Q & A: Exclusive interview with Professor Joel Brinkley

Monday, 6 June 2011
Originally posted at: http://camwatchblogs.blogspot.com

Introduction:

This is an interview conducted by CambodiaWatch-Australia (CW) team, on 3 June 2011, with Professor Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Standford University, and former journalist of New York Times, and author of recent book titled: “Cambodia’s Curse” – The Modern History of a Troubled Land”, published by Public Affairs, New York, 2011.

Prof. Joel Brinkley

1.

CW: Thank you, Professor Brinkley, for your time. Firstly, you mentioned in the text that your interest in Cambodia dated back in 1979 when you were first assigned to report on Cambodia. What were your roles during this tumultuous year 1979 for Cambodia?

Prof. Brinkley:

My newspaper assigned me to cover the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime and the resulting refugee crisis. I spent a few weeks in the Thai-Cambodia border area and wrote a number of stories.

2.

CW: In the mid-1979, have you heard or covered stories of an atrocity committed by the Thai army? This is documented in CW’s website: http://camwatchblogs.blogspot.com/2011/05/thai-armys-atrocity-at-mount-dangrek.html

Prof. Brinkley:

Yes, I did write a story about this at the time.

3.

CW: In your book, “Cambodia’s Curse” What is it that you see as being the curse for Cambodia: The destruction of Angkor Wat,Territorial disputes with its neighbours, or its internal conflicts?

Prof. Brinkley:

The title is a reflection of the point made throughout the book that many of the problems and habits Cambodia faces today are reflections of barbaric rules and practices from the Angkor period and beyond.

Click here to read the rest of the interview at CamWatchBlog

Is a Buddhist Tahrir Square Taking Shape in Thailand?

05/23/11
Stanley Weiss
Founding Chairman, Business Executives for National Security
The Huffington Post

And since Abhisit's ruling Democratic Party reportedly did not give the order to open fire on Cambodia, many believe Thailand's generals are keeping the border dispute in the headlines as a means to portray the military as the saviors of Thailand.

BANGKOK -- Before it became the focus of ongoing mortar exchange between Thailand and Cambodia, the ancient Preah Vihear Temple was most infamous for its role in the "Cambodian push-back." In June 1979, Thailand, frustrated at being overrun by Cambodians escaping from Pol Pot's death squads, announced it would expel a large number of refugees. The American, French and Australian governments picked 1,200 refugees from among the thousands for resettlement. The remaining Cambodians were loaded onto buses and sent away.

Only later did the world learn that they were taken to Preah Vihear -- known as Phra Viharn to Thais -- a 1,000-year-old temple that sits atop a 2,000-foot high cliff overlooking the Cambodian plains. There, men, women and children were pushed down the steep escarpment. The United Nations later estimated that 3,000 Cambodians had been killed and 7,000 were unaccounted for.

Today, Preah Vihear or Phra Viharn is claimed by both sides along a disputed border. Since artillery fire between Thai and Cambodian forces first flared in February -- the latest round of a century-long dispute over ownership of the temple -- two dozen people have been killed, scores have been injured and nearly 100,000 have been displaced. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which fears the conflict may lead to regional instability and threaten ASEAN's goal of economic integration by 2015, has had its offer to moderate the dispute rejected -- sparking fears of a wider war.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Siem Army

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Thailand forces 166 back to Myanmar, UNHCR chides

Tuesday December 28, 2010

GENEVA (Reuters) - Thailand forced 166 men, women and children back into Myanmar on Saturday even though they were fleeing fighting in their villages, prompting a reprimand from the United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday.

Fifty women, 70 children and 46 men at Wa Lay site in Tak Province, were ordered to leave, the UNHCR said in a statement.

The agency said that while it appreciated Thailand's policy of allowing in Myanmar nationals when fighting occurs, they should only be returned home voluntarily and safely.

"They were fleeing clashes between the government and ethnic rebels in southeast Myanmar. The people fleeing were Karen," UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told Reuters in Geneva.

No one at the Thai diplomatic mission to the U.N. in Geneva was immediately available to comment.

The ruling Myanmar junta has long been accused of persecuting the country's ethnic minorities, sparking a continuing exodus. Some 150,000 refugees live in official camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, according to the agency.

At least 3,000 have entered Thailand since June 2009 as fighting intensifies in the south-eastern border area, and the UNHCR said it had expressed its concern already over the last few weeks to the Thai government over the hasty manner in which some refugees were returned.

Some had fled their homes again when fighting resumed shortly after their return, it said.

While Thailand has been a major country of asylum for four decades, it has not ratified the 1951 U.N. refugee convention.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Buddhist monk's poetry explores the Killing Fields

04/24/2010
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram

LONG BEACH -- When the Venerable Ly Van, a monk at the Glory Buddhist Temple in Lowell, Mass., died in 2008 he didn't leave much behind.

However, what he did leave to posterity was a rather remarkable document that, in its lyricism, poignancy and richness, surprised all at the temple, even those who were close to him.

In an immaculate Khmer calligraphy, the 90-year-old monk transcribed two long narrative poems he had written, one called "The Khmer Rouge Regime: A Personal Nightmare" and the other titled "The Unfortunate Love of Sophoan Chea," a tragic tale also set in the time of the Khmer Rouge.

Feeling the Khmer-language poetry deserved a larger audience, educator Samkhann Khoeun meticulously translated the work and created a book and a Khmer-language CD titled "O! Maha Mount Dangrek: Poetry of Cambodian Refugee Experiences." The title refers to the treacherous mountain many Cambodians had to traverse to escape their homeland and cross the border into Thailand and the refugee camps.

Khoeun and the students from Cambodia have been touring the country to give their readings. In addition to readings in New England, they have visited Philadelphia, Chicago, Maryland and Minnesota. They delivered readings in Northern California before coming to Long Beach.

Khoeun said his translation, which took two years with the help of volunteers, was a "labor of love."

"At first I was impressed with the calligraphy," Khoeun said.

"But then when I really started to read I said `Wow.' It was so rich in history."

Khoeun, also a survivor of the Killing Fields that left upward of 2 million Cambodians dead, says he experienced many of the same things during the genocide Ly Van wrote about. For that reason, he says, it still brings tears to his eyes.

George Chigas, a professor of cultural studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, wrote that the poems make important contributions to existing survivor literature and that Ly Van writes "with the lyricism of a skilled poet and the wisdom of a learned Buddhist monk."

Although Ly Van initially wrote the two poems before he became a monk in the early 1980s, Khoeun says it exudes the devout Buddhism that was always a part of the monk's life.

"The Khmer Rouge Regime" is written in a rare 11-syllable meter, while "The Unfortunate Love of Sophoan Chea" is in the more traditional seven-syllable meter.

Chigas and Khoeun say the second poem compares favorably with "The Story of Tum Teav," a classic tale of tragic love in Cambodia also written by a monk.

Khoeun, who is an activist in the Cambodian community in Lowell, says he hopes the book will resonate with readers and help with the ongoing healing process for many who still suffer mentally from the effects of the war.

"This is a way to help overcome the suffering," Khoeun said.

"Men and women must preserve these memories and never let them be forgotten," Ly Van wrote. "The savagery of the Khmer Rouge regime should be permanently etched in stone, and this history should be taught and passed to future generations."

In addition to the poems, which are presented in side-by-side translation, "O! Maha Mount Dangrek" includes photos from the Khmer Rouge reign and the refugee camps and a glossary and other informative features.

Khoeun says he hopes portions of the the book will be entered into the record of ongoing Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Cambodia.

Long Beach readings

Educator Samkhann Khoeun along with Cambodian student artists Srey Peov Phoeun and Sinat Nhok will read excerpts from the poems of the Venerable Ly Van at Wat Vipassanaram, 1239 E. 20th St. at noon today, and Monday at the Mark Twain Library, 1401 E. Anaheim St. at 3 p.m.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291

Poetry & Smot at Fresno Temple on 24 April 2010

Click on the announcement to zoom in

Monk’s Poetry Describes Grim Refugee Camps

(Photo: AP)

By Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
05 April 2010

A recently discovered book of poetry by a Cambodian monk paints a grim picture of the refugee camps established in Thailand after the Khmer Rouge period.

The poems of the late venerable monk Akaktipo Ly Van, the former abbot of the Glory Temple in Lowell, Mass., describes crimes committed by Thai armed forces, as well as landmines.

The book, “O! Maha Mount Dangrek,” was discovered on January 12, 2008 on the day of the abbot’s death, hidden among his possessions for nearly 30 years.

It was translated and edited by Samkhann Khoeun, co-chair of Cambodian Expressions, and published in English and Khmer. Cambodian Expressions has now launched the bilingual Cambodian Refugee Poetry and Smot Project, which will tour 14 Cambodian-American communities across the US.

“The main objective is to promote poems about the tragedy of Cambodian refugees,” he said. “We are also asking for Cambodians’ help to purchase the books and CDs and make some contributions, so that we are able to further promote the poetry books and bring them to Cambodia in the future.”

The poetry describes the plight of thousands of refugees who traveled to camps along the Cambodian-Thai border in 1979 and the early 1980s after the Khmer Rouge were toppled. Many suffered attacks by bandits and Thai border rangers. Thousands of their families made it to the Dangrek Mountains. Many were gunned down or suffered from landmines.

Samkhann Khoeun said the books and CDs will be accompanied by chanting and classical music performances by Cambodian Living Arts.

“The money is to support the Light of Cambodian Children organization, which educates Cambodian children in Lowell to be good people,” Samkhann Khoeun said. “We will also use the money to set up scholarships under the name of late venerable Akaktipo Ly Van for Cambodian students.”

The tour started on April 1 and will travel through Lowell and Lynn, Mass., Providence, R.I., Philadelphia, Penn., and Long Beach, Calif., among others. The book is also available at www.reaksmey.org.

Late Mass. Monk's Poems Recall Khmer Rouge Horrors

In this Nov. 20, 2008 file photo, Samkhann Khoeun holds at the Glory Temple, in Lowell, Mass., a Khmer language manuscript of poetry by the Buddhist monk Ly Van Aggadipo that features his photo on the cover. On April 1, 2010, friends and followers will release a bilingual edition that includes an English translation of his poetry. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

'Beautiful' poems by Cambodian monk who led Mass. temple tackle horrors of Khmer Rouge regime

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS
The Associated Press
LOWELL, Mass. March 20, 2010

During Buddhist monk Ly Van Aggadipo's final days, he wrote often in a notebook. Temple followers knew the nonagenarian spiritual mentor to many local Cambodian refugees was recording some sort of personal history, but they weren't sure what.

"He told me, 'When I'm gone, make sure others read this so people don't forget what happened,'" follower Sokhar Sao said. "I didn't really understand until he was gone."

Next month, friends and followers will release a book of poetry by Ly Van, who survived the brutal communist Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia and later led the Glory Buddhist Temple in Lowell from 1988 until his death in January 2008. The book, entitled "O! Maha Mount Dangrek," is a collection of two lengthy poems: one an autobiographical piece on the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, the other about a friend's story of love in the time of genocide.

The title in English means "Oh Mighty Mount Dangrek" and refers to the mountainous plateau between the Cambodia-Thailand border that refugees were forced to climb in order to escape the Khmer Rouge regime.

Organizers plan a 14-city tour to promote the book with readings and accompanying musical performances by two young Cambodian artists. The tour will begin April 1 at a Middlesex Community College reading in Lowell and continue with stops in Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Paul, Minn., and Long Beach, Calif.

The publication of Ly Van's work, printed in its original Khmer and in English, completes a two-year project by followers. The day he died, a follower found the poetry tucked under stacks of old Buddhist texts inside the temple.

On worn pages were handwritten, carefully crafted poems describing Ly Van's memories of labor camps, starvation and infant executions and his dreams of escaping to America.

"We all said, 'Wow ... we have to publish this,'" said Samkhann Khoeun, who studied under Ly Van and served as the book's editor. "Here was something so beautiful describing something so horrible. It brought tears to our eyes."

Khoeun then went on a campaign to get the book published. The Glory Buddhist Temple and local nonprofit groups Light of Cambodian Children and Cambodian Expressions agreed to help with the publication cost, while Khoeun worked on translation with other refugees.

Ly Van was born in 1917 in a small Cambodian village where he and his family lived through the 1970s rule of the Khmer Rouge regime, which perpetrated one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.

An estimated 1.7 million people died from starvation, disease and executions due to the group's radical policies. According to the temple's biography of Ly Van, he was forced to work on farms and public projects 14 hours a day. It was during this time that he witnessed mass executions and large-scale starvation.

In early 1979, when Vietnamese soldiers invaded Cambodia, Ly Van and thousands of others fled to Thailand through dangerous terrain where he and others ended up at refugee camps while hoping for asylum to the U.S. with the help of the U.N.

He and his family were granted asylum and resettled in Lowell, an old mill city less than an hour's drive northwest of Boston.

Today about 20,000 Cambodians live in or around the city, making it second only to Long Beach for the largest number of Cambodians living in the United States.

As a refugee in Lowell, Ly Van helped establish the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association, which promotes educational, cultural, economic and social programs for Cambodian-Americans and other minorities, before leading the Glory Buddhist Temple until his death of old age at 90.

But while counseling his fellow refugees and performing volunteer efforts, Ly Van quietly worked and reworked his long poems about horrific moments in his life that he rarely shared.

Besides the epic poems, the new book also features photos of Khmer Rouge-era Cambodia and of refugee camps in Thailand.

Some of the photos are from the collection of photojournalist Jay Mather, whose images helped earn him a 1980 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting with reporter Joel Brinkley while at The Courier-Journal newspaper of Louisville, Ky. Others come from refugees' personal collections and the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has documented Khmer Rouge atrocities.

Khoeun said he wanted readers to see images related to Ly Van's poetry.

"We have to face it," said Khoeun, 47. "This is what we went through."

Sao, who has a bullet wound on one of his calves from being shot at a refugee camp, agreed.

"It's painful to see and remember," said Sao, also 47. "Every time I hear the words Khmer Rouge I get a little emotional. So you can imagine what's going on when I read this poetry and see these images."

Around 3,000 copies of the book are planned for the first printing, with proceeds going to costs for a planned second printing, Khoeun said.

The goal is not to make money, Ly Van's followers said, but to share the story of Cambodian refugees with others.

"I think my own children don't believe what we went through to get here," said Sao, a father of four children who were born in the U.S. "I don't talk about it much and can't put it into words like this."

Cambodian Refugee Poetry & Chanting (Smot) Project

Venerable Ly Van Aggadipo's book (Photo: AP)

Monday, February 1, 2010

Dear Friends:

How are you doing? I just want to reach out to you about a possibility of bringing the Cambodian Refugee Poetry & Smot Project to your area in April 2010. It was kind of a serendipity that we discovered the writing of the late Venerable Ly Van on the very same day of his passing on January 12, 2008. He was one of the Cambodian Buddhist monks in Lowell. Found among his belongings were Khmer handwritten manuscripts containing two lengthy poems...one autobiographical describing Ven. Ly Van's experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime, the other a biography of Sophoan Chea, a dear friend of Ly Van's who was actually his sponsor for resettlement in the U.S. The poems are beautifully written, poignant, and reflect the richness of Khmer culture. They have been translated into English and are currently scheduled for publication in March 2010.

We titled the poetry book "O! Maha Mount Dangrek: poetry of Cambodian Refugee Experiences", a quote that the author wrote in one the poetic stanzas, which recaptured his experience during the inhuman ordeal at mountainous plateau where some 45,000 Khmer refugees were violently shot, killed and pushed over the cliff of Mount Dangrek by the Thai soldiers in the mid-1979. The author and his family were among the victims, but fortunately survived yet another sad episode of Cambodian refugee experiences. We are so fortunate to have discovered such writing.

The overall project itself is called. the "Cambodian Refugee Poetry Book & CD", to be published in bilingual, Khmer and English, with full color case bound and black and white photos inside. It is about 200 pages in length. The book will be jointly produced by the Light of Cambodian Children, the Glory Buddhist Temple and the Cambodian Expressions. There have been several funding organizations and foundations supporting this poetry book & CD project. We still need to fundraise for the poetry book touring and community reading and all of that. We estimate the budget to be about $35,000. We already secured $5,000 from the Cambodian Living Arts, a project of the Marion Institute based in Marion, Massachusetts.

We are also in the process of sponsoring two Cambodian students of traditional smot chanting and Khmer instrument to come and visit the U.S. in order to participate in poetry readings at various Cambodian communities around the country, including Lowell, Rhode Island, New York, DC/Maryland/Virginia, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minnesota, Stockton, Fresno, San Diego, Long Beach, Portland, OR, Tacoma, Seattle and other cities and towns where there are large concentration of our Cambodian Americans.

I believe that your Cambodian community, particularly the Cambodian Buddhist Temple will be the perfect venue for such community reading event. If this idea interests you, I would love to arrange a possible tour of your community in April 2010 along with the two students/artists from Cambodia. Better yet if you, friends and community leaders can help us with hosting and sponsoring the event itself, it will mean a great deal to our Cambodian Refugee Poetry & Smot Project. Please see attached documents, one in Khmer and another is an English translation of one the late monk's poems.

Thank you in advance for your support and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best Regards,

Samkhann C. Khoeun
Editor/Translator,
Cambodian Refugee Poetry Book & CD Project
email: samkhannkhoeun@lhs.lowell.k12.ma.us

Thailand Deports Hmong Asylum Seekers to Laos

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Dec 28 (IPS) - In a move that places greater weight on growing regional solidarity over historical ties with a western superpower, Thailand ordered its military to forcibly return over 4,000 men, women and children from the Hmong ethnic community to Laos, the country they had fled in search of political asylum.

By Monday, the first batch of 440 Hmong—an ethnic tribe living in the mountains of northern and central Laos—from an isolated camp in the Petchabun province in north-eastern Thailand was removed under the watchful eye of over 4,500 soldiers and police, says the Thai government’s spokesperson, Panitan Wattanayagorn, adding that the operation involving military trucks began at dawn.

"We have given instructions to the military officers that this move has to be conducted ensuring the safety of the Hmong and with no violations of their rights," says Panitan. "Our agreement with the Laotian government is that all the Hmong should be sent back by the end of the year."

It means that the "time for negotiations is over" and the Thai government will "not turn back on its decision," Panitan confirms in an interview with IPS. "That would undermine the relationship we have developed with our neighbour Laos in recent years. It is a relationship built on good faith."

Bangkok’s decision to send the Hmong back to communist-ruled Laos has prompted protests from a range of international actors, notably the United States. Washington has been equally troubled by Thai authorities justifying the deportation after characterising the majority of Hmong as "economic migrants," not refugees.

"This is a deeply disappointing decision by the government of Thailand," Eric Schwartz, U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, tells IPS in a telephone interview from Washington. "You cannot make categorical statements that all people are economic migrants unless the (Thai) government has knowledge of each individual case."

The U.S. government, the United Nations and concerned human rights groups state that at least 158 of the Hmong asylum seekers had been recognised as refugees by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And a further 80 had "bullet wounds," suggesting that they had fled violence in Laos.

What is more, Thai officials have denied the UNHCR access to screen the largest group of the Hmong, who had been living in makeshift shacks at the Huay Nam Khao village in Petchabun. Journalists and other independent observers have also been denied contact to the same group.

According to Human Rights Watch, the New York-based global rights lobby, Thai authorities have violated international refugee laws by using "intimidation" to silence the Hmong. The coercive tactics included "light deprivation," separating parents from children and cutting off "access to clean water and proper sanitation."

"Thai authorities know very well that the United States and other countries would have been prepared and are still prepared to ensure the possibility of third-country resettlement for each person deemed to need protection," says Schwartz, who ended a mission to Bangkok last week, where he made a bid to secure a policy shift from senior Thai officials.

But for the Thai administration of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, that would have meant a further delay in ending a problem that traces its roots back to the mid-1970s. At that time, Thailand opened its borders to refugees who poured in from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam following the end of the U.S. government’s war in Indo-China. At its height, Thailand hosted over 1.5 million refugees.

"We have been trying to persuade the U.S. to take these people back but the U.S. has not said they will receive all of them," says Panitan, the Thai government spokesman. "Thailand cannot shoulder this burden alone."

Thailand’s stance suggests how far regional politics has changed since the end of the Cold War era, when Bangkok was Washington’s strongest ally on mainland South-east Asia during the wars the U.S. government waged in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) "secret war" in Laos was among them, beginning in 1961 and ending in 1975, when U.S. troops left Vietnam in defeat. This clandestine war staged by Washington’s spy agency depended on tens of thousands of Hmong for manpower.

The covert military operation to fight the advancing communist guerrillas in Laos resulted in the landlocked South-east Asian country coming under relentless aerial attacks—where over two million tonnes of explosives were dropped by U.S. bombers, more than the explosives dropped on Europe during the Second World War.

Both the U.S. public and the Congress were kept in the dark while this conflict raged. The CIA’s air base in Long Chen, in central Laos, became one of the busiest airports in the region at that time. Flights from Thailand were frequent.

But the triumph of the communist forces in Laos saw the Hmong flee their homeland in the thousands, first to Thailand as refugees and later to the United States for resettlement. Some 250,000 to 300,000 Hmong – nearly a third of this ethnic group’s population in Laos – joined this exodus decades ago.

In 2005, when the United States took in 15,000 Hmong who had been languishing in Thai refugee camps since the 1970s, Washington declared that it would the last group of refugees it was aiding.

But soon after that, the current group of Hmong asylum seekers surfaced in Petchabun, hoping for a similar journey to the U.S. for supporting the CIA during its "secret war" and being persecuted by the Laotian military since the conflict ended.

Among them is Blia Pao Yang, a leader of the refugees in Petchabun, says Joe Davy, a Hmong rights advocate in an e-mailed statement. "Many in his group have war wounds and have been documented by the Thai military as having legitimate asylum claims."

Drowning Refugees in Thailand Is Bad Karma

Jan 29, 2009
Commentary, Andrew Lam
New America Media
National Public Radio (USA)

For a country steeped in Buddhism, Thailand is accruing terrible karmic debts. News reports, including those by the Thai press itself, indicate systematic abuse of refugees fleeing from its neighbor, Myanmar.

Tourists have seen and photographed Thai troops abusing members of a Muslim minority group who were fleeing Myanmar by boat to Thailand’s southern shores. On the Similan Islands, tourists reported seeing boat people lying down on the beach, bound, struck and whipped by Thai military if they raised their heads. CNN recently confirmed with a Thai military source that Thailand is practicing a dump-at-sea policy: towing boats back to the sea, often without giving refugees food or water.

UN refugee agency spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey expressed the gravity of the situation: "The reports that we are hearing are very alarming. That the [boat people] were detained in Thailand and then towed out to sea on unseaworthy boats and left to die basically."

If it strikes the world as contradictory that Thailand, which bills itself as the Land of a Thousand Smiles and boasts of refined hospitality, could also be a country that rejects and beats up on the poor and the dispossessed, it does not strike any of its neighbors as anything but business as usual. Thailand’s long antipathy toward its neighbors is notorious.

Ask a Vietnamese boat person during the '80s who survived Thai piracy in the Andaman Sea and you will hear tales of unspeakable horrors – rape, robbery, murder, and human trafficking. UN records are full of documents, describing how Thai pirates used hammers, machetes, and guns to massacre entire boats of refugees, including children and women. Others were simply dumped at sea to drown. Despite international protest, the Thai government made few attempts to prosecute those accused.

During the Cold War, Thailand also supported the Khmer Rouge, the genocidal regime responsible for the death of more than 2 million Cambodians. What did the Land of a Thousand Smiles gain from supporting such a murderous group? Access to the Pailin gem mines and precious timber under Khmer Rouge control, and the promise to keep at bay the invading Vietnamese, who until 1989, occupied Cambodia.

If Thailand is now practicing a cruel and unacceptable policy toward refugees fleeing the cruel and unacceptable military regime in Myanmar, it is because Thailand hasn’t been exactly nice to its own Muslim minorities. Resentment against the Thai government has been brewing, along with allegations of abduction, torture and the disappearances of various Thai Muslim activists in the southern provinces. A primary example is human rights lawyer Sonchai Neelaphaijit, who disappeared while under police surveillance in March 2004. That same year, Thai police and security forces shot dead 107 machete-wielding youths, leaving them in a pool of blood. Thousands have been killed since then. The image of Thailand as a peaceful and gracious country has tarnished since then.

There is also an incentive for Thailand not to take refugees: it risks offending the ruling junta in Myanmar, with whom it enjoys a cozy relationship. After all, Thailand is buying jade, precious minerals and timber – all much-needed natural resources -- from Myanmar for a song, with the generals’ blessings. Last year, when the world condemned Myanmar for its inaction after the cyclone Nargis devastated half of its country, Thailand spoke in favor of the junta.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has offered to investigate the current refugee crisis. But an official investigation, given the government’s record so far, and Vejjajiva's military backing, may very well be another word for stonewalling.

Thailand has been a blessed country. While its neighbors suffered under colonial rulers, Thailand escaped that fate and was the only country in Southeast Asia to develop independently and in peace. While Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Malaysia and Vietnam suffered from insurgencies and warfare in the post-colonial period, Thailand – land of golden temples and pristine beaches - grew in confidence and sophistication. Many Thais attribute the country's peace and prosperity to an adherence to Buddhism and devotion to the Buddha.

But such good karma can last only so long. Buddha teaches love and compassion as key components to Buddhist practice. The world and the people of Thailand should seriously question whether killing unarmed refugees is the right path toward peace.

Andrew Lam is an editor at New America Media and the author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Reflections

Refugees missing at sea after Thais reject them

Friday, January 16, 2009
By Seth Mydans
International Herald Tribune (Paris, France)

BANGKOK: In the past month, the Thai authorities have detained as many as 1,000 boat people from Bangladesh and Myanmar and sent them back out to sea in boats without engines, human rights groups and local researchers say. At least 300 people are reported to be missing at sea.

The migrants are members of the ethnic Rohingya minority, mostly stateless people who live in a cycle of poverty, repression, escape, capture and exploitation.

The expulsions reverse a policy in which Thailand has allowed thousands of Rohingya to land in recent years, mostly on their way to seek work in Malaysia. In many cases those migrants are turned over to human traffickers.

Thailand denies the expulsions, saying that all arrivals are processed through legal channels.

The reports coincide with separate criticism of Thailand for human rights abuses in combating a Muslim insurgency in the south. They recall past incidents in which the Thai military has forced out groups of refugees, sometimes to their deaths.

In one case last month, the researchers say, 410 Rohingya migrants were taken out to sea on a Thai Navy vessel and forced onto an open barge with just four barrels of water and two sacks of rice.

Four people were thrown overboard with their hands and feet tied in order to encourage the others to board the barge, according to the reports.

After drifting for two weeks, about 100 of the Rohingya migrants were rescued on the Andaman Islands, which are administered by India. About 300 remain missing after attempting to swim to shore, according to several reports.

In a second case soon afterward, 580 people reportedly were seized off the Thai coast on three overcrowded fishing boats. These were towed back out to sea after their engines were removed, said Chris Lewa, an expert on Rohingya issues who heads a private human rights group called the Arakan Project.

Two of those boats reached shore, at Aceh in Indonesia and on the Andaman Islands, and one is missing, she said.

She said a new boatload of 46 migrants arrived Friday morning on Thailand's southern coast, and were seized by the Thai military, which has not until recently been involved in local issues of illegal immigration.

The expulsions were reported in the last week in The South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong. Thai officials denied on Friday that any such expulsions occurred.

"We never push them back to the sea," said the official, Lieutenant Colonel Tara Soranarak, inspector of the Ranong immigration office.

He added, "We have our procedure to deport back the migrants to their home country after processing them through the Thai legal system."

Privately, Thai officials voiced concern about the Rohingya as Muslims who might join a rebellion in southern Thailand in which some rebels are seeking a separate Islamic state. This week Amnesty International issued a report condemning Thailand for systematic abuses in combating the insurgency.

The reports of harsh treatment come in the context of a huge flow of refugees from neighboring countries over the past three decades that has imposed social and economic burdens on Thailand. Since the mid-1970s, Thailand has been a refuge for millions of people fleeing conflict and repression in Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos.

"Thailand is surrounded by dangerous neighbors who have generated huge refugee flows, and it has sometimes felt overwhelmed by these flows," said Kenneth Bacon, president of the human rights group Refugees International. "Its record in handling them is mixed."

In the most notorious incident, in 1979, 42,000 Cambodian refugees fleeing the murderous Khmer Rouge were forced back down a cliff into a minefield by the Thai military. Survivors said many of them died.

During the same period, Vietnamese boat people were victimized by Thai pirates operating without official restraint.

Although tens of thousands of refugees now live in semi-permanent camps along the Thai border with Myanmar, some of these periodically are forced back against their will.

Last summer, Human Rights Watch protested the forcible repatriation of a group of ethnic Karen refugees who had fled to Thailand to escape military brutality in Myanmar.

The Rohingya are among the most helpless of the refugees, an abused minority in Myanmar who migrated in large numbers to Bangladesh, where they live in poverty and mostly without rights as a stateless minority.

Experts on the Rohingya describe an endless cycle of abuse in which migrants are handed over to traffickers who demand money to take them to Malaysia, where many are arrested and sent back into the hands of some of the same traffickers in Thailand.

If at any stage they are unable to pay the traffickers, the immigrants say, they can be sold to Thai fishing trawlers as indentured laborers.