News
Genocide Designation for Myanmar Tests Biden’s Human Rights Policy
Three years ago, American investigators produced a 15,000-page analysis of atrocities committed in 2017 against the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority group in Myanmar. The report documented survivors’ accounts of gang rapes, crucifixions, mutilations, of children being burned or drowned and of families locked inside their blazing ...
Lara Jakes
Local officials under investigation for multimillion baht purchase of street lamps
Following allegations of corruption over a local government’s exorbitant purchases on decorative street lamps, Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating and say procurements of the street lamps in a province just outside Bangkok were not in line with regulations. More than 20 people and ...
Bangkok Post
Vietnam arrests four for anti-state Facebook posts
Police in Hanoi and a central province have detained four Facebookers for posts allegedly infringing state interests and fighting against the communist government. State-run Quang Ngai newspaper reported on June 30 that police in Quang Ngai province arrested Bach Van Hien, 34, Phung Thanh Tuyen, 38, and Le ...
UCA News reporter, Hanoi
Carving up the Cardamoms: Conservationists fear massive land grab in Cambodia
A new regulation signed into law in March this year but only unveiled publicly in May will see almost 127,000 hectares (313,800 acres) of previously protected land in Cambodia made available for sale or rent, prompting fears among conservationists about a land grab for some ...
GERALD FLYNN & ANDREW BALL & PHOUNG VANTHA
Lao Authorities and Women’s Union Assist Trafficking Victims
Lao authorities in cooperation with the Lao Women’s Union have successfully assisted two young women who became victims of human trafficking. The young women, aged between 14 and 16 years, were to be trafficked to China following a deal brokered between their parents and a trafficking ...
Phayboune Thanabouasy
What COVID-19? Synthetic drug trade thrives in Mekong Region
It has been quick to spot opportunities and reduce risks, thriving despite COVID-19. In its own brand of regional integration, it has been connecting the dots across the lower Mekong region as it carves out new ways to cross borders and reach its customers in ...
Johanna Son, Reporting ASEAN
UN Calls for End to ‘Punitive Measures’ Used Against Cambodian Environmental Activists
United Nations human rights and environmental officials called on Wednesday for an end to Cambodian authorities’ use of “punitive measures” against protectors of the country’s environment, following the arrests this month of four young environmental activists. The four activists, members of the Cambodian environmental protection group ...
Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Mekong River group urges more data sharing on hydropower operations
The inter-governmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) has urged China and Southeast Asian countries to share more data on hydropower operations that can contribute to abnormal rises and falls in water levels on the vital waterway. The changes in water levels have affected navigation, river ecosystems and ...
Reuters/dv
Deadly Myanmar mine disaster caused by poor planning, say data sleuths
A detailed analysis of satellite and remote-sensing data has uncovered poor conditions at the Wai Khar jade mine in northern Myanmar, where a landslide last July killed more than 170 people. The international team of authors behind the study1 — the first to rigorously document a mining accident ...
Andrew Silver
Low dry season flows in Mekong drive down Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, countries urged to improve basin-wide management
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat has urged the wider exchange of data and information as part of recommendations to improve water resource management in the Lower Mekong Basin, in a bulletin released today. The 18-page Situation Report encourages MRC Member Countries and Dialogue Partners to share ...
