South East Asia

In recent weeks, clashes between Myanmar’s military and ethnic militias have intensified on the Thai border. Faced with renewed violence, Thailand has proposed a series of "informal" meetings to reboot the peace process. But representatives of the armed groups have not been invited, and the agenda is unclear. Divisions also remain within ASEAN over Myanmar’s junta.

The Filipino migrant sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking arrived in Manila after 14 years in prison. Today she was finally able to see her children. ‘Living behind bars has changed my life, transforming me into a person who has come closer to God’. There have been many requests from the Church and civil society for President Marcos to grant her a pardon, which the Jakarta government will not oppose.

For the third year in a row, the Philippines is the world's leading importer, with domestic production continuing to fall, due, among things, to La Niña. Food absorbs 40 per cent of expenditures among low-income, resulting in greater social inequalities. Consumption has increased from 14.8 million tonnes in 2020-2021 to 17.4 million this year.

The ministers who announced the coming amnesty cited prison overcrowding, due mainly to strict drug trafficking laws. Potential beneficiaries include political prisoners who criticised the Indonesian government's actions in Papua, a region that has aspired to independence for a long time. The local population remains sceptical of President Prabowo Subianto.

The Kaum Tering and Kaum Penan tribes oppose deforestation of large swathes of unspoiled forest because it risks having a devastating impact on the local ecosystem, known for its biodiversity and rare animal species. Road construction goes hand in hand with greater forest conversion, illegal hunting, and illegal wildlife trade.

Located on Negros Island, Kanlaon is one of the country’s 24 active volcanoes along the Pacific Ring of Fire. Its eruption has led to the evacuation of more than 84,000 people. A blanket of ash and gas fell within a radius of 3 kilometres. Government and dioceses are helping evacuees. For Bishop Alminaza of San Carlos, vice president of Caritas, “we need to support each other”. Lamentably, “We have not been good guardians of nature.”

The United Nations releases new report on migration in Thailand, five years after the last taking stock of the situation. Despite its ongoing economic crisis, thousands of people continue to arrive from neighbouring countries. While some progress has been made, working conditions and social assistance for migrants remain a problem. People fleeing Myanmar’s civil war are another major issue.

PRAKSIS was launched on Human Rights Day. Its goal is to promote the “common good” in a society where socio-economic inequalities have grown in the past 10 years, with political life increasingly in the hands of a small elite. The daughter of former President Abdurrahman Wahid also attended the event, speaking out against the harm done in society by the weakening of Indonesian democracy.

The Pheu Thai-led government wants to amend the Defence Ministry Administration Act. The “anti-coup" law would restrain the country’s military, which has seized power 12 times in the past, the last time in 2014 by General Prayuth Chan-ocha. Pro-military parties are against the proposed law.

After six months, the township of Maungdaw has fallen to the AA, while fighting continues in the south of the state. The ethnic Buddhist militia seems set to establish its own state and many fear that it might take revenge against Rohingya after some were drafted, often forcibly, to fight alongside Myanmar’s regular army.

The death penalty is again a topical issue in Southeast Asia after a Philippine woman sentenced to death for drug possession is set to go home where the death penalty is not in force. Capital punishment is widely enforced in Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam. A call is getting louder for “the protection of vulnerable communities”, with many voices warning that “no justice system is immune to error”.

Y Hưng Ayun, pastor of a house church in Tara Puôr, shot in the knee by two men with covered faces in an ambush last Sunday. The government monitors independent churches it does not approve, seizing Bibles and equipment. In September, Y Phô Êban, 57, in Cuê village, was also threatened; he laments that they are “not allowed to gather.”