INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE (Also in NEW YORK TIMES, MIZZIMA)
Oct. 31 “As Violence Continues, Rohingya Find Few Defenders in Myanmar”
Violence has continued this week in western Myanmar, as an apparent campaign of ethnic cleansing is being carried out against the Muslim minority group known as the Rohingya — with little response or outcry from Aung San Suu Kyi or other human rights and pro-democracy activists in the country. A group of several thousand Burmese marched on a Rohingya village on Tuesday to force the residents there to relocate, according to a new report from Radio Free Asia.
TRAVEL DAILY NEWS
Oct. 31 “Discordant noises around Laos’ high speed rail project”
Opposition is building up against plans by Laos to launch construction of an ambitious Laos-China high-speed railway line project with Chinese loans, with at least nine legislators against the U.S. $7 billion plan, according to a report published by Radio Free Asia.
MIZZIMA
Oct. 29 “Up to 4,600 homes destroyed in latest Rakhine unrest”
The Burmese government has said up to 86 people have died, 22,500 people have been displaced from their homes and over 4,600 houses have been burnt in Rakhine State villages in at least eight townships, the UN said in a statement. … In Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, the situation appeared calm but Radio Free Asia reporters at the scene reported a heavy presence security police and military, especially around mosques and Muslim enclaves.
CHINA DIGITAL TIMES (Also in KYODO NEWS, SRI LANKAN GUARDIAN)
Oct. 27 “Seven Tibetans Self-Immolate This Week”
Four self-immolations by Tibetans in the past three days brings the total to seven this week and at least 62 since 2009. According to the scant details available about the most recent cases, three of the four self-immolators have died. Since February 2009, Tibetans in various regions have set themselves on fire as a form of protest against Beijing’s policies in Tibet. Radio Free Asia reports on two men who set themselves on fire in Sangchu (Xiahe) county, near Labrang Monastery in Gansu, on Friday.
KOREA TIMES
Oct. 27 “Election won't change US policy on N. Korea: envoy”
The United States' special envoy for North Korea said there would be no major changes in U.S. policy toward Pyongyang no matter who wins the November presidential election, a report said Saturday. Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, said in a recent forum at Stanford University that since the Reagan administration, the U.S. government has pursued a "dual approach" of using both dialogue and pressure in dealing with North Korea, regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican was in office, the Washington-based Radio Free Asia reported.
IRRAWADDY
Oct. 26 “Letpadaung Mine Protesters Scale New Heights”
In defiance of a local government trespassing act and a police roadblock, some 1,000 miners, monks and members of the general public in Sagaing walked to the highest point of the Letpadaung mountain range on Friday to make merit at a Buddhist pagoda. … In a recent interview with Washington-based Radio Free Asia, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said that the root of the problem with the Letpadaung mining project is a lack of transparency from the ruling government.
GLOBAL POST (Also in PHAYUL, KYODO NEWS)
Oct. 24 “Tibetan self-immolations: China authorities offer rewards to stop protests”
Authorities in Tibetan-inhabited areas of northwestern China are offering rewards of nearly $8,000 for information about people planning to set themselves on fire. Radio Free Asia said a notice posted in Gannan prefecture in Gansu province, where three people have set fire to themselves since Saturday, asked residents to help police prevent further self-immolations.
MIZZIMA NEWS
Oct. 23 “Three dead in clashes in Rakhine State”
Three people died and hundreds of homes were burned in violent clashes starting on Sunday between Muslims and Buddhists in the western Rakhine State in Burma, officials report. … Zarganar, a popular entertainer who is one of 27 commission members, told Radio Free Asia (RFA), “At some point, things have become tougher as we do not have enough cooperation from all sides. For example the local ethnic Rakhine, Muslim community, government offices, and even the members of parliament have become increasingly less willing to participate.”
CBS MIAMI
Oct. 22 “Debate at Lynn Generating Worldwide Headlines”
Lynn University, a school many across the nation are hearing of for the first time Monday will be the center of the political world when President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney face off in the third and final presidential debate. … “People want to know in Asia, in Pacific Asia, what policy do both candidates have for China?” said Khanh Nguyen of Radio Free Asia. “And we hope to have the answer by tonight.”
GLOBAL POST
Oct. 22 “Tibetan man self-immolates at famous Labrang monastery, activists say”
A Tibetan man has died after self-immolating at Labrang monastery in China's north-west Gansu province, according to campaign group Free Tibet. … Lhamo Kyap, 27, ran in flames toward policemen, shouting slogans against Chinese rule and calling for the exiled Dalai Lama to return, Radio Free Asia reported.
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Oct. 19 “Cambodia begins mourning period”
Cambodia, the country which suffered several million deaths under the brief but brutal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, is now in an official weeklong state of mourning for its former king. An estimated 100,000 mourners lined the 6-mile route through the capital Phnom Penh to catch a glimpse of the ornate float bearing the equally ornate coffin of Norodom Sihanouk who died in Beijing at age 90 this week. … Hun Sen, who has been at the helm of Cambodian politics for more than 30 years, may welcome the death of Sihanouk, a report by Radio Free Asia said.
TIBETAN REVIEW
Oct. 18 “Blog activist Woeser says Tibet self-immolation deaths number 57”
The number of known self-immolation deaths of Tibetan protesters in Chinese ruled Tibet, as of Oct 17, is actually 57, rather than 55, according to Beijing-based Tibet blog activist Ms Tsering Woeser whose Aug 1 blog posting on the issue has recently been translated and posted on highpeakspureearth.com. … A Radio Free Asia (Washington) report at the time did say the Rinpoche had asked firends and relatives to bring as much butter as possible as he was going to make a special offering to the self-immolation martyrs.
MIZZIMA
Oct. 16 “OIC office in Burma fuels monk demonstrations”
The 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will not be allowed to establish a permanent office in the country following protests across the country by Buddhists demanding details of the agreement, said Burmese government officials. … Reacting to the move, the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based OIC threatened to take “appropriate” action, said Radio Free Asia in a story on Monday on its website.
HOMELAND SECURITY NEWSWIRE
Oct. 15 “China’s Mekong River dams undermine neighbors’ economies, food production”
Five Chinese dams on the Mekong River’s upper portions have caused rapid changes in water level, and other adverse effects, downstream, especially in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos, where millions of people rely on the river for water, food, and transportation. China’s Mekong dams are so remote they receive little coverage in the Western media,” Milton Osborne, a Southeast Asian expert at the Lowy Institute, told Radio Free Asia. “Yet, like the more readily viewed sites for proposed dams in Laos and Cambodia, what is happening in China will eventually alter the productive capabilities of mainland Southeast Asia’s longest and most important river, a river vital to the sustenance of sixty million people of the Lower Mekong Basin.”
CAMBODIA POST
Oct. 14 “Who is Mam Sonando?”
In the dozens of international reports on the jailing of Mam Sonando for 20 years earlier this month, the Beehive Radio station owner seems to be wearing many hats. … Apart from being a radio station owner who does his own talk-back programs and rebroadcasts material by the US government-financed Voice of America and the US congress-funded Radio Free Asia, who is Mam Sonando?
TIBETAN REVIEW
Oct. 12 “100,000s of newspapers destroyed for report on official corruption”
Hundreds of thousands of copies of a local newspaper in China’s southwestern Yunnan province were destroyed under official order on Oct 9 because it contained a report on an official’s taste for luxury accessories, reported Radio Free Asia (Washington) Oct 9, citing sources at the paper.
REUTERS (Also in PHNOM PENH POST, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, RADIO AUSTRALIA, UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL)
Oct. 11 “Cambodia accuses U.S.-funded broadcasters of opposition bias”
Cambodia has threatened legal action against two U.S.-funded radio stations, accusing them of favoring opposition parties and promoting U.S. foreign policy, sources said on Thursday. Representatives of Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) were called to a closed-door meeting on Wednesday.
… "The Cambodian government clearly does not understand the principles of a free press or the important role of independent media if it thinks it can intimidate RFA and dictate what we can or cannot report on," U.S.-based spokesman John Estrella said in a statement.
MIZZIMA
Oct. 11 “Both sides file suits in mine protest”
Over 1,000 villagers staged a symbolic demonstration on Tuesday at a graveyard to dramatize their struggle against a Chinese co-owned mine in the Letpadaung mountain range near Sagaing Division's Monywa city. … “We went there and cried. We cried for the land lost, for the disappearance of the Letpadaung mountains,” Phyu Phyu Win, one of the protest leaders, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) in a report on its website published on Thursday.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES (Also in EPOCH TIMES)
Oct. 11 “China Resorting To Violent Evictions To Pay Off Government Debt: Amnesty”
Forced evictions, often involving violence and harassment, are on the rise in China as local authorities seek to offset the huge debts by seizing and then selling off land to real estate developers, Amnesty International said Thursday. … In a story published in August, Radio Free Asia reported Chinese petitioners as saying that they were repeatedly stonewalled, detained in "black jails," and harassed by authorities if they tried to take complaints against the local government actions to higher levels of government.
PHNOM PENH POST
Oct. 9 “Villagers continue to fight for their land”
Four years after they began fighting the well-connected concessionaire DM Group, members of the ethnic Tampuon who remain in Svay Sor village are exhausted. While the DM Group has seen its complaints against villagers and activists routinely heard at court, those filed by the affected families remain stalled or are ignored. … CCHR President Ou Virak was questioned at Ratankkiri Provincial Court yesterday in relation to charges of inciting villagers to rebel against authorities, criminal damage and defamation. On Wednesday and Thursday, Sok Ratha, a journalist for Radio Free Asia, and Adhoc activists Pen Bonnar and Chhay Thy face questioning over similar allegations.
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE (Also in JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE)
Oct. 7 “Tibetan protester sets himself on fire”
A Tibetan man has died after setting himself on fire inside a Buddhist monastery in China, the latest in a series of self-immolations in protest against Chinese rule. Radio Free Asia says 27-year-old Sangay Gyatso set himself alight inside the Dokar monastery in China's western Gansu province on Saturday.
MIZZIMA NEWS
Oct. 5 “Split opens in KNU leadership”
Three top leaders of the Karen rebel forces were fired on Wednesday, said Karen National Union (KNU) sources, for allegedly opening a liaison office with the government without informing the group’s political wing and “repeated violations” of regulations, according to a report on the Radio Free Asia (RFA) website on Thursday.
NEW YORK TIMES (Also in DEUTCHE PRESSE AGENTUR, TIBETAN REVIEW, GLOBAL POST)
Oct. 4 “China Jails 4 Tibetans Linked to Self-Immolation Protests”
Four Tibetans, including two teenage Buddhist monks, have been given lengthy prison terms for supporting the resistance movement to Chinese rule that has involved the self-immolation of more than 50 people since 2009, according to Radio Free Asia, a news organization financed by the United States government. … All of the men were incommunicado for several months; the news that they had been tried and convicted was relayed to Radio Free Asia through two exiled Tibetan monks with contacts in the region.
MIZZIMA
Oct. 3 “Burma wants to share more revenue with ethnic states: minister”
Ethnic states in Burma should receive a greater share of revenue for the exploitation of their natural resources, a minister in the President’s Office said on Monday. Senior minister Soe Thein said Parliament should approve changes to the Constitution to allow a greater percentage of revenue sharing, in a report on the Radio Free Asia (RFA) website.
RADIO AUSTRALIA
Oct. 2 “Rights group condemns sentencing of Cambodian radio station owner”
International rights groups and a dozen Cambodian NGOs have condemned the sentencing of the owner of one of the country's independent radio stations to 20 years jail for incitement. … Mam Sonando's radio station, Beehive Radio has for many years rented its airwaves to international news programs such as Radio Free Asia and Voice of America and has had many run-ins with the government in the past.
MIZZIMA NEWS
Oct. 1 “Burma’s 2015 election will be tough fight: Thein Sein”
President Thein Sein said this weekend Burma’s government-backed party would face a “neck-and-neck” fight from opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in the crucial 2015 elections. He told Radio Free Asia that unlike the 2010 polls, when his Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) swept nearly 80 per cent or 883 seats out of the 1,154 electoral seats that were up for grabs, the elections in three years time will be very different.
MYANMAR TIMES
Oct. 1 “Director makes nostalgic return home after 18 years”
The literary and acting communities in Myanmar rejoiced last month at the homecoming on September 8 of well-known cartoonist, artist, writer and film director U Win Pe. … “During my stay in the US, I applied for a job at Radio Free Asia [RFA] when the station was founded. Being a movie director, I could arrange music with news for broadcasting. Presenting some features on Myanmar, I got a job for the Burmese language service in 1997, a month before it began to broadcast in February,” he said. “It was a chance to supply news that was blocked in my country.” He worked at RFA until 2005, and when he returned to Myanmar last month he arrived with assignments from Voice of America and British Broadcasting Corporation, for both of which he still works.
