Thursday, 17 April 2008
Khmer Rouge survivors gather at killing fields
Sam Rainsy (R), Cambodia's opposition party leader, holds a tray of candles and incense to pray for victims who died during the Khmer Rouge regime at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 17, 2008. Hundreds of Cambodians, including 99 monks, gathered at the site to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge reign, which plunged the nation into a radical communist group genocide regime from 1975-1979.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)
Cambodian Buddhists monks stand in front of a memorial stupa displayed with more than 8,000 skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 17, 2008. Hundreds of Cambodians, including 99 monks, gathered at the site to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge reign, which plunged the nation into a radical communist group genocide regime from 1975-1979.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)
Cambodian Buddhists monks stand in front of a memorial stupa displayed with more than 8,000 skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 17, 2008. Hundreds of Cambodians, including 99 monks, gathered at the site to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge reign, which plunged the nation into a radical communist group genocide regime from 1975-1979.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)
Cambodia's opposition party leader Sam Rainsy (L) and Buddhist monks look at a memorial stupa displayed with more than 8,000 skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 17, 2008. Hundreds of Cambodians, including 99 monks, gathered at the site to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge reign, which plunged the nation into a radical communist group genocide regime from 1975-1979.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)
Cambodian Buddhists monks stand in front of a memorial stupa displayed with more than 8,000 skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 17, 2008. Hundreds of Cambodians, including 99 monks, gathered at the site to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Khmer Rouge reign, which plunged the nation into a radical communist group genocide regime from 1975-1979.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA) Radio Australia
Hundreds of survivors of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide have gathered at killing fields near Phnom Penh on the anniversary of the capital's fall to the ultra-Maoists.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and about 700 people assembled at the sombre memorial to demand speedy trials of the regime's leaders.
Sam Rainsy says the trial must happen soon, otherwise the Khmer Rouge leaders will die without any convictions.
About 70 Buddhist monks blessed victims' skulls on display at the Choeung Ek killing fields outside Phnom Penh, where Khmer Rouge soldiers killed thousands of people during the regime's reign fro 1975 to 1979.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged the courts to deliver long-overdue justice for the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge.
Frustration has been building among Cambodians as a funding crisis delays the tribunal.
Hundreds of survivors of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide have gathered at killing fields near Phnom Penh on the anniversary of the capital's fall to the ultra-Maoists.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and about 700 people assembled at the sombre memorial to demand speedy trials of the regime's leaders.
Sam Rainsy says the trial must happen soon, otherwise the Khmer Rouge leaders will die without any convictions.
About 70 Buddhist monks blessed victims' skulls on display at the Choeung Ek killing fields outside Phnom Penh, where Khmer Rouge soldiers killed thousands of people during the regime's reign fro 1975 to 1979.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged the courts to deliver long-overdue justice for the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge.
Frustration has been building among Cambodians as a funding crisis delays the tribunal.
Intent not enough to fight causes
The Santa ClaraBy Cheryl Chiu
4/17/08
It's a little silly that I only recently learned of the rampant sex industry all over the world. Perhaps like many of you, I always knew of the sex trade industry. Yet because it's so far removed from my daily life, the issue has always been pushed to the back of my mind.
I have recently done research about people who have overcome unfathomable difficulties. Through my research, not only has my faith in the human spirit been renewed, but also my faith in the human ability to endure pain. The people in the stories I've read have endured pain, but they take their trauma and turn it into something positive and beautiful.
Somaly Mam, a former child sex slave, is one of these people. She now heads the Somaly Mam Foundation, which builds shelters for girls who have escaped the brothels and helps them reintegrate into society. The foundation accomplishes this by providing food, education and positive role models for the girls.
Even though Mam, who continues to live and work in Cambodia, has her life threatened on a regular basis, she continues to promote her cause. In an interview on "The Tyra Banks Show," Mam said that she cannot stand the sight of the many young in brothels being raped, abused and often tortured for refusing to perform.
As I was watching the interview, the camera panned to the audience, and I saw many shocked people with their mouths open and even tears flowing down their cheeks. I'm sure many of us would have this exact response had we been there to hear the tragic stories.
However, I believe the reason that so many injustices continue to occur is that, while people may find the injustices horrible, not many people actually do anything about them.
We all intend to do good things, but life sometimes gets in our way -- the stress of school, tuition bills and family problems often distract from more global issues.
I know that I've used the aforementioned reasons as an excuse to not become a passionate social activist -- after all, who expects a 19-year-old to save the world?
The thing is, no one expects you to save the world. However, I think we should all be expected to do something.
These actions can start in your own community and hopefully become a continuous effort.
Unfortunately, if you feel like you have to help just to be a "good person," your efforts may be short-lasted. However, if you can find a cause that you truly believe in and become personally attached to, you will fight for that cause and not give up until change occurs.
If every person in this country begins by lighting one fire, embracing one cause, then the battle against injustice will be well underway.
Cambodia's KRouge genocide inspires first of its kind art exhibit
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Through paint, sculpture, charcoal or pencil, Cambodian artists have converged to create works inspired by the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge, during which as many as two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the regime
Seth Meixner
Phnom Penh Agence France-Presse
Forced from his home by the Khmer Rouge, Svay Ken remembers joining tens of thousands of other Cambodians choking the roads leading away from the capital Phnom Penh more than 30 years ago.
Carrying what few household goods he could grab in the frantic hours after the communist guerrillas' seizure of the city, he clutched his children's hands, terrified they would be swallowed by the crush of bodies.
Although not yet the painter he would become, Svay Ken – now a frail but driven 76-year-old who has emerged as one of Cambodia's pre-eminent contemporary artists – remembers desperately trying to commit each moment of his ordeal to memory.
"I thought that if I survived this, I would record these experiences in paint to preserve the memory of what I experienced," he recalls, sitting in the living room of his Phnom Penh apartment.
One of those memories, rendered in a primitive style, shows grim, black-clad patients lining up to be fed out of a communal bucket.
Entitled "Khmer Rouge hospital," it is among two dozen works displayed at Phnom Penh art gallery Meta House in the first exhibit of its kind, called "Art of Survival."
Through paint, sculpture, charcoal or pencil, Cambodian artists have converged to create works inspired by the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge, during which as many as two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the regime.
But organizers say it reaches beyond Cambodia's genocide to illuminate some more universal truths about humanity and its capacity to both hurt and heal, and they hope to take the exhibit on the international circuit.
"Examining the complexity and horror of the Pol Pot regime is not only important and relevant for the Cambodian people – it is of great concern for the rest of the world as well," says American artist Bradford Edwards.
"The weathered cliché 'It can happen anywhere' must be applied here, for no nation is immune to the possibility of genocide," he adds.
For Edwards, who has set out to expand the show in order to introduce a global audience to Cambodian artists, "Art of Survival" serves dual purposes: to create art out of one of Cambodia's most destructive periods and to open a window onto the country's nascent art scene.
"I'm trying to make this exhibition appeal to the widest variety of people," he said.
-- Dialogue through art --
"Art of Survival" spans the range of emotions and experiences that are tied to the defining moment in modern Cambodia's history.
Fear and violence are evident in the more literal works of older artists who survived the regime – bleached skulls crowding canvases, or a bound and blindfolded figure bending under the foot of a Khmer Rouge cadre.
Younger artists born in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge's rule produced more abstract interpretations of the genocide, like Vandy Rattana's "Going Fanatic," a photograph of squares of light crowded between the communist movement's hammer and sickle and two blocks representing the United States.
"It's a political chessboard," says the 28 year-old.
"Cambodia's war was not just created by Cambodia – it belonged to the world. If we talk about war in Cambodia we need to talk about Vietnam, the United States," he adds.
The exhibition, he says, "gives me a voice to say something about my history."
Edwards says this dialogue through art is long overdue, and calls the exhibit "an accumulation of years" of collective trauma and recovery.
"We've been waiting for an art show that deals with the Khmer Rouge period specifically. I would call this a 29-year process," he says.
"It is much more than an art exhibit because of the context in which it is taking place," he adds.
The "Art of Survival" coincides with efforts to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice after nearly three decades.
Cambodia's genocide tribunal expects later this year to prosecute the first of five senior cadres currently in its custody in what many see as the biggest step yet towards the country's reconciliation with its brutal past.
The UN-backed court gives weight to the art. The art, in turn, is a tangible sign of Cambodia's emergence from beneath the shadow of the Khmer Rouge, says Meta House's director Nico Mesterharm.
"Art is a marker of development," says Mesterharm, a German documentary maker who has positioned his gallery at the forefront of Cambodia's cultural recovery.
"We see 'Art of Survival' as a platform for a community dialogue. We hope that our project contributes to the reconciliation process," he says.
Through paint, sculpture, charcoal or pencil, Cambodian artists have converged to create works inspired by the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge, during which as many as two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the regime
Seth Meixner
Phnom Penh Agence France-Presse
Forced from his home by the Khmer Rouge, Svay Ken remembers joining tens of thousands of other Cambodians choking the roads leading away from the capital Phnom Penh more than 30 years ago.
Carrying what few household goods he could grab in the frantic hours after the communist guerrillas' seizure of the city, he clutched his children's hands, terrified they would be swallowed by the crush of bodies.
Although not yet the painter he would become, Svay Ken – now a frail but driven 76-year-old who has emerged as one of Cambodia's pre-eminent contemporary artists – remembers desperately trying to commit each moment of his ordeal to memory.
"I thought that if I survived this, I would record these experiences in paint to preserve the memory of what I experienced," he recalls, sitting in the living room of his Phnom Penh apartment.
One of those memories, rendered in a primitive style, shows grim, black-clad patients lining up to be fed out of a communal bucket.
Entitled "Khmer Rouge hospital," it is among two dozen works displayed at Phnom Penh art gallery Meta House in the first exhibit of its kind, called "Art of Survival."
Through paint, sculpture, charcoal or pencil, Cambodian artists have converged to create works inspired by the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge, during which as many as two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the regime.
But organizers say it reaches beyond Cambodia's genocide to illuminate some more universal truths about humanity and its capacity to both hurt and heal, and they hope to take the exhibit on the international circuit.
"Examining the complexity and horror of the Pol Pot regime is not only important and relevant for the Cambodian people – it is of great concern for the rest of the world as well," says American artist Bradford Edwards.
"The weathered cliché 'It can happen anywhere' must be applied here, for no nation is immune to the possibility of genocide," he adds.
For Edwards, who has set out to expand the show in order to introduce a global audience to Cambodian artists, "Art of Survival" serves dual purposes: to create art out of one of Cambodia's most destructive periods and to open a window onto the country's nascent art scene.
"I'm trying to make this exhibition appeal to the widest variety of people," he said.
-- Dialogue through art --
"Art of Survival" spans the range of emotions and experiences that are tied to the defining moment in modern Cambodia's history.
Fear and violence are evident in the more literal works of older artists who survived the regime – bleached skulls crowding canvases, or a bound and blindfolded figure bending under the foot of a Khmer Rouge cadre.
Younger artists born in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge's rule produced more abstract interpretations of the genocide, like Vandy Rattana's "Going Fanatic," a photograph of squares of light crowded between the communist movement's hammer and sickle and two blocks representing the United States.
"It's a political chessboard," says the 28 year-old.
"Cambodia's war was not just created by Cambodia – it belonged to the world. If we talk about war in Cambodia we need to talk about Vietnam, the United States," he adds.
The exhibition, he says, "gives me a voice to say something about my history."
Edwards says this dialogue through art is long overdue, and calls the exhibit "an accumulation of years" of collective trauma and recovery.
"We've been waiting for an art show that deals with the Khmer Rouge period specifically. I would call this a 29-year process," he says.
"It is much more than an art exhibit because of the context in which it is taking place," he adds.
The "Art of Survival" coincides with efforts to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice after nearly three decades.
Cambodia's genocide tribunal expects later this year to prosecute the first of five senior cadres currently in its custody in what many see as the biggest step yet towards the country's reconciliation with its brutal past.
The UN-backed court gives weight to the art. The art, in turn, is a tangible sign of Cambodia's emergence from beneath the shadow of the Khmer Rouge, says Meta House's director Nico Mesterharm.
"Art is a marker of development," says Mesterharm, a German documentary maker who has positioned his gallery at the forefront of Cambodia's cultural recovery.
"We see 'Art of Survival' as a platform for a community dialogue. We hope that our project contributes to the reconciliation process," he says.
Orange Alert for Dengue Fever
San Diego ReaderBy David Stampone
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Orange Alert for Dengue Fever The future looked promising for Dengue Fever when the critically acclaimed psych-surf-worldbeat indie act fronted by Cambodian immigrant Chhom Nimol was driving home to Los Angeles after opening for Jonathan Richman at the Casbah on February 6, 2003. “However,” notes Steve Huey in their All Music Guide bio, “disaster nearly struck when Nimol was arrested in San Diego in accordance with the stringent, post-9/11 [Immigration and Naturalization Service] policy — she’d arrived in the U.S. on a two-week visitor’s visa.…” The agents who stopped the band at San Onofre and took Nimol into custody were reportedly observing an orange alert. “They looked at me and thought I was a Mexican lady,” she told Matt Diehl in an interview featured in L.A.’s CityBeat.
Chhom Nimol, from a family of Cambodian singers, had come to the U.S. a few years before for lucrative New Year’s gigs and stayed, settling with her sister in Long Beach’s “Little Phnom Penh” — at a population of 50,000, America’s largest Cambodian ex-pat community. Brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman had been inspired by vintage Cambodian rock to start a band with vocals in the Khmer language, and they found Nimol singing at the LBC’s Dragon House restaurant.
The problem at the checkpoint was overcome but not before Nimol spent 22 days in an INS detention facility here. She was released after benefit shows raised money that helped secure her legal status. She also worked long hours at the Dragon House to pay $20,000 in lawyer’s fees — prompting the title of their second album, Escape from Dragon House. Nimol also co-wrote (in Khmer) “22 Nights” on their debut, which was about her incarceration (where she charmed Mexican female inmates by singing Celine Dion songs).
“Jail was scary,” Nimol said. “I was feeling afraid I was going to be sent back to my country.” Drummer Paul Smith elaborated: “Singers have gotten acid thrown in their face in Cambodia for associating with the wrong politicians.… It was an important part of her defense. If she had been sent home, she could’ve been a target.” Nimol’s family members had sung for deposed royalty, and Nimol’s father sang on a movie soundtrack with legendary pop-rocker Sinn Sisamouth, the “King of Cambodian Music” who disappeared — presumed murdered — in 1975 after Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge took power.
Dengue Fever play the Casbah Saturday, April 19.
Crossing the Red Cross
Cambodia: Details are Sketchy
April 17, 2008
In a smart story about Cambodia’s urban redevelopment gone bad, Vincent MacIsaac touches on one of the most underreported stories affecting Cambodia.
Excluding Burma, “Cambodia has the most abusive record of forced evictions in the region,” said David Pred, the country director of Bridges Across Borders, an international non-governmental organization formed to combat the root causes of violence.
In an interesting twist, the Cambodian Red Cross, which has been appealing for donations to resettle squatters, is headed by the prime minister’s wife, Bun Rany Hun Sen. Besides widespread allegations of corruption and misuse of funds, the Cambodia Red Cross’s appeal for funds to resettle people evicted as a result of land grabs by people closely tied to the prime minister is, to use the phrase of one diplomat, “more than a little off-putting.”
An official at the International Red Cross agreed: “There’s something not quite kosher about this,” he said.
Considering the Cambodian Red Cross’ affiliation with the prime minister’s wife, it comes as little surprise that local journalists stay silent on the issue. The same, however, cannot be said of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Officially, Red Cross policy stands on autonomy. “The ICRC, the Federation and the National Societies are independent bodies. Each has its own individual status and exercises no authority over the others,” says the Red Cross web site.
But something is seriously crook in the Red Cross movement if national societies can thumb their noses at Red Cross virtues with such transparent disdain. The farce becomes a tragedy for all those in need of help, yet for whom the Cambodian Red Cross is just another tool of oppression wielded by the country’s ruling class.
In a smart story about Cambodia’s urban redevelopment gone bad, Vincent MacIsaac touches on one of the most underreported stories affecting Cambodia.
Excluding Burma, “Cambodia has the most abusive record of forced evictions in the region,” said David Pred, the country director of Bridges Across Borders, an international non-governmental organization formed to combat the root causes of violence.
In an interesting twist, the Cambodian Red Cross, which has been appealing for donations to resettle squatters, is headed by the prime minister’s wife, Bun Rany Hun Sen. Besides widespread allegations of corruption and misuse of funds, the Cambodia Red Cross’s appeal for funds to resettle people evicted as a result of land grabs by people closely tied to the prime minister is, to use the phrase of one diplomat, “more than a little off-putting.”
An official at the International Red Cross agreed: “There’s something not quite kosher about this,” he said.
Considering the Cambodian Red Cross’ affiliation with the prime minister’s wife, it comes as little surprise that local journalists stay silent on the issue. The same, however, cannot be said of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Officially, Red Cross policy stands on autonomy. “The ICRC, the Federation and the National Societies are independent bodies. Each has its own individual status and exercises no authority over the others,” says the Red Cross web site.
But something is seriously crook in the Red Cross movement if national societies can thumb their noses at Red Cross virtues with such transparent disdain. The farce becomes a tragedy for all those in need of help, yet for whom the Cambodian Red Cross is just another tool of oppression wielded by the country’s ruling class.
New Year's blast in Cambodia kills 1, injures 25
Herald Online
The Associated Press
04/17/08
An attacker hurled a hand grenade into a crowd of people dancing at a Buddhist temple to celebrate Cambodia's traditional New Year, killing one villager and wounding 25 others, police said Thursday.
The attack, which killed a 21-year-old man, occurred Wednesday evening about 30 miles north of Siem Reap in western Cambodia, said Ou Em, the provincial police chief.
Many villagers had gathered at the temple for dancing to mark the last day of the traditional New Year holiday, police said.
"First, I thought it was a firecracker that exploded until I saw people with blood on them," said Bou Nimol, a 17-year-old girl who witnessed the attack. "I just ran straight home after that."
Police said they were investigating the attack but had no immediate suspects.
Siem Reap, about 140 miles northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh, is the site of the famed Angkor temples.
The Associated Press
04/17/08
An attacker hurled a hand grenade into a crowd of people dancing at a Buddhist temple to celebrate Cambodia's traditional New Year, killing one villager and wounding 25 others, police said Thursday.
The attack, which killed a 21-year-old man, occurred Wednesday evening about 30 miles north of Siem Reap in western Cambodia, said Ou Em, the provincial police chief.
Many villagers had gathered at the temple for dancing to mark the last day of the traditional New Year holiday, police said.
"First, I thought it was a firecracker that exploded until I saw people with blood on them," said Bou Nimol, a 17-year-old girl who witnessed the attack. "I just ran straight home after that."
Police said they were investigating the attack but had no immediate suspects.
Siem Reap, about 140 miles northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh, is the site of the famed Angkor temples.
Strategic road to Cambodia's turbulent past
Roads in Cambodia are where you can observe two different worlds side-by-side.
ALL PICTURESMass tourism in a new guise _ recent years have witnessed a boom in Thai tourists driving to the ancient city of Angkor and other historic sites in Cambodia. Cambodians share a lot in common with Thais, as reflected in the architectural styles of their buildings.
STORY BY VASANA CHINVARAKORN , PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHAGORN SOPAPORN, 'C MAX' CAR MAGAZINE
National Highway No. 1, which runs from Phnom Penh to the southern border of Cambodia to join another truck road leading to Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, reflects the state of the country's roads - there are 38,257km in total, and only 2,406km, at least as of 2004, as being "paved".
Our caravan of 26 four-wheel drives and SUVs has to move with caution. The section of the road we are on is being expanded - it will soon become a four-lane motorway - but for now half of it is occupied by piles of dirt, some oversized bulldozers and a scattering of construction workers.
Clouds of dust, created every time a car passes, make it difficult to see ahead clearly. And we have only just left the capital of Phnom Penh!
You should not be fooled by the road's modest appearance, though. According to historian Charnvit Kasetsiri, National Highway No. 1 has played a crucial role in the history of Indochina. It is a "strategic road", he noted, a major artery that has brought and witnessed changes to the region stretching beyond the mouth of the Mekong delta.
A couple of thousand years ago, Indian merchants and travellers who introduced Hindu civilisation to Southeast Asia may have moved inland along the route. Thus were born the subsequent kingdoms of Funan, Zhenla and last, but not least, Angkor.
It is said that the French colonists who took over Cambodia and Vietnam as protectorates in the mid-19th century ordered the road built. For years, it contributed - as it still does today - to the flourishing cross-border trade between the peoples of the two countries. The Vietnamese-supported troops of Heng Samrin that took over Phnom Penh from the Khmer Rouge on January 7, 1979, marched on this road.
Decades later, thousands of tourists, including our extensive motorcade, still follow this route.
The road is considered a key element in the Asian Development Bank's multi-billion dollar plan to develop the so-called Greater Mekong sub-region's southern economic corridor. And yet we can glimpse Cambodian villagers plying the same road with horse-or cow-drawn carts, buses, old taxis, bicycles, motorcycles and pick-up trucks full of passengers and goods. Highway No. 1 may be rugged and dusty at times, but it serves well as a backdrop to layers of realities - the past seamlessly interwoven with the present - that sum up Cambodia in the 21st century.
Our current expedition is to trace the rise and fall of this enigmatic country, sandwiched between and exploited by its two stronger neighbours: Vietnam and Thailand. We are to cover 2,756km and three countries in seven days - by car. From Bangkok to Aranyapathet, Siem Riep, Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City, the route is becoming popular with well-heeled Thais.
Kitti Nilthanom, managing director of Trans-Asia Route and the "captain" of this convoy, notes that last year his company organised 15 similar trips through Indochina. "We expect to do more than 20 this year," he said.
For this is mass tourism in a new guise. It balances the need for comfort and security with the urge for adventure. The 85 people in 26 vehicles feel they are in control, free to move at their chosen speed (most of the time) and to maintain their privacy in their own vehicles, but thanks to walkie-talkies, each driver is assured that he or she will not get lost, even on the more arduous stretches.
"Brake! Watch out for the cows!" a walkie-talkie says.
"The road is free. Follow me. Don't let other cars cut into our line!"
"Keep honking until we pass through the village!"
The explorers of the old days would not have been able to go as fast, or with such concerted energy and volume. In this particular frontier of car-driven tourism, Thais probably rank at the very top.
But we are well behind schedule. Originally, after Phnom Penh, we were supposed to cross the Mekong at the town of Neak Loeung and reach the border by lunchtime. However, traffic was heavy, made worse by the size of our convoy. Anyway, in our air-conditioned cars, we were faring much better than the local Cambodians, milling about in the glaring noonday sun. They kept tapping at our windows relentlessly, trying to sell us fruit, offering us car-cleaning services or simply begging for loose change. Their faces invariably showed signs of poverty; quite a few were maimed. On this ferry pier, we were so close, yet so far apart. Isn't that a little like the relations between our two countries?
Then it was time to cross to the other side. The ferry we used was named Ta Phrom - after the famous historic site in Siem Reap depicted in the film Tomb Raider. Rows of cars on the ship's lower deck were reminiscent of the sandstones piled up in one corner of Ta Phrom. Those, said our local guide, was a legacy of the French colonists. "They dismantled part of our shrine and simply left the stones there," he complained. "There were no marks to tell us how to put them back together."
National Highway No. 1, which runs from Phnom Penh to the southern border of Cambodia to join another truck road leading to Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, reflects the state of the country's roads - there are 38,257km in total, and only 2,406km, at least as of 2004, as being "paved".
Our caravan of 26 four-wheel drives and SUVs has to move with caution. The section of the road we are on is being expanded - it will soon become a four-lane motorway - but for now half of it is occupied by piles of dirt, some oversized bulldozers and a scattering of construction workers.
Clouds of dust, created every time a car passes, make it difficult to see ahead clearly. And we have only just left the capital of Phnom Penh!
You should not be fooled by the road's modest appearance, though. According to historian Charnvit Kasetsiri, National Highway No. 1 has played a crucial role in the history of Indochina. It is a "strategic road", he noted, a major artery that has brought and witnessed changes to the region stretching beyond the mouth of the Mekong delta.
A couple of thousand years ago, Indian merchants and travellers who introduced Hindu civilisation to Southeast Asia may have moved inland along the route. Thus were born the subsequent kingdoms of Funan, Zhenla and last, but not least, Angkor.
It is said that the French colonists who took over Cambodia and Vietnam as protectorates in the mid-19th century ordered the road built. For years, it contributed - as it still does today - to the flourishing cross-border trade between the peoples of the two countries. The Vietnamese-supported troops of Heng Samrin that took over Phnom Penh from the Khmer Rouge on January 7, 1979, marched on this road.
Decades later, thousands of tourists, including our extensive motorcade, still follow this route.
The road is considered a key element in the Asian Development Bank's multi-billion dollar plan to develop the so-called Greater Mekong sub-region's southern economic corridor. And yet we can glimpse Cambodian villagers plying the same road with horse-or cow-drawn carts, buses, old taxis, bicycles, motorcycles and pick-up trucks full of passengers and goods. Highway No. 1 may be rugged and dusty at times, but it serves well as a backdrop to layers of realities - the past seamlessly interwoven with the present - that sum up Cambodia in the 21st century.
Our current expedition is to trace the rise and fall of this enigmatic country, sandwiched between and exploited by its two stronger neighbours: Vietnam and Thailand. We are to cover 2,756km and three countries in seven days - by car. From Bangkok to Aranyapathet, Siem Riep, Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City, the route is becoming popular with well-heeled Thais.
Kitti Nilthanom, managing director of Trans-Asia Route and the "captain" of this convoy, notes that last year his company organised 15 similar trips through Indochina. "We expect to do more than 20 this year," he said.
For this is mass tourism in a new guise. It balances the need for comfort and security with the urge for adventure. The 85 people in 26 vehicles feel they are in control, free to move at their chosen speed (most of the time) and to maintain their privacy in their own vehicles, but thanks to walkie-talkies, each driver is assured that he or she will not get lost, even on the more arduous stretches.
"Brake! Watch out for the cows!" a walkie-talkie says.
"The road is free. Follow me. Don't let other cars cut into our line!"
"Keep honking until we pass through the village!"
The explorers of the old days would not have been able to go as fast, or with such concerted energy and volume. In this particular frontier of car-driven tourism, Thais probably rank at the very top.
But we are well behind schedule. Originally, after Phnom Penh, we were supposed to cross the Mekong at the town of Neak Loeung and reach the border by lunchtime. However, traffic was heavy, made worse by the size of our convoy. Anyway, in our air-conditioned cars, we were faring much better than the local Cambodians, milling about in the glaring noonday sun. They kept tapping at our windows relentlessly, trying to sell us fruit, offering us car-cleaning services or simply begging for loose change. Their faces invariably showed signs of poverty; quite a few were maimed. On this ferry pier, we were so close, yet so far apart. Isn't that a little like the relations between our two countries?
Then it was time to cross to the other side. The ferry we used was named Ta Phrom - after the famous historic site in Siem Reap depicted in the film Tomb Raider. Rows of cars on the ship's lower deck were reminiscent of the sandstones piled up in one corner of Ta Phrom. Those, said our local guide, was a legacy of the French colonists. "They dismantled part of our shrine and simply left the stones there," he complained. "There were no marks to tell us how to put them back together."
Groups of local Cambodians trying to sell their goods at the ferry pier at the town of Neak Loeung. Fortunately, our guide did not mention the role of Cambodia's neighbours in his story. According to Siamese royal chronicles, King Mongkut (1804-1868) expressed a desire to have some Khmer shrines erected in his kingdom. Someone suggested relocating Ta Phrom. A group led by aristocrats from Bangkok was promptly dispatched. On the very day that the workers were to begin removing the construction, however, 300 Cambodian "bandits" showed up, executed the Thai leaders, then disappeared. Eventually, the Siamese monarch had to give up his ambitious project. An imitation Khmer-style shrine was subsequently built at his summer palace in Khao Wang, Phetchaburi, and a very small replica of Angkor Wat at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok.
Indeed, the history of Cambodia after the decline of Angkor is like the plot of a soap opera, with Vietnam and Siam taking turns to dictate who should be appointed king of Cambodia, where the capital should be and how the country should be run. Siam had a slight advantage due to the shared Hindu/Theravada Buddhist culture, whereas Vietnam enjoyed geographic proximity. At one stage, Vietnam tried, unsuccessfully to "civilise" the Cambodians through a process of "Vietnamisation". Incidentally, both neighbours resorted to similar tactics, including retaining the Cambodian royal families as their hostages/guests, and seizing the royal regalia as circumstances required. They also slowly "absorbed" the territories that were once under Cambodian rule - the provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap by Siam before the end of the 18th century, and, in the case of Vietnam, the settlement of Prey Nokor, known today as Ho Chi Minh City, long before the mid-1700s.
Cambodian monarchs at this time had to learn the art of diplomacy, an expertise they have maintained to this day. The factions inside the Cambodian court intensified the situation. Every now and then, one or more royal siblings would seek assistance from either Vietnam or Siam in a bid to take, or to keep, the throne. In 1811, it was Ang Chan (who reigned from 1806 to 1834) who asked Vietnam to help him fight against his rebellious brother, who was supported by Siam. At the same time, though, the king maintained his ties with the Bangkok regime, especially during the last years of his reign. In 1834, the Siamese army invaded Phnom Penh in an attempt to install Ang Chan's half-brother, Ang Duang.
Distrust prevailed on both sides, and Cambodia became weaker as a result of the power struggles. Eventually, the arrival of the French in the 19th century added to the complexity of the conflicts that continue to plague the region up to now.
It was Ang Duang (who reigned from 1847 to 1860) who took the initiative to write to Napoleon III, the French emperor, expressing his wish to establish some form of relationship, offering gifts and paying homage at the same time. After his first attempt failed, due to intervention by Siamese officials, he sent another letter asking the French ruler to help him regain the areas lost to the Vietnamese over 200 years previously. His successor, Norodom, made the next move.
Angry at Siam's refusal to allow him to take back his regalia, in August 1863, he decided to sign a treaty with the French, exchanging special trading rights for the latter's protection. In December of the same year, though, Norodom signed a secret treaty with Siam that would effectively negate the French claim to the Cambodian kingdom. After a serious dispute between the French and the Siamese, Norodom was eventually declared king a year later in a coronation ceremony presided over by both Siamese and French representatives.
But the influence of Siam over Cambodian court affairs lasted only up to the end of Mongkut's reign. From then on, except during World War Two, it was the time of French predominance and their joint efforts with the Cambodian elite to reconstruct national identity revolving around the once-greatness of Angkor.
Milton Osborne in his Phnom Penh - A Cultural and Literary History, writes: "It was in the last decade of the 19th and the first four decades of the 20th centuries that a vision of Cambodia's past was settled upon as a result of both French and Cambodian efforts, a vision that sought to establish an unbroken cultural link between contemporary Cambodia and the period of Angkorian greatness. Not the least of the motivations behind French actions was a concern to minimise memories of Cambodian royalty's close links with the Siamese court in Bangkok."
Years later, Norodom Sihanouk would be playing a similar game to his grandfather, but this time with both regional and international superpowers. For all the controversy surrounding him, Sihanouk managed to steer his country toward independence in 1953 through negotiation and other political manoeuvres, instead of taking up arms like his Vietnamese neighbour. "He is likely to be remembered as a national hero of Cambodia in years to come," noted Charnvit.
Interestingly, the former Cambodian king opted to befriend countries like France and China, instead of his two neighbours (Thailand and US-supported southern Vietnam), a move not unlike the efforts of his more recent ancestors.
But even Sihanouk could not prevent the Vietnam War, between the US-led allies and North Vietnam and its sympathisers, from spreading to his country. The southern region of Cambodia and Vietnam were deeply embroiled, with daily attacks by US forces (with support from Thailand and South Vietnam) and communist insurgents (who struck a clandestine deal with Sihanouk for land passage). The former king's leftist inclinations also spurred resistance that culminated in a coup in 1970. Reinstated as nominal head of state, including during the turbulent Khmer Rouge era, Sihanouk would never again be able to regain the consolidation of power as he had 50 years ago.
The man of the moment is definitely Prime Minister Somdech Hun Sen. Driving throughout Cambodia, and especially on Highway No. 1 up to the border at Bavet, we cannot miss the hoardings of various sizes showing the symbol of his Cambodian People's Party, often with his photograph beaming from above the ground.
Little do we realise at that point that the short distance at the Cambodian-Vietnamese borders will take a couple more hours to cross.
Next in the series: Onwards to the Ho Chi Minh City and back again in Phnom Penh.
Indeed, the history of Cambodia after the decline of Angkor is like the plot of a soap opera, with Vietnam and Siam taking turns to dictate who should be appointed king of Cambodia, where the capital should be and how the country should be run. Siam had a slight advantage due to the shared Hindu/Theravada Buddhist culture, whereas Vietnam enjoyed geographic proximity. At one stage, Vietnam tried, unsuccessfully to "civilise" the Cambodians through a process of "Vietnamisation". Incidentally, both neighbours resorted to similar tactics, including retaining the Cambodian royal families as their hostages/guests, and seizing the royal regalia as circumstances required. They also slowly "absorbed" the territories that were once under Cambodian rule - the provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap by Siam before the end of the 18th century, and, in the case of Vietnam, the settlement of Prey Nokor, known today as Ho Chi Minh City, long before the mid-1700s.
Cambodian monarchs at this time had to learn the art of diplomacy, an expertise they have maintained to this day. The factions inside the Cambodian court intensified the situation. Every now and then, one or more royal siblings would seek assistance from either Vietnam or Siam in a bid to take, or to keep, the throne. In 1811, it was Ang Chan (who reigned from 1806 to 1834) who asked Vietnam to help him fight against his rebellious brother, who was supported by Siam. At the same time, though, the king maintained his ties with the Bangkok regime, especially during the last years of his reign. In 1834, the Siamese army invaded Phnom Penh in an attempt to install Ang Chan's half-brother, Ang Duang.
Distrust prevailed on both sides, and Cambodia became weaker as a result of the power struggles. Eventually, the arrival of the French in the 19th century added to the complexity of the conflicts that continue to plague the region up to now.
It was Ang Duang (who reigned from 1847 to 1860) who took the initiative to write to Napoleon III, the French emperor, expressing his wish to establish some form of relationship, offering gifts and paying homage at the same time. After his first attempt failed, due to intervention by Siamese officials, he sent another letter asking the French ruler to help him regain the areas lost to the Vietnamese over 200 years previously. His successor, Norodom, made the next move.
Angry at Siam's refusal to allow him to take back his regalia, in August 1863, he decided to sign a treaty with the French, exchanging special trading rights for the latter's protection. In December of the same year, though, Norodom signed a secret treaty with Siam that would effectively negate the French claim to the Cambodian kingdom. After a serious dispute between the French and the Siamese, Norodom was eventually declared king a year later in a coronation ceremony presided over by both Siamese and French representatives.
But the influence of Siam over Cambodian court affairs lasted only up to the end of Mongkut's reign. From then on, except during World War Two, it was the time of French predominance and their joint efforts with the Cambodian elite to reconstruct national identity revolving around the once-greatness of Angkor.
Milton Osborne in his Phnom Penh - A Cultural and Literary History, writes: "It was in the last decade of the 19th and the first four decades of the 20th centuries that a vision of Cambodia's past was settled upon as a result of both French and Cambodian efforts, a vision that sought to establish an unbroken cultural link between contemporary Cambodia and the period of Angkorian greatness. Not the least of the motivations behind French actions was a concern to minimise memories of Cambodian royalty's close links with the Siamese court in Bangkok."
Years later, Norodom Sihanouk would be playing a similar game to his grandfather, but this time with both regional and international superpowers. For all the controversy surrounding him, Sihanouk managed to steer his country toward independence in 1953 through negotiation and other political manoeuvres, instead of taking up arms like his Vietnamese neighbour. "He is likely to be remembered as a national hero of Cambodia in years to come," noted Charnvit.
Interestingly, the former Cambodian king opted to befriend countries like France and China, instead of his two neighbours (Thailand and US-supported southern Vietnam), a move not unlike the efforts of his more recent ancestors.
But even Sihanouk could not prevent the Vietnam War, between the US-led allies and North Vietnam and its sympathisers, from spreading to his country. The southern region of Cambodia and Vietnam were deeply embroiled, with daily attacks by US forces (with support from Thailand and South Vietnam) and communist insurgents (who struck a clandestine deal with Sihanouk for land passage). The former king's leftist inclinations also spurred resistance that culminated in a coup in 1970. Reinstated as nominal head of state, including during the turbulent Khmer Rouge era, Sihanouk would never again be able to regain the consolidation of power as he had 50 years ago.
The man of the moment is definitely Prime Minister Somdech Hun Sen. Driving throughout Cambodia, and especially on Highway No. 1 up to the border at Bavet, we cannot miss the hoardings of various sizes showing the symbol of his Cambodian People's Party, often with his photograph beaming from above the ground.
Little do we realise at that point that the short distance at the Cambodian-Vietnamese borders will take a couple more hours to cross.
Next in the series: Onwards to the Ho Chi Minh City and back again in Phnom Penh.
CAMBODIA: Dwindling Fish Stocks Threaten Food Security
By Andrew Nette
KIEN SVAY, Kandal Province, , Apr 17 (IPS) - Soldier-turned-fisherman Im Vandang is not sure why there are fewer fish in the Mekong river but he is certain that the situation is getting serious.
"I have been fishing in this stretch of the Mekong for ten years," said Vandang, squatting in his thatched house in Kandal province, east of the Cambodia’s capital. "For the last few years the number of fish in the river has definitely been going down. I used to catch a lot. Now I am lucky to catch three kilos a day. I have just come back from a morning’s fishing and caught nothing."
Vandang’s concerns are part of a bigger debate about the state of Cambodia’s fisheries.
It is a vital food security issue given that fish account for 75 percent of the protein consumed in Cambodia -- 90 percent in fishing communities -- as well as providing livelihood for over a million of people.
So concerned is the Cambodian government that it is considering the introduction of stringent fishing controls, a move that some believe would only further disadvantage the poor.
The road from Phnom Penh to Vandang’s fishing village is filling up with people heading out of the capital, the beginning of a mass exodus as people return to their provinces to celebrate Khmer New Year in mid-April.
"I am a fisherman but now I have to buy prahok from the market," he says referring to the pungent fish paste that is a staple condiment for virtually all Cambodian dishes.
There have been several stories in the Khmer press about the rising price of prahok due to declining fish catches. Vandang says that the cost of small fish, known as trey riel, the core ingredient of prahok, has increased nearly 200 percent in the past 12 months.
"This is not the first time that people have talked about declines in fish catches, people were already talking about this as early as 1995," said Nao Thuok, director general of fisheries at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Phnom Penh.
He confirmed that the fish catch declined in 2007 to about 12,500 tonnes, down from 28,000 tonnes in 2006, but added that 12,500 tonnes was the average before 2006 and that it was 2007 that was an unusual year. "There is some decrease in big fish but the total amount, especially small fish, is not declining.’
Mak Sithirith, executive director of the Fisheries Action Coalition Team, an organisation working with local communities on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake, disagrees.
He is critical of the accuracy of the government’s figures, which he said only examined the catch from commercial fishing lots. "There are 2.1 million people on the Tonle Sap floodplain, most of whom are fishers and many of whom depend totally on fishing for their living. For us, working in the community and looking at the household fishing catch, we can definitely say it is going down, without a doubt."
"Ten years ago they would catch ten kilos of fish a day. Now it is five or less."
"It is difficult to rigorously document a decline in overall catches," said Eric Baran, research scientist with the World Fish Centre in Phnom Penh. "What is clear is that the catch of individual fishers is declining but this has to be balanced by the fact that there are many more people fishing."
"Is it true that each individual fisher is catching less? Yes. Is the river less productive than before? We don’t know because there is no monitoring on a basin wide level."
Experts agree government figures may not be accurate. The Mekong River Commission has only recently started a small-scale effort to monitor catches that will result in some figures in a few years, but this will only provide a micro sample.
"Despite the myth of declining fisheries, fish catches in the Tonle Sap area are greater now than at any other time in the past," Baran stated in a recent article, based on field research he and another consultant carried out. "However, the increase in population has outstripped the increase in fisheries production resulting in a diminishing catch per fisher. Overall, this trend is set to continue."
"There are more people engaged in fishing but you have to acknowledge that people are moving out (of fisheries) as well as in," noted Sithirith. "The flow is going both ways. People are moving out of fishing communities due to declines in catches."
Vandang heads one of 40 fishing families in his village and the number is declining. "There are fewer families here. Many have sold their land and left the village because there are no fish."
Ian Baird, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in Canada, believes it is not possible to rule out overall declines in fish only by examining the situation in Cambodia.
Research conducted by Baird with fishers in the upper Mekong Basin in Laos points to big declines over the last decade. "The impacts are more serious than people think but you cannot necessarily see them by focusing only on Cambodia," said Baird. "You can see them at the tail end of the migration up river but no one is measuring or monitoring this."
"To say that heavy fishing is not having an impact is ignoring everything that local people in the upper basin are saying,’’ Baird added.
The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), a major new report by over 400 scientists, launched on Tuesday, referred to increasing conflicts and anxieties over the sharing of natural resources in the East and South Asia and Pacific (ESAP) region.
According to the IAASTD report such anxieties and conflicts were ‘’evident in disputes about fishing rights and water sharing’’ in the ESAP region where there was a ‘’need to develop regional co-operation and conflict resolution systems’’.
The experts all agree on one thing: that the nature of the catch is changing.
Larger species such as cat fish are being replaced by smaller fish like the trey riel that spawn in the Tonle Sap in the wet season, migrating to Laos and Thailand at the end of the west season.
"Undisputedly the nature of the catch is declining with every year," said Baran. "Importantly, big species that live many years are getting replaced by small, short life species that react instantly to environmental change. The system is becoming more and more variable and less and less predictable."
According to Nao Thuok, the situation is prompting the Cambodian government to consider introducing tighter controls on fresh water fisheries.
"We are thinking of introducing limits on fishing gear because there are too many people fishing so that fish cannot migrate upstream for the next years’ spawning. We will discuss this internally and ask the Prime Minister for his approval. It will be very difficult to implement but the only way to keep fisheries sustainable and keep big fish coming back is to limit the catch."
"This is a typical way of dealing with the problem and it does not work," countered Sithirith. "What it will result in is fishers having to pay to fish to get around the restrictions and this will only benefit the wealthy."
"Community management is the best way to stop overfishing. They can protect the resource better than people in Phnom Penh."
"They know what is going on, if people come in with fishing illegal gear they will stop them. If they have no power then they will not care what happens in their area."
Sithirth is also adamant that tighter controls will also not address the key governance issues that are driving reductions in fish captures. These include irregularities in the way that commercial lots are allocated and illegal fishing techniques, including electrocution.
"We know that some of the larger operators bribe local government officials to get a fishing lot. If you have paid a lot of money you have to get your money back and the only way to do this is to maximise the exploitation of fisheries resources."
Although Vandang and his fellow fishers cannot say exactly what is causing reduced catches on their stretch of the Mekong, they believe it has something to do with illegal fishing techniques employed by some fishers who have paid off local fisheries officials.
In addition to overfishing, experts believe that rising pollution levels and increased clearing of flooded forest are also having a negative impact on fisheries. The other major issue is hydropower development on the Mekong mainstream tributaries.
"Dam building will affect the water regime in the Mekong, including the flow in and out of the Tonle Sap," said Sithirith. "We are worried that there will be less water flowing in and out of the Great Lake meaning less flooding of forest areas and reduced fisheries numbers."
"Dams are definitely a major threat to fisheries resources because they block fish migration, reduce water quality and alter flooding patterns," said Baran.
"There is a trade-off between dam construction and hydropower generation and irrigation. The more you gain on one, the more you lose on the other. Fish in the Mekong have a biological cycle. They need to migrate to feed and breed. They cannot migrate if their life cycles are disrupted and there is no replenishment of stock."
Approximately 87 percent of known dominant fish species in the Mekong migrate.
Are governments taking the issue seriously enough? "The major importance of fisheries in the basin is not reflected in national policies, in particular those dealing with infrastructure development,’’ said Baran.
KIEN SVAY, Kandal Province, , Apr 17 (IPS) - Soldier-turned-fisherman Im Vandang is not sure why there are fewer fish in the Mekong river but he is certain that the situation is getting serious.
"I have been fishing in this stretch of the Mekong for ten years," said Vandang, squatting in his thatched house in Kandal province, east of the Cambodia’s capital. "For the last few years the number of fish in the river has definitely been going down. I used to catch a lot. Now I am lucky to catch three kilos a day. I have just come back from a morning’s fishing and caught nothing."
Vandang’s concerns are part of a bigger debate about the state of Cambodia’s fisheries.
It is a vital food security issue given that fish account for 75 percent of the protein consumed in Cambodia -- 90 percent in fishing communities -- as well as providing livelihood for over a million of people.
So concerned is the Cambodian government that it is considering the introduction of stringent fishing controls, a move that some believe would only further disadvantage the poor.
The road from Phnom Penh to Vandang’s fishing village is filling up with people heading out of the capital, the beginning of a mass exodus as people return to their provinces to celebrate Khmer New Year in mid-April.
"I am a fisherman but now I have to buy prahok from the market," he says referring to the pungent fish paste that is a staple condiment for virtually all Cambodian dishes.
There have been several stories in the Khmer press about the rising price of prahok due to declining fish catches. Vandang says that the cost of small fish, known as trey riel, the core ingredient of prahok, has increased nearly 200 percent in the past 12 months.
"This is not the first time that people have talked about declines in fish catches, people were already talking about this as early as 1995," said Nao Thuok, director general of fisheries at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Phnom Penh.
He confirmed that the fish catch declined in 2007 to about 12,500 tonnes, down from 28,000 tonnes in 2006, but added that 12,500 tonnes was the average before 2006 and that it was 2007 that was an unusual year. "There is some decrease in big fish but the total amount, especially small fish, is not declining.’
Mak Sithirith, executive director of the Fisheries Action Coalition Team, an organisation working with local communities on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake, disagrees.
He is critical of the accuracy of the government’s figures, which he said only examined the catch from commercial fishing lots. "There are 2.1 million people on the Tonle Sap floodplain, most of whom are fishers and many of whom depend totally on fishing for their living. For us, working in the community and looking at the household fishing catch, we can definitely say it is going down, without a doubt."
"Ten years ago they would catch ten kilos of fish a day. Now it is five or less."
"It is difficult to rigorously document a decline in overall catches," said Eric Baran, research scientist with the World Fish Centre in Phnom Penh. "What is clear is that the catch of individual fishers is declining but this has to be balanced by the fact that there are many more people fishing."
"Is it true that each individual fisher is catching less? Yes. Is the river less productive than before? We don’t know because there is no monitoring on a basin wide level."
Experts agree government figures may not be accurate. The Mekong River Commission has only recently started a small-scale effort to monitor catches that will result in some figures in a few years, but this will only provide a micro sample.
"Despite the myth of declining fisheries, fish catches in the Tonle Sap area are greater now than at any other time in the past," Baran stated in a recent article, based on field research he and another consultant carried out. "However, the increase in population has outstripped the increase in fisheries production resulting in a diminishing catch per fisher. Overall, this trend is set to continue."
"There are more people engaged in fishing but you have to acknowledge that people are moving out (of fisheries) as well as in," noted Sithirith. "The flow is going both ways. People are moving out of fishing communities due to declines in catches."
Vandang heads one of 40 fishing families in his village and the number is declining. "There are fewer families here. Many have sold their land and left the village because there are no fish."
Ian Baird, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in Canada, believes it is not possible to rule out overall declines in fish only by examining the situation in Cambodia.
Research conducted by Baird with fishers in the upper Mekong Basin in Laos points to big declines over the last decade. "The impacts are more serious than people think but you cannot necessarily see them by focusing only on Cambodia," said Baird. "You can see them at the tail end of the migration up river but no one is measuring or monitoring this."
"To say that heavy fishing is not having an impact is ignoring everything that local people in the upper basin are saying,’’ Baird added.
The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), a major new report by over 400 scientists, launched on Tuesday, referred to increasing conflicts and anxieties over the sharing of natural resources in the East and South Asia and Pacific (ESAP) region.
According to the IAASTD report such anxieties and conflicts were ‘’evident in disputes about fishing rights and water sharing’’ in the ESAP region where there was a ‘’need to develop regional co-operation and conflict resolution systems’’.
The experts all agree on one thing: that the nature of the catch is changing.
Larger species such as cat fish are being replaced by smaller fish like the trey riel that spawn in the Tonle Sap in the wet season, migrating to Laos and Thailand at the end of the west season.
"Undisputedly the nature of the catch is declining with every year," said Baran. "Importantly, big species that live many years are getting replaced by small, short life species that react instantly to environmental change. The system is becoming more and more variable and less and less predictable."
According to Nao Thuok, the situation is prompting the Cambodian government to consider introducing tighter controls on fresh water fisheries.
"We are thinking of introducing limits on fishing gear because there are too many people fishing so that fish cannot migrate upstream for the next years’ spawning. We will discuss this internally and ask the Prime Minister for his approval. It will be very difficult to implement but the only way to keep fisheries sustainable and keep big fish coming back is to limit the catch."
"This is a typical way of dealing with the problem and it does not work," countered Sithirith. "What it will result in is fishers having to pay to fish to get around the restrictions and this will only benefit the wealthy."
"Community management is the best way to stop overfishing. They can protect the resource better than people in Phnom Penh."
"They know what is going on, if people come in with fishing illegal gear they will stop them. If they have no power then they will not care what happens in their area."
Sithirth is also adamant that tighter controls will also not address the key governance issues that are driving reductions in fish captures. These include irregularities in the way that commercial lots are allocated and illegal fishing techniques, including electrocution.
"We know that some of the larger operators bribe local government officials to get a fishing lot. If you have paid a lot of money you have to get your money back and the only way to do this is to maximise the exploitation of fisheries resources."
Although Vandang and his fellow fishers cannot say exactly what is causing reduced catches on their stretch of the Mekong, they believe it has something to do with illegal fishing techniques employed by some fishers who have paid off local fisheries officials.
In addition to overfishing, experts believe that rising pollution levels and increased clearing of flooded forest are also having a negative impact on fisheries. The other major issue is hydropower development on the Mekong mainstream tributaries.
"Dam building will affect the water regime in the Mekong, including the flow in and out of the Tonle Sap," said Sithirith. "We are worried that there will be less water flowing in and out of the Great Lake meaning less flooding of forest areas and reduced fisheries numbers."
"Dams are definitely a major threat to fisheries resources because they block fish migration, reduce water quality and alter flooding patterns," said Baran.
"There is a trade-off between dam construction and hydropower generation and irrigation. The more you gain on one, the more you lose on the other. Fish in the Mekong have a biological cycle. They need to migrate to feed and breed. They cannot migrate if their life cycles are disrupted and there is no replenishment of stock."
Approximately 87 percent of known dominant fish species in the Mekong migrate.
Are governments taking the issue seriously enough? "The major importance of fisheries in the basin is not reflected in national policies, in particular those dealing with infrastructure development,’’ said Baran.
Mia Farrow says Olympics committee fails Darfur
U.S. actress Mia Farrow is seen in Phnom Penh in this January 19, 2008 file photo. Farrow on Wednesday accused the International Olympic Committee of ignoring China's support for Sudan, which the United States and humanitarian groups say has been waging genocide in Darfur. (REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea/Files)The Star on Line
Thursday April 17, 2008
By Timothy Gardner
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. actress Mia Farrow on Wednesday accused the International Olympic Committee of ignoring China's support for Sudan, which the United States and humanitarian groups say has been waging genocide in Darfur.
"The IOC is shrinking its own mandates, they have put aside their humanitarian instincts," Farrow told reporters in a conference call.
Farrow's group, Dream for Darfur, gave the IOC an "F" in a report card, called "Foul Play: How the IOC Failed the Olympic Charter and Darfur."
The group formed last year to use the Beijing Olympics as leverage to influence China's policy on Darfur. China imports most of Sudan's oil.
Farrow said the IOC had no plans to encourage an 'Olympic Truce' in Darfur. The truce, which dates from ancient times, calls for a month of peace around the Games.
In response, the IOC said it cannot pressure governments to fix international conflicts.
"The IOC is a sporting organization with no political mandates to instruct countries how to behave," Giselle Davis, a spokeswoman, said by phone from Switzerland.
She said the Olympic Truce is a "symbolic matter which gives the world the opportunity to stop and think about conflicts throughout the world."
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in the violence in Darfur and that about 2.5 million have fled their homes. Khartoum denies genocide and puts the death toll at 9,000.
Farrow said she will visit refugee camps in eastern Chad during the Olympics to broadcast Darfur images. Her group will launch a campaign to press TV viewers to turn off commercials and watch their Internet broadcasts instead.
China has also faced pressure from Western governments for a bloody crackdown in Tibet.
Thursday April 17, 2008
By Timothy Gardner
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. actress Mia Farrow on Wednesday accused the International Olympic Committee of ignoring China's support for Sudan, which the United States and humanitarian groups say has been waging genocide in Darfur.
"The IOC is shrinking its own mandates, they have put aside their humanitarian instincts," Farrow told reporters in a conference call.
Farrow's group, Dream for Darfur, gave the IOC an "F" in a report card, called "Foul Play: How the IOC Failed the Olympic Charter and Darfur."
The group formed last year to use the Beijing Olympics as leverage to influence China's policy on Darfur. China imports most of Sudan's oil.
Farrow said the IOC had no plans to encourage an 'Olympic Truce' in Darfur. The truce, which dates from ancient times, calls for a month of peace around the Games.
In response, the IOC said it cannot pressure governments to fix international conflicts.
"The IOC is a sporting organization with no political mandates to instruct countries how to behave," Giselle Davis, a spokeswoman, said by phone from Switzerland.
She said the Olympic Truce is a "symbolic matter which gives the world the opportunity to stop and think about conflicts throughout the world."
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in the violence in Darfur and that about 2.5 million have fled their homes. Khartoum denies genocide and puts the death toll at 9,000.
Farrow said she will visit refugee camps in eastern Chad during the Olympics to broadcast Darfur images. Her group will launch a campaign to press TV viewers to turn off commercials and watch their Internet broadcasts instead.
China has also faced pressure from Western governments for a bloody crackdown in Tibet.
Khmer, lao units to receive new budget of US$90 million
Shin Corp's int'l arm eager to expand
Published on April 17, 2008
Thaicom, formerly Shin Satellite, will spend about US$90 million (Bt2.8 billion) this year on further developing its 3G broadband cellular service in Laos and Cambodia.
Executive chairman Dumrong Kasemseth said yesterday that $60 million would go to Cambodia Shinawatra and $30 million to Lao Telecom. Both are under Shenington Investments, Thaicom's telecom holding company.
Cambodia Shinawatra already offers 3G, while Lao Telecom will kick off its third-generation service this year. They have a combined 1.5 million subscribers for the existing 2G cellular service.
Shenington is a 51:49 joint venture of Thaicom and Asia Mobile Holdings.
Dumrong said Thaicom might expand its mobile-phone service to more countries after Laos and Cambodia but declined to elaborate. Besides Shenington, Thaicom's three other core businesses are conventional satellite broadcasting via Thaicoms 1, 2 and 5, wireless Internet broadband service via its iPSTAR satellite, and wired Internet service via CS Loxinfo.
Last year Shenington generated revenue of about $150 million. The three broadcasting satellites contributed $100 million, iPSTAR $51 million and CS Loxinfo $50 million, Dumrong said.
Revenue growth this year will be 30 per cent for Shenington, 100 per cent for iPSTAR, 10 per cent for the Thaicom satellites and 10 per cent for CS Loxinfo, he said.
ShinSat shareholders approved the name change to Thaicom last week. The move reflects its attempt to stay clear from politics.
It has applied to the Stock Exchange of Thailand to switch its stock symbol from SATTEL to THCOM.
Shin Corp, founded by the family of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, owns 41.27 per cent of Thaicom.
Thaicom is considering launching Thaicom 6 to replace Thaicom 1, which reaches the end of its life expectancy in the middle of next year, but might need an investment partner if it decides to go ahead with the project, Dumrong said.
Thaicom's consolidated revenue rocketed up 42.6 per cent to Bt12.8 billion last year, mainly on the extraordinary gain of Bt5.13 billion from its sale of 49 per cent of Shenington to Asia Mobile Holdings in July.
It posted a net profit of Bt3.04 billion versus a loss of Bt46 million in 2006. It also booked a foreign-exchange gain of Bt1.05 billion from the baht's appreciation.
Recently Thaicom projected iPSTAR terminal sales of 100,000 units this year on a conservative basis, of which 30,000 were expected last quarter. Last year it sold 38,011 iPSTAR terminals, bringing the cumulative total to 104,067.
This year it will deliver 11,000 iPSTAR terminals to TOT, its distributor for Thailand, after supplying the first lot of 6,000 to the state telecom enterprise last year, in line with their 2007 contract.
Usanee Mongkolporn
The Nation
Published on April 17, 2008
Thaicom, formerly Shin Satellite, will spend about US$90 million (Bt2.8 billion) this year on further developing its 3G broadband cellular service in Laos and Cambodia.
Executive chairman Dumrong Kasemseth said yesterday that $60 million would go to Cambodia Shinawatra and $30 million to Lao Telecom. Both are under Shenington Investments, Thaicom's telecom holding company.
Cambodia Shinawatra already offers 3G, while Lao Telecom will kick off its third-generation service this year. They have a combined 1.5 million subscribers for the existing 2G cellular service.
Shenington is a 51:49 joint venture of Thaicom and Asia Mobile Holdings.
Dumrong said Thaicom might expand its mobile-phone service to more countries after Laos and Cambodia but declined to elaborate. Besides Shenington, Thaicom's three other core businesses are conventional satellite broadcasting via Thaicoms 1, 2 and 5, wireless Internet broadband service via its iPSTAR satellite, and wired Internet service via CS Loxinfo.
Last year Shenington generated revenue of about $150 million. The three broadcasting satellites contributed $100 million, iPSTAR $51 million and CS Loxinfo $50 million, Dumrong said.
Revenue growth this year will be 30 per cent for Shenington, 100 per cent for iPSTAR, 10 per cent for the Thaicom satellites and 10 per cent for CS Loxinfo, he said.
ShinSat shareholders approved the name change to Thaicom last week. The move reflects its attempt to stay clear from politics.
It has applied to the Stock Exchange of Thailand to switch its stock symbol from SATTEL to THCOM.
Shin Corp, founded by the family of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, owns 41.27 per cent of Thaicom.
Thaicom is considering launching Thaicom 6 to replace Thaicom 1, which reaches the end of its life expectancy in the middle of next year, but might need an investment partner if it decides to go ahead with the project, Dumrong said.
Thaicom's consolidated revenue rocketed up 42.6 per cent to Bt12.8 billion last year, mainly on the extraordinary gain of Bt5.13 billion from its sale of 49 per cent of Shenington to Asia Mobile Holdings in July.
It posted a net profit of Bt3.04 billion versus a loss of Bt46 million in 2006. It also booked a foreign-exchange gain of Bt1.05 billion from the baht's appreciation.
Recently Thaicom projected iPSTAR terminal sales of 100,000 units this year on a conservative basis, of which 30,000 were expected last quarter. Last year it sold 38,011 iPSTAR terminals, bringing the cumulative total to 104,067.
This year it will deliver 11,000 iPSTAR terminals to TOT, its distributor for Thailand, after supplying the first lot of 6,000 to the state telecom enterprise last year, in line with their 2007 contract.
Usanee Mongkolporn
The Nation
Chhun convicted of failed Cambodian coup attempt
Los Angeles Newspaper group
P-T wire reports
04/16/2008
LOS ANGELES - A Long Beach accountant was convicted today of federal charges stemming from the failed coup attempt he led against Cambodia's government in November 2000.
Yasith Chhun, the 52-year-old president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, faces life in prison without parole when sentenced on Sept. 8, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Chhun was found guilty of the four charges against him - conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States, and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.
The conviction followed a two-week trial in downtown Los Angeles, in which jurors were told that Chhun planned "Operation Volcano" to overthrow the government of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The failed attempt resulted in the deaths of at least three CFF members, according to the U.S. government. An unknown number of civilians, members of the Cambodian National Police and Cambodian military, were injured.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar Baker told jurors that Chhun hatched a "Made in the USA" plot to overthrow Cambodia's government and knowingly put other people's lives - but not his own - in danger.
But Chhun's attorney, Richard Callahan, argued that his client's "only goal was to bring democracy to his homeland."
Neither Baker nor Callahan were immediately available for comment on the verdict.
During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Chhun as a callous, cowardly, incompetent leader of the CFF, who held group meetings at his Long Beach business, CCC Professional Accounting Services, located in the 2700 block of East 10th Street.
Chhun also met with former members of the Khmer Rouge military at the Cambodia-Thailand border in October 1998 to plan Sen's overthrow, prosecutors said.
The Khmer Rouge and its leader, Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Communist organization was blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million people through execution, forced labor and starvation in what became known as the country's "killing fields."
After raising money in the United States - including staging a May 2000 fundraiser at the Queen Mary - the CFF launched "popcorns," or small-scale guerrilla attacks in Cambodia against gas stations, coffee shops and other targets, according to the U.S. government.
Chhun sent a congratulatory fax to one CFF member whose bombing of a nightclub resulted in two deaths and scores of injuries, prosecutors said.
Ignoring the advice of senior CFF officials who warned about the group's lack of money and popular support, Chhun launched "Operation Volcano," a major assault on Cambodian government buildings and the Sen administration, according to the prosecution.
On Nov. 24, 2000, Chhun - safely stashed away in Thailand at the time - orchestrated attacks on buildings housing Cambodia's Ministry of Defense, the Council of Ministers and a military headquarters facility, prosecutors said.
Jurors were shown photographs of those who were injured during the assault. The victims suffered gunshot wounds from AK-47 assault rifles and shrapnel injuries from exploded hand grenades, according to the prosecution. Some of them testified at Chhun's trial.
Jurors also were shown videotaped testimony from Chhun's co-conspirators - three of whom are serving life sentences in Cambodian prisons.
After the coup failed, Chhun returned to the United States. The FBI arrested him at his Long Beach home on June 1, 2005, after a federal grand jury indicted him.
Chhun also gave incriminating statements to an FBI agent, who recorded them, prosecutors said.
But Callahan portrayed Chhun and his followers as naive freedom fighters who made "a noble effort to save Cambodia" from the "tyrannical" government of Hun Sen - a former brigade commander under Pol Pot.
Chhun is a man "desperately concerned about the people of Cambodia and their future," Callahan told jurors earlier this month. "You need to see what he saw and feel what he felt."
He said the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in support of having the United States support Sen's indictment in an international court of law. That resolution was passed in October 1998 - the same month Chhun traveled to Southeast Asia to plot against Cambodia's government, Callahan said.
He also noted Cambodia's problems, which he said include corruption, poverty, civil rights abuses and child sexual slavery.
Chhun stayed behind in Thailand during Operation Volcano after a top CFF military commander told him it would a security risk for him to be in Cambodia during the assault, Callahan said.
Chhun, along with his wife, Sras Pech, 42, still face separate federal charges alleging they ran a fraudulent tax-preparation business in Long Beach. Trial in that case is scheduled to begin on July 1.
P-T wire reports
04/16/2008
LOS ANGELES - A Long Beach accountant was convicted today of federal charges stemming from the failed coup attempt he led against Cambodia's government in November 2000.
Yasith Chhun, the 52-year-old president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, faces life in prison without parole when sentenced on Sept. 8, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Chhun was found guilty of the four charges against him - conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States, and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.
The conviction followed a two-week trial in downtown Los Angeles, in which jurors were told that Chhun planned "Operation Volcano" to overthrow the government of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The failed attempt resulted in the deaths of at least three CFF members, according to the U.S. government. An unknown number of civilians, members of the Cambodian National Police and Cambodian military, were injured.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar Baker told jurors that Chhun hatched a "Made in the USA" plot to overthrow Cambodia's government and knowingly put other people's lives - but not his own - in danger.
But Chhun's attorney, Richard Callahan, argued that his client's "only goal was to bring democracy to his homeland."
Neither Baker nor Callahan were immediately available for comment on the verdict.
During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Chhun as a callous, cowardly, incompetent leader of the CFF, who held group meetings at his Long Beach business, CCC Professional Accounting Services, located in the 2700 block of East 10th Street.
Chhun also met with former members of the Khmer Rouge military at the Cambodia-Thailand border in October 1998 to plan Sen's overthrow, prosecutors said.
The Khmer Rouge and its leader, Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Communist organization was blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million people through execution, forced labor and starvation in what became known as the country's "killing fields."
After raising money in the United States - including staging a May 2000 fundraiser at the Queen Mary - the CFF launched "popcorns," or small-scale guerrilla attacks in Cambodia against gas stations, coffee shops and other targets, according to the U.S. government.
Chhun sent a congratulatory fax to one CFF member whose bombing of a nightclub resulted in two deaths and scores of injuries, prosecutors said.
Ignoring the advice of senior CFF officials who warned about the group's lack of money and popular support, Chhun launched "Operation Volcano," a major assault on Cambodian government buildings and the Sen administration, according to the prosecution.
On Nov. 24, 2000, Chhun - safely stashed away in Thailand at the time - orchestrated attacks on buildings housing Cambodia's Ministry of Defense, the Council of Ministers and a military headquarters facility, prosecutors said.
Jurors were shown photographs of those who were injured during the assault. The victims suffered gunshot wounds from AK-47 assault rifles and shrapnel injuries from exploded hand grenades, according to the prosecution. Some of them testified at Chhun's trial.
Jurors also were shown videotaped testimony from Chhun's co-conspirators - three of whom are serving life sentences in Cambodian prisons.
After the coup failed, Chhun returned to the United States. The FBI arrested him at his Long Beach home on June 1, 2005, after a federal grand jury indicted him.
Chhun also gave incriminating statements to an FBI agent, who recorded them, prosecutors said.
But Callahan portrayed Chhun and his followers as naive freedom fighters who made "a noble effort to save Cambodia" from the "tyrannical" government of Hun Sen - a former brigade commander under Pol Pot.
Chhun is a man "desperately concerned about the people of Cambodia and their future," Callahan told jurors earlier this month. "You need to see what he saw and feel what he felt."
He said the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in support of having the United States support Sen's indictment in an international court of law. That resolution was passed in October 1998 - the same month Chhun traveled to Southeast Asia to plot against Cambodia's government, Callahan said.
He also noted Cambodia's problems, which he said include corruption, poverty, civil rights abuses and child sexual slavery.
Chhun stayed behind in Thailand during Operation Volcano after a top CFF military commander told him it would a security risk for him to be in Cambodia during the assault, Callahan said.
Chhun, along with his wife, Sras Pech, 42, still face separate federal charges alleging they ran a fraudulent tax-preparation business in Long Beach. Trial in that case is scheduled to begin on July 1.
L.B. man tried in Cambodia coup plot
Press-Telegram
By Greg Risling
The Associated Press
04/02/2008
LOS ANGELES - A native of Cambodia unleashed an attack to overthrow the government of that country, but the plot failed when only 200 supporters showed up to fight in the capital city of Phnom Phen, a prosecutor told jurors in federal court Wednesday.
In his opening trial statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar Baker said defendant Yasith Chhun of Long Beach was willing to risk other people's lives as part of the effort in 2000 dubbed "Operation Volcano."
Baker portrayed Chhun as callous, cowardly and incompetent and promised he would take jurors inside the conspiracy, with testimony from officers who led the attack and are now serving prison terms in Cambodia for their involvement.
"Operation Volcano was a failure, it didn't succeed," he said.
Defense attorney Richard Callahan said his client, a U.S. citizen, was trying to save the country where he was born and raised.
"There was no intent for Mr. Chhun to murder anyone or injure anyone," said Callahan, who added the attack was "misguided and naive."
Chhun, 52, an accountant from Long Beach, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States, and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.
He could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
The scheme crumbled in November 2000 when a late-night attack on government buildings led to the deaths of three of his troops and injuries to several police and military officers.
Prosecutors played a tape of FBI interviews with Chhun following the attempted coup. He told federal agents that he was in Thailand during the attack and was in contact with his commanders, who were considering about 291 targets.
FBI Agent Donald Shannon testified that Chhun told him money raised in the United States was used to fund the attacks. Shannon also said Chhun showed no remorse over what had happened.
Prosecutors also showed jurors letters allegedly written by Chhun in the months leading to the attack that talked about plans to "burst the volcano."
"They cut turkeys, I cut their necks. Bye, my first lady," one letter said. Several notes were signed, "Mr. President."
In newly released court documents, federal prosecutors portray Chhun as a fervent adversary of Cambodia's government who had misguided political aspirations.
His trial is expected to last about three weeks.
Chhun is among a handful of so-called freedom fighters who have been arrested and charged in recent years with plotting to overthrow governments in Southeast Asia.
Last year, 11 men were arrested and accused of attempting to oust leaders of the communist government in Laos. One of the men was Vang Pao, a former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led thousands of Hmong mercenaries in a CIA-backed secret army during the Vietnam War.
Chhun's group, known as the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of being a dictator and helping rig the elections so he could stay in power.
Hun Sen at one time was part of the communist-backed Khmer Rouge, which has been accused of atrocities that resulted in the deaths of some 1.7 million people in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
Starting in 1998, prosecutors said Chhun traveled to Southeast Asia to assemble opposition forces to take over Cambodia. He promised he would raise money for the operation and even held two fundraisers at the Queen Mary, according to court documents.
Yorn Soksan, a former member of Chhun's group, said in a deposition that he left the group about six months before the attack. He estimated there were as many as 20,000 soldiers who were willing to fight for Chhun.
But many of those soldiers were part of Cambodia's military and ultimately kept their allegiance with the government, he said.
Prosecutors said rebel operatives launched small-scale "popcorn" attacks in Cambodia, including one in February 1999 when a grenade that exploded in a bar injured several people.
The attacks were necessary so "the government would believe that CFF was only capable of carrying out these small-scale attacks, and thus, would be unprepared for the scope of Operation Volcano," prosecutors said in court documents.
About 200 fighters wearing red headbands and armed with AK-47 rifles, grenades and rockets battled government troops and struck various buildings, including the Ministry of Defense and Council of Ministers as well as a military base.
Rebel soldiers retreated after government tanks arrived.
By Greg Risling
The Associated Press
04/02/2008
LOS ANGELES - A native of Cambodia unleashed an attack to overthrow the government of that country, but the plot failed when only 200 supporters showed up to fight in the capital city of Phnom Phen, a prosecutor told jurors in federal court Wednesday.
In his opening trial statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar Baker said defendant Yasith Chhun of Long Beach was willing to risk other people's lives as part of the effort in 2000 dubbed "Operation Volcano."
Baker portrayed Chhun as callous, cowardly and incompetent and promised he would take jurors inside the conspiracy, with testimony from officers who led the attack and are now serving prison terms in Cambodia for their involvement.
"Operation Volcano was a failure, it didn't succeed," he said.
Defense attorney Richard Callahan said his client, a U.S. citizen, was trying to save the country where he was born and raised.
"There was no intent for Mr. Chhun to murder anyone or injure anyone," said Callahan, who added the attack was "misguided and naive."
Chhun, 52, an accountant from Long Beach, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States, and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.
He could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
The scheme crumbled in November 2000 when a late-night attack on government buildings led to the deaths of three of his troops and injuries to several police and military officers.
Prosecutors played a tape of FBI interviews with Chhun following the attempted coup. He told federal agents that he was in Thailand during the attack and was in contact with his commanders, who were considering about 291 targets.
FBI Agent Donald Shannon testified that Chhun told him money raised in the United States was used to fund the attacks. Shannon also said Chhun showed no remorse over what had happened.
Prosecutors also showed jurors letters allegedly written by Chhun in the months leading to the attack that talked about plans to "burst the volcano."
"They cut turkeys, I cut their necks. Bye, my first lady," one letter said. Several notes were signed, "Mr. President."
In newly released court documents, federal prosecutors portray Chhun as a fervent adversary of Cambodia's government who had misguided political aspirations.
His trial is expected to last about three weeks.
Chhun is among a handful of so-called freedom fighters who have been arrested and charged in recent years with plotting to overthrow governments in Southeast Asia.
Last year, 11 men were arrested and accused of attempting to oust leaders of the communist government in Laos. One of the men was Vang Pao, a former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led thousands of Hmong mercenaries in a CIA-backed secret army during the Vietnam War.
Chhun's group, known as the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of being a dictator and helping rig the elections so he could stay in power.
Hun Sen at one time was part of the communist-backed Khmer Rouge, which has been accused of atrocities that resulted in the deaths of some 1.7 million people in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
Starting in 1998, prosecutors said Chhun traveled to Southeast Asia to assemble opposition forces to take over Cambodia. He promised he would raise money for the operation and even held two fundraisers at the Queen Mary, according to court documents.
Yorn Soksan, a former member of Chhun's group, said in a deposition that he left the group about six months before the attack. He estimated there were as many as 20,000 soldiers who were willing to fight for Chhun.
But many of those soldiers were part of Cambodia's military and ultimately kept their allegiance with the government, he said.
Prosecutors said rebel operatives launched small-scale "popcorn" attacks in Cambodia, including one in February 1999 when a grenade that exploded in a bar injured several people.
The attacks were necessary so "the government would believe that CFF was only capable of carrying out these small-scale attacks, and thus, would be unprepared for the scope of Operation Volcano," prosecutors said in court documents.
About 200 fighters wearing red headbands and armed with AK-47 rifles, grenades and rockets battled government troops and struck various buildings, including the Ministry of Defense and Council of Ministers as well as a military base.
Rebel soldiers retreated after government tanks arrived.
Long Beach Man Convicted Of Cambodia Conspiracy
KNBC (NBC4 Los Angeles)April 16, 2008
LOS ANGELES -- A Long Beach accountant was convicted Wednesday of federal charges stemming from the failed coup attempt he led against Cambodia's government in November 2000.
Yasith Chhun, the 52-year-old president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, faces life in prison without parole when sentenced on Sept. 8, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Chhun was found guilty of the four charges against him -- conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States, and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.
The conviction followed a two-week trial in downtown Los Angeles, in which jurors were told that Chhun planned "Operation Volcano" to overthrow the government of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The failed attempt resulted in the deaths of at least three CFF members, according to the U.S. government. An unknown number of civilians, members of the Cambodian National Police and Cambodian military were injured.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar Baker told jurors that Chhun hatched a "Made in the USA" plot to overthrow Cambodia's government and knowingly put other people's lives -- but not his own -- in danger.
But Chhun's attorney, Richard Callahan, argued that his client's "only goal was to bring democracy to his homeland."
Neither Baker nor Callahan were immediately available for comment on the verdict.
During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Chhun as a callous, cowardly, incompetent leader of the CFF, who held group meetings at his Long Beach business, CCC Professional Accounting Services, located in the 2700 block of East 10th Street.
Chhun also met with former members of the Khmer Rouge military at the Cambodia-Thailand border in October 1998 to plan Sen's overthrow, prosecutors said.
The Khmer Rouge and its leader, Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Communist organization was blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million people through execution, forced labor and starvation in what became known as the country's "killing fields."
After raising money in the United States -- including staging a May 2000 fundraiser at the Queen Mary -- the CFF launched "popcorns," or small-scale guerrilla attacks in Cambodia against gas stations, coffee shops and other targets, according to the U.S. government.
Chhun sent a congratulatory fax to one CFF member whose bombing of a nightclub resulted in two deaths and scores of injuries, prosecutors said.
Ignoring the advice of senior CFF officials who warned about the group's lack of money and popular support, Chhun launched "Operation Volcano," a major assault on Cambodian government buildings and the Sen administration, according to the prosecution.
On Nov. 24, 2000, Chhun -- safely stashed away in Thailand at the time -- orchestrated attacks on buildings housing Cambodia's Ministry of Defense, the Council of Ministers and a military headquarters facility, prosecutors said.
Jurors were shown photographs of those who were injured during the assault. The victims suffered gunshot wounds from AK-47 assault rifles and shrapnel injuries from exploded hand grenades, according to the prosecution. Some of them testified at Chhun's trial.
Jurors also were shown videotaped testimony from Chhun's co-conspirators -- three of whom are serving life sentences in Cambodian prisons.
After the coup failed, Chhun returned to the United States. The FBI arrested him at his Long Beach home on June 1, 2005, after a federal grand jury indicted him.
Chhun also gave incriminating statements to an FBI agent, who recorded them, prosecutors said.
But Callahan portrayed Chhun and his followers as naive freedom fighters who made "a noble effort to save Cambodia" from the "tyrannical" government of Hun Sen -- a former brigade commander under Pol Pot.
Chhun is a man "desperately concerned about the people of Cambodia and their future," Callahan told jurors earlier this month. "You need to see what he saw and feel what he felt."
He said the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in support of having the United States support Sen's indictment in an international court of law. That resolution was passed in October 1998 -- the same month Chhun traveled to Southeast Asia to plot against Cambodia's government, Callahan said.
He also noted Cambodia's problems, which he said include corruption, poverty, civil rights abuses and child sexual slavery.
Chhun stayed behind in Thailand during Operation Volcano after a top CFF military commander told him it would a security risk for him to be in Cambodia during the assault, Callahan said.
Chhun, along with his wife, Sras Pech, 42, still face separate federal charges alleging they ran a fraudulent tax-preparation business in Long Beach. Trial in that case is scheduled to begin on July 1.
Another Fire Destroys Homes in Capital
By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer Phnom Penh
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.07MB) - Download (MP3) Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.07MB) - Listen (MP3)
A Phnom Penh fire destroyed as many as 40 homes Wednesday afternoon, in what officials attributed to faulty wiring.
No one was injured in the blaze, which began around 1 pm in Chamkarmon district and burned for nearly an hour.
The fire is at least the second to take place in a week. A fire April 11 in a Phnom Penh suburb destroyed hundreds of homes after burning for nearly seven hours.
Chamkarmon District Police Chief Uch Sokhon said at least 10 homes were destroyed Wednesday, but Thorng Chorn, commune chief of Psar Damko, where the fire took place, said 44 homes were burned.
“The fire was caused by a problem of electricity in one house whose landlord was not inside,” Uch Sokhon said.
However, home owner Yi Sophal told VOA Khmer she had seen an unidentified man try to set her home on fire around 2:30 am April 12.
She would not say whether she suspected arson this time.
US Lawyer Who Helped Cambodia Win the Preah Vihear Case in 1962 Dies at 74
By Sumedh Chhim, VOA Khmer
Washington
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 16 (279KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 16 (279KB) - Listen (MP3)
Brice McAdoo Clagett, a Washington lawyer who helped Cambodia win the Preah Vihear case in 1962, died April 8 of cardiac arrest at George Washington University Hospital4, according to the Washington Post.
Clagett was an attorney for more than 4 decades with the law firm of Covington and Burling, reports the Washington Post. His specialties included public and private international law, foreign claims, international arbitration, international land and maritime boundaries, transportation and environmental law and Middle Eastern law.
According to the Post, in 1960, former US secretary of state Dean Acheson, a partner in the firm, asked Mr. Clagett to serve as a juridical counselor with the Cambodian delegation to the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
The case involved a boundary dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over Preah Vihear Temple. Cambodia prevailed, and Acheson was made Prince of the Royal Order of Cambodia, while Mr. Clagett was made Commander of the Order.
He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Diana Sinkler Clagett and two children from his first marriage, John Brice de Treville Clagett and Brooke Clagett.
Washington
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 16 (279KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 16 (279KB) - Listen (MP3)
Brice McAdoo Clagett, a Washington lawyer who helped Cambodia win the Preah Vihear case in 1962, died April 8 of cardiac arrest at George Washington University Hospital4, according to the Washington Post.
Clagett was an attorney for more than 4 decades with the law firm of Covington and Burling, reports the Washington Post. His specialties included public and private international law, foreign claims, international arbitration, international land and maritime boundaries, transportation and environmental law and Middle Eastern law.
According to the Post, in 1960, former US secretary of state Dean Acheson, a partner in the firm, asked Mr. Clagett to serve as a juridical counselor with the Cambodian delegation to the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
The case involved a boundary dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over Preah Vihear Temple. Cambodia prevailed, and Acheson was made Prince of the Royal Order of Cambodia, while Mr. Clagett was made Commander of the Order.
He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Diana Sinkler Clagett and two children from his first marriage, John Brice de Treville Clagett and Brooke Clagett.
Villagers, Soldiers Clash Over Land
By Kong Soth, VOA Khmer
Battambang
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 13 (677KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 13 (677KB) - Listen (MP3)
[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the first in a two-part series examining concerns of rural voters.]
In Battambang province’s Kos Krol district, 415 families are waiting for a solution to a land conflict they say stems from former Khmer Rouge who are now part of the armed forces.
More than 50 kilometers outside of Battambang town, along a red, dusty road, the families of Dung Ba commune live in homes of thatched roofs behind walls of blue plastic sheets or plywood.
Battambang
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 13 (677KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 13 (677KB) - Listen (MP3)
[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the first in a two-part series examining concerns of rural voters.]
In Battambang province’s Kos Krol district, 415 families are waiting for a solution to a land conflict they say stems from former Khmer Rouge who are now part of the armed forces.
More than 50 kilometers outside of Battambang town, along a red, dusty road, the families of Dung Ba commune live in homes of thatched roofs behind walls of blue plastic sheets or plywood.
Seng Sothy, a villager who has called this place home for nine years, said in early March, soldiers clashed with villagers, firing shots over their heads and sending them running into the night.
Soldiers here say they were protecting their land from a mob.
Seng Sothy says she has never seen a problem like this.
“They said to us that if we do not leave our houses, they will burn them and killed us all,” she told VOA Khmer. “We had to run into the forest at night.”
The land dispute, between resettling villagers and integrated former Khmer Rouge, is not unlike many across the country, as Cambodia undergoes a land price boom.
It is just one issue that rural Cambodians will face as they head to the polls in general elections in July.
Land that was once worth little except those who farmed it has become a premium, and residents here say the soldiers want to reclaim what they left when they folded into the government.
Vanna Ra, who abandoned the Khmer Rouge and joined the government in 1996, told VOA Khmer that armed villagers were trying to take land away from the soldiers, forcing them to defend themselves.
“The shooting was only to threaten them, because they wanted to hold a protest,” he said. “So we were only defending ourselves.”
Ang Dung, village chief of Kon Touth, where the clashes took place, said his was a new village, where hundreds of families now occupy a former battleground. They have lived here in safety since 1999, farming more than 1,000 hectares of land.
Vann Bo, another villager here, said high prices were driving the soldiers of Military Region Five to demand land they once controlled during the war.
“When our people did not want to leave, they came and shot at us,” she said. “We cannot sleep in the house, and go out and sleep out in the field, in the rain, in front of a police station.”
In Kong Chith, an investigator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights familiar with the conflict, said soldiers had used undue violence against the villagers.
“Intimidation seriously threatens people’s security,” he said. The soldiers’ “activities were very violent, and they abused the law on human rights.”
Chum Bunrong, spokesman for the National Land Dispute Authority, said he was not aware of the specific conflict in Battambang, but he encouraged those involved to file a complaint with his office.
Soldiers here say they were protecting their land from a mob.
Seng Sothy says she has never seen a problem like this.
“They said to us that if we do not leave our houses, they will burn them and killed us all,” she told VOA Khmer. “We had to run into the forest at night.”
The land dispute, between resettling villagers and integrated former Khmer Rouge, is not unlike many across the country, as Cambodia undergoes a land price boom.
It is just one issue that rural Cambodians will face as they head to the polls in general elections in July.
Land that was once worth little except those who farmed it has become a premium, and residents here say the soldiers want to reclaim what they left when they folded into the government.
Vanna Ra, who abandoned the Khmer Rouge and joined the government in 1996, told VOA Khmer that armed villagers were trying to take land away from the soldiers, forcing them to defend themselves.
“The shooting was only to threaten them, because they wanted to hold a protest,” he said. “So we were only defending ourselves.”
Ang Dung, village chief of Kon Touth, where the clashes took place, said his was a new village, where hundreds of families now occupy a former battleground. They have lived here in safety since 1999, farming more than 1,000 hectares of land.
Vann Bo, another villager here, said high prices were driving the soldiers of Military Region Five to demand land they once controlled during the war.
“When our people did not want to leave, they came and shot at us,” she said. “We cannot sleep in the house, and go out and sleep out in the field, in the rain, in front of a police station.”
In Kong Chith, an investigator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights familiar with the conflict, said soldiers had used undue violence against the villagers.
“Intimidation seriously threatens people’s security,” he said. The soldiers’ “activities were very violent, and they abused the law on human rights.”
Chum Bunrong, spokesman for the National Land Dispute Authority, said he was not aware of the specific conflict in Battambang, but he encouraged those involved to file a complaint with his office.
For Fire Victims, No New Year
By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.15MB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.15MB) - Listen (MP3)
There was no new-year merriment for the hundreds of victims of a Phnom Penh fire last week. Their homes were destroyed in the seven-hour blaze, many of their belongings gone in smoke.
“We used to organize for the Khmer New Year joyfully,” lamented Pov Norn. “But now we have no courage, and no way to celebrate New Year. All our money has been destroyed.”
Hundreds of families have built makeshift homes of blue tarpaulin in a large field near their burned homes. A giant plastic water basin sits in the middle of the camp.
“We prayed for our ancestors to pardon us this year, as we cannot organize a New Year ceremony,” said Um Phon, sitting in one of the shacks. “We prayed to them to go and see other members of the family who have not had their homes burned.”
At least 450 houses were destroyed in the April 11 fire, leaving 500 families without shelter.
Officials have said they were unable to fight the blaze because narrow roads prevented their trucks from reaching the homes.
“We regret this, but we will help them as much as we possibly can,” said Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Man Chhoeurn.
Authorities are looking for a way to rebuild a village for the victims, he said, adding that the new site would have wider roads.
Phnom Penh
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.15MB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.15MB) - Listen (MP3)
There was no new-year merriment for the hundreds of victims of a Phnom Penh fire last week. Their homes were destroyed in the seven-hour blaze, many of their belongings gone in smoke.
“We used to organize for the Khmer New Year joyfully,” lamented Pov Norn. “But now we have no courage, and no way to celebrate New Year. All our money has been destroyed.”
Hundreds of families have built makeshift homes of blue tarpaulin in a large field near their burned homes. A giant plastic water basin sits in the middle of the camp.
“We prayed for our ancestors to pardon us this year, as we cannot organize a New Year ceremony,” said Um Phon, sitting in one of the shacks. “We prayed to them to go and see other members of the family who have not had their homes burned.”
At least 450 houses were destroyed in the April 11 fire, leaving 500 families without shelter.
Officials have said they were unable to fight the blaze because narrow roads prevented their trucks from reaching the homes.
“We regret this, but we will help them as much as we possibly can,” said Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Man Chhoeurn.
Authorities are looking for a way to rebuild a village for the victims, he said, adding that the new site would have wider roads.
Rural Environment Degraded, Villagers Say
By Kong Soth, VOA Khmer
Battambang
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.44MB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.44MB) - Listen (MP3)
[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the second in a two-part series examining concerns of rural voters.]
The people of Dung Ba commune, in Battambang province, are concerned about the environment around them, where forest devastation in former Khmer Rouge areas still continues. Meanwhile, government officials say Cambodia’s environment is much better off than many other countries.
Over the past few years in Dung Ba, a beautiful green forest has been turned into rice paddy, bit by bit, villagers say.
Villager Horn Bon looked at the stump of a tree, cut down to make way for the fields, as he worried what the next generation would see. “Surely our people want to maintain the environment,” he said, “but environment officials destroy the trees, and they don’t lead people to plant trees, or protest. Instead they keep cutting more trees. Then they grab the land, as they kill wildlife in the forest.”
Dung Ba is just one of the places where environmental degradation is taking place across rural Cambodia. Environmental advocates say Cambodia’s forests continue to be cut down, often by powerful illegal logging companies but also by individuals.
The problem is worse around election time, said Chem Sophay Mony, an environmental advocate that has worked in Battambang province.
As elections approach, officials allow villagers to harvest wood, leading to increased environmental destruction, he said. “The real situation is that close to election time, state authorities always let people cut trees, and they don’t care about this,” he said.
Sun Chom, deputy director of the Forest Administration in Koh Krol district, Battambang, said less trees are cut here than in other areas, while officials have confiscated trucks and machinery.
But the cutting continues, and observers worry Cambodia will lose much of its natural environment.
Environment Minister Mok Mareth said that Cambodia has retained about 60 percent of its natural environment.
No environment officer will allow the cutting of trees, he said, an any violation of the policy would be unforgivable.
“I have appointed an investigating officer to go out there and make inspections for the Ministry of Environment,” he said. “After an investigation finds those involved in illegal logging, they must be forced to face punishment.”
The ministry and police have already arrested some violators of the law, he said, and they have been sent to jail.
Battambang
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.44MB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 16 (1.44MB) - Listen (MP3)
[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the second in a two-part series examining concerns of rural voters.]
The people of Dung Ba commune, in Battambang province, are concerned about the environment around them, where forest devastation in former Khmer Rouge areas still continues. Meanwhile, government officials say Cambodia’s environment is much better off than many other countries.
Over the past few years in Dung Ba, a beautiful green forest has been turned into rice paddy, bit by bit, villagers say.
Villager Horn Bon looked at the stump of a tree, cut down to make way for the fields, as he worried what the next generation would see. “Surely our people want to maintain the environment,” he said, “but environment officials destroy the trees, and they don’t lead people to plant trees, or protest. Instead they keep cutting more trees. Then they grab the land, as they kill wildlife in the forest.”
Dung Ba is just one of the places where environmental degradation is taking place across rural Cambodia. Environmental advocates say Cambodia’s forests continue to be cut down, often by powerful illegal logging companies but also by individuals.
The problem is worse around election time, said Chem Sophay Mony, an environmental advocate that has worked in Battambang province.
As elections approach, officials allow villagers to harvest wood, leading to increased environmental destruction, he said. “The real situation is that close to election time, state authorities always let people cut trees, and they don’t care about this,” he said.
Sun Chom, deputy director of the Forest Administration in Koh Krol district, Battambang, said less trees are cut here than in other areas, while officials have confiscated trucks and machinery.
But the cutting continues, and observers worry Cambodia will lose much of its natural environment.
Environment Minister Mok Mareth said that Cambodia has retained about 60 percent of its natural environment.
No environment officer will allow the cutting of trees, he said, an any violation of the policy would be unforgivable.
“I have appointed an investigating officer to go out there and make inspections for the Ministry of Environment,” he said. “After an investigation finds those involved in illegal logging, they must be forced to face punishment.”
The ministry and police have already arrested some violators of the law, he said, and they have been sent to jail.
Khmer Krom Fear New Year Violence
By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 15 (1.40MB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 15 (1.40MB) - Listen (MP3)
Members of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom minority living in Vietnam are continuing to flee their homes or live in fear, as security forces have been deployed to surround them, witnesses told VOA Khmer.
One woman said she received a shooting injury in an April 9 crackdown on the Khmer Krom, who are culturally linked to Cambodia but live in Vietnam.
The Khmer Krom have not been allowed to celebrate their traditional New Year, for fear of a crackdown, she said.
“No one dares to go out. We are just hiding, as black-uniformed, fully equipped forces have been deployed around our village,” said the woman, who like other witnesses asked that her name be withheld for fear of retribution.
A second witness, from Tin Bien of Tra Bao district, Vietnam, said he had been forced to move around from one place to another, fearing arrest by government forces, including through trickery.
A person might be invited to a party, only to be arrested, he said.
“They’ve deployed troops and are watching us and trying to arrest us,” he said. “We do not have any freedom.”
As many as 300 Khmer Krom in Vietnam protested last week, claiming their rights were abused by officials, but witnesses said the protest led to a crackdown, where five people were injured and six were arrested for illegal demonstration.
Ang Chanrith, director of the Khmer Krom Human Rights Organization in Cambodia, said the situation was “more serious” than before the Khmer New Year.
No international rights groups or embassies had paid any attention to the crackdown, he said.
Washington
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 15 (1.40MB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 15 (1.40MB) - Listen (MP3)
Members of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom minority living in Vietnam are continuing to flee their homes or live in fear, as security forces have been deployed to surround them, witnesses told VOA Khmer.
One woman said she received a shooting injury in an April 9 crackdown on the Khmer Krom, who are culturally linked to Cambodia but live in Vietnam.
The Khmer Krom have not been allowed to celebrate their traditional New Year, for fear of a crackdown, she said.
“No one dares to go out. We are just hiding, as black-uniformed, fully equipped forces have been deployed around our village,” said the woman, who like other witnesses asked that her name be withheld for fear of retribution.
A second witness, from Tin Bien of Tra Bao district, Vietnam, said he had been forced to move around from one place to another, fearing arrest by government forces, including through trickery.
A person might be invited to a party, only to be arrested, he said.
“They’ve deployed troops and are watching us and trying to arrest us,” he said. “We do not have any freedom.”
As many as 300 Khmer Krom in Vietnam protested last week, claiming their rights were abused by officials, but witnesses said the protest led to a crackdown, where five people were injured and six were arrested for illegal demonstration.
Ang Chanrith, director of the Khmer Krom Human Rights Organization in Cambodia, said the situation was “more serious” than before the Khmer New Year.
No international rights groups or embassies had paid any attention to the crackdown, he said.
Sam Rainsy Plans Ceremony for Fall of Phnom Penh
By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 15 (615KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 15 (615KB) - Listen (MP3)
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy will lead a Buddhist ceremony at the Chhoeung Ek “killing fields” April 17 to commemorate the fall of Phnom Penh and the ascent of the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
Such events have been controversial over the years, with former Khmer Rouge calling it a day of victory that liberated Cambodians from foreign colonialism.
April 17, 1975, marked the beginning of Year Zero, when Khmer Rouge guerillas marched the populace into collective agrarian camps, under a policy that would lead to the deaths of nearly 2 million people.
“The ceremony is to pay respect to the memory of the victims and to ask for faster prosecution of all the former Khmer Rouge surviving leaders,” the Sam Rainsy Party said in a statement.
Five aging former leaders of the regime are now in detention at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, awaiting trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Washington
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 15 (615KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 15 (615KB) - Listen (MP3)
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy will lead a Buddhist ceremony at the Chhoeung Ek “killing fields” April 17 to commemorate the fall of Phnom Penh and the ascent of the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
Such events have been controversial over the years, with former Khmer Rouge calling it a day of victory that liberated Cambodians from foreign colonialism.
April 17, 1975, marked the beginning of Year Zero, when Khmer Rouge guerillas marched the populace into collective agrarian camps, under a policy that would lead to the deaths of nearly 2 million people.
“The ceremony is to pay respect to the memory of the victims and to ask for faster prosecution of all the former Khmer Rouge surviving leaders,” the Sam Rainsy Party said in a statement.
Five aging former leaders of the regime are now in detention at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, awaiting trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
UN Chief Calls for Tribunal Aid
By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 15 (640KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 15 (640KB) - Listen (MP3)
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon marked the 10th anniversary of Pol Pot’s death to remind member countries to support the Khmer Rouge tribunal.
Pol Pot died April 15, 1998, and was cremated on a makeshift pyre before he was brought to trial for his role in Khmer Rouge policies.
Five former leaders are now in detention, awaiting trial under the tribunal, known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
The tribunal was originally budgeted at $56 million, but officials have asked for an additional $114 million and have been forced to cut costs to extend operations.
Donors say they will not fund a tribunal that does not meet international standards and have asked tribunal officials for assurances of its integrity.
“I would like to remind the international community of the urgent importance of bringing to closure one of history’s darkest chapters,” Ban said in a statement. “With the support of the international community, it is my hope that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia will soon deliver long-overdue justice for the people of Cambodia.”
Washington
16 April 2008
Khmer audio aired April 15 (640KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 15 (640KB) - Listen (MP3)
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon marked the 10th anniversary of Pol Pot’s death to remind member countries to support the Khmer Rouge tribunal.
Pol Pot died April 15, 1998, and was cremated on a makeshift pyre before he was brought to trial for his role in Khmer Rouge policies.
Five former leaders are now in detention, awaiting trial under the tribunal, known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
The tribunal was originally budgeted at $56 million, but officials have asked for an additional $114 million and have been forced to cut costs to extend operations.
Donors say they will not fund a tribunal that does not meet international standards and have asked tribunal officials for assurances of its integrity.
“I would like to remind the international community of the urgent importance of bringing to closure one of history’s darkest chapters,” Ban said in a statement. “With the support of the international community, it is my hope that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia will soon deliver long-overdue justice for the people of Cambodia.”
Conservation plan in Cambodia aims to protect habitat of endangered bird
A system of strip dams in Kampong Thom province, Cambodia, that conservationists say are threatening the endangered bird. (Jerry Harmer/The Associated Press) The Associated Press
Published: April 14, 2008
STOUNG, Cambodia: Conservationists in Cambodia think they might be turning the corner in their fight to save one of the world's rarest birds.
Since 2005, a rush to turn grasslands into large rice farms has gobbled up one-third of the Bengal florican's habitat in Cambodia, threatening the critically endangered bird with extinction.
But a new land-protection plan - devised by the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York, along with BirdLife International from Britain and Cambodian authorities - appears to be slowing this controversial real estate grab.
Most of the world's Bengal floricans, believed to number fewer than 1,000, live in scattered pockets on the fringes of Cambodia's Great Lake, also known as the Tonle Sap. The rest are in India, Nepal and Vietnam.
The Cambodian program to protect florican habitat bans development in five zones totaling 135 square miles, or 350 square kilometers, while villages and farms within the zones can remain, preserving traditional ways of life. The plan calls for the police to patrol by motorbike during the dry season and by boat during floods.
Since the program was adopted, three planned developments have been canceled and another put on hold, according to Tom Evans, a Wildlife Conservation Society technical adviser in Cambodia.
"Some prospective developers have been deterred at an earlier stage when they learned that the areas had a special designation," he said.
More such zones, known as integrated farming and biodiversity areas, are planned.
In mid-March, the height of the dry season, the grasslands near Great Lake, in west-central Cambodia, are at their bleakest. They stretch to the horizon, brown and flat under the blazing sun, with barely a tree to break the monotony. Smoke curls into the air where farmers burn off scrub to rejuvenate pasture for their cattle. Ox carts trundle down deeply rutted tracks.
But for the patient and the sharp-eyed, this landscape offers a striking sight: the courtship display of the male Bengal florican.
The bird, a black-and-white bustard - large, long-legged and heavy, looking like a small ostrich - struts into a clearing, stretches its long neck and ruffles up its feathers. It then flits into the air before fluttering back to the ground in an undulating pattern, like a parachutist caught in a crosswind.
As it descends, it emits a deep humming sound that has earned it its Cambodian name, "the whispering bird." The displays are usually carried out within sight of other males, in what amounts to an open dance competition to attract a mate.
"They're really unique," says Lotty Packman, a 24-year-old researcher from the University of East Anglia in England. "They're very striking and very charismatic."
Packman was spending long days in the heat, netting floricans and attaching tracking devices to learn more about them, especially the elusive female, of which little is known.
The species was rediscovered in Cambodia in 1999. Before then, the country's decades-long civil war had made detailed exploration of the countryside too dangerous.
But peace has proved to be a far greater threat. Businessmen have snapped up thousands of acres of land in often murky deals and built more than 100 strip dams, which turn the grassland - the florican's natural habitat - into rice paddies that can produce rice during the dry season.
Published: April 14, 2008
STOUNG, Cambodia: Conservationists in Cambodia think they might be turning the corner in their fight to save one of the world's rarest birds.
Since 2005, a rush to turn grasslands into large rice farms has gobbled up one-third of the Bengal florican's habitat in Cambodia, threatening the critically endangered bird with extinction.
But a new land-protection plan - devised by the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York, along with BirdLife International from Britain and Cambodian authorities - appears to be slowing this controversial real estate grab.
Most of the world's Bengal floricans, believed to number fewer than 1,000, live in scattered pockets on the fringes of Cambodia's Great Lake, also known as the Tonle Sap. The rest are in India, Nepal and Vietnam.
The Cambodian program to protect florican habitat bans development in five zones totaling 135 square miles, or 350 square kilometers, while villages and farms within the zones can remain, preserving traditional ways of life. The plan calls for the police to patrol by motorbike during the dry season and by boat during floods.
Since the program was adopted, three planned developments have been canceled and another put on hold, according to Tom Evans, a Wildlife Conservation Society technical adviser in Cambodia.
"Some prospective developers have been deterred at an earlier stage when they learned that the areas had a special designation," he said.
More such zones, known as integrated farming and biodiversity areas, are planned.
In mid-March, the height of the dry season, the grasslands near Great Lake, in west-central Cambodia, are at their bleakest. They stretch to the horizon, brown and flat under the blazing sun, with barely a tree to break the monotony. Smoke curls into the air where farmers burn off scrub to rejuvenate pasture for their cattle. Ox carts trundle down deeply rutted tracks.
But for the patient and the sharp-eyed, this landscape offers a striking sight: the courtship display of the male Bengal florican.
The bird, a black-and-white bustard - large, long-legged and heavy, looking like a small ostrich - struts into a clearing, stretches its long neck and ruffles up its feathers. It then flits into the air before fluttering back to the ground in an undulating pattern, like a parachutist caught in a crosswind.
As it descends, it emits a deep humming sound that has earned it its Cambodian name, "the whispering bird." The displays are usually carried out within sight of other males, in what amounts to an open dance competition to attract a mate.
"They're really unique," says Lotty Packman, a 24-year-old researcher from the University of East Anglia in England. "They're very striking and very charismatic."
Packman was spending long days in the heat, netting floricans and attaching tracking devices to learn more about them, especially the elusive female, of which little is known.
The species was rediscovered in Cambodia in 1999. Before then, the country's decades-long civil war had made detailed exploration of the countryside too dangerous.
But peace has proved to be a far greater threat. Businessmen have snapped up thousands of acres of land in often murky deals and built more than 100 strip dams, which turn the grassland - the florican's natural habitat - into rice paddies that can produce rice during the dry season.
Cambodia’s Urban Renewal Turns Ugly
Vincent MacIsaac
16 April 2008
The government is using the fiction of slum clearance to kick the poor off valuable property
Just a stone’s throw away from Cambodia’s National Assembly in Phnom Penh, a fading billboard trumpets an urban renewal campaign promising to transform 100 poor communities into thriving neighborhoods within a year. Included is the decimated slum that lies behind parliament – Dey Krahorm, or Red Earth village.
The billboard, erected a few months before national elections four years ago, shows Prime Minister Hun Sen leading a band of impassioned officials as they stride toward this much publicized goal.
They never reached it. After the election, urban renewal turned into poverty expulsion. Red Earth now resembles a moonscape of rubble, teetering shacks and evacuated spaces. Fewer than 100 of the nearly 1,000 families who lived there when the billboard was erected remain.
The rest have been trucked off to one of the many relocation sites 20 to 30 kilometers outside the city, most of which lack electricity, clean water, toilets, schools, clinics and, importantly, access to jobs.
Excluding Burma, “Cambodia has the most abusive record of forced evictions in the region,” said David Pred, the country director of Bridges Across Borders, an international non-governmental organization formed to combat the root causes of violence.
In an interesting twist, the Cambodian Red Cross, which has been appealing for donations to resettle squatters, is headed by the prime minister’s wife, Bun Rany Hun Sen. Besides widespread allegations of corruption and misuse of funds, the Cambodia Red Cross’s appeal for funds to resettle people evicted as a result of land grabs by people closely tied to the prime minister is, to use the phrase of one diplomat, “more than a little off-putting.”
An official at the International Red Cross agreed: “There’s something not quite kosher about this,” he said.
Although evictions have been a companion to Asia’s “asymmetrical growth”, as Pred calls it, over the past 25 years, the situation in Cambodia is exacerbated by the lack of legal protection for those facing eviction. “At least in a country like the Philippines, affected people can go to court and a have some chance at stopping [evictions] or getting fair compensation. That is not possible in Cambodia today,” Pred said.
Dey Krahorm resident Lee Luleng was blunter: “If I call the police [for help] they will arrest me.” Lee Luleng, 61, is among those who have declined the offer of either relocation outside the city or compensation equivalent to less than 10 percent of the land’s market value of more than US$3,000 per square meter from 7NG, the shadowy company that claims ownership of the land.
(7NG describes itself as a publicly listed company in a country that does not have a stock exchange. In a telephone interview, 7NG chairman Srey Sothea said the company is not listed on a foreign bourse and that all its funds are sourced in Cambodia. He declined, however, to identify the exact source of the company’s funds or name its board of directors. He did say, however, that 7NG is “seeking foreign investment.”)
Declining a bad deal from 7NG can come at a heavy price. At least 13 residents of Dev Krathorn, including six community representatives, have been charged with criminal offenses, according to the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, which has documented a three-year campaign of what it calls “harassment, intimidation and provocation” against the community by private security officers and municipal police.
“They shout, ‘Get out, dogs!’ We shout back, ‘You’re worse than Pol Pot,’” is how Lee Luleng described the frequent standoffs with police and security officers. Along with insults and obscenities, police sometimes toss bags of urine at them, residents say. Police erected a wall along one end of the community to block access to street-side shops (forcing owners to sell or relocate) and tried unsuccessfully to block access to the market that is the community’s main source of income.
Srey Sothea, the 7NG head, said no employees of his company were involved in altercations with residents of Dey Krathorm. “We’re a construction company, not a security firm,” he said. He also denied allegations that 7NG is paying police officers to drive the residents from their homes.
“When Cambodians hear the phrase ‘development plan’, they know it means evictions,” explained Choun Chamrong, a land-rights program officer at the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Organization. “Usually they give up quickly because they know they are up against companies or individuals connected to the government,” she explained. In 2006, Adhoc recorded 16 cases of entire communities being forcibly evicted. Last year, the figure rose to 26.
Brittis Edman, a researcher with Amnesty International, pointed to another disquieting trend. “What we are seeing over the last year is that the courts are increasingly being used as tools to silence housing rights activists,” she said before the February release of AI’s report “Rights Razed: Forced Evictions in Cambodia.” The report warned that “at least 150,000” Cambodians are at risk of forced evictions.
The government’s response was unintentionally amusing. It insisted there were no forced evictions in Cambodia and accused Amnesty International of trying to grab headlines. Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak went further. He told reporters that if the government did not respect human rights, it would have expelled Amnesty’s representatives from Cambodia.
What he failed to mention, however, was that police tried to stop Edman from meeting a group of residents facing eviction near Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak Lake on February 10. “They told us we didn’t have a permit to hold the meeting, but we explained we were just having a discussion,” Edman said. After a brief face-off, police allowed the discussion to proceed, but they photographed every resident, journalist and activist present, and tape-recorded the meeting.
Villagers say they are crammed together now in a ditch with no access to clean water and no source of income. The impact of forced evictions on public health has yet to be measured – at either the local, provincial or national levels – but NGOs working with communities that have been evicted are scrambling to find funds to expand their medical outreach programs. Illnesses include malnutrition, weakened immune systems, bronchitis and other lung infections, skin rashes, ear and eye infections, diarrhea, fever, intestinal worms, fungal infections, and post-traumatic stress.
Andong, a resettlement site where the evicted have been moved to about 20 kilometers from Phnom Penh, is a public-health disaster. The lack of sanitation, clean water and access to health care leaves the 1,500 families crammed into what has been called a “fetid swamp” highly vulnerable to any outbreak of infectious disease, health workers warn.
Five children died of dengue fever there in March last year alone, resident Kat Vijay recalls. Like most of residents of the site, Kat was evicted from Sambok Chap, a settlement along the banks of the Bassac River in Phnom Penh in June 2006.
Resident Sum Khum says living in Andong is worse than the refugee camp in which she spent 13 years on the Thai border. “Then, we had food and water. We had medicine and schools. Aid workers used to visit us,” said the 74-year-old widow. “Now, we have nothing. Sometimes the Christians come with rice and noodles, but they don’t bring enough.”
After almost two years, the evictees are still waiting for running water, electricity, a sewage system, a clinic, a school, and toilets that work. The 12 that were installed last year, along with 12 bathing stalls, can’t be used because they are not connected to running water.
When he lived in Phnom Penh, Kat Vijay worked in construction, mainly restoring the city’s French colonial mansions, for US$2.50 a day. Since then he has had no work except for a three-month stint building a row of 41 rooms at Andong for the Cambodian Red Cross, he says.
Brittis Edman of Amnesty International noted a new development in forced evictions that many diplomats may find even more off-putting. Some residents at resettlement sites are being threatened with eviction again, possibly to make more room for newcomers, she said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)