Letter from Canadian MP Scott Simms to Minister Lawrence Cannon and Prime Minister Stephen Harper
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Labels: 1991 Paris Peace Accords | Canada | Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Sam Rainsy
Ongoing Brutal Evictions Are Among "Policies and Practices of The Past" Prohibited by The 1991 Paris Agreements on Cambodia
Suong Sophorn, a housing activist, can be seen held by his hair by
Hun Xen's violent cops. He was later beaten up some more (Licadho Video)
A bloodied Suong Sophorn is taken away by the cops (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)
Sam Rainsy's October 27, 2010 Letter to The Cambodia Daily
ONGOING BRUTAL EVICTIONS ARE AMONG "POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF THE PAST" PROHIBITED BY THE 1991 PARIS AGREEMENTS ON CAMBODIA
In your article titled “Lake Residents Ask Visiting UN Head to Stop Evictions” (October 26, page 29) you recalled, “Some 4,000 families were slated for eviction when [Phnom Penh] City Hall granted a 99-year lease for Boeng Kak lake and the surrounding villages to private developer Shukaku Inc in 2007.”
The plight of the Boeng Kak lake residents who are asking for help from UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, is only the latest tragedy in a long series of forced evictions both in Phnom Penh (Koh Pich, Sambok Chap, Dey Krahorm, Group 78, etc) and in the provinces where tens of thousands of poor and powerless farmers are victims of land confiscation and forced to leave their farms and homes.
Many strong and rightful arguments have been developed by land and housing rights groups who have come to the defense of the growing number of victims of forced evictions.
To my opinion, those citizens who have been, or are in the process of being, forcibly expelled from their homes, are entitled to ask for the intervention of Mr. Ba Ki-moon for another reason related to the Paris Agreements on Cambodia signed in 1991 with the participation of the United Nations.
In Part III dealing with “Human Rights,” Article 15 of the Agreement on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict stipulates, “Cambodia undertakes to take effective measures to ensure that the policies and practices of the past shall never be allowed to return,” while “The other Signatories to this Agreement undertake to promote and encourage respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cambodia […], in order, in particular, to prevent the recurrence of human rights abuses.”
The above-mentioned “policies and practices of the past” and past “human right abuses” are a diplomatic reference to crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge without naming any regime. Among those crimes, there were brutal expulsions of people from their homes with the victims being forced to move into hostile areas with no facilities whatsoever.
In 2010, after countless brutal evictions by the current government, there are many places on the outskirts of Phnom Penh which are reminiscent of some of the “policies and practices of the past.” One example is Andong village where some of the victims of recent land grabs have been inhumanly relocated, actually dumped.
The ongoing forced evictions in Cambodia, being similar to some of the Khmer Rouge practices, should not be tolerated by any signatories to the Paris Agreements who have committed themselves to defending human rights in Cambodia.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Report on Mu Sochua's Decision by the Supremely Biased Court
Click here to listen to the report in Khmer (MP3)
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Labels: CPP silencing the opposition voice | Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Mu Sochua vs Hun Sen
Supreme Court Ruling a Rubber Stamp of Appeal Court
PHNOM PENH – 02 June, 2010
We, Members of Parliament of the Sam Rainsy Party strongly denounce the ruling of the Supreme Court today, which unsurprisingly upheld the defamation conviction of MP Mu Sochua. The Court’s affirmance, despite the sheer lack of evidence against Mu Sochua, shows the court did not base its decision on an independent and impartial application of the facts to the elements of the law, but instead bowed to political manipulation by the executive.
This conviction demonstrates that constitutional protections and rights such as freedom of expression, fair trial by an independent tribunal, and equality before the law are meaningless when they are used to challenge the powerful.
Not only was there no legal basis for a defamation conviction of Mu Sochua, but this trial has revealed additional causes for great concern about the way the judiciary is run. In this political climate, where threatening speeches against government’s critics are regularly made by high-level officials, it is clear that the lawyer of Mu Sochua’s own choosing was intimidated and that no other lawyers would have dared to represent her. This violated her right to a fair and independent trial.
Further, in a free society, the people must be allowed to hold their leaders accountable, even if that means criticism. The government’s argument that public officials should be respected and not denounced is directly contradicted by the Constitution: Article 39 of the Constitution guarantees the right of Khmer citizens to denounce public officials for a breach of the law committed during the course of their duties. The comments made by the Prime Minister were derogatory and set a bad example for how women should be treated in Cambodia; such language is unacceptable, and perpetuates a culture of misogyny and discrimination against women. If Cambodia is to progress, it must allow space for the people to speak out when they see injustice.
Ironically, as international donors meet this week to discuss giving additional aid to Cambodia, the ineffectiveness of past aid to reform the judiciary and increase democratic space for free expression was made glaringly obvious with today’s ruling. Donors must condemn the lack of reforms of the judiciary in Cambodia and the direct manipulation of the justice system by the executive branch, and place more strict demands on the government to allow judges and lawyers to exercise their roles and functions according to the rule of law. The government must be held accountable to deliver clear results in the reforms of the judiciary and its commitment to democratic principles.
We acknowledge and highly value the presence of all local and international human rights organizations, trade union leaders, teachers, youth and women during the hearing today, and we call on civil society and the international community to continue their vigilance of the current surge of defamation cases against dissenting voices, and partisan political pressure on the judiciary.
More information, contact: 012 788 999
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Labels: Hun Sen silencing his critics | Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Mu Sochua vs Hun Sen
Mu Sochua stands firm on fines
Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua leads a march near Olympic Market after Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted her of defamation in August 2009. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)
Wednesday, 02 June 2010
Sebastian Strangio and Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post
OUTSPOKEN opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua has reiterated her stance that she will refuse to pay any fines associated with a long-running defamation case involving Prime Minister Hun Sen, as the Supreme Court prepared to make a final ruling on the case today.
In August, Phnom Penh Municipal Court found the Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian guilty of defaming Hun Sen and ordered her to pay 16.5 million riels (around US$3,975) in fines and compensation, a verdict that was upheld on appeal in October.
Mu Sochua said she is hoping for a fair hearing, but that she would prefer to face jail rather than pay the fine.
“That’s been my position from the beginning,” she said. “I have not committed any crime. My conscience is clear.”
The SRP lawmaker was sued by Hun Sen after she filed her own defamation suit, accusing him of insulting her during a speech in Kampot province in April 2009. Her own accusations were thrown out by the Appeal Court in October.
On Tuesday, she said the outcome of the case was about more than the prime minister’s insult.
“The Cambodian people are living in fear, and it is time to stand up,” she said. “This is not about my case – it’s about the national interest.”
SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said the party will stand behind Mu Sochua if she refuses to pay the court-ordered fines. “We are leaving that up to Mu Sochua. We don’t mind what her decision is,” he said.
Ky Tech, the government lawyer who represents Hun Sen, said that if Mu Sochua fails to carry out any court order she could be criminally liable. “If I win a case in the Supreme Court, I would request the court to enforce its decision,” he said.
In a legal analysis of the case made public Tuesday, the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) stated that the lower courts had failed to uphold Mu Sochua’s right to a fair trial and ignored her right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.
According to Article 63 of the UNTAC Penal Code, defamation is defined as “any bad faith allegation or imputation of a given fact which harms the honor or reputation of an individual”. CCHR, however, claims government lawyers failed to convincingly prove that Mu Sochua had harmed Hun Sen’s reputation or did so in “bad faith” – both key elements of the law.
“In this case it is difficult to look at the facts of the case and evidence presented and conclude that major doubts did not exist as to whether the elements of the offence had been proven,” the analysis stated.
Other observers said the Supreme Court’s ruling would be a litmus test for the Cambodian judiciary.
“It will be a crushing defeat for freedom of speech if the result goes against Mu Sochua,” said Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy.
He added that the protracted legal battle also reflected poorly on the country.
“It’s cost a lot of time and is not setting a good example for Cambodia,” he said.
Calls for international action
An NGO briefing paper released by 15 NGOs on Tuesday struck a similar tone, saying that foreign governments should address the issue of freedom of expression – including legal attacks on opposition lawmakers – when they meet in the capital today for a government-donor forum.
“For over a decade the international community has provided aid to Cambodia but most have remained largely quiet as human rights have been violated and democratic space eroded,” it stated.
“We call on the international donor community to take responsibility and speak out against the deterioration of rights and democracy in Cambodia. Doing nothing may be judged as tantamount to complicity.”
Sok Sam Oeun, executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, said that in cases involving high-ranking or powerful figures, the Supreme Court was often swayed by political considerations.
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Posted by Socheata | Permalink | | 6 comments | Links to this post
Labels: Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Mu Sochua vs Hun Sen
Phnom Penh denies Thai red shirts trained for unrest in Cambodia
Wed, 02 Jun 2010
DPA
Phnom Penh - The Cambodian government on Wednesday rejected claims carried by a Thai television station that Thai opposition supporters crossed into western Cambodia and were trained in fomenting unrest.
A government spokesman said Cambodia followed a policy of peaceful co-existence with all nations, and would not interfere in another country's internal affairs.
ASTV on Monday carried a report in which a Thai military commander claimed that red shirts had crossed into Oddar Meanchey province, where they were trained in techniques to stir up social unrest.
Click here to listen to the report in Khmer (MP3)
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Posted by Socheata | Permalink | | 10 comments | Links to this post
Labels: CPP silencing the opposition voice | Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Mu Sochua vs Hun Sen
Supreme Court Ruling a Rubber Stamp of Appeal Court
PHNOM PENH – 02 June, 2010
We, Members of Parliament of the Sam Rainsy Party strongly denounce the ruling of the Supreme Court today, which unsurprisingly upheld the defamation conviction of MP Mu Sochua. The Court’s affirmance, despite the sheer lack of evidence against Mu Sochua, shows the court did not base its decision on an independent and impartial application of the facts to the elements of the law, but instead bowed to political manipulation by the executive.
This conviction demonstrates that constitutional protections and rights such as freedom of expression, fair trial by an independent tribunal, and equality before the law are meaningless when they are used to challenge the powerful.
Not only was there no legal basis for a defamation conviction of Mu Sochua, but this trial has revealed additional causes for great concern about the way the judiciary is run. In this political climate, where threatening speeches against government’s critics are regularly made by high-level officials, it is clear that the lawyer of Mu Sochua’s own choosing was intimidated and that no other lawyers would have dared to represent her. This violated her right to a fair and independent trial.
Further, in a free society, the people must be allowed to hold their leaders accountable, even if that means criticism. The government’s argument that public officials should be respected and not denounced is directly contradicted by the Constitution: Article 39 of the Constitution guarantees the right of Khmer citizens to denounce public officials for a breach of the law committed during the course of their duties. The comments made by the Prime Minister were derogatory and set a bad example for how women should be treated in Cambodia; such language is unacceptable, and perpetuates a culture of misogyny and discrimination against women. If Cambodia is to progress, it must allow space for the people to speak out when they see injustice.
Ironically, as international donors meet this week to discuss giving additional aid to Cambodia, the ineffectiveness of past aid to reform the judiciary and increase democratic space for free expression was made glaringly obvious with today’s ruling. Donors must condemn the lack of reforms of the judiciary in Cambodia and the direct manipulation of the justice system by the executive branch, and place more strict demands on the government to allow judges and lawyers to exercise their roles and functions according to the rule of law. The government must be held accountable to deliver clear results in the reforms of the judiciary and its commitment to democratic principles.
We acknowledge and highly value the presence of all local and international human rights organizations, trade union leaders, teachers, youth and women during the hearing today, and we call on civil society and the international community to continue their vigilance of the current surge of defamation cases against dissenting voices, and partisan political pressure on the judiciary.
More information, contact: 012 788 999
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Posted by Socheata | Permalink | | 11 comments | Links to this post
Labels: Hun Sen silencing his critics | Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Mu Sochua vs Hun Sen
Mu Sochua stands firm on fines
Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua leads a march near Olympic Market after Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted her of defamation in August 2009. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)
Wednesday, 02 June 2010
Sebastian Strangio and Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post
OUTSPOKEN opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua has reiterated her stance that she will refuse to pay any fines associated with a long-running defamation case involving Prime Minister Hun Sen, as the Supreme Court prepared to make a final ruling on the case today.
In August, Phnom Penh Municipal Court found the Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian guilty of defaming Hun Sen and ordered her to pay 16.5 million riels (around US$3,975) in fines and compensation, a verdict that was upheld on appeal in October.
Mu Sochua said she is hoping for a fair hearing, but that she would prefer to face jail rather than pay the fine.
“That’s been my position from the beginning,” she said. “I have not committed any crime. My conscience is clear.”
The SRP lawmaker was sued by Hun Sen after she filed her own defamation suit, accusing him of insulting her during a speech in Kampot province in April 2009. Her own accusations were thrown out by the Appeal Court in October.
On Tuesday, she said the outcome of the case was about more than the prime minister’s insult.
“The Cambodian people are living in fear, and it is time to stand up,” she said. “This is not about my case – it’s about the national interest.”
SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said the party will stand behind Mu Sochua if she refuses to pay the court-ordered fines. “We are leaving that up to Mu Sochua. We don’t mind what her decision is,” he said.
Ky Tech, the government lawyer who represents Hun Sen, said that if Mu Sochua fails to carry out any court order she could be criminally liable. “If I win a case in the Supreme Court, I would request the court to enforce its decision,” he said.
In a legal analysis of the case made public Tuesday, the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) stated that the lower courts had failed to uphold Mu Sochua’s right to a fair trial and ignored her right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.
According to Article 63 of the UNTAC Penal Code, defamation is defined as “any bad faith allegation or imputation of a given fact which harms the honor or reputation of an individual”. CCHR, however, claims government lawyers failed to convincingly prove that Mu Sochua had harmed Hun Sen’s reputation or did so in “bad faith” – both key elements of the law.
“In this case it is difficult to look at the facts of the case and evidence presented and conclude that major doubts did not exist as to whether the elements of the offence had been proven,” the analysis stated.
Other observers said the Supreme Court’s ruling would be a litmus test for the Cambodian judiciary.
“It will be a crushing defeat for freedom of speech if the result goes against Mu Sochua,” said Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy.
He added that the protracted legal battle also reflected poorly on the country.
“It’s cost a lot of time and is not setting a good example for Cambodia,” he said.
Calls for international action
An NGO briefing paper released by 15 NGOs on Tuesday struck a similar tone, saying that foreign governments should address the issue of freedom of expression – including legal attacks on opposition lawmakers – when they meet in the capital today for a government-donor forum.
“For over a decade the international community has provided aid to Cambodia but most have remained largely quiet as human rights have been violated and democratic space eroded,” it stated.
“We call on the international donor community to take responsibility and speak out against the deterioration of rights and democracy in Cambodia. Doing nothing may be judged as tantamount to complicity.”
Sok Sam Oeun, executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, said that in cases involving high-ranking or powerful figures, the Supreme Court was often swayed by political considerations.
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Labels: Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Mu Sochua vs Hun Sen
Phnom Penh denies Thai red shirts trained for unrest in Cambodia
Wed, 02 Jun 2010
DPA
Phnom Penh - The Cambodian government on Wednesday rejected claims carried by a Thai television station that Thai opposition supporters crossed into western Cambodia and were trained in fomenting unrest.
A government spokesman said Cambodia followed a policy of peaceful co-existence with all nations, and would not interfere in another country's internal affairs.
ASTV on Monday carried a report in which a Thai military commander claimed that red shirts had crossed into Oddar Meanchey province, where they were trained in techniques to stir up social unrest.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Meet opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Mr. Sean Pengse in the US West Coast
Friday 28 May in Seattle, Washington:
Saturday 29 May in Long Beach, California
Sunday 30 May in San Jose, California (mid-morning and afternoon)
Sunday 30 May in San Jose, California
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Labels: California | Sam Rainsy's visit to the USA and Canada | Sean Pengse | SRP | Vietnamese border encroachment | Washington State
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sam Rainsy faces arrest for not showing up in court to clarify for the Phnom Penh court
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy
28 May 2010
By Meas Mony
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
For not showing up to clarify the court as summoned in April in the lawsuit case regarding disinformation and falsifying public document, opposition leader Sam Rainsy now faces an arrest warrant issued against him.
The Phnom Penh municipal court issued this warrant to Sam Rainsy on Tuesday after he did not show up in court in April, however, the latter now lives overseas.
Nevertheless, Chuong Chou-ngy, Sam Rainsy’s defense lawyer, told reporters that he went to court instead of Sam Rainsy already on 20 April.
However, Ky Tech, the government lawyer, claimed that Sam Rainsy is involved in a criminal case, therefore his lawyer cannot show up in court for the suspect or the accused.
Yim Sovann, SRP spokesman, indicated that the court arrest warrant is meaningless in the lawsuit case brought up against Sam Rainsy. “I don’t pay attention about this court, this is a political hearing, therefore a political solution is needed,” Yim Sovann said.
Currently, opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Mr. Sean Pengse, a border expert under the Khmer Republic regime, are conducting their campaign in the US in order to explain to the Cambodian people, as well as the international community, about the border situation in Cambodia which is under encroachments from neighboring countries while the Cambodian government is turning a blind eye to this situation.
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Labels: Arrest warrant | CPP silencing the opposition voice | Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Sam Rainsy | Vietnamese encroachment
Sacrava's Thai Political Cartoon: Thai Terrorists
Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)
Click here to read the related article
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Labels: Red Shirts | Thai army and politics | Thailand political unrest
GX Proud to Announce 2010 People's Choice Honoree from Cambodia
Global Exchange is pleased to announce the winner of our 2010 Human Rights Awards People's Choice, Mu Sochua, as chosen by YOU, supporters of Global Exchange and human rights around the world.
Mu Sochua joins our other award recipients, Raúl del Águila, International Honoree, and Van Jones, Domestic Honoree.
Mu Sochua has been a tireless advocate for human rights and the rights of women in Cambodia. In fact, her dedication to her work has meant that she is currently facing trial and prosecution for simply asserting her right to free speech.
Please join us, and the global community of human rights supporters, in extending our sincere thanks to Mu Sochua for her courage and dedication to those in need in her native land.
Accepting the People's Choice Award on Mu's behalf at our gala celebration in San Francisco on May 27 will be Sochua's daughter Devi Leiper, a resident of San Francisco.
If would like to learn more about Mu Sochua, Raúl del Águila, and Van Jones, please visit www.humanrightsaward.org.
Thank you all for nominating and voting for your human rights heroes during the 2010 Global Exchange Human Rights Awards!
------
Message from Mrs. Mu Sochua:
Thanking you all for your support.
Sochua
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Labels: Mu Sochua | Nomination for human rights awards
Cambodian 'jungle woman' back in forest
Rochom P'ngieng during her hospitalization in 2009 (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)
May 28, 2010
AFP
Cambodia's "jungle woman," whose story gripped the country after she apparently spent 18 years living in a forest, has fled back to the jungle, her father and local police say.
Rochom P'ngieng, now 29, went missing as a little girl in 1989 while herding water buffalo in Ratanakkiri province, around 600 kilometres northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh.
In early 2007 the woman was brought from the jungle, naked and dirty, after being caught trying to steal food from a farmer. She was hunched over like a monkey, scavenging on the ground for pieces of dried rice.
Advertisement: Story continues below"She must have fled back to the forest on Tuesday evening while she was going to take a bath," Sal Lou, the man who says he is her father, told AFP by telephone on Friday.
"I and my son are looking for her in the middle forest now," he said, adding that he believed "forest spirits" guided her back to the dense jungle.
Local police chief Ma Vichet said the authorities had also begun a search but had found no sign of the woman.
"We also believe that she fled back to the jungle," Ma Vichet said.
Immediately after being taken from the jungle in 2007, Rochom P'ngieng could not utter a word of any intelligible language, instead making what her father calls "animal noises."
Cambodians described her as "jungle woman" and "half-animal girl" and since rejoining society she has battled bouts of illness after refusing food.
In December she began speaking normally, instead of making animal-type noises, and helping out around the house, according to her father.
The jungles of Ratanakkiri - some of Cambodia's wildest and most isolated - are known to have hidden groups of hill tribes in the recent past.
In November 2004, 34 people from four hill tribe families emerged from the dense forest where they had fled in 1979 after the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which they had supported.
Rochom P'ngieng has previously tried to flee back into the jungle but was stopped by her family.
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Labels: Cambodian Jungle girl | Rochom P'nieng
Cambodia's Khmer culture is displayed in 'Gods of Angkor' exhibit
A figure of Vishnu holds, clockwise from upper right, a conch, a mace, a ball representing Earth and a discus. (National Museum Of Cambodia, Phnom Penh - National Museum Of Cambodia, Phnom Penh)
Friday, May 28, 2010
Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post
It's hard to tell which celestial being is depicted in one of the bronze figures in "Gods of Angkor." After all, he has lost his head.
It could be the Hindu god Shiva. Or it could be Avalokiteshvara, a bodhisattva, or manifestation, of the Buddha. Both religions flourished, side by side, in Cambodia's Khmer culture.
Also missing: two of the figure's four hands, which might have once held clues to its identity. Another figure -- clearly identified because of what he's holding -- juggles Vishnu's trademark conch, mace, discus and ball, representing the Earth. Look behind him, and you'll notice what looks like a butterfly on his tush. A nearby statue of Shiva has one, too.
No, the butterfly doesn't stand for patience or some other virtue. It's probably just a palace fashion trend -- a fancy bow -- that found its way from the closets of the living to the closets of the gods. Which doesn't sound all that surprising when you consider that the face of one of the bronze Buddhas on view is said to bear a strange resemblance to the face of Jayavarman VII, the king of the Khmer empire under whose reign it was made.
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Labels: Art exhibition | Khmer artefacts | Washington DC
Sackler Gallery exhibits 'Gods of Angkor' bronzes from Cambodia
The Sackler's 36-piece exhibition includes bronzes of Shiva's elephant-headed son Ganesha and a crowned Buddha, above, from the 12th century. (Images From National Museum Of Cambodia, Phnom Penh)
Friday, May 28, 2010
By Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
There are only 36 works on display in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's latest exhibition, "Gods of Angkor: Bronzes From the National Museum of Cambodia." Maybe twice that, if you count all the extra arms and heads.
Gods, you see, are not like us.
The show -- a jewel box of mostly smallish sculptures in three tiny galleries -- centers on devotional figures of Shiva, Vishnu and other Hindu deities, several of whom are depicted with anywhere from four to 10 arms, and as many as five heads. One, in the case of Shiva's son Ganesha, has the head of an elephant.
There are also several statues of the Buddha.
I know: Buddha is not technically a god. Still, he has often been revered as though he were one. And his various bodhisattvas -- the quasi-human, quasi-godlike embodiments of such virtues as wisdom and compassion -- are themselves considered to be deities. (In an interesting twist on certain Western stereotypes, wisdom, represented by the bodhisattva Prajnaparamita, is female; compassion, in the person of Avalokiteshvara, is a male.)
So Buddha makes the cut. The show, which also features two or three human figures, includes a number of rarely seen ritual objects from Buddhist and Hindu worship: a bell, a mirror, a lotus flower, a conch.
Yet despite its name, "Gods" isn't exactly a show about religion. Nor is it simply a celebration of the bronze-caster's art. Though it covers centuries' worth of art from the Khmer people -- from late prehistory through the Angkor period (802 to 1431 A.D.) -- there's precious little technical information about how the pieces were made.
Instead, the show is a tip of the hat from one museum to another. One favor in exchange for another.
In 2005, experts from the Sackler helped set up the National Museum of Cambodia's first metal conservation lab, with financial support from the Getty Foundation. Today, in conjunction with its ceramics and stone conservation shops, the Cambodian museum operates one of Southeast Asia's preeminent art conservation facilities.
The beautiful works in "Gods of Angkor" are evidence of that.
In other words, the National Museum of Cambodia got the gift, but here in Washington, we are the beneficiaries.
GODS OF ANGKOR: BRONZES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CAMBODIA Through Jan. 23 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave. SW (Metro: Smithsonian). 202-633-1000 (TDD: 202-633-5285). http://www.asia.si.edu. Hours: Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission: Free.
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Labels: Art exhibition | Khmer artefacts | Washington DC
"Today, it's not the state who owns the old properties, but the ruling party, the CPP": Vann Molyvann
Independence Monument; Vann Molyvann, architect (All photos: Luke Duggleby for The Wall Street Journal)
A lone figure walks the stands of Vann Molyvann's Olympic Stadium.
The Chaktomuk Conference Hall, one of Mr. Molyvann's earliest designs, was built in 1961.
The library at the Institute for Foreign Languages, now part of the Royal University of Phnom Penh
More of Mr. Molyvann's work at the Institute for Foreign Languages
Yet more of the institute
Modern Masterpieces
MAY 28, 2010
By TOM VATER
The Wall Street Journal
Vann Molyvann, Cambodia's greatest living architect, recalls that the night his Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh was completed, in 1964, "I took my wife to see the work." Sitting in the top tier of the stands, they listened to Dvorák's "New World Symphony" over the stadium's speaker system. "It was one of the great moments of my life."
In the years after Cambodia won independence from France in 1953, Mr. Molyvann—then scarcely in his 30s—set out under the tutelage of King Norodom Sihanouk to transform Phnom Penh from a colonial backwater into a modern city. But in the late 1960s the country was drawn into decades of war and terror, including years under the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, and Mr. Molyvann's vision was virtually forgotten. The architect himself had to flee the country.
And while he returned in triumph after more than 20 years abroad, it was to find that grand titles didn't translate into influence in today's Cambodia. His legacy—structures in a style dubbed New Khmer Architecture—lives on, contributing significantly to the flair of the city, but even that is in danger as Phnom Penh, like other Asian capitals, clears historic buildings to make room for skyscrapers.
Cambodia is best known for its magnificent temple ruins at Angkor, remnants of a great Southeast Asian empire that covered the country's current territory as well as parts of Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. After Angkor fell to the Siamese in the 15th century, a new Cambodian capital was founded on the banks of the Tonlé Sap River. That city, Phnom Penh, remained an unstable settlement, caught up in the geopolitical ambitions of Cambodia's more powerful neighbors, until the French arrived in the 1860s. The colonial administrators drained the neighboring swamps and created a grid street plan, dotted with sumptuous villas, Art Deco markets and impressive government structures.
Even then, Phnom Penh was modest, small-town colonial France—and when Mr. Molyvann received a scholarship from the colonial government and set off for the Sorbonne in Paris, it wasn't with the dream of returning to remake it. He was a law student. But as he pursued his degree, and struggled with the compulsory Greek and Latin, he had an encounter that changed his life.
"I met Henri Marchal, the curator of Angkor for the École Française d'Extrême-Orient [the French School of Asian Studies]," Mr. Molvyann remembers, "and suddenly I knew I wanted to be an architect, so I changed to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, where I studied until 1950 under Le Corbusier." He regards that modernist architect and designer as his greatest teacher.
After that, Mr. Molyvann stayed on in Paris for several more years, studying Khmer art. While he looks back fondly on the period, he is also keenly aware that some of Cambodia's later traumas had their origins in the Paris of that time.
"The Khmer Rouge was born in the Latin quarter of Paris," he says. As they debated their country's postcolonial future, Mr. Molyvann says, the city's 400 or so Cambodian students split between nationalists and Marxists. Khieu Samphan, whom he knew as a fellow Sorbonne student, would go on to become head of state in the Khmer Rouge government.
By 1956, Mr. Molyvann was back in Phnom Penh. Independence had broadened Cambodia's horizons, in part thanks to the efforts of King Sihanouk, who at various times officially dropped his title to serve as prime minister, head of state or president, though Cambodians continued to refer to him as king. With tremendous energy and not a little royal eccentricity, the young monarch—also politician, artist, filmmaker, womanizer and host to a series of foreign heads of state and celebrities—worked to create a modern nation with an eye on the past. The leading members of an emerging urban elite, many of whom, like Mr. Molyvann, had returned from Paris, sought to create architecture, music, films, literature and art that married Cambodian tradition with modernist thinking.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in new administrative, public and private building projects that sprang up all over the capital—transforming Phnom Penh, within little more than a decade, into one of Asia's most dynamic cities.
"It was difficult at the beginning, as Cambodians had never heard of architects," Mr. Molyvann remembers. "All they knew were engineers and builders. There was a real dearth of qualified Khmer experts, as the French had used Vietnamese to administer my country. But within 10 years of independence the management of the country and its capital was Khmer. It was incredible."
Mr. Molyvann was made chief architect for state buildings and director for urban planning and habitat in 1956 and given a number of ministerial posts in the following years. "I was designing the Independence Monument and was asked to present the king with a selection of marble," he recalls. "I was too afraid to speak to him personally, but he made some suggestions and we got on perfectly after that." Shaped like a lotus flower, the monument tower, completed in 1960, remains one of Phnom Penh's landmarks.
Mr. Molyvann had part of the floodplain south of the Royal Palace drained and filled, and on this "Front de Bassac" constructed the country's first high-rises, initially for visiting athletes for the 1966 Ganefo Games, a short-lived Asian alternative to the Olympics.
"We built the stadium for 60,000 people and surrounded it with a moat, so that the waters could run off in the rainy season," he says.
Stefanie Irmer, whose KA Tours focuses on New Khmer Architecture, sees the relation between water and city as crucial to the architect's vision for Phnom Penh. "Besides creating the 'Front de Bassac' area from wetlands," she says, "almost every building Vann Molyvann designed was surrounded by water—to keep the termites out, but also to integrate the buildings into the flood plain."
Many of Mr. Molyvann's buildings are traditional in one sense—they are shaped like familiar objects. Chaktomuk Conference Hall, one of his earliest designs, is like an open palm leaf. The library of the Institute of Foreign Languages (now part of the Royal University of Phnom Penh) was inspired by a traditional Khmer straw hat. The lecture halls of the institute rest on sharply angled concrete pillars that give them the appearance of animals, about to jump. They are still in use today, as is the library.
By the early 1960s, for the first time in almost 800 years, Cambodia was blooming. The Angkor ruins were the region's biggest tourist draw, and Phnom Penh had doubled in size and become a city others in the region admired.
But the politics were turning ugly. Norodom Sihanouk, serving as prime minister, began to suppress dissent. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. had combat troops in Vietnam; as American planes began bombing North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia, the country's policy of neutrality became a farce. The former king's repressive policies alienated the political left and some rural Cambodians, who began to join a shadowy communist movement, the Khmer Rouge. Meanwhile, the right and military had become fed up with his capriciousness and nepotism. When he left to visit China in 1970, a coup replaced him with army general Lon Nol. The Swinging '60s, the meteoric rise of a young nation, the building boom in the "Pearl of Asia"—it was all over.
Mr. Molyvann remembers days with hard choices. "Shortly after Lon Nol came to power, the Israeli ambassador advised me to take my family out of the country," he says; the ambassador, a friend of his, warned him about the crumbling security and the increasing persecution of those connected with the previous government. So when Mr. Molyvann left for a conference in Israel, with his wife, Trudy, and their six children, they didn't return. Instead they moved on to Switzerland, his wife's home country.
Five years later, the Khmer Rouge marched victoriously into Phnom Penh. The new rulers immediately emptied the cities, and for almost four years Phnom Penh was a ghost town. At least 1.5 million Cambodians, nearly a quarter of the population—Mr. Molyvann's father among them—lost their lives in the killing fields. The fledgling intellectual elite was snuffed out.
"I had no contact during those years," says Mr. Molyvann. "I had to give my children a new life, so we stayed in Lausanne." He continued to work as an architect in Switzerland, Africa and Laos, for the United Nations and the World Bank. The Vietnamese pushed out the Khmer Rouge in 1979, but Mr. Molyvann "could not think of going back." The new rulers "were still communists."
"It was not until 1993 that I returned—with the U.N.," he says. Initially, his homecoming was triumphant. He was appointed minister of state for culture and fine arts, territorial management and urban planning and contributed to the application for Angkor's successful recognition as a Unesco World Heritage site.
But he soon realized that the Cambodia he had left behind in 1970 no longer existed. Cambodian People's Party leader Hun Sen, who had been installed by the Vietnamese and who continued as prime minister after the U.N.-organized elections, gave Mr. Molyvann back his villa, but the architect's plans for Siem Reap—the province in which Angkor is located—were unappreciated. He had called for a "tourist village" set apart from both the temples and the old town of Siem Reap, integrated into the environment and with water conservation as a key goal.
"The government wanted to use the resources of Angkor to develop Siem Reap without the participation of the local people," Mr. Molyvann says. "In 1998, I became president executive director of Apsara (Authority for the Protection and Safeguard of Angkor), the government body created to look after the temples. Three years later, I was fired." Unchecked development in Siem Reap has led to a dramatic drop in groundwater levels, causing subsidence that has put the Bayon, one of the main temples in the Angkor area, in danger of collapse, according to experts from the Japanese Conservation Team for Safeguarding Angkor. Development has also driven up property prices and the cost of living, a hardship for the locals in a province that remains one of the poorest in the country.
But it was not just the government and developers standing against Mr. Molyvann and his vision. Bill Greaves, director of the Vann Molyvann Project, a nongovernmental organization engaged in recreating the lost plans of the remaining New Khmer Architecture sites, thinks postwar Cambodia is simply not aware of its past.
"Right now, Singapore and Shanghai are models for forward-looking cities, both for the government and the people," he says. "Hence Phnom Penh's different stages of history are likely to be discarded."
In the past decade, as investment has begun to pour into the Cambodian capital once more, colonial and 1960s buildings have been replaced by chrome-and-glass edifices, floodwater lakes have been drained, local media have reported almost daily evictions and ministers have gushed over the need to build skyscrapers in order to keep up with the neighbors.
The government frequently declares that preservation has to go hand in hand with development. In practice, it seems to walk well behind. Beng Khemro, deputy director general at the ministry for land management, urban planning and construction, says his department's hands are tied. "Many historical properties are in terrible condition," he says. "The people who own them don't understand the value of the past and would rather demolish them and build high-rises to make a profit. The past is not appreciated. Without a change in attitude amongst the population, we are fighting a losing battle."
Cambodia has preservation laws, and Dr. Khemro says he is trying to pass a regulation to get them applied in particular instances. He'd like to try a pilot preservation project away from Phnom Penh, he says, noting that Cambodia's second-largest city, Battambang, has many buildings from the French period.
"Also," he adds, "there's less pressure."
Molyvann advocate Mr. Greaves is skeptical about the survival of the architect's legacy. "The old buildings disappear at an alarming rate—even public edifices like the National Theatre, which was knocked down a couple of years ago, are not safe. We try and get there before the demolition crews arrive."
A drive around town with Mr. Molyvann illustrates his curious position in this free-for-all scramble for change. At the Independence Monument, guards at first refuse him entry. Only after his driver reveals the distinguished visitor's identity is the master architect, old and frail, allowed to climb the steps he designed half a century ago.
Passing the stadium, Mr. Molyvann looks at the haphazard development around his favorite creation. Appropriated by developers with government connections, the moat has been partly filled in to make space for shops and an underground car park; the result is annual flooding that threatens the entire sports complex.
With equal shades of sadness and anger in his voice, Mr. Molyvann says, "Today, it's not the state who owns the old properties, but the ruling party, the CPP."
—Tom Vater is a writer based in Bangkok.
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Labels: Khmer architectural work | Phnom Penh city | Vann Molyvann
Bail for sex tourist angers advocate
Thursday, May 27, 2010
CBC News (Canada)
A women's rights advocate is outraged that a Burnaby, B.C., man who pleaded guilty to sex tourism charges has been released from custody pending sentencing.
Kenneth Klassen pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court May 21 to having sex with more than a dozen girls under the age of 14 in Cambodia and Colombia between 1998 and 2002.
"With all due respect to the defence attorney, it just seems like a joke," said Holly Dignard, of Caleb's Hope, an organization that works with female victims of sexual assault in developing countries.
Crown prosecutors and Klassen's lawyer discussed on Thursday the possibility of the convicted man wearing an electronic monitoring device while he remains out on bail, but the decision was deferred.
"If he was a serial murderer, I highly doubt they'd be releasing him with something around his ankle to make sure he doesn't go kill someone," Dignard said.
Under surveillance
The RCMP said that Klassen, 59, is under surveillance, and the Crown prosecutor in the case said the man had been told that police were watching him.
"He is aware of being followed," Brendan McCabe told the court.
As part of his bail conditions, Klassen had to surrender his passport to authorities, cannot be in the presence of children without permission, has to remain in B.C. and cannot be away from his residence for more than 24 hours.
Dignard said those conditions were insufficient. She has started an online petition urging the court to revoke Klassen's bail and "sentence this man to the full extent of the law."
"I find it goes back to the core issue of rape and violence against women. People don't take it seriously enough," she said.
Klassen also pleaded guilty to importing child pornography.
Arguments on Klassen's bail conditions resume on Tuesday. No date has been set for sentencing.
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Labels: Canada | Canadian citizen | Child molester | Child sex tourist
"Kamnap Snaeh Chass Pduol Prah Loeu Kamnap Thmei (Tumteav 1)" a Poem in Khmer by Yim Guechsè
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Cambodian Factories Seek Eco-Friendly Power Alternatives
May 27, 2010
By SIMON MARKS
International Herald Tribune (Paris, France)
PHNOM PENH — Almost every day for the past 15 years Cheang Vet, a roadside mechanic near Phnom Penh’s Cambodian-Japanese Friendship Bridge, has witnessed the constant flow of traffic making its way in and out of the capital by its main northeasterly access point.
But in the last decade, as the number of people employed in Cambodia’s garment sector has increased from about 25,000 in 2000 to around 300,000 today, he has noticed a steady increase in one particular type of vehicle entering Phnom Penh: heavy-load trucks carrying huge stacks of firewood.
“There are at least 10 trucks a day carrying about two and a half tons of firewood,” Mr. Vet estimated. “They tell me they are on their way to the garment factories on the other side of the city.”
The majority of the country’s garment factories — making clothes for brand names in the U.S. and European markets — use firewood to heat old-fashioned boilers that produce hot water for dying fabrics and steam for ironing.
Some factories depend on firewood to supply all of their energy needs, according to industry experts.
Indeed, the use of firewood for energy is widely considered better for the environment than fossil fuels, as trees can be replanted to offset carbon emissions released during combustion. But replanting plans are limited here, while demand for firewood is growing.
In the 1990s, large areas of Cambodia’s rubber plantations — planted by the French in the early 20th century — had aged to the point where their yields of latex, the sap from which natural rubber is made, had dropped considerably, requiring extensive replanting.
Felling old trees made large quantities of rubber wood available to the emerging garment and brick factories in the Phnom Penh region.
But, according to a report released last year by the French environmental organization Geres, this source of timber is running out.
The Geres report found that 69 of the 310 garment factories then registered with the manufacturers’ association said they were using rubber wood to produce steam for ironing and dyeing clothes. In total, Geres estimated that garment factories burned around 65,000 cubic meters, or about 2.3 million cubic feet, of wood every month.
But a “critical period” started in 2009, the report said, “where rubber wood will not be available in sufficient quantity to supply the industrial sector its energy requirements.”
Energy experts and environmentalists say that timber is now being obtained instead from the country’s remaining natural-growth forests.
Graeme Brown, a private consultant working on natural resource management issues, said that a heightened demand for new rubber plantation acreage was leading to forest clearance, creating a “ready supply of natural forest timber.”
With the costs of wood-fired heating far lower than the cost of electricity from the national grid — power prices in Cambodia are among the highest in the region because of poor infrastructure and the use of inefficient diesel generators — there are fears that demand for firewood will continue to grow.
Still, there are signs that Cambodia’s garment factories, after a decade of efforts to improve labor standards, are now starting to concern themselves with environmental issues, too.
Albert Tan, vice president of Suntex, a Singaporean-owned garment factory in Phnom Penh, said the company had brought in a team of engineers from Malaysia to assess ways the factory could use less energy.
Mr. Tan said that wasting less energy would allow the factory to burn less wood and would also reduce dependence on diesel-powered backup generators in the event of a power cut — a frequent occurrence in Cambodia.
“There are not many results yet, but some studies are going on to see how best we can be eco-friendly and take care of the environment,” he said.
The owners of the factory, which produces about 2.5 million pieces of clothing per month for export to client brands in the United States and Europe, are also considering installing a gasification unit that would convert biomass or organic waste into cleaner-burning, more efficient synthetic gas, he added.
Rin Seyha, managing director of SME Renewable Energy, in Phnom Penh, said his company had been approached by several garment factories looking to use gasification.
But the technology available in Cambodia is still insufficient for large energy users like clothing factories, he said, and potential clients are often put off by the cost of importing larger units.
A gasification plant with a one megawatt generating capacity, imported from India, costs $300,000. Mr. Seyha’s company sold just one plant to a garment factory last year and so far in 2010 has aroused interest in three more. After 70 factories shut down during the global financial crisis, there are now about 250 factories operating in Cambodia.
Cutting down on emissions from burning wood and protecting the forests would help the industry’s image with environmentally conscious consumer abroad. But profit-focused private investors often balk at the first hurdle when it comes to introducing more environmentally friendly technology, because they consider the costs involved to be too high, said Yohanes Iwan Baskoro, country director for Geres.
Investors need to be educated to understand that improved technology can achieve a profitable return for companies in the long run, he said, adding that as well as fiscal incentives from the government, the banking sector also needs more encouragement to provide loans for environmental improvement.
“If we can’t show that there is profits in it for them I don’t think they will participate,” Mr. Baskoro said.
Julia Brickell, resident representative in Phnom Penh for the World Bank’s private-sector lender, the International Finance Corp., also said lenders needed to be persuaded.
“Financial institutions may focus too much on the short-term costs of investing in energy-efficiency improvements and not immediately see the longer-term benefits for their potential clients in terms of cost savings,” Ms. Brickell said. “This may impact their willingness to provide financing for technological upgrades.”
Garment workshops often operate from leased premises and lack fixed assets to provide collateral for loans, she added. “This may also result in reluctance on the part of the financial institutions to extend financing for energy efficiency improvements.”
Still, some progress is being made. A factory in Kandal Province, near Phnom Penh, which supplies garments to Hennes & Mauritz of Sweden and Marks & Spencer of Britain, is a case in point.
Wood is still being used to heat the factory’s boilers, but the company is using its staff house to test energy saving technologies on a small scale.
“Every factory wants to save costs, and our biggest cost is electricity,” said a manager at the factory, who spoke on condition of anonymity because, she said, bosses in Hong Kong had asked her to keep a low profile.
The company, one of Cambodia’s largest with nearly 3,000 workers, has installed solar panels on the roof of its staff house, where 50 air-conditioned rooms accommodate the management. To discourage energy waste, anyone using more than 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month is charged 50 cents per extra kilowatt-hour used.
Marks & Spencer is advising the factory through its so-called Plan A corporate strategy, to focus on improving environmental standards. More efficient lighting, better insulation and improved temperature control are three measures that have been identified.
At another factory, in Phnom Penh, where roughly 1,000 workers make luxury menswear for export, a program to fit energy-saving light bulbs is under way. With 3,500 neon lights in operation throughout the day, a sizable reduction in electricity consumption is expected, the factory’s general manager said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
But balancing the need for increased productivity — Cambodia’s work force is among the least productive in the region, reflecting poor training levels — against the investments needed for better environmental standards is an almost impossible challenge, this manager said.
“The bottom line is this industry — in particular the garment sector — is the toughest sector in terms of competition,” he said. “Some people just can’t afford to make some of the changes that are being recommended.”
And according to several economic analysts and consultants here, who declined to be named because of the delicacy of the issue, it is not in the interests of manufacturers to show they can afford to install environmentally friendly technologies, because their brand-name clients may respond by putting pressure on them to lower their costs.
Still, Kanwarpreet Singh, chief representative for the H&M clothing brand in Cambodia, said that the industry as a whole was looking into newer and cleaner technologies to improve its image.
“If you use a lot of firewood, then it is not good for the environment,” he said. “As a company we try to encourage other sources of energy.”
Although Hennes & Mauritz factories use firewood as an energy source, Mr. Singh said, the company was evaluating alternatives.
For now, though, those are still unclear, and as Cambodia struggles to recover from a slump last year in exports to key U.S. and European markets, improving energy standards in factories is not a priority, he said.
Garment exports, accounting for 90 percent of Cambodia’s total exports, dropped almost 20 percent by value in 2009, to $2.38 billion.
“Nowadays one has to compete globally,” said Permod Kumar Gupta, chief technical adviser for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Cambodia. “We have to think, in the coming years, if we are not able to compete economically, environmentally and socially then difficulties will remain in how to compete with countries like China.”
Regardless of environmental concerns, Cambodia’s garment sector desperately needs to improve energy efficiency, with some factories spending up to $1,700 to produce a ton of clothing — more than three times the amount in neighboring Vietnam.
“In terms of energy efficiency, the sectors that are using biomass are particularly wasteful,” said Mr. Gupta.
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Labels: Energy | Garment sector
Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The New Monkeys
Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)
Click on the cartoon to zoom in
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Labels: Bloated Hun Sen government | Political Cartoon | Sacrava
Searching for Thaksin ... Thai police's style
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Labels: Thai political soap opera | Thaksin Shinawatra
Thai army fears red shadows?
Army fears outbreak of terrorism
CRES says it favours early end to curfew
28/05/2010
Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post
The army is stepping up its surveillance in fear armed men allied to hard-core protesters could launch terror attacks in Bangkok and other provinces in revenge for the May 19 crackdown, an army source says.
Intelligence reports and an assessment of the situation in the wake of the rally have concluded there is a real possibility of violent retaliation by groups who fled the protest site at Ratchaprasong intersection after the military operation, the source said yesterday.
The revenge could be in the form of car and motorcycle bombs, taking the lives of soldiers and government figures, and arson attacks at locations which are symbols of the government and armed forces. They could take place in the capital or the provinces.
Some red shirt politicians who have connections in the three southern border provinces could hire insurgents from the lower South to launch attacks in Bangkok, the source said.
The concerns have prompted intelligence authorities to monitor the movements of suspected insurgents, especially those who are already in Bangkok.
One incident which led the army to fear possible terror attacks was a car bomb at the Poseidon massage parlour car park on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok on April 4, the source said.
While the army is preparing for the possibility of violence, the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation favours ending the curfew in Bangkok and other provinces tomorrow.
The government will decide today whether to extend the curfew.
Security agencies held talks yesterday to evaluate the situation, consulting with army leaders in other regions and provincial governors.
Many were of the view that the situation in the wake of the red shirt rally was improving and the curfew therefore should be lifted, CRES spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.
But the armed forces needed to be deployed in some key places, while security duty in other areas of the capital should be returned to police if they were ready to take over, Col Sansern said.
Bangkok and 23 other provinces are under curfew from midnight tonight to 4am tomorrow.
Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said earlier that although the curfew might end, the state of emergency law was still necessary to allow security authorities to arrest so-called terrorists.
"What can be lifted is the curfew but the executive decree will continue," Gen Prawit said after meeting the Defence Council yesterday which was attended by all armed forces leaders.
Defence Ministry spokesman Thanathip Sawangsaeng said Gen Prawit had ordered soldiers to secure their units and local government offices and to stay alert despite the end of the riots.
The minister ordered continuous surveillance and protection at arsenals and fuel yards of the armed forces, he said.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has plans to reconcile the country's political divisions but he has vowed there would be no compromise with terrorists, the defence minister said.
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Labels: Red Shirts | Thailand political unrest
No Clear Use Found for BHP ‘Social Fund’ [-It's all: Corruption! Corruption! Corruption!]
Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 27 May 2010
“We don’t know of a clear policy for granting concessions or licenses to those companies, and what we are facing now is the limited disclosure of related information.”
A year after it pulled out of Cambodia, the Australian mining giant BHP Billiton has found itself under a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation for allegations related to bribery in a foreign country.
Officials have not said which country the alleged corruption took place in, but the company has said it gave $2.5 million to the government here in exchange for mining exploration rights, making Cambodia among the likely countries under the scope of the investigation.
It is not uncommon for companies to pay bonuses for concessions here, but what happened to that money remains unknown, with government and company officials sending conflicting statements and no apparent accounting for the funds.
The mystery underscores worries from environmental and development advocates who say money from Cambodia’s natural resources will be lost or squandered to corruption if and when gold, oil and other minerals and resources are explored in full.
BHP came to Cambodia under a 100,000-hectare exploration license for gold in 2006. After three years of exploration in Mondolkiri province, the company withdrew from the country, claiming it had not found enough to continue its investment. The company told the UK-based watchdog Global Witness that it had paid a $1 million signature bonus and $1.5 million for a social fund in 2006.
Global Witness now says there is no sign of that money.
Prime Minister Hun Sen told a private sector conference in April the $2.5 million had been put into a social fund for a hydropower project in Pursat Province.
Contacted by VOA Khmer in April, Pursat Governor Khuy Sokha said he was unaware of any hydropower projects other than one venture paid for by a $300-million Chinese investment.
“There is only one hydropower [project] in Pursat, and it belongs to the Chinese company, and for which the construction process began in December 2009,” he said. “That is called Atay Hydropower.”
BHP did not respond to queries related to the social fund. Officials have said they are looking into the company’s practices abroad in the wake of the US investigation.
The company published information on its website indicating it provided money to a handful of non-governmental organizations here, though the website does no say how much money the company offered each group.
VOA Khmer was able to identify four institutions that received BHP money for development projects between 2007 and 2010: the Cambodian Mine Action Center, the Danish Red Cross, Health Net International and Village Focus International.
The total amount of money given to these organizations was a little more than $615,000, according to individual representatives of the organizations, nearly three times less than the company told Global Witness it had paid.
Where the other $885,000 was spent remains unclear. Likewise, there is no record of the $1 million signature bonus the company claims to have made.
The lack of accounting for such large sums of money is cause for concern for development groups and donor countries, who warn Cambodia could face a “resource curse” when millions of dollars in oil and other resources begin to flow.
George Boden, a researcher for Global Witness, said the current complications in managing revenue from the extractive industries does not bode well for future, more lucrative ventures.
So far, 33 countries have been granted exploration licenses here. Thirteen of them have begun exploration for oil and gas and minerals.
“We don’t know of a clear policy for granting concessions or licenses to those companies, and what we are facing now is the limited disclosure of related information,” Mam Sambath, president of Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency, told VOA Khmer. “The information regarding the [BHP] case has never been revealed in public, so our research on the issue will also be limited.”
The outcome of the SEC investigation could affect investment in Cambodia, Mam Sambath said, because potential investors may shy away from a country implicated in a corruption scandal.
And BHP is not the only company to have put money into a social fund. In 2006, Indonesia’s MedcoEnergi provided $4.5 million for a license to explore blocks of onshore and offshore oil. The company withdrew in 2010, without citing a reason.
Meanwhile, the French oil and gas company Total, which has a license to explore oil and gas in the overlapping area near Thailand, has said it paid a $20 million signature bonus and another $8 for a social development fund.
A Total official told VOA Khmer from France the company had already provided $6 million of the social fund, which is to be used for a healthcare program under the joint control of a local Total representative and the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority. The official declined to elaborate.
Michael McWalter, an adviser to the CNPA, said signature money is properly deposited into an official account to “become a part of the revenue for the government,” and social funds are carefully watched by companies.
All companies are required to pay signature bonuses based on potential investment, and some are required to provide for a social fund, based on negotiations with the government, but neither should be a concern, he said. “So what one has to do is to trust the government to do the job properly.”
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Labels: BHP Billiton | Bribery scandal | Embezzlement of State funds | Hun Xen's corrupt regime
Hydrodam Plans Stir Ratanakkiri Unease
A woman with her children in a small boat pass a flooded house in Cambodia. (Photo: AP)
Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Ratanakkiri, Cambodia Thursday, 27 May 2010
“If they build dams, it’s not certain we would have electricity for use here. And if we do have electricity, we are not sure if we can afford to pay for the power supply.”
Patt Paing has five hectares of land by the Sre Pok river. She has a small wooden house, and she raises pigs. The 55-year-old leads a quiet life here in Village Two, in Ratanakkiri’s Koun Mom district. But over the past three years, life has been more difficult.
That’s because of the floods.
“I don’t have enough rice to eat because of the floods for the past three years,” she told VOA Khmer in an interview last week. “In previous years, I could harvest more than 1,000 buckets or over 10 tons of rice per season.”
The floods were caused by water releases from dams upriver, she said.
“The consecutive floods caused by the dams have left me almost nothing to eat,” she said.
At least five more dams have been planned on the Sre Pok and its sister river, the Sesan, both of which run into the Mekong River. Those dams will follow the 2002 construction of a 720-megawatt dam at Yali Falls on the Sesan in Vietnam.
Villagers, who gathered for an annual celebration of the 3S Rivers Protection Network here last week, say they don’t want more dams, the flooding from which damage livestock and farmland.
“The existing dam in Vietnam has already severely affected our livelihoods, so what will it be like if more dams are to be built on these rivers on the Cambodian side?” asked Meas Samith, a representative of indigenous villagers on the Sre Pok.
“For generations, I have never heard that when a dam is built, an escalator is also set up for fish to travel on,” he said. “When a dam is built, there is no more fish migration.”
Villagers here say the dams and the power they generate are not worth the cost.
“Can the electricity be eaten?” asked Piev Chhin, a 65-year-old fisherman from the Brov ethnic minority. “We live along the river, so if our house gets flooded, what is the use of having electricity?”
“The electricity is of no importance for us,” added Dy Bopi, a 55-year-old farmer in Koun Mom district. “We would rather us batteries or paraffin lamps instead.”
However, officials say that if Cambodia is to grow its economy, it will need more than batteries and lamps. Only about 20 percent of the country’s homes have access to power, and most of those are in the capital. And electricity prices here remain high, while Cambodia purchases electricity from Vietnam and Thailand.
Ratanakirri Governor Pao Hamphan told reporters here last week the proposed dams were not confirmed and that villagers should not worry about them too much at the moment.
“It’s just the information, as no company has come to talk to us about them yet,” he said.
A vice governor of Koun Mom district, however, said the government would proceed with the dams if assessments showed more benefits than costs.
“We don’t build dams to kill people,” he said, addressing a crowd of villagers. “We build them for their benefit.”
If Cambodia does not build dams, other countries will, he said. “How can we alleviate people’s poverty if we just wait and buy electricity from other countries?”
Villagers said last week the government should consider methods other than dams if it needs electricity.
“If they build dams, it’s not certain we would have electricity for use here,” said Nen Sokei, an ethnic Tompuon villager. “And if we do have electricity, we are not sure if we can afford to pay for the power supply.”
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Labels: Ethnic minority complain | Negative impact of hydro-electric dams | Sesan River dams
Ung Chaniry Charms Washington Audience
Chinary Ung
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington, D.C Thursday, 27 May 2010
“These are all related to Khmer culture and music. I sometimes use words from Pali, Sanskrit and Khmer to mix with musical rules I learned from the West. They mainly have mental movement to sooth the feelings and to inspire idealism and bliss.”
The thrilling sound of a flute mingled with piano, violin and guitar, all to the tune of Cambodian-American composer Ung Chinary, thrilling the audience who had come to hear for the first time a rare classical concert in Washington.
Held last week at the Sackler Gallery, the concert was performed by the Da Cap Chamber Players as part of the “Gods of Angkor” exhibit, which includes rare bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia.
Five of Ung Chinary’s songs were featured, including “Child Song,” “Luminous Spiral,” “Life After Death,” “Mother and Child,” and “Oracle.”
“These are all related to Khmer culture and music,” Ung Chinary told VOA Khmer later. “I sometimes use words from Pali, Sanskrit and Khmer to mix with musical rules I learned from the West. They mainly have mental movement to sooth the feelings and to inspire idealism and bliss.”
Ung Chinary has been widely recognized for bringing together material, concepts and sounds from the East and the West into works that appear wholly organic, despite disparate components.
“I sometimes felt sad, especially at the end, where he recited the dhama,” said concertgoer Chan Linda.
“This is definitely very new, new music,” said Beverly Hong Flincher, another member of the audience. “It’s unlike other so-called avant-garde music. So I would consider this as avant-garde.”
Voice of America music specialist Brian Silver, who also attended, said he was moved by what he discovered and that the music made his “hair stand on end” or nearly brought him to tears.
“I’ve never seen that kind of performance, of a musician functioning on two levels at once,” he said of the song “Mother and Child.” “That was just an extra-ordinary.”
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Labels: Chinary Ung | Khmer musical heritage
The rich and powerful continued to abuse the criminal justice system to silence people protesting against evictions and land grabs: Amnesty Int'l
Click here to read the entire report (PDF)
Forced evictions continued to affect thousands of families across the country, predominantly people living in poverty. Activists from communities affected by forced evictions and other land confiscations mobilized to join forces in protests and appeals to the authorities. A wave of legal actions against housing rights defenders, journalists and other critical voices stifled freedom of expression. The first trial to address past Khmer Rouge atrocities took place. The defendant, Duch, pleaded guilty, but later asked to be acquitted.
Background
At least 45,000 garment factory workers lost their jobs as a result of the global economic crisis and a number of companies reduced salaries. Surveys indicated growing mass youth unemployment as some 300,000 young people faced joblessness after completing their high school and bachelor degrees. For the first time, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights considered Cambodia’s state report, which the authorities had delayed submitting for 14 years. The Committee identified serious shortcomings in the implementation of a number of treaty obligations, including those relating to the judicial system, housing and gender inequalities. Cambodia’s human rights record was reviewed under the UN Universal Periodic Review in December.
Forced evictions
Forced evictions continued to affect the lives of thousands of Cambodians. At least 26 forced evictions displaced around 27,000 people, the vast majority from communities living in poverty. In July, a number of international donors called for an end to forced evictions “until a fair and transparent mechanism for resolving land disputes is in place and a comprehensive resettlement policy” is established.
- On 16/17 July, security forces forcibly evicted Group 78, a community group in Phnom Penh after a deeply flawed legal process. The last 60 families had no choice but to dismantle their houses and accept compensation that prevented them from living near their former homes and workplaces. Most of the families were relocated outside the city with few work prospects.
After civil society criticism, the World Bank attempted to strengthen safeguards in a multi-donor supported Land Management and Administration Project to protect security of tenure for people in urban slums and other vulnerable areas. In early September, the government responded by terminating its contract with the Bank.
Human rights defenders
The rich and powerful continued to abuse the criminal justice system to silence people protesting against evictions and land grabs. Police arrested at least 149 activists, for their peaceful defence of the right to housing.
- On 22 March, security forces shot at unarmed villagers in Siem Reap province, injuring at least four people. The villagers, from Chikreng district, were protesting against the loss of farmland that had come under dispute. By the end of the year, no authority had investigated the shooting, but police had arrested at least 12 of the villagers, two of whomwere subsequently convicted of robbery for attempting to harvest their rice on the disputed land. Seven were acquitted but remained in arbitrary detention pending a prosecutorial appeal.
Informal representatives from communities in most provinces increasingly formed grassroots networks, jointly voicing concerns over forced evictions and intimidation.
International justice
In March, the historic first hearing of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC, Khmer Rouge Tribunal) took place with the trial of Kaing Guek Eav (known as Duch). Duch was commander of notorious security prison S-21. During the 72-day hearing, survivors and victims of Khmer Rouge atrocities heard for the first time evidence against “those most responsible”. Duch admitted responsibility for crimes committed at S-21, including killing about 15,000 people.
The trial of four senior Khmer Rouge leaders was in preparation, and the International Co-Prosecutor submitted requests to open investigations into an additional five suspects. The Cambodian government spoke out against additional investigations saying they could lead to unrest, apparently in an attempt to exert influence over the tribunal.
In July, co-investigating judges decided to allow “confessions” obtained by torture as evidence in the case of Ieng Thirith. This breached the “exclusionary rule” in Article 15 of the UN Convention against Torture which binds the ECCC.
Freedom of expression
A series of prosecutions of people who criticized government policies had a stifling effect on freedom of expression.
- Courts sentenced newspaper editor Hang Chakra, and the director of an NGO, both affiliated to the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), to prison terms for peacefully expressing views.
- The Phnom Penh Court convicted Mu Sochua, Secretary-General of the SRP, of defamation for filing a complaint – also for defamation – against the Prime Minister. She had no legal counsel because her lawyer had withdrawn from the case after receiving threats of legal action for speaking about the case at a press conference. Mu Sochua received a non-custodial sentence.
On 10 July, one of the few remaining opposition-affiliated daily newspapers, Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), stopped publishing. The editor, Dam Sith, issued a public apology for articles, over which the government had requested a criminal investigation for “incitement”.
- By the end of the year, police had made no progress on the investigation into the murder of Moneaksekar Khmer reporter Khim Sambor. He had been killed by unknown assailants during the July 2008 elections.
Legal, constitutional or institutional developments
On 12 October, the National Assembly passed the new Penal Code. This retained defamation as a criminal offence.
Opposition parliamentarians and civil society groups criticized a new Law on non-violent demonstrations, passed by the National Assembly in October. Authorities routinely denied permission for demonstrations and the law, if adopted, risked codifying such restrictions.
Violence against women and girls
Prosecution of rapists remained rare, due to poor law enforcement, corruption in the courts and widespread use of out-of-court financial settlements. Settlements were typically arranged by law enforcement officials and stipulated that the victim withdraw any criminal complaint. Reports indicated that rapes of women and girls, including sex workers, continued to increase, with the age of victims falling.
Amnesty International visits/reports
Amnesty International delegates visited Cambodia in March/May, September and October/December.
* Cambodia: Urban development or relocating slums? (ASA 23/002/2009)
* Cambodia: After 30 years Khmer Rouge crimes on trial (ASA 23/003/2009)
* Cambodia: Briefing for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: 42nd session, May 2009 (ASA 23/004/2009)
* Cambodia: Borei Keila – Lives at risk (ASA 23/008/2009)
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Labels: Amnesty International | CPP silencing critics | Forced evicitons in Cambodia | Human rights abuse in Cambodia | KR trials | Land-grabbing by the rich and powerful
SRP MPs request to delay the planting of border post no. 270 located in Anh-chanh village, Chey Chauk commune, Borey Chulsa district, Takeo province
Click on the letter in Khmer to zoom in
Unofficial translation from Khmer
Subject: Request to delay the planting of border post no. 270 located in Anh-chanh village, Chey Chauk commune, Borey Chulsa district, Takeo province
Based on the subject above, we, the undersigned members of Parliament, request that the Royal Government delays the planting of border post no. 270 located in Anh-chanh village, Chey Chauk commune, Borey Chulsa district, Takeo province, because this border post that is currently being built by the Cambodia-Vietnam border committee is located inside Cambodian territories and it leads to the loss of several tens of hectares of rice fields belonging to Cambodian farmers in Borey Chulsa district.
Farmers who own rice fields in Borey Chulsa have protested once already about the planting of stakes at border post no. 270, claiming that they were planted on their rice fields, however, there was no resolution.
In fact, the planting of border posts 270 is located on rice field lands belonging to Cambodian farmers, not along the borderline as stipulated in the official 1:100,000-scale 1952 maps which were internationally recognized between 1963 and 1969.
Therefore, we, the representatives of the people, request the government to delay the planting of border post no. 270 located in Anh-chanh village, Chey Chauk commune, Borey Chulsa district, Takeo provinc, and request for a new survey based on the correct coordinates to ensure that Cambodian farmers will not lose their rice fields – a heritage from their ancestors since long ago.
Done in Phnom Penh, 27 May 2010
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Labels: Borey Chulsa | SRP MP | Takeo province | Vietnamese encroachment
RFA's interview with SRP MP Son Chhay
Part 1 of 2
Interview by Chun Chanboth, Radio Free Asia
Video by Uon Chhin
Part 2 of 2
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Labels: Cambodia politics | RFA video | Son Chhay | SRP MP
"Facing genocide - Khieu Samphan and Pol Pot" at Norwegian and Montreal International Film Festivals (June-Sept. 2010)
Click here for a preview of the documentary
Source: http://www.story.se/films/-facing-genocide---khieu-samphan-and-pol-pot/?category=&page=
A film by David Aronowitsch and Staffan Lindberg
The film is a search into the personality of Khieu Samphan. He was the Head of state of one of the most brutal regimes ever, the Khmer Rouge-regime in the Democratic Kampuchea. We have followed him one and half year before his arrest in 2007. He is soon facing a trial and is charged with Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes. The film gives insight into his mindset, his life today and his close relation to Pol Pot. The film is a unique story about an ex-leader the time before his arrest and before he is put on trial. The film is completed January 2010.
Others appearing in the film:
* Theary Seng, lawyer and victim of the Khmer Rouge. She is Khieu Samphan’s antagonist in the film and also the voice of the victims.
* Jacques Vergès, Khieu Samphan’s defence-lawyer often called the Devil's advocate.
* So Socheat, Khieu Samphan’s wife, who has been with him since the beginning of the seventies.
* Nuon Chea, ideologist and Head of Security of the Khmer Rouge.
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Labels: Jacques Verges | Khieu Samphan | KR documentary | So Socheat | Theary Seng
Hun Xen and Global Witness: Who’s the real thief ringleader?
Who's the thief ringleader: Global Witness or Hun Xen?
27 May 2010
By Pech Bandol
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer
The shameful thug (Neak Leng) language echoed from PM Hun Xen’s mouth yesterday morning when he harshly attacked a London-based environmental protection group, calling it the “thief ringleader.”
Hun Xen declared, during a 2-day mining meeting which started Wednesday, in front of more than 300 national and international officials: “They are thieves and thief ringleaders, they know how to be thieves, that’s why they gave us advises.” The prime minister also demanded that the international community stop lecturing him on the use of funding for various programs.
Hun Xen said: “It turns out that I am a thief, they look at me like a thief, it’s time to stop the accusation and the finger pointing, because with one finger pointing at me, you are pointing the other 4 at yourself.”
Hun Xen’s reaction takes place after Global Witness issued a report indicating that all the funding that the Cambodian government collected from mining companies, which is alleged to be preserved for social funds, is simply not true. Global Witness said that based on its review of bank ledgers, no such fund exists.
In Cambodia, Global Witness is not the only organization that criticized national corruption, deforestation and destruction of the environment, even the various donor countries themselves directly criticized the abject corruption in the country.
Last year, US Ambassador Carol Rodley publicly criticized the Cambodian government for losing $350 to $500 million in revenue to corruption each year. Following this criticism, the Cambodian ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a diplomatic note last month, forbidding foreign ambassadors stationed in Cambodia from interfering in Cambodian internal affairs.
Regarding this issue, the Cambodian people, the civil society and the opposition parties are all wondering who, between Hun Xen and Global Witness, is really the thief ringleader?
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Labels: Carol Rodley | Country for sale | Deforestation | Family of the Thieves of the Nation | Global Witness | Hun Xen | Sand dredging
HRH Princess Sisowath Pongneary Monypong to preside over the 61st Kampuchea Krom Commemorative Anniversary
Click on the letters in Khmer to zoom in
Unofficial translation in brief:
The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts Letter No. 15
On May 20, 2010, Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Him Chhem writes to all the heads, deputy prime ministers, senior ministers, ministers, and state secretaries of ministries and institutions on the shut-down period of 40 days for renovations of the Chaktomuk National and International Conference Hall beginning May 20 through June 31, 2010
cc:
- Chief Cabinet of the Prime Minister
- Chief Cabinet of the Royal Palace
- Senate Secretariat
- Parliament Secretariat
- Chief Cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An
- Archive
------------------
The Royal Palace Letter No. 244/10
On May 26, 2010, the Minister in charge of the Royal Palace Chhean Horn informs KKC Executive Director Hon. Thach Setha that HM The King Norodom Sihamoni grants/dispatches HRH Princess Sisowath Pongneary Monypong as His highest representative in the Buddhist Offerings Ceremony to the eminent 1,949 Buddhist monks to be organized by the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community (KKC) on June, 4, 2010 in front of Wat Padmavatei (Botumvatei).
cc:
- All relevant departments
- Archive
------------------
KKC Letter No. 11/10
On May 26, 2010, KKC Executive Director, Phnom Penh Councilman, and former Senator Thach Setha writes to the Phnom Penh Mayor Kep Chuktema for the second time, except this time, KKC requests to use the National Olympic Stadium to hold the Buddhist Offerings Ceremony to the eminent 1,949 Buddhist monks as KKC has organized every year.
Related materials click on KKC
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Labels: Anniversary of the loss of Kampuchea Krom | Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community | Khmer Krom plight | Thach Setha
City nixes Khmer Krom ceremony
Monks attend a ceremony last year marking the 60th anniversary of a ruling that ceded territory to Vietnam. City Hall has rejected a proposal for a similar ceremony organisers are planning for next month. (Photo by: Tracey Shelton)
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post
CITY officials have rejected a proposal for a June 4 public ceremony marking the 61st anniversary of a French colonial ruling that formally ceded former Cambodian territories in the Mekong Delta to southern Vietnam, according to a letter dated May 21.
Khmer Krom advocacy groups had planned to hold the ceremony in the park outside Wat Botum, with organisers expecting to attract up to 5,000 people, including 2,000 monks.
The letter, signed by Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema, states that the organisers should send a new proposal to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, and suggests that they hold the ceremony at Chaktomuk Conference Hall in order to maintain “security and good public order”.
Thach Setha, executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community, which is organising the event, said he has already contacted Minister of Culture Him Chhem, who told him that the Chaktomuk facility is closed for renovations.
He said that he sent another letter to Kep Chuktema on Wednesday, again seeking permission to hold the ceremony. He added that the event had already been organised and would go ahead whether or not City Hall gives its official blessing.
“We cannot miss this because the King has sent his representative to participate in the ceremony. So we must hold the ceremony as planned,” he said.
Kep Chuktema could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, while Koet Chhe, deputy chief of the Municipal Cabinet, declined to comment, saying he had not seen Thach Setha’s follow-up letter to the governor.
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Labels: Anniversary of the loss of Kampuchea Krom | Khmer Krom plight | Thach Setha
Thursday, May 27, 2010
PM slams critics over revenues
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Sebastian Strangio and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post
“It’s unfortunate that Prime Minister Hun Sen used the opening speech at such an important national conference promoting Cambodia’s mining sector as a stage to personally attack us, rather than focus on how his government is going to implement the critical reforms needed for transparency and accountability in the industry” - Global Witness
Hun Sen tells global community not to treat Cambodia ‘like a child’
PRIME Minister Hun Sen lashed out at critics of the government’s handling of extractive-resource revenues on Wednesday, branding them “thieves” and saying that tensions between Cambodia and international watchdog Global Witness stem from a “sexual scandal” involving the group’s staff.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day mining conference in the capital Wednesday, Hun Sen said criticisms from international organisations and foreign countries were misplaced because the government has not yet pocketed any funds from extractive industries.
“I don’t understand when they order the fish to be fried or grilled while the fish is still in the water,” he told an audience of business executives, diplomats and civil society representatives. “They have accused us of corruption in spending while we have not yet made any money.”
Ministry of Finance budget records show that the government has received more than US$28 million in signature bonuses and social fund payments from foreign companies investing in extractive industries since the beginning of 2009.
Hun Sen also said that all payments made to secure mining or oil and gas exploration rights were processed within “the framework of the state budget”, and scolded international critics for treating the government “like a child”.
“Do not teach us so much – it is boring. No one is the teacher of Cambodia,” he said.
Western governments dwelling on the issue of mining, gas and oil revenue transparency are guilty of hypocrisy, Hun Sen said, accusing them of turning a blind eye to the lucrative gem-mining operations that helped support the Khmer Rouge insurgency during the 1980s and 1990s.
“Until this hour no one has dared to criticise the diamonds in Pailin, which were dug for making war,” he said.
Revenues from gems and timber helped support the Western-backed anti-government resistance coalition, which included the Khmer Rouge.
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), said Hun Sen’s claim that no money had been made from extractive industries was misleading.
“We have experience that Cambodia has got big fish, and that many fish are going into the ponds of corrupt officials,” he said, and alleged that US$2 billion has been lost to illegal logging since 1993.
He added that the government has yet to respond to questions from the SRP about millions of dollars in signature bonuses and social funds paid to the government by French oil firm Total and Australian mining company BHP Billiton.
The government has acknowledged receiving the payments, and critics have asserted that the funds have not been properly accounted for. “So far there is no reply regarding where the money has gone,” Yim Sovann said.
Last month, environmental watchdog Global Witness urged foreign donors to pressure the government to make such payments fully transparent.
“These figures represent only a fraction of the sum of the payments Global Witness is aware of. Overall, they raise serious questions,” campaigner George Boden said in an April 29 statement.
In his speech Wednesday, the premier launched a savage attack on the UK-based group, saying it was acting “like the boss of Cambodia”.
“They accuse the government in Phnom Penh of being thieves so I curse them as the chief thieves.... We have not yet made money, but they already accuse us of being thieves.”
Hun Sen also said that Global Witness workers had been barred from the country following a sex scandal involving a “female employee” of the organisation.
“I would like to say in public that the matter between Global Witness and the government of Cambodia started with the sexual scandal of Global Witness staff,” he said. “The matter started from that ... and now Global Witness is trying to take vengeance with Cambodia.” No other details of the scandal were provided.
Global Witness, which has been barred from the country since 2005, on Wednesday lamented the prime minister’s attempt to smear its reputation.
“It’s unfortunate that Prime Minister Hun Sen used the opening speech at such an important national conference promoting Cambodia’s mining sector as a stage to personally attack us, rather than focus on how his government is going to implement the critical reforms needed for transparency and accountability in the industry,” the group said in an emailed statement.
Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said Hun Sen had clearly used the landmark conference as a way to send a message to his critics.
“I think he’s trying to respond to critics in the best way he knows how, which is not to respond to the issues, but to lash out at the messenger,” he said.
He added that the broadside could also be related to next week’s Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF), when donors will measure the government’s progress on key reform indicators – including resource revenue transparency – and pledge development aid for the next 18 months.
“Maybe he’s trying to set the agenda, so they can’t raise some of these issues,” he said.
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Labels: Bribery scandal | Global Witness | Hun Xen's rant
Mining sector a ‘blank slate’
Right: VIPs listen to speakers at the nation's first international mining conference, held Wednesday at the InterContinental Hotel. Left, top to bottom: Prime MInister Hun Sen; UNDP Country Representative Douglas Broderick; Minister of Mines and Industry Suy Sem. (Photo by: UY NOUSEREIMONY)
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Jeremy Mullins and May Kunmakara
The Phnom Penh Post
CAMBODIA’S untapped mining sector is a potential windfall for the country, but must be carefully regulated if it is to attract foreign investment, said international experts taking part in the Kingdom’s first international mining conference Wednesday.
World Bank mining specialist Craig Andrews told the Post the sector will benefit if regulatory and taxation issues are in place before mineral exploitation begins.
He counselled the Kingdom to avoid an Australian-style “super tax” on mining profits, saying the situation in Australia’s developed mining sector and the Kingdom’s nascent industry require different kinds of policies.
A lenient, stable mining tax policy would help Cambodia attract foreign direct investment, he said. “Companies will find it to be a deterrent if they do not find stability,” he said.
“In addition to everything else in Cambodia, there is the possibility government could change tax laws and take away profits,” Andrews told the conference at the Intercontinental Hotel, where 300 participants from throughout the world were gathered to discuss transparency and development in the Kingdom’s burgeoning mining sector.
The event was held in the wake of mining giant BHP Billiton’s high-profile internal probe into bribery allegations that have been linked by some to its former concession in Mondulkiri province.
The growing mining sector could emulate aspects of successful international models such as Chile and Botswana, Colorado School of Mines economic and mining expert Roderick Eggert said on the sidelines of the conference.
“Cambodia is starting with a blank slate. It has a chance to do things right, to benefit from others’ experience,” he said.
Mining firms are attracted to transparency and certainty, Eggert added.
Sharing the wealth
Cambodia may yet join the Extractive Industries Transparencies Initiative (EITI), an international programme aimed at opening the industry to public scrutiny, its regional director Samuel Bartlett said.
“It’s clear there’s a very vibrant debate on the issue in Cambodia,” he said.
“We’re about providing tools. It’s up to countries to get involved.”
In an opening speech, United Nations Development Project (UNDP) Country Representative Douglas Broderick said Cambodia is poised to begin developing its deposits, but must spread the wealth.
“The minerals are in the ground. It is up to us to work together to ensure that all Cambodians can stake a claim in the potential revenues from these natural resource,” he said.
Also speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Hun Sen called the nation’s resources “a new potential economic treasure”, and said that mineral wealth could contribute to the Kingom’s economic development alongside the agriculture, garment, construction, and tourism sectors.
“If Cambodia gets a chance to explore its mineral treasures, Cambodia will responsibly use the revenue for the benefit of the country,” he said.
Hun Sen called upon conference participants to share knowledge to assist the government in maximising the financial benefits from the sector, thus contributing to national development and poverty reduction.
Hun Sen also asked participants to avoid mining in historical or sacred areas, and to curtail “anarchic” mining activities.
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Friday 28 May in Seattle, Washington:
Saturday 29 May in Long Beach, California
Sunday 30 May in San Jose, California (mid-morning and afternoon)
Sunday 30 May in San Jose, California
Click on each announcement to zoom in
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Labels: California | Sam Rainsy's visit to the USA and Canada | Sean Pengse | SRP | Vietnamese border encroachment | Washington State
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sam Rainsy faces arrest for not showing up in court to clarify for the Phnom Penh court
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy
28 May 2010
By Meas Mony
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
For not showing up to clarify the court as summoned in April in the lawsuit case regarding disinformation and falsifying public document, opposition leader Sam Rainsy now faces an arrest warrant issued against him.
The Phnom Penh municipal court issued this warrant to Sam Rainsy on Tuesday after he did not show up in court in April, however, the latter now lives overseas.
Nevertheless, Chuong Chou-ngy, Sam Rainsy’s defense lawyer, told reporters that he went to court instead of Sam Rainsy already on 20 April.
However, Ky Tech, the government lawyer, claimed that Sam Rainsy is involved in a criminal case, therefore his lawyer cannot show up in court for the suspect or the accused.
Yim Sovann, SRP spokesman, indicated that the court arrest warrant is meaningless in the lawsuit case brought up against Sam Rainsy. “I don’t pay attention about this court, this is a political hearing, therefore a political solution is needed,” Yim Sovann said.
Currently, opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Mr. Sean Pengse, a border expert under the Khmer Republic regime, are conducting their campaign in the US in order to explain to the Cambodian people, as well as the international community, about the border situation in Cambodia which is under encroachments from neighboring countries while the Cambodian government is turning a blind eye to this situation.
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Labels: Arrest warrant | CPP silencing the opposition voice | Hun Xen's travesty of justice | Sam Rainsy | Vietnamese encroachment
Sacrava's Thai Political Cartoon: Thai Terrorists
Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)
Click here to read the related article
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Labels: Red Shirts | Thai army and politics | Thailand political unrest
GX Proud to Announce 2010 People's Choice Honoree from Cambodia
Global Exchange is pleased to announce the winner of our 2010 Human Rights Awards People's Choice, Mu Sochua, as chosen by YOU, supporters of Global Exchange and human rights around the world.
Mu Sochua joins our other award recipients, Raúl del Águila, International Honoree, and Van Jones, Domestic Honoree.
Mu Sochua has been a tireless advocate for human rights and the rights of women in Cambodia. In fact, her dedication to her work has meant that she is currently facing trial and prosecution for simply asserting her right to free speech.
Please join us, and the global community of human rights supporters, in extending our sincere thanks to Mu Sochua for her courage and dedication to those in need in her native land.
Accepting the People's Choice Award on Mu's behalf at our gala celebration in San Francisco on May 27 will be Sochua's daughter Devi Leiper, a resident of San Francisco.
If would like to learn more about Mu Sochua, Raúl del Águila, and Van Jones, please visit www.humanrightsaward.org.
Thank you all for nominating and voting for your human rights heroes during the 2010 Global Exchange Human Rights Awards!
------
Message from Mrs. Mu Sochua:
Thanking you all for your support.
Sochua
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Labels: Mu Sochua | Nomination for human rights awards
Cambodian 'jungle woman' back in forest
Rochom P'ngieng during her hospitalization in 2009 (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)
May 28, 2010
AFP
Cambodia's "jungle woman," whose story gripped the country after she apparently spent 18 years living in a forest, has fled back to the jungle, her father and local police say.
Rochom P'ngieng, now 29, went missing as a little girl in 1989 while herding water buffalo in Ratanakkiri province, around 600 kilometres northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh.
In early 2007 the woman was brought from the jungle, naked and dirty, after being caught trying to steal food from a farmer. She was hunched over like a monkey, scavenging on the ground for pieces of dried rice.
Advertisement: Story continues below"She must have fled back to the forest on Tuesday evening while she was going to take a bath," Sal Lou, the man who says he is her father, told AFP by telephone on Friday.
"I and my son are looking for her in the middle forest now," he said, adding that he believed "forest spirits" guided her back to the dense jungle.
Local police chief Ma Vichet said the authorities had also begun a search but had found no sign of the woman.
"We also believe that she fled back to the jungle," Ma Vichet said.
Immediately after being taken from the jungle in 2007, Rochom P'ngieng could not utter a word of any intelligible language, instead making what her father calls "animal noises."
Cambodians described her as "jungle woman" and "half-animal girl" and since rejoining society she has battled bouts of illness after refusing food.
In December she began speaking normally, instead of making animal-type noises, and helping out around the house, according to her father.
The jungles of Ratanakkiri - some of Cambodia's wildest and most isolated - are known to have hidden groups of hill tribes in the recent past.
In November 2004, 34 people from four hill tribe families emerged from the dense forest where they had fled in 1979 after the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which they had supported.
Rochom P'ngieng has previously tried to flee back into the jungle but was stopped by her family.
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Cambodia's Khmer culture is displayed in 'Gods of Angkor' exhibit
A figure of Vishnu holds, clockwise from upper right, a conch, a mace, a ball representing Earth and a discus. (National Museum Of Cambodia, Phnom Penh - National Museum Of Cambodia, Phnom Penh)
Friday, May 28, 2010
Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post
It's hard to tell which celestial being is depicted in one of the bronze figures in "Gods of Angkor." After all, he has lost his head.
It could be the Hindu god Shiva. Or it could be Avalokiteshvara, a bodhisattva, or manifestation, of the Buddha. Both religions flourished, side by side, in Cambodia's Khmer culture.
Also missing: two of the figure's four hands, which might have once held clues to its identity. Another figure -- clearly identified because of what he's holding -- juggles Vishnu's trademark conch, mace, discus and ball, representing the Earth. Look behind him, and you'll notice what looks like a butterfly on his tush. A nearby statue of Shiva has one, too.
No, the butterfly doesn't stand for patience or some other virtue. It's probably just a palace fashion trend -- a fancy bow -- that found its way from the closets of the living to the closets of the gods. Which doesn't sound all that surprising when you consider that the face of one of the bronze Buddhas on view is said to bear a strange resemblance to the face of Jayavarman VII, the king of the Khmer empire under whose reign it was made.
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Labels: Art exhibition | Khmer artefacts | Washington DC
Sackler Gallery exhibits 'Gods of Angkor' bronzes from Cambodia
The Sackler's 36-piece exhibition includes bronzes of Shiva's elephant-headed son Ganesha and a crowned Buddha, above, from the 12th century. (Images From National Museum Of Cambodia, Phnom Penh)
Friday, May 28, 2010
By Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
There are only 36 works on display in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's latest exhibition, "Gods of Angkor: Bronzes From the National Museum of Cambodia." Maybe twice that, if you count all the extra arms and heads.
Gods, you see, are not like us.
The show -- a jewel box of mostly smallish sculptures in three tiny galleries -- centers on devotional figures of Shiva, Vishnu and other Hindu deities, several of whom are depicted with anywhere from four to 10 arms, and as many as five heads. One, in the case of Shiva's son Ganesha, has the head of an elephant.
There are also several statues of the Buddha.
I know: Buddha is not technically a god. Still, he has often been revered as though he were one. And his various bodhisattvas -- the quasi-human, quasi-godlike embodiments of such virtues as wisdom and compassion -- are themselves considered to be deities. (In an interesting twist on certain Western stereotypes, wisdom, represented by the bodhisattva Prajnaparamita, is female; compassion, in the person of Avalokiteshvara, is a male.)
So Buddha makes the cut. The show, which also features two or three human figures, includes a number of rarely seen ritual objects from Buddhist and Hindu worship: a bell, a mirror, a lotus flower, a conch.
Yet despite its name, "Gods" isn't exactly a show about religion. Nor is it simply a celebration of the bronze-caster's art. Though it covers centuries' worth of art from the Khmer people -- from late prehistory through the Angkor period (802 to 1431 A.D.) -- there's precious little technical information about how the pieces were made.
Instead, the show is a tip of the hat from one museum to another. One favor in exchange for another.
In 2005, experts from the Sackler helped set up the National Museum of Cambodia's first metal conservation lab, with financial support from the Getty Foundation. Today, in conjunction with its ceramics and stone conservation shops, the Cambodian museum operates one of Southeast Asia's preeminent art conservation facilities.
The beautiful works in "Gods of Angkor" are evidence of that.
In other words, the National Museum of Cambodia got the gift, but here in Washington, we are the beneficiaries.
GODS OF ANGKOR: BRONZES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CAMBODIA Through Jan. 23 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave. SW (Metro: Smithsonian). 202-633-1000 (TDD: 202-633-5285). http://www.asia.si.edu. Hours: Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission: Free.
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"Today, it's not the state who owns the old properties, but the ruling party, the CPP": Vann Molyvann
Independence Monument; Vann Molyvann, architect (All photos: Luke Duggleby for The Wall Street Journal)
A lone figure walks the stands of Vann Molyvann's Olympic Stadium.
The Chaktomuk Conference Hall, one of Mr. Molyvann's earliest designs, was built in 1961.
The library at the Institute for Foreign Languages, now part of the Royal University of Phnom Penh
More of Mr. Molyvann's work at the Institute for Foreign Languages
Yet more of the institute
Modern Masterpieces
MAY 28, 2010
By TOM VATER
The Wall Street Journal
Vann Molyvann, Cambodia's greatest living architect, recalls that the night his Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh was completed, in 1964, "I took my wife to see the work." Sitting in the top tier of the stands, they listened to Dvorák's "New World Symphony" over the stadium's speaker system. "It was one of the great moments of my life."
In the years after Cambodia won independence from France in 1953, Mr. Molyvann—then scarcely in his 30s—set out under the tutelage of King Norodom Sihanouk to transform Phnom Penh from a colonial backwater into a modern city. But in the late 1960s the country was drawn into decades of war and terror, including years under the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, and Mr. Molyvann's vision was virtually forgotten. The architect himself had to flee the country.
And while he returned in triumph after more than 20 years abroad, it was to find that grand titles didn't translate into influence in today's Cambodia. His legacy—structures in a style dubbed New Khmer Architecture—lives on, contributing significantly to the flair of the city, but even that is in danger as Phnom Penh, like other Asian capitals, clears historic buildings to make room for skyscrapers.
Cambodia is best known for its magnificent temple ruins at Angkor, remnants of a great Southeast Asian empire that covered the country's current territory as well as parts of Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. After Angkor fell to the Siamese in the 15th century, a new Cambodian capital was founded on the banks of the Tonlé Sap River. That city, Phnom Penh, remained an unstable settlement, caught up in the geopolitical ambitions of Cambodia's more powerful neighbors, until the French arrived in the 1860s. The colonial administrators drained the neighboring swamps and created a grid street plan, dotted with sumptuous villas, Art Deco markets and impressive government structures.
Even then, Phnom Penh was modest, small-town colonial France—and when Mr. Molyvann received a scholarship from the colonial government and set off for the Sorbonne in Paris, it wasn't with the dream of returning to remake it. He was a law student. But as he pursued his degree, and struggled with the compulsory Greek and Latin, he had an encounter that changed his life.
"I met Henri Marchal, the curator of Angkor for the École Française d'Extrême-Orient [the French School of Asian Studies]," Mr. Molvyann remembers, "and suddenly I knew I wanted to be an architect, so I changed to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, where I studied until 1950 under Le Corbusier." He regards that modernist architect and designer as his greatest teacher.
After that, Mr. Molyvann stayed on in Paris for several more years, studying Khmer art. While he looks back fondly on the period, he is also keenly aware that some of Cambodia's later traumas had their origins in the Paris of that time.
"The Khmer Rouge was born in the Latin quarter of Paris," he says. As they debated their country's postcolonial future, Mr. Molyvann says, the city's 400 or so Cambodian students split between nationalists and Marxists. Khieu Samphan, whom he knew as a fellow Sorbonne student, would go on to become head of state in the Khmer Rouge government.
By 1956, Mr. Molyvann was back in Phnom Penh. Independence had broadened Cambodia's horizons, in part thanks to the efforts of King Sihanouk, who at various times officially dropped his title to serve as prime minister, head of state or president, though Cambodians continued to refer to him as king. With tremendous energy and not a little royal eccentricity, the young monarch—also politician, artist, filmmaker, womanizer and host to a series of foreign heads of state and celebrities—worked to create a modern nation with an eye on the past. The leading members of an emerging urban elite, many of whom, like Mr. Molyvann, had returned from Paris, sought to create architecture, music, films, literature and art that married Cambodian tradition with modernist thinking.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in new administrative, public and private building projects that sprang up all over the capital—transforming Phnom Penh, within little more than a decade, into one of Asia's most dynamic cities.
"It was difficult at the beginning, as Cambodians had never heard of architects," Mr. Molyvann remembers. "All they knew were engineers and builders. There was a real dearth of qualified Khmer experts, as the French had used Vietnamese to administer my country. But within 10 years of independence the management of the country and its capital was Khmer. It was incredible."
Mr. Molyvann was made chief architect for state buildings and director for urban planning and habitat in 1956 and given a number of ministerial posts in the following years. "I was designing the Independence Monument and was asked to present the king with a selection of marble," he recalls. "I was too afraid to speak to him personally, but he made some suggestions and we got on perfectly after that." Shaped like a lotus flower, the monument tower, completed in 1960, remains one of Phnom Penh's landmarks.
Mr. Molyvann had part of the floodplain south of the Royal Palace drained and filled, and on this "Front de Bassac" constructed the country's first high-rises, initially for visiting athletes for the 1966 Ganefo Games, a short-lived Asian alternative to the Olympics.
"We built the stadium for 60,000 people and surrounded it with a moat, so that the waters could run off in the rainy season," he says.
Stefanie Irmer, whose KA Tours focuses on New Khmer Architecture, sees the relation between water and city as crucial to the architect's vision for Phnom Penh. "Besides creating the 'Front de Bassac' area from wetlands," she says, "almost every building Vann Molyvann designed was surrounded by water—to keep the termites out, but also to integrate the buildings into the flood plain."
Many of Mr. Molyvann's buildings are traditional in one sense—they are shaped like familiar objects. Chaktomuk Conference Hall, one of his earliest designs, is like an open palm leaf. The library of the Institute of Foreign Languages (now part of the Royal University of Phnom Penh) was inspired by a traditional Khmer straw hat. The lecture halls of the institute rest on sharply angled concrete pillars that give them the appearance of animals, about to jump. They are still in use today, as is the library.
By the early 1960s, for the first time in almost 800 years, Cambodia was blooming. The Angkor ruins were the region's biggest tourist draw, and Phnom Penh had doubled in size and become a city others in the region admired.
But the politics were turning ugly. Norodom Sihanouk, serving as prime minister, began to suppress dissent. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. had combat troops in Vietnam; as American planes began bombing North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia, the country's policy of neutrality became a farce. The former king's repressive policies alienated the political left and some rural Cambodians, who began to join a shadowy communist movement, the Khmer Rouge. Meanwhile, the right and military had become fed up with his capriciousness and nepotism. When he left to visit China in 1970, a coup replaced him with army general Lon Nol. The Swinging '60s, the meteoric rise of a young nation, the building boom in the "Pearl of Asia"—it was all over.
Mr. Molyvann remembers days with hard choices. "Shortly after Lon Nol came to power, the Israeli ambassador advised me to take my family out of the country," he says; the ambassador, a friend of his, warned him about the crumbling security and the increasing persecution of those connected with the previous government. So when Mr. Molyvann left for a conference in Israel, with his wife, Trudy, and their six children, they didn't return. Instead they moved on to Switzerland, his wife's home country.
Five years later, the Khmer Rouge marched victoriously into Phnom Penh. The new rulers immediately emptied the cities, and for almost four years Phnom Penh was a ghost town. At least 1.5 million Cambodians, nearly a quarter of the population—Mr. Molyvann's father among them—lost their lives in the killing fields. The fledgling intellectual elite was snuffed out.
"I had no contact during those years," says Mr. Molyvann. "I had to give my children a new life, so we stayed in Lausanne." He continued to work as an architect in Switzerland, Africa and Laos, for the United Nations and the World Bank. The Vietnamese pushed out the Khmer Rouge in 1979, but Mr. Molyvann "could not think of going back." The new rulers "were still communists."
"It was not until 1993 that I returned—with the U.N.," he says. Initially, his homecoming was triumphant. He was appointed minister of state for culture and fine arts, territorial management and urban planning and contributed to the application for Angkor's successful recognition as a Unesco World Heritage site.
But he soon realized that the Cambodia he had left behind in 1970 no longer existed. Cambodian People's Party leader Hun Sen, who had been installed by the Vietnamese and who continued as prime minister after the U.N.-organized elections, gave Mr. Molyvann back his villa, but the architect's plans for Siem Reap—the province in which Angkor is located—were unappreciated. He had called for a "tourist village" set apart from both the temples and the old town of Siem Reap, integrated into the environment and with water conservation as a key goal.
"The government wanted to use the resources of Angkor to develop Siem Reap without the participation of the local people," Mr. Molyvann says. "In 1998, I became president executive director of Apsara (Authority for the Protection and Safeguard of Angkor), the government body created to look after the temples. Three years later, I was fired." Unchecked development in Siem Reap has led to a dramatic drop in groundwater levels, causing subsidence that has put the Bayon, one of the main temples in the Angkor area, in danger of collapse, according to experts from the Japanese Conservation Team for Safeguarding Angkor. Development has also driven up property prices and the cost of living, a hardship for the locals in a province that remains one of the poorest in the country.
But it was not just the government and developers standing against Mr. Molyvann and his vision. Bill Greaves, director of the Vann Molyvann Project, a nongovernmental organization engaged in recreating the lost plans of the remaining New Khmer Architecture sites, thinks postwar Cambodia is simply not aware of its past.
"Right now, Singapore and Shanghai are models for forward-looking cities, both for the government and the people," he says. "Hence Phnom Penh's different stages of history are likely to be discarded."
In the past decade, as investment has begun to pour into the Cambodian capital once more, colonial and 1960s buildings have been replaced by chrome-and-glass edifices, floodwater lakes have been drained, local media have reported almost daily evictions and ministers have gushed over the need to build skyscrapers in order to keep up with the neighbors.
The government frequently declares that preservation has to go hand in hand with development. In practice, it seems to walk well behind. Beng Khemro, deputy director general at the ministry for land management, urban planning and construction, says his department's hands are tied. "Many historical properties are in terrible condition," he says. "The people who own them don't understand the value of the past and would rather demolish them and build high-rises to make a profit. The past is not appreciated. Without a change in attitude amongst the population, we are fighting a losing battle."
Cambodia has preservation laws, and Dr. Khemro says he is trying to pass a regulation to get them applied in particular instances. He'd like to try a pilot preservation project away from Phnom Penh, he says, noting that Cambodia's second-largest city, Battambang, has many buildings from the French period.
"Also," he adds, "there's less pressure."
Molyvann advocate Mr. Greaves is skeptical about the survival of the architect's legacy. "The old buildings disappear at an alarming rate—even public edifices like the National Theatre, which was knocked down a couple of years ago, are not safe. We try and get there before the demolition crews arrive."
A drive around town with Mr. Molyvann illustrates his curious position in this free-for-all scramble for change. At the Independence Monument, guards at first refuse him entry. Only after his driver reveals the distinguished visitor's identity is the master architect, old and frail, allowed to climb the steps he designed half a century ago.
Passing the stadium, Mr. Molyvann looks at the haphazard development around his favorite creation. Appropriated by developers with government connections, the moat has been partly filled in to make space for shops and an underground car park; the result is annual flooding that threatens the entire sports complex.
With equal shades of sadness and anger in his voice, Mr. Molyvann says, "Today, it's not the state who owns the old properties, but the ruling party, the CPP."
—Tom Vater is a writer based in Bangkok.
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Bail for sex tourist angers advocate
Thursday, May 27, 2010
CBC News (Canada)
A women's rights advocate is outraged that a Burnaby, B.C., man who pleaded guilty to sex tourism charges has been released from custody pending sentencing.
Kenneth Klassen pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court May 21 to having sex with more than a dozen girls under the age of 14 in Cambodia and Colombia between 1998 and 2002.
"With all due respect to the defence attorney, it just seems like a joke," said Holly Dignard, of Caleb's Hope, an organization that works with female victims of sexual assault in developing countries.
Crown prosecutors and Klassen's lawyer discussed on Thursday the possibility of the convicted man wearing an electronic monitoring device while he remains out on bail, but the decision was deferred.
"If he was a serial murderer, I highly doubt they'd be releasing him with something around his ankle to make sure he doesn't go kill someone," Dignard said.
Under surveillance
The RCMP said that Klassen, 59, is under surveillance, and the Crown prosecutor in the case said the man had been told that police were watching him.
"He is aware of being followed," Brendan McCabe told the court.
As part of his bail conditions, Klassen had to surrender his passport to authorities, cannot be in the presence of children without permission, has to remain in B.C. and cannot be away from his residence for more than 24 hours.
Dignard said those conditions were insufficient. She has started an online petition urging the court to revoke Klassen's bail and "sentence this man to the full extent of the law."
"I find it goes back to the core issue of rape and violence against women. People don't take it seriously enough," she said.
Klassen also pleaded guilty to importing child pornography.
Arguments on Klassen's bail conditions resume on Tuesday. No date has been set for sentencing.
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Labels: Canada | Canadian citizen | Child molester | Child sex tourist
"Kamnap Snaeh Chass Pduol Prah Loeu Kamnap Thmei (Tumteav 1)" a Poem in Khmer by Yim Guechsè
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Cambodian Factories Seek Eco-Friendly Power Alternatives
May 27, 2010
By SIMON MARKS
International Herald Tribune (Paris, France)
PHNOM PENH — Almost every day for the past 15 years Cheang Vet, a roadside mechanic near Phnom Penh’s Cambodian-Japanese Friendship Bridge, has witnessed the constant flow of traffic making its way in and out of the capital by its main northeasterly access point.
But in the last decade, as the number of people employed in Cambodia’s garment sector has increased from about 25,000 in 2000 to around 300,000 today, he has noticed a steady increase in one particular type of vehicle entering Phnom Penh: heavy-load trucks carrying huge stacks of firewood.
“There are at least 10 trucks a day carrying about two and a half tons of firewood,” Mr. Vet estimated. “They tell me they are on their way to the garment factories on the other side of the city.”
The majority of the country’s garment factories — making clothes for brand names in the U.S. and European markets — use firewood to heat old-fashioned boilers that produce hot water for dying fabrics and steam for ironing.
Some factories depend on firewood to supply all of their energy needs, according to industry experts.
Indeed, the use of firewood for energy is widely considered better for the environment than fossil fuels, as trees can be replanted to offset carbon emissions released during combustion. But replanting plans are limited here, while demand for firewood is growing.
In the 1990s, large areas of Cambodia’s rubber plantations — planted by the French in the early 20th century — had aged to the point where their yields of latex, the sap from which natural rubber is made, had dropped considerably, requiring extensive replanting.
Felling old trees made large quantities of rubber wood available to the emerging garment and brick factories in the Phnom Penh region.
But, according to a report released last year by the French environmental organization Geres, this source of timber is running out.
The Geres report found that 69 of the 310 garment factories then registered with the manufacturers’ association said they were using rubber wood to produce steam for ironing and dyeing clothes. In total, Geres estimated that garment factories burned around 65,000 cubic meters, or about 2.3 million cubic feet, of wood every month.
But a “critical period” started in 2009, the report said, “where rubber wood will not be available in sufficient quantity to supply the industrial sector its energy requirements.”
Energy experts and environmentalists say that timber is now being obtained instead from the country’s remaining natural-growth forests.
Graeme Brown, a private consultant working on natural resource management issues, said that a heightened demand for new rubber plantation acreage was leading to forest clearance, creating a “ready supply of natural forest timber.”
With the costs of wood-fired heating far lower than the cost of electricity from the national grid — power prices in Cambodia are among the highest in the region because of poor infrastructure and the use of inefficient diesel generators — there are fears that demand for firewood will continue to grow.
Still, there are signs that Cambodia’s garment factories, after a decade of efforts to improve labor standards, are now starting to concern themselves with environmental issues, too.
Albert Tan, vice president of Suntex, a Singaporean-owned garment factory in Phnom Penh, said the company had brought in a team of engineers from Malaysia to assess ways the factory could use less energy.
Mr. Tan said that wasting less energy would allow the factory to burn less wood and would also reduce dependence on diesel-powered backup generators in the event of a power cut — a frequent occurrence in Cambodia.
“There are not many results yet, but some studies are going on to see how best we can be eco-friendly and take care of the environment,” he said.
The owners of the factory, which produces about 2.5 million pieces of clothing per month for export to client brands in the United States and Europe, are also considering installing a gasification unit that would convert biomass or organic waste into cleaner-burning, more efficient synthetic gas, he added.
Rin Seyha, managing director of SME Renewable Energy, in Phnom Penh, said his company had been approached by several garment factories looking to use gasification.
But the technology available in Cambodia is still insufficient for large energy users like clothing factories, he said, and potential clients are often put off by the cost of importing larger units.
A gasification plant with a one megawatt generating capacity, imported from India, costs $300,000. Mr. Seyha’s company sold just one plant to a garment factory last year and so far in 2010 has aroused interest in three more. After 70 factories shut down during the global financial crisis, there are now about 250 factories operating in Cambodia.
Cutting down on emissions from burning wood and protecting the forests would help the industry’s image with environmentally conscious consumer abroad. But profit-focused private investors often balk at the first hurdle when it comes to introducing more environmentally friendly technology, because they consider the costs involved to be too high, said Yohanes Iwan Baskoro, country director for Geres.
Investors need to be educated to understand that improved technology can achieve a profitable return for companies in the long run, he said, adding that as well as fiscal incentives from the government, the banking sector also needs more encouragement to provide loans for environmental improvement.
“If we can’t show that there is profits in it for them I don’t think they will participate,” Mr. Baskoro said.
Julia Brickell, resident representative in Phnom Penh for the World Bank’s private-sector lender, the International Finance Corp., also said lenders needed to be persuaded.
“Financial institutions may focus too much on the short-term costs of investing in energy-efficiency improvements and not immediately see the longer-term benefits for their potential clients in terms of cost savings,” Ms. Brickell said. “This may impact their willingness to provide financing for technological upgrades.”
Garment workshops often operate from leased premises and lack fixed assets to provide collateral for loans, she added. “This may also result in reluctance on the part of the financial institutions to extend financing for energy efficiency improvements.”
Still, some progress is being made. A factory in Kandal Province, near Phnom Penh, which supplies garments to Hennes & Mauritz of Sweden and Marks & Spencer of Britain, is a case in point.
Wood is still being used to heat the factory’s boilers, but the company is using its staff house to test energy saving technologies on a small scale.
“Every factory wants to save costs, and our biggest cost is electricity,” said a manager at the factory, who spoke on condition of anonymity because, she said, bosses in Hong Kong had asked her to keep a low profile.
The company, one of Cambodia’s largest with nearly 3,000 workers, has installed solar panels on the roof of its staff house, where 50 air-conditioned rooms accommodate the management. To discourage energy waste, anyone using more than 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month is charged 50 cents per extra kilowatt-hour used.
Marks & Spencer is advising the factory through its so-called Plan A corporate strategy, to focus on improving environmental standards. More efficient lighting, better insulation and improved temperature control are three measures that have been identified.
At another factory, in Phnom Penh, where roughly 1,000 workers make luxury menswear for export, a program to fit energy-saving light bulbs is under way. With 3,500 neon lights in operation throughout the day, a sizable reduction in electricity consumption is expected, the factory’s general manager said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
But balancing the need for increased productivity — Cambodia’s work force is among the least productive in the region, reflecting poor training levels — against the investments needed for better environmental standards is an almost impossible challenge, this manager said.
“The bottom line is this industry — in particular the garment sector — is the toughest sector in terms of competition,” he said. “Some people just can’t afford to make some of the changes that are being recommended.”
And according to several economic analysts and consultants here, who declined to be named because of the delicacy of the issue, it is not in the interests of manufacturers to show they can afford to install environmentally friendly technologies, because their brand-name clients may respond by putting pressure on them to lower their costs.
Still, Kanwarpreet Singh, chief representative for the H&M clothing brand in Cambodia, said that the industry as a whole was looking into newer and cleaner technologies to improve its image.
“If you use a lot of firewood, then it is not good for the environment,” he said. “As a company we try to encourage other sources of energy.”
Although Hennes & Mauritz factories use firewood as an energy source, Mr. Singh said, the company was evaluating alternatives.
For now, though, those are still unclear, and as Cambodia struggles to recover from a slump last year in exports to key U.S. and European markets, improving energy standards in factories is not a priority, he said.
Garment exports, accounting for 90 percent of Cambodia’s total exports, dropped almost 20 percent by value in 2009, to $2.38 billion.
“Nowadays one has to compete globally,” said Permod Kumar Gupta, chief technical adviser for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Cambodia. “We have to think, in the coming years, if we are not able to compete economically, environmentally and socially then difficulties will remain in how to compete with countries like China.”
Regardless of environmental concerns, Cambodia’s garment sector desperately needs to improve energy efficiency, with some factories spending up to $1,700 to produce a ton of clothing — more than three times the amount in neighboring Vietnam.
“In terms of energy efficiency, the sectors that are using biomass are particularly wasteful,” said Mr. Gupta.
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Labels: Energy | Garment sector
Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The New Monkeys
Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)
Click on the cartoon to zoom in
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Labels: Bloated Hun Sen government | Political Cartoon | Sacrava
Searching for Thaksin ... Thai police's style
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Labels: Thai political soap opera | Thaksin Shinawatra
Thai army fears red shadows?
Army fears outbreak of terrorism
CRES says it favours early end to curfew
28/05/2010
Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post
The army is stepping up its surveillance in fear armed men allied to hard-core protesters could launch terror attacks in Bangkok and other provinces in revenge for the May 19 crackdown, an army source says.
Intelligence reports and an assessment of the situation in the wake of the rally have concluded there is a real possibility of violent retaliation by groups who fled the protest site at Ratchaprasong intersection after the military operation, the source said yesterday.
The revenge could be in the form of car and motorcycle bombs, taking the lives of soldiers and government figures, and arson attacks at locations which are symbols of the government and armed forces. They could take place in the capital or the provinces.
Some red shirt politicians who have connections in the three southern border provinces could hire insurgents from the lower South to launch attacks in Bangkok, the source said.
The concerns have prompted intelligence authorities to monitor the movements of suspected insurgents, especially those who are already in Bangkok.
One incident which led the army to fear possible terror attacks was a car bomb at the Poseidon massage parlour car park on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok on April 4, the source said.
While the army is preparing for the possibility of violence, the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation favours ending the curfew in Bangkok and other provinces tomorrow.
The government will decide today whether to extend the curfew.
Security agencies held talks yesterday to evaluate the situation, consulting with army leaders in other regions and provincial governors.
Many were of the view that the situation in the wake of the red shirt rally was improving and the curfew therefore should be lifted, CRES spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.
But the armed forces needed to be deployed in some key places, while security duty in other areas of the capital should be returned to police if they were ready to take over, Col Sansern said.
Bangkok and 23 other provinces are under curfew from midnight tonight to 4am tomorrow.
Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said earlier that although the curfew might end, the state of emergency law was still necessary to allow security authorities to arrest so-called terrorists.
"What can be lifted is the curfew but the executive decree will continue," Gen Prawit said after meeting the Defence Council yesterday which was attended by all armed forces leaders.
Defence Ministry spokesman Thanathip Sawangsaeng said Gen Prawit had ordered soldiers to secure their units and local government offices and to stay alert despite the end of the riots.
The minister ordered continuous surveillance and protection at arsenals and fuel yards of the armed forces, he said.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has plans to reconcile the country's political divisions but he has vowed there would be no compromise with terrorists, the defence minister said.
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Labels: Red Shirts | Thailand political unrest
No Clear Use Found for BHP ‘Social Fund’ [-It's all: Corruption! Corruption! Corruption!]
Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 27 May 2010
“We don’t know of a clear policy for granting concessions or licenses to those companies, and what we are facing now is the limited disclosure of related information.”
A year after it pulled out of Cambodia, the Australian mining giant BHP Billiton has found itself under a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation for allegations related to bribery in a foreign country.
Officials have not said which country the alleged corruption took place in, but the company has said it gave $2.5 million to the government here in exchange for mining exploration rights, making Cambodia among the likely countries under the scope of the investigation.
It is not uncommon for companies to pay bonuses for concessions here, but what happened to that money remains unknown, with government and company officials sending conflicting statements and no apparent accounting for the funds.
The mystery underscores worries from environmental and development advocates who say money from Cambodia’s natural resources will be lost or squandered to corruption if and when gold, oil and other minerals and resources are explored in full.
BHP came to Cambodia under a 100,000-hectare exploration license for gold in 2006. After three years of exploration in Mondolkiri province, the company withdrew from the country, claiming it had not found enough to continue its investment. The company told the UK-based watchdog Global Witness that it had paid a $1 million signature bonus and $1.5 million for a social fund in 2006.
Global Witness now says there is no sign of that money.
Prime Minister Hun Sen told a private sector conference in April the $2.5 million had been put into a social fund for a hydropower project in Pursat Province.
Contacted by VOA Khmer in April, Pursat Governor Khuy Sokha said he was unaware of any hydropower projects other than one venture paid for by a $300-million Chinese investment.
“There is only one hydropower [project] in Pursat, and it belongs to the Chinese company, and for which the construction process began in December 2009,” he said. “That is called Atay Hydropower.”
BHP did not respond to queries related to the social fund. Officials have said they are looking into the company’s practices abroad in the wake of the US investigation.
The company published information on its website indicating it provided money to a handful of non-governmental organizations here, though the website does no say how much money the company offered each group.
VOA Khmer was able to identify four institutions that received BHP money for development projects between 2007 and 2010: the Cambodian Mine Action Center, the Danish Red Cross, Health Net International and Village Focus International.
The total amount of money given to these organizations was a little more than $615,000, according to individual representatives of the organizations, nearly three times less than the company told Global Witness it had paid.
Where the other $885,000 was spent remains unclear. Likewise, there is no record of the $1 million signature bonus the company claims to have made.
The lack of accounting for such large sums of money is cause for concern for development groups and donor countries, who warn Cambodia could face a “resource curse” when millions of dollars in oil and other resources begin to flow.
George Boden, a researcher for Global Witness, said the current complications in managing revenue from the extractive industries does not bode well for future, more lucrative ventures.
So far, 33 countries have been granted exploration licenses here. Thirteen of them have begun exploration for oil and gas and minerals.
“We don’t know of a clear policy for granting concessions or licenses to those companies, and what we are facing now is the limited disclosure of related information,” Mam Sambath, president of Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency, told VOA Khmer. “The information regarding the [BHP] case has never been revealed in public, so our research on the issue will also be limited.”
The outcome of the SEC investigation could affect investment in Cambodia, Mam Sambath said, because potential investors may shy away from a country implicated in a corruption scandal.
And BHP is not the only company to have put money into a social fund. In 2006, Indonesia’s MedcoEnergi provided $4.5 million for a license to explore blocks of onshore and offshore oil. The company withdrew in 2010, without citing a reason.
Meanwhile, the French oil and gas company Total, which has a license to explore oil and gas in the overlapping area near Thailand, has said it paid a $20 million signature bonus and another $8 for a social development fund.
A Total official told VOA Khmer from France the company had already provided $6 million of the social fund, which is to be used for a healthcare program under the joint control of a local Total representative and the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority. The official declined to elaborate.
Michael McWalter, an adviser to the CNPA, said signature money is properly deposited into an official account to “become a part of the revenue for the government,” and social funds are carefully watched by companies.
All companies are required to pay signature bonuses based on potential investment, and some are required to provide for a social fund, based on negotiations with the government, but neither should be a concern, he said. “So what one has to do is to trust the government to do the job properly.”
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Labels: BHP Billiton | Bribery scandal | Embezzlement of State funds | Hun Xen's corrupt regime
Hydrodam Plans Stir Ratanakkiri Unease
A woman with her children in a small boat pass a flooded house in Cambodia. (Photo: AP)
Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Ratanakkiri, Cambodia Thursday, 27 May 2010
“If they build dams, it’s not certain we would have electricity for use here. And if we do have electricity, we are not sure if we can afford to pay for the power supply.”
Patt Paing has five hectares of land by the Sre Pok river. She has a small wooden house, and she raises pigs. The 55-year-old leads a quiet life here in Village Two, in Ratanakkiri’s Koun Mom district. But over the past three years, life has been more difficult.
That’s because of the floods.
“I don’t have enough rice to eat because of the floods for the past three years,” she told VOA Khmer in an interview last week. “In previous years, I could harvest more than 1,000 buckets or over 10 tons of rice per season.”
The floods were caused by water releases from dams upriver, she said.
“The consecutive floods caused by the dams have left me almost nothing to eat,” she said.
At least five more dams have been planned on the Sre Pok and its sister river, the Sesan, both of which run into the Mekong River. Those dams will follow the 2002 construction of a 720-megawatt dam at Yali Falls on the Sesan in Vietnam.
Villagers, who gathered for an annual celebration of the 3S Rivers Protection Network here last week, say they don’t want more dams, the flooding from which damage livestock and farmland.
“The existing dam in Vietnam has already severely affected our livelihoods, so what will it be like if more dams are to be built on these rivers on the Cambodian side?” asked Meas Samith, a representative of indigenous villagers on the Sre Pok.
“For generations, I have never heard that when a dam is built, an escalator is also set up for fish to travel on,” he said. “When a dam is built, there is no more fish migration.”
Villagers here say the dams and the power they generate are not worth the cost.
“Can the electricity be eaten?” asked Piev Chhin, a 65-year-old fisherman from the Brov ethnic minority. “We live along the river, so if our house gets flooded, what is the use of having electricity?”
“The electricity is of no importance for us,” added Dy Bopi, a 55-year-old farmer in Koun Mom district. “We would rather us batteries or paraffin lamps instead.”
However, officials say that if Cambodia is to grow its economy, it will need more than batteries and lamps. Only about 20 percent of the country’s homes have access to power, and most of those are in the capital. And electricity prices here remain high, while Cambodia purchases electricity from Vietnam and Thailand.
Ratanakirri Governor Pao Hamphan told reporters here last week the proposed dams were not confirmed and that villagers should not worry about them too much at the moment.
“It’s just the information, as no company has come to talk to us about them yet,” he said.
A vice governor of Koun Mom district, however, said the government would proceed with the dams if assessments showed more benefits than costs.
“We don’t build dams to kill people,” he said, addressing a crowd of villagers. “We build them for their benefit.”
If Cambodia does not build dams, other countries will, he said. “How can we alleviate people’s poverty if we just wait and buy electricity from other countries?”
Villagers said last week the government should consider methods other than dams if it needs electricity.
“If they build dams, it’s not certain we would have electricity for use here,” said Nen Sokei, an ethnic Tompuon villager. “And if we do have electricity, we are not sure if we can afford to pay for the power supply.”
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Labels: Ethnic minority complain | Negative impact of hydro-electric dams | Sesan River dams
Ung Chaniry Charms Washington Audience
Chinary Ung
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington, D.C Thursday, 27 May 2010
“These are all related to Khmer culture and music. I sometimes use words from Pali, Sanskrit and Khmer to mix with musical rules I learned from the West. They mainly have mental movement to sooth the feelings and to inspire idealism and bliss.”
The thrilling sound of a flute mingled with piano, violin and guitar, all to the tune of Cambodian-American composer Ung Chinary, thrilling the audience who had come to hear for the first time a rare classical concert in Washington.
Held last week at the Sackler Gallery, the concert was performed by the Da Cap Chamber Players as part of the “Gods of Angkor” exhibit, which includes rare bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia.
Five of Ung Chinary’s songs were featured, including “Child Song,” “Luminous Spiral,” “Life After Death,” “Mother and Child,” and “Oracle.”
“These are all related to Khmer culture and music,” Ung Chinary told VOA Khmer later. “I sometimes use words from Pali, Sanskrit and Khmer to mix with musical rules I learned from the West. They mainly have mental movement to sooth the feelings and to inspire idealism and bliss.”
Ung Chinary has been widely recognized for bringing together material, concepts and sounds from the East and the West into works that appear wholly organic, despite disparate components.
“I sometimes felt sad, especially at the end, where he recited the dhama,” said concertgoer Chan Linda.
“This is definitely very new, new music,” said Beverly Hong Flincher, another member of the audience. “It’s unlike other so-called avant-garde music. So I would consider this as avant-garde.”
Voice of America music specialist Brian Silver, who also attended, said he was moved by what he discovered and that the music made his “hair stand on end” or nearly brought him to tears.
“I’ve never seen that kind of performance, of a musician functioning on two levels at once,” he said of the song “Mother and Child.” “That was just an extra-ordinary.”
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Labels: Chinary Ung | Khmer musical heritage
The rich and powerful continued to abuse the criminal justice system to silence people protesting against evictions and land grabs: Amnesty Int'l
Click here to read the entire report (PDF)
Forced evictions continued to affect thousands of families across the country, predominantly people living in poverty. Activists from communities affected by forced evictions and other land confiscations mobilized to join forces in protests and appeals to the authorities. A wave of legal actions against housing rights defenders, journalists and other critical voices stifled freedom of expression. The first trial to address past Khmer Rouge atrocities took place. The defendant, Duch, pleaded guilty, but later asked to be acquitted.
Background
At least 45,000 garment factory workers lost their jobs as a result of the global economic crisis and a number of companies reduced salaries. Surveys indicated growing mass youth unemployment as some 300,000 young people faced joblessness after completing their high school and bachelor degrees. For the first time, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights considered Cambodia’s state report, which the authorities had delayed submitting for 14 years. The Committee identified serious shortcomings in the implementation of a number of treaty obligations, including those relating to the judicial system, housing and gender inequalities. Cambodia’s human rights record was reviewed under the UN Universal Periodic Review in December.
Forced evictions
Forced evictions continued to affect the lives of thousands of Cambodians. At least 26 forced evictions displaced around 27,000 people, the vast majority from communities living in poverty. In July, a number of international donors called for an end to forced evictions “until a fair and transparent mechanism for resolving land disputes is in place and a comprehensive resettlement policy” is established.
- On 16/17 July, security forces forcibly evicted Group 78, a community group in Phnom Penh after a deeply flawed legal process. The last 60 families had no choice but to dismantle their houses and accept compensation that prevented them from living near their former homes and workplaces. Most of the families were relocated outside the city with few work prospects.
After civil society criticism, the World Bank attempted to strengthen safeguards in a multi-donor supported Land Management and Administration Project to protect security of tenure for people in urban slums and other vulnerable areas. In early September, the government responded by terminating its contract with the Bank.
Human rights defenders
The rich and powerful continued to abuse the criminal justice system to silence people protesting against evictions and land grabs. Police arrested at least 149 activists, for their peaceful defence of the right to housing.
- On 22 March, security forces shot at unarmed villagers in Siem Reap province, injuring at least four people. The villagers, from Chikreng district, were protesting against the loss of farmland that had come under dispute. By the end of the year, no authority had investigated the shooting, but police had arrested at least 12 of the villagers, two of whomwere subsequently convicted of robbery for attempting to harvest their rice on the disputed land. Seven were acquitted but remained in arbitrary detention pending a prosecutorial appeal.
Informal representatives from communities in most provinces increasingly formed grassroots networks, jointly voicing concerns over forced evictions and intimidation.
International justice
In March, the historic first hearing of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC, Khmer Rouge Tribunal) took place with the trial of Kaing Guek Eav (known as Duch). Duch was commander of notorious security prison S-21. During the 72-day hearing, survivors and victims of Khmer Rouge atrocities heard for the first time evidence against “those most responsible”. Duch admitted responsibility for crimes committed at S-21, including killing about 15,000 people.
The trial of four senior Khmer Rouge leaders was in preparation, and the International Co-Prosecutor submitted requests to open investigations into an additional five suspects. The Cambodian government spoke out against additional investigations saying they could lead to unrest, apparently in an attempt to exert influence over the tribunal.
In July, co-investigating judges decided to allow “confessions” obtained by torture as evidence in the case of Ieng Thirith. This breached the “exclusionary rule” in Article 15 of the UN Convention against Torture which binds the ECCC.
Freedom of expression
A series of prosecutions of people who criticized government policies had a stifling effect on freedom of expression.
- Courts sentenced newspaper editor Hang Chakra, and the director of an NGO, both affiliated to the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), to prison terms for peacefully expressing views.
- The Phnom Penh Court convicted Mu Sochua, Secretary-General of the SRP, of defamation for filing a complaint – also for defamation – against the Prime Minister. She had no legal counsel because her lawyer had withdrawn from the case after receiving threats of legal action for speaking about the case at a press conference. Mu Sochua received a non-custodial sentence.
On 10 July, one of the few remaining opposition-affiliated daily newspapers, Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), stopped publishing. The editor, Dam Sith, issued a public apology for articles, over which the government had requested a criminal investigation for “incitement”.
- By the end of the year, police had made no progress on the investigation into the murder of Moneaksekar Khmer reporter Khim Sambor. He had been killed by unknown assailants during the July 2008 elections.
Legal, constitutional or institutional developments
On 12 October, the National Assembly passed the new Penal Code. This retained defamation as a criminal offence.
Opposition parliamentarians and civil society groups criticized a new Law on non-violent demonstrations, passed by the National Assembly in October. Authorities routinely denied permission for demonstrations and the law, if adopted, risked codifying such restrictions.
Violence against women and girls
Prosecution of rapists remained rare, due to poor law enforcement, corruption in the courts and widespread use of out-of-court financial settlements. Settlements were typically arranged by law enforcement officials and stipulated that the victim withdraw any criminal complaint. Reports indicated that rapes of women and girls, including sex workers, continued to increase, with the age of victims falling.
Amnesty International visits/reports
Amnesty International delegates visited Cambodia in March/May, September and October/December.
* Cambodia: Urban development or relocating slums? (ASA 23/002/2009)
* Cambodia: After 30 years Khmer Rouge crimes on trial (ASA 23/003/2009)
* Cambodia: Briefing for the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: 42nd session, May 2009 (ASA 23/004/2009)
* Cambodia: Borei Keila – Lives at risk (ASA 23/008/2009)
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Labels: Amnesty International | CPP silencing critics | Forced evicitons in Cambodia | Human rights abuse in Cambodia | KR trials | Land-grabbing by the rich and powerful
SRP MPs request to delay the planting of border post no. 270 located in Anh-chanh village, Chey Chauk commune, Borey Chulsa district, Takeo province
Click on the letter in Khmer to zoom in
Unofficial translation from Khmer
Subject: Request to delay the planting of border post no. 270 located in Anh-chanh village, Chey Chauk commune, Borey Chulsa district, Takeo province
Based on the subject above, we, the undersigned members of Parliament, request that the Royal Government delays the planting of border post no. 270 located in Anh-chanh village, Chey Chauk commune, Borey Chulsa district, Takeo province, because this border post that is currently being built by the Cambodia-Vietnam border committee is located inside Cambodian territories and it leads to the loss of several tens of hectares of rice fields belonging to Cambodian farmers in Borey Chulsa district.
Farmers who own rice fields in Borey Chulsa have protested once already about the planting of stakes at border post no. 270, claiming that they were planted on their rice fields, however, there was no resolution.
In fact, the planting of border posts 270 is located on rice field lands belonging to Cambodian farmers, not along the borderline as stipulated in the official 1:100,000-scale 1952 maps which were internationally recognized between 1963 and 1969.
Therefore, we, the representatives of the people, request the government to delay the planting of border post no. 270 located in Anh-chanh village, Chey Chauk commune, Borey Chulsa district, Takeo provinc, and request for a new survey based on the correct coordinates to ensure that Cambodian farmers will not lose their rice fields – a heritage from their ancestors since long ago.
Done in Phnom Penh, 27 May 2010
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Labels: Borey Chulsa | SRP MP | Takeo province | Vietnamese encroachment
RFA's interview with SRP MP Son Chhay
Part 1 of 2
Interview by Chun Chanboth, Radio Free Asia
Video by Uon Chhin
Part 2 of 2
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Labels: Cambodia politics | RFA video | Son Chhay | SRP MP
"Facing genocide - Khieu Samphan and Pol Pot" at Norwegian and Montreal International Film Festivals (June-Sept. 2010)
Click here for a preview of the documentary
Source: http://www.story.se/films/-facing-genocide---khieu-samphan-and-pol-pot/?category=&page=
A film by David Aronowitsch and Staffan Lindberg
The film is a search into the personality of Khieu Samphan. He was the Head of state of one of the most brutal regimes ever, the Khmer Rouge-regime in the Democratic Kampuchea. We have followed him one and half year before his arrest in 2007. He is soon facing a trial and is charged with Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes. The film gives insight into his mindset, his life today and his close relation to Pol Pot. The film is a unique story about an ex-leader the time before his arrest and before he is put on trial. The film is completed January 2010.
Others appearing in the film:
* Theary Seng, lawyer and victim of the Khmer Rouge. She is Khieu Samphan’s antagonist in the film and also the voice of the victims.
* Jacques Vergès, Khieu Samphan’s defence-lawyer often called the Devil's advocate.
* So Socheat, Khieu Samphan’s wife, who has been with him since the beginning of the seventies.
* Nuon Chea, ideologist and Head of Security of the Khmer Rouge.
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Labels: Jacques Verges | Khieu Samphan | KR documentary | So Socheat | Theary Seng
Hun Xen and Global Witness: Who’s the real thief ringleader?
Who's the thief ringleader: Global Witness or Hun Xen?
27 May 2010
By Pech Bandol
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer
The shameful thug (Neak Leng) language echoed from PM Hun Xen’s mouth yesterday morning when he harshly attacked a London-based environmental protection group, calling it the “thief ringleader.”
Hun Xen declared, during a 2-day mining meeting which started Wednesday, in front of more than 300 national and international officials: “They are thieves and thief ringleaders, they know how to be thieves, that’s why they gave us advises.” The prime minister also demanded that the international community stop lecturing him on the use of funding for various programs.
Hun Xen said: “It turns out that I am a thief, they look at me like a thief, it’s time to stop the accusation and the finger pointing, because with one finger pointing at me, you are pointing the other 4 at yourself.”
Hun Xen’s reaction takes place after Global Witness issued a report indicating that all the funding that the Cambodian government collected from mining companies, which is alleged to be preserved for social funds, is simply not true. Global Witness said that based on its review of bank ledgers, no such fund exists.
In Cambodia, Global Witness is not the only organization that criticized national corruption, deforestation and destruction of the environment, even the various donor countries themselves directly criticized the abject corruption in the country.
Last year, US Ambassador Carol Rodley publicly criticized the Cambodian government for losing $350 to $500 million in revenue to corruption each year. Following this criticism, the Cambodian ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a diplomatic note last month, forbidding foreign ambassadors stationed in Cambodia from interfering in Cambodian internal affairs.
Regarding this issue, the Cambodian people, the civil society and the opposition parties are all wondering who, between Hun Xen and Global Witness, is really the thief ringleader?
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Labels: Carol Rodley | Country for sale | Deforestation | Family of the Thieves of the Nation | Global Witness | Hun Xen | Sand dredging
HRH Princess Sisowath Pongneary Monypong to preside over the 61st Kampuchea Krom Commemorative Anniversary
Click on the letters in Khmer to zoom in
Unofficial translation in brief:
The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts Letter No. 15
On May 20, 2010, Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Him Chhem writes to all the heads, deputy prime ministers, senior ministers, ministers, and state secretaries of ministries and institutions on the shut-down period of 40 days for renovations of the Chaktomuk National and International Conference Hall beginning May 20 through June 31, 2010
cc:
- Chief Cabinet of the Prime Minister
- Chief Cabinet of the Royal Palace
- Senate Secretariat
- Parliament Secretariat
- Chief Cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An
- Archive
------------------
The Royal Palace Letter No. 244/10
On May 26, 2010, the Minister in charge of the Royal Palace Chhean Horn informs KKC Executive Director Hon. Thach Setha that HM The King Norodom Sihamoni grants/dispatches HRH Princess Sisowath Pongneary Monypong as His highest representative in the Buddhist Offerings Ceremony to the eminent 1,949 Buddhist monks to be organized by the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community (KKC) on June, 4, 2010 in front of Wat Padmavatei (Botumvatei).
cc:
- All relevant departments
- Archive
------------------
KKC Letter No. 11/10
On May 26, 2010, KKC Executive Director, Phnom Penh Councilman, and former Senator Thach Setha writes to the Phnom Penh Mayor Kep Chuktema for the second time, except this time, KKC requests to use the National Olympic Stadium to hold the Buddhist Offerings Ceremony to the eminent 1,949 Buddhist monks as KKC has organized every year.
Related materials click on KKC
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Labels: Anniversary of the loss of Kampuchea Krom | Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community | Khmer Krom plight | Thach Setha
City nixes Khmer Krom ceremony
Monks attend a ceremony last year marking the 60th anniversary of a ruling that ceded territory to Vietnam. City Hall has rejected a proposal for a similar ceremony organisers are planning for next month. (Photo by: Tracey Shelton)
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post
CITY officials have rejected a proposal for a June 4 public ceremony marking the 61st anniversary of a French colonial ruling that formally ceded former Cambodian territories in the Mekong Delta to southern Vietnam, according to a letter dated May 21.
Khmer Krom advocacy groups had planned to hold the ceremony in the park outside Wat Botum, with organisers expecting to attract up to 5,000 people, including 2,000 monks.
The letter, signed by Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema, states that the organisers should send a new proposal to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, and suggests that they hold the ceremony at Chaktomuk Conference Hall in order to maintain “security and good public order”.
Thach Setha, executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community, which is organising the event, said he has already contacted Minister of Culture Him Chhem, who told him that the Chaktomuk facility is closed for renovations.
He said that he sent another letter to Kep Chuktema on Wednesday, again seeking permission to hold the ceremony. He added that the event had already been organised and would go ahead whether or not City Hall gives its official blessing.
“We cannot miss this because the King has sent his representative to participate in the ceremony. So we must hold the ceremony as planned,” he said.
Kep Chuktema could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, while Koet Chhe, deputy chief of the Municipal Cabinet, declined to comment, saying he had not seen Thach Setha’s follow-up letter to the governor.
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Labels: Anniversary of the loss of Kampuchea Krom | Khmer Krom plight | Thach Setha
Thursday, May 27, 2010
PM slams critics over revenues
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Sebastian Strangio and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post
“It’s unfortunate that Prime Minister Hun Sen used the opening speech at such an important national conference promoting Cambodia’s mining sector as a stage to personally attack us, rather than focus on how his government is going to implement the critical reforms needed for transparency and accountability in the industry” - Global Witness
Hun Sen tells global community not to treat Cambodia ‘like a child’
PRIME Minister Hun Sen lashed out at critics of the government’s handling of extractive-resource revenues on Wednesday, branding them “thieves” and saying that tensions between Cambodia and international watchdog Global Witness stem from a “sexual scandal” involving the group’s staff.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day mining conference in the capital Wednesday, Hun Sen said criticisms from international organisations and foreign countries were misplaced because the government has not yet pocketed any funds from extractive industries.
“I don’t understand when they order the fish to be fried or grilled while the fish is still in the water,” he told an audience of business executives, diplomats and civil society representatives. “They have accused us of corruption in spending while we have not yet made any money.”
Ministry of Finance budget records show that the government has received more than US$28 million in signature bonuses and social fund payments from foreign companies investing in extractive industries since the beginning of 2009.
Hun Sen also said that all payments made to secure mining or oil and gas exploration rights were processed within “the framework of the state budget”, and scolded international critics for treating the government “like a child”.
“Do not teach us so much – it is boring. No one is the teacher of Cambodia,” he said.
Western governments dwelling on the issue of mining, gas and oil revenue transparency are guilty of hypocrisy, Hun Sen said, accusing them of turning a blind eye to the lucrative gem-mining operations that helped support the Khmer Rouge insurgency during the 1980s and 1990s.
“Until this hour no one has dared to criticise the diamonds in Pailin, which were dug for making war,” he said.
Revenues from gems and timber helped support the Western-backed anti-government resistance coalition, which included the Khmer Rouge.
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), said Hun Sen’s claim that no money had been made from extractive industries was misleading.
“We have experience that Cambodia has got big fish, and that many fish are going into the ponds of corrupt officials,” he said, and alleged that US$2 billion has been lost to illegal logging since 1993.
He added that the government has yet to respond to questions from the SRP about millions of dollars in signature bonuses and social funds paid to the government by French oil firm Total and Australian mining company BHP Billiton.
The government has acknowledged receiving the payments, and critics have asserted that the funds have not been properly accounted for. “So far there is no reply regarding where the money has gone,” Yim Sovann said.
Last month, environmental watchdog Global Witness urged foreign donors to pressure the government to make such payments fully transparent.
“These figures represent only a fraction of the sum of the payments Global Witness is aware of. Overall, they raise serious questions,” campaigner George Boden said in an April 29 statement.
In his speech Wednesday, the premier launched a savage attack on the UK-based group, saying it was acting “like the boss of Cambodia”.
“They accuse the government in Phnom Penh of being thieves so I curse them as the chief thieves.... We have not yet made money, but they already accuse us of being thieves.”
Hun Sen also said that Global Witness workers had been barred from the country following a sex scandal involving a “female employee” of the organisation.
“I would like to say in public that the matter between Global Witness and the government of Cambodia started with the sexual scandal of Global Witness staff,” he said. “The matter started from that ... and now Global Witness is trying to take vengeance with Cambodia.” No other details of the scandal were provided.
Global Witness, which has been barred from the country since 2005, on Wednesday lamented the prime minister’s attempt to smear its reputation.
“It’s unfortunate that Prime Minister Hun Sen used the opening speech at such an important national conference promoting Cambodia’s mining sector as a stage to personally attack us, rather than focus on how his government is going to implement the critical reforms needed for transparency and accountability in the industry,” the group said in an emailed statement.
Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said Hun Sen had clearly used the landmark conference as a way to send a message to his critics.
“I think he’s trying to respond to critics in the best way he knows how, which is not to respond to the issues, but to lash out at the messenger,” he said.
He added that the broadside could also be related to next week’s Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF), when donors will measure the government’s progress on key reform indicators – including resource revenue transparency – and pledge development aid for the next 18 months.
“Maybe he’s trying to set the agenda, so they can’t raise some of these issues,” he said.
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Labels: Bribery scandal | Global Witness | Hun Xen's rant
Mining sector a ‘blank slate’
Right: VIPs listen to speakers at the nation's first international mining conference, held Wednesday at the InterContinental Hotel. Left, top to bottom: Prime MInister Hun Sen; UNDP Country Representative Douglas Broderick; Minister of Mines and Industry Suy Sem. (Photo by: UY NOUSEREIMONY)
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Jeremy Mullins and May Kunmakara
The Phnom Penh Post
CAMBODIA’S untapped mining sector is a potential windfall for the country, but must be carefully regulated if it is to attract foreign investment, said international experts taking part in the Kingdom’s first international mining conference Wednesday.
World Bank mining specialist Craig Andrews told the Post the sector will benefit if regulatory and taxation issues are in place before mineral exploitation begins.
He counselled the Kingdom to avoid an Australian-style “super tax” on mining profits, saying the situation in Australia’s developed mining sector and the Kingdom’s nascent industry require different kinds of policies.
A lenient, stable mining tax policy would help Cambodia attract foreign direct investment, he said. “Companies will find it to be a deterrent if they do not find stability,” he said.
“In addition to everything else in Cambodia, there is the possibility government could change tax laws and take away profits,” Andrews told the conference at the Intercontinental Hotel, where 300 participants from throughout the world were gathered to discuss transparency and development in the Kingdom’s burgeoning mining sector.
The event was held in the wake of mining giant BHP Billiton’s high-profile internal probe into bribery allegations that have been linked by some to its former concession in Mondulkiri province.
The growing mining sector could emulate aspects of successful international models such as Chile and Botswana, Colorado School of Mines economic and mining expert Roderick Eggert said on the sidelines of the conference.
“Cambodia is starting with a blank slate. It has a chance to do things right, to benefit from others’ experience,” he said.
Mining firms are attracted to transparency and certainty, Eggert added.
Sharing the wealth
Cambodia may yet join the Extractive Industries Transparencies Initiative (EITI), an international programme aimed at opening the industry to public scrutiny, its regional director Samuel Bartlett said.
“It’s clear there’s a very vibrant debate on the issue in Cambodia,” he said.
“We’re about providing tools. It’s up to countries to get involved.”
In an opening speech, United Nations Development Project (UNDP) Country Representative Douglas Broderick said Cambodia is poised to begin developing its deposits, but must spread the wealth.
“The minerals are in the ground. It is up to us to work together to ensure that all Cambodians can stake a claim in the potential revenues from these natural resource,” he said.
Also speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Hun Sen called the nation’s resources “a new potential economic treasure”, and said that mineral wealth could contribute to the Kingom’s economic development alongside the agriculture, garment, construction, and tourism sectors.
“If Cambodia gets a chance to explore its mineral treasures, Cambodia will responsibly use the revenue for the benefit of the country,” he said.
Hun Sen called upon conference participants to share knowledge to assist the government in maximising the financial benefits from the sector, thus contributing to national development and poverty reduction.
Hun Sen also asked participants to avoid mining in historical or sacred areas, and to curtail “anarchic” mining activities.
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