Asia Cast

Asia Cast for Saturday 24th October

In this Bulletin…

- Report slams Beijing’s response to Xinjiang ethnic violence ;
- Campaigners say ASEAN rights watchdog lacks bite; and
- Plight of women in rural India exposed.

But first, here’s our SOH focus on China
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Earlier this week a number of Chinese organisations in New York launched a global petition to try and secure the release of prominent human rights lawyer being detained in China.

Known as ‘China’s Conscience’, Gao Zhisheng has previously been arrested and tortured for defending members of spiritual groups unjustly persecuted by the Chinese regime.

Gao has been missing since security personnel abducted him on February 4. His whereabouts are unknown.

At the petition’s launch, the groups urged US President Barack Obama to help free Gao when he visits China in November.

Read more on this in The Epoch Times.

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Human Rights Watch has said that instead of properly investigating July’s ethnic violence in Xinjiang, the Chinese regime carried out large-scale unlawful arrests of Uighur men and boys.

The riots between between Uyghurs and Han Chinese were the worst China has seen in decades.

Human Rights Watch says at least 43 males, including 2 boys, remain unaccounted for. Family members say local authorities have denied knowing about the arrests.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the Chinese regime claims it respects the rule of law, but nothing could undermine this claim more than taking people from their homes or off the street and ‘disappearing’ them.

Watch NTDTV for more on this story.

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And now for the rest of today’s Asia Cast

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Campaigners have said the new human rights watchdog launched at the ASEAN summit in Thailand will do little to deter rights violators because it has no power to punish member countries.

The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting under heavy security at the beach resort of Cha-Am.

Anti-government protesters forced the cancellation of the previous attempt to hold the association’s fifteenth summit in April.

The commission has no power to punish members such as Burma who violate rights and is meant to promote rather than protect human rights, activists say.

The economy, climate change and disaster management are also on the summit’s agenda.

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North Korea’s rights situation has been branded ‘abysmal’ by a UN envoy.

A report by the UN envoy for North Korea, Vitit Muntarbhorn, estimates a third of the country’s population was going hungry needlessly. But Muntabhorn said North Korea was not poor, and urged Pyongyang to drop its military first policy.

He added that while many North Koreans live ‘in abject poverty’, officials control the country’s vast mineral wealth.

Although he was not allowed into North Korea, Muntarbhorn gathered testimony from UN agencies operating in the country, human rights groups and refugees who have fled to South Korea, Japan and Mongolia.

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You’re listening to Asia Cast on the SOH Radio Network

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In rural India desperate farmers are being forced into selling their wives to repay loans from money lenders.

In the drought hit northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh some farmers say they are forced to borrow from unofficial lenders, usually with very high interest.

Some farmers work as bonded labourers for a lifetime to pay off their debts. Others say because of years of little rain and bad harvests they are forced to give money lenders whatever they ask for, sometimes including their wives.

Ranjana Kumari with India’s Center for Social Research says the exploitation of women is common in the region. And, she says, there is little support for women in India who have the courage to file a case with authorities.

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More than 20 provinces in the northern Philippines were placed under a storm warning as Typhoon Lupit closes in, reports NTDTV.

The weather bureau advised residents in low-lying areas and near mountain slopes to take precautionary measures against flash floods and landslides.

Coastal communities were warned of possible storm surges, and hundreds of residents have already been evacuated to higher ground.

Forecasters expect Lupit to make landfall by Sunday or Monday .

Last month, two deadly typhoons, Ketsana and Parma, flooded large swathes of the capital Manila and farming provinces, killed over 900 people and affected nearly nine million. 200,000 homes were destroyed.

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“Asia Cast… keeping you across the top headlines from Asia and the World.”