Asia News

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By Dan Russell
JAPAN:
Earlier this week over thirteen hundred local people in the area affected by the nuclear disaster following last year’s tsunami filled a complaint that thirty-three executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and government officials should be criminally prosecuted.
Among those named was the chairman of TEPCO, Tsunehisa Katsumata.
They characterized the aftermath of the tsunami as a heinous corporate crime and that TEPCO and government officials failed to properly prepare the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for such a predictable event in quake prone Japan. The lack of preparation and the delay in reporting information on the spread of radiation unnecessarily exposed the local communities to dangerous radiation and took away their right to live in the now quarantined areas. They claim in the complaint that these actions led to the terrible toll in deaths and injuries.
PHILIPPINES:
Philippines boxing hero Manny Pacquiao had not lost a match in the past 7 years until Monday’s controversial loss to American Timothy Bradley in Las Vegas. Even though Pacquiao appeared to most observers to dominate the 12 round match, the judges awarded it to Bradley. The decision has created a wave of shock amongst boxing fans in the Philippines.
The fight was watched by masses of Filipinos in the many venues in which it was carried. During the fight streets across the country were practically empty. With the rest of the world declaring the Pacquiao loss a sham, it is no surprise that the Filipinos deem his loss to be a “fix”. He is a national hero and a lieutenant colonel in the Philippine Army Reserve Command.
MYANMAR:
On Monday, The United Nations announced that it has begun to remove its workers from the western Myanmar state of Rakhine. Myanmar president Thein Sein issued a state of emergency on Sunday following indications of the spread of riots and disturbances in that area of Myanmar. According to local media, violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine has resulted in the death of over 17 people.
The UN had information from its workers that it was becoming impossible to work in that area and has started to move its staff for safety reasons.
President Sein has been working hard to move Myanmar towards democratization and has made efforts to reconcile the differences between ethnic groups.
VIETNAM:
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was in Vietnam last week to try to persuade them to let the U.S. use their ports for some of our military vessels. He spoke aboard a U.S. Navy ship harbored in Cam Ranh Bay. Following the Vietnam War various countries have been allowed to use this deep water bay. France, America and Russia have each used it in succession, but none has been allowed there over the last 10 years.
He is the first Defense Secretary to visit Vietnam since the war ended almost 40 years ago. The U.S. has remained neutral in the warmly contested South China Sea, but is ready to put more emphasis on the part of the world. He announced at a conference in Singapore in early June that about 60% of American warships would be based in the Pacific region by 2012.
China is watching these moves with great concern. The U.S. says its interest is freedom of navigation in the region, but China’s notion of such freedom of navigation and the U.S. position are different.