PHNOM PENH, 30 October 2012 (Cambodia Herald) - European Council President Herman Van
Rompuy (pictured) plans to visit Cambodia for three days from November 2 at the
invitation of Prime Minister Hun Sen, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and International Cooperation said Tuesday.
A statement said Van
Rompuy would meet Hun Sen as well as National Assembly President Heng
Samrin. He will also pay tribute to the late King Father and visit the
Genocide Museum at Toul Sleng.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012 By Chhay Channyda Phnom Penh Post
Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) and Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema (3rd R)
take part in an inauguration ceremony for a new flyover in the capital
in 2011. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
Prime
Minister Hun Sen seemingly came to the rescue of Phnom Penh governor Kep
Chuktema yesterday, reiterating a controversial assertion of Chuktema’s
that the late King-Father’s legacy had been all but destroyed by the
tumult of the Khmer Rouge.
Without naming Chuktema directly, the
premier endorsed the governor’s assertion that all of former King
Norodom Sihanouk’s physical legacy, in the form of roads, bridges and
economic development, were irreparably destroyed under the Khmer Rouge –
an opinion that has drawn fire ever since it was broadcast in a
televised interview on October 16.
In a speech at a graduation
ceremony in the Phnom Penh yesterday, Hun Sen said that after the
Democratic Kampuchea regime, the current government was left to start
the rebuilding process with “empty hands”.
“Most of the
achievements in the Sangkum Reastre Niyum era were destroyed – like the
paper factory in Chhloung district was damaged, and some bridges were
also destroyed, including Chrouy Changvar Bridge, but it was rebuilt for
use in 1993 or 1994,” Hun Sen said, noting that even the buildings that
were still standing were no longer salvageable.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012 ByJustine Drennan Phnom Penh Post
Lions rest in their enclosure at the Teuk Chhou zoo in Kampot province’s Thmei Village. Photograph: Vireak Mai/Phnom Penh Post
Kiri, an Asian elephant, plods over the grass at Kampot’s Teuk Chhou
Zoo, apparently unflapped by the blessing ceremony that monks have just
bestowed on his new enclosure. But he can’t have missed some other
changes in the zoo’s past year and a half.
Seventeen months ago,
Kiri’s partner, Siela, was so emaciated that she almost could squeeze
through the bars of the two elephants’ small, old enclosure. With little
shelter from rain or sun, the zoo’s lions, eagles, hornbills, leopards
and other animals starved in cramped, rusting metal cages.
“The
past 17 months were about stabilising what was really a pretty dire
situation,” says Rory Hunter, who with his wife, Melita, funded an
intensive effort led by Wildlife Alliance’s Nick Marx to improve the animals’ feeding and living conditions.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012 By Vong Sokheng Phnom Penh Post
Brad Pitt carries adopted Cambodian son Maddox as Angelina Jolie
carries adopted daughter Zahara in Mumbai in 2006. Photograph: Reuters
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday officially announced that a
ban on adoptions to the United States will be lifted on January 1.
In
2001, the US, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Australia suspended
adoption petitions citing the scant regulations in place. Cambodia later
instituted a ban of its own on all foreign adoptions in 2009, passing a
law that placed severe limitations on who was permitted to adopt
in-country.
The announcement came following a meeting between
Secretary of State Long Visalo and Ambassador Susan Jacobs, a US special
adviser for children’s issues, who has been visiting regional nations
this week.
“We made the law according to The Hague Adoption
Convention, and we are thinking about the future of Cambodian children,
as they will be able to receive a good education after being adopted,”
said Visalo. “We are not allowing them to be abandoned.”
Tuesday, 30 October 2012 By Kim Yuthana Phnom Penh Post
About
1,000 youth members of the Sam Rainsy Party will gather for a protest
in Phnom Penh next month to demand the release of political prisoners,
though the sweeping request did not include any specific names.
The
planned march is scheduled for November 8; party members will start out
at Freedom Park and head to the Royal Palace and Ministry of Justice.
Soung Sophorn, head of the Sam Rainsy Party Youth Movement, said that along
the way, he and others will file petitions with King Norodom Sihamoni
and the Ministry of Justice.
The announcement came not long after
a similar request for the release of political prisoners made by Prince
Sisowath Thomico in the wake of King Father Norodom Sihanouk’s death on
October 15.
Thomico, a personal aide to Sihanouk, appealed to
the government to release political prisoners such as Mam Sonando, an
independent radio station owner who was sentenced to 20 years in early
October for his role in a so-called secessionist plot.
View from high above Siem Reap. Photo / Getty Images
High on the roof of Le Tigre de Papier Restaurant I could be in Paris.
From here the city of Siem Reap with its tiled roof-tops reminds me that
until 1953 Cambodia was under French colonial rule. And though the
French might not have done the Cambodians much good in terms of
self-rule and infrastructure, the abiding architecture and layout of
this graceful river city has that unmistakable French feel.
And the food is fabulous. So here we are at one of the best of Siem
Reap's cooking schools (according to Diana, our guide) to learn how to
make the Cambodian dishes we've learned to love. Our fine-boned,
beautiful teacher, Navin, leads us up the stairs and into a cool airy
space.
It's fitted with gas hobs and hung with outsized pots and pans. Two
sides of the room have no walls, meaning the breeze flows through to
keep us cool. Everything is spotless. In the centre preparation table
there's a large jug of filtered iced water for us to drink and an enamel
basin containing more water and floating slices of lemon. "To wash your
hands," she says.
AUSTRALIA'S SENATE CALLS FOR DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN CAMBODIA IN LINE WITH U.N. RECOMMENDATIONS
The Australian Senate today adopted the following resolution on
Cambodia calling for free and fair elections in 2013 with full
participation of opposition leader Sam Rainsy, in line with recent
recommendations by the United Nations. "The [Australian] Senate:
a) Notes the recent report by the United Nations (UN) Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia which addresses the issue of
election organisation and makes a number of recommendations in order for
Cambodia’s general election in July 2013 to meet international
standards for democratic elections and for urgent and long-term reforms
to give Cambodians confidence in the electoral process; and
b) Calls on the Cambodian Government to hold free and fair elections
in 2013 and to ensure that opposition parties are able to participate
fully in Cambodian politics without physical or judicial harassment or
intimidation, including opposition leader Sam Rainsy, as recommended by
the UN Special Rapporteur."
The resolution was moved by Senator Christine Milne, leader of the
Australian Greens Party, following a visit to Canberra earlier this
month by a delegation of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) led
by opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha.
CNRP Secretariat
CANBERRA, Australia, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A
20-year-old Brazilian woman received a high bid of $780,000, auctioning
off her virginity for an Australian filmmaker's project.
Justin Sisley, whose VirginsWanted.com.au auction site is part of his
documentary project, said Catarina Migliorini, 20, received a high bid
of $780,000 from a Japanese man identified by the name Natsu, ABC
News/Univision reported Friday.
Sisley said Alexander Stepanov, 21, a male virgin offered on the
auction site, received a high bid of $3,000 from a Brazilian woman
identified as Nene B.
Sisley said he was skeptical of Migliorini's statements saying she
was planning to donate 90 percent of her money to charities building
housing for the poor in Brazil.
"I was surprised she said that because in all my dealings with her,
she made it clear that it was a business decision for her," he said.
"Now, given how big this story is in Brazil, she's trapped. If she
doesn't give any money to charity, she's going to look bad."
The website said the sexual encounters will take place on planes
flying over international waters to avoid violating any local laws.
Posted By Gordon Adams adams.foreignpolicy.com Monday, October 29, 2012
A recent small piece in Stars and Stripes about the Navy Seabees
working in Cambodia reminds me, yet again, of the mindless and increasingly
risky way the United States is engaging overseas. The Seabees, it seems, have
been building schools and health clinics and digging wells in Cambodia, all for
the greater good and benefit of the Cambodian people.
Last time I looked, Cambodia was not
a combat zone. There is not a question here of only being able to do good works
with our soldiers because the enemy abounds and civilians are not safe. That
was the reason the Seabees were created -- to provide engineering and
construction where only soldiers were safe. They were not created as a foreign
assistance force.
We have a foreign assistance force;
it is called the U.S. Agency for International Development, which operates with
the assistance of the State Department. But over the past ten years or so, we
have larded up our military with missions that USAID and State should be doing --
development, governance support, social support, training for ministries, public
diplomacy.
Iraq and Afghanistan and those
questionable Provincial Reconstruction Teams put military foreign aid on
steroids. The assumption that we have to bolster security around the world
using Special Operations forces, the Seabees, and other non-combat military
capabilities has expanded this type of engagement, with health clinics,
schools, and wells (is that the recipe in the Seabee handbook?) springing up in
the Horn of Africa and across the Sahel region. And now in Cambodia.
H&M claims to be "doing more than others" on garment worker wages
Swedish fashion retailer H&M
has hit back at accusations that it fails to pay adequate wages to
workers in Cambodian factories making its clothes - and says instead
that the situation would be a lot worse if it didn't source from the
country.
A Kalla Fakta documentary aired on Swedish television last week
claims Cambodian workers at H&M suppliers are paid just SWK3 ($0.45)
an hour.
But H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson told a press briefing that while
wages "could absolutely be better," companies like H&M have a
responsibility to "buy products from the companies in these countries."
"It leads to higher employment," he said, adding: "The alternative is extreme poverty.
"Asian wages are low, but that way the economy will grow and they employ millions of workers.
"It's about the country's competitive power. It would have been much
worse if we hadn't been there. But we want to be there and make a
difference and make sure it's going in the right direction.
"You can't change it overnight. There are many buying from these markets and from these suppliers. We must get others along.
A new Swedish documentary alleges that the retailer pays its Cambodian workers $.45 an hour.
Adam Berry
The
Swedish brand H&M has recently made headlines for its
collaborations with high-fashion designers, such as Maison Martin
Margiela, Marni, and Versace.
But
last week, a Swedish documentary series cast the international retailer
in a new light: as a potential violator of human rights. Kalla Fakta,
or “Cold Facts” in English, recently revealed a segment about H&M’s
use of underpaid laborers in Cambodia. The 22-minute report (that you
can watch with English subtitles here),
alleges that H&M's Cambodian workers are vastly underpaid. It
claims that the brand uses factories that pay their seamstresses a
reported average of $66 per month, representing only 25 percent of a
livable Cambodian wage. H&M disputed the episode’s claims, saying
that the documentary is riddled with inaccuracies – telling WWD that, “The angle in the program Kalla Fakta
is that H&M’s competitors are far ahead of H&M when it comes to
implementation of a so-called living wage…This is not correct.” They
also told the paper that their brand policy requires factories to pay a
minimum wage legally required of their respective country -- just $.45
per hour in Cambodia according to current exchange rates.
But H&M insists that they promote “the ambition that one should
be able to live off the salary.” However, the brand rarely lobbies for
new and progressive income policies in the countries where they
manufacture merchandise.
The
Philippine Islands are a one of those places that when he or she visits they
are sold on what the Philippines have to offer the tourist. Whether it is the
Philippine beaches, the number of islands offering island jumping at its
finest, with over 7,000 islands, the volcanoes, Tubbataha Reef, Puerto Princesa
River Quiapo, Palawan, Chocolate Hills, Boracay, Banaue Rice Terraces,
Pagsanjan Falls or Intramuros there is something for everyone to enjoy,
participate in or view. The Philippines holds a tourist treasure of things to
do and see and it is far from difficult to decide what a vacation venue should
hold.
From the shining seas to the lush green mountains of Sagada this vacation will
all be in the holder's eye. Don't be afraid of how to get from one place to
another as the Philippines has a wonderful and state of the art transit system
and network, making island hopping easier than ever.
If he or she just wonders where to start in a country that has so much to
offer, Manila, the capital city of the Philippines is a great start and holds
an exciting nightlife. Nightlife is also great in Angeles City and Puerto
Galera.
Like a toxic fungus spreading its roots throughout Cambodia, communist Vietnam is slowly and methodically colonizing and swallowing up its neighbor. Researchers estimate that over 40% of Cambodia's
voting population is comprised of Vietnamese migrants who have been
awarded citizenship and voting rights by Vietnam's puppet -- Cambodian
Prime Minister Hun Sen. As part of its colonization process, Vietnam has
established chapters of the United Front for National Construction and
Defense of Cambodia -- a cover for Vietnam's Fatherland Front -- in all
23 provinces of the country. Thugs from this parastatal "Front," often
supplemented by plainclothes police, are used to beat, disperse, and
sometimes kill demonstrators protesting religious and human rights
abuses, land grabbing, and other abuses by the government, which
provides Vietnamese officials with plausible deniability of its
repressive acts. The Hun Sen regime has also permitted Vietnam to place
"advisors" throughout the Cambodian government and military, including
those that oversee religious, cultural, and educational affairs.
After its failed and thinly-disguised attempt to colonize Cambodia
during its December 25, 1978 invasion and the subsequent 10-year
occupation, Vietnam was forced to withdraw its army with its dogmatic
tail between its legs with 52,000 dead and over 200,000 wounded.
Vietnam's army was in near-revolt, for Hanoi had promised that once it
took over South Vietnam following the US withdrawal, there would be
peace and soldiers would be given land to farm. In keeping with
Vietnam's historical strategy of gaining territory, referred to as đồn điền (military colonization) and as a sop to the Army, Hanoi demobilized about 200,000 of its troops in Eastern Cambodia.
These were given land titles and citizenship by the Vietnam's
newly-anointed puppet, the former Khmer Rouge Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The demobilized army units were kept as "ready reserve forces," and in
keeping with another historical term tây tiến (westward
movement), they soon brought their families, relatives, and friends,
followed by waves of illegal immigrants. Hun Sen has also conceded
several kilometers of land along the length of Cambodia's border with
Vietnam; from the Laotian border south to Kampot, which had been part of
the Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War.
PHNOM PENH, 29 Oct0ber 2012 (Cambodia Herald) - Cambodia marked eight years since King
Norodom Sihamoni (pictured) ascended the throne Monday, two weeks after the death
of the late King Father who abdicated on October 29 in 2004.
Sources
said Prime Minister Hun Sen and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An sent
letters to King Sihamoni. Hun Sen was quoted as saying that Cambodians
thanked both the king and the king father for helping people to live
peacefully.
Public buildings are still adorned with mourning portraits of the late king Norodom Sihanouk.
Ang Snuol district, Kandal province – As the last
layer of cement covered Lim Sreypich’s tomb on Friday afternoon, her
parents claimed that there has been a cover-up in the murder of their
19-year-old daughter, who was strangled to death on Tuesday by people
she reportedly met on Facebook.
Floral tributes and a portrait of Lim Sreypich, 19, at her funeral in Kandal province on Friday. (Siv Channa)
At Lim Sreypich’s funeral, her father, Lim Iengsor, said he was
stunned only one person was now being questioned by police even though
four people were originally arrested and thought to be linked to the kidnapping and killing.
“I think there are high-ranking, powerful people behind this killing,” Mr. Iengsor said.
Mr. Iengsor said he suspected a cover-up of the 24-year-old woman
arrested for the murders, while three other suspects were freed without
explanation on Friday. “They had a plan to prepare the [one] suspect and
to find her guilty,” he said.
Lim Sreypich’s parents said they believed more than one person was
involved and urged police to go further with their investigation.
Lim Sreypich, who last month became the first-ever winner of the Spy
Wine Cooler beauty contest, was found dumped in a canal in Kompong Speu
province’s Kong Pisei district.
After her body was found, police held a press conference on Thursday
where they said that Lim Sreypich’s alleged killer was Sun Kimheng, a
23-year-old woman she had befriended on the social networking website
Facebook.
Drawing from a long list of human rights abuses, the European
Parliament has urged the Cambodian government to stop forced evictions,
called on the European Commission (E.C.) to investigate the country’s
controversial land concessions policy, and raised the prospect of
sanctions.
A
man talks on his phone outside the European Union’s office in Phnom
Penh yesterday. The European Parliament in Brussels on Friday condemned
Cambodia for its human rights record. (Siv Channa)
In a resolution passed Friday in Brussels, the Parliament also
condemned two recent high-profile murders and court cases and urged the
government to fix “major flaws” in its election process.
The resolution is the strongest and highest level rebuke of
Cambodia’s human rights record in recent years from the European Union
(E.U.), Cambodia’s largest aid donor.
Though the resolution does not force the (E.C.) to act, it does call
on the commission “to investigate the escalation of human rights abuses
in Cambodia as a result of economic land concessions…and to temporarily
suspend [Everything But Arms] preferences on agricultural products from
Cambodia in cases where human rights abuses are identified.”
Ambassador Susan Jacobs met with Minister of Social Affairs Ith Sam Heng.
Xinhua | 29 October, 2012 By Agencies
Cambodia and the United
States agreed to resume adoptions from January 1 next year, Long Visalo,
secretary of state at Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said
Monday.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with visiting
Ambassador Susan Jacobs, special advisor for children's issues of the
United States, Long Visalo said that US citizens can request to adopt
Cambodian children from January 1, 2013.
"We set a quota of
between 100 and 200 children to the United States a year and a child
must be aged below 8 years old," he said. "We do not sell our children,
but find better future for them."
He said that Cambodia ratified the Hague Convention on Inter- Country Adoption in 2007.
Gen. Touch Naroth (pictured), former Phnom Penh Police Commissioner, who was sacked by Prime Minister Hun Sen in late September, has denied a rumour that he was summoned to the Interior Ministry and arrested this morning (29th October) for wrongdoings during his 7 years tenure as the Phnom Penh Police Chief.
Gen. Touch Naroth took over the job as Phnom Penh police chief in 2005 after Gen. Heng Pov was sacked due a personal dispute with the then National Police Commissioner Hok Lundy. Gen. Heng Pov was later extradited from Malaysia where he tried to seek political asylum and was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes he was allegedly to have committed during his tenure as Phnom Penh police chief.
PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) - Former Phnom Penh police commissioner
Touch Naroth dismissed Monday a rumor that he had been arrested after
being summoned to the Ministry of Interior.
He said he was invited to the ministry to discuss security and protection following the King Father's death.
Touch
Naroth was police commissioner for seven years before being transferred
to head the ministry's Bodyguard Department. He was succeeded by Major
General Choun Sovan.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that the country has no
plan to build a nuclear power plant for present time, citing nuclear
disasters in Ukraine and Japan.
He said that it was a
misunderstanding that a neighboring country (Thailand) reportedly said
that he allowed the construction of a nuclear power plant in Koh Kong
province.
"One asked to conduct a feasibility study for a nuclear
power plant in Koh Kong province, but I did not allow it," the premier
said at a graduation ceremony of students at Asia-Europe University. "It
is not the right time for Cambodia to build it."
Cambodia's
capacity has not reached the level of building the nuclear power plant,
he said, adding that even Indonesia has not yet reached that level.
His
clarification was made after The Bangkok Post of Thailand reported on
Oct. 10 that Thai Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha expressed concern over
Hun Sen's plan to build a nuclear power plant in Cambodia's Koh Kong
province adjacent to Thailand's Trat province.
Phnom Penh Penh, October 29, 2012(Bernama) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun sen said the country's economic growth is forecast at 7.0% and the inflation rate is expected to go down 2.9% this, Xinhua News Agency reported.
PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) - Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that
Cambodia's economic growth was expected to be seven percent this year
with inflation running at 2.9 percent.
"Our economy this year is
not bad. We can maintain economic growth at seven percent. We estimated
inflation at around five percent but the real figure is 2.9 percent," he
told a graduation ceremony.
"Cambodia has enough rice, the main issue is rice production for export," the prime minister said.
"We
can export a lot of textile products abroad despite economic
uncertainties in Europe and United States," he added. At the same time,
"the agriculture, industry, real estate, construction and tourism
sectors have improved."
As a Khmer, not a politician, at the time of Cambodia’s great mourning;
Sam Rainsy has done his part. Now it's up to the King and Premier Hun
Sen to decide.
There is no one else in Cambodia except Cambodia’s King and Prime
Minister that Sam Rainsy can ask for help for such a special request.
King Father Sihanouk has passed and for Sam Rainsy to go through
Vietnam, China or other nations for help is inappropriate because
according to Premier Hun Sen Cambodia is independent.
The rejection from the part of Hun Sen’s regime only gives Sam Rainsy a new ammunition to fight on to gain his credibility.
Communications among Khmer brothers must be continued. Without
communication, we will not be able to help each other build Cambodia.
Reaching
out to his opponent does not mean that Sam Rainsy is weak. It takes
courage to request his adversary's help in time of a great national
grief and respect.
Susan Jacobs, Special Advisor for Children's Issues Ambassador, shakes hand with a Cambodian official as Mr. Long Visalo, Secretary of State of Ministry Ministry, looks on. So far, there are about 5,000 Cambodian children have been adopted by families in Italy, France,. Australia, Canada, the UK, Germany and America.
Monday, 29 October 2012
ដោយៈ ដើមអម្ពិល(DAP): ID-014
Kampong Speu villagers in a land dispute with Phnom Penh Sugar Company
are confronted by police during a protest. Photograph: Will Baxter/Phnom
Penh Post
The European Parliament, representing one of the
country’s largest donors, on Friday called for a moratorium on forced
evictions, an overhaul of elections and even went so far as to suggest
to the European Union that it suspend tariff-free imports of
agricultural goods linked to human rights abuses in Cambodia.
In
the body’s motion, seven distinct areas of concern are listed, ranging
from a rise in violence against protesters to specific cases such as
that of Mam Sonando.
The parliament then calls for a number of
recommendations, the strongest of which is that the EU’s decision-making
body, the European Commission, temporarily halt its “Everything But Arms”
(EBA) trade agreement with the Cambodian government – which allows
Cambodian goods free access to European markets – “in cases where human
rights abuses are identified”.
Traffic police can expect a boost of 20 per cent to their base salaries
under a new plan outlined by the prime minister on Friday, Oct. 26,
2012. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post
The government
on Friday pledged a 20 per cent increase to the base salary of civil
servants year-on-year in a move one government official insisted was
based on economics, not politics.
The announcement was made in a
statement released over the weekend outlining government spending for
2013, which it said would rise from this year’s planned $2.6 billion in
spending to $3 billion for the next annual budget.
The promise
comes just weeks after Prime Minister Hun Sen ridiculed a similar carrot
dangled by the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party to the
electorate, which the premier intimated could only be funded by hitting
farmers with new taxes.
Council of Ministers spokesman Phay
Siphan said yesterday that no such taxes would be necessary and
explained the money for such a raise had been found from upwardly
revised predictions of GDP growth.
“We commit to raise 20 per
cent to the base salary. We understand that 20 per cent we can afford
with the GDP predictions,” he said.
About
1,000 local Buddhists representing nine villages in the capital’s Por
Sen Chey district have submitted a petition to municipal and national
religious authorities, calling for the ouster of a pagoda chief and the
defrocking of his younger brother, who allegedly assaulted another monk,
pagoda officials said.
According to the venerable Thong Samnang, deputy chief of Kork Khsach
pagoda in Phleung Chheh Rotesh commune, on October 17, angry that an
order of his had been disregarded, monk Choeng Engthi hurled a full can
of soda at fellow monk Cheang Vannara, striking him in the head.
He then proceeded to beat the fallen monk before ultimately fleeing with his brother, pagoda chief Choeng Engsour.
“When
the conflict was occurring, the venerable Choeng Engsour, as the chief
of pagoda, did not intervene... Instead, he ordered his brother to beat
the victim badly,” he said on Saturday.
“After beating and
causing the victim to be seriously wounded, [Engsour] drove his luxury
car up, and helped his younger brother escape from the pagoda,” he
added.
Engsour declined to comment, and Engthi could not be
reached. Vannara, for his part, maintained that he has received no money
from Engsour for his treatment, and that Engthi has yet to be arrested.
“According to the doctor, my skull now has been broken and it
will not recover,” he said, adding that he is echoing villagers’ demands
that the pair be removed, and he is asking for $3,000 in compensation.
United
Nations staff and other human-rights monitors are prevented by soldiers
from entering the site of a violent forced eviction in Kratie province
in May 2012. During the eviction a 14-year-old girl was killed by a
stray bullet. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
Sok
Chea is a success story. Having grown from a skinny baby to a beaming,
bright-eyed toddler, he’s proof that working together gets results.
The
MDG-Fund Joint Program for Children, Food Security and Nutrition that
helped Chea recover from malnutrition brings together the Royal
Government of Cambodia and six United Nations agencies.
But this diverse team shares a common goal: giving Cambodians like Chea and his family the future they want.
Every year, October 24 marks United Nations Day.
It’s
a day for all of us – the 27 specialised UN agencies, funds and
programs working together for peace, poverty reduction and human rights
in Cambodia – to reflect on what we’re here for: for people like Chea.
It’s a day when I like to think about the words of the UN Charter, the text that guides and inspires us.
Signed on October 24, 1945, these words define who we are, what we do and how we do it.
They are at the back of our minds at all times, as the UN strives to serve those for whom we work:
SIEM REAP (VNS)
— The Chief Judges of the Supreme People's Courts of Viet Nam, Laos and
Cambodia have co-chaired a meeting with judges from the three
countries' border localities with the aim of giving a boost to
co-operation in combating transnational crime.
The three-day meeting, the second of its kind, got under way on Saturday in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
In his opening speech, Cambodian Chief Judge Dith
Munthy said the meeting demonstrated a new move to show the
determination of the three countries' supreme courts to boost both
bilateral and multilateral co-operation in the fight against
transnational crime.
He stressed the task required a high sense of
political will from the three countries' administrations as well as
people's involvement, adequate infrastructure, quick information
sharing, and support from regional and international security partners.
Yim Plouk, the 86 year-old former army lieutenant colonel during the French colony and former Sihanouk's bodyguard, is showing off his medals and army decorations awarded by Sihanouk for his service to the ex-king and during his time in the army.
HAVING
volunteered at Colours of Cambodia and organised art exhibitions to
raise funds for it, Pei Yeou Bradley, who is also known as Honey Khor,
has published a book to spread the message of sharing and giving.
Khor, an artist who also teaches in a centre she set up in Puchong, teamed up with writer Martin Bradley to produce the book A Story of Colours of Cambodia.
Colours
of Cambodia is an non-governmental organisation established by William
Dewey Gentry in 2003 to teach art to the Khmer children.
The 148-page full-colour book began with the story of how Khor chanced upon the NGO during a holiday in Siem Reap.
Told
through Khor’s eyes, the story is essentially about Colours of Cambodia
— how Gentry founded the NGO, the people running the NGO in Siem Reap
and the children’s love for art.
The biggest issue many Cambodians are facing is land tenure.
Three years ago, a
few hundred small-scale farmers migrated from a district on Cambodia's
to Kratie. Later, according to the government, the villagers banded
together into a separatist movement. This so-called secession culminated
in a violent battle between villagers and security forces.
Up to a quarter of Cambodia's territory is claimed by private companies, displacing some 400,000 people.
Read original article and see more pictures at Al Jazeera.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- Nearly three years ago, a few hundred small-scale cassava farmers
migrated from a district on Cambodia's eastern border to Kratie, a
neighbouring province, where they heard there was farmland available in a
village called Broma.
The move was not unusual in this predominantly rural country, where
land tenure is shaky and poor farmers often uproot themselves for a
chance at acquiring land.
"Villagers went there expecting to make their living from farming.
They just wanted to survive," explained Bun Sothea, 22, one of the
migrants.
But what supposedly happened next was extraordinary. According to the
Cambodian government, the villagers allegedly banded together into a
separatist movement and decided to "secede" from the Southeast Asian
nation.
This so-called secession culminated in a violent battle between
villagers and security forces, in which soldiers shot and killed a
14-year-old girl who had been hiding underneath her house.
After
the Khmer Rouge abolished private property and instituted forced
communal farming, the country - which never had a strong tradition of
land ownership in the first place - was left in economic shambles.
Six months later, a total of 14 people have now been prosecuted and
convicted for spearheading the so-called Broma separatist movement,
including Mam Sonando, an elderly French-Cambodian who owns one of the
few independent radio stations here. He was sentenced earlier this month
to 20 years in prison.
But rights groups, internationals observers, and the villagers
themselves say that the "secessionist plot" is a convenient fiction
manufactured by the Cambodian government to justify the death of the
girl, Heng Chantha, during a forced eviction.
'No evidence'
The farmland where the villagers had settled was on the edge of a
15,000-hectare plantation that the government had granted to an
agroindustrial firm.
The company allegedly attempted to evict them starting in late 2011
so that it could plant rubber saplings. When villagers resisted,
hundreds of police and soldiers sealed off the village and called in a
helicopter for backup before storming in-and shooting Chantha in the
process.
Both rights workers and villagers insist that arrested radio
presenter Sonando did not even have a connection to the events in Broma,
other than broadcasting stories about them on his radio station.
"This entire court case was just for hiding the death of the girl
during the combat against villagers," says Am Sam Ath, the technical
supervisor for Licadho, a human rights group that campaigns against land
grabs and forced evictions. "There is no actual evidence proving that
there was an insurrection."
The
story gives an interesting pattern of behavior between fathers versus
fathers then sons versus sons. May be the Samsara cycle of Karma from
fathers to sons.
The relevance rang up in 1994 when Sam Raingsy, son of Sam Sary, was a
minister of finance and had a fall out with Norodom Rannridh, Sihanouk’s
son, the premier of Cambodia post 30 year war.
The twist of fate seems running from past to present generation. The
apparent political drama between Sam Raingsy and his estranged father
went in circular motion with Sihanouk in the center. Both became monk
after failures in personal politics.
Other hand the same goes for Sihanouk and Rannridh, his estranged son’s betrayal against his own deranged politics.
CAMBODIA: Sam the Whipper
Time- 21/7/1958
In 1955, at the first nationwide beauty contest ever staged in the
remote Indo-Chinese kingdom of Cambodia, Vice Premier Sam Sary was more
than an interested spectator. The judges could choose only one winner,
but Sary, a suave, Paris-educated ladies’ man, picked two. In no time at
all, the judges’ first choice, coffee-skinned, sarong-clad Tep Kanary,
was installed in Sary’s household. Later he added Iv Eng Seng, who was
only an also-ran with judges, to his collection.
Hero in Trouble. In Cambodia, this was all right with everybody.
Besides, Sam Sary was somebody special. As a delegate to the Geneva
Conference that ended the Indo-Chinese war in 1954, Sam Sary had become a
hero by leading the fight to prevent partition of Cambodia between
Communists and nonCommunists. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the King who
resigned to become Cambodia’s Premier, rewarded his longtime friend and
admirer (Sary is the Prince’s biographer) by promoting Sary to the
vice-premiership.
Then trouble became “Sad Sam” Sary’s middle name (TIME, June 10,
1957). Last summer powerful political enemies complained that Sary was
granting profitable import licenses to the wrong people, i.e., someone
other than Sary’s accusers. Tears in eyes, Sary crawled before Sihanouk
on hands and knees and asked to be relieved of his job. Tears in eyes,
Sihanouk let him go. In remorse, Sary shaved his head and eyebrows,
entered a Buddhist monastery.
In January of this year Sary was packed off into gilded exile as
Cambodia’s Ambassador to Britain. Sary’s entourage: his formidable No. 1
wife, *(Thioun) Em, a plump suffragette, and their five children,
ranging in age from 8 to 18; Tep Kanary, the young beauty queen, Sam’s
No. 2 wife and No. 1 mistress; the other beauty, Iv Eng Seng, was either
No. 3 wife or No. 2 mistress [By other accounts, the real name of Iv Eng Seng was Soeung Son Maly and she used to date Saloth Sar (Pol Pot), later dumping him for a more prosperous Sam Sary]. To get around British sensibilities, Iv
Eng Seng was listed as a governess. Whose business was it that she was
also pregnant? Sam Sary called on Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace
and presented his credentials.
The bilateral trade
volume between Cambodia and its neighboring Vietnam had jumped to $2.45
billion in the first nine months of this year, a 17 percent rise from
$2.09 billion at the same period last year, a report of Vietnam's Trade
Office in Phnom Penh showed Sunday.
During the January-September period this year, Cambodia's export to
Vietnam went up by 9.5 percent to $378 million, whilst Vietnam's export
to Cambodia rose by 18 percent to $2.07 billion.
Products Cambodia exported to Vietnam included unprocessed
agricultural products such as rice, corn, cassava, and rubber latex. In
exchange, Vietnam exported petroleum, construction materials,
information technology devices and equipment, agricultural machinery,
fertilizers, and consuming products to the country.
The two neighbors' trade volume last year was $2.8 billion, up 55 percent year-on-year.
Qatar Airways announced plans to launch daily scheduled flights to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh from early next year to further boost its Asia Pacific network. The Doha-based airline will be the only Middle Eastern carrier to operate into Cambodia with services due to start on February 20.
Phnom Penh will be Qatar Airways' latest destination in Asia, which now
represents around 30% of the carrier's 119-strong network of global
cities. Its Asian coverage includes diverse business and leisure cities
such as Hong Kong, Hanoi, Osaka, Tokyo, Perth, Beijing, Shanghai,
Melbourne, Perth, Delhi, Mumbai, Karachi and Goa.
Phnom Penh will
also be Qatar Airways' 11th gateway in the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN), following on from successful operations to Kuala
Lumpur, Bangkok, Bali, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Hanoi, Singapore,
Manila, Phuket and Yangon.
By William E. Todd, U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia
William E. Todd
Thank you all very much for reading my column. I
truly enjoy receiving and answering your questions. Please continue to
reach out to me at AskAMBToddPP@state.gov.
This week, I’d like
to talk about two very different issues, but both are important parts of
the U.S.-Cambodia relationship. The first is about adoptions between
our two countries. I wrote about this subject on my blog earlier this
week, but it is so significant that I wanted to discuss it in this
column as well.
There are many Americans who would like to
provide a loving home to orphan Cambodian children, so the issue of
inter-country adoptions between the United States and Cambodia is one
that I have followed closely since even before my arrival in Cambodia.
The need is clearly great, and as a father, it pulls at my heartstrings
to know that there are so many children in this world who grow up
without a loving family. I have met with many Cambodians and Americans
to discuss this important issue, and it is heartening to me that in
every instance those involved are concerned first and foremost with
protecting the interest of the children. Everyone agrees that in order
to keep these vulnerable children safe from predators and trafficking,
we must work together to ensure that each individual child will be
safely and legally cared for.
Oum Kunthea gets presents from Khmer Art Association director Sos Mach and actress Soda Nita
PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) - Fans of Oum Kunthea were recently shocked
to discover that the sexy singer is seriously ill and living in
poverty, according to the latest edition of Angkor Thom.
The
magazine spotted the singer and her two sons in a pond searching for
water lilies, morning glory, fish and snails to make their daily ends
meet.
Khmer Art Association director Sos Mach and actress Soda
Nita recently visited the family's broken-down house to provide some
financial assistance, the report said.
"This assistance will keep
my family from starving for a while," the weeping singer reportedly
said. "Some money will cover treatment I've owed to a doctor for a long
time."
PHNOM PENH(Cambodia Herald) - Pring Chanbot has revealed details of his engagement last week with a sister-in-law of Gen. Kun Kin is deputy commander-in chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.
The actor said his future wife, Koeng Sokha, is a businesswoman and the youngest of nine children, one of whom is married to the senior military officer.
"We have been in love for more than four months and plan to get married in January next year," he said. "She pushes me to work hard in my entertainment career."
Pring Chanbot recently returned to the industry after spending a long period as a monk.
Enjoy the week end with this upbeat song! We are meeting our community
in Seattle and Tacoma as well as Montreal and Lowell. The support from
all of you living outside of Cambodia has been very rewarding. A very
sincere expression of thanks.
Mr. Pol Ham and I will be in Seattle and Tacoma
Mr. Sam Rainsy and MP, Tioulong Saumura in Montreal and Lowell, Mass.
The
story gives an interesting pattern of behavior between fathers versus
fathers then sons versus sons. May be the Samsara cycle of Karma from
fathers to sons.
