Southeast Asia feels the burn as virus keeps Chinese tourists at home

Yahoo – AFP, Aidan Jones, with Dene-Hern Chen in Pattaya, Thailand, February 16, 2020

Across Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, tourist takings have plummeted as
Chinese travellers find themselves subject to a host of travel restrictions (AFP Photo/
Mladen ANTONOV)

Elephant parks unvisited, curios at markets unsold as tuk-tuks sit idle: Southeast Asia is facing billions of dollars in losses from a collapse in Chinese tourism since the outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus.

From Luang Prabang in northern Laos to Pattaya in Thailand, Hoi An in Vietnam and the Cambodian casino town of Sihanoukville, takings have plummeted as Chinese travellers find themselves subject to a host of restrictions at home and abroad.

"We haven't had any Chinese for 10 days since they closed the road from Yunnan," says Ong Tau, 47, from behind her stall of fruit shakes in the temple-studded Laotian colonial town of Luang Prabang.

"Business is down 20-30 percent... it will get worse."

Tour guides, mall workers and restaurant staff are all feeling the burn as Chinese -- the world's biggest travellers -- stay at home in the middle of a global health crisis.

"My friend has lost four or five big tour groups... they would have paid for his low season," said Tee, a guide in Luang Prabang, giving only one name in the tightly-controlled communist country, a mass of tuk-tuks standing idle behind him.

Business is also slow at the Chang Siam Elephant Park in Pattaya, a few hours 

south of Bangkok (AFP Photo/Mladen ANTONOV)

But in one of Southeast Asia's least well-resourced countries, there may be one bright side to the sudden economic pain.

"We don't know how to protect ourselves," he added. "The government doesn't tell people anything... so maybe less Chinese is a good thing for now."

Loans and job losses

The slump is being felt sharply in Thailand, where tourism authorities say arrivals from China -- usually close to one million a month -- have plunged by 90 percent so far this February.

At the Chang Siam Elephant Park in Pattaya, a few hours south of Bangkok, owner Nantakorn Phatnamrob fears he will soon be pressed into debt to float a business which has lost nearly $65,000 since the outbreak.

"People are afraid to visit," he told AFP. "If it stays like this, I will have to get a loan from the bank."

In Cambodia's Sihanoukville, a southern beach resort known for its casinos, the 

tourist take has shrivelled (AFP Photo/TANG CHHIN Sothy)

Crocodile farms and tiger sanctuaries -- controversial tourist beacons where visitors can pet the animals -- are also deserted, leaving owners to feed expensive star attractions.

The outbreak has also spooked western tourists at the height of peak season in what has already been a tough period for Thai tourism thanks to a strong baht.

Thailand anticipates shedding five million tourists this year, taking with them "250 billion baht (over $8 billion) in revenue", according to Don Nakornthab, director of economic policy at Bank of Thailand.

"Our hopes that the economy will do better than last year are very low... it's possible it could grow below 2 percent," he added.

That will spell bad news for the untold number of Thais working in the tourism sector.

Ma Mya, 22, who sells trinkets in Pattaya, says she may soon have to return to her home in northern Thailand.

"There's no more profit -- everything has gone bad."

Vendors wait for customers at the main tourist market in Luang Prabang, northern 

Laos (AFP Photo/Aidan JONES)

Things can only get better

With so much riding on the seasonal influx, some Mekong countries are desperate not to deter those Chinese still travelling.

Thailand offers visa on arrival for Chinese tourists despite having one of the highest numbers of confirmed infections -- 34 -- outside of the mainland.

At least two of those cases were Thais who contracted the virus after driving infected Chinese passengers, raising fears that the economy was taking priority over tackling the health crisis.

For staunch Beijing ally Cambodia, where only one case of the virus has been confirmed so far despite a large Chinese presence, strongman leader Hun Sen has repeatedly played down the risk to his country.

Still, Cambodian tourism is taking a hammering.

Ticket sales at the famed Angkor temple complex in Cambodia have fallen
between 30 and 40 percent (AFP Photo/Manan VATSYAYANA)

Ticket sales at the famed Angkor temple complex in Siem Reap have fallen between 30 and 40 percent this year, while in Sihanoukville, a southern beach resort notorious for its casinos, the tourist take has shrivelled.

"I used to make $100 a day," said Chantha Reak, a ride-hailing driver. "Now it's $10."

Businesses are praying for a bounce back if and when the virus is controlled.

With 10 million Chinese visitors each year, Thailand hopes the pain will ease in a few months.

Regular visitor Yen Ran, 25, from Chengdu, came to Pattaya despite the health warnings.

"I am a little concerned how other countries perceive us," she told AFP. "But when there's a cure, things will get better."

Iran women freely attend football match for first time in decades

Yahoo – AFP, Amir HAVASI, Oct 10, 2019

Iranian women freely attend a football match in their ultra-conservative country
for the first time in around four decades (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

Tehran (AFP) - Waving flags and snapping selfies, thousands of Iranian women on Thursday attended a football match freely for the first time in decades, after FIFA threatened to suspend the country over its controversial stadium restrictions.

Elated female fans wore the national green, white and red flag around their shoulders and over their hair as they streamed into a tiny section of Tehran's 100,000-capacity Azadi Stadium for Iran's 2022 World Cup qualifier against Cambodia.

Some donned sporty hats over their headscarves, while others painted their faces with the colours of the flag.

Their beaming smiles underscored a day that felt victorious for Iranian women, even before the match began.

And with every goal the Iranian team scored, the cheers in the women's section grew louder.

By the middle of the second half, Iran was leading with a blowout of 9-0.

For nearly 40 years, the Islamic republic has barred female spectators from entering football and other sports stadiums, with clerics arguing women must be shielded from the masculine atmosphere and sight of semi-clad men.

Last month, world football's governing body FIFA ordered Iran to allow women access to stadiums without restriction and in numbers determined by demand for tickets.

'Women of freedom'

That came after the death of Sahar Khodayari, who set herself ablaze last month outside a court in fear of being jailed for trying to attend a match.

Dubbed "Blue Girl" because of the colours of the club she supported -- Esteghlal FC -- she had reportedly been detained last year when trying to enter a stadium dressed as a boy.

Her death sparked an outcry, with many calling for Iran to be banned and matches boycotted.

Around 4,500 women managed to get their hands on tickets for Thursday's match, which was thinly attended overall, with only some 10,000 spectators in total.

Even before the starting whistle blew, female fans cheered joyfully as the name of each Iranian player was announced over the loudspeakers, an AFP journalist at the stadium said.

But many women who were unable to get tickets in time for the game were left disappointed.

"I'm 18 years old, and for 14 years I've dreamt of going to a stadium," student Guelareh told AFP. "But I didn't get a ticket."

While it is not the first time women have attended football matches in Iran, it is the first time they have been allowed to buy tickets.

On previous occasions, attendees have been handpicked by the authorities.

Saluting the move, pro-reform newspaper Sazandegui published a photograph of two female football supporters, coupled with the headline: "The women of freedom."

For some men too, Thursday's game was worthy of celebration.

"It's a great feeling that we're here together, finally. We only wish this can continue in the future," a male fan told AFP.

A FIFA delegation attended Thursday's match to ensure Iran honoured its pledge to allow women in.

Cambodian PM backs Angelina Jolie's Khmer Rouge film

Yahoo – AFP, 17 Sep 2015

US actress Angelina Jolie (R) shakes hands with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun
 Sen during a meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on September 17, 2015
(AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Cambodian premier Hun Sen on Thursday voiced his support for Hollywood star Angelina Jolie's upcoming film about the murderous Khmer Rouge regime after the pair met in Phnom Penh.

The actress-turned-director is adapting "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers", a memoir by Cambodian rights activist Loung Ung about surviving the communist regime.

In its quest for an agrarian Marxist utopia, the brutal Khmer Rouge killed up to two million Cambodians between 1975-1979 by starvation, overwork or outright execution.

Hun Sen said the film "reflects facts in Cambodia and will be a way for younger generations to understand the country", the prime minister's spokesman Eang Sophalleth told reporters after the meeting.

Jolie has previously said the film helped her draw closer to the people of Cambodia, the homeland of Maddox, her adopted son with megastar husband Brad Pitt.

She will direct and produce the film for streaming giant Netflix from a script she co-wrote with Ung, while acclaimed Cambodian director Rithy Panh will also serve as a producer.

After two top regime leaders were last year sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, Hun Sen -- a former mid-ranking Khmer Rouge cadre before he defected -- spoke out against further prosecutions, warning it risked reigniting conflict.

Former "Brother Number Two" in the Khmer Rouge Nuon Chea, 89, and ex-head of state Khieu Samphan, 84, are appealing their landmark 2014 convictions by Cambodia's UN-backed court.

They are also undergoing a second trial for genocide, centred on the killing of ethnic Vietnamese and Muslim minorities, forced marriage and rape.

"Brother Number One" Pol Pot died in 1998 without ever facing justice.

In March the tribunal charged three more former Khmer Rouge members with crimes against humanity, ignoring the warnings by Hun Sen.

Thai crackdown on rogue fishing as fears grow over EU ban

Yahoo – AFP, Preeti Jha, 1 July 2015

Migrant workers sort fish in a port in Mahachai on the outskirts of Bangkok (AFP

Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

Mahachai (Thailand) (AFP) - A belated Thai clampdown on illegal fishing is forcing unlicensed vessels ashore, threatening to paralyse a key industry as the kingdom desperately tries to avoid a European Union ban on exports worth $1 billion a year.

Barrels of fish packed in ice are usually rolled off boats at a bustling port in Samut Sakhon, a coastal province near Bangkok, by Myanmar and Cambodia migrant workers who prop up the world's third largest seafood producer.

A migrant worker sits on a fishing boat

 in a port in Mahachai on the outskirts of

Bangkok (AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

But many will sit idle from Wednesday, say their Thai employers, who have failed to obtain necessary fishing permits under a raft of new government rules aimed at cleaning up the shadowy industry.

Next to buckets of red snapper destined to become fish balls for the local market and fishmeal to rear shrimp marked for Europe, a Thai vessel owner says there are "too many rules and too little time".

"We will have to keep paying bills with no income," said the worried 59-year-old, who withheld his name, as he prepares to cease operations until he can meet the conditions for a new permit.

The Wednesday deadline to register boats with authorities and acquire permits under revised standards, including installing equipment such as tracking devices, comes after the European Union threatened to ban fish imports from the kingdom unless it combats illegal fishing.

In April Brussels issued Thailand with a "yellow card" for inadequate fisheries monitoring, controls and punishment, warning that a "red card" and eventual import ban would follow if it failed to improve within six months.

The spectre of losing $1 billion in European sales is a shortfall the ruling military can ill-afford in an already sluggish economy.

Thailand saw only 0.3 percent growth in the first quarter and exports have been slowing in part, says the World Bank, due to an erosion in competitiveness.

Aphisit Techanitisawad, president of The Thai Overseas Fisheries Association, estimates around 3,000 fishing vessels nationwide will forsake the seas from Wednesday.

A worker checks canned fish at the 

Anusorn Group factory in Tasai, on the

 outskirts of Bangkok (AFP Photo/

Nicolas Asfouri)

"About 80 percent of all the fishermen, they're coming back to shore" to seek permits, he told AFP at his fisheries factory in Samut Sakhon.

Thailand's image battered

A recent shortage in fresh fish has already seen his workers stop processing crab sticks for French export, instead focussing on canning sardines and mackerel from frozen supplies for the Myanmar and Cambodian markets.

A labour ministry spokeswoman said around 80,000 migrants were working in Thai fisheries since the deadline for compulsory migrant registrations closed Tuesday.

Aphisit thinks the government could have imposed a more lenient timeframe for changes.

But premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha has remained adamant the industry has been left unchecked for too long.

"Don't put any more pressure on government," he said when asked about rising anger within the fishing industry.

"If we don't pass these measures a 200 billion baht ($6 billion) industry could be wiped out so everybody should cooperate," he said.

Thailand's image has been battered in recent years by a series of fishing abuse allegations from prominent rights groups of ships using slave and child labour as well as trafficking victims.

Migrant workers at work in a port in 

Mahachai, on the outskirts of Bangkok

(AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

And last year the US downgraded the kingdom to its lowest ranking on human trafficking, a designation that can trigger sanctions.

Bangkok is desperate to improve its standing, while sanctions have not yet been imposed, laying out new measures including a ban on fishing workers under 18 in the months since. The latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report is due for imminent publication.

Observers say that while the latest threat of an EU ban has triggered a renewed sense of urgency in authorities, rushed actions will fail to combat illegal fishing in the long-term.

Improving "monitoring, control and surveillance" will help to tackle longstanding problems of pirate fishing, slavery and trafficking in Thailand's fisheries industry, said Daniel Murphy, a Bangkok-based campaigner for the Environmental Justice Foundation.

But by rapidly regulating the neglected sector the government "risks regularising more vessels than Thailand's exhausted waters can support as well a significant number of vessels which have spent years openly flouting fishing laws", he said.

In this handout photograph released by Indonesia’s Ministry of Fishery on

 April 8, 2015, hundreds of rescued foreign fishermen mostly from Myanmar and

Thailand are gathered during an operation at the private Indonesian fishing firm

 Pusaka Benjina Resources located in remote Benjina island of Maluku

province. (AFP Photo/Ugeng Nugroho/Ministry of Fishery)

Related Articles:

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Joko praises Minister Susi’s Work on Combating Illegal Fishing

A fisherman formerly held in slave-like conditions by a Thai-owned fishing firm in

Benjina, Maluku, shows evidence of abuse. (Antara Foto/Humas Kementerian

Kelautan)

Xi pledges US$40bn for Silk Road Fund

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-11-09

The dialogue meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Nov. 8. (Photo/Xinhua)

President Xi Jinping of China said on Saturday that China will contribute US$40 billion to set up a Silk Road Fund at a dialogue meeting on strengthening connectivity and improving cooperation in the country's neighborhood.

Xi made the pledge when making a five-point proposal aimed at promoting interconnected development in the Asia-Pacific region as he met with leaders of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

Also attending the meeting were representatives of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The new Silk Road Fund will be used to provide investment and financing support to carry out infrastructure, resources, industrial cooperation, financial cooperation and other projects related to connectivity for countries along the "Belt and Road", Xi said, referring to China's Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives.

He added that the fund will be "open" to active participation by investors from both within and outside of Asia.

According to Xi, the goal of the new Silk Road Fund is to "break the bottleneck in Asian connectivity by building a financing platform."

An Asian Development Bank report estimates that Asia as a whole needs as much as US$730 billion per year in infrastructure investment before 2020.

The Chinese president said funding stands out as the most challenging issue in Asia's connectivity development.

"To address these and other problems, the efforts by a single or several countries are far from adequate," said Xi.

"Only by building extensive partnerships where all will think and work in unison, can we expect to achieve positive results," he said.

His words were echoed by Yao Zhizhong, deputy head of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

According to Yao, funding is key to provide impetus to the infrastructure construction in the Asia-Pacific, which in turn contributes to inter-connectivity in the region.

He said the Silk Road Fund can also promote diversified use of China's foreign reserves and help China make full use of its funding advantages.

China has been pushing for an interconnected development in the Asia-Pacific region for some time.

Xi put forward the "Belt and Road" initiatives to build a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road during two separate visits to Central Asia and Southeast Asia in 2013, in a bid to revive the historic trade routes by boosting cooperation between China and other Asian nations.

Last month, a total of 21 Asian countries inked a Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with an expected initial subscribed capital of 50 billion U.S. dollars.

Earlier reports said the AIIB was also established to finance infrastructure constructions along the "Belt and Road."

But according to Yao, unlike the AIIB which could only be put into operation by the end of 2015 at the earliest, the Silk Road Fund can be launched immediately.

Jin Zhongxia, head of the Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, also said the "open" nature of the Silk Road Fund gives it more flexibility in its future operation, and that the fund could constitute a fine alternative to the AIIB in financing Asian infrastructure constructions.

Connectivity is also a key theme of this year's APEC meeting, which prioritizes three topics: advancing regional economic integration, promoting innovative development, economic reform and growth, and strengthening comprehensive development in infrastructure and connectivity.

APEC members will work for the formulation of the APEC Blueprint on Connectivity in order to provide a strong backing for the Asia-Pacific's long-term development.

Nonetheless, Xi has in the meantime cautioned that connectivity is "not merely about building roads and bridges or making linear connection of different places on surface."

"More importantly, it should be a three-way combination of infrastructure, institutions and people-to-people exchanges and a five-way progress in policy communication, infrastructure connectivity, trade link, capital flow, and understanding among peoples," he said.

To further deepen the connectivity partnership between countries whose leaders were present at Saturday's dialogue, Xi stressed that efforts should be made to realize Asia's connectivity by making Asian countries a priority.

"Asian countries are just like a cluster of bright lanterns. Only when we link them together, can we light up the night sky in our continent," he said.

China is ready to provide more public goods through connectivity development to its Asian neighbors who are welcome "to get on board the train of China's development," he said.

Meanwhile, the basic framework of the Asian connectivity project should be developed by making economic corridors its support pillar, Xi said while pointing to the "Belt and Road" initiatives which have "basically taken shape."

"Such a framework accommodates the needs of various countries and covers both land and sea-related projects," Xi said.

The president continued to say that the countries should realize an early harvest in Asian connectivity by making breakthroughs in transport infrastructure development, and that China will provide neighboring countries 20,000 training opportunities for connectivity professionals in the coming five years.

These proposals showed China's resolve to promote the building of the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and its willingness to take up its responsibility to contribute to the inter-connectivity in Asia, Yao said.

Australia Confirms Refugee Deal with Cambodia

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Sep 25, 2014

On Thursday Australia announced it would sign an asylum-seeker resettlement
 deal with Cambodia, meaning some asylum-seekers held in Australia's offshore
detention camps will be transferred to the South East Asian nation. (AFP Photo)

Sydney. Australia confirmed on Thursday it will sign an asylum-seeker resettlement deal with Cambodia in a move slammed by human rights groups as violating the country’s international obligations.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison will be in Phnom Penh on Friday to seal the deal, which could see some asylum-seekers currently held in offshore detention camps by Australia transferred to the Southeast Asian nation.

The agreement came as the Australian government tabled a bill in parliament to reintroduce temporary visas for other asylum-seekers currently held on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, or in mainland facilities.

The bill also removes direct references to the UN Refugee Convention from the Migration Act, replacing it with an Australian interpretation of the nation’s protection obligations.

Morrison said the Cambodia arrangement would be “strictly voluntary” for refugees and the resettlement would be permanent.

“The arrangement is strictly voluntary,” he said at a press conference. “Anyone who chooses to go to Cambodia will have chosen themselves to go to Cambodia.”

Morrison said those who went to Cambodia would be given support “designed to make them self-reliant as quickly as possible”.

“They will be afforded all the same rights under Cambodian law and those that exist under the Refugee Convention and there is no cap on what has been discussed here.”

The minister did not provide further details about the nature of the measures, how many refugees could be transferred and how much Cambodia would be paid under the deal.

Human Rights Watch said the arrangement placed refugees at risk and Australia “will be failing to meet the terms of its agreement because Cambodia is not a safe third country”.

“Although Cambodia is a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it has failed to protect refugees and asylum-seekers, returning them to countries where they faced persecution,” it said.

The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also previously criticized the plans but was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

The temporary visa arrangements, when passed by parliament, would help clear the backlog of asylum-seekers who arrived in Australia by boat last year, Morrison said.

About 1,550 potential refugees, including 436 children and their families and 32 unaccompanied minors, could be eligible for the visas, which range between three to five years.

Under Canberra’s immigration policy, boatpeople arriving since July 2013 have been sent to camps on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and the remote Pacific state of Nauru.

They are resettled in those countries if their refugee claims are approved.

Morrison said the new temporary visas would not apply to asylum-seekers held on Nauru or Manus Island.

Only one boatload of asylum-seekers has reached the Australian mainland since December, compared to almost daily arrivals previously under the Labor administration, with hundreds of people dying en route.

Agence France-Presse

Related Article:

AI: Australia-Cambodia refugee deal 'in violation of international law'

Life sentences for the Khmer Rouge regime’s last surviving senior leaders

A UN-backed trial in Cambodia has handed down life sentences for two surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. DW correspondent Abby Seiff was in Phnom Penh to capture the emotional reaction to the verdict.

Deutsche Welle, 7 Aug 2014

The Khmer Rouge tribunal on Thursday handed down life sentences to two of the regime's most senior leaders, calling the crimes the cause of “immeasurable harm.”

Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, 88, and Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, 83, were found guilty on charges of war crimes for their role in the forced evacuation of millions and a mass execution of enemy soldiers.

Reading the verdict out, chief judge Nil Nonn called the sentences reflective of the grave nature of the crimes.

“There was a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Cambodia… this attack victimized millions of civilians throughout Cambodia.”

Over the course of an hour-and-a-half, Judge Nonn detailed the litany of crimes against humanity covered in the case, including murder, extermination, political persecution, and inhuman acts.

In a second case set to begin in September or October, the pair will face charges related to genocide, rape, forced marriage, purges and a slew of other crimes.

'Killing Fields'

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died of starvation, exhaustion and execution, during the regime's three years, eight months and 20 days in power.

After taking over Phnom Penh in April 1975, the Khmer Rouge sought to install a Maoist-inspired agrarian society by forcing millions into forced labor. To create its collectives and dissolve any sense of ownership or family ties, the regime moved virtually the entire population from their homes to elsewhere.

The most extreme evacuation was that of Phnom Penh beginning on April 17, 1975. Forced from homes, schools and even hospitals, at least 2 million residents representing the city's entire population were told it was necessary to leave because of impending American bombings - a false pretense - and were assured they would spend only a short time away.

A harrowing ordeal, recounted at times during the trial in wrenching testimony, the evacuation exacted a fatal toll. Without access to food water or medical care, thousands died en route.

At court Thursday morning, Judge Nonn recounted the testimony of several civil parties who testified during the two-year trial, delving into tragic detail of the forced evacuation.

One, “recalled seeing a Khmer Rouge soldier tear apart a crying baby who was crawling on his dead mother's body,” he told the court.

As Judge Nonn read out the summary judgment, both defendants appeared impassive. The courtroom appearance of Nuon Chea – in a wheelchair and unable to stand – marked the first since closing statements in October of last year. Frail and frequently ill, he spent much of the later days of the trial in his holding cell.

Neither man made a statement, the only words coming when Nuon Chea barked at a judge that he was unable to stand during sentencing.

Following sentencing, lawyers from both defense teams said they would be appealing.

“The reaction of our client was basically that he expected this judgment, that he was not surprised at all that this judgment was issued,” said Victor Koppe, a lawyer for Nuon Chea. “He didn't have any faith or confidence in this [court] and he got confirmed in that suspicion.

High emotions, long case

Hundreds of civil parties, students and dignitaries were in attendance for the announcement, some breaking down into tears after the verdict was delivered.

“I didn't feel very calm, I wasn't happy to hear that verdict because life in prison is not enough. They killed so many people. What I want is an execution right now,” said Pech Srey Pan, 65, a civil party who was evacuated from Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge took over the city.

For many, however, a life sentence was precisely what they had hoped for.

“I'm very happy to see the verdict,” said Heng Buneth, a 45-year-old who saw his father – a Lon Nol soldier – executed and who was orphaned during the Khmer Rouge.

Chea Leang, the national co-prosecutor, welcomed the sentence saying in a press conference held after the case that the sentences were “the only appropriate sentences the chamber should have handed down.”

“The judgment wont turn back time, it wont give back life to those executed, or those who died of heat or exhaustion, of lack of food or water or medical assistance, it wont rebuild families broken in every part of Cambodia because of lost sons, daughter, wives, and husbands,” she continued.

“However I think it will give some justice, reinstate some respect to those victims that have been denied to them for so long.”

Slow moving trial

But while many are pleased with the outcome, it comes following a particularly rocky trial. The case against the regime's top living leaders was intended to be the cornerstone of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, instead it had been marred by allegations of corruption, mismanagement and political interference.

The slow movement of the UN-backed tribunal, meanwhile, wrecked havoc on a case involving numerous aged defendants, victims and witnesses.

Between November 2011, when opening statements began, and the close in October 2013, half of the defendants fell out. Foreign Minister Ieng Sary died in March 2013, while his wife, Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith was in September 2012 declared unfit to stand trial due to dementia.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An admitted there had been “hiccups” but said the sentence was historic.

“We never lost sight to seek justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge, today, we welcome the delivery of justice.”

The sentencing of the pair marks only the second conviction for the eight-year-old court.

In February 2012, Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was sentenced to life in prison, on appeal, for overseeing the notorious S-21 security center. An estimated 12,000 people were executed at the jail, following a torturous interrogation process.

Two more cases against four mid-ranking cadres are currently under investigation, but the government has been adamant that it wants no trials beyond the current case and court officials have repeatedly attempted to shut down investigations.

“This trial will hopefully pave the way for a much more efficient second trial,” said Heather Ryan, a trial monitor for Open Society Justice Initiative.

“[If only this case is heard] that's a limited picture of crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge period, which is the reason why the second trial in Case 002 is important, why trial 003 and 004 are important to give a broader picture of the nature and magnitude of the crimes committed.”

Additional reporting by Neou Vannarin

Chinese nationals in Vietnam flee to Cambodia as anti-China riots turn fatal

Multiple reports of casualties as Vietnamese anger over China's expansionism in disputed seas spills over in attacks on foreign-owned factories

theguardian.com, Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing, Kate Hodal, south-east Asia correspondent, and agencies, Thursday 15 May 2014

Vietnamese protest against China near Formosa mill in Ha Tinh, Vietnam. A
 doctor told Reuters that more than 20 people died during the rioting
on Wednesday night. Photograph: Str/EPA

Violent reaction in Vietnam to China's expansionist stance in disputed seas has turned deadly, with multiple reports of people being killed during rioting that began with attacks on foreign-owned factories.

Cambodia said hundreds of Chinese nationals had poured across the border from Vietnam to escape the riots.

"Yesterday more than 600 Chinese people from Vietnam crossed at Bavet international checkpoint into Cambodia," Kirt Chantharith, a police spokesman, told Reuters on Thursday. Bavet is on a highway stretching from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial centre, to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

On Thursday the death toll was unclear, although some news agencies reported at least 20 people had been killed.

A top Taiwanese diplomat said rioters had stormed a large Taiwanese steel mill in Vietnam, killing at least one Chinese worker and injuring 90 more. Huang Chih-peng said the violence took place late on Wednesday and early on Thursday at the Formosa steel mill in central Vietnam.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a Chinese contractor and a Vietnamese worker died in the violence. China's state-run People's Daily tweeted that 10 Chinese nationals went missing when protesters ransacked a Chinese factory.

A doctor at a hospital in the central Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh told Reuters five Vietnamese workers and 16 other people described as Chinese died during anti-China rioting on Wednesday night.

"There were about 100 people sent to the hospital last night. Many were Chinese. More are being sent to the hospital this morning," the doctor said.

Earlier this week mobs burned and looted scores of foreign-owned factories in southern Vietnam, believing they were Chinese-run when many were actually Taiwanese or South Korean. No deaths were reported in those initial attacks.

On Thursday, China's embassy in Vietnam urged the country's public security authorities to take "effective measures" to protect its nationals' personal safety and legal rights. The embassy made the remark in a statement published on its website, adding that China had launched an emergency mechanism to cope with the effects of anti-Chinese riots in its southern neighbour.

Anti-Chinese sentiment has been running high in Vietnam ever since Beijing deployed an oil rig into disputed waters in the South China Sea on 1 May. There have been encounters including ramming and exchanges of water cannon between Chinese vessels operating near the rig and boats from Vietnam, which wants China out of the area.

According to the English-language version of the Tuoi Tre newspaper, some 600 people have been arrested in Vietnam's southern provinces, where riots erupted on Tuesday amid reports of looting and attacks on police officers.

The government has since issued stark warnings to the Chinese that continued so-called aggression which had to date been met with diplomacy would likely turn ugly if it persisted.

With reports on Wednesday from the Vietnam coastguard that the Chinese had also sent two amphibious ships equipped with anti-air missiles to protect their oil rig, commander Major General Nguyen Quang Dam said it would "make no concession to China's wrongful acts" and stressed: "Their violent acts have posed serious threats to the lives of Vietnamese members of law enforcement."

An op-ed piece in the English-language daily Vietnam News was just as transparent with its words: "The Vietnamese people are angry. The nation is angry. We are telling the world that we are angry. We have every right to be angry."

"China should stop violating international law and respect Vietnam's sovereignty," it continued, adding that China's seeming aggression "smacks of a bull doing something wrong just because it can".

"Over thousands of years, we have shown that we never cease fighting aggressors," the op-ed added. "We are proud of our freedom-fighting forefathers and resistance is in our blood. We are a small country, but we are not weak. We will stand as one, united in the cause of protecting our motherland's integrity."

China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, "urged Vietnam not to attempt to further complicate and aggravate the current maritime friction", the state-run Global Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

"China's position on safeguarding its legitimate sovereign rights and interests is firm and clear and will not change," he told Indonesia's foreign affairs minister Marty Natalegawa in a phone conversation, the Global Times said.

The newspaper condemned the protests in an editorial, calling them "the most stunning attack [on] foreign businesses in East Asia in recent years".

"The turmoil is the outcome of Hanoi's years of anti-China propaganda," it said. "Without legitimate grounds and practical capability, Vietnam fabricates and hypes up its jurisdiction over the Xisha and Nansha islands [AKA the Paracel and Spratly islands]. This uncompromising stance, in an attempt to bring its people together, has actually cornered itself."

China's tourism administration has posted a note to its website urging Vietnam-bound tourists to "carefully consider" their plans.

Taiwan's ministry of foreign affairs plans to print thousands of stickers saying "I am from Taiwan" in Vietnamese and English and distribute them to local Taiwanese business owners, to help them avoid the wrath of anti-China mobs. A ministry spokesperson confirmed the plan, but added that the stickers have not yet been distributed.

In 2012 Chinese authorities permitted large-scale anti-Japan protests amid rising tensions between the two countries over competing territorial claims in the East China Sea. Protesters in cities across the country vandalised Japanese shops and smashed Japanese-made cars before authorities ordered them to disperse.

China's propaganda authorities are censoring coverage of the protests, according to a leaked circular obtained by the online magazine China Digital Times. "Absolutely do not report on any news related to 'Chinese-funded enterprises in Vietnam being attacked by Vietnamese,'" it said. "Do not republish foreign coverage."

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