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Nearly 10,000 Uighurs involved in deadly riots in China's northwestern Xinjiang region went missing in one night, exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer said Wednesday, calling for an international investigation. Kadeer's visit to Tokyo was condemned by China. The vice foreign minister summoned the Japanese ambassador in Beijing to express China "strong dissatisfaction" and to "demand the Japanese government take effective action to stop her anti-China, splittist activities in Japan," the Foreign Ministry said. In Xinjiang's worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs on July 5 attacked Han Chinese in the regional capital of Urumqi after police tried to break up a protest against fatal attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in south China. Han Chinese in Urumqi launched revenge attacks later that week. "The nearly 10,000 (Uighur) people who were at the protest, they disappeared from Urumqi in one night," Kadeer told a news conference in Tokyo through an interpreter. "If they are dead, where are their bodies? If they are detained, where are they?" She called on the international community to send an independent investigative team to Urumqi to uncover details of what had taken place. The official death toll from the riots stands at 197, most of whom were Han Chinese who form the majority of China's 1.3 billion population. Almost all the others were Uighurs, a Muslim people native to Xinjiang and culturally tied to Central Asia and Turkey. More than 1,000 people were detained in the immediate aftermath of the riots, and over 200 more in recent days, state media said. None has been publicly charged. China has accused Kadeer, who lives in exile in Washington, of triggering the riots and of spreading misinformation. It took great glee in pointing out that pictures she said were taken in Urumqi actually came from an unrelated incident in another part of the country. Kadeer, who rejects the Chinese accusations, said she thought the death toll was much higher after learning that there was random gunfire one night when electricity in the city was shut down. In a measure of continued nervousness and lack of information in Urumqi, the city government was forced to deny rumors sweeping the Han population that Uighurs were kidnapping Han to exchange them for detained Uighurs, a Chinese newspaper said. Beijing does not want to lose its grip on Xinjiang. The vast territory borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region. Source: Reuters  Read More →

By Shamim Adam and Jonathan Burgos from Bloomberg July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Temasek Holdings Pte, reeling from the aborted appointment of Charles “Chip” Goodyear, said the value of its assets slumped by more than S$40 billion ($27.7 billion) and that Singapore’s sovereign fund may allow public investment for the first time. The company will seek “sophisticated co-investors” and won’t sell the “family jewels” for short-term gains, Chief Executive Officer Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in a speech today in Singapore. Goodyear’s departure was “unfortunate” and Temasek will continue to review its succession plans, she added. The appointment of Temasek’s first foreign CEO collapsed a week ago because of differences over strategy, raising concerns over transparency and management control after losses on Merrill Lynch & Co. and other financial investments dragged down its performance last year. “Allowing the public to invest in Temasek would increase the state-run fund’s transparency,” said Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. “It will increase pressure on their managers to avoid investment mistakes.” The fund predicted last year a 16 percent probability that the value of its assets may drop by more than S$40 billion in the 12 months ended March, Ho said. That figure announced today suggests an improvement from the S$58 billion loss in value for Temasek’s assets the fund reported between April and November. Temasek’s Assets The state-owned investment company’s assets were valued at S$127 billion as of Nov. 30, compared with S$185 billion at the end of March last year, the Ministry of Finance said in February. “We are certainly not happy with the negative wealth added in March last year, as well as March this year,” Ho said. The fund defines “wealth added” as returns above risk-adjusted cost of capital. Temasek would consider creating one more group of stakeholders over the long term, and may invite the public to “co-invest” with the company, Ho, 56, said. It may seek “sophisticated investors” in five to eight years and retail investors in the next eight to 10 years, she added. “It is important to test this over at least one market cycle during the next five to eight years,” she said. “If this pilot is successful, we may then consider a co-investment platform for retail investors in perhaps eight to 10 years’ time.” ‘Pretty Huge’ Temasek could attract some “pretty huge investments,” though it will have to balance the interests of shareholders and the state, said David Cohen, director of Asian economic forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore. “They’ll be subject to greater disclosure and corporate governance but that’s going to be the case going forward anyway with or without external investors,” Cohen said. Ho, who was due to step down Oct. 1, said the fund will act to enhance value over as long as 30 years and will not sell stakes “for divestment’s sake.” “We don’t intend to raid the larder nor sell the family jewels for short-term gains,” she said. “We will jealously guard our interest and will invest, rationalize, consolidate or divest where it makes sense, where we can achieve clear, sustainable value.” Expansion Overseas Temasek was founded in 1974 to foster development of the island’s banks, airlines and ports. Ho drove an expansion outside Singapore and increased financial assets to 40 percent with stakes in Merrill Lynch, Barclays Plc and Standard Chartered Plc. Temasek is the biggest shareholder in five of Singapore’s 10 biggest publicly traded companies by market value, including Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest phone company, and DBS Group Holdings Ltd., the region’s largest bank by assets. Ho said it was “unfortunate” that Goodyear didn’t take the top job, and that the succession review continues for her replacement. “I just want to reaffirm that the decision was both mutual and amicable,” Ho said. “ We continue to hold Chip in very high regard for his professionalism and his integrity.” Ho said financial services investments will still form part of Temasek’s core holdings. Temasek is still “fairly comfortable” in the financial services industry, she said. Loss on Stake Sale The fund, in the first quarter, sold its 3.8 percent stake in Bank of America Corp., which bought Merrill Lynch, at a loss that may have totaled $4.6 billion. Temasek sold its stake in London-based Barclays at a loss in December and January, Reuters reported on June 3, citing people familiar with the matter. Temasek is “very comfortable” with its investment in Asia, and the long-term potential returns from the region remains strong, Ho said. Temasek has stakes in India’s ICICI Bank Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp. and lenders in Indonesia, South Korea and Pakistan. Ho said the company’s senior management have most of their compensation incentives deferred between three years and 12 years. Source: Bloomberg  Read More →

From our Correspondent Singapore's state corner records a verdict of suicide in the death of David Widjaja, who was found dead in NTU after stabbing his professor with a knife. David Widjaja, an Indonesian Chinese, was a final year engineering student at NTU. He allegedly stabbed Professor Chan Kap Luk, who was also his mentor for his final year project on 2 March 2009 before leaping to his death from 6 storeys high. Early reports in the Singaporean media had accused David of stabbing his professor at NTU, Chan Kap Luk, before slitting his wrists and jumping to his death. David's family was adamant that he did not commit suicide and a coroner's court was convened in May 2009 to investigate the circumstances leading to his death. At the hearing, the pathologists from the Singapore side confirmed that the injuries sustained by David were consistent with injuries caused by fall from height which was disupted by forensic experts from Indonesia. Djaja Surya Atmadja, a noted forensic expert from the University of Indonesia who had seen the photographs of David's body, said that all wounds on the body emphasized the fact David had not committed suicide as reported. The photographs show several defense wounds that have never been revealed in or out of the Singaporean court, Djaja says, adding that he can "assume, based on the photographs, David was attacked by one or two people with a knife." One of several defense wounds found on the body is a deep diagonal 20-centimeter-long cut on the right hand near the wrist, Djaja said after observing the photographs. A diagonal cut, he said, showed David was more likely to have been warding off a knife attack against him. "If David wanted to commit suicide, he would not have cut his hand that way *diagonally*, but with a flat cut along his wrist," Djaja said. A witness, NTU student Lin Zhenxing produced a shaky eight-second clip caught on his handphone camera showing a person - supposedly David Widjaja - sitting at the link bridge rooftop at NTU. However, David's brother disputed the identity of the person in the footage. David's father, Hartono Widjaja, said his family had tried to present nine of David's NTU fellow students as witnesses to the court, but only one was approved by court officials. "But all 27 witnesses from NTU's side were approved," he said. The lawyer for David's family, Otto Cornelius Kaligis claimed he discovered many 'irregularities' in the legal processing and he suspected "the Singaporean officials had been covering up many significant facts." Both Kaligis and Hartono suspected the court process was intentionally directed to a conclusion of suicide, despite evidence showing a strong possibility of murder. Only if the coroner court finds it was not suicide will the case be forwarded to the criminal court. With the final verdict on David's case now delivered, it appears that all channels are closed for his family to pursue the matter.  Read More →