Thai Monuments Are Disappearing in the Dead of Night
This week’s student protests are part of a backlash against a monarchist elite trying to erase Thailand’s democratic history.
Dancing with dictators
Unbowed by prison terms and vicious beatings, human rights lawyer Robert Sann Aung has been battling Myanmar’s much-derided judiciary for more than 30 years.
Khmer Rouge’s ‘first lady,’ charged with genocide, dies at 83
Ieng Thirith, the highest-ranking woman in the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, has died in Cambodia after a long illness, according to a United Nations-backed tribunal that is trying former regime leaders in Phnom Penh.
China stirs up ghosts of Khmer Rouge airport project
The military airport outside this river town in central Cambodia sprawls out in eerie silence, its vast concrete runway untroubled by any sign of aircraft.
Opposition boycotts parliament as Hun Sen moves to regulate NGOs
PHNOM PENH — The ruling Cambodian People’s Party forced a contentious law regulating the country’s large nongovernmental sector through parliament on Monday, amid widespread opposition and fears that the new bill will be used to stifle dissent and muzzle critics of the government.
Myanmar’s Internet innovators emerge amid connectivity boom
YANGON — It says a lot about Myanmar’s tech scene that one of its pioneers is still in his 20s. Htoo Myint Naung was just 18 in 2004, when he built his country’s first mobile phone app — a simple program for sending text messages in the Burmese language.
Death of ruling party veteran boosts authority of Hun Sen
PHNOM PENH — The recent death of Chea Sim, a key figure in Cambodia’s politics since the fall of the communist Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, has put a spotlight on the future of Prime Minister Hun Sen, his long-time ally and one of the world’s longest serving national leaders.
Myanmar’s hard-line monk looms as key political player
Myanmar’s most notorious monk is clearly enjoying the attention. In the hall where Ashin Wirathu presides, an entire wall is given over to newspaper clippings and large photographs of himself in various poses.
The Strongman of Siam
With Thailand’s ailing monarch fading from the scene, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha is positioning the military to rule indefinitely — by silencing all dissent.
Forty years after ‘Year Zero’: Cambodia’s young wrestle with a dark past
Four decades ago, on April 17, 1975, the communist Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh and seized power.
The House That Hun Sen Built
The strongman has ruled Cambodia for 30 years with corruption, charisma, and brute force. Now he’s facing the greatest challenge of his career.
A One-Man Dynasty
Thirty years ago, Hun Sen was appointed prime minister of Cambodia. By remaining at the helm of the country’s turbulent politics until the present, Hun Sen now sits alongside the world’s longest-serving political leaders.
The heavy hand of religious police in Aceh
Since 2001, far-flung Indonesian province has enforced its version of Islamic law, using floggings to punish offenders.
