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CAMBODIA
HR groups demand release of jailed activists
Human rights advocates are pressing the Cambodian government to release jailed leading human rights activists Kem Sokha and Yeng Virak. “The arrest of rights activists, as well as recent show trials of opposition politicians, is a throwback to the days when Hun Sen ran a one-party state,” said Brad Adams, HRW Asia Director. Sokha, Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) president, and Virak, Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) Director, were detained on December 31 in connection with handwritten comments attacking Prime Minister Hun Sen on a banner flaunted at an International Human Rights Day celebration recently.
CHINA
‘No spitting’ campaign ahead of Olympics
Xinhuanet has reported that the Beijing municipal government will launch a major anti-spitting and anti-littering campaign ahead of the city’s hosting of the 2008 Olympics. For everybody’s ease, Beijing will set up trash cans every 100 meters in the city’s main avenues and other public areas and provide handy sanitary bags for people to spit into on buses, taxis and other public facilities.
INDIA
Repeal Colonial-Era Sodomy Law
The new arrest of four gay men in Lucknow last January 4 shows that India’s colonial-era sodomy law continues to threaten human rights and encourages the spread of HIV, Human Rights Watch said January 11. Nabbed suspects were charged for operating a “gay racket” on the internet, as well as of engaging in “unnatural” sex. Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program said: “India’s government clings to the criminalization of homosexual conduct, which only prevents people from coming forward for HIV/AIDS testing, information, and services.”
KAZAKHSTAN
Kazakhstan opens pipeline to China
Via East Asia Watch, Kazakhstan has opened a new oil pipeline to China. The 625-mile pipeline designed to carry 140 million barrels of oil a year. Kazakhstan is aiming to more than double its production from 1.3 million barrels to 3 million barrels a day by 2015. For China, the new route is a key step toward securing adequate foreign energy supplies for its booming economy. Out of China’s total oil consumption last year of 6.7 million barrels a day, almost half came from imports, according to figures from oil company BP PLC.
TAIWAN
Taiwan develops new cruise missile
Taiwan has produced another type of cruise missile as part of their strategy of active defense. Three prototypes of a new cruise missile were developed with a potential range of 1000 km, more than enough to reach targets along the coast of mainland China. Dubbed Hsiung Feng 2E (Brave Wind), the missile “will be deployed on mobile land-based platforms and initial plans are drawn for the production of up to 50 missiles before 2010 and up to 500 missiles after 2010,” Jane’s Defence Weekly said in an article published January 11.
THAILAND
‘Blacklists’ create climate of fear— HRW
Think tank Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Thai government to end its use of blacklists of suspected militants, “which could lead to arbitrary detentions and mistreatment of people in custody.” HRW research revealed that with more than a thousand deaths since a new spate of insurgency began in January 2004, Thai authorities are increasingly using flawed blacklists to pressure Muslim villagers to turn themselves in to the authorities. HRW also said that flawed blacklists were used in the 2003 “war on drugs” wherein around 2,500 Thais were killed in “unexplained circumstances.”
PAKISTAN
15 killed in gas field blast
Twelve of around 40 militants attacking a gas field adjacent the small town of Pir Koh, in troubled south-west Pakistan were killed in fighting with security forces on January 12. Baluch militants have been battling for decades to fight over the control of gas and other natural resources. Government forces launched its recent offensive in Baluchistan after a December 14 rocket assault on a paramilitary base when President Pervez Musharraf was visiting a nearby town.
SRI LANKA
Rebels attack navy boat, 15 missing
Fifteen sailors were missing and feared dead after suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a naval vessel off Sri Lanka’s east coast early dawn on January 13. According to reports, the recent incident comes amid series of attacks against the island’s government forces by the suspected leftists who have warned to continue their armed struggle unless given wide autonomy.
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