A UN High Commissioner for Refugees official protested Thailand's move to forcibly repatriate some 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to Laos. "UNHCR is extremely dismayed that Thailand has commenced the deportations of the Lao Hmong today from the camp in Phetchabun," said Ariane Rummery, UNHCR spokesperson in Bangkok. "We don't have access to the area, but we have had reports that deportations began this morning and about 400 people have been removed so far."

Indonesia's National Police announced Dec. 16 that they had shot Kelly Kwalik, leader of the Free Papua Movement. Authorities said Kwalik was killed as he resisted arrest during a police raid on a house in Timika, Papua. Five others, including a 10-year-old boy, were also arrested in the raid. Authorities charge that Kwalik was behind a 2002 ambush of a convoy of buses that killed a US national near the Freeport McMoRan gold and copper mining operation. They also claim Kwalik was behind a string of armed attacks in the Freeport area that left eight people dead, three of them foreigners, between June and November this year.

Former Khmer Rouge head of state and "Brother Number Five," Khieu Samphan, has been charged with genocide, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia announced Dec. 18. Samphan is the third member of the Khmer Rouge to be charged with genocide by the war crimes tribunal this week. "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and former foreign minister Ieng Sary also face genocide charges—marking the first time the charge has been brought against Khmer Rouge leaders by an internationally sanctioned court. All three are accused in the deaths of thousands of members of Cambodia's Vietnamese and the Cham Muslim minorities.

Calls are growing for a declaration of martial law in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in the wake of a series of attacks. In the most recent, on Dec. 13 dozens of Moro militants used sledgehammers and bolt cutters to smash their way into the Basilan provincial jail, freeing 31 inmates—including two commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). A jail guard and one of the raiders were killed in the pre-dawn assault. (Inquirer, Manila, Dec. 14)

A renowned Buddhist teacher has protested the eviction of his followers from a monastery in southern Vietnam's Lam Dong province, and a group of Vietnamese intellectuals have issued a petition to support them. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese-born Zen master who popularized Buddhism in the West, wrote a letter last week to President Nguyen Minh Triet criticizing the police eviction of nearly 400 from Bat Nha monastery. His followers say a mob including undercover agents descended on the monastery Sept. 27, damaged buildings and forced the devotees out, beating some with sticks.

Philippine Sen. Rodolfo Biazon Aug. 17 called for suspension of peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), claiming the group helped fight the military during last week's clash on Basilan Island. The firefight left 23 government troops dead in Tipo-tipo district, in what the government called a "counter terrorism" operation aimed at the Abu Sayyaf group. (Manila Times, Aug. 18; Inquirer, Manila, Aug. 17)

Nine people were killed in explosions at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in Jakarta July 17. Some of the victims were attending an Indonesian business forum held at the Marriott. Timothy Mackay, CEO of Holcim Indonesia, local unit of Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd, was killed. Noke Kiroyan, a former chairman of Rio Tinto's Indonesian operations, was hospitalized. Also injured was James Castle, founder of forum host CastleAsia. No group claimed responsibility, but authorities suspect Jemaah Islamiyah, which attacked the Marriott in 2003. (Jakarta Globe, China Daily, WSJ, July 17)

A police officer who was reported missing July 12 was found dead the next day near a mine operated in West Papua by the US conglomerate Freeport. The death followed fatal ambushes over the weekend of a security guard and an Australian mining expert working for Freeport in the same area. Indonesian authorities blamed Papuan separatists. (NYT, July 13)