Abducted Thais

Published on Jun 8, 2020 by Luke Hunt

Cambodian authorities are being urged to investigate the abduction of a prominent Thai pro-democracy activist living in exile in Phnom Penh after he criticized Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in a Facebook post. Wanchalearm Satsaksit was taken from outside his home on June 4 evening while shopping for food and talking to a colleague on the phone. His last words were “Argh, I can’t breathe” before being whisked away in a black car.Read more from UCAN.

The Maguindanao Massacre

Published on Apr 5, 2020 by Luke Hunt

A podcast with Australian journalist Craig Skehan who has covered Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands over the last four decades, for major news outlets including The Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Associated Press (AAP). That included the 2009 massacre in Maguindanao, Philippines, where justice for the victims and their families had taken over a decade to come through.Skehan spoke to Luke Hunt recently about a range of issues, including recent developments on the Maguindanao massacre. Listen here..

Wrap: End Executions in Asia

Published on Nov 27, 2019 by Luke Hunt

From Pakistan and India to Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam, executions for a range of crimes — murder and treason to drug trafficking and blasphemy — remain on the statute books. Of the 53 counties that maintain the death penalty, about a quarter are in Asia, with China topping the world in the number of state-sanctioned killings. Figures remain a state secret, but rights groups say at least 2,000 people were executed by lethal injection or firing squad in 2017.Sydney woman saved from Malaysian gallowsPublic executions haunt North KoreansThe sultan of Brunei has backed away from his promise and to institute a Saudi brand of Shariah law, which will enable religious authorities to inflict a raft of medieval punishments including amputations....

Wrap: The Global State of Refugees

Published on Jul 7, 2019 by Luke Hunt

The annual United Nations report on the state of refugees around the globe reads more like an end-of-year corporate finance sheet. It’s just the numbers — and like a profit-and-loss account, the figures can be interpreted in many ways.Read more:Asia helps push world refugee numbers to record highSomewhere in the Indian Ocean, a boat laden with asylum seekers has gone missing. All souls are feared lost and a sore point with those who have followed the plight of the Daya Mata is that barely no one outside the subcontinent has even noticed.World ignores plight of Indian refugee boat lost at seaFishing Boat Saga Reveals Asia’s Lingering Refugee Challenge.

Garbage Feeds Thousands

Published on Oct 22, 2018 by Luke Hunt

Homeless and poverty is an increasing issue in affluent Australia. In Melbourne, considered among the world’s most liveable cities, Dumpster Diving through the bins of supermarkets to salvage what’s left is now common. By Morgan Reinwald Spiralling through the grime-filled alleyways of central Melbourne is a repugnant experience. Trenching between two tired concrete structures stained with rebel graffiti, the combination of litter and human faeces form a stench that is abominable. Despite this, the notion of garbage is appropriating a wide range of goods and nutrition that appear no different to shelf-bought items. Nonetheless, many of Australia’s biggest food and retail companies are throwing away items every day that are perfect for consumer’s consumption. Hence, the trend known as ‘dumpster....