S Korea's Roh plunges to his death
　

UNDER PRESSURE: Police were investigating the death of the former South Korean president, who apparently left a suicide note apologizing for causing 'so much trouble'

AFP, SEOUL
Sunday, May 24, 2009, Page 1
　

Former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, who was at the center of a multimillion-dollar corruption probe, plunged to his death off a mountainside yesterday in an apparent suicide.

Police said they were investigating whether Roh, who held office from 2003 through last year, killed himself. A former aide said the ex-leader jumped off a cliff after leaving a suicide note.

Roh, 62, had left home around dawn with a bodyguard and climbed a mountain near his retirement village of Bongha close to the southeast coast.

“He jumped off a rock on the mountain at 6:40am,” former chief presidential secretary Moon Jae-in told journalists. “He left a short suicide note addressed to his family members.”

Police in Gyeongsangnam province confirmed a suicide note was found on Roh's computer at his home. A hospital in the southern city of Busan said he was pronounced dead from massive head injuries at 9:30am.

“It has been so tough,” local media quoted the suicide note as saying. “I caused so much trouble to many people.

“Please cremate my body. Please erect a small tombstone for me at the village,” the note said.

A shocked South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak described the death as a national tragedy.

“It is truly hard to believe what happened. It is a sad, tragic incident,” he was quoted by his spokesman as saying.

Roh, a former human rights lawyer, was credited with working to make his nation more democratic and less authoritarian.

He also doggedly pursued reconciliation with communist North Korea despite its 2006 nuclear and missile tests, holding a landmark summit with leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 2007.

Critics said the South gave the North too much for too little in return. A relatively sluggish economic performance, high youth unemployment and soaring property prices also undermined Roh's popularity.

And Roh's reputation as a clean leader was tarnished when he was questioned by prosecutors last month as a suspect in the corruption probe — the third former leader to be quizzed on graft charges after leaving office.

The investigation centered around a payment of US$1 million to Roh's wife from a wealthy shoe manufacturer, and a payment by the same man of US$5 million to the husband of one of Roh's nieces.

Prosecutors had said they were considering issuing an arrest warrant.

Roh had apologized for his family's involvement in the case but had not admitted personal wrongdoing.

“I feel ashamed before my fellow citizens,” he said at the time. “I am sorry to have disappointed you.”

Kim Dae-jung, Roh's predecessor as president, expressed “great shock and sorrow,” an aide said.

“I've lost my life-long companion, with whom I took part in struggles for democracy and shared 10 years of a democratic government,” Kim said.

“Allegations concerning his family members have been leaked to the press every day,” Kim said. “He was probably unable to bear the pressure and tensions any longer.”

Roh's body was taken in convoy to his retirement village where aides said the funeral would be held. Uniformed police lined the route out of the hospital.

Hundreds of Roh's supporters and lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party, who gathered at the village, denounced prosecutors for what they called an “unreasonable and indiscriminate” investigation into the Roh family, Yonhap news agency reported.

They also expressed anger at media organizations for what they termed biased reporting.

Some 800 supporters gathered at an altar outside Deoksu palace in central Seoul. Mourners, some sobbing, laid flowers before a large photo and burnt incense.

PRC erodes rights abroad: forum
　

SELLING OUT?: One-time CCP official Ruan Ming, who went into exile in the 1980s, said US economists were more interested in profits than promoting human rights
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, May 24, 2009, Page 3
　

China’s emergence as a new economic power may be threatening human rights and freedom in other countries, speakers at the International Human Rights Forum in Taipei said yesterday.

“Twenty years ago, the world condemned the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] regime for its crackdown on the Tiananmen Square demonstrations,” said former presidential adviser Ruan Ming (阮銘), a one-time CCP official who was forced into exile in the late 1980s for promoting political reform.

“Now things are a little different, with Beijing and Wall Street working to bring a new economic order to the world: China makes the merchandise and Wall Street invests,” Ruan told the forum, hosted by the Memorial Foundation of 228.

Ruan said US economists were increasingly interested in the profits to be made by investing in China, while overlooking human rights abuses there.

“In fact, in addition to exporting goods, the CCP is also exporting ideas against human rights, freedom and democracy,” he said, citing as examples China’s support of the authoritarian regimes in North Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iran and Cuba.

“This crisis of democracy is not just a crisis for Taiwan, but for the entire world,” he said.

Exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) said “the CCP is trying to tell the world that the economy is more important than remembering Tiananmen Square.”

“It’s the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square [Massacre], yet no one seems to care much,” he said. “This is especially apparent in Taiwan.”

He called on Taiwanese to support Chinese democracy activists in countering the CCP regime.

For many, “human rights” and “freedom” are abstract concepts, World Uyghur Congress president Rabiye Kadeer said.

They think they will never have to face political persecution as long as they do not participate in political activities, but an authoritarian government can affect all aspects of life and even destroy an entire people, she said.

“Over the past 60 years since China occupied East Turkestan [also known as Xinjiang], its violation of the Uighurs’ civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights has never stopped,” Rabiye said in a statement.

She was unable to attend yesterday’s forum because it conflicted with a World Uyghur Congress meeting in Washington.

“While Chinese immigrants continue to pour into East Turkestan, the Uighurs are faced with the crisis of becoming a minority in our own land and [watching our] culture die out,” the statement said.

“Uighurs are arrested for no reason, religious practices are banned. We face discrimination in terms of economic activities and education and we’re even discouraged from using our language,” it said.

Political commentator Paul Lin (林保華), another panelist at the forum, said that in 1954, Uighurs accounted for 75 percent of the population in Xinjiang, but today are believed to make up less than 50 percent of the population.

Lin said that studies in Japan indicated that China’s nuclear tests in Xinjiang had killed more than 190,000 Uighurs, while affecting the health of another 1.3 million locals and 270,000 Japanese tourists who have visited the region.

“China often accuses the Uighurs of being terrorists, but I wonder who the real terrorists are,” Lin said.

The costs of China’s ‘internal affairs’ kick
　

By Mattel Hsu 許建榮
Sunday, May 24, 2009, Page 8

‘China has also repeatedly vetoed humanitarian aid at the Security Council based on the same old claim.’

Founded in 1976, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led an armed insurgency to create a Tamil state independent from the rest of Sri Lanka and its Sinhalese majority. Apart from having an army, a navy and an air force, the LTTE also had an autonomous government and territory. Although it was declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, and late leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was seen as a dictator, quite a few Western countries sympathized with the Tamils.

When the Sri Lankan government planned to launch the final strike against the group early this month, some Western countries called for mediation. But saying the strike was a matter of Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, government troops defeated the group and, on May 16, killed Prabhakaran.

Still, everyone seems to have ignored the significance of this operation and its connection to China. To deal with the Sri Lankan civil war, the UN had planned to send an investigation team early this year when it called for a ceasefire and peace talks. It also requested that the Sri Lankan government allow humanitarian aid organizations to enter the country, but all such requests were denied. Meanwhile, China opposed the requests at the UN Security Council, saying the situation was an internal Sri Lankan affair.

The fact is, however, that China provided the weapons used by Sri Lankan troops in this long civil war. While the international community was calling for mediation, China encouraged and even supported the Sri Lankan government’s military crackdown on the LTTE, and India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram strongly condemned Beijing for doing so on April 25.

The notorious military government of Myanmar also gets its weapons from China. When the military government slaughtered dissidents in the past, Beijing also vetoed UN mediation and relief at the Security Council, arguing that the UN should not interfere with Myanmar’s internal affairs.

As for the Darfur genocide in Sudan, a human catastrophe in which more than 400,000 people have died, China offered the Sudanese government weapons in exchange for its oil resources. China has also repeatedly vetoed humanitarian aid at the Security Council based on the same old claim that the issue is a matter of Sudan’s internal affairs.

Under the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Taiwan is giving the world the impression that it recognizes itself as a local government of China. For example, Taiwan was only able to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer because China told the WHO Secretariat to invite it. Regardless of what title Taiwan uses, the invitation has become a matter of China’s internal affairs because the invitation was not extended by the WHA. Given these circumstances, one can but wonder what will happen to Taiwan if China one day attacks it?

Just think of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Darfur. In the eyes of the international community, maybe the Taiwan issue is nothing but a matter of China’s internal affairs.

Mattel Hsu is a doctoral ­candidate in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University, Australia.