Southeast Asia
Thai constitution would grant military immunity
Human Rights Watch warns that a provision in Thailand's new constitution would permit the military to commit human rights abuses without fear of punishment.
Tag: Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Burma: will ceasefire wind down opium war?
Burma’s regime signs a "national ceasefire" with ethnic rebels in the opium-producing north ahead of historic elections—but the biggest rebel armies didn’t sign on.
Southeast Asia
Hague to rule in South China Sea dispute
Amid US brinkmanship in the South China Sea, a UN arbitration court agreed to hear the Philippines' challenge of Beijing's territorial claims.
Southeast Asia
Philippines: mining link seen to paramilitary terror
Clergy and rights advocates in Mindanao see army-supported paramilitary groups behind a wave of killings of indigenous leaders opposed to gold-mining operations on traditional lands.
Southeast Asia
Uighur militants named in Bangkok blast
Thailand's national police say that last month's deadly Erawan Shrine attack was carried out by Uighur militants angered over Bangkok's deportation of Uighur refugees back to China.
Southeast Asia
Bangkok blast as southern insurgency simmers
Thai authorities have been slow to name suspects in the deadly Erawan Shrine blast, hoping to bring Muslims insurgents in the country's south back to the negotiating table.
Southeast Asia
Vietnam tilts to US in Pacific ‘Great Game’
Vietnam's paramount leader Nguyen Phu Trong meets with Obama at the White House, as the US and China play a dangerous game of chicken over disputed islands.
Southeast Asia
Enviros claim victory as Glencore leaves Mindanao
Environmentalists and indigenous leaders in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao hailed the exit of Anglo-Swiss mining giant Glencore as a "victory for the people."
Southeast Asia
Burma: Dalai Lama challenges Suu Kyi on Rohingya
The Dalai Lama appealed to Burma's Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to speak up for the country's persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority amid a worsening refugee crisis.
Southeast Asia
Burma passes restrictive population control bill
Burma enacted a new law requiring mothers in designated areas to space the births of their children three years apart—a measure clearly aimed at the Muslim minority.
Southeast Asia
Burma opium war spills into China
After weeks of escalating tensions along the remote mountain border, a Burmese MiG-29 fighter jet carried out an air-strike on Chinese territory, killing four farm workers.
Southeast Asia
Will Burma opium war draw in China?
The latest fighting in Burma's opium-producing hinterlands involves a Han Chinese ethnic group, the Kokang. Some 50,000 have fled across the border into China.