An article about how the Burmese military junta earns millions on mining and selling rubies that end up in European and Asian jewelers' hands.

In this policy research working paper, the World Bank aims to examine the resulting impact of climate change on hydropower projects. Three projects are considered: India, Sri Lanka, and
Vietnam.

This summary paper is based on an assignment from DFID and the World Bank, in consultation with the State Ministry of Environment in Indonesia, to compile data and information that reflects the most updated state of knowledge of Climate Change in Indonesia.

This report from Foreign Policy in Focus draws numerous parallels between the US policies and experiences in Iraq and Vietnam.

Amnesty International reports on the conditions of daily life in Myanmar (Burma). It says that forced labour, forced relocation, denial of citizenship and imprisonment for political offences are common.

Two years ago the Asian tsunami devastated the Indonesian province of Aceh. A huge amount of rebuilding has been done but thousands of the poorest Acehnese families have yet to be re-housed; the wave washed away their land and also many documents showing who owned land in Aceh. According to this report from the development charity Oxfam the question of who owns what land is now an urgent issue that must be solved if Acehnese society is to be rebuilt on a secure footing.

Many Asian countries (such as China, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines) will experience a significant aging of their populations during the next several decades. This paper from the IMF explores how these aging Asian countries are addressing and anticipating the challenges of an aging society. It suggests that Asia's preparedness for an aging population is decidedly mixed. While growth policies have been successful, much work is still needed in many countries to establish an adequate and farsighted policy framework in the areas of pensions, health insurance, and labor market policies.

This paper from The Stanley Foundation is a report from the 47th annual Strategy for Peace Conference, held in October 2006. It argues that since the end of the Vietnam War, Southeast Asia has often been viewed as secondary to vital US interests. However, in a post-Cold War world that is increasingly shaped by rising powers and nonstate actors, what was previously marginal has become pivotal. After September 11, 2001, both Islamic fundamentalists and the United States identified Southeast Asia as a “second front.” Southeast Asia has also emerged as a crossroads between status quo powers—the United States, Japan —and the rising powers of China and India .

A collection of non-governmental organizations, led by Friends of the Earth, has published " How the World Bank's Energy Framework Sells the Climate and Poor People Short ." 

This Human Rights Watch report describes the Jakarta regional government’s excessive use of force to clear out urban slums. It draws on numerous evictees’ accounts of government security forces beating or mistreating them before destroying their homes and possessions. Many residents say they were given so little warning before their homes were razed that they did not have enough time to collect their belongings. Others describe how security forces opened fire on communities and set buildings alight while people were still inside. The government of Jakarta justifies many of the evictions by claiming it is trying to ensure public order, remove trespassers from private or state land, or clear land for infrastructure projects. However, the government has used excessive force to conduct the evictions and failed to provide alternative housing or other assistance to the displaced.

In this report Amnesty International documents an increased number of killings of political activists in the Philippines, predominately those associated with leftist or left-orientated groups. The attacks, mostly carried out by unidentified men who shoot the victims before escaping on motorcycles, have very rarely led to the arrest, prosecution and punishment of those responsible. Amnesty International believes that the killings constitute a pattern and that a continuing failure to deliver justice to the victims represents a failure by the Government of the Philippines to fulfil its obligation to protect the right to life of every individual in its jurisdiction.

A National Magazine Award nominee for excellence in Columns and Commentary, this article explains how Agent Orange has poisoned now a third generation.

This Human Rights Watch report documents how the Malaysian government has detained criminal suspects indefinitely without charge or trial, subjected them to beatings and ill treatment while in detention, and rearrested them upon court-ordered release. The Emergency Ordinance was enacted in 1969 as a “temporary measure” to respond to ethnic riots. But for nearly four decades the government has used the law to detain criminal suspects without trial for lengthy periods when it finds it difficult to prosecute them.

This critical report from the East-West Center looks at the operation of the UN tribunal in East Timor that sought to achieve accountability for the violence associated with the 1999 vote for independence. The report argues that the East Timor tribunal represents a virtual textbook case of how not to create, manage, and administer a "hybrid" justice process. Problems included a lack of resources, an unclear mandate, inadequate recruitment, ineffective management by a peacekeeping mission that had other priorities, and a lack of political will both at UN headquarters and at the mission level. The report argues that it is particularly important to assess the failings for the East Timor trials as the UN risks repeating some of the same mistakes in Cambodia.

Drawing on the Aceh peace process that resulted in the Helsinki agreement, this study from the East West Center investigates the possibility of a peace process to resolve the conflict over the political status of Papua vis-à-vis Indonesia. After presenting essential features of the Papua conflict, the study discusses the key actors, explores who should be brought into the peace process, what are the issues of contention, and how they may be packaged for dialogue. It also explores the possible roles of the international community.

This study from the East-West Center analyzes the ongoing conflicts in southern Thailand and southern Philippines between indigenous Muslim minorities and their respective central governments.

This study from the East-West Center evaluates the state of military reform eight years after the end of authoritarian rule in Indonesia, pointing to both significant achievements and serious shortcomings.

The Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard Medical School discusses the health, ecological, and economic dimensions of climate change in this report.

Recent deadly clashes between Papuans and Indonesian police, protests against an American copper and gold mining company, and Australia’s controversial granting of asylum to a group of Papuan refugees have brought the issue of autonomy for the remote province of Papua to international attention.