'Distorted News' Deemed Health Issue in Junta-run Thailand

BANGKOK — 

Thailand's military government says it is fighting a new threat to public health: distorted news reports.

The country's Health Ministry announced Tuesday it is launching a new smartphone application that will allow users to flag media content they find "inappropriate" so it can be forwarded to government authorities.

"I believe that we can all help guard, observe, investigate and support the process of having safe and positive media to benefit our youth, families and society in general," Panpimol Wipulakorn, deputy director-general of the health ministry, said at a news conference.

While the ministry says the "Media Watch" app is an important tool to protect society from "unsafe" media, it comes as Thailand is led by a military junta that maintains broad restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly and has sought to stifle all criticism under the guise of maintaining order and protecting national security.

The junta has put a particular focus on stamping out criticism of the country's monarchy, which is protected by a strict lese majeste law that mandates up to 15 years in prison per offense. Such prosecutions have increased under the junta, drawing condemnation from around the globe.

Wasant Paileeklee, manager of a government program that helped develop the app, said content flagged by users would be forwarded to media councils to consider or to government departments such as the broadcast regulator or ministry of culture for possible legal prosecution.

"In the past, when people reported something it would take a very long time and the issue might even fade away," Wasant said.

The application includes a function for users to track whether their report has been dealt with.

Thanicha Limpanich, manager of the Family Network Foundation under the Ministry of Public Health, said the application will go through a three-month trial period before launching to Android users.

The app's logo features a cartoon character with big blue eyes and long eyelashes staring out and pointing two fingers at viewers.

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Pope Speaks of Need for 'Forgiveness' in 1st Myanmar Mass

YANGON — 

Pope Francis spoke of the need for “forgiveness” and avoiding “revenge” at a mass attended by tens of thousands of people in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, on Wednesday.

He skirted direct mention of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority for the second time in his four-day visit, after talking generally of religious tolerance at a meeting with diplomats Tuesday.

Some 150,000 Catholics from across the country gathered at Kyaikkasan sports ground for the service, some arriving the night before to ensure their places.

“Today I am very blessed — not only me but all of Myanmar,” said Sister Lucy, a 22-year-old nun from far-flung Chin state, who got to the area at 5 a.m.

“We never dreamed that we would see his Excellency, but today we can see him,” she said.

In his first public mass in the country, Francis spoke of the many people in Myanmar who “bear the wounds of violence, wounds both visible and invisible.

“We think that healing can come from anger or revenge. Yet the way of revenge is not the way of Jesus,” he said.

The pope, an outspoken advocate for refugees, has defied the expectations of many in the West, who anticipated he would make public remarks on the Rohingya crisis.

More than 620,000 Rohingya, members of a long-persecuted Muslim minority, have fled to Bangladesh since August following a massive army crackdown.

Myanmar dismisses their stories of mass rape and killings as exaggerated, and the army has cleared itself of any abuses.

Previously, Francis has been an advocate for the minority, referring to them on occasion as “our Rohingya brothers and sisters.”

But papal advisers have counseled him not to speak about the issue while in Myanmar, for fear of a backlash against the some 650,000 Catholics in the country.

“This is the first time the pope is coming,” said Robert Nathan, one of about 70 Catholics born in Myanmar who traveled back for the celebrations.

He said Francis was right not to raise the plight of the Rohingya. “The government needs to sort out that problem,” he said.

But human rights advocates have urged him to speak out on behalf of the Rohingya, who are widely reviled as illegal immigrants within Myanmar.

“If the pope doesn’t use the word Rohingya, racist nationalists will see it as a victory, if he does, they will be upset and may protest. Which is better?” Mark Farmaner, head of Burma Campaign UK, said on Twitter.

Many in the audience in Yangon were happy he chose not to reference the crisis. He has said his primary purpose for the visit was to support the Christian population. The country recently established diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

Sister Lucy, the nun from Chin state, said she was happy Francis endorsed the charity work of Catholics in the country in his speech on Wednesday.
“He’s encouraging and appreciating. It helps us to keep up our work,” she said.

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North Korea Claims More Advanced ICBM Capable of Hitting U.S.

SEOUL — 

North Korea's test-firing of a new intercontinental ballistic missile, the first since September, has ratcheted up tensions as Pyongyang announced it can now hit the United States mainland with a warhead.

"The newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-15 has been successfully test-launched according to the political decision and strategic judgement of the Workers' Party of Korea,” read an announcer Wednesday on North Korea’s state-run KRT television.

Following previous launches, the North has claimed its projectiles can hit any part of the continental United States, but this would be the first time it would be able to do so with this new type of upgraded missile, which both North Korean and U.S. officials said could fly higher than the ones the country has tested earlier.

North Korea “can hit U.S.”

“The ICBM Hwasong-15 weapon system is an intercontinental ballistic rocket tipped with a super-large heavy warhead which is capable of striking the whole mainland of the U.S.," said a statement carried by

North Korea’s KCNA news agency. The statement said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watched the launch and then “declared with pride that now we have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power.”

It was not immediately clear if Pyongyang was claiming to have mastered the capability of miniaturizing and mounting a nuclear warhead on an ICBM, which South Korean officials have said could happen within a matter of months.

Analysts also question North Korea’s technical mastery of ICBM re-entry, which plays a key role in targeting. In the event of a launch at the U.S. mainland, U.S. missile defense systems would be employed.

Nonetheless, North Korea’s stepped-up threat was acknowledged by the United States and its allies, who vowed to increase pressure on Pyongyang.

“It went higher frankly than any previous shot they have taken,” said the U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis. “It's a research and development effort on their part to continue building ballistic missiles that can threaten everywhere in the world basically.”

Allies respond

Commenting on the North’s missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters “we will take care of it.”

Trump did not elaborate but said there would be no change in the U.S. approach, which consists of “maximizing pressure” on North Korea and keeping all options on the table.

"Nothing changed. Nothing changed. We have a very serious approach. Nothing's changed. We take it very seriously,” added Trump.

South Korea responded to North Korea’s missile test within minutes, test-firing missiles of its own as a warning to Pyongyang of Seoul’s rapid and precision response capabilities.

Moon issued a stark warning to Pyongyang.

“We must prevent the possibility that North Korea may misjudge the situation and threaten us with its nukes or the United States may consider a preemptive strike,” Yonhap news quoted the president saying through his spokesman Moon Young-chan.

Moon said Pyongyang’s action endangered international peace and security.

“South Korea and the United States, along with the international community, have no other choice but to continue applying strong pressure and sanctions.”

Trump spoke separately by phone with Moon and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to discuss Pyongyang’s ICBM test and how best to respond.

Abe called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

DPRK’s defiance

North Korea’s ICBM test came just a week after the U.S. tightened sanctions against Pyongyang and Trump returned it to the U.S.’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism,” which some analysts believe could explain the timing of the test.

“While it can be argued that the DPRK was likely to test an ICBM in any case, the timing of this launch was unusual,” said Frank Jannuzi, President and CEO of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, in e-mailed comments to VOA. “DPRK missile testing is far more frequent in the spring than in the fall. I cannot help wondering whether Trump's exquisitely poor timing on the terrorism list issue hasn't squandered a chance to get dialogue started.”

Others argue Pyongyang wanted to demonstrate it would not bow to increased pressure.

“Kim wants us to believe that the new pressure from the U.S. and China has not had an impact. At a minimum, it looks like it forced him to launch at night fearing a preemptive strike,” said Georgetown University Assistant Professor Dennis Wilder, who was National Security Council senior director for East Asian affairs during the George W. Bush administration.

“That he launched in the middle of the night was interesting – perhaps fear of pre-emption,” agreed Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Robert Manning. “But getting spun up every time he acts is dumb, counter-productive and helps Kim’s victim-threat narrative, boosting him internally.

Trump’s hysterical, ridiculous tweets and taunting of Kim were key instigators in creating this pseudo-crisis atmosphere,” Manning adds.

“I would not blame or give credit to the president’s tweets,” countered David Maxwell, associate director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. “I do not think Kim Jong Un is ‘provoked’ by tweets. I think they conducted this test/strategic demonstration-not a provocation-for one or all of three reasons: A necessary test to advance the program, the regime believes it can gain some advantage in some way and domestic purposes in support of the military elite.”

The key question, according to Maxwell, who is a retired special forces colonel with multiple tours on the Korean peninsula, is what advantage does Kim think he might be obtaining with a launch at this time or is he really responding to China’s actions, international and U.S. sanctions, a 60-day "moratorium," or something else? And the second key question, he added, is how should the United States respond?

Nuclear deterrence

North Korea tested less powerful ICBMs in July and its sixth, and most powerful, nuclear device in September. Pyongyang says its nuclear and missile programs act as a strong deterrent to prevent an attack from the U.S., while analysts say the alleged U.S. threat is used by North Korea to maintain power over its people since fighting in the Korean War ended.

Regardless of nuclear arms, all agree a return to war on the Korean peninsula would be devastating as the area around Seoul, which is within North Korea's artillery range and home to half of South Korea's population. South Korea and Japan have U.S. military bases while China and Russia share borders with North Korea.

“I think that all actors are deterred and the constraints are robust and real,” says Troy University in Seoul analyst Daniel Pinkston. “And any unilateral military action by any actor in Northeast Asia to change the status quo militarily would fail miserably. That includes North Korea and all the other actors and stakeholders including the U.S. and China, Japan and South Korea, Russia. So, we’re kind of stuck in this sub-optimal equilibrium. Everyone is dissatisfied and doesn’t like it,” added Pinkston.

While tougher sanctions are on the horizon - raising the costs for Pyongyang's defiance - many question whether it can be pressured into giving up its nuclear and missile programs.

“These capabilities are not something that can be negotiated away,” says Pinkston. It’s part of their identity, it’s part of their national security policy. They view all of the U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting these activities as illegitimate and they will continue to challenge those U.N. Security Council resolutions and challenge the international community.”

But, Pinkston said the good news is that we have a lot of experience with deterrence. “We did it against a much more menacing adversary in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, we have much greater capabilities and resources and alliance partners and everything else. So, there’s no need to panic.”

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Bali Airport Reopens as Cloud of Volcanic Ash Lifts

Two days after the skies above the Indonesian resort island of Bali were darkened by a large cloud of volcanic ash, the island's international airport reopened Wednesday.

The airport has been closed since Monday, when activity at nearby Mount Agung sent a large cloud of ash more than 7,600 meters into the air. More than 400 flights in and out of Bali were canceled during that time, and tens of thousands of foreign tourists were left stranded at the facility.

The volcanic ash finally shifted direction earlier Wednesday, prompting airport officials to resume normal operations.

Authorities on Bali have issued an evacuation order for 100,000 people living within a 10 kilometer radius of Mount Agung, citing fears of a major eruption that could happen at any moment. The volcano last erupted in 1963, killing over 1,000 people.

President Joko Widodo has ordered the military and all emergency services to assist with evacuees and stranded tourists.

Volcanologists first detected seismic activity at Mount Agung since August. The activity peaked in mid-September, prompting Indonesia's national disaster agency to raise its highest alert level for the volcano and evacuating more than 120,000 residents.

The vast archipelago of Indonesia is located along the Pacific's so-called "Ring of Fire," a seismically active line of faults where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.

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Rights Groups Criticize Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh

Hazera Bibi says she has spent every day for the last four years praying for the safe return of her son, Sajedul Islam Sumon, a well-known leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who disappeared in Dhaka, along with his five friends in December 2013.

“In front of 20 or 25 witnesses from two or three vans, on which RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) was written, some men got down and picked up my son and his party co-workers. The men were in RAB uniform. Soon, we went to the headquarters of RAB, but they said my son was not in their custody,” Bibi, who is now 71 years old, told VOA.

“Police did not let us file any complaint. They said they would not accept any complaint if we blamed the (elite paramilitary force) RAB for the disappearance.”

Bibi filed a petition to the High Court seeking action.

“But the case is also not at all moving in the court. I cannot make out where I will go now? Who will help me find out my son?” she said.

Sajedul Islam Sumon was 37 years old when he disappeared.

Hundreds disappeared

The disappearance of Sumon and his friends in that 2013 incident is not an isolated case in Bangladesh. In recent years, hundreds of people have disappeared in Bangladesh and the country’s security agencies are alleged to have been behind most of the cases.

Some were found dead, others were later formally arrested and some were allowed to return home. Many others remain missing.

According to the Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar, between January 2009 and October 2017, at least 402 persons became victims of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. So far, the group said, some 81 people have been "disappeared" this year. The group documents only those cases where the witnesses alleged that the victims had been taken away by men who claimed or appeared to be from law enforcement agencies.

Among the 402 cases documented by Odhikar at the end of October, 52 were found dead, 198 were later shown arrested or freed alive, while 152 persons, including Sumon and his five friends, remain untraced.

According to Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country’s main opposition party, in about 80 percent of the cases of forced disappearances the victims were leaders, activists and supporters of the different parties in the opposition alliance.

In recent weeks, among 12 persons who disappeared in the country there is one university professor and a journalist.

Mubashar Hasan, a researcher on terrorism related issues who has been published in leading academic journals, disappeared from Dhaka on November 7 soon after he met some U.N. officials. In a report published by an Indian news portal, friends of Hasan said they suspected he was in the custody of a Bangladeshi security forces. However, Bangladeshi authorities denied the claim.

Dhaka-based human rights activist Nur Khan said human rights workers in Bangladesh investigating such disappearances have found that accusations against the security agencies to be true in many cases.

“The law enforcement agencies usually do not want to accept complaints in such cases if the complainants accuse the agencies for the disappearances. After people move the court seeking relief, the court orders the law enforcement agencies to investigate the cases. In such situation often there is a possibility of the investigations being biased or it becomes difficult to conduct the investigations independently,” Khan told VOA.

“With the State apparently not taking any action, the incidences of disappearance is rising.”

Government denials

The government insists it is not at fault.

Two weeks ago, Bangladesh police chief AKM Shahidul Haque said secret abductions had been taking place since the British colonial period.

“When people come to police to report such cases, we accept the complaints and we try to solve the cases. I know that we succeed to rescue around 75 percent of the victims (of disappearances),” Haque said.

Last week Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh was not the only country where citizens were vanishing and that people were disappearing also in developed countries.

“According to statistics of 2009, 275,000 British citizens disappeared. Among them, 20,000 have remained completely untraced. If you consider the case of America, the situation of disappearance is even worse,” Hasina said in the Parliament.

“Compared to those countries the situation is much better in Bangladesh. We are taking action as soon as one disappears.”

BNP senior joint secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed said Hasina and her colleagues in the government were in the “habit” of providing misleading information to justify their wrongdoings and distract the international community.

"The situation of the human rights condition in Bangladesh is clearly reflected in the statement of the prime minister. She has virtually admitted that her government has been involved with the disappearances in the country," Rizvi told VOA.

Rights activists

Rights activists too have been critical of Hasina’s statement on disappearances.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said Hasina is comparing apples to oranges when she tries to compare her government’s shoddy record on enforced disappearances to persons who have gone missing in the U.S. and Britain.

“The major difference is the role of Bangladesh law enforcers who enjoy near total impunity, ranging from ordinary police to the infamous, black garbed Rapid Action Battalion, who have a long record of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings,” Robertson told VOA.

“Rather than casting around for excuses, Sheikh Hasina should ensure independent and impartial investigations into disappearance cases, and prosecute security officials in any instance where evidence is found that they have committed abuses,” he said.

Hong Kong-based rights activist Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman said that inaccessibility to the justice mechanism in the cases is a key reason for which the enforced disappearances are continuing in Bangladesh.

“Records clearly show that Bangladesh’s justice institution is incapable of upholding fair trial and administering justice in the cases of enforced disappearances. The state attorneys and judges have been insincere in guaranteeing judicial remedies to the victims,” Ashrafuzzaman, liaison officer of Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), told VOA.

“The head of the government's justification of enforced disappearances guarantees impunity to the perpetrators and transmits a chilling message to the victims that there is no end to such incidents in the country.”

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China’s Prison Term for Democracy Activist Fans Distrust in Taiwan

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — 

A Chinese court's conviction of a Taiwanese activist, on charges that his social media posts incited subversion of state power, will spawn fresh suspicion in his homeland toward an already distrusted Beijing government, observers say.

The five-year sentence handed Tuesday to Lee Ming-che for pushing for democracy through a Chinese social media group will make other Taiwanese wonder about their fate if they live under Beijing’s rule someday, academics and fellow activists say.

Communist China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and insists on eventual unification.

Taiwanese have grown used to free speech, including advocacy of different political systems, without getting into legal trouble since their own government democratized in the late 1980s after decades of authoritarian rule.

“We think this is a so-called verdict that Taiwanese can’t accept,” Taipei-based Judicial Reform Foundation lawyer Kao Jung-chih told a news conference in Taipei after China’s official Xinhua News Agency announced the sentence from a courthouse in Hunan province.

Are other Taiwanese next?

Lee had posted to the Internet in Taipei, Kao said, but got charged later in China. Other Taiwanese post freely, he added, and then travel to the other side.

“Basically, though (China) is ruled by law in name, this verdict lacked even a basic legal foundation,” he said. “So, in the end, I’d like to appeal to Taiwanese that the Lee Ming-che matter is not just about one person, rather a matter for all. We need to stand up. Otherwise there will be a day, after we’ve been eroded away bit by bit, when we can’t stand up.”

China hopes Lee’s sentence will send a message that Taiwanese should avoid discussing political issues with mainland Chinese people, even from home, activists and scholars in Taipei believe.

The message may deter people from unnecessary travel, said George Hou, a communications lecturer at I-Shou University in Taiwan.

“For Taiwanese people, they’ll be more worried,” Hou said. “This matter will make Taiwanese people, when going into the regulation side of things, find that China is an undeveloped country, or you could say that when you go, make sure to be more careful and wary.”

From one to three million Taiwanese live in China long term, often as investors and their relatives. China now encourages younger Taiwanese to come as interns or employees of startups, a chance to earn money in an $11.2 trillion-plus economy that is growing at nearly 7 percent.

Impact on China-Taiwan relations

The Taiwan government’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement Tuesday the Lee case “will inevitably have a serious negative effect on cross-Strait relations.” It also forecast damage to “mainland China’s international image.”

About 3,000 individuals and workplaces in Taiwan are displaying yellow ribbons to advocate for Lee’s release.

In 2012 Lee joined a China-Taiwan social media group formed by Chinese national Peng Yuhua, who received a seven-year sentence Tuesday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The group aimed to “overthrow” the current form of Chinese government, Xinhua said. Lee had faced up to 10 years in prison.

He had worked in Taipei as a university program manager while helping do research for local human rights organizations.

Xinhua did not link the case to other aspects of China-Taiwan relations.

Taiwanese following the Lee trial, including bits that were released on video, wonder whether Lee confessed to charges under pressure and why he didn’t have more help from a lawyer. His disappearance from the Chinese territory of Macau in March before being charged in mainland China raised further suspicion.

China already frustrated with Taiwan

Lee’s case came on the back of perceived economic and military pressure from China, prompting questions about whether it was related.

Since Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May 2016, China has sent an aircraft carrier around the island, scaled back tourist arrivals and persuaded two countries to switch recognition from Taipei to Beijing, Taiwan officials say.

China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists rebased in Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war. Officials in Beijing see formal dialogue as a conduit to unification and resent Tsai for rejecting their dialogue condition that both sides belong to one country, China.

The two sides talked briskly from 2008 to 2015.

The London-based advocacy group Amnesty International linked Lee’s case to more than 240 other political activists who have faced pressure in China since 2015.

Lee’s prison term is a one-off for Taiwanese, but others occasionally get detained, including a Taiwanese practitioner of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong in 2015.

Despite condemnations from the government and Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, some activists want more official follow-up to the Lee verdict.

“We think for the presidential office or the ruling Democratic Progressive Party just to use the means of sending out statements is extremely inadequate,” said Chiu Yi-ling secretary general with the NGO Taiwan Association for Human Rights. “They can’t set aside our rights and always be oppressed or evaded by China.”

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Australian Senate Easily Approves Bill to Legalize Gay Marriage

Australia is one step closer to legalizing same-sex marriage.

Just two weeks after Australians overwhelmingly endorsed same-sex marriage in a nationwide write-in survey, the Australian Senate acted accordingly on Wednesday, easily approving a bill to allow the practice by a vote of 43-12.

The bill passed after lawmakers rejected amendments by conservatives that would legally protect people who refuse to provide professional services to same-sex couples on religious grounds, including lay ministers and civil celebrants, as well as vendors like caterers and florists.

"We are a part of an act of acceptance, an act of inclusion, an act of respect, an act of celebration" said openly gay Senator Penny Wong in a speech before the vote. Wong said the law signals to Australia's gay, lesbian and transgender community that "this country accepts you for who you are. Your love is not lesser, and nor are you."

The bill will be taken up next week by the lower House of Representatives, where it is also expected to be easily approved. Conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has vowed to have the bill approved before Christmas.

Turnbull initiated the write-in vote on same-sex marriage after lawmakers rejected a plan to hold a compulsory vote known as a plebiscite. About 62 percent of the 12 million Australians who returned their ballots voted "yes" on legalizing same-sex marriage.

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