Southeast Asia Archive

When Thai security forces recently raided the offices of the Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) in the country’s insurgency-torn south, it may have been business-as-usual for a military with a checkered human rights record. But a report released last week by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) shows this is part of a disturbing global trend. The report (.pdf), “Assessing Damage, Urging Actions: Report of the Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counterterrorism and Human Rights,” argues that the Bush administration’s post-9/11 “war paradigm” has led to a globalization of extraordinary legal measures which result in an unprecedented corrosive […]

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Thirty years after Pol Pot and his henchmen were driven from power, surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge have finally begun appearing in court after being charged with crimes against humanity. Kaing Guek Eav — more commonly known as Duch — on Tuesday became the first of the ultra-Maoists to stand before the bench of five U.N.-sanctioned judges for his role in the alleged torture and extermination of more than 16,000 people. Initially, the victims were held at the S21 detention center that Duch ran before being sent to the killing fields on the outskirts of […]

Tensions between Cambodia and Thailand appear to be easing after both countries agreed to pull their remaining troops out of a disputed border area near a 900-year-old temple which was the site of armed clashes last year. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said after meeting with Thai Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan that an agreement had been reached to jointly demarcate the area. “There will be no more military confrontation in that area,” Sen said. “I told the Thai delegation that this is an historic moment. We have solved the problems today so there will be no troubled legacy for our […]

ROHINGYA FIND MORE CRUELTY AFTER FLIGHT FROM BURMA — Thailand’s indifferent and criminal response to the plight of hundreds of Rohingya refugees has stunned the human rights community and highlights the world’s continued failure to effectively protect the rights of refugee and asylum seekers. In the course of the last month, three boatloads of Rohingya males have washed ashore in Indonesia and India telling similar tales of beatings and abandonment by Thai authorities. Thailand has admitted rounding up the men and dragging them out to sea, but says its army did not torture them, and supplied food and water. Over […]

Prosecutors seeking justice for the 1.7 million people who died under the rule of the Khmer Rouge have submitted rare video footage obtained from the Vietnamese government to be used as evidence against surviving leaders about to go on trial for crimes against humanity. The evidence will throw the spotlight on Hanoi, which invaded Cambodia and ended Pol Pot’s devastating reign in January 1979. Shortly after the Khmer Rouge fled to the countryside, where the wars continued for another 30 years, Vietnam also staged its own trial of Pol Pot and his chief lieutenant Ieng Sary. Both were found guilty […]