that the Malay-speaking region in the deep South be granted some form of autonomy as part of a strategy to bring an end to the ongoing violence.

Speaking to reporters after the Tuesday weekly Cabinet meeting, Abhisit said the policy of the Thai government was more or less in line with the need to acknowledge the special needs of the Malay-speaking region where nearly 4,000 people have been killed since January 2004.

Abhisit said he will discuss the issue about the conflict in the deep South with Najib during his upcoming visit to the restive region in December.

In an interview with Nation Channel over the weekend, Najib said Thailand should offer "some form" of autonomy to the region".

"You may not want to call it autonomy but there could at least be some form of involvement. It is Thailand's decision to consider how far such autonomy in the deep south should go, and Malaysia, as a neighbour, would not intervene in the matter," Najib was reported as saying.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the Malaysian leader understands that the problem is Thailand's domestic affairs and vowed to cooperate with the country to solve the problem.

"Thailand is supporting this approach but it's not an independent region. It does not contradict the constitution, but instead allows more publi

--The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/10/27/regional/regional_30115348.php

Indonesian President Re-elected

President Yudhoyono sworn in for second term



Article published on the 2009-10-20 Latest update 2009-10-20 10:30 TU
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is greeted by parliament members as he prepares to be sworn in(Photo: Reuters)

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is greeted by parliament members as he prepares to be sworn in
(Photo: Reuters)
Liberal ex-general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was sworn in for the second time on Tuesday as Indonesia's president, after winning another five-year term with promises of economic growth and political reform.


Yudhoyono swore on the Koran to uphold the constitution during a ceremony in the national assembly in Jakarta, which was broadcast around the archipelago of 234 million people.

About 20,000 police backed by armoured vehicles were on hand to secure the inauguration, attended by the leaders of Australia, Brunei, East Timor, Malaysia and Singapore.

The nationwide poll saw Yudhoyono win 60.8 percent of the vote, compared to 26.8 percent for ex-president Megawati Sukarnoputri and 12.4 percent for outgoing Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

Yudhoyono, 60, trounced Sukarnoputri in 2004 to become the Muslim country's first directly elected head of state since the fall of late military strongman Suharto in 1998.

He has promised to crack down on corruption, boost infrastructure spending and advance bureaucratic reform.

Philippines still in bad Condition after Typhoon

Post-Storm Conditions In Philippines Continue To Threaten Health
guardian.co.uk

Monday, October 26, 2009

Filipinos are "struggling to live in flooded suburbs or crowded shelters one month after devastating rains began pounding the Philippines, and officials warn no quick fix is in sight," Agence France-Presse reports. According to the WHO, 1.43 million people, "mostly in and around Manila, continue to endure a dangerous existence living in flooded districts" (Morella, 10/26).

Diseases are rampant in flooded areas and evacuation centers, according to health officials who are especially concerned about the bacterial infection leptospirosis. "[D]engue fever, malaria, diarrhea, skin rashes and other illnesses are [also] common. Of the 35,000 people in evacuation centers, more than half suffer from some disease, most commonly acute respiratory illness, according to the Department of Health," the New York Times reports. "Efforts to relocate survivors have had limited impact because of the refusal of some affected residents – many of them slum dwellers whose shanties were destroyed – to be uprooted from their communities. According to the government, more than 1.2 million residents still live in damaged villages in greater Manila, some of them with waist-high floodwater."

Diwa Gacosta, a local representative of World Vision, said crowded and unsanitary conditions were fueling the spread of disease. "The impact of the flood to children’s health is really a problem," Gacosta said. "'Children in these storm-affected areas face a host of dangers that pose a threat to their very survival,' said Latha Caleb, the director of Save the Children in the Philippines. 'It is critical now to address the lack of sanitation systems and clean water that are resulting in widespread illness and disease,'" the newspaper writes (Conde, 10/25).

According to TIME, the WHO's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network is sending medical assistance teams to Manila "to evaluate the government's response in tackling the disease, and draw up recommendations for future large-scale leptospirosis outbreaks, said Eric Tayag, head of the Department of Health's National Epidemiology Center." The country's "overstretched and underfunded public health system is poorly equipped to deal with large-scale disease outbreaks, even for diseases like leptospirosis that are seasonally common across the archipelago," the magazine writes. "Several large government hospitals were damaged in the flooding, and have struggled to cope with the influx of patients. A week after [Tropical Storm] Ketsana, much of Pasig General Hospital was under water, including its laboratory" (McIndoe, 10/26).

On Friday, Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), said the Philippines is facing its most challenging humanitarian crisis in recent history, IRIN reports. "The agency is providing 'critical' food support to more than one million of the eight million people hit ..." by the storms. The article includes comment from another WFP official and examines how the country was preparing for Typhoon Lupit (10/23). By Saturday, Typhoon Lupit had been downgraded to a tropical storm and veered away from the Philippines, AFP reports (10/24).

U.S. Pledges $8.5M In Food Aid To Philippines

On Monday, the U.S. announced it would provide food $8.5 million of food aid to the Philippines, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/Monsters and Critics reports. "U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who was in Manila on a four-day trade mission, said the donation (.pdf) would provide food to 438,000 people for 60 days" (10/26).

"Philippine Press Undersecretary Anthony Golez said in a news briefing that the U.S. agriculture department, through its Food for Progress Program, will be donating 7,000 metric tons of rice and 680 metric tons of nonfat dry milk to the victims of typhoons Ketsana and Parma," Xinhua writes (10/26).

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

UN official: Tribunal needed for Timor crimes

UN official: Tribunal needed for Timor crimes
By Deutsche Presse Agentur


Dili - The international community should consider setting up a tribunal for serious crimes in East Timor if former occupier Indonesia and East Timor were unwilling to prosecute suspects, a United Nations official said Tuesday.

The United Nations has criticised East Timor's government for the release from jail last month of Martenus Bere, a former pro-Indonesia militia leader accused of taking part in a 1999 massacre at a church in Suai district, in which up to 200 people died.

"If the two countries ... are not willing and are not intending to prosecute people who committed crimes against humanity, there is the principle of universal jurisdiction for these crimes," said Louis Gentile, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in East Timor.

Gentile said it was the responsibility of the international community to find a way to bring those who committed crimes against humanity to justice.

Gentile said the release of Bere was political because it did not follow legal procedures.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was annexed by Indonesia in 1976. The territory voted for independence in a UN-sponsored ballot in 1999, which was marred by violence blamed on pro-Jakarta militiamen and Indonesian troops.

According to a report by a UN-sponsored truth commission, the Indonesian occupation led to about 100,000 deaths from killings, starvation and disease.

The territory became formally independent in 2002.

Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to put reconciliation and friendship ahead of prosecution of those who committed crimes during the occupation.

Thailand-Cambodia in Conflict

Ball is in Cambodia's court, PM says
By The Nation
Published on October 27, 2009


Good relations with Cambodia are up on Phnom Penh, according to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who said yesterday that the "ball is now in Cambodia's court".

His remark suggests it's up to Prime Minister Hun Sen to strengthen bilateral ties or allow them to suffer after the verbal spat between him and Abhiisit over the weekend.

Thaksin Shinawatra

Speaking to Nation Multimedia Group's editor-in-chief Suthichai Yoon on the World Pulse TV show - being aired nationwide this evening, Abhisit said there would be no diplomatic protest or recalling of Thai ambassadors at this point in time.

Diplomatic relations went into a tailspin last week after Hun Sen said his "old friend" Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai PM, would be welcome to live in Cambodia.

Hun Sen said he would not extradite Thaksin to face prison terms in Thailand because he considered his crimes were political in nature. He later said he would make the fugitive premier an economic adviser.

Hun Sen made the statement shortly after arriving in Thailand to attend the 15th Asean Summit in Cha-am over the weekend.

Abhisit said Hun Sen needed to hear all the facts before any conclusion could be reached. The Cambodian needed to know what laws Thaksin had violated and then decide as to whether the former PM should be sent back to Thailand, if and when he arrives in

Cambodia.

Abhisit dismissed suggestion that Hun Sen's remarks spoiled the Asean Summit, hosted by Thailand in Hua Hin and Cha-am over the past weekend. The PM said he was satisfied with the outcome of the summit.

No other leaders at the summit asked about Hun Sen's statement, Abhisit said.

When asked about Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's trip to Phnom Penh, which sparked Hun Sen's remarks, Abhisit suggested the Pheu Thai politician needed to re-evaluate whether his actions had hurt or helped relations with Cambodia.

Abhisit said he was willing to talk to Thaksin about national reconciliation provided the fugitive premier returned to the country and accepted findings from the country's justice system, which had convicted him of fraud and corruption.

Hun Sen

"If he is not willing to abide by our law then what's the use of talking to him?" he asked.

Modern conflict near ancient ruins

A long-running border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia has just escalated, with soldiers exchanging gunfire. The BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head looks at what caused tensions to erupt.

Both historic rivalries and recent frictions are driving this confrontation
At the end of a day when two Cambodian soldiers were killed, several wounded on both sides, and 10 Thai soldiers reportedly taken prisoner, the language cooled down.
Instead of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's threat of all-out war, to turn the area around the disputed Preah Vihear temple into a "zone of death", there was a statement from Foreign Minister Hor Namhong describing the shootout as "an incident between soldiers, not an invasion", a problem that could be solved.
And from the Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat: "Cambodia is a good neighbour. We will use peaceful means".
So perhaps a war over a tiny sliver of scrubby hillside can be avoided after all.
It would surely be in no-one's interests to let the conflict get out of hand.
Thailand and Cambodia share a common culture, an 800km (500 mile) border, trade and investment worth billions of dollars and membership of Asean, the Association of South East Asian Nations that prides itself on harmonious relations among its member states.
Cliff-top temple
But why have relations fallen this far?

Both Thailand and Cambodia claim territory that surrounds the temple
The spark was Cambodia's successful bid to have Preah Vihear listed as a World Heritage site in July.
The 900-year-old Hindu temple had been judged to be on the Cambodian side of the border in 1962 by the International Court of Justice, a decision that has always rankled with Thailand.
It sits at the top of a cliff, and is still only easily accessible from the Thai side.
But the decades of conflict in Cambodia delayed any practical decisions on the temple, which for years was a stronghold of Khmer Rouge guerrillas and littered with landmines.
As peace returned to Cambodia in the 1990s, the government in Phnom Penh started to focus on restoring the country's rich Hindu-Buddhist heritage, and its potential to attract tourists.
The magnificent temple complex of Angkor Wat won World Heritage status in 1992.

TEMPLE DISPUTE TIMELINE

1962: International court awards temple to Cambodia, but surrounding land remains undesignated
1970s-1990s: Khmer Rouge guerrillas occupy site
2001-2002: Thai troops block access over water row
July 2008: Unesco lists temple as a World Heritage Site
July 2008: Thai FM quits after court rules he violated constitution for backing Cambodia's Unesco bid
July 2008: Both sides move troops to temple area
Oct 2008: Troops exchange fire, leaving two Cambodian soldiers dead
But repeated attempts to get the same status for Preah Vihear were blocked, apparently by Thailand.
The Thais argued that while the ICJ had awarded the temple to Cambodia, it had not ruled on the surrounding land, which also contains a number of important archaeological sites connected to the temple.
Only a joint Thai-Cambodian World Heritage site made sense, it argued.
Thailand dropped its objection this year, a decision that enraged Thai nationalists.
They accused the government of changing its stance to accommodate the extensive Cambodian business interests of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose party dominated the cabinet.
The foreign minister who negotiated a joint agreement with Cambodia, Noppadol Pattama, had once been Mr Thaksin's lawyer. He was forced to resign in July.
But the damage had been done. A hard-line anti-government movement, the People's Alliance for Democracy, used the issue to mobilise mass demonstrations, contributing to the political upheavals that are still shaking Thailand today.
Khmer legacy
But what about Cambodia? Why is it so strident on the issue?
In part it is driven by historic rivalry between the two countries, in part by more recent friction.
The ancient Khmer civilisation that built Angkor Wat and Preah Vihear dominated this region for five centuries.

Thais used the issue in anti-government protests
It profoundly influenced Thai culture - there are many famous Khmer-style temples in Thailand. And it is a source of immense pride to modern-day Cambodia, which is recovering from decades of national trauma.
Nationalism is an easily inflamed emotion, in a country which has little to be proud of in its recent history.
Thais are often surprisingly ignorant of the role they have played in wounding Cambodia's national pride.
In the Cambodian view, successive Thai invasions helped destroy the once mighty Khmer empires, and rendered the country defenceless against French colonial conquest in the 19th Century.
Thailand then took advantage of the chaos during World War II to occupy large chunks of western Cambodia, including the ruins of Angkor Wat - it was forced to hand them back when the war ended.
The Thai military often treated Cambodian refugees who fled the civil wars of the 1970s and 80s very harshly - and Thailand backed the remnants of the Khmer Rouge in their struggle against the Vietnamese occupation, so helping prolong the civil war.
Storm of condemnation
There is of course a very different Thai perspective on these events. But they have left a deep pool of resentment in its smaller and much poorer neighbour that is easily exploited by its leaders.
And Hun Sen has proved very ready to do just that. Five years ago anti-Thai riots broke out in Phnom Penh after a Thai actress was misquoted as saying Angkor Wat should rightly belong to Thailand.
Hun Sen was widely blamed for stirring up nationalist sentiments then. He seems to be doing the same now.
On the Thai side, whatever the current government's real inclinations, it cannot afford to be seen to back down.
Somchai Wongsawat is already battling a storm of condemnation over the way the police dealt with anti-government protests earlier this month.
As Thaksin Shinawatra's brother-in-law, any concessions he makes to Cambodia will arouse suspicions that he is serving the interests of his family before those of the country.
It is hard to see this conflict being settled quickly.

Obituary: Noordin Mohamed Top

Indonesia's most-wanted militant Noordin Mohamed Top, who was linked by investigators to the 2005 Bali bombings, has been killed, say police.

Noordin narrowly escaped capture several times
Officials believe the Malaysian-born former accountant orchestrated a series of attacks across Indonesia.
Noordin was thought to be a key recruiter and financier for the regional Islamist militant group, Jemaah Islamiah, but analysts say he formed his own more hard-line splinter group.
The Indonesian government has managed to stifle militant strikes since September 2005 - the second major attack on Bali, which left 23 dead.

Noordin is not thought to have been involved in the Bali bombings of 2002, according to analysts.
The man thought to have been Noordin's closest ally, Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari Husin, was killed in 2005.
Two self-proclaimed JI leaders were then jailed in April 2008 and three Bali bombers were executed in November that year.
However, the suicide attacks on two hotels in Jakarta in July 2009, which killed nine people including two suspected bombers, raised concerns that Noordin's militant activities had resumed.
The country's anti-terror chief said there were "strong indications" Noordin's group was to blame.
Assumed name
Noordin had fled to Indonesia with Azahari Husin after the Malaysian government cracked down on Islamists following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

Former academic Azahari was an expert bomb-maker
Once in Indonesia, he married using an assumed name, Abdurrachman Aufi.
His wife, Munfiatun, was jailed in June 2005 for concealing information about his whereabouts.
The two men are thought to have acted together to plan attacks, with Noordin as the financier and Azahari as the bomb-maker. Newspapers dubbed them the "Money Man" and the "Demolition Man".
In addition to the two Bali bombings, both men were named as suspects in two other major attacks - one in 2003 on Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel which killed 12 people, and one on the Australian embassy in 2004 which killed 11 people.
Indonesian troops finally cornered Azahari, a trained engineer and former university lecturer who in 1990 gained a doctorate from the UK's University of Reading, at a house in East Java in November 2005.
The father of two was killed, either by a police bullet or by a bomb triggered by an accomplice.
But Noordin continued to evade capture.
In January 2006, police said he was claiming to lead a previously unknown group called Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad, which translates as Organisation for the Base of Jihad.

Analysts speculated that he had drifted away from the main Jemaah Islamiah structure due to a disagreement about attacks on "soft targets", which often kill civilians.
In April 2006 police raided a house in the village of Binangun in central Java after reports that he had been staying there.
Two alleged Jemaah Islamiah militants were killed and another two arrested in an early-morning gun fight. Explosives were later found near the site. But Noordin was not.
In August 2009, security forces thought they had killed Noordin in a raid at a remote farmhouse in central Java, but DNA tests later confirmed it was not him.
The security forces say they finally got their man a month later during a raid at a house on the outskirts of Solo city in central Java. Noordin was identified from fingerprints, said police.
Three suspected militants were also killed during the siege at the rented property, where explosives and grenades were found.