Cambodian Opposition Skips Parliamentary Session, Cites Danger

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7 October 2016, 15:01

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks in April of 2015 during a session at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Achmad Ibrahim / Associated Press

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia’s opposition party unexpectedly failed to attend the reopening of parliament on Friday, setting back hopes of a political truce with the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Cambodia National Rescue Party members felt they were under threat of physical intimidation, spokesman Yim Sovann said, recalling that some of its lawmakers had previously been beaten up by a pro-government mob.

A spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party denied that any threat existed, describing the opposition action as a political trick.

The opposition had earlier said it would rejoin the parliamentary session after some conciliatory gestures by both sides.

The party stopped attending parliamentary sessions about four months ago after ruling party lawmakers stripped some opposition lawmakers of their legal immunity. The opposition says lawsuits have been used to unfairly harass its members.

Critics say Hun Sen is manipulating the courts to weaken the opposition’s chances in next year’s local polls and the 2018 general election. The opposition made an unexpectedly strong showing in the 2013 general election, which it claimed it was cheated out of winning.

At a news conference, Yim Sovann said the opposition believed that the government was trying to link it to a planned protest in Australia against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s oldest son, Hun Manet. He denied any link but said he feared that the government would seek some sort of retaliation against the party.

“We are not boycotting, but we are looking to see if the political environment is good, then we will join; but if not we retain our right not to attend,” he said. By claiming the party was not boycotting, he appeared to leave room for compromise.

Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the Cambodian People’s Party, said the opposition’s move was a tactic to force the release of its jailed members. Several opposition lawmakers have been jailed on charges that are widely considered to be politically motivated. The party president is in self-imposed exile and the acting party leader has taken refuge in the party headquarters, both to avoid prison terms.

Prime Minister Hun Sen insists the jailed lawmakers are not victims of a political vendetta, but rather were prosecuted for breaking the law.

“A fully functional parliament which represents the people’s will is a key pillar of democracy. Of course, this also requires an environment which allows lawmakers to fulfill their roles independently without fear of physical or legal retaliation, which has not been the case for the opposition in recent times,” commented Chak Sopheap, executive Director of Cambodian Center for Human Rights. “The recent thawing of political relations, in this sense, is a very positive step which we warmly welcome.”

Police Say Tak Manhunt Unrelated to Erawan Shrine Bombing

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Sasiwan Mokkhasen, Staff Reporter

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7 October 2016, 13:10

Authorities search a building in the border province of Tak on Thursday in a search for a person they said was linked to Uighur human trafficking. Photo: Matichon

TAK — Police on Friday dismissed reports they were hunting for a suspect related to last year’s bombing of the Erawan shrine in a northwestern border province.

Authorities on Thursday were searching for a man they said was linked to human trafficking in Tak province, a search which left them empty-handed, except for three illegal immigrants.

Police, immigration officers and military raided the building of the Hayat Trading Co. in Tak’s Mae Sot district, which sits along the border with Myanmar, in search of a man identified only as Ali.

Police said he was a person of interest in connection to trafficking and arranging fake passports for Uighur migrants. An officer on Friday dismissed information widely reported in Thai-language media that one of the Burmese migrants arrested was connected to the shrine bombing that killed 20 people in August 2015.

Thailand has been a transit point for Uighur migrants escaping western China, where they complain of persecution by the state and Han Chinese. Beijing routinely describes them as terrorists. It was the Thailand’s decision to deport more than 100 Uighurs in July 2015 under pressure from Beijing.

Many security experts believe the Erawan bombing was an act of retaliation.

Two Uighur men are currently on trial in a military court for the attack, but the investigation was dropped with more than a dozen other suspects unaccounted for.

Col. Jamrang Soodjai of Mae Sot police said the man was sought for an unspecified crime involving national security and might be captured without judicial review.

“There is not yet a warrant for him,” Jamrang said. “But he is involved in a crime threatening national security, so if we are able to find him, he might be taken into custody using the junta’s special power.”

Since the 2014 coup, the junta has used the absolute power it granted itself under its interim charter to take any measures unsupported by conventional law.

Jamrang said Thursday’s raid only led to the arrest of three Burmese migrants in the country illegally.

“We charged them for illegally entering the country,” he said.

Although media outlets such as ThaiPBS and Manager reported a Burmese suspect was brought to Bangkok for questioning in connection to the deadly shrine bombing, Maj. Soraj Witchayawisut of immigration police said that was untrue.

Hawaii Trip: Thai Airways Wants Internet Prosecuted Over Leaked Passenger List

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Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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7 October 2016, 12:35

An undated file photo of Prawit Wongsuwan and his entourage in Hawaii. Image: Matichon

BANGKOK — Police on Friday were deliberating a request from Thai Airways to prosecute those on social media who spread what was purported to be a leaked passenger list of the government’s now-controversial trip to Hawaii last week.

Without saying whether the list was real, airline lawyer Pramuk Wilaiwong asked police Thursday to file charges against Facebook pages that shared the document under the Computer Crime Act, a draconian law that bans any online material deemed damaging to the reputation of an individual or organization.

Govt Defends 21M Baht Flight to Hawaii

“We are still deliberating whether it qualifies under the Computer Crime Act,” Col. Olan Sukkasem of the Technology Crime Suppression Division said Friday.

Junta deputy chairman Prawit Wongsuwan and his entourage visited Honolulu Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 for an event described as “ASEAN-US Defense Informal Meeting.” It later emerged that their Thai Airways flight cost taxpayers 20.9 million baht, of which 600,000 baht was spent on in-flight dining alone.

The government has also refused to disclose who was traveling with Gen. Prawit. However, an anti-junta Facebook page called “Stop Hypocrisy in Thailand” on Sunday published what it said was the passenger list, which included two businessmen unrelated to defense affairs and a TV reporter rumored to be romantically involved with Prawit.

The reporter has insisted she was in Thailand at the time.

Khaosod English filed a request Wednesday under the freedom of information law requesting the Defense Ministry disclose the names of Prawit’s entourage. As of Friday, officials said they’re still deliberating the request.

Document published by Stop Hypocrisy in Thailand.

Pramuk, who represents state-owned Thai Airways, did not answer reporters’ questions when he visited the tech crime unit Thursday to seek prosecution of those behind pages which shared the list.

Col. Olan, the officer in charge of the investigation, would not say whether Pramuk confirmed the list was authentic.

“I cannot disclose that detail,” the police colonel said.

A defense spokesman suggested in a Wednesday interview that making the passenger list public could affect national security.

“Steps must be taken in accordance with protocols,” said Maj. Gen. Kongcheep Tantravanich, who was on the Hawaii flight. “Is [disclosing the list] appropriate or not? If it affects national security or affects any agency, then we will not disclose it.”

He did not explain how.

Debris Found on Mauritius Confirmed to be From MH370

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Associated Press

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7 October 2016, 12:16

In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, file photo, a waiter walks past a mural of flight MH370 in Shah Alam outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: Joshua Paul / Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR — A piece of an aircraft wing found on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius has been identified as belonging to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Malaysian and Australian officials said Friday.

The piece of wing flap was found in May and subsequently analyzed by experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane in a remote stretch of ocean off Australia’s west coast. Investigators used a part number found on the debris to link it to the missing Boeing 777, the agency said in a statement. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai also confirmed the identification.

Several pieces of wreckage from the plane have washed ashore on coastlines around the Indian Ocean since the aircraft vanished with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

So far, none of the debris has helped narrow down the precise location of the main underwater wreckage. Investigators need to find that in order to locate the flight data recorders that could help explain why the plane veered so far off-course.

Search crews are expected to finish their sweep of the 120,000 square kilometer (46,000 square mile) search zone in the Indian Ocean by December.

Oceanographers have been analyzing wing flaps found in Tanzania and on the French island of La Reunion to see if they might be able to identify a potential new search area through drift modeling. But any new search would require more funding; Malaysia, Australia and China said in July that the $160 million hunt will be suspended once the current stretch of ocean is exhausted unless new evidence emerges that would pinpoint a specific location of the aircraft.

Couple’s Bloody Feud Leaves Woman Dead in Khlong Toei Market

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Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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7 October 2016, 12:11

‘Love you’ was found written on the wall in blood where a woman’s body was found Thursday evening in Bangkok’s Khlong Toei district, while her partner was hospitalized with a serious injury.

BANGKOK — Police don’t know whose blood was used to write “love you,” but there it was on the wall, not far from where they found Nanksan Sorimipra’s body lying face down Thursday evening.

A Burmese couple’s dispute in the capital’s Khlong Toei district ended with a blade out and both stabbed, leaving her dead and him seriously wounded.

Saibi Bikhmad, 32 was rushed to Lertsin Hospital with a large knife wound to his stomach at 5pm. That led to the discovery of Sorimipra, who was found already dead in their rented room on the third floor of a shophouse in the Khlong Toei Market on Rama IV Road.

There were wounds on both of her hands, and from her armpits leading to her stomach. A long fruit paring knife was found next to her body.

Lt. Col. Wanchart Prabngooleum said Bikhmad and Sorimipra, who worked as a grocer, were romantically involved, but he was not sure if they were married.

Bikhmad, who worked as a laborer in the market for a chicken butcher, reportedly abused Sorimipra regularly.

Five days ago, police said, the couple had separated. On Thursday, Bikhmad came to attempt to reconcile with Sorimipra, which is when their discord escalated into violent altercation.

Lt. Col. Yunyong Suwansa-ard said Bikhmad claimed Sorimipra attacked him first, so he stabbed her back.

Bikhmad will likely be charged with homicide, Yunyong said.

Asian Animal Cafes Go From Mere Cats to Meerkats

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Associated Press

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7 October 2016, 11:50

Vistors play with meerkats Sept. 27 at Little Zoo Café in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press

BANGKOK — Cat cafes where customers sip lattes while petting resident kitties are just opening their doors around the U.S. and Europe. But in Asia, where the first one opened more than a decade ago, the concept has moved well beyond felines.

At Tokyo’s Snake Center, visitors pay 1,100 yen (about $11) for a cup of coffee and a slithery friend to wind around their arm; a plate of curry bread snacks or a really big snake costs extra.

At We Are The Furballs (WTF) in Singapore, Mochi and her puppy pals yap at ankles and occupy guests’ laps for peaceful dognaps.

And at Little Zoo Cafe in Bangkok, meerkats, raccoons and little foxes with the softest ears imaginable can be cuddled near plates of crepes and French fries.

Some sell the animals, or offer them for adoption. Others invite customers to bring their pets, or just offer encounters with creatures – from penguins to hedgehogs.

“I wanted there to be a place where people can come learn about the animals,” said Wachiraporn Arampibulphol, who opened an exotic animal cafe in Bangkok a year ago after visiting an owl cafe in Tokyo.

Snuggling Jelly, a blond fox, Wachiraporn said she used to import chinchillas, meerkats and other exotic pets, but worried that owners bought them impulsively and then abused them or let them collapse and die in Thailand’s heat.

She said customers at her Little Zoo Cafe get a reality check when they’re so close to the animals; she’s only sold a half dozen this year.

“When you see pictures and photos of these animals, you see their cuteness,” she said. “But people don’t think about what the animal would smell like or how actually raising one would be.”

Visitors play with meerkats Sept. 27 at Little Zoo Café in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press

Indeed, a musky odor floated above two red foxes – Mocha and Cappuccino – as they boisterously wrestled and skittered around customers’ legs.

Nearby, Nuttida Chaloembun, 23, from Bangkok, watched a waitress grapple with Cracker, a 25-pound raccoon, who chattered and swatted her away with little hand-like paws.

“It’s fat and really adorable but it won’t let me touch it,” laughed Nuttida.

Shirley Chaifong came to the Little Zoo Cafe all the way from Malaysia after seeing photos of meerkats on Instagram. But it was the tail-wagging corgi, an uncommon breed in Asia, she fell for.

“It’s a great way to see the animals,” she said, her hands running through his fur.

After a cat cafe opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 the concept quickly spread to more than 20 American cities, from New York to Los Angeles, and many more are planned. They’re also popular in Europe, with recent openings in Netherlands, Finland and Italy.

The Cat Flower Cafe in Taipei, Taiwan, took credit as the first-ever cat cafe when it opened in 1998, although some aficionados say cats meandered through a Viennese cafe almost a century earlier. The real boom began in 2005 in Japan, where few apartments allow pets. There are now more than 100 cat cafes listed in Japan, 50 in Tokyo alone. But new goat-, rabbit- and bird-themed eateries now offer competition.

American and European cat cafes have stringent health and safety regulations that sometimes ban actually petting animals, or require cats to remain well separated from food. Most are affiliated with local humane societies or rescue shelters.

In many Asian countries, where there are fewer hygiene rules in restaurants and pets can be bought in street markets, animal rights activists say the cafes are cruel.

Visitor pets fennec fox Sept. 27 at Little Zoo Cafe in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press

“These animals often become despondent and develop neurotic and self-destructive behavior,” said Jason Baker at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ international campaigns office. “I don’t know why anyone would want to eat a meal surrounded by animals who are imprisoned in cages and pens that are tiny fractions of the size of their homes in the wild.”

But cafe owners say they’re trying to help the animals by allowing people to safely and compassionately interact.

Tokyo Snake Center cafe manager Hisamitsu Kaneko said visitors can gain new appreciation of their oft-maligned reptiles.

“People have biases, or preconceptions about snakes, that they’re disgusting or scary,” said Kaneko, whose customers choose from about 60 snakes. “I think there are no animals as beautiful.”

At Bangkok’s TrueLove @ Neverland cafe, more than a dozen imported and bred huskies were panting – if calm – as they lounged for an hour outside on a humid 35-degree C (95-degree F) day, chewing ice cubes and carrots while visitors marveled at their thick fur.

At the end of a one-hour dog encounter, customers peeled off plastic foot covers, sanitized their hands, checked their husky-selfies and climbed into waiting tuk-tuk rickshaws. Barking and yipping, the dogs dashed en masse into their air-conditioned quarters to rest up and eat before their next human visitors.

Story: Martha Mendoza, Natnicha Chuwiruch

Go Minimal, Techy Tonight With UK’s ‘Commix’ at Live RCA

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Mongkorn Timkul, Correspondent

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7 October 2016, 11:28

All this gloomy weather has slowed traffic and gotten everyone in a shitty mood. I don’t blame y’all, it’s not like we can escape on an-all expense paid trip to Hawaii. Hopefully this column can be a lighthouse guiding you through the darkness of Bangkok’s flooded streets this weekend.

This week it shines toward Live RCA, where Bangkok’s Phatfunk crew are bringing out Commix, a U.K. production team known in the scene as masters of deep, minimal, techy sound.

Originally from Cambridge, England, Commix formed in 2002 when members Guy Brewer, Conrad Whittle and George Levings met at a Pokemon competition. They earned props from tracks put out by LTJ Bukem’s Good Looking Records and Fabio’s imprint Creative Source.

It was in 2007 that Whittle left and Commix as a duo dropped their groundbreaking, monolithic “Call to Mind” on Goldie’s Mighty Metalheadz imprint. The album was acclaimed for the duo’s ability to combine the contrasting tones of soul, techno and hip-hop.

“I think it was the perfect album for that period of Drum ‘n Bass. Sounds have changed now but it’s definitely a tough one to beat,” Phatfunk’s DJ Delorean said.

In contrast their 2012 follow-up “Dusted” received mixed reviews, as many claimed it did not to live up to their first release.

After a four-year hiatus Commix, now fronted by original member George Levings is back in the scene with two new releases and another album in the works.

George said he took a long break to “explore new ways of making music.”

“My philosophy has changed so much since I started writing music in 2000,” he said. “My musical knowledge is much better now, and I have many years experience of performing my music in clubs which has had a big influence on how my music sounds.”

Find out what that means tonight at Live RCA. George said to expect a mix of older and newer dnb, from his own concoctions to those of his favorite contemporaries.

“I also still enjoy playing the tracks that made me love Drum ‘n Bass, like Dillinja and Jonny L.,” he said. “I never plan my set, so I will see where the audience takes me!”

Door is 350 baht. Chase away the grey sky blues at the open bar from 9pm to 11pm.

Until next time, Dub be good to you.

283 Dead, 350,000 Need Assistance in Haiti Hurricane

By

Associated Press

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7 October 2016, 11:24

Saint Anne church lays totally destroyed by Hurricane Matthew Thursday in Camp Perrin, a district of Les Cayes, Haiti. Photo: Dieu Nalio Chery / Associated Press

LES CAYES, Haiti — Haitians braced for a grim, rising death toll Friday as help slowly trickled into marooned areas of the country’s southwestern peninsula that was pummeled by Hurricane Matthew, the first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in decades.

At least 283 people died in just one part of Haiti’s southwest, the region that bore the brunt of the storm, Emmanuel Pierre, an Interior Ministry coordinator in Les Cayes, told The Associated Press late Thursday.

The overall death toll in Haiti is not clear. Authorities expect the number of deaths to increase, with local officials in isolated areas reporting higher numbers. Most deaths are believed to have occurred in the southwest region.

“Devastation is everywhere,” said Pilus Enor, mayor of Camp Perrin, a town near the port city of Les Cayes on the peninsula’s south shore. “Every house has lost its roof. All the plantations have been destroyed. …This is the first time we see something like this.”

Officials were especially concerned about the department of Grand-Anse on the northern tip of the peninsula, where they believe the death toll and damage is highest. The 283 deaths reported by Pierre did not include Grand-Anse or its surrounding areas.

When Category 4 Hurricane Flora hit Haiti in 1963, it killed as many as 8,000 people.

More bodies began to appear Thursday as waters receded in some places two days after Matthew’s 145 mph (235 kph) winds smashed concrete walls, flattened palm trees and tore roofs off homes, forcing thousands of Haitians to flee.

Those killed in Haiti included a woman and her 6-year-old daughter who frantically abandoned their flimsy home and headed to a nearby church to seek shelter as Matthew surged in early Tuesday, said Ernst Ais, mayor of the town of Cavaillon.

“On the way to the church, the wind took them,” Ais said.

Officials said that food and water were urgently needed, noting that crops had been leveled, wells inundated by seawater and some water treatment facilities destroyed.

In Les Cayes, many people searched for clean water as they lugged mattresses and other belongings they were able to salvage.

“Nothing is going well,” said Jardine Laguerre, a teacher. “The water took what little money we had. We are hungry.”

Officials with the Pan American Health Organization warned about a possible surge in cholera cases because of the widespread flooding caused by Matthew. Haiti’s cholera outbreak has killed roughly 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000 since 2010, when it was introduced into the country’s biggest river from a U.N. base where Nepalese peacekeepers were deployed.

Haiti’s government has estimated at least 350,000 people need some kind of assistance in what is likely to be the country’s worst humanitarian crisis since the devastating earthquake of January 2010.

International aid groups are already appealing for donations for a lengthy recovery effort in Haiti, the hemisphere’s least-developed and most aid-dependent nation.

In the coming days, the U.S. military expects to help deliver food and water to hard-hit areas via helicopter.

After passing over Haiti, Matthew hit Cuba’s lightly populated eastern tip Tuesday night, damaging hundreds of homes in the easternmost city of Baracoa but there were no reports of deaths. Nearly 380,000 people were evacuated and measures were taken to protect infrastructure.

Matthew advanced up the length of the Bahamas on Wednesday and Thursday, tearing roofs away, toppling trees and causing flooding that trapped some people in their homes. There had been no reports of casualties by late Thursday as the storm headed toward Florida’s coast.

Before hitting Haiti, the storm was blamed for four deaths in the Dominican Republic, one in Colombia and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Story: David McFadden, Pierre Richard Luxama

Obama’s Peace Prize Still Tangled in War Debates

By

Associated Press

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7 October 2016, 11:13

President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama poses with his medal and diploma at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2009 at City Hall in Oslo. Photo: John McConnico / Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Seven years ago this week, when a young American president learned he’d been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize barely nine months into his first term – arguably before he’d made any peace – a somewhat embarrassed Barack Obama asked his aides to write an acceptance speech that addressed the awkwardness of the award.

But by the time his speechwriters delivered a draft, Obama’s focus had shifted to another source of tension in his upcoming moment in Oslo: He would deliver this speech about peace just days after he planned to order 30,000 more American troops into battle in Afghanistan.

The president all but scrapped the draft and wrote his own version.

The speech Obama delivered – a Nobel Peace Prize lecture about the necessity of waging war – now looks like an early sign that the American president would not be the sort of peacemaker the European intellectuals of the Nobel committee had anticipated.

On matters of war and peace, Obama has proven to be a confounding and contradictory figure, one who stands to leave behind both devastating and pressing failures, as well as a set of fresh accomplishments whose impact could resonate for decades.

He is the erstwhile anti-war candidate, now engaged in more theaters of war than his predecessor. He is the commander-in-chief who pulled more than a hundred thousand U.S. troops out of harm’s way in Iraq, but also began a slow trickle back in. He recoiled against full-scale, conventional war, while embracing the brave new world of drone attacks and proxy battles. He has championed diplomacy on climate change and nuclear proliferation and has torn down walls to Cuba and Myanmar, but also has failed repeatedly to broker a lasting pause to more than six years of slaughter in Syria.

If there was consensus Obama had not yet earned his Nobel Peace Prize when he received it in 2009, there’s little such agreement on whether he deserves it today.

“I don’t think he would have been in the speculation of the Nobel committee now, in 2016, even if he had not already won,” said Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, and a close watcher of the Nobel committee. Harpviken said he views Obama’s foreign policy as more conventional and limited than he expected, particularly when it comes to using multilateral cooperation and institutions.

When it comes to finding new instruments for peace, he said, “Obama has been stuck in the old paradigm.”

In many respects, Obama’s tenure has been a seven-year debate over whether the president has used the tools of war to try to make peace too much or little.

Obama has been sharply criticized for his refusal to use force to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad, cripple his air force or more aggressively engage in diplomatic efforts to end the fighting. Many view Obama’s policies as an unfortunate overcorrection from the George W. Bush-era Iraq war.

“The president correctly wanted to move away from the maximalist approach of the previous administration, but in doing so he went to a minimalist, gradualist and proxy approach that is prolonging the war. Where is the justice in that?” said Ret. Lt. Gen. Jim Dubik, a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and the author of the book, “Just War Reconsider.” Obama should have worked harder to rally a coalition around a shared vision of a stable Middle East, he said.

“Part of the requirement of leadership,” Dubik said, “is to operate in that space between where the world is and where the world ought to go.”

The president’s advisers dismiss such critiques as a misguided presumption that more force yields more peace. Cold-eyed assessments of the options in Syria show no certainty of outcomes.

“In Syria, there is no international basis to go to war against the Assad regime. Similarly, there’s no clearly articulable objective as to how it would play out. What is the end that we’re seeking militarily? ” said deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes. “The president doesn’t believe you can impose order through military force alone.”

But Obama has in many other cases been willing to use limited force to achieve limited objectives, even risking unintended consequences.

He has ordered drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Syria, actions that that have killed civilians and sparked tension in those countries and across the international community. What began as a secret program has become more transparent and Obama has aimed to leave legal limits for his predecessor on the use of unmanned warplanes.

But he has left unanswered the question of how or when those actions will lead to peace, some argued.

Looking back on his Nobel speech, that dilemma was already there, said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert and former State Department official.

“What’s strikes me most is how different our concept of war was seven years ago,” he said. “We are engaged in a whole series of infinitely sustainable, low-level actions that have no logical endpoint. When do we stop doing drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan? What level of terrorism is acceptable? … We’re engaged in battles with a whole range of groups that are never going to surrender, so how do you decide to stop it? How do you decide what winning looks like?”

Story: Kathleen Hennessey

Husband Fights for Evidence to Help US Wife Accused in China

By

Associated Press

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7 October 2016, 11:05

BEIJING — Nine days had passed since Jeff Gillis, at home in Houston, Texas, had last heard from his wife. During that phone call, she told Gillis she was extending her business trip in China, but he grew anxious. He filed a missing person’s report with U.S. consular officials whose response left him flabbergasted: His wife, a business consultant, had been detained by Chinese state security agents almost two weeks earlier.

Now, 18 months later, Phan Phan-Gillis is still detained, charged with spying and awaiting trial in China, consigned to an unknown fate in a highly opaque and impenetrable legal system in which even the charges brought against her remain cloudy. Gillis says that his wife appears to have been accused of spying against China two decades ago, although even her Chinese lawyer says he has been barred by Chinese law from providing details.

Despite the scant information, Gillis has set about trying to prove his 56-year-old wife’s innocence. He hopes documents he has uncovered will help free Phan-Gillis, known as Sandy to friends. Her lawyer says her trial has been postponed indefinitely from its original Sept. 19 court date.

The case speaks to both rising suspicion between Beijing and Washington and China’s drive to pursue those accused of crimes occurring outside its borders. Gillis says part of the charge relates to alleged spying carried out within the United States.

“China probably is now more aggressive in pursuing anyone who can be regarded as harming China’s interests,” said Fu Hualing, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong.

“If they think there’s a violation of Chinese criminal law and the impact is felt within China they are willing to pursue that and they think that they probably have the capacity to do that now,” he said. “Imagine: The case happened in the ’90s. It’s not like it happened recently.”

Phan-Gillis’ lawyer, Shang Baojun, said the American is charged with spying, but that he could not provide details because the case involves state secrets. The maximum sentence for spying is the death penalty.

The court in Nanning, a city in southern China near the Vietnamese border, also refused to release specifics about the case.

“It is a closed trial because it involves state secrets, so it is inappropriate for us to release information … including the date of the trial,” said Tang Xingzhong, administrative head at the Nanning Intermediate People’s Court. Calls to the prosecutor in charge of the case rang unanswered.

Jeff Gillis, 54, said the charge relates to “beyond ridiculous” allegations that Phan-Gillis went on a spy mission to Nanning in 1996, then returned to the U.S. and recruited Chinese citizens to work for a foreign spy organization within the United States in 1997 and 1998. He says the foreign spy organization is alleged to be the FBI. The bureau’s press office declined to comment.

Nanning is the capital of Guangxi, a poor farming region neighboring Guangdong province, where Phan-Gillis’ family has its roots. Ethnically Chinese, Phan-Gillis was born in Vietnam and left that country as a teenager after the end of the Vietnam War, ending up via a harrowing boat journey in a refugee camp in Malaysia. She became an American citizen, met Gillis in 2001 and married him a year later.

Gillis said his wife, a consultant who matched investors with projects, traveled to China numerous times on business and as a volunteer to promote cultural and business exchanges and better health care. Most of her trips have been to the southern business centers of Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Gillis said he had never heard his wife mention Guangxi until she brought it up in a phone call during her detention – his first clue in his quest to free her.

Phan-Gillis was detained in March 2015; that September, Gillis took a leave of absence from his job as a U.S. production services manager for an oilfield services company to focus full time on freeing her. He remains in Houston; lawyers told him he should not come to China for the trial.

Gillis started reading up on how Chinese cases work, and knew that he and the lawyers would only have a short window to prepare a defense once charges were filed and revealed to them.

Lawyer Shang said they could read Phan-Gillis’ case file only in early September – more than six weeks after she was indicted. Her legal team is not allowed to photocopy or take photos of the hundreds of pages.

“We can only copy it by hand,” Shang said.

Gillis knew virtually nothing about why his wife was in custody before he received an unexpected phone call about a year ago. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping was in the U.S. meeting President Barack Obama, and Gillis had just started a media campaign to coincide with Xi’s visit.

It was his wife. She frantically asked him to stop.

“She was pretty much begging me to tell the people who were on the phone in the room with her that I was going to stop the media campaign,” Gillis said by phone from Houston. But she was also allowed to tell him that “the case involved some people who she had known from Guangxi over 20 years ago.”

Soon, he was digging through his wife’s old files, sorting them by year. When he learned more about the accusations he went straight to the boxes labeled “1996,” ”1997″ and “1998.”

“The house still looks like a warehouse. I have boxes stacked everywhere,” he said.

Gillis is thankful for his wife’s tendency to hoard, because she left behind documents that show she couldn’t have been present for the offenses he says she is accused of committing.

“I have the passport that shows that she didn’t even have a visa in ’96, no entries or exits. I have her pay stubs that show that she was not off on extended leave.”

He has found old receipts and a newspaper article with a photograph of Phan-Gillis attending a horse event in Houston when she is alleged to have been in China. He has submitted the documents to his wife’s lawyers, and has pressed politicians to write letters on her behalf.

U.S. consular officials are allowed to visit Phan-Gillis once a month. Gillis said she told them that threats and relentless interrogation sessions caused her to suffer a heart attack.

“Hearing how they had treated her, it made me cry,” he said. He said that, together with the knowledge that Chinese authorities have charged his wife with spying, and “with allegations that were easily provable to be false,” is why he has decided to publicly discuss her case.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that China “continues to withhold many details of the case.”

“We remain deeply concerned about Ms. Phan-Gillis’ welfare and continue to monitor her case closely,” he said in a statement.

Story: Louise Watt

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