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Big power disputes in spotlight at Southeast Asia security meet

Top diplomats from the US, China, and Russia attended a security meeting with Southeast Asian foreign ministers.

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JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Top diplomats from the United States, China and Russia attend a security meeting on Friday with Southeast Asian foreign ministers, with the spotlight on the disputed South China Sea, the Ukraine war and North Korea’s missiles.

The 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) will provide an arena for big powers to lock heads over a range of issues, and the closed-door roundtable has previously been a fractious affair.

Host Indonesia warned that the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN cannot become a proxy, as US-China tensions flare over self-ruled Taiwan, Beijing’s close ties with Moscow, and a tug-of-war for influence in the South Pacific.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the ARF, a body set up to discuss security issues that also includes Japan, South Korea and Australia.

“The Indo-Pacific must not be another battleground,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told ministers as she opened an earlier 18-nation East Asia Summit.

“Our region must remain stable, and we intend to keep it that way.”

Friday’s meetings would be the first between Blinken and Lavrov since a brief March encounter in India, but no bilateral talks are expected as Russia’s widely condemned invasion of Ukraine grinds on.

North Korea, Myanmar criticism

Wang and Blinken, however, held their second meeting in as many months on Thursday as Washington and Beijing look to stabilise their relationship.

Blinken told Wang that Washington would hold hackers “accountable” after a breach of US government email accounts was blamed on Chinese state-backed actors, a US official said.

Wang urged Washington to “work with China in the same direction” to improve ties and stop interfering in China’s affairs, according to a statement on Friday by the foreign ministry in Beijing.

Wang, replacing Foreign Minister Qin Gang who was unwell, also met with Lavrov on Thursday, and the pair pledged to deepen ties in areas of strategic communication and cooperation.

In an interview with Indonesian media this week, Lavrov said the war in Ukraine would not end until Western nations gave up their efforts to “defeat” Russia.

Before sitting around the table again Friday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong raised human rights issues with Wang and said it was crucial to speak frankly on the matter.

At the ASEAN Regional Forum, a North Korean official would be present but Pyongyang declined to send its foreign minister.

North Korea said Thursday that it had successfully tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.

Western nations were likely to condemn that launch at the meeting, as well as the Myanmar junta’s alleged attacks against civilians as the coup-wracked country’s crisis continues.

The situation in Myanmar has dominated the week’s ASEAN meetings, from which the junta has been barred.

In a joint communique issued Thursday, ASEAN condemned violence in Myanmar and called for the five-point peace plan agreed with the junta two years ago to be implemented.

The bloc’s efforts have been fruitless so far, with the junta ignoring international criticism and refusing to engage with its opponents.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore hangs 14th drug convict since last year

Singapore executed Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted of drug trafficking, amid a resumption of executions in 2022. Another woman prisoner, Saridewi Djamani, faces execution.

Amnesty International urged Singapore to halt the executions, questioning the deterrent effect of the death penalty.

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26 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday hanged a local man convicted of drug trafficking, officials said, two days before the scheduled execution of the first woman prisoner in the city-state in nearly 20 years.

Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking “not less than 49.98 grams” (1.76 ounces) of heroin, was executed at Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.

The 57-year-old was the 14th convict sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hussain’s previous appeals against his conviction and sentence had been dismissed, and a petition for presidential clemency was also denied.

A woman drug convict, 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani, is scheduled to be hanged on Friday, according to the local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).

She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, Djamani would be the first woman executed in Singapore since 2004, when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, according to TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws — trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the executions, saying there was no evidence the death penalty acted as a deterrent to crime.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

Singapore, however, insists that the death penalty has helped make it one of Asia’s safest countries.

Among those hanged since last year was Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a global outcry, including from the United Nations and British tycoon Richard Branson, because he was deemed to have a mental disability.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore to execute first woman in nearly 20 years: rights groups

Singapore set to execute two drug convicts, including first woman in 20 years, despite rights groups’ calls to stop.

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25 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted.

Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison.

A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

TJC said the two prisoners are Singaporeans and their families have received notices setting the dates of their executions.

Prison officials have not answered emailed questions from AFP seeking confirmation.

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.

It also has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the impending executions.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.

“As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither,” Sangiorgio added.

Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

— AFP

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