Showing 1 - 7 of 7
Kabul's traffickers are in for the long haul
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 17/11/2013
» Kabul's black market for illegal travel is still doing a brisk trade despite the crackdown from Australia's newly installed government on people smuggling. However, the logistics required to circumvent the authorities and ensure a safe trip have become more complex and smugglers are under pressure to maximise profits. Fake passports, forged visas, tickets to Southeast Asia, sometimes via the Middle East, and boats to Australia and elsewhere are often available for about US$25,000 (788,000 baht) a head, more than double the costs the smugglers first charged when they began plying the Kangaroo Route in the late 1990s.
Pol Pot's henchmen damned by evidence
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 27/10/2013
» For more than two years, the latest instalment of the Khmer Rouge tribunal has provided a blow-by-blow account of Pol Pot's bloody reign of terror and the inner workings of the political machine blamed for the deaths of between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people.
Youthful daring challenges the status quo and dirty tricks
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 28/07/2013
» Throughout Cambodia's election campaign the politically outgunned opposition has put in an astonishing performance. Fuelled by youthful exuberance, flash mobs of up to 3,000 form and trumpet the virtues of change as supporters ride in twos, threes and fours, through the capital on motorbikes.
Gambling with Kampot's colonial charm
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 05/05/2013
» Hidden in the clouds on a mountain overlooking the provincial capital of Kampot in Cambodia's south sits a relic of a long-gone French colonial era. For decades a Catholic church, possibly the oldest in the country, remained abandoned here as wars were waged for decades on the flat lands below.
Ly Yong Phat, the King of Koh Kong
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 03/02/2013
» Thai-Cambodian relations have been defined high in the Dangrek Mountains ever since troops from both sides began clashing over the 12th century ruins at Preah Vihear five years ago. Further south, where the Kaoh Pao meets the Gulf of Thailand, it's a very different story.
Muslim acceptance in Laos stark contrast to Myanmar intolerance
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 02/09/2012
» Just over a decade ago the tiny Islamic population of Laos, like Muslims everywhere, watched on in horror as al-Qaeda carried out its suicide attacks on New York and Washington. They were then flabbergasted as a tide of Western opinion turned on them.
War crimes and the price of justice
Spectrum, Luke Hunt, Published on 22/01/2012
» Putting a price on human life has never been a simple matter. For example, hospitals constantly face financial pressures, but patients' rights to privacy ensure that such awkward subjects are handled behind closed doors.