LEAD: European parliamentarians pressure Laos on missing activist Eds: Updates with EU delegation quotes
Bangkok (dpa) - European parliamentarians on a visit to Vientiane Monday vowed to keep diplomatic pressure on Laos to solve the case of missing activist Sombath Somphone.
"We did not get convincing answers to any of our questions," said Werner Langen, chairman of the European Parliament‘s delegation for South-East Asia....
Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi urged to place human rights, anti-Muslim violence at the top of the agenda
Legislators from across Southeast Asia today called on Aung San Suu Kyi and European Parliamentarians and leaders to use the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader’s visit to Europe to secure greater commitments to tackle persistent human rights concerns in Myanmar, and draw particular focus on growing sectarian conflict...
Indonesia: Follow Friday: Activist @AndreasHarsono Teaches News Tricks
Though long active on social media through his eponymous blog, Andreas only became active on Twitter after the attack on Ahmadiyah Muslims in Cikeusik, Banten that left three dead.
“After the incident, I tweeted frequently about the killing.”
Andreas posted a video of the attack to YouTube after a leading TV...
Viet Nam: Buddhists and Christians denounce Hanoi for using law to control religions
Joint document by leaders of major religions in Vietnam , against the limitations to freedom posed by the communist government. The target the 2004 Norm on Religions and the implementation of 2012 Decree. The separation between state and religion is the basis for a democratic country , which must...
Clothes on your back: Inside Cambodia’s garment industry
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA—Neang Seap and his wife, Em Mom, arrived in Phnom Penh bearing the lacerating wounds that mark Cambodia’s rural migrants. Evicted by the Khmer Rouge in the late ’70s from his village in the country’s eastern zone, Neang was part of the long forced march west, ending...
Thailand: Proposal to DNA-test migrant workers panned
Prompted by concerns over the ease with which foreigners will be able to travel in and out of the country once the Asean Economic Community (AEC) commences in 2015, the Institute for Forensic Medicine is calling on the government to collect the DNA of all migrant workers entering the...
Thailand: Abhisit, Suthep charged in 2010 red shirt rally crackdown
Bangkok — Thai prosecutors indicted former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban on Monday for ordering crackdowns on the 2010 red shirt protests that left at least 92 people dead.
The indictments are based on a report compiled by the Department of Special Investigation covering the...
Of Allah and the state of Malaysia
Earlier this month, the Malaysian Court of Appeal upheld an administrative direction by the government prohibiting the Catholic Church of Malaysia from using the word "Allah" to denote "God" in the Malay version of the Church's newsletter, The Herald.
The government asserts that the direction, along with a condition that...
Indonesia: Disturbing report reveals details about ‘genocide’ in West Papua
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has released a report into human rights abuses against West Papuans by the Indonesian military in 1977 and 1978, saying what occurred amounted to genocide.
The Hong Kong-based organisation called for an ad hoc human rights court to be set up to hear the...
Cambodian Authorities Violently Disperse Protests over Shooting Death
Authorities in Cambodia's capital on Friday violently cracked down on a group of protesters demanding justice for a man shot dead after police opened fire at the sidelines of an opposition rally last month, witnesses said.
Security forces forcefully dispersed dozens of villagers and monks who had gathered at the...
