A Change of Guard

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Monday 31 August 2009

Troops exit temple complex


Cambodia's Defence Ministry says government has halved deployed troops at Preah Vihear but warns that forces remain prepared for any future hostilities.
090831_03
Photo by: Tracey Shelton
Soldiers walk down the mountain near Preah Vihear temple last month. One brigade left the area this week following Hun Sen’s promise to reduce troop numbers around the disputed temple.

Troops stationed at the Preah Vihear temple complex near the Thai border completed their redeployment over the weekend, a Royal Cambodian Armed Forces commander told the Post on Sunday.

Srey Doek, commander of RCAF Division 3, said Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday met soldiers from Brigade 11 during their redeployment to their base in Kampot province.

"[Hun Sen] welcomed them as they travelled near Siem Reap and offered them each 50,000 riels [US$12], and the prime minister's wife offered them gifts of fruit," Srey Doek said.

Srey Doek said the money and fruit were given to nearly 1,000 RCAF soldiers as expressions of gratitude for their service at the front line, adding that troops from other brigades from Siem Reap as well as members of Hun Sen's personal bodyguard who were also redeployed over the weekend did not meet the prime minister.

Meanwhile, an official at the Defence Ministry said Sunday that forces at the border have now been halved.

"We have pulled out 50 percent of the troops from Preah Vihear temple," said ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat.

"This shows that the situation at the border is really getting better, and that both countries have a mutual understanding of peace," he added.

Hun Sen declared last week that the 13-month standoff with Thailand over the disputed Preah Vihear temple complex, which claimed more than seven lives and left hundreds homeless, had effectively ended following a bilateral withdrawal of troops announced during a meeting on August 24 between the head of RCAF, General Pol Saroeun, and his Thai counterpart, General Songkitti Jaggabatra of the Royal Thai Armed Forces.

Troops still on guard
Despite a thaw in relations, Cambodian military officials last week were quick to point out that troops would still be necessary to guard the integrity of the border and the sovereignty of the nation.

Defence Minister Tea Banh said some troops would remain at the border.

"We do not need too many soldiers there now. We are currently adjusting the numbers to achieve the right balance for the situation," Tea Banh said last week.

Chea Dara, RCAF deputy commander in chief, echoed this sentiment Sunday, saying the border's security remained a vital concern and downplaying the impact of the withdrawal on Cambodia's ability to secure its border with Thailand.

"It is not a problem for our soldiers to defend the nation, even as their numbers have been reduced by the withdrawal," he said Sunday. "We have kept enough of our troops in place."

He said if Thailand "shows a softer manner" Cambodia could cut troop numbers further. "However, if anything happened, our troop mobility would be very swift."

Thailand in June reignited the row over the temple when it asked World Heritage body UNESCO to reconsider its decision to formally list the temple in Cambodia.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around Preah Vihear temple for decades.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP

Cambodia worker brutally murdered on Pattaya construction site

CAMBODIAN WORKER BRUTALLY MUIRDERED ON PATTAYA CONSTRUCTION SITE
Updated: [August 31, 2009 ]

Pattaya, August 31 [PDN]:On the evening of 30th August 2009 a Cambodian carpenter working on a Pattaya village project was murdered by his friends because he refused to get more drinks for them.

At 11:00 pm Police Lieutenant Colonel Winai Hohrien of the Banglamung police was informed that a Cambodia worker, identified as Mr. Tid, had been killed at the Chokchai Garden Home 2 village in Soi Kao Noi, Moo. 10, Nongprue Banglamung. A police team led by Police Colonel Somneuk Junkate together with a rescue team and doctors from Banglamung hospital rushed to the scene.

At the construction site police found the body of Mr. Tid, aged around 30, lying in a 2 metre deep garbage pit. He was wearing red shirts and blue shorts and his head had been smashed by a hard item. His neck was broken and his body was covered in wounds. He had been dead for about an hour.

Witnesses told police the victim had been drinking with two friends in his room. They heard Mr. Tid being told to go and get some more whisky, but he refused and they started arguing. The two friends then attacked him with a hammer and a rock. The two suspects then carried the dead body and threw it into the garbage pit before making their escape. In a search of the room next door police found a bloodstained rock and hammer.

The police will be contacting the Thai construction foreman and search for the heartless murderers.




sorn
News Type : Crime
Story : Kampee
Photo : Kampee
Translater : Sirithanon

Philippine female legislators denounce Hun Sen over slur


Group calls the premier's defamation suit against Mu Sochua an act of chauvinism designed to stifle freedom of expression.
090831_05
Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Mu Sochua speaks to the press after being found guilty of defamation earlier this month.


WE DENOUNCE THESE TACTICS OF INTIMIDATION, PERSECUTION AND REPRESSION....



A women's party in the Philippines has joined the international call for the Cambodian government to halt its campaign of intimidation against opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua, accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of sexism.

Mu Sochua, an SRP parliamentarian, was convicted on August 4 of defaming Hun Sen and ordered to pay 8.5 million riels (US$2,028) in fines and 8 million riels ($1,909) in compensation. The charges stemmed from an April speech by Hun Sen in which he referred to an unnamed woman as a "cheung klang". The term means "strong legs" and is considered derogatory when used to describe women.

The speech prompted Mu Sochua to file a defamation suit, but Hun Sen denied that he had been referring to her and countersued her for defamation, pointing to an April 23 press conference in which she made her suit public. Mu Sochua's case was thrown out, whereas the premier was allowed to proceed with his.

The verdict, which Mu Sochua described as a "political game" that has cast Cambodia's judicial system "into darkness", met with widespread international condemnation.

Last week, the Gabriela Women's Party (GWP), which describes itself as the only all-female party in the Philippine House of Representatives, accused the prime minister of being a chauvinist.

"We strongly protest the discriminatory slur of the statements of the prime minister as anti-women and chauvinist," the statement reads. "Likewise, we deplore the alleged acts of repression as forms of attacks against the right to free expression, democracy and equality."

"We denounce these tactics of intimidation, persecution and repression, using the legal system against the administration's critics and members of the opposition party. We urge the Cambodian government to respect the rights of MP Mu Sochua as a woman leader and parliamentarian who is working for democracy, equality and justice."

The government was dismissive of the criticisms on Sunday. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan accused the party of knowing nothing about Cambodian politics.

"They have no right to make statements such as this because they don't know the facts of the situation in Cambodia," he said.

"A party in the Philippines probably knows the least about Mu Sochua's case."

A hearing on the dismissal of Mu Sochua's lawsuit against Prime Minister Hun Sen was postponed earlier this month because of her absence from court.

The lawmaker was summoned to appear in court on August 17 by Prosecutor General Ouk Savuth after she contested a Municipal Court decision in July rejecting her lawsuit against Hun Sen.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said she requested the hearing be delayed because she was due to visit the United States for medical treatment.

The parliamentarian, who represents Kampot province, is scheduled to return from the US on September 20.

KRouge prison head has no mental problems: experts

Duch, the former Khmer Rouge prison chief of the notorious S-21 torture centre during his trial in Phnom Penh.

PHNOM PENH (AFP)— Mental health experts told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court Monday that the Khmer Rouge's main prison chief has no mental disorders despite having overseen the killing of thousands of people.

French psychologist Francoise Sironi-Guilbaud and Cambodian psychiatrist Kar Sunbaunat were testifying at the trial of Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and execution of some 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng prison.

"Is Duch suffering from a mental disorder? No, we have detected no mental disorder in the accused," Sironi-Guilbaud told the tribunal.

The expert went on to say that Duch, who worked as a maths teacher before the late 1970s Khmer Rouge regime, lived with disappointment but lacked sympathy for others.

"Duch (was) a man with one single idea, with one single thought at that time," she said.

Kar Sunbaunat added that the assessment, which stretched back to Duch's childhood and family life, revealed no signs that Duch had suffered from psychological problems.

Monday's hearing was boycotted by 28 of the 93 civil parties in the case, who are angry with judges after a ruling last week banning them from questioning Duch about his personality.

Chum Mey, 79, a survivor of Tuol Sleng prison, said the group would no longer attend the trial unless they were granted the right to ask the defendant questions.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, has repeatedly accepted responsibility for his role governing the jail under the regime and begged for forgiveness from the families of the victims.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.

World Bank in talks with Cambodia over evictions

Monday, August 31, 2009

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A senior World Bank official held talks with the Cambodian government over the forced eviction of people from their homes and said the development bank would continue to work with it on land reform to tackle the problem.

Land ownership is a controversial issue in Cambodia, where legal documents were destroyed and state institutions collapsed under the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s and the civil war that followed.

The World Bank joined with other aid donors in July to ask the government to halt forced evictions and the problem was raised again by its vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific Region, James Adams, during a visit last week.

"A major focus of the visit was Cambodia's urban land sector and the increasing numbers of disputes and evictions of poor people in urban settlements," the bank said in a statement.

"The discussions on land reform were constructive and it was agreed to continue these discussions over the coming week to agree next steps," it said.

The bank has provided funding of $24.3 million for a land management and administration project from 2002 to 2009, and an estimated 1.1 million land titles were issued, said Bou Saroeun, a spokesman for the World Bank in Phnom Penh.

Other donors such as Germany, Finland and Canada have together provided more than $14 million to support the land title project, Saroeun added.

(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)

CCHR welcomes Mr. Hun Sen's order to drop all plans to sue Chea Mony


Prime Minister Hun Sen on 29th August ordered government to drop all plans to sue Chea Mony for defamation when he accused the government of being behind his brother's killing.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights has issued a statement welcome the government's move.

Click text to read.

NBC to spend $6m to maintain value of riel

Monday, 31 August 2009
By Nguon Sovan and Nathan Green
Phnom Penh Post

THE National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has announced it will dip into its foreign reserves and buy US$6 million worth of Cambodian riels this week to hold up the value of the local currency, but an economist has warned that downward pressure will persist at least through the end of 2010.

In an announcement Friday, the central bank said it would take bids today, Wednesday and Friday at its Norodom Boulevard headquarters, putting up $2 million in US dollar holdings on each of the three days to buy riels.

Permitted bidders include commercial banks, licensed money changers and listed businesses.

NBC Director General Tal Nay Im said that because Cambodia was between harvests there was low demand for riels to buy agricultural produce, putting downward pressure on the value of the riel.

That pressure has been strong since the global financial crisis kicked in last year, she added, with plummeting business activity reducing demand for riels to pay workers.

The central bank intervenes regularly in the foreign exchange market to prop up the value of the riel. In early August it bought $2 million worth of riels daily for five days after the local currency hit a low of 4,191 against the greenback during the first week of the month.

The intervention had the desired effect, with a sharp appreciation to 4,116 on August 12 before the value edged back down to 4,136 to the dollar. It was at a similar rate last week.

"Given the small market for the riel, this sharp rebound clearly reflects the NBC's intervention," the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Cambodia economist Danny Richards told the Post earlier this month.

However, he also warned that downward pressure on the riel would continue and questioned how long the central bank could continue dipping into foreign reserves to prop up the local currency.

"The NBC will continue to intervene in foreign-exchange markets to prevent the riel from depreciating too quickly against the US dollar," he said by email. "However, its international reserves position will remain precarious. The US dollar is strengthening against major trading currencies, and given that there is still a lack of confidence in the riel, the dollar will remain the currency of choice in Cambodia for trade and investment."

In the EIU's August country outlook, Richards predicted that the riel would fall to 4,304 to the dollar by the end of 2010 as falling merchandise exports widened the current-account deficit from 9.6 percent of GDP in 2008 to 10.2 percent in 2009, putting downward pressure on the currency.

In a recent country risk service, the EIU also noted that Cambodia's real trade-weighted exchange rate had appreciated 20.3 percent over the past 48 months, "suggesting that the currency remains overvalued and thus vulnerable to a correction".

Tal Nay Im said that official exchange rates were determined by the NBC as an average of exchange rates at "five large markets in Phnom Penh".

The official exchange rate was always within 1 percent of market exchange rates, she added.

Canadia Bank Executive Vice President Dieter Billmeier said he expected the value of the riel to pick up against the US dollar and currencies in neighbouring countries between November and February because of the harvest season.

Hun Sen ordered government lawyers to stop suing Chea Mony

Chea Mony with the photos of his murdered brother.

Source: Radio Free Asia
Reported in English by Khmerization

A senior government official said on 29 August that Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered all government officials and government lawyers to end all plans to sue Chea Mony, President of the Free Trade Union of Workers in the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC), for defamation.

Earlier this month, Chea Mony exploded in anger in court and accused the government of planning the murder of his older brother, Chea Vichea, on 22 January 2004.

Mr. Khieu Kanharith, a government spokesman, told RFA on Saturday 29 August that Prime Minister Hun Sen believed that Chea Mony’s accusation was an outburst of grief and anger for the loss of his beloved brother. The main reason was not to sue the accuser, but to find the real killers, Kanharith quoted Hun Sen as saying.

Gen. Khieu Sopheak, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), said that the MoI will follow Hun Sen's advice not to sue Chea Mony.

Chea Mony welcomes this news. “I and all the workers as well as my family are very happy that Prime Minister has ordered government officials to drop all plans to sue me and find the real killers because I want justice, so I always welcome this order. In general, I have suffered by the murder of Chea Vichea for the last 6 years”, he said.

During a testimony in the Appeal Court on 17 August, Chea Mony accused the Cambodian government of planning the murder of his older brother. He also said that Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, who were convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for the murder of Chea Vichea, are not the real killers.

After strong pressures from human rights groups, the two men were released on bail awaiting further investigation.

Sam Rainsy to face off with Hor Namhong in Paris

Hor Namhong vs. Sam Rainsy

Written by DAP NEWS
Sunday, 30 August 2009

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy is going to face Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong, Minister of Foreign Affair and International Cooperation, again at the Appeal Court in Paris, France.

Sam Rainsy has been ordered to appear before a French appeals court on October, 8, 2009 in connection with a defamation and disinformation lawsuit filed against him by Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong. Hor Namhong filed the lawsuit against Sam Rainsy following the May 2008 publication of this autobiography Rooted In Stone in which the opposition leader accused the minister of heading the Boeung Trabek prison in Pol Pot Regime where diplomats and government officials from the Lon Nol and Norodom Sihanouk regimes.

“The French appeal court will not allow a real offender to break the law,” Koy Koung, a ministry spokesman, told DAP News Cambodia on Friday.

“Hor Namhong was also a victim in the Khmer Rouge Regime—two of his sisters and more than 40 of his relatives were killed by starvation and torture during the regime,” Koy Koung noted.

He was unsure whether Hor Namhong would travel to France himself or if he would send a representative. However, Koy Koung opined that, “The French appeal court will give real justice and fair ruling to Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong.”

Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party, on Friday declined to comment to DAP News Cambodia about the case. “I could not give any details related to this case as I so far have not got many details from Paris yet, and wait for my meeting with my leader, Sam Rainsy.”

Koul Pahna, COMFLEL director, told DAP News Cambodia that he had no details of the case. “However, both parties are much more likely to agree to the ruling of the French Appeal Court compared to a Cambodian court,” Kul Pahna added.

The Tribunal Court in Paris ordered Sam Rainsy’s publisher, Calmann-Levy, to remove from any reprinted copies a passage calling Hor Namhong "a collaborator and suspect of causing the death of several people."

Cambodia halves border troops


The Straits Times

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA has halved the number of troops around an ancient border temple that has been the scene of bloody clashes with Thailand, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

There have been several skirmishes between the two countries on the disputed frontier around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia since the ruins were granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.

'We have pulled out 50 per cent of the troops from Preah Vihear temple,' said Chhum Socheat (pictured), spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence.

'This shows that the situation at the border is really getting better, and that both countries have a mutual understanding of peace,' he added.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last week said Thailand had just 30 soldiers on the border, meaning that Cambodia could stand some troops down and send them back to their provincial bases.

'We still have enough troops remaining to protect our territory,' said General Chea Dara, deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

He said if Thailand 'shows a softer manner' they could cut the numbers further. 'However, if anything happened, our troop mobility would be very swift,' he told AFP.

Thailand in June reignited the row over the temple when it asked world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider its decision to formally list the temple in Cambodia.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades. Although the World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, the most accessible entrance to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings is in northeastern Thailand.

The last gunbattle in the temple area in April left three people dead while clashes there in 2008 killed another four people. The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia. -- AFP
------------------------------------ Cambodia reduces troops levels on Thai border

Australian Network News

Cambodia's Defence Ministry says it has reduced the number of troops deployed around an ancient border temple that has been the scene of several clashes with Thai troops.

The two countries dispute the frontier around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia since the ruins were granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.

The Cambodian statement says it's reduced troops numbers in the region by 50 percent showing that the situation at the border is improving.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week that Thailand had just 30 soldiers on the border, meaning that Cambodia could send some of its troops back to their provincial bases.

Kien Giang boosts friendship with Cambodia’s Kep province

The southern province of Kien Giang on August 29 presented 50 wheelchairs to the disabled in Cambodia’s Kep province and granted scholarships worth US$2,000 to the Cambodian students there.

The gifts were handed over by the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Association’s Chapter in Kien Giang and Kien Giang’s Union of Friendship Organizations at a debut ceremony for the executive board of the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Association in Kep province.

Private computers and US$500 in initial financial aid were also given to the province on this occasion.

The event was attended by the Cambodian Standing Deputy Prime Minister, Men Sam An, and the Chairman of Kien Giang’s Union of Friendship Organizations, Le Van Hong, who is on a working visit to Kep province.

Mr Hong and his entourage toured the local scenery as well as cultural and historical relic sites in Phnom Penh during their stay in Cambodia.

Culture shock hits hard in Cambodia

photo

This beautiful little girl lives in a slum village built on stilts over two feet of floating garbage.


By BETSY BAEHR •
Special to the Register •
August 30, 2009

"The other side of the world" is an impossible phrase to comprehend until you're actually on the other side of the world. Within 15 minutes of my arrival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the culture shock hit hard. Within a few short minutes, that simple phrase had a whole new meaning.

Eighteen months ago, as a student at Oral Roberts University, I attended a seminar on the growing problem of child trafficking and prostitution in southeast Asia. I realized that I was rather naive to the topic. I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around this worlds-away issue, and I was immediately intrigued and interested to learn more.
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In 2004, Citipointe Church in Brisbane, Australia, started a child rescue home in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. They house 15 girls, ages 3-16. Once I learned of the shocking statistics of child prostitution in Cambodia, and the hope and life Citipointe was bringing, I was both heartbroken and captivated to learn more and to see this country for myself.

I spent June 27 through July 10 in Cambodia with a group from the church's rescue home, and it was one of the greatest experiences I have encountered. Breaking out of the "American bubble" was exhilarating.

I visited the "killing fields" and was floored that the mass killings by the Khmer Rouge happened just 30 years ago.

Outwardly, the Cambodian people are unlike any group I have seen. They are absolutely, unknowingly stunning. Everywhere you look is a photo waiting to be taken. Some Cambodian clothing stores only offer one size since the people there are so small and lean — talk about culture shock.

The overarching language barrier was difficult since there was so much I wanted to learn from them. But the fact that I, a Westerner, was there only to hang out in orphanages and slums, to offer hugs, shampoo, rice and lollypops, visibly resonated with them.

When visiting the slum villages and the rescue home in Phnom Penh, the contrast between the startling and numbing experiences these children had been through and their cheerful attitudes, was striking. The children in the slums and rescue homes were vibrant, loving and lively.

Our group also visited the town of Siem Reap, Cambodia, which is primarily known for its ancient temples. The only other location with similar ancient temples is Egypt, in the Nile Valley. The temples were beautifully aged, elaborate and breathtaking. Built in the early 12th century, Angkor Wat is the most famous of the temples and appears on the Cambodian flag.

Understanding and experiencing "the other side of the world," is an irreplaceable, unexplainable gift. It cannot be truly grasped through textbooks, documentaries or Wikipedia. There is beauty in authenticity and the need to see with your own eyes.

KRouge chief explains name

Duch, actual name Kaing Guek Eav, is on trial in Cambodia for overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng detention centre in the late 1970s. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

PHNOM PENH - THE Khmer Rouge's main jail chief on Thursday told a UN-backed war crimes tribunal that he adopted 'Duch' as his revolutionary name because it was Cambodian and his real name was not.

Duch, actual name Kaing Guek Eav, is on trial in Cambodia for overseeing the torture and execution of about 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng detention centre in the late 1970s.

The former prison chief said he changed his name to Duch in 1967.

'I wanted a name in Khmer (the Cambodian language), not a kind of Chinese one,' Duch said.

He added he also chose the revolutionary name because it was one used by a good student in a book he studied when he was young.

'So Duch is a good one and has Khmer character. That's why I used Duch,' said the former maths teacher.

Duch has repeatedly accepted responsibility for his role in governing the jail under the regime and begged for forgiveness from the families of the victims.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture. -- AFP

Khmer Muslims held en route to South

Published: 31/08/2009
Newspaper section: News

Four Muslim Cambodians have been arrested while crossing the Thai-Cambodian border into Sa Kaeo province.

Authorities said the four were heading for the deep South.

Paramilitary rangers yesterday spotted five "suspicious passengers" on a bus about to leave Rong Klua market in Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo, which was destined for Bangkok.

One of the suspects escaped as authorities were about to board the bus, but the four others were captured, arrested and searched.

Authorities said their interrogation of the suspects revealed the Cambodians came from Kampong Cham province. They did not have passports and crossed the border through a fruit market behind the Rong Klua market to board the bus.

The suspects were identified as May Sen, 18, Sarae Mosa, 18, Guy Ma, 20, and El Sen, 20. May Sen had two pieces of paper wrapped around his arms. They featured diagrams and Malay messages.

Capt Charn Wongwaimethee, a company head from the Burapha Task Force, said the four Cambodians refused to answer questions.

In another development, health concerns and terrorist attacks are understood to have reduced the hotel room occupancy rate for Malaysian visitors in Songkhla's Hat Yai district by about 20%.

Hat Yai-Songkhla Hotel Association president Somchart Pimthanapoonporn said Malaysians normally crowded Hat Yai from Aug 29 to 31 during celebrations for National Day in Malaysia.

He said Malaysian tourists had booked rooms in Hat Yai but 20% of reservations had been cancelled because of fears of the type-A (H1N1) flu pandemic and continuing terrorist attacks in the South.

Mr Somchart said that with the remaining 80% occupancy rate, visitors were expected to spend at least 50 million baht during the Malaysian holiday.

In Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district yesterday, defence volunteer Makorseng Maniding, 50, was shot several times at 3.45pm by a pillion passenger on a motorcycle.

He died from his injuries.

Swiss man charged with abuse

PHNOM PENH - A CAMBODIAN court has charged a Swiss man with sexually abusing two minors, a government official said on Sunday.

Police said Rudolph Knuchel, 62, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of the sexual abuse of two boys, aged 14 and 16, after bringing them to his home in Siem Reap province.

'The judge has charged him for child sex abuse,' said Sun Bunthorng, the director of the government department that deals with human trafficking and protecting minors.

He said police also found evidence of child porn videos on Knuchel's computer.

The judge could not be contacted for comment Sunday.

Samleang Seila, director of the anti-paedophile group Action Pour Les Enfants, which helped in the arrest, told AFP that his team and police had been tracking the man's action for nearly a year.

Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for paedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003. -- AFP

Typhoon heads for Japan

TOKYO - A TYPHOON churned towards the Tokyo region on Sunday as Japan went to the polls for a vote widely expected to end more than half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule.

Typhoon Krovanh, named after a Cambodian tree, was over the Pacific Ocean, more than 600 kilometres southeast of the Japanese capital early on Sunday.

'There is a possibility that it will hit eastern Japan' early on Monday, an official from Japan's meteorological agency said.

The storm was packing gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour near its centre and moving northwest.

The agency has warned of heavy rain, strong winds and high waves for areas along the Pacific coast.
----------------------------------------
Typhoon draws bead on Kanto, spurs flood alert
Kyodo News

Typhoon Krovanh was moving west-northwestward Sunday in the Pacific Ocean and was expected to approach parts of the Kanto region Monday, weather forecasters said.

The typhoon, named after a Cambodian tree, was nearly 160 km south-southeast of Hachijo Island, about 300 km south of Tokyo, at 9 p.m. Sunday with a maximum wind velocity of 144 kph, the Meteorological Agency said.

Waves of 6 to 7 meters were expected Monday near the Izu chain of islands as well as off the Pacific coasts of eastern and northeastern Japan, where winds gradually strengthened from midday, the agency said.

Parts of eastern Japan saw rainfall pick up Sunday evening, it said.

By Monday evening, 300 mm of rain was expected in many parts of Kanto.


The landmark election is expected to see the untested centre-left Democratic Party of Japan oust the Liberal Democratic Party from government. -- AFP

Sunday 30 August 2009

Wife found her husband after he went missing for 20 days

The woman standing in front of her husband's car to block him from driving off.

Source: Deum Ampil newspaper
Reported in English by Khmerization

A woman found her husband, 20 days after he went missing. But when she found him, instead of a scream of joy, she screamed in anger causing panic and curiosity among passersby.

A 45 year old man went missing for 20 days with his luxury Lexus at a time when one of his children was very sick and when his wife went to do business in Siem Reap. After the man failed to return home, the wife cut short her trip and returned to look for him across Phnom Penh City.

At 11:40 pm today (30th), passersby and shoppers were alerted by a loud scream. They looked toward to the scream and saw a lone woman standing in front of a luxury 4-wheel drive Lexus. Fearing that she was hit by the luxury Lexus, they all ran to investigate. But the woman was fine. She was not hit by the car, instead she screamed because her 'lost' husband was driving his luxury Lexus with a beautiful young girl by his side.

The police was called. At the police station, the alleged wife accused the young girl of being her husband's mistress. The husband responded that the girl is merely a relative. The young girl also concurred the man's story. But the wife responded "if she is your relative, how come I never knew her?" The man and the young girl were dumbfounded.

Now, it is the turn to verify if the woman is really the real wife of the man as the man did not admit either way whether she is his wife or not. In order to prove that she is his real wife, she called all her children to come to the police station to prove it.

After a long talk, the parties reached a reconciliation and the husband agreed to return home leaving a teary young mistress distraught.

The woman said when she went to Siem Reap she got a call from a neighbour that her husband was going out with a young girl everyday. As a result, she cut short her trip to Siem Reap to return home to confront him and caught him red-handed with his beautiful young mistress by his side in their luxury Lexus.

Mr. You Hok Sim, commander of Monorom Police Station, confirmed the story to Deum Ampil. "Yes, there is a case happening as described above, but when the police called them to a round table discussion, they were reconciled and have now returned back home happily together."

According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the unnamed man is a senior anti-drug trafficking police officer and is also a senior advisor to the leader of the Cambodian parliament (Mr. Heng Samrin's adivsor?).

500 soldiers from Division 11 withdrawn from Preah Vihear

A convoy of military trucks transporting soldiers from Division 11 passing through Phnom Penh to Takeo on 28th August.

Source: Khmer Sthapana newspaper
Reported in English by Khmerization

Cambodia had unilaterally begun to withdraw troops from the disputed borders with Thailand under order from Prime Minister Hun Sen to cut troops by 50% from the disputed border areas.

At 4 am on 28th August, 500 troops from Division 11 had been withdrawn from Preah Vihear in a convoy of 36 American-made military trucks to return back to their barracks in Takeo.

Gen. Chea Drara, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Cambodian Armed Forces in charge of the Preah Vihear operations, said these 500 soldiers are the first batch to be withdrawn from the borders.

Prime Minister Hun Sen unilaterally ordered the troops withdrawals because he needs the troops to help Cambodian farmers who face the drought and also because the border situations have eased significantly since 25th August.

However, troops from Division 3 under Gen. Srey Doek's command based around the Preah Vihear temple complex will not be withdrawn.

Police shooting at each other over corrupt money

Source: Koh Santepheap Daily
Reported in English by Khmerization

Police Inspector of Phnom Penh's Sen Sok District and his deputy have shot at each other in a dispute over bribery money they received for helping people to settle disputes.

According to Koh Santepheap, Police Inspector of Sen Sok District, Mr. Mok Hong, received $1000 in bribery from a person whom he helped to settle the disputes. Mr. Mok Hong gave only $50 to Mr. Cheav Vibol who is his deputy. Mr. Cheav Vibol was upset that Mr. Mok Hong didn't share a reasonable amount of the bribery money with him so he went to see Mok Hong in a carpark at 8 pm on the night on 26th August.

After a short talk, the discussion culminated into heated exchanges and Inspector Mok Hong allegedly pulled out a loaded AK-47 from his car intending to shoot, but Deputy Inspector Cheav Vibol's bodyguard named Makara pulled out his revolver and fired 5 shots into the air by also calling to his boss to duck for cover and demanded that Mok Hong drop his gun.

Inspector Mok Hong then got into his car and drove off. Deputy Inspector Cheav Vibol and his bodyguard followed and when they got to Dey Hoy Market they got into another verbal exchange again, but the police based on the spot intervened for them to stop.

The incident has caused panic to Sen Sok residents who run for cover, but no one was hurt during the gunfires.

Koh Santepheap also reported that in the past Inspector Mok Hong has upset many of his subordinates because he refused to share bribery money he received from people with them. On top of this, he was always very disrepectful and rude to his subordinates when giving orders.

CRACKDOWN ON FORCED BEGGING & CHILD LABOUR

CRACKDOWN ON FORCED BEGGING & CHILD LABOUR
Updated: [August 29, 2009 ]

Pattaya, Friday 29th August,[PDN]: Tourist Police Break a human trafficking gang; - A nest of Cambodian children being forced into begging, but gang members managed to escape.

At 09:00 pm on 28th August, Police Lieutenant Colonel Suwan Aun-Anan of the Pattaya Tourist Police with his team of 20-officers, were patrolling the nightlife area and managed to arrest a group of 25-Cambodian mothers, [aged 30-40 years] and their children [between 3-5 years old].

The poor mothers and their children confessed that they were beggars and that they worked for five Thai men, who had been forcing them to beg at many various points in the Pattaya area. The men had taken them by motor bikes to different area, and at each stop had sometimes left a mother and her child. However, in some areas they had left only a poor young child to sit alone, in order for them to get more sympathy.

Every 3-4 hours, the Thai men had come back to pick up the money that was earned, and the poor mothers and their children were given only 100-baht each day, out of 400-500 baht they had normally made.


After receiving initial information, the police team raided a row of houses on Pattaya’s North (Naklua) Road, (Moo 5), that the Thai human trafficking gang had rented out as accommodation for their beggars.

At these houses, police found another 16-Khmer beggars, and none of the Cambodian forced beggars had any legal documentation to access the Kingdom of Thailand. They had sneaked in through the Chanthaburi and Sa-Kaew borders, and they claimed that after this, they were trickily persuaded to work in Pattaya by the Thai men.


The Pattaya Tourist Police inspector, Lt. Col. Suwan, revealed that his police team had been watching the criminal gang for quite some time. The police had a collection of photos and videos of the gang’s operations, but at the time of the arrests, the gang members had managed to escape.

However, the police already have their details, with enough evidence to bring them to justice. The Cambodian mothers and children will be prosecuted and deported back to their own country. Everyone is appalled that poor young children, who cannot defend themselves, should be treated in such a callous manner, and our police are to be applauded for stamping out such disgraceful criminal activities.

Saturday 29 August 2009

For love of tomatoes: Couple has cultivated a bountiful life

Saturday, August 29, 2009
By Mark Reynolds


Journal Staff Writer
mreynold@projo.com

Saran Gnoato, originally from Cambodia, grows tomatoes in her garden at home on Netop Drive in South Providence.

The Providence Journal

Sandor Bodo

PROVIDENCE — Saran Gnoato and her husband are an unlikely couple who came to Rhode Island from opposite sides of the world, overcoming war and cultural barriers to discover a mutual affection for a ripe, juicy, homegrown tomato.

The tomatoes they grow in the backyard of their Elmwood home from imported seeds have resisted the blight that has affected many tomato crops this summer. And they are big. Some weigh in at 2½ pounds.

The success the couple have had growing the fruit may have something to do with the place tomatoes have had in their lives.

Gnoato says that tomatoes make her happy, and she realizes now that what her mother and her grandmother told her when she was a little girl was quite true. They told her that a homegrown garden would help her “eat good and look good and see the flowers,” she says. She could do it herself and never need to worry about anything, they told her.

“It’s true,” she says. “I have a happy life. You can see. My husband comes home from work. We have a beautiful house and a great yard where everyone wants to be. You can see.”

Her adoring neighbors, quite aware of the tomato-growing talents next door, visit often. Gnoato, 53, sends them home each summer with their hands full. Sometimes she even pushes her produce on strangers who pass by her Netop Drive home.

Gnoato’s family never bought vegetables from the market when she was growing up in western Cambodia in the ’60s.

Each morning when she headed off to school, she saw her mother and grandmother tending tomatoes and cucumbers and rosemary in the garden.

The tomatoes were her favorite. She relished the flavor and texture of the fruit’s skin.

This bucolic farming life came to a violent end in 1975 when the brutal regime of Pol Pot came to power. She was 19 years old when the Khmer Rouge took control of her neighborhood.

One of her older brothers, an army captain, was slain.

The Khmer Rouge corralled the family into a work camp, where she had to make do without fresh vegetables. The Khmer would dilute two or three cans of soup in a massive bowl of water to serve a large group of people. Death was everywhere, she recalls.

“They wanted to kill us,” she says.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died of starvation, disease, torture and overwork in the camps during Pol Pot’s four-year reign, which focused on creating a peasant society — the communist ideal in the view of the Khmer Rouge.

Visions of a happier, more-nourished existence crept into Gnoato’s mind whenever the work at the camp ceased and she had a chance to sit down, often on a hillside. In those moments, she told herself she didn’t need to be rich if she ever made it to a free country. No. She only needed good food.

Tomatoes.

She escaped with her parents and three siblings in the fall of 1979. They hiked into southern Thailand, where they were held in an internment camp near the Cambodian border.

A year later, the young woman arrived in Rhode Island. She was hired at Scuccato Corp., an East Providence jewelry manufacturer.

Despite her malformed fingers, a birth defect, she became an expert jewelry solderer, controlling a needle-like tool with a 3,000-degree flame. She churned out bracelets, necklaces and other pieces of jewelry.

Her future husband, Daniel Gnoato, a toolmaker, arrived from Italy on a Wednesday in 1984 and met her that Saturday at a wedding reception. He, too, loved tomatoes. But the subject didn’t come up early on.

In general, they didn’t say much to each other because he didn’t speak English and she didn’t speak Italian. His sister didn’t like the idea of him dating a Cambodian, and her mother slapped her for going out on dates with someone she hadn’t married.

She says she worried for some time that marriage would require the sort of submissiveness that husbands frequently demand from wives in Cambodian culture.

The couple didn’t discover their mutual tomato love until about five years after they had met. By then, they were married and living on Netop Drive.

They planted their first crop on a St. Patrick’s Day.

He tilled an area in the yard and fertilized it with manure, moss and lime; she planted the seeds and watered religiously, often early in the morning.

But the tomatoes from that garden just weren’t up to snuff.

“They weren’t meaty enough,” says Daniel Gnoato, a 58-year-old machinist at Electric Boat in Quonset.

So about eight years ago, during a summer visit to see his family in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, they picked up some high-grade European seed. They planted the seeds the following March and harvested the new crop that summer.

The neighbors have been awestruck ever since.

Thai ultra-nationalists protested against troop withdrawal from Preah Vihear

On 18th June 2008, 5000 Thai yellow shirt protesters marched to Preah Vihear but were stopped by Thai security forces before they reached the temple.

Source: everyday.com.kh
Reported in English by Khmerization

Sources from Bangkok said on Friday 28th, a group of 60 Thai ultra-nationalists led by Tolsit Sumwong, staged a protest in front of the Thai parliament to appeal to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to cancel a draft agreement with Cambodia and to oppose troop withdrawals from Wat Keo Sekha Kirisvarak where they based since they have occupied the areas on 15th July 2008.

They said if Thai troops are withdrawn from the areas, Thailand will lose 4.6 km2 because Cambodian troops and villagers will come to live in the areas.

The group are also opposed to the draft border agreement between Cambodia and Thailand which is awaiting ratification by the Thai parliament.

Another group of Thai ultra-nationalists led by Vira Sumkwamkid planned to march to Preah Vihear and Ta Thav Pass on the same day.

Khieu Kanharith to lead a Kan Ben Ceremony to Kampuchea Krom


Source: Khmer Sthapana newspaper
Reported in English by Khmerization

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith (pictured) will lead a Kan Ben Ceremony to Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda in Preah Tropeang province (Tra Vinh) in Kampuchea Krom in early September.

Kan Ben is a process where people or a group of people taking turning to offer food to the monks leading up to the Pchum Ben Ceremony, which is an important ceremony in the Cambodian ancestral tradition when surviving relatives go to the temple to pray and make food and alm offerings to their ancestors.

Mr. Kanharith told reporters on the afternoon of 28th that Kan Ben delegation will travel to Preah Tropeang province in Southern Vietnam and stay in Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda one night before returning back to Cambodia because the journey will take 10 hours each way.

Mr. Kanharith said Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda was built more than 600 years ago when Preah Trpopeang province was still a Khmer territory. He said his Kan Ben to Kampuchea Krom was also to make Khmer people more aware of Kampuchea Krom territories and the Khmer Krom living there. "The majority of Khmers living here (in Cambodia) do not know much about Kampuchea Krom, so we must go there once and also because Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda is more ancient than most temples (in Kampuchea Krom)", he said.

Mr. Kanharith said the ideas of organising a Kan Ben to Kampuchea was initiated by him in co-operation with a Buddhist Patriarch from Wat Lanka temple in Phnom Penh. He said most Buddhist monks who will accompany him to Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda come from Wat Lanka. He said this is the first such Kan Ben being led from Cambodia to Kampuchea Krom and he hopes to lead such a ceremony to other Buddhist temples in other parts of Kampuchea Krom in the future.

Mr. Thach Setha, ex-senator from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party and president of Kampuchea Krom Association in Phnom Penh, welcomes Mr. Kanharith's Kan Ben to Kampuchea Krom and called for more official visits from Cambodian officials to the territories of Kampuchea Krom.

US Congress to review the violations of human rights and abuses of the judicial system in Cambodia


SRP MP Mu Sochua and Ho Vann
Forced eviction in Dey Krahorm

27 August 2009
By Moeung Tum
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy for Ki-Media

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) of the US Congress plans to hold a public hearing to discuss the current violations of human rights and abuses of the judicial system in Cambodia.

The public hearing is scheduled for 10 September 2009, between 1 and 3 PM at the US Congress in Washington DC.

According to the announcement issued by office of the co-chairs of the US Congresss human rights committee, dated 26 August 2009, the committee plans to invite SRP MP Mu Sochua, Dr. Pung Chiv Kek, President of the Licadho human rights group, Moeun Tola, President of the Cambodia Labor Organization, to participate in the hearing, as well as representatives of the US State Department.

The public hearing plans to focus on social problems in Cambodia. The TLHRC organized this public hearing after it received numerous information from trusted sources showing that the Phnom Penh regime is using the legal system to discriminate against the opposition and opposition activists, against journalists who criticize the government and against victims of land dispute cases. The government does not provide justice to people in the resolution of land disputes, but instead, it is supporting the companies [accused of land-grabbing] in full violation of human rights. These issues are major concerns for the US.

Authority identified source of anti-Hun Sen leaflets


Source: Radio Free Asia
Reported in English by Khmerization

Phnom Penh Police Commissioner Gen. Touch Naroth said the authority has identified the source and a group of people who distributed hundreds of leaflets attacking Prime Minister Hun Sen (pictured) as a "puppet of Vietnam" and as of being too "corrupt".

Gen. Touch Naroth said the authority have not yet gathered enough evidence to charge those people. "Now we are still investigating the case, but I cannot tell you in details yet", he said.

On 19th August, hundreds of anti-Hun Sen leaflets have been seen scattered in Phnom Penh. The names of Pan Sovanney, Sreng Vuthy, Kim Sopheak, Chea Socheap and Chim Thoeun were listed on the top page of the leaflets.

On the leaflets, there is a picture of Prime Minister Hun Sen and a caption which reads "Mr. Hun Sen is a dictator of Cambodia who is a life-long slave of the Vietnamese". The leaflets also called on "all Khmers to rise up against the present regime".

Gen. Touch Naroth said the leaflets falsify the truth and are characteristic of the Khmer Rouge mentality. He said: "First, they talk about 7th January as the day of the Vietnamese invasion, but people recognised that they have survived the Pol Pot regime (because of this invasion) and the king has also signed a royal decree recognising that day. So when they falsify the truth it look like they are the Pol Potists. Second, they made accusations against the head of the government (Mr. Hun Sen), but all people acknowledged his leadership, that's why they voted for him. So, the people are tired of hearing such issues (accusations) and they don't even read them but collected them and handed to us. But we, as an authority, don't care what they think but we will investigate and search for those who committed this offence in order to create turmoil".

Local media reported that Kim Sopheak, one of those named on the leaflets who vehemently denied any involments, has sought refuge with the UNHCR Office in Phnom Penh, but a UNHCR official denied Kim Sopheak is hiding in the UNHCR Office.

A female supporter of Thaksin jailed for 18 years for lese majeste


Under the tough lese majeste laws in Thailand, even the slightest criticism of King Bhumibol (pictured) can result in long jail term.

Source:
Deum Ampil newspaper
Reported in English by Khmerization

A Thai court has on Friday 28th sentenced a woman to 18 years jail for lese majeste under article 112 of the criminal code.

46 year-old Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, better known as Da Torpedo, who is a supporter of ex-PM Thaksin, was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for insulting King Bhumibol Adulyadej during an anti-government protest at Sanam Luang Park near the Royal Palace in June last year.

The woman was sentenced for allegedly making remarks criticising the military coup which toppled Mr. Thaksin in September 2006.

During the trial, 30 "red shirt" anti-government protesters showed up in court but no one was wearing the red shirt, a trademark of their anti-government protests.
--------------------------------------------

Royal slur gets Da Torpedo 18 years jail

Writer: POST REPORTERS
Published: 29/08/2009
Newspaper section: News

The Criminal Court has sentenced Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, better known as Da Torpedo, to 18 years in prison without probation for insulting the monarchy.

Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, better known as Da Torpedo, has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for lese majeste in connection with speeches shemade at United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship rallies held at Sanam Luang last year. SURAPOL PROMSAKA NA SAKOL NAKORN

Daranee, a key speaker of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, was yesterday found guilty of lese majeste by the court in connection with speeches she made at UDD rallies at Sanam Luang on Jan 18, June 7 and June 13 last year.

The court said three undercover police officers from Chana Songkhram police station were present at the rallies and recorded Daranee's speeches, deemed offensive to the monarchy, as evidence.

The court said even though during the trial Daranee claimed she could not remember the details of her speeches or the dates and the times when she made them, she failed to come up with proof that she did not make the lese majeste speeches as charged.

Even though the lese majeste speeches had no consequences as it seemed the audience did not believe what she said, the defendant still could not be acquitted of the crime, the court said.

Prawes Prapanukul, her lawyer, said he would lodge an appeal and wait for the Supreme Court's final decision before considering filing a petition for a royal pardon for Daranee.

Daranee was arrested at her house in Chatuchak district in July last year after the Criminal Court issued a warrant for her arrest.

She has since been detained at the Central Women's Correctional Institute in Bangkok's Chatuchak district, where she is being considered for a volunteer job as an announcer at prison events.


Thai Trial for 16 Cambodians Delayed

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 August 2009

A Thai provincial court on Friday postponed a hearing for 16 Cambodians who have been charged with illegal entry and illegal logging on Thai soil.

The group was arrested late last month, but Cambodian officials say they had not crossed into Thailand when they were arrested. The Ubon provincial court will hear the case Sept. 23.

The Cambodians live near the disputed border at Preah Vihear temple, and officials say they were looking for wild honey and wood in the forest.

“The Thai court ordered a reinvestigation of the cases…because there was not enough evidence to try them,” said Koy Kong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The 16 had “absolutely denied” the charges against them, leading to the decision, he said.

Cambodia is providing an independent lawyer to defend them, and the consulate in Sras Keo province was working hard on the case as well, he said.

Sar Thavy, Preah Vihear deputy governor, said he had requested the 16 be returned.

“I believe the Cambodians could not go to cut trees inside Thailand, because the mountain is high and the walk is difficult to the top of the mountain,” he said.

The case comes at a time of easing tensions over a longstanding border dispute, with Cambodians withdrawing some of its troops from positions near Preah Vihear temple earlier this week.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Banteay Meanchey provincial court sentenced a Thai man to three months in jail for illegal entry into Cambodia.

Authorities had originally sought to charge him for insulting the national symbol of Angkor Wat, by carving its image into cement near a public toilet in Poipet.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Newest Evacuation ‘Biggest in Decades'

Hun Sen's cronies: Lao Meng Khin (under the umbrella) and Chhoeung Sopheap aka Yay Phu (in red blouse) (Photo: CPP)

Written by Robert Carmichael
Australia.to News

PHNOM PENH, Aug 28 (IPS) - Dozens of families this week started dismantling their homes and moving away from lakeside land in the centre of the capital after giving up on their lengthy struggle to remain. By the end of the eviction process at this site, around 30,000 people will have been moved off now-valuable land.

Human rights workers said it will be the biggest movement of Cambodians from their homes in decades.

Residents do not want to leave, but said they are being driven out by threats from the municipality. Some have not given up yet.

Sixty-seven-year-old Pol Vanna has lived at Village Four at the city centre site, called Boeung Kak, since the early 1980s. The former railwayman is adamantly opposed to moving to the relocation site to a field with no facilities some 30 kilometres away.

”We don't want to leave Boeung Kak,” he told IPS during a small demonstration outside City Hall earlier this month. ”The company should give us some land for us to live on instead of forcing us to move away. I don't understand why they can't give us the land.”

The company in question is Shukaku, which reportedly belongs to Senator Lau Meng Khin from the ruling Cambodian People's Party. His firm received a 99-year lease from the government last year in a typically opaque land deal. Since then, it has been pumping huge amounts of sand into the lake in order to fill it and create more land on which to build.

Evictions are nothing new in Cambodia. At least 100,000 people have been evicted from sites in this capital alone since 2001. The problem is widespread in rural areas, too. The rocketing price of land means there are huge profits to be made, says Naly Pilorge, the director of local human rights group LICADHO, or the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights. She said greed and impunity are driving the problem.

The number of people affected nationwide is not clear. Amnesty International said last year that 150,000 were at risk of eviction. LICADHO, which operates in 13 of the country's 24 provinces, says the numbers of land grabs, evictions and threatened evictions reported to its staff have climbed from around 2,600 cases in 2003 to more than 16,000 in 2008.

Pilorge said that equates to more than a quarter of a million Cambodians in just six years. The true number is certainly higher, she added. ”I bet you anything if we had twice as many (staff), we would have twice as many cases.”

Uprooting people and relocating them to distant sites where there is no work and few facilities is hardly conducive to poverty alleviation even if that is a stated key concern of government. Pilorge said many evictees at relocation sites outside the capital have been pushed below the poverty line.

One such group of residents was violently evicted in January from a city centre site called Dey Krahorm, which means ‘Red Earth'. There were two broad categories of people at Dey Krahorm: Those who could show they had a legal right to their land because they had lived there for an extended period, and those who were renting.

The evictees from Dey Krahorm were taken to a site called Damnak Trayeung, located outside Phnom Penh. Those who had an entitlement to land at Dey Krahorm received a simple one-room brick home, the size and design of a single garage. Families who were renting received nothing, and are still living under rough tarpaulin lean-tos on a muddy scrap of land next to a road.

There is very little work at Damnak Trayeung. And because the site is more than 20 kilometres from the centre and it would cost a day's wages to travel to and from work, many people no longer have jobs. According to Licadho, two-thirds of the evictees who used to earn an income now earn nothing.

Luy Sinath is a 41-year-old seamstress who used to earn eight US dollars a day at Dey Krahorm. Now she earns just 25 cents. That means her three children cannot afford to go to school, and her family is no longer self-sufficient. She relies on food handouts from charities to survive.

”We have no food to eat sometimes so people share what we have with each other,” she said. ”When I was in Dey Krahorm, I was hopeful that my children would get a good education, but now that we are here, I have lost hope.”

It is those experiences that worry Pol Vanna and his son, Touris, a 26-year-old construction worker. The latter has visited the proposed relocation site for the evictees from Boeung Kak, which he said lacks any facilities.

”It is very far from the schools for our children and from where we work. Most of us are construction workers,” he said. ”It is a long way to the nearest hospital. We can't afford to pay for transportation for our children.”

LICADHO's Naly Pilorge said conditions at some relocation sites outside Phnom Penh are dire, with practically no health care, no schools, no running water, no sanitation, and no jobs. At the Andong relocation site, for example, the human rights group's doctors go door-to-door because some residents are too ill or old to come to the medics.

”We are seeing malnutrition, beriberi, discolouration of the hair, extended bellies,” she said. ”They have sores (on their legs) at Andong û these huge infected wounds û because they are constantly walking in stagnant water that is mixed with sewerage.”

Back at Boeung Kak, the air is heavy with the sound of hammering as people dismantle homes they have lived in for up to 30 years. They are the first of an estimated 30,000 who will eventually be evicted from the surrounds of the lake.

It is still too early to say how their lives will be affected by the country's latest dubious land deal. But the experiences of Luy Sinath and others suggest the lives of the people from Boeung Kak will likely get a lot harder in the coming months.

Returnee holding centres to open


Friday, 28 August 2009
By Vong Sokheng
Phnom Penh Post

THE Minister of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation has announced a plan to open two temporary holding centres for Cambodians deported from Thailand and Vietnam.

In remarks at the ministry Wednesday, Ith Sam Heng said the government would set up centres in Poipet and Svay Rieng.

"We are conducting the appropriate studies before selecting locations for the temporary centres, which will give an opportunity to people kicked out of Thailand and Vietnam to have somewhere to stay before contacting their families," he said.

WE ARE CONDUCTING ... STUDIES BEFORE SELECTING LOCATIONS FOR ... THE ...CENTRES.



Ith Sam Heng could not be reached Thursday to elaborate on plans for the centres, and several secretaries of state at the ministry declined to comment.

Ou Virak (pictured), president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said he approved of the idea of the centres but said they should be operated in a transparent manner to ensure that people who are held there are not subject to rights abuses.

But Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, said he did not believe government money should be spent on the centres, arguing that there were not enough Cambodians deported each year to justify the expense.

Ith Sam Heng said in his remarks Wednesday that roughly 1,000 people could benefit from the holding centres each year.

Rong Chhun also called on the government to create more jobs in Cambodia so people would not feel compelled to move out of the country.

Friday 28 August 2009

New Australian Embassy Strengthens Good Relation with Cambodia

Ambassador Margaret Adamson

Written by DAP NEWS
Friday, 28 August 2009

The newly-constructed Australian Embassy, located near the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international cooperation of Cambodia, is scheduled to open for media briefing on September 1, the press release from embassy here obtained on Thursday said.

“The briefing will focus on the background information in the building of Australia’s relationship with Cambodia,” it said. “There will be a short tour around the building and the visitors will not be permitted to bring the cameras or mobile phones in the chancery and the embassy will have some photos available for media and media representatives have to confirm in advance.”

Bilateral trades between Cambodia and Australia in 2008 reached over USD 26 million and Cambodia imported products from Australia worth about USD 16 million and exported products totalling about USD 10 million, according to the Cambodian Commerce Ministry. “It increased about 20 per cent if comparing with 2007”, it says.

Cambodia and Australia have strengthened the relationship in trades and security and have co-operated in the fight against terrorism. Australia also helped training Cambodian officials.

In 2006, PM Hun Sen visited Australia. He and his then counterpart John Howard have signed various agreements with the Asia Link and the ANZ Royal Bank and Australia's BHP Billiton Company to develop the aluminum mines in Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces.

Billiton shelves bauxite mine


Friday, 28 August 2009
By Ith Sothoeuth and Nathan Green
Phnom Penh Post

BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi Corp have pulled out of a bauxite-mining concession in Mondulkiri province following exploratory drilling and have cancelled plans to build an aluminium refinery in the region, officials said this week.

The companies have informed the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy that they will not use their exclusive right to mine the area under the terms of a 2006 mineral-exploration agreement signed with the Cambodian government, a source inside the ministry said.

"They have filed the document officially, but it's not done yet because it needs to be sent to the Council of Ministers," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said he was unaware of the issue.

Poor returns
The source said a feasibility study, which cost US$10 million and covered 400 hectares of the company's 996-hectare concession, failed to find bauxite in sufficient quantities to make extraction profitable and justify the construction of the aluminium refinery.

Bauxite ore is the unrefined component of aluminium.

A spokesman for BHP Billiton said by email from Australia late Thursday: "We completed our exploration field work in the Mondulkiri province and are in the process of sharing our evaluation with the Royal Government of Cambodia. As such, we have reduced our presence in Phnom Penh."

However, the spokesman refused to give further details, saying only that "we do not comment publicly about the results of our exploration activities".

BHP Billiton was no longer in its Norodom Boulevard offices Thursday when the Post visited, and its project and risk manager, Dave McCracken, could not be reached on his mobile phone.

The general manager of Mitsubishi Corp's Phnom Penh representative office, Morihiko Kondo, refused to comment when approached by the Post on Thursday, saying only that inquiries should be directed to the joint-venture partner.

Kong Piseth, the chief of the Department of Industry, Mines and Energy in Mondulkiri province, said the joint venture had wound up its operations.

"The company has withdrawn from the site in Mondulkiri and even asked us to cut off the electricity," he said Thursday.
"I have the licence they asked for to continue the second phase, but I haven't seen them go back to work yet."

His deputy, Um Saran, said the company suspended its activities in February or March this year. "They have explored for nearly three years and drilled more than 1,000 holes," he said.

'Billions of dollars'
Australia's BHP, the world's largest mining company, and Japan's Mitsubishi, one of the world's largest diversified trading and investment companies, signed a mineral-exploration agreement with the government in September 2006, according to documents on BHP's Web site.

Exploration operations began in May 2007 and were due to conclude this year. No projections were made as to the likely quantity of bauxite reserves in the province, but Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told an investment conference in November 2007 that bauxite in Mondulkiri could result in an investment worth "billions of US dollars".

No estimate was ever publicised concerning the potential value to the province of the proposed aluminium refinery.

Cambodia's mining sector has long been wracked by controversy, with international NGO Global Witness slamming a "total lack" of transparency in the sector in a 70-page report released in February this year.

In Country for Sale, the London-based NGO said the government had granted more than 100 mining concessions - including 21 in 2008 - to companies controlled by "elite regime figures", with little environmental oversight.

It also singled out a 2007 comment by Lim Kean Hor, minister of water resources and meteorology, where he described a $2.5 million BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi social development fund as "tea money".