Dissidents detained as Tiananmen anniversary approaches 

scmp - Friday, May 28, 2004

AUDRA ANG of Associated Press in Beijing
Updated at 6.33pm:
Chinese political activists say they have been detained at home in an apparent government effort to head off public memorials for the 15th anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

The effort to block dissent about the June 4, 1989, event, even 15 years later, highlights the communist government's enduring sensitivity to a movement that brought thousands of people to the square in the heart of Beijing to demand a more open political system.

Some of China's most prominent activists say that in recent weeks, police have been posted outside their homes around the clock, their phones tapped and access to the Internet restricted.

"The 15-year anniversary is a big event," Ren Wanding, who spent a total of 11 years in prison for advocating Western-style democracy, said on Friday. "Things will only get worse as the date gets closer."

Ding Zilin, a 67-year-old retired academic whose son was killed in the crackdown, said police have been posted outside her family's apartment since Tuesday. She said she is allowed out only to buy food or to go to the hospital.

"I ask who authorised this action and they say their superiors, but they won't say who," said Mrs Ding, spokeswoman for the group Tiananmen Mothers, which represents families of people killed in 1989.

"I say, 'I'm not your enemy. What law gives you the right to do this?' but they don't answer," she said.

Six other activists contacted by phone described similar restrictions.

Phone calls Friday to the Beijing police headquarters weren't answered.

The communist government routinely detains activists to prevent protests during events such as the annual meeting of China's legislature or on key political anniversaries.

Dissidents and family members have been demanding that the government overturn its ruling that the 1989 protests were a counterrevolutionary riot and declare the demonstrators patriots.

Chinese troops killed hundreds, possibly thousands, when they attacked protesters who had gathered for weeks on Tiananmen Square demanding a more open political system and an end to corruption.

A group of Chinese and foreign academics issued an open letter last week asking for an investigation and for those responsible to "openly ask for forgiveness of the people."

"As a Chinese I feel very mournful. This is a government that is scared," Mrs Ding said. "They've done bad things, but not only do they not apologise, they keep on doing them."

Liu Xiaobo, who has written essays criticising the government for bringing subversion charges against Internet dissidents, said police have confined him to his home. He said phone calls are disconnected if sensitive topics come up.

Hu Jia, an Aids activist, said police have arranged for him to leave Beijing on Saturday.

"They won't let me back until June 10," Hu said. "They were watching the outside of my home earlier this week. Now, they are in my home."

Mr Ren, who marked the anniversary by posting two essays and one poem on the Internet, said at least five police officers began watching his Beijing home around May 15. He's only allowed out to buy groceries and his phone is tapped.

"It's been this way for me for dozens of years. I'm almost used to it," said Mr Ren. He said he expects to be taken out of Beijing before next week.


Amnesty says 'war on terror' undermines human rights in Asia 

SCMP - Thursday, May 27, 2004

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in London
The US-led "war on terror" is being used by Asian governments as a pretext to oppress millions of people, a report by Amnesty International said yesterday.

Authorities are jailing, torturing and possibly even killing people under the guise of cracking down on terrorism, it said, adding draconian laws that impinge on human rights were also being drafted as part of counter-terrorism legislation.

"Hundreds of people suspected of `terrorism' found themselves condemned to legal black holes as the authorities ignored national and international legal frameworks," the Asia section of the rights group's annual report said.

In particular Amnesty accused China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand of harbouring the belief that human rights could be curtailed under the "war on terror" umbrella.

It also said Hong Kong could have been added to the list had authorities not reacted to last year's July 1 protest against security legislation which many believed would have eroded civil liberties.

Economic hardships continued too, Amnesty said, mostly as a result of deliberate national policies. Breakdowns in long-held ceasefires also led to a deterioration of human-rights conditions in many countries.

The resumption of a six-year civil war in Nepal, the return to atrocities in Indonesia's Aceh province, the continuing conflict in Afghanistan, a flare-up in the almost forgotten war in Laos and violence in the Solomon Islands were all the result of toughened national security policies.

While the threat of war between the region's nuclear adversaries, India and Pakistan, eased thanks to diplomatic efforts, North Korea's resumption of reprocessing activities was a cause for grave concern. Pyongyang was also singled out for doing little to relieve its population of the starvation that has blighted it for much of the past decade.

About 6.5 million vulnerable North Koreans were dependent on international food aid, the report said.

Neither were rights abuses confined to developing nations. In Australia, counter-terrorism legislation allowed authorities to jail suspects for seven days without charge and refuse permission to contact family members.

And in Japan, reports of torture and beatings of prisoners in custody continued.

Amnesty said the general human rights situation had not improved in Asia, noting that legal frameworks remained very weak against a backdrop of massive political, economic and security challenges.

Asia continued to be the only part of the world without a regional human rights mechanism and governments remained reluctant to ratify key international human rights instruments.

China, which has expressed "shock" at US abuse of Iraqi prisoners, sent officials to Guantanamo Bay to help in tough interrogations of its own nationals, according to Amnesty.
A mainland delegation visited the US military prison in Cuba in the autumn of 2002, and in some instances told their American hosts how to get their prisoners to talk, Amnesty said.

"It is alleged that during [the delegation's visit], the detainees were subjected to intimidation and threats, and to 'stress and duress' techniques such as environmental manipulation, forced sitting for many hours and sleep deprivation," it said.

Citing "credible" reports, Amnesty said some of the interrogation techniques were "alleged to have been on the instruction of the Chinese delegation".

The rights group identified the detainees as Uygurs from the Xinjiang region.

China has repeatedly expressed shock at the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US soldiers, and urged Washington to abide by international conventions.

Beijing has called for "complete investigations" into the abuses in Iraq of detainees in US custody and said those responsible should be punished according to law.

Amnesty said there are some 22 Uygur detainees in Guantanamo, captured during the war in Afghanistan and transferred to US custody in early 2002.


Relatives of June 4 victims harassed 

SCMP - Thursday, May 27, 2004

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Beijing
Authorities have stepped up harassment of relatives of people who died in the Tiananmen Square protests in an apparent effort to control dissent ahead of the 15th anniversary.

"Police came to my house this morning," said Huang Jinping, whose husband was killed in the massacre. "They wanted to know what I planned to do on June 4. I told them I would go out for a walk and visit the cemetery, as I do every year."

Ms Huang, who was detained without charge for a week in March, said state security police had visited her regularly in recent weeks.

Long-time activist Ding Zilin and her husband, Jiang Peikun , whose son was killed during the crackdown, were also visited by state security police on Tuesday, the US-based International Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars said on its website.

Professor Ding, who has organised a group called the Tiananmen Mothers, was told that during the run-up to the anniversary she could not have visitors and could only leave home with a police escort, the group said. The group has demanded the government reassess and take responsibility for the brutal crackdown.


Beijing says vanished Tibetan Panchen Lama 'free' 

SCMP - Thursday, May 27, 2004


AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Beijing
Updated at 3.35pm:
China on Thursday said a boy picked by the Dalai Lama as the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism and missing since 1995 was "free", but refused to reveal his whereabouts.

In a rare comment about the boy chosen to be the next Panchen Lama - and since dubbed the world's youngest political prisoner by rights groups - the State Council, or China's cabinet, told AFP he was leading a happy life.

"The boy is not the Panchen Lama reincarnated soul boy," the State Council said in response to questions as to the whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who has not been seen since he was put under house arrest by China as a six-year-old.

"He is only an ordinary Chinese child, the same as other children.

"His health condition is good and he is living a normal and happy life and receiving a good education. He is now a student and studies well."

Asked whether he was being held against his will, the State Council said: "As the reply said, he is studying which means he is free.

"His parents don't want to disclose where he is for his sake, so that the normal life for him and his parents is not disturbed."

The boy was chosen in 1995 according to ancient tradition by the exiled Dalai Lama, Tibet's top spiritual leader, as the reincarnation of the former Panchen Lama who died in 1989.

Chinese police swiftly seized him, and in an unorthodox course of action for an officially atheist regime, Beijing selected its own candidate and has since then trumpeted that child's legitimacy.

The Beijing Panchen Lama, Gyaincain Norbu, himself rarely seen, surfaced last week, visiting a sacred Chinese Buddhist temple region that has long been a hoped-for destination for the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan boy's disappearance sparked angry scenes in Tibet and even today protests are held by activists across the world demanding to know where he is.

The Panchen Lama, considered a living god, is of great importance in Tibetan Buddhism - and in Chinese-Tibetan relations - because he is charged with leading the search for a reincarnated Dalai Lama.

The State Council defended its removal of the boy, saying the Dalai Lama's choice was "illegal and invalid".

"On May 14 1995 the Dalai Lama disregarded the historic tradition and violated religious rights and arbitrarily announced the Panchen Lama reincarnated soul boy," it said. "It is illegal and invalid.

"The exiled overseas Tibetan splittists have been making use of this to incite the public opinion and attempt to create disorder in Tibet and split the motherland and violate the unity of the nationality."

China has ruled Tibet in an often brutal fashion since it occupied the Himalayan area in 1951, and has been accused of trying to wipe out Tibet's culture through repression and a flood of ethnic Chinese immigration.


Prominent dissident Yang refuses to appeal sentence 

scmp - Tuesday, May 25, 2004

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Beijing
Updated at 3.54pm:
Prominent US-based dissident Yang Jianli has refused to appeal his five-year jail sentence for espionage, saying China's judicial system was arbitrary and manipulated, his lawyer and wife said on Tuesday.

Yang was sentenced on May 13 on charges of spying for Taiwan and illegal entry despite concerns by the United States and United Nations over the case.

"Yang Jianli has decided not to appeal his case," lawyer Mo Shaoping said. "I've spoken with him two times since he was sentenced and he believes that the verdict is unjust and illegal and he does not want to participate in this kind of procedure anymore."

Tuesday was the final day to lodge an appeal.

Since his arrest in April 2002, the Harvard University research fellow has been one of the most high-profile dissidents in Chinese custody.

US Vice President Dick Cheney raised his case during an April visit and the UN Human Rights Commission cited a lack of due process in his arrest and trial.

"The family wanted him to appeal, but he refused. He said that he had totally lost confidence in the system and that he felt like the whole procedure was a sham," Christine Fu Xiang, Yang's wife, said by telephone from her home in Boston.

Yang wrote a six-page statement on his refusal to appeal, citing his illegal detention, a trial that went 164 days beyond limits set by law, a refusal of the court to allow for private, unmonitored discussions with his lawyer and a refusal for him to meet with family members, Ms Fu said.

"The whole legal procedure was manipulated by the government in an arbitrary and functional manner," Yang said in the statement.

"I refuse to be put on show any longer with the so called 'People's Court' ... there is nothing to appeal because the verdict was illegal and invalid."

The statement also detailed what he said was inhumane treatment in detention including being beaten, placed in solitary confinement and being handcuffed until his arms were bruised, Ms Fu said.

Yang fled China following the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and was blacklisted by the government which refused to renew his passport or issue him travel documents to return to his homeland, in violation of international law.

He tried to secretly sneak into China in April 2002, but was arrested in southwestern Kunming city.


Dalai Lama under fire over call for autonomy 

SCMP - Monday, May 24, 2004

SHI JIANGTAO
The Dalai Lama's pursuit of a Hong Kong-style high degree of autonomy for Tibet is "totally untenable", the central government has said in its latest criticism of the exiled spiritual leader.

In a 30-page white paper released yesterday, the State Council's Information Office defended Beijing's policies in Tibet and urged the Dalai Lama to "truly relinquish" any hopes of independence for the region.

"The central government's policy regarding the Dalai Lama is consistent and clear. It is hoped that the Dalai Lama will look reality in the face, make a correct judgment of the situation, truly relinquish his stance of `Tibet independence', and do something beneficial for the progress of China and the region of Tibet in his remaining years," the white paper said.

Xinhua said the document - titled "Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet" - was the central government's official response to the Dalai Lama's proposal that the policies of "one country, two systems" and "a high degree of autonomy" in Hong Kong and Macau also be extended to Tibet.

The white paper said the situation in Tibet was entirely different, from that in the two southern cities, which were a result of past "imperialist aggression against China".

"The central government has always exercised effective sovereign jurisdiction over the region [of Tibet]. So the issue of resuming sovereignty does not exist [as in Hong Kong and Macau]. The possibility of implementing another social system [in Tibet] does not exist either," it said.

The white paper was the first released by the central government to set out its policy on regional ethnic autonomy.

Beijing has faced much criticism over its policies in Tibet and Xinjiang, which included an influx of Han Chinese and the persecution of dissidents.

While it said the central government's positions best served the "fundamental interests of the Tibetan people", the white paper also attacked the Dalai Lama for backtracking on his own statements on how Tibet should be governed.

"The Dalai Lama's attack on regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet runs counter not only to the reality in present-day Tibet, but also to his own words," it said.

During a recent trip to France, the Dalai Lama expressed optimism about a resolution of the Tibet issue.

He said the central government was likely to find it easier to resolve the problem of Tibet than that of Taiwan, because he only sought greater autonomy within China rather than independence.

In the past two years, Beijing has signalled a slight softening of its position towards Tibet by inviting special envoys of the Dalai Lama and releasing several Tibetan political prisoners.

However, the thawing of ties has slowed in recent months.

Since the start of the year, there have been few indications that Beijing will speed up the pace of dialogue and no signs the Dalai Lama will be able to return to the mainland in the near future.


Japanese court overturns compensation for Chinese WWII slave labourers 

SCMP - Monday, May 24, 2004

ASSOCIATED PRESS in Tokyo
Updated at 1.26pm:
A high court on Monday ruled that a Japanese mining company does not have to pay compensation to 15 Chinese men used as slave laborers during World War II.

The Fukuoka High Court ruling overturns a 2002 decision by a lower court that ordered Mitsui Mining to pay 165 million yen (HK$11.4 million) in compensation to the Chinese plaintiffs, high court spokesman Hisayuki Matsumoto said. He refused to provide further details of Monday's ruling.

The high court acknowledged that the company and the Japanese government were guilty of illegally forcing the Chinese to work as labourers, but said that compensation was not required because a statute of limitations had expired, the Kyodo News agency said.

Japan's government maintains it settled all compensation issues in postwar treaties.

The lawsuit was filed in May 2000 by Zhang Baoheng and eight others, who now live in China's Hebei province and Beijing. Six other Chinese later joined the litigation.

The plaintiffs demanded 23 million yen each or a total of 345 million yen in compensation.

The Japanese military captured an estimated 40,000 Chinese in the early 1940s and shipped them to Japan to work, mostly in coal mines and ports.

Mr Zhang and the others were between the ages of 18 and 25 when they were taken to Miike and other mines in Fukuoka prefecture (state), about 900 kilometres southwest of Tokyo.

Some 800,000 people from China, Korea and other Asian countries were rounded up and brought to Japan before and during World War II to work. Hundreds of thousands of others were forced into military service or prostitution for Japanese troops.


Military unlikely to retreat from Indonesian politics 

SCMP - Friday, May 21, 2004

ANALYSIS by PETER KAMMERER, Foreign Editor
Parliamentary elections last month technically ended the Indonesian military's direct involvement in politics, but whether that is the reality remains unclear.

Some observers have suggested that with three of the 12 presidential candidates being former military officers and many ex-army and police personnel among those elected as lawmakers, the country could yet return to a form of authoritarian rule.

Particular concern has been expressed about one of the presidential frontrunners, retired army chief Wiranto, whose key platform is a promise of strong government. His style of military command has been described as "ruthless".

Democratic reforms enacted in April meant that the 20 per cent of parliamentary seats previously allocated to appointed military and police representatives were determined by voters. When the new-look parliament convenes in October after presidential elections in July and September, the military will not be represented for the first time in 45 years.

Indonesian political analyst Salim Said believes that although many retired members of the military would be in the parliament, they should be considered democratically elected civilians. They retained their ranks and could be called up to serve as reservists, but they did not maintain direct military connections, he said.

"If there is any political influence, it will come from the headquarters of the armed forces, not from these retired people," Dr Said said yesterday in Hong Kong. "They are completely independent from the headquarters."

The University of Indonesia political scientist suggested that the military's influence depended on how much confidence the elected government had in itself. The strength of the president was key to this, although the fragmentation of the parliament into 16 political parties - none of which had more than 21.6 per cent representation - would make what eventually happened uncertain.

Historically, Indonesian leaders turned towards the military for support, Dr Said said. Former president Suharto, whose downfall in a popular revolt in 1998 ushered in democracy, had done the same, although ended up firmly controlling the armed forces.

Greg Fealy, an Indonesia researcher at Australian National University, believed the military would still play a political role. The involvement would not be the same as under Suharto's "new order" period, where it had a direct influence, he suggested.

Dr Fealy said political parties found it advantageous not to alienate the military on political issues.

Although Dr Fealy doubted that another Suharto would emerge, he believed that a Wiranto presidency would tend towards authoritarian measures, such as curtailing press freedom and giving more power to the military.

"He talks about having strong government and in his case, that is code for a more authoritarian government - the sort that would curtail the rights that Indonesians and key institutions now enjoy," Dr Fealy said from Canberra.


Intellectuals seek apology for June 4 

SCMP - Friday, May 21, 2004

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Beijing
Sixty-seven Chinese intellectuals, including 34 living on the mainland, yesterday urged the authorities to apologise for the Tiananmen massacre just days before the 15th anniversary of the traumatic event.

"We demand that those responsible ... openly ask for forgiveness of the people in written and oral statements, and bow their heads three times to the dead," they said in an open letter.

"Our demand for truth is not an exercise in revenge, rather we earnestly desire reconciliation, and through that process of reconciliation, to advance democracy."

Mainland intellectuals who signed the letter included Liu Xiaobo, Jiang Qishengand Mao Yushi. However, Chen Ziming, who was branded a "black hand" behind the 1989 pro-democracy movement and was released last year after completing a 13-year sentence, was not among the signatories.

Hundreds, perhaps as many as 1,000, died in the streets around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, when the government decided to send tanks and troops against pro-democracy protesters there.

Fearing that open discussion of that decision could mean the end of Communist Party rule, the authorities have since clamped down on any debate.

As a result, the open letter argued that "June 4" has become the most taboo words on the mainland.

In addition to the 34 mainland signatories, 33 overseas Chinese - many of them exiled dissidents - also signed the letter. They included Wang Dan, Liu Binyan, Zhang Weiguo and Shen Tong.

"Over the past 15 years, the majority of intellectuals - including some of us - chose to be onlookers, avoiding `June 4' for their own safety," the letter said. Maintaining the silence was not healthy, as it had created a "nightmare ... crushing the ruling party and all of Chinese society", the letter argued.

The letter urged the national legislature to set up a special commission to look into the crackdown and the government to declassify documents that can throw light on the events 15 years ago.

Nearly 40 family members of people killed in the crackdown gathered for an emotional ceremony in Beijing last Sunday, laying flowers at photos of their relatives. The group included retired Beijing professor Ding Zilin.


Timor court convicts Indonesian for crimes against humanity 

SCMP - Wednesday, May 19, 2004

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Dili
Updated at 5.18pm:
A court in East Timor on Wednesday sentenced the first Indonesian, a former militia commander, for crimes against humanity committed during the territory's bloody breakaway from Indonesia in 1999.

Judges at the Special Panels for Serious Crimes jailed Beny Ludji, an Indonesian citizen who was formerly a commander of the pro-Jakarta Aitarak militia, for eight years.

They also sentenced Jose Gusmao, one of Ludji's men, to 30 months, a statement from East Timor's Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) said here.

Both defendants were guilty of "one count of murder as a crime against humanity as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population," it said.

Ludji is the first Indonesian national to be convicted by the Special Panel for Serious Crimes since trials began in East Timor, the statement said.

The judges said that the two were guilty of the murder of pro-independence campaigner Guido Alves Correia in Dili on September 1, 1999.

The two defendants have been detained since their arrest in East Timor in April 2003, and the judges said that the time they had already spent in detention was to be deducted from their sentences.

Another Aitarak member indicted along with Ludji and Gusmao, Jose Lopes da Cruz Mendonca, remains at large and is believed to be in Indonesia.

Army-backed militiamen killed some 1,400 people before and after East Timorese voted in August 1999 for independence. About 200,000 people were deported to Indonesian West Timor and 70 percent of the territory's buildings were destroyed.

The SCU indictment alleged that on September 1, 1999, two days after the UN-sponsored vote, Aitarak members under Ludji's leadership attacked the house of Correia and hacked him to death.

So far, SCU has indicted 311 people, 279 of whom are believed to be at large in Indonesia, including 37 military officers and four police officers.

Two special panels of judges - each comprised of two international judges and one East Timorese judge, were set up in 2000 to hear cases of crimes against humanity and serious crimes from the 1999 period.

Trials began in 2001, and a total of 52 defendants have now been convicted with two defendants having been acquitted of all charges.


Strangers in our midst 

SCMP - Tuesday, May 18, 2004

PATRICIA STO TOMAS
Almost 200 million people live or work in countries other than their own. Annually, this number grows faster than the global birth rate. At a time when terrorism has crossed borders and threatens even non-traditional targets, it is easy to suspect strangers among us.

The logic is that those we do not know are the ones most likely to cause us harm. Other fears include competition for local jobs and social services, an increase in crime and the dilution of the national gene pool. These reasons, while not always correct or valid, make entering another country particularly difficult at this time.

Ironically, capital, goods and services are moving at a pace unprecedented in history. Globalisation does work for some.

Migration, of course, has never been a neutral phenomenon. The most developed countries have been enriched by migration through the availability of a young and diverse talent pool. They also inherit cross-cultural tensions. Source countries lose some of their best brains but also mitigate pressures for internal job creation. The fact remains that at any time a country either sends, receives or becomes a transit point for people who move. Quite often, all three functions operate in the same country at the same time. Migration, clearly, is an international concern.

But why do people move? Some are fleeing religious or political persecution, some require medical care or simply desire a more temperate climate. When people move within the parameters of bilateral or international agreements, some measure of protection is available to them. Irregular migration, however, breeds its own problems.

About 900,000 Filipinos now leave for overseas jobs annually. This flow accounts for a stock of more than seven million workers located in 190 countries, occupying jobs ranging from care-givers to nuclear scientists.

Hong Kong alone has more than 100,000 Filipinos, most of them female, most of them domestic helpers. Earning an average wage of about $3,270 a month, they work six days a week, often for 12-15 hours a day and send back no less than $78 million monthly to their families in the Philippines. While this wealth brings material benefits, there is an attendant social cost: separations can lead to marital breakups; a child without parents may be more likely to turn to drugs; loneliness in a strange place can lead to depression and even suicide.

The church is a mainstay, not only of spiritual but practical support. The Philippine consulate in Hong Kong, with one of the biggest labour offices in the world, also ministers to the needs of migrant Filipinos, from the enforcement of contracts to resolving various welfare and social concerns.

Except for social security agreements, the Philippines has very few bilateral labour agreements with other countries where its nationals are resident. The agreements that do exist are very specific and limited. The fact is that very few receiving countries are inclined to define the rights of guest workers in their midst. The rights of overseas workers or any other kind of migrant have understandable political undertones. There are those who view rights as part of a square which is shared by locals and nationals. A line that divides the square might be moved horizontally or vertically. Always, somebody's loss is the other's gain. Governments will find it difficult to move that line if it is seen as increasing the rights of strangers.

We may deny others those rights reserved for our citizens, but we certainly cannot deny responsibility for them once we receive them in our jurisdictions. Conferring rights may be problematic, even if it has been done before. Assuming responsibility is what structures and institutions do to ensure civility and peace in an increasingly globalised world.

Patricia Sto Tomas, the Philippines' Secretary of Labour and Employment, is one of 18 members of the Global Commission on International Migration currently meeting in Manila to discuss rights and responsibilities for the world's migrants.


Pressure to form top-level reunification body 

SCMP - Friday, May 14, 2004

WANG XIANGWEI
The central government is being urged to set up a cabinet-level national commission responsible for unification and territorial issues.

This follows Premier Wen Jiabao's strong endorsement of a proposal to enact a law to promote reunification with Taiwan.

Setting up the commission and enacting the national unification law would signal Beijing's determination to protect its territories and would provide legal grounds for the use of military or other forceful measures, mainland analysts said. The moves have been discussed in academic circles on the mainland for some time but have suddenly gained renewed importance and impetus following Mr Wen's remarks in London this week.

The premier described the suggestion to enact a national unification law as "very important, very important" when addressing a group of overseas Chinese in the British capital, part of his European tour that ended yesterday.

During his visit, Mr Wen repeatedly talked about Taiwan, saying that reunification was more important than people's lives. On Tuesday, a spokesman from the Taiwan Affairs Office said the proposal to enact the law deserved serious consideration.

Analysts said yesterday that calls were also mounting for the government to set up a reunification commission given cross-strait tensions and the urgent need to fight separatist movements in Xinjiang and Tibet.

The proposed commission could combine and streamline resources from the Taiwan Affairs Office, the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission responsible for formulating and implementing policies in regions where ethnic minorities live, the analysts said.

"The timing is right and it would send a very powerful message both at home and abroad," said Li Shu-chung, a Hong Kong-based commentator on Taiwan affairs.

He said Beijing was seriously concerned about what it saw as Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's blatant moves towards independence. It was also worried about independence movements in Xinjiang and Tibet.


Vietnam's emerging elite have cash to burn 

SCMP - Wednesday, May 12, 2004

DAVID MARSH in Hanoi
American pop music blares out as the regulars, both expatriates and Vietnamese, go through their workouts in the chic fitness club at Hanoi's five-star Hotel Sofitel Metropole.

Replete with jacuzzis and electronic training gear, the centre was once the near-exclusive domain of foreigners when it opened as the city's first weight-pumping palace in 1996.

Since then Hanoi's growing segment of well-off locals have been elbowing their way into this most western of expensive pastimes. One is a picture of New York City-style affluence, speaking breathlessly on a mobile phone as she works the StairMaster.

Club manager Joe Kelly says Vietnamese now comprise 40 per cent of the members, up from just 10 per cent when it opened.

"I think they want to show that they can afford it," said Mr Kelly, whose club charges US$250 for sign-up plus $80 a month. The average per capita income in Vietnam is $500 a year.

"In Britain we call it a lottery culture. Suddenly they come into some money and they don't really know what to do with it."

While still a relative anomaly in a country beset by poverty, the nouveau riche are on the rise in Vietnam. And they are managing to find things to do with their disposable income. They're setting themselves apart from the motorbike-mad hordes by buying cars. They travel, book indoor tennis courts, play high-stakes card games and hit expensive restaurants.

It's all a far cry from as little as a decade ago when Hanoi had no fitness centres and hardly any nightclubs to attract disposable income.

"There was nothing here before, actually," said Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, an agent with the capital's Chesterton Petty property firm.

Ms Huyen, 30, winces at the suggestion she is rich, even by Vietnamese standards.

But she and friends recently bought two outlying farms, and she and her husband expect to have US$20,000 on hand next year to buy a new car.

Restaurant owner Le Quoc Tien lists a similar range of pastimes. Mr Tien says he spends about US$600 a month on non-essential items, and has a friend who spends twice that much.

He and Ms Huyen say neither they nor their friends were born into their relative wealth, as their parents were all fairly poor. Rather, they have seized opportunities in a wide range of pursuits, all arising from the country's rapid economic development, which is topping 7 per cent a year.

Yet the nouveau riche syndrome also illustrates the problems in Vietnam's development, analysts say. Those in the top 20 per cent of income earners accounted for 45.9 per cent of all household expenditures in 2002, up from 41.8 per cent in 1993, while the share for the bottom 20 per cent has dropped from 8.4 to 7.8 per cent.


Wiranto chooses rights champion as running mate 

scmp - Wednesday, May 12, 2004

AMY CHEW in Jakarta
Former Indonesian armed forces chief Wiranto, who has been indicted for war crimes, has picked a human rights campaigner to be his running mate in a match that is expected to ease attacks from rights groups in the run up to July's presidential election.

Salahuddin Wahid, 62, deputy chairman of the National Human Rights Commission and brother of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, yesterday took to the stage with Wiranto in a huge ceremony to declare Golkar's presidential candidates. The ceremony was attended by Abdurrahman Wahid, affectionately known as Gus Dur, in a sign of support for his brother.

Salahuddin Wahid is also deputy chairman of the country's largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which claims 40 million followers.

NU senior clerics and Gus Dur have given their blessings to Salahuddin Wahid to run with Wiranto. With the backing of NU, plus the well-oiled machinery of Golkar, they will be a formidable combination in the country's first direct presidential elections on July 5.

Salahuddin Wahid's pairing with Wiranto was born of political necessity. An alliance between Golkar and NU's political party, the Nation Awakening Party (PKB), is seen as the best chance for PKB to enter into government.

"I accepted [Wiranto's offer] out of duty. Many [NU] clerics in East Java asked me to do this job," Mr Wahid said. "We need a strong leader and they think Wiranto is the man who can overcome the crisis in the country."

Mr Wahid admitted he was criticised by fellow rights campaigners when he accepted the offer to be Wiranto's running mate.

"They came to my home ... I said to them, give me a chance to prove my sincerity in starting a programme to uphold law enforcement, eradicate corruption and promote human rights," he said. He would consider resigning if he proved ineffective after two years.

Mr Wahid, who has investigated several high-profile human rights cases, said human rights stood a better chance to be promoted from within rather than from outside of the system.

"According to Indonesian law, the responsibility of promoting and maintaining human rights is in the hands of the government, not the rights commission," he said.

Mr Wahid said Wiranto wanted to rehabilitate his name by doing something for the country.

"He has the intention to restore his name, not by saying, but by doing the right things for the country," he said.

A UN-backed East Timorese tribunal on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Wiranto for crimes against humanity, including murder, deportation or the forcible transfer of people and persecution during East Timor's struggle for independence from Indonesia in 1999.


Rabbis express rare criticism of American evangelical support for Israel 

SCMP - Tuesday, May 11, 2004

JOSEF FEDERMAN of Associated Press in Jerusalem
Updated at 11.05am:
Prominent Israeli rabbis are for the first time speaking out against Israel's profitable alliance with evangelical Christians in the United States, who have funneled tens of millions of dollars to the Jewish state.

The rabbis fear the Christians' real intent is to convert Jews, their aides said on Monday (overnight Tuesday HK time). Others are concerned about the evangelicals' support for Israel's extreme right wing, opposing any compromise with the Palestinians.

The dispute touches on an increasingly sensitive issue in Israel: the country's dependence, both economically and politically, on conservative American Christians.

Besides contributing tidy sums to projects in Israel, some evangelical Christians have lobbied in support of the Israeli government in Washington.

Troubling to Israelis is the fact that one evangelical group believes in a final, apocalyptic battle between good and evil in which Jesus returns and Jews either accept him or perish - a vision that causes obvious discomfort among Jews.

"I'm worried as a Jew," said Mina Fenton, a Jerusalem city council member from an Orthodox Jewish party, who has led opposition to the evangelical groups. "I don't want my people to be assassinated, sacrificed, killed or slaughtered because of their beliefs."

Concern has been bubbling under the surface for some time. Anti-missionary activists have warned that though the evangelists appear pro-Israel, they have their own religious agenda. Dovish politicians oppose the political leanings of the evangelicals, dictating a course of action to Israel that would, in the view of the doves, lead to unending conflict.

However, leading rabbis have stayed in the background. An article in Monday's Haaretz newspaper brought their criticism into the public arena.

The local focus of their criticism has been the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a Chicago-based group that has raised tens of millions of dollars from Christian supporters of Israel.

Two former chief rabbis of Israel, Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliahu, recently approved a religious ruling urging followers not to accept money from the group.

The ruling, issued by Shapira in March and later signed by Eliahu, accused the fellowship of accepting money from groups involved in "missionary activity."

"I don't see any permission to receive funds that aid in the infiltration of the work of strangers under the false impression of aid to the needy," the letter said.

Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook, another critic of the fellowship, said he fears the donors are trying to exploit Israel's most vulnerable people. "Those who don't have money don't ask questions," he said.

"They are spending millions of dollars to make people closer to Christianity," said Kook, chief rabbi of the city of Rehovot and member of a rabbinical dynasty. "The situation is very serious."

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, brushed off the criticism as complaints by a tiny minority.

He said the group has raised US$100 million (HK$780 million), including US$20 million last year alone, to assist Israel's poor, elderly and new immigrants - as well as impoverished Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union. The group sponsors projects in 85 Israeli towns and cities, he said.

Rabbi Eckstein also noted that he has served as an adviser to Israeli prime ministers and sits on the boards of the Jewish Agency and Joint Distribution Committee, influential groups that serve Jewish communities abroad.

Rabbi Eckstein, an Orthodox rabbi, said that although many of the thousands of donors to his group may hope to convert Jews, "we just don't allow any kind of missionary activity."

He said his donors are motivated by other factors, including the Jews' connection to the biblical Land of Israel and feelings of guilt over anti-Semitism.

"Judaism does not focus so much on motivations as much as deeds," he said. "In Judaism, the actions speak louder than words, and certainly louder than motivations."

He also claimed that Mr Eliahu has received funding from the fellowship in the past and has signaled in recent days that he would continue to allow his supporters to accept the funds. People close to Eliahu said the rabbi remains opposed to the group. Mr Eliahu's spokesman did not return repeated messages left on Monday.

Maintaining good relations with American evangelicals is important to Israel's government. Evangelicals make up a powerful base of support for US President George W. Bush and enjoy close ties with the White House.

But many evangelical groups have shown a growing interest in Israeli politics, adopting views considered extreme in Israel.

The groups opposed the US-backed "road map" peace plan when it was launched last year, because it would lead to Israeli concessions, and they opposed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's attempts to uproot Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

Hundreds of churches offer regular donations to West Bank settlements for school equipment, playgrounds, medical supplies and bulletproof buses.

Rabbi David Rosen, international director of inter-religious affairs in the American Jewish Committee's Jerusalem office, said this political activity is a larger concern than charitable work.

"There's support for some of the most extreme political positions in Israeli society," Rabbi Rosen said. "That I find far more disturbing than any suggestion that there could be missionary activity."


Christian leader's family held 

SCMP-Monday, May 3, 2004

ASSOCIATED PRESS in Jakarta
Investigators yesterday were questioning the detained wife and daughter of Alex Manuputty, an exiled Christian leader seeking self-determination for Indonesia's troubled Maluku archipelago.

Oly Manuputty and her daughter, Christina, did not resist when officers came on Saturday to their home in a neighbourhood of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province.

The province is a stronghold of the Maluku Sovereignty Front, which is headed by Manuputty.

The arrest came on the same day that Pope John Paul urged Indonesian authorities to restore order in Ambon after a week of Muslim-Christian clashes killed at least 37 people in the region, known in Dutch colonial times as the Malukus, or Spice Islands.

Police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said: "The cause of the recent violence is this separatist group, which wants to gain independence from Indonesia."

Manuputty and an associate, Samuel Waileruni, were arrested in 2002 and sentenced to three years in jail for encouraging their followers to hoist banned separatist flags. Manuputty fled to the United States last year while waiting for his appeal to be heard by the Supreme Court.

Indonesian authorities have banned Manuputty's organisation because of its campaign for a referendum on self-determination for the province, 2,600km east of Jakarta, similar to the UN-supervised plebiscite held in East Timor in 1999.

The people of East Timor, a former Indonesian province, voted overwhelmingly for independence. The outcome triggered devastating violence by Indonesia's supporters, but East Timor is now an independent nation.

Manuputty claims the Indonesian justice system discriminates against the Christian minority.

Last year, Muslim leader Jafar Umar Thalib - who commanded the army-backed Laskar Jihad militia that killed hundreds of Christians during the earlier conflict - was freed by a Jakarta court where he was being tried for the killing of 13 villagers.

The clashes of recent days have sparked fears that the region could plunge back into Muslim-Christian battles like those that killed up to 9,000 people three years ago.


Asia's flowering freedom of the press is being nipped in bud 

SCMP-Monday, May 3, 2004

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Islamabad and Singapore
Airwaves across Asia are buzzing with hundreds of new radio stations and cable television channels, while news-stands are spilling over with magazines and newspapers: it seems the free press is flowering. But consumers do not see the self-censorship and skulduggery behind the scenes.

Media analysts say it is a creeping phenomenon, with journalists living under threats of violence, dismissal or loss of advertising revenue if they break reporting taboos on issues from military corruption to social issues such as homosexuality and forced marriage.

Just 7 per cent of the Asia-Pacific's population has access to a "free press", according to a report by the US-based Freedom House global industry watchdog released last week ahead of today's UN-sponsored World Press Freedom Day.

Although Freedom House said 17 of 39 Asia-Pacific countries surveyed had a free press, most of those were tiny island-nations such as Palau, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Samoa.

Of larger nations, only Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Australia were classified as having a free press, which is judged by the legal, political and economic constraints on the media.

"If you look at it in terms of the number of countries that are ranked free, 44 per cent is a pretty high percentage," said Karin Karlekar, senior researcher and managing editor of the survey. "But if you look at the population figures, you get a truer picture of the situation."

Ms Karlekar said government opposition to a free press - in nations as diverse as prosperous Singapore, the Stalinist backwater of North Korea and Laos - remained entrenched across the region.

"Most of the countries are fairly stagnant in levels of press freedom. In general, it's slightly more of a negative trend," she said.

"Many of the countries at the bottom of our scale are there because of the governments that rule them. If there are no political developments ... it's pretty much a lost cause in the short term."

North Korea and Myanmar are Asia's perennial press freedom cellar dwellers, but Ms Karlekar said China and Vietnam had also kept tight leashes on the media despite booming economies, foreign investment and the internet.

"It hasn't led to the changes in the media that one would have hoped for. Media control is an area they continue to exercise," she said.

Of the Asian countries experiencing changes, Freedom House said most were going backwards. In this year's survey, the Philippines regressed from a free to partly free press "to reflect the continuing impunity enjoyed by those who threaten and kill journalists".

Last year Thailand fell into the partly free category because of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's efforts to take over sections of the media and intimidate the rest.

Indonesia has seen a vigorous press emerge after the end of dictator Suharto's rule in 1998. But powerful business interests and government officials have tried to counter the trend.


Activist pilot forced to flee Singapore 

scmp - Monday, May 3, 2004

ASSOCIATED PRESS in Singapore
A Malaysian-born pilot who angered Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, began a new life in Australia yesterday after the government ordered him to leave.

"There is no regret - bit of mixed feelings - more sadness than anything else," former Singapore Airlines pilot Ryan Goh said before flying to Perth.

Well-wishers saw Mr Goh off at the airport security gate, while his 12-year-old daughter, Kelly, fought back tears as she kissed her father goodbye late on Saturday.

After 26 years in Singapore, Mr Goh will live with his wife and their three other children in Perth. Kelly will stay in Singapore to continue her schooling.

The pilot's troubles began after he led a vote in November to dismiss pilot union leaders who had accepted proposals by Singapore Airlines - which is majority-owned by the government - to slash wages, lay off staff and force employees to take unpaid leave.

Mr Lee angrily confronted Mr Goh at a meeting with pilots in February, accusing him of stirring up trouble within the union.

Mr Lee ruled Singapore from its independence in 1965 until he stepped aside in 1990, but still has considerable clout under the title of senior minister.

Two days after his meeting with Mr Lee, Mr Goh was ordered to leave Singapore.

Authorities branded him an "undesirable immigrant", and he now cannot enter Singapore without applying for permission.

Singapore banks recalled his loans and seized his children's trust funds in "a knee-jerk reaction" to the expulsion order, Mr Goh said.

Singapore Airlines fired Mr Goh last month after he lost two appeals to keep his residency rights. The airline agreed to fly him and his family to Australia, he said.

Other airlines have offered to hire Mr Goh, but his options are limited because he needs advance permission to transit through Singapore - a regional air hub.

"Was I a scapegoat? It depends on who you ask really," he said.

Singapore Airlines laid off hundreds of workers after suffering its first quarterly loss in last year's second quarter, then imposed a 16.5 per cent pay cut and unpaid leave.

The airline rebounded with a record S$306 million (HK$1.4 billion) profit in the following quarter.


New IMF head needs an answer to debt 

SCMP - Saturday, May 1, 2004


DAVID DEROSA of Bloomberg
Former Spanish economy minister Rodrigo Rato has broad support to become the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

If investors were part of that not-too-transparent selection process, these are the four questions they should ask him:

1) "Do you believe in strengthening creditors' rights?"

The IMF has done a splendid job of advocating the rights of debtor nations. It was rewarded for those efforts when Argentina stopped paying its obligations on US$99.4 billion of debt in December 2001.

Since then, Argentina has done its best to show contempt for its bondholders. The only offer Argentina has made is to pay a puny 25 US cents on the dollar to holders of the defaulted bonds without any consideration of the time value of money since the default.

Why should the IMF care? Because when a country like Argentina effectively turns into a rogue debtor nation, there is a risk that the cost of borrowing for all other emerging-market nations will rise.

Argentina said on Tuesday it planned by next month to spell out the terms on the bonds it aims to exchange for the defaulted debt. The bondholders are not holding their breath.

2) "Mr Rato, do you endorse acting managing director Anne Krueger's proposal for a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism? Or is that a dead issue?"

Known by the acronym SDRM, the plan was to appoint the IMF to run a corporate bankruptcy-style process to resolve a sovereign default. Creditor actions would be put on hold during restructuring negotiations.

Not too surprisingly, a key element was to require the defaulting country to follow an IMF-designed economic programme. This was justified by Ms Krueger with the unlikely argument that IMF programmes would preserve the creditors' wealth.

Even more preposterous, and here Ms Krueger ought to have known she was in trouble, was her assertion that the SDRM might include the imposition of capital controls.

Not surprisingly, investors objected strongly to Ms Krueger's proposal. That, plus the atrocious conduct of Argentina towards its creditors, seems to have put the SDRM in mothballs for now. The question is whether Mr Rato would want to resurrect SDRM now or in the future.

3) "What do you plan to do if countries begin to default on IMF loans?"

In a portfolio sense, the IMF's loans are anything but diversified. Argentina, Brazil and Turkey account for more than 70 per cent of the fund's US$107 billion in outstanding loans.

Ms Krueger reported this last week to the fund's International Monetary and Financial Committee: "Sound risk management requires the fund to be prepared for the possibility of payments disruptions, which could arise from the increase and concentration of its outstanding credit."

Sound risk management? When the IMF went into the business of being the world's lender of last resort, it gave up on the exercise of sound risk management.

Anyway, the three financially imperiled nations - Argentina, Brazil and Turkey - owe the IMF more than US$70 billion. And nobody knows what Mr Rato would tell the IMF members if and when this money were to be lost.

The third question to Mr Rato also raises the issue of whether the IMF could ever persuade its member nations to replenish the capital base if it turns out the fund cannot collect on its loan portfolio.

4) "What gives the IMF the right to insist that it gets repaid ahead of all other creditors?" At sea, the captain goes down with the ship.

In fact, here is a far better idea: let the IMF be paid last.

Since the IMF is never shy about giving out economic advice, maybe it is time the fund had a taste of its own cooking.

The 24-member executive board of the IMF is likely to make its final choice in the coming weeks.

The post of managing director became vacant when Horst Koehler resigned in March to seek the German presidency. Controversy has erupted over the selection process more than over Mr Rato himself.

Mr Rato is favoured to win the post because he has the backing of the European Union and is acceptable to the US Treasury.

That the post must go to a European is seen as a remarkably archaic requirement - and insulting to Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America and other parts of the world. (Similarly offensive is the World Bank's head post always going to an American.)

Yet there is another candidate, Mohamed El-Erian, an Egyptian national and fund manager at Pacific Investment Management. He was nominated by Egypt's representative to the IMF board.

Mr El-Erian probably has little chance of getting the job, even though he holds Egyptian and French passports (his mother is French). Nevertheless, he is seen as wanting to go through the motions of being a candidate as a protest of the European-only selection rule. Kudos to you, Mr El-Erian!

dderosa@bloomberg.net