June 2006 in Southeast Asia
This page deals with events that took place in or are of interest to Southeast Asia and/or events that involved its citizens.
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30 June 2006 (Friday)
29 June 2006 (Thursday)
- New Brazilian ambassador to Cambodia H.E Edgard Telles Ribeiro meets Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. (TVK)
28 June 2006 (Wednesday)
27 June 2006 (Tuesday)
26 June 2006 (Monday)
25 June 2006 (Sunday)
24 June 2006 (Saturday)
23 June 2006 (Friday)
- The World Bank Group says it has found evidence of corruption on an additional four development projects in Cambodia. This makes for a total of seven suspect projects, involving 43 contracts worth US$11.9 million. (AP)
- Laos' bid to turn itself into the "battery of the region" is well under way with the building of the US$1.25 billion Nam Theun II dam. It is the first dam backed by the World Bank Group since the mid-1990s and will eventually feed a power-hungry Thailand. It could net the Lao government $2 billion in its first 25 years of use. (IHT) (Reuters)
- The continuing Singapore police investigation of a blogger who posted cartoons mocking Jesus Christ draws fire from Reporters Without Borders. (AFP)
- Thailand's biggest sugar exporter, Mitr Phol Sugar, announces it will spend 900 million baht over the next two years on a sugarcane plantation in Laos to boost its production amid a crop shortage in Thailand. (Business Day).
22 June 2006 (Thursday)
- French authorities say oil company Total S.A. has been cleared of charges it used forced labour in Myanmar after an out-of-court settlement caused the prosecution's two-year-old case to collapse. (AFP)
21 June 2006 (Wednesday)
20 June 2006 (Tuesday)
19 June 2006 (Monday)
18 June 2006 (Sunday)
17 June 2006 (Saturday)
16 June 2006 (Friday)
15 June 2006 (Thursday)
- The South Thailand insurgency flares up again as a massive series of bomb attacks are carried out in Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, hitting at least 40 targets, killing two people and injuring at least 25. (The Nation)
- Images have been obtained of a live Laotian rock rat, a living fossil believed to be the sole survivor of an ancient group of rodents once thought to be extinct. The kha-nyou, as it is known in Laos, was trapped by an expedition in May, near the village of Doy, close to the Thai border. (BBC)
- The death from bird flu of a 7-year-old girl Indonesian girl earlier this month is confirmed, bringing the country's death toll from the H5N1 virus to at least 38. (Jakarta Post)
- Indonesian soldiers wearing heat-retardant clothes dig through volcanic debris on Mount Merapi in central Java in an effort to reach two people trapped in an underground emergency shelter. The fierce heat melts the shovels and the tires on a mechanical digger. The rescue is abandoned but will be continued on Friday. (Jakarta Post)
- Cherie Blair loses a final appeal Federal Court in Putrajaya to be allowed to represent Fauziah Holdings Sdn Bhd in its case against Metramac Corporation Sdn Bhd. (The Times)
14 June 2006 (Wednesday)
- Abu Bakar Bashir, spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, is released from Cipinang prison in Jakarta after serving 26 months for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombing. (Jakarta Post)
- Human Rights Watch releases a report that says Vietnamese authorities have detained, interrogated and tortured Degar (Montagnard) refugees and asylum seekers who have returned to Vietnam from UNHCR camps in Cambodia. (Reuters)
- Starting in July, Vietnam will crack down on karaoke, banning patrons from drinking spirits, imposing fines for public drunkenness and limiting the number of servers to one person per room to discourage prostitution. (Thanh Nien News)
- Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong meets Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Canberra for talks on trade and security issues. Ties between the two countries have turned frosty over Australia's refusal to allow Singapore Airlines to fly a route between Australia and the United States and Singapore's hanging execution of Nguyen Tuong Van, a Vietnamese-Australian man convicted of smuggling heroin. (IHT)
- Police are searching for a gunman who fatally shot two Thai men after the gunman complaining the two men were cheering too loudly while watching the World Cup match between Italy and Ghana at a restaurant in Pattaya. (Pattaya Daily News)
- A cloud of superheated gas from Mount Merapi volcano in central Java travels 6.5 km from its peak, nearly enveloping a village, prompting authorities to raise the alert status and sending 1,000 people fleeing. (Jakarta Post)
- Cherie Blair appears in Federal Court in Putrajaya to appeal the court's refusal to allow her to represent Fauziah Holdings Sdn Bhd in its case against Metramac Corporation Sdn Bhd. She first sits at the counsel’s bench but is advised to take a seat in the public gallery. (The Star) (The Guardian)
13 June 2006 (Tuesday)
- Royalty from 24 nations take part in a banquet at the Grand Palace as part of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 60th Anniversary Celebrations. It is the first official function in the new Rama IX Throne Hall, an extension of the Chakri Throne Hall built by King Chulalongkorn. (TNA)
- A group calling itself Taong Bayan at Kawal, or Masses and Soldiers, claims for an early-morning bomb blast at a police headquarters in Manila, as well as earlier blasts at Manila office building on June 6, an explosion outside the home of an ally of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last week and two simultaneous bomb blasts in police stations on June 11. The group denies it was behind a bombing in Lipa City that injured nine people on June 11. (AFP)
- Cambodia's government demands the World Bank Group give "detailed reason and evidence" about why it suspended three development projects amid allegations of fraud and corruption and asked that Cambodia return US$1.7 million. (AP)
12 June 2006 (Monday)
11 June 2006 (Sunday)
10 June 2006 (Saturday)
9 June 2006 (Friday)
8 June 2006 (Thursday)
7 June 2006 (Wednesday)
- Hot gas and molten lava from Mount Merapi volcano in central Java force the evacuation of three thousand people. The volcanic activity threatens to overshadow relief efforts in the Java earthquake, which left 5,855 dead and more than four hundred thousand people homeless. (AP) (AFP)
- The World Bank Group says Cambodia must repay 7.6 million USD in development funds that were mishandled. (BBC)
- Thailand authorities open the Football Gambling Suppression Centre in an effort to nab bookmakers during the FIFA World Cup. (TNA)
- Royal Thai Army Commander-in-Chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin says he agrees with the National Reconciliation Commission proposal for unarmed peacekeeping forces in the South Thailand insurgency. Meanwhile, two soldiers are killed in a bomb blast and ambush in Yala Province. (The Nation) (TNA)
- Prince Andrew, Duke of York is the first royal guest to arrive in Thailand to attend 60th anniversary celebrations of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's accession to the throne. (ABC)
- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomes the release of imprisoned rights activist Su Su Nwayby. UN Under Secretary General for political affairs Ibrahim Gambari had last month urged the military government to free Aung San Suu Kyi, Su Su Nwayby and U Win Tin. Meanwhile, the country's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, reported that its party leaders are being "forced, pressured, enticed or threatened to resign by authorities." (AFP) (AP)
- Former Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamad criticizes the current Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. (New Straits Times)
6 June 2006 (Tuesday)
5 June 2006 (Monday)
- Australian peacekeeping troops fire teargas on rampaging gangs in Dili, as the East Timor crisis continues. Meanwhile, Parliament met, and Foreign Minister José Ramos-Horta "had a good talk" with rebel commanders. (AFP) (AP)
- Myanmar's military government tells Yangon residents to hang family photos in their homes and to send copies to local authorities. Every family in the capital is required to keep a list of its members, and local officials sometimes visit their homes at night to make random checks to see that the inhabitants tally with official lists. It is thought that the measure is to beef up security in the wake of a deadly bombing campaign in Yangon, which began in May 2005. (The Irrawaddy)
- Myanmar's foreign trade hits 5.5 billion USD in fiscal year 2005-06, a record high in 17 years since 1989 when the country began to move to the market-oriented economy. (Shanghai Daily)
- The National Reconciliation Commission, which has been investigating the South Thailand insurgency for the past year, issues its report, which calls for an "unarmed army", among other measures. The NRC's head, former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, says the government needs to focus on reconciliation and curbing abuses by government security forces in the three Muslim-majority provinces near the Malaysian border. Other measures would be recognition of the Yawi dialect spoken in the region as an official language and setting up a powerful agency to find solutions.(Reuters) (The Nation)
- The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand halts its feasibility survey for a dam on the Salween River in Myanmar after a surveyor died from injuries after he stepped on a land mine. EGAT says its team has been pulled out of the area, which has seen major military offensives by the State Peace and Development Council in Kayin State. (ThaiDay)
- Thailand's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department concludes that 83 people died in flooding in five northern provinces: 71 in Uttaradit, seven in Sukhothai and five in Phrae. Thirty-three people are still missing, a total of 674 houses have been damaged and 310,000 people affected. (The Nation)
- Environmental activists blockade trucks hauling eight young Asian elephants destined for Taronga Zoo in Sydney. The animals had been quarantined in Kanchanaburi Province for 18 months and were scheduled to be flown to Australia. (The Nation)
- 231 Hmong refugees fleeing Laos are detained by police in Amphoe Khao Kho, Phetchabun Province for illegal entry into Thailand. The Hmong are seeking asylum at the province's Ban Huay Nam Khao, where about 6,500 ethnic Hmong are being sheltered, but the Thai military refused to allow them to stay. Most of the Hmong claim they fought against the communists in the Secret War. (The Nation)
4 June 2006 (Sunday)
3 June 2006 (Saturday)
2 June 2006 (Friday)
- Violence the East Timor crisis continues as mobs loot government warehouses. Fired military officer Alfredo Reinhado, whose dismissal sparked the violence, calls on Prime Minister Marí Alkatiri to resign, but Alkatiri refuses and calls on Reinhado and his troops to lay down arms. (AP), (AFP)
- 10,000 taxi drivers will receive training as Singapore prepares to host 16,000 delegates for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group meetings in September. (Channel NewsAsia)
- Four U.S. Marines facing rape charges in the Philippines see their accuser in court for the first time as the formal trial begins in a case that was filed in December, stemming from an incident at a Subic Bay bar. The case has prompted protests and calls for the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement to be amended or scrapped. (Reuters)
- Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda calls on Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi. The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, says it has "broad" support for a resolution it plans to introduce in the United Nations Security Council that would compel Myanmar's military regime to change its policies. (Jakarta Post) (AFP)
- Malaysia records USD1.98 billion trade surplus for the month of April 2006. Bank Negara, the Malaysian central bank, had earlier announced that the economy grew at faster-than-expected 5.3% in the first quarter of 2006. (Bernama) (Business Times)
- The United States calls on Laos to investigate allegations that the Lao military killed a group of unarmed Hmong civilians, mostly women and children. Amnesty International says Lao soldiers killed at least 26 unarmed Hmong on April 6. (VOA)
1 June 2006 (Thursday)
- The death toll in the Java earthquake rises to 6,234. More than 600,000 are estimated to have been displaced by the quake. United Nations officials say they fear help will come too late for victims still awaiting medical care in overwhelmed hospitals and villagers decry the lack of aid. (IHT) (AP)
- A retaining wall built on a hillslope collapses in Selangor, Malaysia. 160 people are left homeless while rescue efforts are underway to find those that are trapped. (New Straits Times)
- People's Republic of China President Hu Jintao sends a message of blessing to the Thai monarch on the 60th anniversary later this month of his accession to the throne. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, on behalf of the Chinese government, pledges to provide aid to Thailand to help people effected by floods in the North if needed. (TNA)
- South Thailand insurgency: Police in Narathiwat arrests another three suspects allegedly involved in abducting and assaulting two female teachers at Gujinluepa School in Amphoe Ra-ngae nearly two weeks ago. (TNA)
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