Khmer Rouge Commandant Guilty

Published on Jul 26, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Judge Sylvia Cartwright Luke Hunt reports for World Politics Review PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Kang Guek Eav, a.k.a. Duch, the notorious commandant of Pol Pot’s S21 death camp where about 16,000 people were sent to their deaths, was found guilty on Monday of murder, torture and crimes against humanity by a United Nations-backed court. The decision was hailed by local and international authorities seeking justice for up to 2 million people who perished here between 1975 and 1979, amid one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century’s bloody history. .

Verdict Sets Khmer Rouge Stage

Published on Jul 25, 2010 by Luke Hunt

When Kang Guek Eav fronts the United Nations-sanctioned court tomorrow much will be at stake. For the former death camp commander, more widely known as Duch, his fate will finally be told. Luke Hunt reports for Spectrum. As chief torturer and executioner during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge rule, he faces a life sentence for the deaths of about 16,000 people who were processed at S21, headquarters of the secret police constructed within an abandoned high school in suburban Tuol Sleng. Prosecutors are demanding 40 years although time off for the 11 years already spent behind bars could see this whittled back substantially. Any reduction will anger the handful of S21 survivors. .

Burmese election has locals packing

Published on Jul 11, 2010 by Luke Hunt

There are strong fears among ethnic groups in particular that the junta’s exercise in participatory democracy is nothing but a sham, Luke Hunt reports for Spectrum in Bangkok. Hardest hit is the country’s Muslim population, and Temme Lee, refugee co-ordinator at the Malaysian human rights organisation Suaram, said Kachin, Karen and Chin had also joined the cross-border march. “There have also been reports of people heading across the border and into China,” she told Spectrum. “There is a lot of pressure on the communities.” Among those who fled Burma is Hamid bin Hatin, a 17-year-old Burmese Muslim. Bin Hatin was being press-ganged into the Burmese military, where he would be forced to perform menial labour and spend years away from....

Editor’s May Note

Published on May 21, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Plans are affot to preserve the natural habitat of the Maliau Basin. Contributions from Luke Hunt and Karl Wilson have been added which include coverage of the elections in The Philippines, Vietnam’s 35th anniversary commemorating the end of the Vietnam War with America and plans to win a World Heritage Listing for the Maliau Basin, also known as the Lost World hidden deep inside Borneo’s interior. Clients include The Times, The Diplomat, Radio Australia and Voice of America. Ed. .

Stiletto by Max Kolbe — May, 2010

Published on May 21, 2010 by Luke Hunt

Protests in Thailand and the bloody violence that most of us saw coming, claimed the lives of two foreign correspondents and injured a few more with the Thai government claiming victory over civilian protestors. The dead were Japanese journalist Hiroyaki Muramoto, a TV cameraman with Thomson Reuters killed on April 10 and Italian freelance photographer Fabio Polenghi who died on May 19 from gunshot wounds. Dutch radio and television journalist Michel Maas was injured while reporting on the violence in the Thai capital, as was Briton Andrew Buncombe and two Canadian journalists, Nelson Rand shot three times, and Chandler Vandergrift who suffered shrapnel wounds to the head. Three Thai photographers and one reporter were also wounded. The deaths were the....