President Bounnhang Vorachith has given credentials to Seng to perform his duties in Thailand, the report said.

Bounnhang congratulated Seng over the appoinment, and Seng thanked the government for entrusting him with the task. He promised to carry out his duties to the best of his abilities.

If Sokha is found guilty, his party could be dissolved based on new legislation that prevents party leaders from holding a criminal conviction.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman Ly Sophanna said prosecutors had sufficient evidence to charge the opposition leader under Article 443 of the Criminal Code for “conspiring with [a] foreign power”. The charge carries a prison term of 15 to 30 years.

“Kem Sokha, head of Cambodia National Rescue Party, was arrested by police for committing [a] red-handed crime related to a secret plan and the activities of conspiracy between Kem Sokha and foreigners, which causes chaos and affects the Kingdom of Cambodia,” a court statement read.

The statement alleges that the “secret plan” has been carried out since 1993 until present, as purportedly revealed in a 2013 video.

Sokha was arrested midnight Sunday after the video – in which he claims to have received US assistance in planning his political career – resurfaced online. He was questioned for more than four hours on Monday at Tbong Khmum’s Correctional Centre 3 by a team of three Phnom Penh prosecutors.

Article 80 of the Cambodian Constitution grants immunity to lawmakers unless they are caught “red-handed”, which defence lawyer Pheng Heng said wasn’t the case in Sokha’s arrest, which was based on a four-year-old publicly available speech.

“At midnight the police cannot simply go inside the house, unless they hear a sound asking for help,” he said.

National Assembly spokesman Leng Peng Long said they would convene a meeting about Sokha’s immunity “as soon as possible”.

“But red-handed crimes don’t require us to strip off the immunity in advance,” he said.

Kem Monovithya, the deputy public affairs officer for the CNRP and Sokha’s daughter, reiterated the party’s decision not to replace Sokha as party head, regardless of the consequences.

“[T]here is no point for anyone to assume the leadership role when they know they will be placed in prison or forced to be a puppet just to have a meaningless opposition to legitimize the upcoming election,” she said via message.

Earlier this year, a new law was passed giving the Supreme Court the power to dissolve parties if their leaders have been convicted of a crime. The law was used to oust Sokha’s predecessor, Sam Rainsy, who was subject to numerous politically tinged convictions.

Yesterday, Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak appeared to go a step further, saying the party faced dissolution if they even defended Sokha. This, he said, would apply at all political levels.

“The commune, district, provincial and municipal councils, and the senators will be gone as well,” he said. “If the party gets dissolved, nothing remains.”

CNRP Deputy President Mu Sochua, however, rejected the charges against Sokha outright.

“It’s a set-up, totally political scenario,” she said. “[Sokha] has always preached nonviolence, peace and democracy.”

She acknowledged that failing to appoint a new president could lead to the CNRP’s dissolution “any day”, which she said would be a blow to democracy, as they had been elected by their voters to represent them.

“I want to serve them with my full ability,” she said.

Fellow Deputy President Pol Ham said the party had no plans to protest to “defend” Sokha.

“It is good if they dissolve the party since I also want to retire . . . I want to go to the pagoda since I am old now,” he said.

Meanwhile, lawyer Heng said all defence lawyers were denied access to Sokha yesterday, but would request his transfer to Phnom Penh.

“The guards said they cannot allow the lawyers to meet him unless the prosecution orders the chairman of the prison [to allow it],” he said.

Lawyers have not been informed whether Sokha was questioned by the investigating judge.

While Sokha’s wife, Te Chanmono, was allowed to meet him, she was not permitted to bring him medication, Heng said.

According to Sochua, Sokha suffers diabetes and requires daily medicine.

Kingsley Abbott, of the International Commission of Jurists, said in an email that the “allegations against Kem Sokha have all the hallmarks of being politically motivated”, which made a fair trial almost impossible. “The single largest challenge facing the Cambodian justice system is the lack of independent and impartial judges and prosecutors,” Abbott said, adding this arrest came during a period of “rapidly deteriorating” human rights.

“The Government appears to be systematically neutralizing dissenting voices ahead of the next election, including political opponents, human rights defenders, civil society and the free media.”

The Cambodian Broadcasting Network, which carried the interview that landed opposition leader Kem Sokha behind bars, shuttered its Phnom Penh offices on Monday, according to CBN President Cameron Sar.

Sar made no bones about the closure being linked to fears over the current heated political climate, particularly with regards to independent media. The closure of the Australian-based media network’s Cambodia office, staffed by volunteers, comes on the heels of the shutdown of the Cambodia Daily and at least 15 independent radio stations – not to mention Sokha’s midnight arrest for “treason” after a 2013 speech was circulated on social media.

“This is an old video clip that CBN filmed a long time ago,” Sar said in a message.

“This is a way they just wanted to catch him and also blame on the news channel. One blow to hit two animals”

Sar said CBN would remain closed in Cambodia at least until next year. “Our members are frightened there . . . Now people inside Cambodia are all scared to speak up,” he said.

The offending video clip of Sokha is 13 minutes long – one in a four-part series – but an edited version with English subtitles and chords from John Lennon’s Imagine was swiftly released by the Press and Quick Reaction Unit (PQRU) as an explanation for Sokha’s arrest.

In it, two segments of the longer video have been spliced together. Sokha says he has visited the US at the government’s request every year since 1993 to learn about the “democratisation process” and that “they decided” he should step aside from politics to create change in Cambodia.

“They said if we want to change the leadership, we cannot fight the top. Before changing the top level, we need to uproot the lower one. We need to change the lower level first. It is a political strategy in a democratic country,” he said.

“And, the USA that has assisted me, they asked me to take the model from Yugoslavia, Serbia, where they can changed the dictator Slobodan Milosevic,” he continues, referring to the former Serbian and Yugoslavian leader who resigned amid popular protests following disputed elections, and died while on trial for war crimes.

“You know Milosevic had a huge numbers of tanks. But they changed things by using this strategy, and they take this experience for me to implement in Cambodia. But no one knew about this.”

“However, since we are now reaching at this stage, today I must tell you about this strategy. We will have more to continue and we will succeed.”

The PQRU clip then skips three minutes, in which Sokha talks about “not making noise” and avoiding self-destructive violence. During the excised segment, he also appears to distance himself from the Serbian approach.

“Some people said, ‘Why do you wait, because so many people support you and you can continue your protest?’ Yes we know, but I ask whether we should take our head to hit against a tank?”

The PQRU video, however, picks back up with the lines: “I do not do anything at my own will. Their experts, professors at universities in Washington, DC, Montreal, Canada, hired by the Americans in order to advise me on the strategy to change the dictator leader in Cambodia.”

Though the government’s video appeared to equate the statements with treason, Grassroots Democracy Party spokesman Sam Inn said he had seen only seen a short, edited version of Sokha’s speech, and “even in the short video there is no clear indication about treason”.

While Sokha seemed to paint himself as “chosen” by the West, Inn said there was “nothing wrong” with grassroots activism.

“This is a part of democratic process,” he said. “To me it is normal for some people to advise him how to mobilise the people in an effective way.”

(Additional reporting by Chhay Channyda and Mech Dara)

Yangon – Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday alleged a “huge iceberg of misinformation” was distorting the picture of the Rohingya crisis, which has forced 125,000 of the Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh.

In her first comments since Rohingya militant attacks sparked unrest on August 25, Suu Kyi said fake news was “calculated to create a lot of problems between different communities” and to promote “the interest of the terrorists”.

Her intervention, quoted on the Facebook page of her State Counsellor’s office, followed a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has led the global chorus of condemnation of a Myanmar army crackdown on the Rohingya.

Suu Kyi decried the “fake information” spread on Twitter last week by the Turkish deputy prime minister who shared photos purporting to be dead Rohingya that were later proven not to relate to the current crisis.

“Terrorism is new (for Myanmar) but the Government will do its best to make sure that this does not expand and spread all over Rakhine,” she was quoted as saying.

Hundreds have died since Rohingya militants raided police posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Over 60,000 homes have been torched and there has been an exodus of Rohingya — who are reviled in Myanmar and denied citizenship — across the border into Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has come under intense pressure over her refusal to speak out against the treatment of the Rohingya or chastise the military.

Analysts say her obduracy despite the years of pressure from rights groups is a sop to the still powerful army and surging Buddhist nationalism in the Southeast Asian country.//AFP

Meeting in the capital of Maldives, representatives of health ministries in the 11 countries signed the Male Declaration, which commits members to prepare for and deal with impacts on public health stemming from climate change.

The agreement is non-binding, however.

The committee, abbreviated as WHO Searo, was holding its 70th session. The members are Maldives, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and North Korea.

Dr Thamarangsi Thaksaphon, the committee’s director for Noncommunicable Diseases and Environmental Health, said the declaration encourages member-nations to put in place prevention-and-preparation measures for health challenges expected to become more common and intensify as global temperatures rise.

Thamarangsi explained that hotter climate would help extend the range of some tropical diseases, such as malaria and dengue, into higher attitudes and cooler regions.

The health hazards anticipated include a higher mortality rate related to heat stress, more diarrheal diseases, respiratory illnesses and malnutrition, and greater chance of injury as natural disasters become more frequent.

He said the Male Declaration could help bring about “climate-resilient health improvements” by making the regional healthcare system better prepared to manage new threats.

It also encourages member-countries to share information and learn from each other.

She said they will continue to discuss with Bangladesh what sort of support Indonesia can provide to put an end to the crisis.

“This humanitarian crisis should be ended,” the visiting Indonesian foreign minister said while briefing media at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka wrapping up her 10-hour visit here.

Earlier, Retno held meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Bangladesh counterpart AH Mahmood Ali.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has submitted a proposal to Myanmar named ‘Formula 4 + 1’ for Rakhine State to restore peace and allowing immediate access to humanitarian assistance there, reports UNB.

These four elements consist of (i) restoring stability and security; (ii) maximum restraint and non-violence; (iii) protection to all persons in the Rakhine State, regardless of race and religion; and (iv) the importance of immediate access to humanitarian assistance.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi had a meeting with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar’s capital on Monday and placed the proposal.

“The first four elements are the main elements that must be done immediately so that the crisis of humanity and security does not worsen,” explained the Indonesian Foreign Minister.

Another element is of importance for the recommendation of the Advisory Panel Report for the Rakhine State headed by Kofi Annan which she suggested implementing immediately.

The Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs at the meeting also expressed the concern and high commitment of Indonesian Humanitarian NGO to Myanmar.

In this regard, she said it has just launched the Humanitarian Alliance of Indonesia for Myanmar (AKIM) on August 31.

The Alliance consists of 11 humanitarian organizations, which prioritise its assistance on four issues, namely (i) education; (ii) health; (iii) livelihood (economy); and (iv) relief. The assistance commitments given by the Alliance amounted to US 2 million.

“I hope that the government of Myanmar can continue granting access to AKIM as it has been with the government of Indonesia in implementing several programmes,” the Indonesian Foreign Minister was quoted as saying in a text UNB obtained on Tuesday.

Terming Rohingya refugees as a burden of the country, Quader said the government is undertaking diplomatic efforts to stop the influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh.

“We are considering the Rohingya crisis on the humanitarian ground. We are undertaking diplomatic efforts to stop the pushing-in Rohingyas to Bangladesh,” Quader told reporters after visiting ailing Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League President Kader Siddique at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University this noon.

He said a terrible situation has already been created on bordering area over the Rohingya issue and it is not possible for the government to cope up with the influx of the Rohingya refugees.

He said the government is talking with international organisations including UN Human Rights Council to put an end to the crisis.

Besides, Health Minister Mohammad Nasim blamed the Myanmar for carrying out inhuman killing spree on Rohingyas in a bid to eliminate them from the state and said it is totally unacceptable.

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel laureate in peace and she should take back the Rohingya refugees after solving her country’s internal crisis immediately.

The Awami League leader also called upon the United Nations to come forward to ensure a peaceful end to the Rohingya refugees crisis.

Nasim was also talking to reporters at the BSMMU after inquiring the health condition of Kader Siddique.

Business leaders, unions, religious groups, opposition Democrats and many within Trump’s own ruling Republican party joined forces to criticize the phased end of protections for people who arrived in the United States under the age of 16.

So-called “Dreamers” — many Hispanic, now in their twenties — will have somewhere between six and around 24 months before they become illegal and subject to potential deportation.

“This is the only country I know,” said Ivan Ceja, a 26-year-old computer science student and immigrant rights advocate who arrived in the country as a baby.

“My future is here. I’m not going to go without a fight.”

Trump later insisted he had “great heart for the folks we are talking about, a great love for them” and called on Congress to pass wide-ranging immigration reform — something lawmakers have tried and failed to do for decades.

“I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act,” he said.

Trump had argued that the amnesty introduced by Barack Obama in 2012 was an unconstitutional overreach of presidential powers and would likely be struck down by the courts eventually.

Amid a smattering of street protests across the country, the announcement prompted ex-president Obama to make a rare re-entry onto the political stage to decry the decision as “wrong,” “self-defeating” and “cruel.”

“Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question,” Obama said.

– ‘Fair to American families’ –

===============================

Around 800,000 people took up the offer to get two-year renewable permits under the DACA scheme, but a similar number opted to stay in the shadows largely because of uncertainty over policy once Obama left office.

Trump, who ran for office on a hard-right immigration and law and order platform, painted his decision as an effort to put natural-born Americans first.

“Before we ask what is fair to illegal immigrants, we must also ask what is fair to American families, students, taxpayers and jobseekers,” he said.

Senior Department of Homeland Security officials admitted that the addresses and other sensitive information provided by current permit holders would be kept on record indefinitely.

But, one official said, there was “no plan at this time” to specifically target recipients for deportation.

We will fight

Texas, which led a coalition of 10 conservative states threatening court action against the federal government unless DACA was rescinded, said it was dropping a 2015 lawsuit that provided the basis for its legal challenge — with Attorney General Ken Paxton claiming “victory.”

But elsewhere, Trump’s decision was met with broad opprobrium.

The Mexican government, mayors from across the US and the Service Employees International Union were among those who issued statements of condemnation.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops called the decision “reprehensible” and said “today, our nation has done the opposite of how Scripture calls us to respond.”

Opponents hinted that they may challenge Trump’s decision in the courts.

“We warned you not to threaten our neighbors, @realDonaldTrump. New York City will fight to defend our Dreamers,” said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Even Trump allies in business and the Republican Party voiced concern, arguing the policy would damage the economy and was not in keeping with US values.

“To reverse course now and deport these individuals is contrary to fundamental American principles and the best interests of our country,” the American Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.

“With approximately 700,000 DACA recipients working for all sorts of businesses across the country, terminating their employment eligibility runs contrary to the president’s goal of growing the US economy.”

Much of the business world, especially the high-tech firms of California’s Silicon Valley, stood firmly against a DACA repeal. The program offers the equivalent of a renewable residence permit to young people who were under the age of 16 when they arrived and have no criminal record.

Top congressional Republican Paul Ryan called on lawmakers to step in — although the chances of a badly divided Congress reaching a long-elusive agreement on immigration reform in months appear dim.

“It is my hope that the House and Senate, with the president’s leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country,” Ryan said.

On the sideline of the summit in Xiamen, Prayut met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday to discuss cooperation in various fields, notably regional connectivity overland and along the Mekong River.

Xi said China appreciated Thailand’s active participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, and was willing to strengthen cooperation with Thailand in areas of investment, railways, Internet finance, digital economy and e-commerce.

In this context, Prayut and Xi witnessed the signing of four pacts, including the Bt3.5-billion design and supervision contracts for the Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima high-speed rail line, a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on the One Belt One Road Initiative and an action plan on a strategic partnership.

Prior to Prayut’s visit to China, the Cabinet approved the content of the contracts, including an increase in the rail budget from Bt1.6 billion to Bt3.5 billion, according to Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith.

Thailand would ask China to begin a survey and study the second phase of the railway to connect Nakhon Ratchasima and Nong Khai, in order to link Thailand and Laos by 2022, Arkhom said after the signing in Xiamen.

Meanwhile, Prayut said Thailand was willing to maintain high-level contacts with China, deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation, consolidate political trust, expand economic and trade exchanges, promote mutual investment, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and strengthen cooperation in such fields as education, scientific research and infrastructure.

Thailand supported and would actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and the Lancang-Mekong cooperation agreement, he said.

The signing of contracts on the railway project was the highlight of Prayut’s visit to China, with observers saying that his invitation to attend the summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) was a reward for the contracts.

Beijing did not invite Prayut to its Belt and Road forum in May. He was among three Asean leaders – with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah – not on the guest list.