Govt cancels Thai road loan

Monday, 30 November 2009 15:01 Cheang Sokha and James O'toole

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

The mother of a Thai national being held on spying charges arrives Friday to visit him in prison.

CAMBODIA annulled a US$41 million loan from Thailand on Friday, as family members visited the jailed Thai engineer who has become embroiled in the diplomatic spat between the two countries.

The loan, which had been finalised in August, was to have funded renovations of National Road 68, connecting Siem Reap and Oddar Meanchey provinces with Thailand.

“We have sent the diplomatic note for the cancellation of the loan agreement because Cambodia has its own ability to build this road,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said, adding that Prime Minister Hun Sen will preside over a groundbreaking ceremony for the project on December 5.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called the loan cancellation the result of “confusion”, downplaying the move’s political significance.

“On one hand, they wanted us to confirm we would lend them the money, and on the other hand, they were afraid we would not extend the loan to them. So they opted to cancel the loan first,” Abhisit told Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper.

Also on Friday, Sivarak Chutipong met with his mother and brother, Simarak Na Nakornphnom and Pongsuree Chutipong, at Prey Sar prison.

Sivarak was arrested on November 12 after leaking the flight schedule of Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to the Thai embassy during the fugitive billionaire’s visit to Cambodia earlier this month.

Sivarak, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of spying, is scheduled to stand trial on December 8.

Civil society groups urge for complete investigation of Bank Century scandal

Irawaty Wardany , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 11/30/2009 7:34 PM

The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Civic Community declared their joint statements Monday to encourage the government to complete its investigation of the Bank Century bailout.

“We have a deep moral and political concern for the state of political ethics in this country regarding the investigation of the Bank Century scandal,” Ray Rangkuti from Lima read the joint statements at the Muhammadiyah headquarters at Cikini, Central Jakarta.

The civic community comprises of among others, Lima, Muhammadiyah and the Anti-Corruption Civil Societies (Kompak).

The joint statement declaration was attended by the Muhammadiyah chairman, Din Syamsuddin, and the former coordinating minister for the economy Kwik Kian Gie as well as several other national figures.

They said the Bank Century scandal was a crime against the state and the decision to provide a Rp 6.7 trillion (US$ 710 million) bailout was a systemic robbery facilitated by a corrupt state policy.

The takeover of Century by the government, via the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS), led to an Rp 6.76 trillion bailout - much more the preliminary estimates of fewer than one trillion and three times the later calculation of Rp 2.27 trillion - figures that have drawn severe criticism for their lack of transparency.

The community urged all levels of society to monitor the investigation of the Bank Century scandal.

Arroyo bid sparks outrage - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Arroyo bid sparks outrage - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

By Inquirer Staff, Philippine Daily Inquirer, First Posted 01:22:00 12/01/2009

MANILA, Philippines—Within hours of her declaration that she was running for Congress in May, a firestorm of criticism swirled around President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with one critic accusing her of being drunk with power and others saying her aim was to shield herself from “a landslide of lawsuits.”

The criticisms, as well as concerns, came both from her well-known political enemies and from some Church leaders.

The biggest worry of Ms Arroyo’s political foes appeared to be that she might use a seat in Congress as a launching pad to become prime minister, in case of a shift to a parliamentary government.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, for so long a vocal critic of Ms Arroyo, said the framers of the Constitution did not think of imposing a ban on an outgoing president running for a lower office simply because it was unthinkable.

“There appears to be no reasonable cause for such a constitutional prohibition as really there is no person in his or her sound mind who will do such a funny and demeaning political circus,” Cruz said.

Cruz denounced Ms Arroyo’s “addiction to power.”

Temptation of power

Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), wasn’t caustic but his message was also clear—he said it was time for Ms Arroyo to retire.

“I wholeheartedly suggest she give others a chance to serve and not give in to the temptation of power,” Lagdameo said.

Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, running mate of Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, claimed Ms Arroyo’s bid for a seat in the House of Representatives was meant to reduce her successor into a mere transition president.

“Her ultimate goal is to become House Speaker and ram through her burning desire to change the Constitution,” Roxas said.

“Since she cannot hope to beat Noynoy, her next best option is to render his victory useless and lead the change in the form of government,” he added.

Protect her back

Running for Congress would also allow her to use her House seat to defend herself from a “landslide of lawsuits” that would be filed against her after she leaves the presidency, Roxas said.

Sen. Francis Escudero said that while it was well within Ms Arroyo’s right to run for a lower post, “it surely leaves a bad taste in the mouth.”

“What else does she need to prove and accomplish?” Escudero asked.

It’s her desire to hang on to power and “protect her back” that pushed Ms Arroyo into deciding to run for the House of Representatives, other senators said.

“She still wants to be in power,” Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said in a phone interview.

Estrada, whose father Joseph Estrada was jailed for plunder and later pardoned by Ms Arroyo, said she probably wanted to have control of the House so she could be installed as prime minister if a change in the form of government ensued.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said on the phone that Ms Arroyo’s decision was designed to “protect her back from the innumerable charges that are bound to come her way.”

This “sets a horrible example for politicians to follow,” he said.

United Opposition president and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay voiced the same fears.

“The real agenda is to ... shift to a parliamentary form of government and snatch power from whoever is elected president in 2010 by becoming prime minister and head of government,” Binay said in a statement.

In a spot

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo said Ms Arroyo’s decision would put Pampanga voters in a spot. Ocampo is a resident of Pampanga’s second district and thus may end up being one of Ms Arroyo’s constituents if she wins.

“The main burden there would be on the voters,” Ocampo said. “It may be a bit hard to explain if they will vote for her and put her in Congress considering the nationally consistent rejection of her as shown by the surveys.”

Ocampo said he suspected Ms Arroyo would fund the candidacies of many administration allies so that she could control majority of the House if she won.

“She is drunk with power and can’t get enough. I think she needs professional help,” said Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said in a statement: “This is a dark day for the Philippines.”

Arroyo son’s sacrifice

Sen. Edgardo Angara, an ally of Ms Arroyo, would rather accept at “face value” her explanation that she was running for Congress so she could continue to serve the people.

Still, Angara said there were “many more meaningful ways” that Ms Arroyo could do other “than stepping down to a lower position.” He said she could do philanthropy or charity work or go into teaching.

Ms Arroyo’s elder son, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo said that he “sacrificed” another term in Congress to yield to the clamor of his constituents who wanted his mother to take his place.

“I was the one who insisted she run for Congress as we believe she is more [able] to serve better given her political expertise and technological know how,” Mikey said in a text message to reporters.

Administration standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro Jr. distanced himself from the uproar.

“I am focused on my own candidacy... her plan doesn’t mean anything to me because it’s a decision made by the President,” Teodoro told the Inquirer.

More Church comments

Other Catholic Church leaders also spoke out against Ms Arroyo’s plan to run for a congressional seat. The prelates’ comments were posted in the news website of the CBCP.

Catarman Bishop Emmanuel Trance said that while there was no legal prohibition against her seeking a lower office, “she would have shown some statesmanship or political delicadeza if she does not run.”

Laoag Bishop Sergio Utleg said Ms Arroyo “should retire.” Basilan Martin Jumoad said: “It’s not proper for a former president to seek a lower position.”

Virac Bishop Manolo Delos Santos said that since there was no legal impediment for her to run as congressman, “let her constituents decide.”

Legazpi Bishop Emeritus Lucilo Quiambao said Ms Arroyo’s “self-demotion” as a congressional candidate “might be interpreted (as an act) to cover up for something.” Reports from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Dona Pazzibugan, Christine O. Avendaño, Leila B. Salaverria, Allison W. Lopez, Jocelyn Uy and Nikko Dizon

Blair may have ‘signed in blood’ to topple Saddam a year before war

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6933284.ece

Tony Blair and President Bush might have secretly “signed in blood” a deal to overthrow Saddam Hussein a year before ordering the Iraq war, according to a former senior diplomat.

Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain’s Ambassador to Washington in the run-up to the war, said an agreement to aim for “regime change” may have been reached during a private meeting at the President’s Crawford ranch in April 2002.

He also said that, in his view, Baroness Thatcher would have had a clearer grip on Britain’s policy towards Iraq. Giving evidence on the third day of the Chilcot inquiry into the war yesterday, he criticised Mr Blair’s failure to defend Britain’s national interest and to insist on much tougher conditions for his support for the US-led invasion in March 2003.

Sir Christopher said the decision to overthrow Saddam had been taken in the absence of advisers by Mr Blair and President Bush during a meeting at the Texas ranch. Afterwards, Mr Blair referred to “regime change” in Iraq for the first time.

“To this day I am not entirely clear what degree of convergence was, if you like, signed in blood at the Crawford ranch.” he said. “They weren’t there to talk about containment or strengthening sanctions.”

Sir Christopher said that Mr Blair would have been more influential if he had attached more conditions to British support. “I think that would have changed the nature of American planning,” he said. “By the time you get to the end of the year it’s too late. I did say to London that we were being taken for granted.”

Once the US miliary had started planning its strategy for an invasion in the spring of 2003, it was impossible to delay, even though the diplomatic work for a possible peaceful solution had not finished, he told the inquiry.

Sir Christopher said that he was “not making a party political point”, but Lady Thatcher had been much tougher on the “special relationship” with the Americans. He expressed frustration over the failure of the allies to agree a diplomatic strategy to overthrow Saddam or to prepare properly for victory, which would have prevented the country’s descent into chaos.

“Quite often I think what would Margaret Thatcher have done,” Sir Christopher told the inquiry. “I think she would have insisted on a clear, coherent political-diplomatic strategy. I think she would have demanded the greatest clarity about what the heck happened if, and when, we removed Saddam Hussein.”

Even though refusing to send troops to Iraq would not have damaged British interests in America, said Sir Christopher, he could not envisage Mr Blair following the example of Harold Wilson, who refused to send British forces to Vietnam.

“I couldn’t conceive that Prime Minister Blair . . . would have done a Harold Wilson,” he said, “I can’t image in period post 9/11 that Tony Blair, like Harold Wilson, would put distance between himself and the White House.” Sir Christopher, Ambassador to Washington from 1997 to 2003, also compared John Prescott unfavourably with Dick Cheney, the American Vice-President.

“I remember saying to London ‘This may be the most powerful Vice-President ever’. I mean, his institutional opposite number was the Deputy Prime Minister,” said Sir Christopher. “This was an unbalanced relationship and probably didn’t reap the dividends that we might have expected.”

Sir Christopher said that the political strategy should have delayed the invasion until the autumn of 2003. But the “contingency military timetable” had been decided even before the UN inspectors went into Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction.

His words will draw comparisons to suggestions by some historians that the start of the First World War was decided partly as a result of Germany’s need to prepare its railway timetables for troop movements.

Although President Bush agreed to wait for the UN to pass resolution 1441 on Iraqi disarmament and send Hans Blix to make inspections, there was no time to come up with the evidence required before the scheduled start of the invasion, said Sir Christopher.

“You found yourself in a situation in the autumn of 2002 where you could not synchronise the military timetable with the inspection timetable,” he said.

“We found ourselves scrabbling around for the smoking gun. And we — the Americans, the British — have never really recovered from that because, of course, there was no smoking gun. The key problem was to let the military strategy wag the political and diplomatic strategy. It should have been the other way round.”

Sir Christopher expressed frustration that Britain was unable to gain much diplomatic leverage from its position as America’s chief ally.

“I said to London the key thing now, quite apart from Iraq, is to translate this popularity into real achievement, which benefits the national interest.”

But Britain failed to persuade America to liberalise transatlantic air travel and, almost on the day when British commandos joined the fighting in Afghanistan, the US imposed tariffs on imports of specialised British steel.

The inquiry will continue today with evidence from Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain’s Ambassador to the UN at the time of the invasion.

Cambodia: NGO law is on the horizon

Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Sebastian Strangio and Khouth Sophak Chakrya

PRIME Minister Hun Sen announced Tuesday that the government has moved ahead with drafting a law to regulate the activities of NGOs, prompting fresh concerns that the proposed legislation will be used to clamp down on the activities of advocacy groups.

At a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the cooperation between NGOs and the government, Hun Sen said the presence of 3,000 NGOs in Cambodia requires new rules to weed out groups engaged in “opposition” politics.

“NGOs demand that the government shows transparency, but they can’t show the same to us,” he said.

“We respect the local and international NGOs whose activities serve humanity and help the government of Cambodia.... They will not be threatened by this draft law. But we believe that some NGOs whose activities seem to serve the opposition party will be afraid of it.”

Hun Sen also said that after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, very few NGOs came to Cambodia’s assistance due to an aid embargo among Western nations, but that now there were thousands of groups, some of which used their NGO status as a cloak to “play politics and support the opposition party”.

The premier’s comments echoed statements made at a cabinet meeting in September last year, in which he expressed concerns that NGO funding could come from “terrorist groups”.

Despite Hun Sen’s assurances that the new law will not restrict the scope of NGO activities, some civil society activists are concerned it could conflate advocacy with political affiliation.

“Some associations and NGOs are mandated to do national and international advocacy on human rights and other issues, but it should not be concluded that these groups are affiliated with any political parties,” said Naly Pilorge, director of rights group Licadho. “NGOs are by nature nongovernmental and non-political.”

She said that from communications with the ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs, Licadho had learned that the draft law will cover both international and local associations.

“I do not understand why a law for associations and NGOs needs to be drafted to combat terrorism and other crimes when existing laws already cover such crimes,” she added.

Sin Somuny, executive director of Medicam, a national umbrella organisation for health-sector NGOs, said it was fair to ask that NGOs practice what they preach in terms of transparency, but that the potentially broad definition of “political interference” made the new law a hazard for advocacy groups.

“In America, NGOs advocate for policy change – are these kinds of things considered ‘politics’? If they are, what kind of role can civil society play?” he said.

Sin Somuny, a speaker at Tuesday’s ceremony, said that though NGO activists and opposition politicians often fall on the same side of arguments, their relationship is “ambiguous” and did not indicate any allegiance.

Chith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, said he “welcomed” the premier’s comments that the law would not restrict the NGO activities but could not comment further, as he had not read the draft law.

Suspects in Maguindanao slays arrested—PNP chief - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Suspects in Maguindanao slays arrested—PNP chief - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) Several gunmen linked to a powerful Philippine politician were arrested Thursday over the election-related massacre of at least 57 people, the country's police chief said.

"We don't have an exact number [of those arrested], but our policemen in the area have arrested several," national police Director General Jesus Verzosa said on dzBB radio.

He identified the suspects as militiamen under the control of Andal Ampatuan Jr., who is accused of masterminding Monday's killings in the southern province of Maguindanao.

"Andal Ampatuan Jr. is a suspect. He has sent feelers and Secretary Dureza will accompany him to submit to an investigation," Verzosa said, referring to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's adviser on the southern island of Mindanao.

The massacre occurred after about 100 Ampatuan gunmen allegedly abducted a convoy of aides and relatives of a rival politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, plus a group of journalists.

The victims were snatched as they were traveling in a six-vehicle convoy to nominate Mangudadatu as the opposition candidate for provincial governor in next year's elections.

They were shot at close range, some with their hands tied behind their backs, and dumped or buried in shallow graves on a remote farming road close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name.

Fifty-seven bodies have been recovered so far, and police are still searching for more potential victims.

Ampatuan Sr. had been grooming his son, currently a local mayor, to take over as governor of Maguindanao.

The victims' relatives alleged the Ampatuans organized the murders so that Mangudadatu would not run for that post.

Thursday's actions by the police were the first arrests in relation to the massacre.

Maguindanao death toll rises to 22—military - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Maguindanao death toll rises to 22—military - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 08:16:00 11/24/2009

MANILA, Philippines – The death toll from an attack on a group of journalists and politicians in the lawless southern Philippines has risen to 22 with the recovery of one more body, the military said Tuesday.

The victims were among a group of more than 40 people abducted by gunmen linked to a powerful politician on the southern island of Mindanao on Monday.

"We have recovered 22 bodies," military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner told Agence France-Presse. "Most of the bodies bore gunshot wounds."

Brawner said the group had been abducted by gunmen linked to Andal Ampatuan, leader of a powerful political clan in the area, and that the kidnap victims included the wife of his rival, Esmael Mangudadatu.

He said the military was searching for the other people still missing, as well as hunt down the gunmen.