Villagers freed in Siem Reap land dispute

Villagers freed in Siem Reap land dispute

Friday, 07 May 2010
Rann Reuy
The Phnom Penh Post
Siem Reap Province

SIEM Reap provincial court on Thursday released 14 Banteay Srei district villagers who earlier this week were ordered to serve pretrial detention after being charged with the destruction of trees on state land, an investigating judge said Thursday.

The villagers had been among a group of 32 who were arrested Monday after officials accused them of clearing land that is also claimed by Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldiers.

Investigating Judge Hok Pov said that no trial date had been set in the case. “I order [authorities] to release them on bail because I think they will not create any hurdles for our investigation,” he said.

The arrests had been swiftly condemned by rights groups, which said the case had offered evidence of two worrying trends: an increase in arrests related to land disputes, and the use of military personnel to resolve them. Military police had carried out the arrests.

The ongoing row in Banteay Srei concerns 150 hectares of land in Phnom Kulen National Park, and pits more than 50 families against the soldiers.

The families say that Prime Minister Hun Sen granted them the disputed land, located in Siem Reap’s Tbeng commune, in 2006.

But local officials say the villagers are already living on the land they were awarded, and that the area in question is owned by the state.

Kao Sophy, the wife of one of the 14 villagers, said she was relieved that her husband had been released. “I am so happy when I learned this information. I hope we can return to our homes,” she said.

Suos Narin, a provincial investigator for Adhoc, also applauded the release of the villagers, and said he hoped the conflict would soon be resolved. Neither Siem Reap provincial officials nor Banteay Srei district officials could be reached for comment on Thursday.

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Cambodian Children’s Fund

May 7th, 2010
Religion & Ethics

LUCKY SEVERSON, correspondent: If kids are any judge of character, Scott Neeson must be doing something right.

SOEMSO NOEUON: He is so kind. He help poor families and they can get a better life like me.

SEVERSON: Soemso Noeuon is one of about 500 kids whose lives have been made a whole lot better by the Cambodian Children’s Fund known as the CCF that Neeson founded seven years ago. It may be the best schooling in Cambodia.

SEVERSON: This is Ally Hoffman, one of Neeson’s volunteers.

ALLY HOFFFMAN: I tell Scott that I can tell who’s been here longer because it’s almost like watching something flower.

SEVERSON: Hard to imagine that some of these sweet, clean faces are the same he found at the Phnom Penh garbage dump when he first arrived here 7 years ago. There were a thousand families existing in the rubble—kids scrounging barefoot through broken glass, jagged metal, and bubbling chemical waste hoping to earn 50 cents a day from scrap. Oaoknay Houy was one of them.

OAOKNAY HOUY: When I got money I give it to my uncles and aunt. I never have money to buy anything like food to eat. Some day I don’t have food to eat.

SCOTT NEESON: It just blew me away. It just was the most appalling situation I have ever seen, just the level of suffering and tragedy down there, the level of impoverishment and lack of any kind of human dignity. It was just—I couldn’t walk away.

SEVERSON: He had been just passing through, a backpacking tourist, but within a year he had given up his very lucrative job as a president of a division of Sony Pictures, his multi-million-dollar home, his fancy cars, his yacht.

(speaking to Scott Neeson): You were a man of means.

NEESON: I was a man of means and luxuries, and yet I sort of enjoyed it but I wasn’t particularly happy.

SEVERSON: A year after he moved here, using his own money and contributions from friends, he opened a boarding school for 40 kids, many of whom had been abandoned by their parents. A couple of years later, enrollment had grown to 180. Now he has over 500 students in five schools, including a vocational school. Students here can learn crafts like sewing, design, hair styling, even baking. Several graduates have found jobs in local businesses. Patrick McKinley volunteered two years of his life at CCF.

PATRICK MCKINLEY: These kids want to do things themselves, and the price of getting it wrong for them is one they’ve already paid, and they see on the streets what’s waiting for them if they don’t get it right, so they work very hard.

SEVERSON: In the beginning it was all about education, but it wasn’t long before Neeson realized that a kid who is constantly sick or malnourished or lives in an abusive family is not going to be a good student. So CCF gradually expanded its mission to include outreach programs for the whole impoverished community that surrounds the dump.

SCOTT NEESON: She has a hole in her heart so she’s struggling to breathe, has got heart issues.

(Doctor speaking with patient): All right, look right at me, okay?

SEVERSON: Because so many people need medical care CCF built a clinic not just for the youngsters, but for their families.

NEESON: It’s possibly the only fully free medical clinic, I think, in the country that treats everyone, everything, regardless of age and disease.

SEVERSON: The doctors from Cambodia and around the world are all volunteers, like Kristin Schroeder, a pediatrician from Nebraska.

DR. KRISTIN SCHROEDER: Last year I was looking for a place to volunteer in Southeast Asia, and I wrote a letter to different nonprofit organizations, and Scott wrote me a letter back saying that, I think his exact words were, “I would crawl over broken glass to have a pediatrician come to CCF.” I can’t refuse that.

SEVERSON: The little girl getting a checkup—her name is Sien—was skin and bones a few years ago. Now she’s Neeson’s number one student, studying to become a doctor.

NEESON: I was at a wedding, and I felt something rustling at my feet under the table, and I thought it was a rat. I jumped in the air. It was Sien was under there collecting scrap food and the bottles, and that’s how we met.

CHANNOEURNH SOK (Scott Neeson’s Assistant): Scott really wants to help all the children that he sees, yes, and he hopes to help all of them. He will save the world if he can.

NEESON (with sack over his shoulder): Delivered to the door.

SEVERSON: Today he’s the delivery man, dropping off free rice to families who might earn $500 a year if they’re lucky. Here he’s handing out care packages for newborns, and for mothers who have no money to pay for a babysitter while they work CCF opened a day care school, and for those who need help with their babies, a free nursery.

NEESON: These kids are feral. They don’t have a place to stay, so we bring them in and feed them.

SEVERSON: The CCF program is filled to capacity. Neeson cannot take in any more children. But these kids are hungry, so every afternoon he opens the gates, and they stream in for a hot meal, a pair of shoes, a shirt.

NEESON (handing out clothes): Ah, made in Cambodia.

SEVERSON: Because the classrooms at CCF are all full, Neeson has opened four satellite schools in impoverished neighborhoods.

NEESON: Because of the demand, we now have three to four sessions a day in every location. We’re having one on the other side. It filled up within 48 hours. Kids just want to study.

SEVERSON: Neeson says one reason he is so preoccupied with education is because he never graduated from high school himself.

NEESON: You know, I’m not a big believer in destiny, but it does seem like this is what I was meant to do. Everything I’ve done prior to now, whether it was working in business, in corporations. I grew up in a very working class area. I didn’t finish my own education. All those things have helped this come together.

SEVERSON: This is a CCF awards ceremony. Almost every child gets an award for something. After six years, Pou Dom is CCF’s first graduate, who’s now heading off to college with Neeson’s help.

POU DOM: I want to be a manager of a hotel.

SEVERSON: A manager of a hotel?

POU DOM: Yes.

SEVERSON: Are you learning skills here?

POU DOM: Yes, my major is hospitality and tourism.

SOEMSO NOEUON: I want to be a manager, doctor, and teacher.

SEVERSON: All three?

SOEMSO NOEUON: Yeah.

SEVERSON: Jim Gianpolus is chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. He sponsored a fundraiser for CCF.

JIM GIANOPULOS: You know, we all want to change the world, and when we approach that effort and try and implement that desire, you know, you realize that it is very difficult to change the world. But what Scott has done is change a little piece of it and completely changed it for these kids.

NEESON: The premise of CCF, the actual concept was to take these children and really make them the catalyst for change. They’ve all got potential to be community leaders.

SEVERSON: And if Neeson has his way the change will reach far beyond Cambodia.

NEESON: The model here I believe works so well, every part of it is driven by quality, whether it’s education, the vocation training, nutritional. If I can get sustainability here I’d love to try the same in other countries. But it’s a matter of finances at the moment

SEVERSON: At the awards ceremony Neeson was asked about his recent fund-raising trip to America.

NEESON: That was a tough question to answer.

SEVERSON: What did she ask?

NEESON: She asked if the US trip was a success.

SEVERSON: Was it?

NEESON: No. The finances are difficult here, and it’s become less about the work here and more about trying to ensure we have enough money to keep it all going.

SEVERSON: He says if the financial situation doesn’t improve he’s going to have to rein in some of his outreach programs, but swears that no matter what happens no kid will leave CCF without a good education, period, and that includes college.

NEESON (to student receiving award): Number one! I love that.

For Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, I’m Lucky Severson in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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Namibia, Cambodia to establish diplomatic ties

07 May 2010
by Staff Reporter
New Era (Namibia)

WINDHOEK – Namibia is to establish diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Cabinet has approved the establishment of diplomatic relations between Namibia and Cambodia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been directed to empower Namibia’s Permanent Representative to New York in the United States to sign the necessary documents on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

After many years of civil war, the Cambodian conflict came to an end and an election was organised by the United Nations under the auspices of the UN Transitional Authority of Cambodia.

Elections took place in 1993. In the same year, a new constitution was promulgated, establishing the Kingdom of Cambodia.

In 1998, another round of elections took place and Cambodia experienced peace and stability for the first time in 30 years. The country’s economy has improved, tourism has rebounded and improvements are taking place on infrastructure.

Namibia was one of the countries that sent a sizable contingent to join the UN peacekeeping mission in Cambodia in 1993.

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Cambodia's parliament approves consular treaty with China

2010-05-07

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua)- Cambodia's National Assembly approved Friday a consular treaty between Kingdom of Cambodia and China to boost cooperation between the two nations.

The approval of the treaty was made unanimously by all 89 out of 123 parliamentarians who were present at the session.

The Cambodian government signed the treaty with China on February 25, 2010 in Phnom Penh.

The treaty was based on the norm of the 1963 Vienna Convention to which Cambodia is a party since 2005.

Hor Namhong, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs told the parliamentarians that the treaty was significant to promote further cooperation between Cambodia and China.

The treaty allows consular officials to make direct contacts with their own citizens who run businesses or work in the country where consular office is located.

It also allows consular officials to work as facilitators or mediators for the citizens or the people of the country where the office is located; as well the officials will help process with visa paperwork and applications for citizenship.

Cambodia and China has had long-term relations, and this treaty will help boost more cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, tourism, culture, science and education among others.

At present, Cambodia has established six Consulate Generals in China, including China's Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Kunming, Chongqing and Nanning, while China has not yet set up the consulate in Cambodia.

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New legislation to facilitate trade with Vietnam, China

Vehicle dealers at Great Wall, based on Monireth Boulevard in Phnom Penh, say they hope that the new consular offices in China increase trade and help secure better tax arrangements. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Friday, 07 May 2010
Kim Yuthana and May Kunmakara
The Phnom Penh Post

Six more Cambodian consular offices in China could spark new investment

TWO draft laws aimed at facilitating trade between Cambodia, China and Vietnam are to be passed by the National Assembly today, officials say.

Cheam Yeap, Cambodian People’s Party member of parliament and chairman of the National Assembly’s fifth committee, said Thursday that a consular treaty with China and a law on waterway transportation with Vietnam are due to be approved this morning.

The China deal will see six Cambodian consular offices opened in major cities across the People’s Republic, helping potential investors learn more about the Kingdom.

The lawmaker told the Post that approval of the draft law is vitally important for the two countries to boost bilateral trade.

“The general consulates, which will represent the Cambodian Embassy in Beijing and Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, would communicate information with Chinese investors who are interested in coming to Cambodia,” said Cheam Yeap.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong added that the new offices “will bring a lot of benefit” to Cambodia’s economy.

Figures released by the International Monetary Fund late last year, using data from the National Bank of Cambodia, show that Cambodia is strengthening its economic ties with China.

Merchandise imports from China have risen every year for the previous nine years, rising from just US$86.9 million in 2001 to $1.2 billion in 2008.

Chinese investors – who have a large presence in Cambodia – praised the move Thursday.

Chairman and CEO of Phnom Penh’s Worldwide Garage, Peang Mann, who imports cars made by the Great Wall firm, said he will appreciate the establishment of new consular offices and hopes it will help facilitate greater dialogue on import tax.

“It will be good for us if we have very good cooperation [with China] in terms of import and exports, especially if the new establishment can urge many Chinese banks to allow us to get loans for making more exports from China,” he said.

He added that if the establishments are successful in boosting favourable business, the firm will increase car imports from 200 to 300 this year.

Ministry of Commerce Undersecretary of State Em Sophoan said Thursday that he supports the signing of the laws, and that they will boost trade relations between the three countries.

“It is good for us that we can carry out trade activities smoothly going forward, especially as it will help to distribute development in our country,” he said.

A representative from the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh did not reply to an emailed request for comment Thursday.

The deal with Vietnam will pass into law a waterway-transportation agreement that covers customs, transportation and commercial dealings in Cambodia.

“It will help facilitate the transportation of goods such as agricultural products, general goods and oil to and from the two countries along the Mekong River and by sea,” Cheam Yeap said.

In the first two months of this year, trade with Vietnam rose by 54.8 percent to $262.7 million, compared to $169.7 million in the same period of 2009, according Vietnamese Embassy data released in March.

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Friday, May 07, 2010

Appearance of a Buddha statue in Prek Ambel

Religious prayer performed to try to pull out the Buddha statued from the bottom of the river in Prek Ambel (Photo: Nhim Sophal, RFI)

Thursday 06 May 2010
By Nhim Sophal
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Several Cambodian citizens came to look at the attempt to pull out a powerful Buddha statue from the river in Kandal province. The attempt to save the statue that people believe was dumped into the water by the Khmer Rouge was not successful even though a religious ceremony accompanied by three Buddhist and Brahman prayers was conducted.

បទយកការណ៍​របស់​ ញឹម​​ សុផល ពី​ខេត្ត​កណ្ទាល

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Thai protesters should count their blessings

Thailand (John Blanchard / The Chronicle)
Supporters rally for the Thai government (seen here) while Red Shirt foes denounce it. (Photo: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)
Supporters rally for the Thai government while Red Shirt foes (seen here) denounce it. (Photo: Manpreet Romana / AFP/Getty Images)

Sunday, May 2, 2010
Joel Brinkley
San Francisco Chronicle (California, USA)

Today, Cambodia is ruled by a kleptocratic, elective dictatorship. Emblematic of its behavior, the government sold a beautiful lake, a landmark in the center of the capital city, to a developer for $79 million and pocketed the money. The buyer began pumping sand into the water intending to fill it up and build a new development. But to do that, the government had to order the eviction of 4,000 families from their homes on the water's edge. Angry about this, one resident painted a declaration on the side of his home that said "Stop Evictions!" The government sued him for defamation.

Southeast Asia is a frustrating part of the world for anyone hoping to live in a democracy, as the violent protests in Bangkok right now make perfectly clear. But take a close look at Thailand's neighborhood and you come away wondering: Why can't the Thai people appreciate what they have?

To Thailand's west lies Burma, which last held democratic elections in 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, won a sweeping victory. But the ruling military government refused to accept the results and instead locked her away in her home. The next year she won the Nobel Peace Prize, but that changed nothing. She is still under house arrest today. Now the military junta is planning new elections this fall, but it recently released rules structured so that Aung San Suu Kyi cannot participate. Last month, her party's leadership announced it would boycott the vote. No one anywhere regards these planned elections as anything but a sham.

To the north of Thailand lies Laos, a closed, impoverished little nation where hammer-and-sickle flags fly above government offices, perhaps the last place on Earth where that is so. Schools and offices display posters of Marx and Lenin, and in a speech earlier this year, President Choummaly Sayasone opined that "Marxist-Leninist theory is practical and is suitable for the current situation in Laos."

Laos last held an election in 1955, but the coalition government collapsed in 1958, and the country hasn't experienced even a breath of democracy since. Meanwhile, half of the nation's children are so malnourished that they are stunted, meaning they are not growing, either physically or mentally.

To the east lies Cambodia, whose people received an extraordinary gift from the world almost 20 years ago. The United Nations, recognizing the tragedy the nation faced under the Khmer Rouge, occupied Cambodia for two years and spent $3 billion to redeem the state, giving it a democratic constitution. The United Nations staged national elections and, obviously hungry for democracy, 90 percent of the Cambodian people voted. But all of it was for naught.

Today, Cambodia is ruled by a kleptocratic, elective dictatorship. Emblematic of its behavior, the government sold a beautiful lake, a landmark in the center of the capital city, to a developer for $79 million and pocketed the money. The buyer began pumping sand into the water intending to fill it up and build a new development. But to do that, the government had to order the eviction of 4,000 families from their homes on the water's edge. Angry about this, one resident painted a declaration on the side of his home that said "Stop Evictions!" The government sued him for defamation.

Then, to the south lies Malaysia, which does have a democracy of sorts. But like their neighbors, Malaysians are having serious difficulties maintaining democratic freedoms. The U.S. State Department's human rights report, published last month, noted that "significant obstacles prevented opposition parties from competing on equal terms with the ruling coalition. Some deaths occurred during police apprehensions and while in police custody.

"The government also arrested other opposition leaders, journalists, and Internet bloggers apparently for political reasons" and "continued to restrict freedom of press, association, assembly, speech, and religion." At the same time, "arbitrary arrest and detention using the Internal Security Act and three other statutes allowed detention without trial, and persistent questions remained about the impartiality and independence of the judiciary."

And then there's Thailand, a democracy. It's not without problems, some quite serious. Official corruption is rampant. Occasionally, as in 2006, the military stages a coup. The Thai government, like Malaysia's, "maintained some limits on freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly," the State Department said.

But by and large, Thailand is more democratic - freer than any of its neighbors. And yet, thousands of people are demonstrating in the streets because they don't like the outcome of recent elections, just as they did before, in 2006 and 2008.

Two mass-protest groups, the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts, are roughly similar to Democrats and Republicans. It's a crude comparison, but the Red Shirts are poor and working-class populists, while the Yellow Shirts are defenders of Thailand's oligarchy. In recent years, leaders who were perceived to be advocates of one camp or the other have served as prime minister. Each time, the other side took to the streets, paralyzing the nation.

Thailand's protesters should look around, see how their neighbors live, realize how fortunate they are - and then wait for the next election.

Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times.

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Video Appeal: The 61st Kampuchea Krom Loss Buddhist Memorial Commemoration

Source: Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community

The 61st Kampuchea Krom Loss Buddhist Memorial Commemoration to Honor Heroic Buddhist Monks, Heroic Emperors, Heroic Kings, Heroes, and Fallen Compatriots. Colonial France transferred Khmer land, Kampuchea Krom, to Vietnam to continue colonizing Kampuchea (Cambodia) on June 4, 1949 ever since.

To watch click here

KKC Photo taken from the 58th Kampuchea Krom Loss Buddhist Memorial Service, June 4, 2007, in front of Wat Padmavatei (Botumvatei), Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.

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Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Freedom [to remain silent?] Park

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

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Lightning strike kills three Cambodian fishermen

May 7, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Three Cambodian brothers died when their fishing boat was hit by lightning off the southern coastal town of Kampot, national media reported Friday.

Commune police chief Kouch Chansuy told the Cambodia Daily newspaper that the body of Mao Morn, 24, was found in the fishing boat after it was hit by lightning early Wednesday.

The body of the eldest brother was found floating in the sea, while the third brother is missing believed dead, the police chief said.

'Police assume that metal tools and a radio antenna attracted the lightning,' he said. A fourth man also died this week when he was hit by lightning while using his mobile phone in his hut in central Kampong Chhnang province, raising the death toll from lightning to 19 since March 1.

In a separate incident a single lightning bolt killed 18 cattle in central Cambodia on Tuesday, while another killed seven more cattle in the same district, officials in Kampong Thom province said.

Cambodia is nearing the end of the annual hot season, when storms accompanied by lightning strikes become more common.

Figures from the government's disaster management committee showed that 140 people were killed by lightning last year, up from 95 people in 2008.

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[US Gulf Coast] Oil spill takes toll on Cambodian, Vietnamese fishermen

Families attend a meeting with BP officials in Buras, La. Interpreters were on hand for some Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants. Language barriers have stunted outreach efforts by BP. (Sachi Cunningham / Los Angeles Times / May 7, 2010)

With their boats docked and livelihoods in limbo, frustrated families meet with BP officials and hope for answers.

May 7, 2010
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Buras, La.

About 2,000 Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants in this remote bayou community — mostly families that have staked their American livelihoods on shrimping and fishing — have found themselves isolated by more than just vast stretches of swampland since the gulf oil spill disaster.

Language barriers have made it even more difficult for them to be plugged into the latest information about temporary jobs offered by BP after thousands of fishermen like themselves have been put out of work by the oil spill.

About 200 of them gathered Thursday in a sweltering bayou restaurant, trying to contain their frustrations as a BP representative, flanked by interpreters, urged them to enroll in the company's paid cleanup programs.

The programs were designed to help create a line of defense along the nation's richest fishing grounds and to provide some income to grounded fishermen.

But BP spokesman David Kinnaird offered little in the way of immediate help. He said that the company had hired enough workers for the time being but that the fishermen could get on the waiting list.

The fishermen said they were more concerned with what BP could do to remedy their immediate cash flow problems after fishing was banned on Sunday for at least 10 days. Federal waters from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Pensacola, Fla., are off-limits.

"We need money to pay bills and buy food," said Benjamin Truongo, 48, who has been plying local marshes for two decades.

Kinnaird said BP planned to set up a claims office in nearby Venice, La. "If the claims are legitimate and can be properly documented, they will be paid promptly," he said.

Meanwhile, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said at a news conference Thursday that the company would pay claims regardless of a $75-million cap established by federal law. He said checks had already gone out.

As in many other Gulf Coast fishing communities, Buras' marinas were filled with docked boats while its residents' livelihoods were in limbo.

"Many of these people do not speak English, so they don't understand what kind of assistance is available, and they are scared," said Billy Nungesser, Plaquemines Parish president. "Just the other day, a 94-year-old fisherman, who has his wits about him and looks forward to taking his vessel into the marsh each day, said, 'Mr. Billy. Please help. What do I do?' I didn't know what to tell him."

The meeting was organized by local officials and Miami attorney Spencer Aronfeld to allow BP officials to answer concerns from people such as Chuck Nguyen, 35.

"I haven't worked in four months because the oil spill hit at about the same time as the start of the new fishing season, which runs from May through December," he said. "I borrowed a few thousand dollars from a relative who was only a little better off than me."

But what Nguyen and other fishermen heard from Kinnaird and a representative from United Way was that they would have to be patient.

They were also told that applications for the cleanup programs would be translated into Cambodian and Vietnamese.

Kinnaird said BP had already signed up about 700 boat owners in Louisiana and Mississippi to scoop crude out of fouled waters and deploy booms. "We'll let you know if we need more later," he said.

"These people got nothing but words and empty promises," Aronfeld said.

In the meantime, shrimp boat captain Hung T. Le, 48, kills time, wondering when he will be able to take his 40-foot vessel, Southern Lady, back into the marsh.

"She's so sad just sitting there with an empty shrimp box. I can't wait for work much longer."

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

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