Inquiry call over treatment of Acehnese
Inquiry call over treatment of Acehnese
MALAYSIA: Amnesty International on Monday called for an investigation into reports that camp guards at a Malaysian detention center beat up seven Acehnese asylum seekers for refusing to be repatriated.
The seven, including a woman whose 13-month-old child was also held at the Langkap Detention Center, were "at risk of being forcibly returned" to the troubled Indonesian province where they may face serious human rights violations, the group said in a statement.
The detainees were believed to be among a group of more than 200 Acehnese asylum seekers arrested by police outside the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur in August while waiting to lodge asylum claims, it said.
The declaration of martial law in Aceh in May had led to renewed military operations against separatist rebels and alleged cases of extrajudicial executions, "disappearances" and torture, the human rights group said. -- AFP
;AP;HHR; ANPAu..r.. Singapore-Ship Collision Officers questioned over collision JP/11/ASEAN
Officers questioned over collision
SINGAPORE: Two navy officers went on trial on Monday for a collision between their patrol vessel and a Dutch container ship that killed four servicewomen in January.
Lt. Ng Keng Yong and Lt. Chua Chue Teng face charges of negligence causing death in connection with the accident between the RSS Courageous, a submarine hunter, and the 52,000-ton ANL Indonesia.
Ng, 27, was in charge of the ship at the time and was supervising Chua, 23, when the accident occurred just before midnight along Malaysia's southern coast.
Both have been suspended from the navy and wore civilian clothes in court. They could be imprisoned for up to two years if found guilty.
The ANL Indonesia's watch officer, Gerrit Easge Bosma, told the court that the Courageous behaved like a small fishing boat moments before the collision, moving erratically and veering directly into the path of the merchant ship. -- AP
;AFP;HHR; ANPAu..r.. Malaysia-wildlife 4th rhino dies at KL breeding center JP/11/ASEAN
4th rhino dies at KL breeding center
MALAYSIA: A fourth rare Sumatran rhinoceros has died at a Malaysian breeding center while the last remaining rhino is seriously ill, a report said on Monday.
"We did everything humanly possible, but it just didn't work," said Mohamad Khan Momin Khan, chairman of the Malaysian Rhino Foundation, which runs the center and its breeding program.
Three other rhinos died at the Sungai Dusun Sumatran Rhinoceros Conservation Center in central Selangor state in the past two weeks, forcing a halt to a breeding program for the near extinct species.
Initial post-mortem examinations have shown that the earlier deaths were from septicaemia, acute blood poisoning caused by bacteria, reports said.
Minah, the rhino that died over the weekend, was born in captivity at a Malaysian zoo in 1987. -- AFP
;REUTERS;HHR; ANPAu..r.. Cambodia-politics Cambodian parties to hold talks JP/11/ASEAN
Cambodian parties to hold talks
CAMBODIA: Cambodia's three main political parties will meet on Friday to discuss a shaky deal brokered by the revered King Norodom Sihanouk to break a months-long post-election deadlock, officials said on Monday.
The octogenarian monarch mediated the deal earlier this month to pave the way for a new coalition government after weeks of wrangling over the results of the July 27 general election in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
Under the king's formula, Khmer Rouge fighter-turned-prime minister Hun Sen and National Assembly chairman Prince Norodom Ranariddh would remain in their posts.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who has sworn never to join a coalition led by Hun Sen, head of the dominant Cambodian People's Party (CPP), would become a deputy prime minister or National Assembly vice-chairman.
The royalist FUNCINPEC party and Sam Rainsy's faction have demanded economic and political reform as a basis for the talks. -- Reuters