Exclusive: Politicians accuse China of organising a ‘Potemkin-style tour’ for Michelle Bachelet
A group of 40 politicians from 18 countries have told the UN high commissioner for human rights that she risks causing lasting damage to the credibility of her office if she goes ahead with a visit to China’s Xinjiang region next week.
Michelle Bachelet is scheduled to visit Kashgar and Ürümqi in Xinjiang during her trip, which starts on Monday. Human rights organisations say China has forced an estimated 1 million or more people into internment camps and prisons in the region. The US and a number of other western countries have described China’s treatment of the Uyghur minority living there as genocidal, a charge Beijing calls the “lie of the century”.
A movement dedicated to peaceful self-determination among indigenous groups in the Pacific is the latest group in Aotearoa to add support for struggling Papuan students caught in Aotearoa New Zealand after an abrupt cancellation of their scholarships.
About 70 Papuan students are currently in New Zealand but more than half have been negatively impacted on by the sudden removal of their Indonesian government scholarships earlier this year.
Pax Christi Aotearoa New Zealand has added its voice to media academics, church groups, community groups such as the Whānau Hub, and Green and Labour MPs in appealing for special case visas to be granted for the almost 40 students still stuck in the country trying to complete their qualifications.
It has also donated $1000 to the students fundraising campaign to assist with their living and accommodation costs while appeals have been made to some educational institutions to waive tuition fees.
A Pax Christi group met with a delegation of the Papuan students at the Friends’ House in Auckland last week.
“The 40 or so students across several institutions who are the object of our concern have been suddenly faced with the cancellation of their scholarships awarded by the Indonesian government,” said Pax Christi spokesperson Kevin McBride in an appeal to Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi this month.
He said efforts by the International Alliance of Papuan Student Associations Overseas (IAPSAO) and other relevant bodies to address their plight had been unsuccessful.
‘Perilous situations’
This had left many of them in “perilous situations” over the status of their visas and their ability to complete their qualifications.
Professor David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report and a specialist Pacific journalism educator for the past 30 years, is also one of the people who have appealed for special case visas for the students.
In a letter late last month to the minister, he said the students had been “unfairly treated” by the abrupt cancellation of their Indonesian scholarships.
He described it as an “unprecedented action” and that they were Melanesian students and ought to be “considered as Pacific Islanders” for completing their studies in New Zealand.
In an earlier open letter to the minister, Dr Robie said Papuan students studying in Australia and New Zealand faced “tough and stressful challenges apart from the language barrier”.
McBride said that in this Asia-Pacific region of the world, a predominant basis for division was colonisation and the effects of colonisation.
“Over many years, members of our Pax Christi section have been able to visit West Papua and to work with the mainly church-based groups there intent in improving the capacity of their people to play a significant role in the development of their nation,” he said.
Pax Christ’s Del Abcede hands over the documents of the social justice movement’s assistance to Papuan student spokesperson Laurens Ikinia. Image: Pax Christi
Assistance with education
“Often this involves assisting them to gain educational qualifications in overseas countries and helping them cope with problems associated with that process.”
Pax Christi had been able to strengthen relationships and understanding.
“We have been hosting seminars and dialogue with sympathetic groups here in Aotearoa and across the international Pax Christi movement, which includes an Indonesian section,” McBride said.
Laurens Ikinia, a 26-year-old Papuan postgraduate communications student and the media spokesperson of IAPSAO, welcomed the assistance from Pax Christi and other groups and thanked New Zealand for its generosity.
“We are determined to finish our studies if we can,” he said.
Papuan students meet Pax Christi members at the Friends’ House in Mt Eden, Auckland. Spokesperson Kevin McBride is standing (third from left) next to Laurens Ikinia. Image: Del Abcede/APR
One in 25 people sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges in Konasheher, Xinjiang province, where Communist party represses Muslim minority
Nearly one in 25 people in a county of the Uyghur heartland of China has been sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges, in what is the highest known imprisonment rate in the world, an Associated Press review of leaked data shows.
A list obtained and partially verified by the Associated Press cites the names of more than 10,000 Uyghurs sent to prison in just Konasheher county, one of dozens in southern Xinjiang. In recent years, China has waged a brutal crackdown on the Uyghurs, a largely Muslim minority, which it has described as a “war on terror”.
Factcheckers say Ferdinand Marcos Jr was overwhelming beneficiary of a flood of online disinformation before poll
Survivors of the brutal regime of the late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos have described his son’s apparent landslide presidential election victory as the product of trickery and disinformation, warning it is unlikely the billions stolen by his family will be recovered, and that human rights in the country will be weakened.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr had won more than 30.8m votes in a highly divisive presidential election by Monday, according to an unofficial count. His vote tally is more than double that of his closest challenger, the human rights lawyer and current vice-president, Leni Robredo, who had campaigned based on transparency and good governance.
The dictator’s son is the favourite to win presidential race, reviving memories of a painful era for many
Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator who ruled the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, was the nation’s most decorated hero of the second world war. Under his rule, the armed forces were the most advanced in Asia. Even more impressive: his family owns enormous quantities of gold, enough to save the world (it was given to Marcos by a royal family as payment for acting as their lawyer). It will be shared with the people if they regain power.
The claims are all false. But that hasn’t stop them from echoing across social media, saturating news feeds across the Philippines.
John Lee is the only candidate in the running to succeed Carrie Lam as chief executive
At the height of Hong Kong’s protests in the summer of 2019, angry pro-democracy legislators shouted in the Chinese territory’s legislative council: “down with John Lee!”, as the veteran security chief defended his force’s treatment of the protesters and journalists.
“I hope people will understand the chaotic situation and the pressure faced by each and every one at the scene on that day,” Lee said, unapologetically. “I hope members of the public will not vent their dissatisfaction of the government on police officers, because they are only discharging their duties.”
Report on effects of Typhoon Haiyan says fossil and cement firms engaged in ‘wilful obfuscation’ of science
The world’s most polluting companies have a moral and legal obligation to address the harms of climate change because of their role in spreading misinformation, according to an inquiry brought about by Filipino typhoon survivors.
Experts say the long-awaited report published on Friday, which concludes that coal, oil, mining and cement firms engaged in “wilful obfuscation” of climate science and obstructed efforts towards a global transition to clean energy, could add fuel to climate lawsuits around the world.
The independent Casey report calls for an end to arbitrary detention, and proper resettlement resources to treat asylum seekers as equal to quota refugees
The plight of asylum seekers is in sharp focus with heart-wrenching images of exhausted and terrified Ukrainian families forced into displacement. And while arriving at borders and seeking refuge is not new, the treatment of those forced to cross borders for asylum has rarely been so compassionate.
Even in a nation that prides itself on compassionate governance, an independent report into the detention of asylum seekers in New Zealand has found the worst of systemic abuse.
More than 88,000 Hongkongers have come to the UK under a new visa scheme after a harsh crackdown on civil liberties in the city. How are they coping? What are they doing? And do they think they will return?
Thousands of Hongkongers escaping from China’s increasingly authoritarian grip on the city have settled in Britain over the past year in search of a new life. This fresh start comes via the British national (overseas) visa scheme.
More than 88,000 Hongkongers applied for the BNO visa, launched last January, in its first eight months, according to Home Office figures. It allows them to live, study and work in Britain for five years. Once that time is up, BNO holders can apply to stay permanently. The government is expecting about 300,000 people to use this new route to citizenship in the next five years.
Court rules long-criticised military sodomy law shouldn’t apply to consensual sex off base in off-duty hours
South Korea’s supreme court has thrown out a military court ruling that convicted two gay soldiers for having sex outside their military facilities, saying it stretched the reading of the country’s widely criticised military sodomy law.
The court’s decision on Thursday to send the case back to the high court for armed forces was welcomed by human rights advocates, who had long protested the country’s 1962 military criminal act’s article 92-6, which prohibits same-sex conduct among soldiers in the country’s predominantly male military.
After nine years, having borne witness to an immeasurable toll on human life, having poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a failing system, and after repeated international condemnation, Australia has belatedly accepted New Zealand’s resolute offer – an almost nagging entreaty – to resettle 150 refugees from Australia’s punitive offshore processing system, every year, for three years.
The offer has been on the table since 2013 – politely but persistently put by three New Zealand prime ministers to five Australian ones.
For asylum seekers, Norway is a sanctuary but even in remote towns, Muslim refugees say they face surveillance and threats
In a remote corner north of the Arctic Circle, Memettursun Omer gazes out the window at the swirling snowstorm outside as the tinny voice of a Chinese official blares from the mobile phone in his hand.
An Uyghur Muslim from China’s remote north-west Xinjiang region, Omer has travelled about as far as he can go to escape the Chinese authorities – to the small Norwegian town of Kirkenes.
Michelle Bachelet’s announcement comes as 192 groups call for release of long-postponed report into region
The UN rights chief has announced that she will make a long-delayed visit to China in May, including to Xinjiang, where activists and western lawmakers say Beijing is subjecting Uyghur people to genocide.
“I am pleased to announce that we have recently reached an agreement with the government of China for a visit,” Michelle Bachelet told the UN human rights council on Tuesday.
Royalist groups have organised petitions calling for Amnesty to be expelled from the country, accusing it of threatening national security
Amnesty International has said attacks against its operations in Thailand were taking place against a backdrop of “growing intolerance for human rights discourse” among the country’s authorities, and warned of a clampdown on civil society groups.
Amnesty has come under increased pressure in Thailand, where ultra royalists have accused it of threatening national security and interfering in the country’s internal affairs after it criticised legal cases filed against monarchy reform protesters.
In November, prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered an investigation into the NGO, while royalist groups have organised petitions calling for it to be expelled from the country.
An Indonesian court sentenced a teacher for the rape of 13 students to life in prison. The case has drawn countrywide attention to sexual abuse in the religious boarding schools.
Herry Wirawan, 36, was found guilty of raping 13 all minors’ female students. He impregnates eight of them by Bandung district court in West Java.
The case sparked national outrage, President Joko Widodo has paid special attention to the case according to a senior government official.
The pattern of cruelty came to light after the family of a female student reported Wirawan to the police for raping and impregnating their teenage daughter last year.
During the trial, it was revealed he had raped the children belongs to poor families. These attended students were on scholarships over five years.
Prosecutors requested chemical castration and the death penalty for the accused, who asked the judge for leniency to allow him to raise his children.
Wirawan arrived in court in handcuffs and kept his head down as judge Yohannes Purnomo Suryo Adi sentenced him to life in prison.
The court said compensation for the victims will be paid by the government.
The chairman of Indonesia’s Child Protection Commission said Tuesday’s verdict meant “justice for the victims has been served”.
Law makes it an offence to perform so-called ‘therapy’ on anyone under 18 and comes with sentence of up to three years’ imprisonment
New Zealand has banned conversion practices, with near unanimity, after all but eight National party members voted in favour of the law.
Conversion “therapy” refers to the practice, often by religious groups, of trying to “cure” people of their sexuality, gender expression or LGBTQI identity.
UK-based Hong Kong Watch says outage could be part of wider Beijing crackdown
The website of a UK-based advocacy group appears to have become inaccessible through some networks in Hong Kong, raising fears of mainland-style internet censorship in the Chinese territory.
The group, Hong Kong Watch, which monitors human rights, said it worried the censorship could be a part of a wider crackdown on freedom of speech under Hong Kong’s national security law, which allows the police to ask service providers to “delete” information or “provide assistance” on national security cases.
Fifty years after the UK forcibly deported them, five Chagossians have visited the disputed archipelago with Mauritius’s help
Returning to their birthplace after decades of enforced exile, five Chagossians leapt from a motor launch on to the palm-shaded beach of Peros Banhos atoll on Saturday afternoon, kissed the sand and stood – hands joined together – in prayer.
For Olivier Bancoult, Lisbey Elyse, Marie Suzelle Baptiste, Rosemonde Bertin and Marcel Humbert, it was the moment they had long anticipated – the first time they could step ashore without close close monitoring by British officials. It is 50 years since they were forcibly deported to Mauritius by the UK, which cleared the archipelago of its entire population to make way for a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
Australian consular officials have been denied access to a dual Australian-Chinese citizen detained in Hong Kong for 11 months for alleged “subversion”.
The Australian government – which has had an increasingly strained relationship with Beijing – renewed its concerns about “the erosion of basic freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong” under the territory’s broadly worded national security law.
Tang Mingfang is willing to risk reprisals to clear his name over Foxconn revelations – and to get backing from Jeff Bezos
A whistleblower who exposed illegal working conditions in a factory making Amazon’s Alexa devices says he was tortured before being jailed by Chinese authorities.
Tang Mingfang, 43, was jailed after he revealed how the Foxconn factory in the southern Chinese city of Hengyang used schoolchildren working illegally long hours to manufacture Amazon’s popular Echo, Echo Dot and Kindle devices.
British judges are lending credibility to an increasingly anti-democratic justice system in Hong Kong, argues Siobhain McDonagh
The Orwellian reports coming from Hong Kong will come as no surprise to those of us who have been watching its legal system deteriorate (New Hong Kong barristers’ chief warns profession to stay out of politics, 21 January). Since the draconian national security law was imposed in 2020, Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong has been increasingly flagrant. As shocking as the attack on the rule of law in Hong Kong is, we should also be asking why British judges are still propping up a broken system.
British judges have sat in Hong Kong’s court of final appeal since the territory was returned in 1997. But the deterioration of the city’s legal system means they are now lending a false veneer of respectability to Beijing’s campaign against human rights and political freedom.
A Crash landing of a Navy F-35C Lightning II fighter on an US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson deployed in South China Sea resultant seven US sailors were injured on Monday. No details were provided on the cause of the incident.
The incident took place when a stealth combat aircraft was attempting to land after routine flight operations. The investigations was under way, according to statement issued by US Pacific Fleet.
The pilot rescued by a helicopter after ejecting and was in stable condition. Three among seven sailors were evacuated to Manila, Philippines for treatment, where their condition was also stable. Remaining four sailors were treated aboard the ship while three have been released, the statement added.
The Vinson and another US carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, and their strike groups began drills Sunday in the South China Sea, following exercises with a Japanese naval ship in the Philippine Sea last week.
On Russia and Putin, the president said the quiet part loud. Re-engagement has been welcomed but the exit from Afghanistan was a disaster. Analysts see much to do to rebuild US credibility
Joe Biden marked his first anniversary in office with a gaffe over Ukraine that undid weeks of disciplined messaging and diplomatic preparation.
The president’s suggestion that a “minor incursion” by Russia might split Nato over how to respond sent the White House into frantic damage limitation mode.
Potential restrictions on athletes’ speech at the Beijing Winter Olympics are “very concerning”, Australia’s sports minister, Richard Colbeck, has said after China warned of “punishment” for political comments at next month’s Games.
Colbeck said the Australian government opposed China’s advisory, and maintained athletes had the right to free speech on the Olympic stage.
Yang Maodong held ‘on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power’ two days after death of his wife
A Chinese human rights activist and writer who was detained following repeated pleas to be allowed to visit his terminally ill wife has been formally arrested days after she died for allegedly “inciting subversion of state power”.
Yang Maodong, who goes by the pen-name Guo Feixiong, was formally arrested on Monday last week by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, two days after the death of his wife, Zhang Qing.
Hours after a massive volcanic eruption near Tonga, Tsunami reached Japan late Saturday and waves as high as three meters were possible, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
A 1.2 meter (about four feet) tsunami reached the remote southern island of Amami Oshima around 11:55pm (1455 GMT) Saturday before other areas along Japan’s Pacific coast observed slighter tsunami, agency added.
The eastern shores of northernmost Hokkaido Island as well as southwestern regions of Kochi and Wakayama also saw tsunami as high as 0.9 meters shortly after midnight, the agency said.
Japan National broadcaster switched to special programming and aired live footage from ports of affected regions and calling to evacuate the area. The footage showed no clear signs of abnormality.
A weather agency official told in a midnight news conference that radars had detected a tidal change higher than one meter after 11pm.
The agency didn’t immediately classify it as tsunami. However, it decided to activate the public tsunami warning systems to urge the evacuation of Amami residents.
“We don’t know at this point whether this is tsunami, but a strong tidal change has been observed, so we’re urging residents to respond,” the official told the press conference.
Watchdog’s latest report argues autocrats around the world are getting desperate as opponents form coalitions to challenge them
Increasingly repressive and violent acts against civilian protests by autocratic leaders and military regimes around the world are signs of their desperation and weakening grip on power, Human Rights Watch says in its annual assessment of human rights across the globe.
In its world report 2022, the human rights organisation said autocratic leaders faced a significant backlash in 2021, with millions of people risking their lives to take to the streets to challenge regimes’ authority and demand democracy.
The violent protests which erupted in major cities across Kazakhstan over the past week, fueled by the people’s fury over high gas prices, has grown into a monumental anti-corruption movement with the hopes of changing the country’s direction.
The Kazakh people are reportedly fed up with the country’s immense wealth, owed to large oil reserves, being held by a small number of corrupt elites.
Last Sunday, the rebellion began in western Kazakhstan, a region known for its natural resources and oil richness, against a significant surge in fuel prices. Despite the Kazakh government’s promise to lower them, the protests spread throughout the country with a broader demand for better social benefits and less governmental corruption.
The Kazakh president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, issued a statement on Wednesday night calling, without offering evidence, protesters “a band of terrorists” who had been “trained abroad” – alluding to possible foreign interference.
Tokayev declared a state of emergency in Kazakhstan and requested the intervention from Russia’s version of NATO, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), to which Kazakhstan and Russia are members. Others include Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The chairman of the CSTO, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, also blames “outside interference” for the mass protests.
Russian-led troops
As promised by the military pact between Russia and Kazakhstan, Russian-led CSTO troops have stormed into Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, and were being met by large groups of demonstrators setting fire to trucks, police cars, and barricading themselves.
Some protesters wielding firearms were caught on camera looting shops and malls and setting government buildings on fire (including Almaty’s City Hall and the president’s former office).
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev … claimed huge crowds of protesters were “a band of terrorists” without offering evidence. Image: Wikidata
Local demonstrators also captured the Almaty airport. Flights in and out of airports in Almaty, Aktau, and Aktobe were suspended until further notice.
Much of the violence and scale of the chaos can be witnessed on social media applications such as Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok. However, with the government’s internet shutdown on the entire country, many current reports are unconfirmed.
Kazakh locals, such as Galym Ageleulov, who has been witnessing the events of the past few days, states that throngs of criminals had co-opted the “movement that was calling for peaceful change”.
Suddenly, the protesters morphed into groups of primarily young men posing with riot shields and helmets captured from police officers.
According to Ageleulov, these groups of men had replaced the Almaty police force and were “highly organised and managed by gang leaders”.
Three police beheaded claim
Further unconfirmed reports sent in by locals on the ground in Almaty have stated that these men have beheaded up to three police officers.
The Kazakh interior ministry stated that at least eight police officers and national guard troops were killed during the protests while 300 were injured and more than 3800 protesters were arrested.
Kazakh Americans have flocked to social media to spread awareness of what is going on in the influential Central Asian nation.
One source on Tik Tok powerfully declared that “the revolution has started” and that the Kazakh people are calling for President Tokayev to “step down”.
In response to the people’s demands for a sincere governmental anti-corruption, Tokayev simply sacked the country’s cabinet — and this did little to ease dissent and infuriated the protesters.
Tokayev’s request for foreign military troops to help quell the protests has only further angered the Kazakh people, who feel deeply betrayed that their government would beckon foreign military groups to gun down Kazakh protestors chanting for their country’s freedom.
The nation’s fury with their authoritarian leader is exacerbated by Tokayev’s recent statement in a televised address that “whoever does not surrender will be destroyed. I have given the order to law enforcement agencies and the army to shoot to kill without warning”.
Locals line up for bread
Almaty’s commercial banks have been ordered to shut down, forcing Kazakhs to withdraw all their cash from ATMs. Stores and markets have been forcibly closed as well, causing locals to line up for rations of bread — a heartbreaking sight that has been unseen in Kazakhstan since the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Almaty’s City Hall, a famous white building that once served as the Communist Party headquarters, is charred black from protestors’ flames set on it.
Kazakhstan has been long been praised as being one of the most successful post-Soviet republics. The country has by far the highest GDP per capita in the Central Asian region and plenty of oil reserves, driven mostly by its western region.
Additionally, Kazakhstan accounted for more than 50 percent of the global uranium exports in 2020.
Kazakhstan is also the second largest country for bitcoin mining. Due to the Kazakh government’s shutdown of the internet, crypto markets have seen a considerable loss.
Despite the country’s abundance of natural resources, most of Kazakhstan’s enormous wealth has not been equally spread among the populace.
Corrupt elites live in style
Since the country’s independence, corrupt elites and officials have been living in luxury while the vast majority of the Kazakh people survive on paltry salaries.
The current dire situation in Kazakhstan can be interpreted as a significant warning for neighbouring Russia. Presidential succession creates unrest in authoritarian countries.
In 2019, former president Nursultan Nazarbayev hand-picked his successor, Tokayev. While this change may have seemed refreshing on the surface, the Kazakh people are well aware of Nazarbayev’s shadow-emperor hold on the country’s political power.
An invaluable lesson must be learned from Kazakhstan’s present state: a raging sea of anger and discontent might be storming beneath a thin veil of regional stability.
A petition posted on Change.org, which 36,000+ people have signed, calls to remove foreign military troops from Kazakhstan.
Ella Kelleher is a Kazakh American at English major graduate at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, US. She is the book review editor-in-chief and a contributing staff writer for Asia Media International.
Experts have finally finds ways to extinguish a massive five-decade old fire in a giant natural gas crater, “Gateway to Hell” located in the Central Asian country, Turkmenistan.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said on state television briefing on Saturday that extinguish Darvaza gas crater in the middle of the vast Karakum desert.
Earlier in 2010, Berdymukhamedov also ordered experts to find a way to put out the flames that have been burning ever since a Soviet drilling operation went awry in 1971.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that the man-made crater “negatively affects both the environment and the health of the people living nearby”.
“We are losing valuable natural resources for which we could get significant profits and use them for improving the well-being of our people,” he said in televised briefing.
Berdymukhamedov instructed officials to “find a solution to extinguish the fire”.
The crater was created during a Soviet drilling accident hit a gas cavern in 1971, causing the drilling rig to fall in and the earth to collapse beneath it.
To prevent the dangerous fumes from spreading, the Soviets decided to burn off the gas by setting it on fire.
The resulting crater 70 metres (229 feet) wide and 20 metres (65 feet) deep is a popular tourist attraction in the ex-Soviet country.
In 2018, the president officially renamed it to the “Shining of Karakum” and previous attempts to extinguish it have been unsuccessful.
