|  |
|
News Archive - ASIA
Listed below are news from this year.
News from previous years can be found here:
 Asia news archive 2008
Asia news archive 2007
Asia news archive 2006
Asia news archive 2005
|
India: Escalating political repression and reign of fear in Manipur
|
|
|
18 September 2009
The escalating political repression and reign of fear in Manipur, India needs urgent international support. Seven known activists of United Manipur Club Organisation (AMUCO) and an eco-activist Mr. Jiten Yumnam were arrested on 14th September by the combined team of Imphal west police commandos and the Singjamei police. Their crime is nothing else but exercising their fundamental rights and freedoms by drawing national and international attention to the murder with impunity of Mr. Chungkham Sanjit and Ms. Thockchom Rebina (who was pregnant) by state forces and the public outcry in the state following this gruesome incident that took place last month.
 Sign on to the on-line petition |
|
|
Malaysia: Arrest of 15 indigenous representatives in Sarawak
|
|
|
18 September 2009
On September 16, 2009, 15 representatives from indigenous communities in Sarawak were arrested by Kuching police. They were arrested while waiting for an endorsement of a document to be delivered to the office of the Chief Minister. The document was a protest against two major hydro electric dams being built in their areas without the free, prior and informed consent of the communities affected and without due regards to the status of the native lands involved.
Read the press release by JOAS |
|
|
Malaysia: Rape and Sexual Abuse of Penan Girls in Baram, Sarawak
|
|
|
11 September 2009
In September 2008, news broke out that Penan girls, some as young as 10 years, were being sexually abused by logging workers in the Middle Baram area of Sarawak. However, local politicians and the police were quick to dismiss these as mere allegations without any basis.
Such lackadaisical attitudes compelled the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to establish a National Task Force comprising ministry officials and women NGO representatives to investigate the ‘allegations’. Aided by local activists in Sarawak, they were able to meet with some of the victims and their families in November 2008.
Read full press release |
|
|
Losing Ground: Forced Evictions and Intimidation in Cambodia
|
|
|
10 September 2009
Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee have just released "Losing Ground: Forced Evictions and Intimidation in Cambodia". It is a report about the deteriorating conditions for land rights and freedom of speech in Cambodia. One of the 7 key bases of an indigenous community. The key cases illustrate the trends and issues that are affecting all rural Cambodians - in particular, indigneous peoples.
Download the report in PDF format |
|
|
Third Mission of the International Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission
|
|
|
24 August 2009
The international Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission carried out its third mission to Bangladesh August 11-16, 2009 to assess the situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.Commission members met with government representatives, brigade commanders , senior police officers, politicians and civil society leaders, including both indigenous and Bengali representatives.
Read the press statement |
|
|
bdnews24.com: Army to begin "biggest withdrawal" from CHT
|
|
|
29 July 2009
The Bangladesh government has announced the "biggest withdrawal" of army troops from the Chittagong Hill Tracts since a peace accord was signed over a decade ago in an attempt to bring stability to the long-troubled region.
Read the article on bdnews24.com
|
|
|
Mindanao, Philippines: Death and Displacement - GMA’s Legacy to the Indigenous Peoples
|
|
|
27 July 2009
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Indigenous Peoples leaders gathered at the Manresa Retreat Conference Center blasted this government’s obsession with opening ancestral domain lands to corporate plunder. “There is an integral link between ancestral domains and our life, culture and livelihoods, but to the government our resource and biodiversity rich lands are only seen as sources for profit. We will remember the Arroyo administration for the rapacious greed that has brought deprivation, dislocation, and death to lumad communities”, lamented Dulphing Ogan, secretary general of Katawhanung Lumad sa Mindanao. Frustrated that the plight of indigenous peoples in the Philippines had never been reflected in any of President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Addresses (SONA), indigenous peoples leaders have come together to hold their own State of Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA) with the theme “Continuing the historical struggle for the right to self determination”.
Read more (MindaNews) |
|
|
Bangladesh: Long march by indigenous people to protest attacks
|
|
|
27 July 2009
Over two hundred members of the indigenous community yesterday began a two-day long march across 55 kilometres from Porsha upazila to Naogaon town yesterday to protest attacks on indigenous families. The march was organised under the banner of Jatiya Adibashi Parishad (JAP) after a gang led by Nur Hosssain Master of Soraigachhi attacked the houses of some 74 families including 54 indigenous families at Katirpur on June 12.
Read more (The Daily Star) |
|
 |
Jarawa: 'Are we here just for your amusement?'
|
|
|
25 July 2009
Our increasing demand for adventure is pushing back the frontiers of tourism, but is it also posing a threat to tribal people?
Read more (the Guardian) |
|
|
Human Rights Watch: India, End Manipur Killings
|
|
|
17 July 2009
(New York) - The Manipur state government in northeastern India should act to end a cycle of unpunished violence, including killings, by security forces and armed groups, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch said that urgent action is needed by the Indian government to support this process by repealing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which has facilitated serious security force abuse for many years. A government-appointed review committee recommended the repeal in 2004, but the government has yet to act.
Read more (hrw.org) |
|
|
| Philippines: Mining disaster in Benguet |
|
|
16 July 2009
A recent environmental disaster took place in Mankayan, Benguet where the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company has been operating since 1936. On June 5, 2009, a massive 50-meter ground subsidence occurred during the height of the monsoon rains. This was followed by series of sinking until July, reaching up to 10 more meters of land subsidence. Residents have already been evacuated and the Mankayan National High School is being relocated. Mankayan has been put under a state of calamity. The security of the people of Mankayan is an urgent concer. Immediate humanitarian aid and response is needed, and the indigenous organisation Cordillera Peoples Alliance appeals to all individuals, organizations and sectors to help save Mankayan.
Lepanto: Shattering its Own Myth of Safe and Responsible Mining
Enough of the Disasters! Save Mankayan from Further Environmental Destruction! (CPA press statement of 16 July 2009)
CPA Supports Call for Independent Investigation in Mankayan Ground Subsidence (3 July 2009)
|
|
|
BBC: Land grab in Cambodia
|
|
|
9. Juli 2009
150,000 Cambodians are reported to be facing eviction from their land. Huge tracts of the country have been granted to private companies for large scale agriculture or other purposes. Some of those who have tried to resist say they have been attacked or threatened.
Listen to the full BBC report
Download the report in mp3 format |
|
|
Bangladesh: Peace still a far cry in the hills
|
|
|
30 June 2009
THE Awami League Election Manifesto of 2008 said -- "The 1997 Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord will be fully implemented. More efforts will be directed towards the development of underdeveloped areas, and special programmes on priority basis will be taken to secure rights of the ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples and other communities, and to preserve their language, literature, culture, and unique lifestyles." Unfortunately during the last six months of the present government, there have been no significant initiatives to implement the CHT Accord.
Read more (The Daily Star) |
|
|
Bangladesh: Students protest to save indigenous land
|
|
|
19 June 2009
Members of Bangladesh Marma Students Council (BMSC) yesterday formed a human chain at Muktaman-chha in Khagrachhari town protesting settlers' alleged attempt to grab indigenous people's lands at different places in Chittagong Hill Tracts. On Sunday last, a clash between settlers and indigenous people over a land dispute at Boroitali in Khagra-chhari district left 17 settlers seriously injured. Later, the Marma students submitted a memorandum to the state minister for CHT Affairs Ministry through Khagrachhari Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Abdullah demanding immediate steps to stop alleged settlers' bid to grab 300 acres of land at Boroitali in Guimara of Khagrachhari district.
Read more (thedailystar.net) |
|
 |
Bangladesh: Land Commission fails
|
|
|
8 June 2009
Full implementation of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) peace accord remains uncertain as the Land Commission formed to resolve land disputes in CHT is yet to be made functional 11 years after its inception. As per the peace deal signed in 1998, the then Awami League government formed a five-member CHT Land Commission for resolving the land related disputes in CHT. As the successive governments failed to take proper steps to make the commission functional, land settlement process in CHT faces serious hindrance and a large number of applications from both Bangali and indigenous people have remained piled up at the offices of concerned circle chiefs and deputy commissioners, sources said.
Read more thedailystar.net |
|
|
New book out: Land, People and Politics
|
|
|
Land is the centre of most conflicts in Northeast India because of its importance in the life of the people of the region, particularly its tribal communities. It is also the resource most under attack, in the tribal areas in particular. This book is an attempt to understand the processes that result in tribal land alienation and the consequent conflicts in the region. The essays in this book attempt to disaggregate the received knowledge on land use systems in Northeast India, by using a mixture of ethnography and archival data.
Read more and order |
|
 |
Bangladesh: Thousands have had to leave country
|
|
|
16 May 2009
An organisation working with indigenous people claimed that around 50,000 adivashi people were forced to leave the country due to harassment and repression during the last decade. The Adivashi Manobadhikar Report 2008 claimed that non-adivashi people were relocated to the hilly region under a political scheme of "population transfer" and they contributed to the harassment and repression of the indigenous people.
Read more |
|
Photo: Ashrai |
Malaysia highest court affirms tribes' land rights
|
|
|
5 May 2009
Malaysia's highest court has affirmed a ruling granting land rights to indigenous people that could help them resist oil and logging companies razing their ancestral forests, a lawyer said Sunday. A panel of three Federal Court judges unanimously ruled that tribes have customary ownership of land they have lived on for generations and state governments cannot take it from them without compensation, said See Chee How, a prominent land rights lawyer. "It is a landmark decision," said See of Tuesday's ruling. "It's the first time the Federal Court has affirmed (such) a decision."
Read more (from Associated Press by Julia Zappei)
Read more (from Malaysiakini.com by Tony Thien) |
|
 |
Malaysia: Land acquisition dispute ends
|
|
|
22 April 2009
SELANGOR: The State Executive Councilors’ Meeting today decided to withdraw the State Government’s appeal to the Federal Court with respect to the Sagong Tasi case involving the acquisition of 38.477 acres of the Temuan tribe’s customary lands at Bukit Tampoi, Dengkil in 1995. Accordingly, the State Legal Advisor will inform the Federal Court tomorrow of the State Government’s intention to withdraw from the case.
Read the full press release (doc) |
|
Sagong Tasi,in yellow, and tribe-mates after the decision in the court of appeal. Photo: Colin Coac. |
Malaysia: Rural Sarawak suffers flood consequences
|
|
|
17th February 2009
Unprecedented devastation caused by floods appears to be a consequence of logging and changed local climate patterns. Rural communities in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak are facing bleak days ahead as the recent floods have destroyed their padi fields shortly before harvest time. According to a report in The Borneo Post on 11 February 2009, indigenous communities from a number of longhouses in the Baram river region have lost almost their complete harvest.
MEDIA RELEASE: BRUNO MANSER FONDS, BASEL / SWITZERLAND
Read more |
|
Only a couple of farmers who cultivated hill padi this year have survived the devastation. |
|
|
|
