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NORTHEAST ASIA
Showing genuine remorse for wartime crimes
With Japanese leaders once again seen visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, South Korea has urged its East Asian neighbor to show “sincere remorse” for its wartime past.
On April 23, Seoul’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said the Japanese government should “squarely face history, and demonstrate through action their humble reflection and sincere remorse for Japan’s past.”
This, after a delegation of 94 lawmakers visited the shrine in Chiyoda ward in Japanese capital Tokyo during the end of the spring festival. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also sent an offering to the shrine, which honors Japanese war dead including 14 World War II Class-A war criminals who committed atrocities in Japanese colonies.
Visits by Japanese officials are seen by neighboring countries like South Korea and China as attempts to downplay Japan’s wartime aggression. Last year, Seoul also called out Tokyo’s leaders for visiting and offering to the shrine at the end of the autumn festival.
Kishida, however, has not personally visited the shrine since he took office in 2021 – seen as part of efforts to forge warmer ties with South Korea despite their deep and painful histories. Last year, he was the first Japanese leader in 12 years to visit Seoul, where he said his “heart hurts when I think of the many people who endured terrible suffering and grief under the difficult circumstances of the time.”
He made it clear, however, that he would uphold the stances of previous administrations regarding the country’s wartime past, some of which had issued apologies and even reparations.
Even now, South Koreans disdain Japan for never adequately apologizing and atoning for how it treated their people during World War II, which saw hundreds of thousands of Koreans either forcibly conscripted to join the war or to work in factories and mines. Japan also enslaved thousands of so-called “comfort women,” or wartime sex slaves, majority of whom were of Korean and Chinese descent.
Japan has also rejected recent South Korean court rulings ordering the former to compensate at least 16 former comfort women, and even toppled down a statue memorializing the hundreds of thousands of South Korean forced laborers during World War II in Gunma prefecture.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Rallying the ASEAN to resolve the Myanmar crisis
Thailand is urging its fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) neighbors to step up its efforts in resolving the ongoing crisis in neighboring Myanmar, as the country takes on a more proactive approach to the three-year conflict now bleeding into its borders.
On April 26, Thai foreign ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura specifically proposed a meeting involving the previous chair Indonesia, current chair Laos, and incoming chair Malaysia, so the 10-member regional bloc could take on a more proactive role in relation to the political crisis gripping Myanmar.
It’s currently unclear what that would entail from the bloc, whose consensus-building norm has largely rendered it practically ineffective in the face of the ongoing civil war between the Myanmar junta, which seized power in 2021, and the resistance movement that has slowly retaken key areas in the country.
Bangkok’s shift in approach appears driven in part by the weeks of fighting near the Thai border that disrupted trade and caused a temporary refugee influx into its own borders.
Thailand currently shares over 2,400 kilometers of border with Myanmar, through which thousands of refugees have sought sanctuary since the coup and especially since the junta reactivated a decade-old mandatory conscription law that requires men and women aged 18-35 to join the military.
“The clashes have reached Myawaddy, right on our doorstep,” Nikorndej emphasized. “This necessitates a more robust response from ASEAN.”
In March, the Thai parliament invited exiled members of Myanmar’s National unity Government opposition to a seminar in Bangkok that’s focused on democracy, border security, and humanitarian aid for Myanmar.
This marks a departure from its earlier strategy of exclusively engaging with the de facto junta government, which rights groups criticize as efforts to “make the junta presentable” before the international community. The latter has been calling on ASEAN to be more decisive by, among others, imposing more sanctions and an arms embargo against the junta.
In 2021, the ASEAN formulated a “Five-Point Consensus” peace plan that calls for, among others, an immediate cessation of violence by all parties as well as the appointment of an ASEAN special envoy to facilitate talks.
However, the implementation of this peace pact has been sluggish. The Myanmar military hasn’t stopped its offensive operations, while the envoy appointed by Laos hasn’t been transparent about their activities, raising doubts about the effectiveness of this mediation effort.
SOUTH ASIA
Upending divisive rhetoric
The main opposition party in India has taken Prime Minister Narendra Modi to task over his alleged hate speech made during a campaign rally for the upcoming Lok Sabha (parliament) elections, reinforcing allegations that he and his party have been inciting communal violence against minorities, especially Muslims.
On April 22, the Indian National Congress – or Congress – submitted formal grievances before the national Election Commission charging Modi of, among others, making “false and divisive insinuations, targeted at a particular religious community and a clear provocation to the general public to act out and breach peace, potentially against such a religious community.”
The accusations center around Modi’s statement at a rally in Banswara, Rajasthan, where he claimed that the Congress party’s manifesto includes plans to redistribute wealth specifically to Muslims. He also suggested that a Congress win would lead to financial benefits for those he labeled as “infiltrators” and people from larger families, questioning the fairness of such policies.
“We wish to highlight the completely unprecedented and malicious allegations as well statements which are clearly aimed at creating enmity between groups, far worse than any ever made by a sitting Prime Minister in the history of India. This cannot go unchecked, unanswered and unpunished,” the INC said.
Since coming to power in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), guided by a Hindu nationalist agenda, has repeatedly been accused of promoting policies and rhetoric that target marginalized groups, particularly Muslims, leading to increased violence and persecution. His administration oversaw the demolition of several Muslim sacred sites as well as the inauguration of the newly constructed Ram temple in Ayodhya at the site where the Babri mosque once stood.
A recent report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project warned that this resurgent Hindutva agenda would not only drive communal violence and religious polarization during the elections, but also allow the BJP to impose discriminatory policies that would effectively shut out Muslims.
One such example is the proposed National Registry of Citizens, purportedly to weed out illegal immigrants but is widely feared to target its 200 million Muslim population. It’s currently only implemented in the northeastern Assam state, but the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has promised to roll out a nationwide version.
GLOBAL / REGIONAL
International rule of law has “nearly broken down” at a global scale in the past year, driven in large part by authoritarian governments imposing widespread human rights crackdowns, powerful countries abandoning their moral responsibilities and widening inequality.
This was the finding of Amnesty International’s new report, which has called for “urgent measures … to revitalize and renew the international institutions intended to safeguard humanity” especially as the world heads into a super-election year.
Specifically, Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard urged the world’s governments to rein in the veto powers of the permanent U.N. Security Council (UNSC) members, saying they have failed to protect thousands of civilians in conflict areas especially in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The very institutions set up to protect civilians and uphold human rights are no longer fit for purpose. What we saw in 2023 confirms that many powerful states are abandoning the founding values of humanity and universality enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Callamard.
The report is a scathing condemnation of how the world’s leaders – specifically the United States, United Kingdom, China, and Russia – have “betrayed” human rights and “undermined” the global rules-based order first established after World War II.
The report also did not spare Asian countries, which it flagged for increased restrictions on free speech, assembly and association while allowing discrimination against minorities, women, and LGBTQI+ people to persist with impunity. It identified China, Cambodia, Myanmar, North Korea, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam – all led by illiberal regimes – as some of the worst offenders.
It’s also the latest call to repeal the powerful UNSC veto power system, which only five countries have: the U.S., U.K., France, China, and Russia. Russia and China have also used their veto powers for their own gain – specifically to block resolutions condemning the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine as well as further sanctions against North Korea and Myanmar.
In 2018, exasperated member-states led by African and Asia-Pacific nations have called for either the abolition or regulation of the veto system so underprivileged nations can also have a voice in the powerful council. Even U.N. officials themselves have called for structural reform to the UNSC itself, saying it has become paralyzed by widening divisions among its members.
