Cambodia delays stock market debut to next July

via Khmer NZ

July 21, 2010

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia has delayed the opening of its proposed stock market for a second time, pushing the date back to July next year.

A statement from the Finance Ministry obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press said the delay of the opening was due to technical issues and the economic crisis.

After receiving the approval from Prime Minister Hun Sen, the Cambodia stock exchange is expected to kick off in July 2011, the statement said.

Last December, officials said Cambodia's stock market would open by the end of this year.

Cambodia : Huadian secures financing for hydropower plant in Koh Kong

via Khmer NZ

zahid05

TendersInfo

July 20, 2010

Financing for a US$412 million hydropower plant to be built in Koh Kong province has been agreed, according to lawyers who oversaw the deal.

The Singapore branch of international law firm Herbert Smith confirmed that it had reached the close on the energy plant deal for the Steung Russei Chrum Kraon hydropower project. The plant is to be built and owned by affiliates of China s Huadian Power International Corporation. The firm gave legal advice to the Export-Import Bank of China, which signed a financing deal with Huadian. We are very pleased to achieve the close on a major financing project such as this. It is one of the largest foreign investments in Cambodia to date and will no doubt be seen as an important step in the evolution of that power sector.Ltd.

DAP News. Breaking News in Cambodia

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Cambodia, US Marks 60th Diplomatic Relation

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 05:02 DAP-NEWS / Suon Wathanak

CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, JULY 21, 2010-Cambodia and the United State of America on Tuesday held its 60th anniversary of diplomatic relation in Phnom Penh to expand and strengthen its bilateral relation and cooperation.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, also Minister of Cabinet of Ministers attended with US Ambassador Carol​ A. Rodly and former US Ambassadors to Cambodia, Kent Wiedemann, Charl​Ray and Joseph A. Mussomeli.

The ceremonies are designed to highlight the shared history between the United States and Cambodia and the many ways in which the two countries are working together.

CPP Holds Its 35th General Assembly

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 05:00 DAP-NEWS / Suon Wathanak

CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, JULY 21, 2010-Cambodia´s ruling party, Cambodian People´s Party (CPP), on Tuesday celebrate a two-day meeting from July 21-22 at its head quarter in Phnom Penh.

CPP President Chea​ Sim, also Senate President, Cambodian PM Hun Sen and its senior members of the party attend the meeting.

The agendas of the meeting are scheduled to discuss its party policy and Cambodia´s world heritage list Preah Vihear which is being invaded by Thai Government since July 15, 2008.

Well, we’re speechless

Photo by: AFP

much the topic.
via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:04 AFP

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton listens to two delegates at a women’s empowerment meeting at the American Embassy in Kabul yesterday — and in this instant is lost for words. Clinton was In Afghanistan for a major international conference with the troubled host country very much the topic.

Cambodian bourse set for next July ‘at any cost’

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:04 Nguon Sovan

CAMBODIA’S stock exchange will launch by next July “at any cost”, the third scheduled start date for the much-anticipated bourse.

A statement from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, received by the Post yesterday, said the Cambodia Securities Exchange had been postponed until next year.

Trading was set to begin at the end of this year, after the initial deadline was missed in 2009. However, the exchange has yet to be licensed, and its slated home at Phnom Penh’s Camko City has yet to be built.

“The postponement of the CSX is to adapt to the evolution of the global economic and financial situation, which shows some positive signs of recovery but is still fragile,” the government release said.

“With the approval from the two countries’ [Cambodia and South Korea] prime ministers, CSX will be launched by July 2011 – at any cost.”

The decision was announced after Cambodian Finance Minister Keat Chhon met privately with Chin Dong-Soo, Chairman of South Korea’s financial services commission, and officials of the Korean Exchange last week at an International Monetary Fund conference in Daejeon, South Korea.

At the sidelines of the conference, the minister told reporters that the exchange was set to be postponed, but he declined to detail a timeframe.

Officials and public-sector representatives alike are now taking stock of the latest announcement.

For the Korean Exchange, which holds a 45 percent interest in the CSX, building public belief around the bourse in Cambodia is key.

“We will have further time to prepare. The most important thing is public confidence,” Inpyo Lee, project director of the Korean Exchange, said yesterday.

He said laws and regulations relevant to the stock market were almost in place, and that an operating licence application could be submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia in the next month.

Bretton Sciaroni, chairman of the International Business Club, an association that includes most multinationals operating in Cambodia, said yesterday that the delay would provide more time to create a healthy stock market.

“It is not an easy task,” he said. “If you want a right stock market with public confidence it takes time to prepare all the proper rules and regulations. I am happy as long as the stock market has been done in the right way.”

Ming Bankosal, director general of the SECC, Mey Vann, director of the Finance Ministry’s financial industry department, and Hong Sok Hour, director general of CSX, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Arsenic exposure remains hot issue

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:03 Will Baxter

NEW government figures indicate up to 150,000 people living along the Mekong and Bassac rivers are consuming water from wells laced with arsenic, a poison that can cause skin and other cancers after prolonged exposure.

The figures, prepared by the Department of Water Supply at the Ministry of Rural Development, indicate that the problem is less widespread than officials believed after the April 2009 publication of a study estimating that up to 2 million people were at risk.

Mao Saray, the department’s director, said the figures were finalised at a workshop late last month attended by government officials and representatives of UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and other groups.

“It is estimated that approximately 100,000 to 150,000 people are consuming arsenic-contaminated drinking water for at least part of the year,” he said. Residents of Kandal, Prey Veng and Kampong Cham provinces were at the highest risk of exposure, whereas residents of Kampong Chhnang, Kratie and Kampong Thom provinces were at moderate risk, he said.

He said that in many areas contaminated water was only being used for cleaning and bathing.

The April 2009 figures, prepared by Resource Development International Cambodia and Dartmouth College in the United States, indicated that as many as 100,000 residents of Kandal province alone were being exposed to arsenic. Andrew Shantz, laboratory and research director for RDIC, said data from the 2008 census as well as the establishment of a national database listing arsenic concentrations in 40,000 wells had led to new figures.

A report released in May by three US scientists said more than 100 million people were exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water daily in Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam, resulting in thousands of deaths from cancer each year.

Refugees win recognition after 35 years

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:03 Sebastian Strangio

NEARLY 300 former Cambodian nationals have received citizenship in Vietnam more than 35 years after fleeing the Khmer Rouge regime, the United Nations refugee agency said.

In a statement on Monday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said 287 people received their nationalisation papers at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, granting them basic rights under Vietnamese law.

The group is part of a total of 2,357 Cambodians who fled the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and settled in Vietnam, learning the language and integrating into the local community. According to UNHCR, they have been living at a refugee camp set up by the agency in 1980.

“This sets an excellent example in the region for resolving statelessness,” Thomas Vargas, UNHCR’s regional protection adviser, was quoted as saying at the ceremony.

Kitty McKinsey, UNHCR’s Asia spokeswoman, said the group, who are mostly of Chinese ancestry, were disowned by the Cambodian government after leaving the country and cast into a stateless limbo inside Vietnam.

She said they were unable to apply for Vietnamese citizenship because of old regulations that required all applicants to hold citizenship.

“They were caught in a Catch-22,” McKinsey said. “After they fled Cambodia, Cambodia disowned them.”

She said that because of recent changes to Vietnamese laws, stateless persons – including thousands of women made stateless after they married and divorced foreign men – can now apply for citizenship.

“Statelessness is really a tragic situation,” she said, “so we were glad that Vietnam has taken steps to help these people.”

She said the rest of the group had been approved to receive their papers later in the year.

Denise Coughlan, the director of Jesuit Refugee Services, said many Cambodian citizens fled the country during the 1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge.

But although official agreements have allowed the return of Vietnamese refugees who fled after the Vietnam War, similar arrangements were never made for Cambodians who ended up in Vietnam, she said.

“There was never any comprehensive settlement for Cambodians residing in Vietnam,” she said. “It sounds like good news that Vietnam is recognising them.”

HIV/AIDS evictees get new homes

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
A resident of the Tuol Sambo relocation site in Dangkor district reaches into a box to draw a slip of paper assigning her a new home. A group of 44 families at the site participated in the drawing yesterday.

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:03 May Titthara

A GROUP of 44 HIV/AIDS-affected families that were evicted from their homes in Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila community in June 2009 and forced to live in green metal sheds in Dangkor district received replacement housing yesterday.

Rights groups had long bemoaned conditions at the Tuol Sambo relocation site, which is about 20 kilometres from the capital, complaining in particular about poor infrastructure and the “oppressively hot” 3.5-by-4.5-metre green metal sheds the families were forced to occupy.

Suon Saren, 30, said yesterday that she was pleased to move to one of the new 4-by-7-metre concrete homes provided by the NGO Caritas Cambodia.

“When I first arrived at Tuol Sambo and was forced to live in that green metal house I could not sleep at night, and it affected my heath, but now that I have received a new house I think I will get better,” she said.

“The high temperatures in the metal sheds used to damage our medicine, but with the new houses we hope this won’t be a problem,” she added.

Mann Chhoeun, former deputy governor of Phnom Penh, said yesterday that despite the wave of criticism triggered by the eviction, the government remained committed to helping affected families establish and support themselves.

“We will manage this village and provide the people with a vocational centre, which will in turn provide them with jobs sewing clothing, producing soap and growing flowers,” he said. “And we will construct a small market where they can run a business, and also allow them to sell their products at the night market near Phsar Chas.”

Kim Ratana, director of Caritas Cambodia, said his group would continue to support livelihood development at the site. “We will help them operate small businesses such as bottling water, producing soap and making other products by hand so they can enhance their standard of living and develop Tuol Sambo into a small industry area,” he said.

Suy Sophan, director of Phanimex, the private company developing the Borei Keila site, said the families were lucky to receive the new homes.

“Even though their parents could not provide them with a house the government has provided them with land and a house,” he said.

Meanwhile, Manfred Hornung, a legal adviser for the rights group Licadho, said six other HIV/AIDS-affected families that were promised replacement housing in Borei Keila by Phanimex after being evicted from their homes there were still “living in very bad conditions”.

“The granting of these apartments has actually been postponed since June 2009,” he said, and called any further delays a “direct threat to their livelihoods and future in general”.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY WILL BAXTER

HRW exhorts donors to seek policy change

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:03 Dan Pordes

HUMAN Rights Watch has called on international donors to pressure the government to close detention centres where sex workers are allegedly held against their will and abused.

A report released yesterday by the United States-based watchdog drew from interviews with more than 90 sex workers, some of whom accused law enforcement officials of engaging in severe beatings and rape.

At a press conference yesterday, the group said donors funding antitrafficking measures and police training should review and potentially suspend their contributions until the centres are closed and measures are put in place to punish offending officials.

“This is not a problem that cannot be dealt with,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW. “The inaction of UN groups and embassies have aided and abetted the situation.”

The report calls on four donors, the US, European Union, Australia and Japan, to “review all funding, programming and activities designed to assist Cambodia’s police and Ministry of Social Affairs”.

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We will work with our partners as well as the [government] to make sure any abuse is addressed.

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However, the US and the EU said yesterday after the press conference that they were committed to maintaining their support of the Cambodian government.

In a statement, the US embassy said that over the past three years it had provided US$1.5 million for programmes that “helped train Cambodian police officers and staff from relevant NGOs on victim-sensitive approaches to trafficking cases”.

The embassy also said it “strongly supported the passage of the anti-trafficking articles included in the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation”.

HRW and other groups have taken issue with the law’s implementation.

The HRW report said USAID, the Unites States’ development arm, was set to give a total of $7.3 million between August 2006 and September 2011 to anti-trafficking measures.

Michelle Labeeu, chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the European Commission’s delegation to Cambodia, said the EU was familiar with the issues raised in the HRW report.

“We are aware of the report about the abuses of sex workers in Cambodia, and we are following this issue very closely,” she said.

“We will work with our partners as well as the Government of Cambodia to make sure that any abuse is addressed by the relevant authorities of Cambodia.”

She said funding from the EU for human rights projects including anti-trafficking measures would total €1.2 million ($1.5 million) in 2010, up from €1 million the year before.

The Australian embassy said in an email that A$21 million (US$18.4 million) had been committed to the five-year Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons (ARTIP) Project, an initiative to prevent human trafficking in Southeast Asian countries including Cambodia.

The Japanese embassy said it did not have records of any bilateral aid going to the Social Affairs Ministry, and that it could not disclose the amount of money going to the ministry through international organisations as of press time.

Officials at the Interior and Social Affairs ministries could not be reached for comment.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TANG KHYHAY

Villagers lay curse on rubber plantation in Mondulkiri province

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:03 Tep Nimol

ETHNIC Phnong villagers held a traditional ceremony in Mondulkiri province’s Pechreada district yesterday to curse a rubber plantation they say has robbed them of large tracts of rotational farmland and spirit forests.

Khan Channy, a community representative, said villagers made offerings of pigs and jars of rice wine in order to curse Socfin KCD, a French-Cambodian rubber company, and make it “vanish like a dead pig”.

The company – a joint venture between French rubber giant Socfin and the Khaou Chuly Group – was granted its first 2,500-hectare rubber concession in late 2007 and began clearing in early 2008.

More than 800 families in seven villages in Bou Sraa commune – which is made up predominantly of Phnong villages – claim to have been affected by the rubber plantation, now expected to cover 10,000 hectares.

Kob Neith, another community representative, said the company had offered residents of her village three choices in exchange for vacating their land: to sell their land to the company for US$80 per hectare; to exchange the land for replacement plots elsewhere; and to harvest rubber in designated areas and then sell it back to the company.

She said that although a decision has not yet been made, around 100 tractors and bulldozers were clearing land at the plantation site.

Kob Neith said there had been no response to repeated petitions and requests from affected villagers.

Yesterday’s ceremony followed a similar one held in June last year.

“We want a shared 350-hectare area for the whole community to support our living. It was the last resort to organise the ceremony to curse the company to vanish after the community has failed in dealing with the company,” she said.

Kul Midy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, said a provincial committee met in late June to prepare for the registration of community land in Mondulkiri, but that Bou Sraa commune had not been on the agenda.

“The villagers have the right to hold a ritual to curse the company like this to express their feelings to the authorities so that the authorities may help solve their land dispute with the company,” he said.

Mondulkiri provincial governor Chan Yoeun declined to comment yesterday.

Labour firm to halt recruiting

Photo by: Sovan Philong
Family and friends wave goodbye to loved ones departing last December from Phnom Penh International Airport for work abroad after being trained by a recruitment firm.

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:03 Irwin Loy and Mom Kunthear

A LABOUR recruitment firm accused of forcing employees to live in cramped, squalid conditions will be ordered to temporarily stop enlisting new clients, an industry official said yesterday.

An Bunhak, chairman of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies, said a Ministry of Labour committee met Monday to discuss the case of the Champa Manpower Group, which has been accussed of corralling 200 would-be migrants into three villas in Russey Keo district.

He said the decision had been reached by officials at the meeting.

“It means the ministry will not allow this company to recruit until inspectors find out they have applied the requirements of the Ministry of Labour and other authorities,” said An Bunhak, whose organisation represents 16 companies.

He added that he believed the decision marked the first time the ministry had taken such an action against a recruitment firm licensed by the government to train and send workers abroad.

“Starting from now on, I think the Ministry of Labour is taking very strong action,” An Bunhak said.

He also said that Labour Ministry officials would call on recruitment firms to improve standards in all training centres.

“From now on, the inspector will go to the recruitment agency training centres to see how many migrant workers can be put in the centre. This is the message,” he said.

The move follows a police raid last week on the company’s villas, during which police found 232 women and girls living in rooms one official described as being like “duck or chicken cages”.

Earlier this week, officials began investigating a second company, VC Manpower Co, after a woman who escaped from a Sen Sok district training centre on Sunday by leaping from a window said she and other workers had been locked in rooms “as prisoners”.

Labour Ministry officials could not be reached for comment yesterday; nor could officials from the two recruitment firms.

Moeun Tola, the head of the labour programme at the Community Legal Education Centre, said authorities must “wake up” to the situation and protect workers.

“It seems to happen again and again,” he said of the allegations of forced detention. It clearly shows that the government ... has not taken any serious actions on these companies.”

Moeun Tola said workers have told him it is common for some companies to pay agents a commission for each recruited worker, which the workers are then bound to repay.

As a result, workers sometimes accrue significant debt to the recruitment firms before they even begin training, he said.

Paying off loans

Clients at both recruitment firms targeted by officials this month have said some trainees were barred from leaving because the company owners were afraid they would break their contracts, or because the company had loaned money to their families.

Such actions are outlawed by the country’s Labour Law, which explicitly prohibits hiring people to work off debts.

An Bunhak said his association – which does not count either of the firms as members – asked the Labour Ministry on Monday to ban recruitment firms from loaning money, and to instead urge microfinance institutions to take on that role.

“I very strongly believe that if we do not provide loans to the families, all the workers will be 100 percent free,” he said. “They will have the choice to stay at the training centre or to rent a house outside.”

According to the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, Cambodia has at least 28 organisations licensed by the Ministry of Labour to recruit workers to send overseas, including two NGOs and the ministry itself.

Court stalls on child-sex case

Photo by: Pha Lina
Convicted German paedophile Alexander Moritz Watrin is led into the Appeal Court ahead of a hearing earlier this month. He is accompanied by his translator (left) and a guard.

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:03 Chrann Chamroeun

THE Appeal Court yesterday ordered further investigations into the case against a German man accused of having sex with four underage boys in 2006, citing uncertainty about the age of the boys at the time of the alleged crimes.

Alexander Moritz Watrin, 40, was arrested in April 2006 in Sihanoukville and charged with debauchery, a crime that no longer exists, after four boys said they had had sex with him.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay US$5,000 to each of the victims.

In February 2009, the Appeal Court upheld the conviction but cut the sentence by three years, citing a change in child-sex laws.

Following a further appeal at the Supreme Court, the case was sent back to the Appeal Court in April because of a lack of evidence.

Presiding Judge Seng Sivutha said yesterday that the ages of the boys remained in dispute.

“We have ordered further investigation following a request by the Supreme Court to investigate the real ages of the boys,” he said.

Defence lawyer Pich Sorya said he was happy with the decision, and called the case “complex”.

“The decision was made by the Supreme Court to find out the truth whether or not my client has committed these allegations,” he said.

He also said the prosecution lacked evidence, including a doctor’s examination of the victims, and that the only evidence it had was their testimony.

But Samleang Seila, director of child protection NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, questioned that there was a need for further investigation.

“It seems a little strange that it is necessary to investigate the ages of the victims, because the lower court and Appeal Court have already decided that they were all less than 15 at the time of the incident,” he said.

Reservoir destruction thwarted by rainfall

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:03 Khouth Sophakchakrya

ENVIRONMENTAL officials say heavy rains may force them to postpone an ongoing effort to demolish manmade reservoirs that they claim are lowering water levels and disrupting local ecology.

Chan Youttha, secretary general of the Tonle Sap Authority, said Tuesday that excavators and other machinery used to dismantle the reservoirs had had difficulty accessing the sites through fields and roads soaked by recent rains. If the wet weather continues over the next few days, he added, the project will be delayed until the dry season begins in several months.

“Currently, we almost can’t move our machinery because of the massive rains and muddy roads,” Chan Youttha said. “We will temporarily stop demolishing the reservoirs until the next dry season, but we will continue to be vigilant about cracking down on any newly created illegal reservoirs.”

In April, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the destruction of manmade reservoirs surrounding the Tonle Sap lake, saying that they posed a threat to fish stocks and coastal forest. The premier formalised this order earlier this month, issuing a directive calling for the demolition of reservoirs in six provinces with territory on the Tonle Sap floodplain: Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Pursat and Kampong Chhnang.

Since June 25, the Tonle Sap Authority has dismantled 30 of the Kingdom’s roughly 240 unauthorised reservoirs in an effort that has spanned all six provinces, Chan Youttha said yesterday.

Nao Thuok, director of the Fisheries Administration, said that even though full demolition of illegal reservoirs may not be possible during the rainy season, government officials should consider limited work to allow water to flow back into streams and the lake.

“We must target the reservoirs that are obstacles to fish movement and water flow,” Nao Thuok said. He added that water levels in the Tonle Sap lake had been measured at 3 metres lower than last year, and blamed this drop in part on the proliferation of reservoirs.

Some farmers, however, have bemoaned the demolition effort, saying that the reservoirs have increased rice yields and allowed them to harvest their crops in both the rainy and dry seasons.

In his directive this month, Hun Sen also ordered a halt to a range of activities that he said were harming the biodiversity of the lake, including the controlled burning of trees and slash-and-burn farming.

INTERIOR Ministry officials plan to establish permanent nighttime traffic checkpoints in the capital and two provinces beginning August 1 as part of a bid to curtail drunken driving, the chief of the ministry’s Land Traffic Police said yesterday.

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:02 Mom Kunthear

A KOH Kong woman accused of beating her 12-year-old stepson with electrical wire and bamboo has been released on bail and given custody of the boy again, officials said yesterday.

Chhin Chamroeun, a monitor with rights group Adhoc, said the provincial court decided to release the woman on bail on June 23, less than two weeks after she was arrested and charged with battery.

“The woman made a promise with the court and NGOs not to fight her stepson anymore, and she has to look after him carefully,” she said.

Meas Vanthana, Koh Kong provincial court’s deputy director, confirmed that the woman had been released on bail.

Court procedure allows suspects charged with misdemeanour crimes to be released on bail even if an investigation is under way, Meas Vanthana said. No court date has been set in the case.

Chhin Chamroeun said Adhoc staff observed no signs of abuse during a recent visit with the woman and the boy.

“We did not see any more new wounds on the boy’s body, and he has new clothes to wear to school,” she said.

She said she thought the decision to release the mother on bail could be a positive step, allowing the woman to change her behaviour and become a good mother.

Police arrested the woman in June after a neighbour found the boy with bloodied hands and legs. At the time, Chhin Chamroeun described the case as one of the worst instances of child abuse she had seen in the province.

The boy said that his stepmother forced him to earn money by collecting rubbish and selling the scraps. When he didn’t earn enough money, his stepmother beat him, he said.

Chea Pyden, executive director of the Vulnerable Children Assistance Organisation, said child abuse was more common in rural areas than urban ones, but that the prevalence of such violence was hard to measure.

“We have difficulty collecting statistics because sometimes [parents] beat their children in their home quietly and authorities don’t cooperate with us,” Chea Pyden said.

Nighttime checkpoints on the way

Photo by: Pha Lina
Motorists and passengers cross at the junction of Monivong and Street 108. Police plan to establish checkpoints to reduce drunken driving.

INTERIOR Ministry officials plan to establish permanent nighttime traffic checkpoints in the capital and two provinces beginning August 1 as part of a bid to curtail drunken driving, the chief of the ministry’s Land Traffic Police said yesterday.
Speaking on the first day of a two-day conference on drunken driving and helmet use, Luy Chhin said the checkpoints in Phnom Penh and in Kampong Speu and Kandal provinces would be placed in areas that see frequent crashes.
“We must deploy more police forces at night to test for alcohol levels of drunk drivers,” he said, and added that police would make use of breathalysers provided by donors including Australia.
Under the initiative, which is expected to be expanded into other provinces and to eventually be made permanent, police will man the checkpoints between 7pm and 10pm, Luy Chhin said. There will be 15 in Phnom Penh, six in Kandal and four in Kampong Speu, he said.
The Road Crash and Victim Information System, which collects data from traffic police and health facilities, recorded 12,538 crashes last year, resulting in 21,519 casualties. Of those casualties, 2,353 are believed to have been caused by drunken driving.
RCVIS project manager Sem Panhavuth said yesterday that most crashes caused by drunken driving occurred between 6pm and midnight, with a peak between 6pm and 8pm. “In drunk-driving crashes, most of the fatalities are motorbike riders,” he said.

The Land Traffic Law calls for fines ranging between 6,000 riels and 25,000 riels (about US$1.50 to $6) for drunken driving, depending on vehicle type.

Pagoda killers sentenced to 10-year terms

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:02 Chrann Chamroeun

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced three people, including two monks, to 10 years each in prison for the murder of a 20-year-old student at a pagoda in Meanchey district in October.

Presiding Judge Suos Sam Ath also ordered the trio to pay a total of 30 million riels (US$7,109) in compensation to the victim’s father.

The two monks; Van Socheat, 19; and Njhem Vuthy, 20; and their accomplice, 24-year-old Chem Bros, were arrested October 24 after being accused of beating Vat Vireak to death at the pagoda in Stung Meanchey commune a day earlier.

The three men denied the allegations, instead saying that they heard and saw the victim being beaten with wooden sticks, stones and other hard tools following a palm wine drinking session with six other people, including three monks.

Van Socheat told the court that he had not been involved in the killing, and said a man he identified only as “Phat” had talked about the murder during the drinking session.

“I saw the monk, Phat, and several other people beating [the victim] with wooden sticks and stones, and he died after being sent to hospital,” he said.

“The monk, Phat, talked about killing the victim, because he said he was very angry with him for a long time for cursing at him and looking down on him and his mother.”

Nhjem Vuthy and Chem Bros also denied the allegations.

But Suos Sam Ath denied their testimony, and said the acts of the monks had hurt the Buddhist faith.

“It is ridiculous that monks would act in such a foolish way and impact the religion and morals of the pagoda,” he said. “You must receive a serious sentence.”

He said police were still hunting for three other suspects believed to have been involved in the murder, including the monk known as Phat.

Khieu Sophal, the lawyer representing the family of the victim, said the court’s decision was acceptable.

“The court had enough evidence to prove they were guilty of intentional murder,” he said.

CPP to discuss Preah Vihear plan

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
A Cambodian soldier looks out over land surrounding the Preah Vihear temple complex. The Cambodian People’s Party will today discuss a conservation plan for the site.

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:02 Vong Sokheng and Cheang Sokha

SENIOR members of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party will today discuss Thailand’s intention to block Cambodia’s management plan for Preah Vihear temple during the upcoming UNESCO World Heritage Meeting in Brazil, officials said.

On Sunday, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said again that Thai officials would try to block the Cambodian plan during the UNESCO meeting.

Senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said yesterday that Abhisit’s comments about the temple would be addressed during the 35th annual Congress of the CPP Central Committee, which is scheduled to start today.

“We have had great success in protecting Preah Vihear temple and avoiding serious clashes along the border in Thailand,” he said.

Preah Vihear was first listed as a World Heritage site in July 2008, triggering a military buildup along the Thai-Cambodian border.

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An is scheduled to lead a delegation to Brazil today for the annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee, where officials will outline their efforts to preserve Preah Vihear temple and lay out a plan for future management of the site.

Hang Soth, director of the Preah Vihear National Authority, said UNESCO had outlined 13 steps to be taken by the authority in preserving the site.

“Some we have done, and some we cannot do because they take two or three years to complete and we need more time,” he said.

Delegates at the WHC meeting, which runs from Saturday until August 3, will determine which properties will be added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list. They will also “monitor the state of conservation of properties” already inscribed on the list and discuss possible candidates for removal.

Woman sentenced for trafficking deaf-mute

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:02 Chrann Chamroeun

A CAMBODIAN woman was sentenced in absentia to 17 years in prison yesterday after being convicted of trafficking a deaf and mute Cambodian girl to Thailand in 2007.

The victim, who was 17 at the time of her abduction, was lured into travelling across the border by the false promise of a job as a cook in Thailand after being approached by 58-year-old Uth Orn while selling drinks and juice in Daun Penh district, said Roth Chanthol, the victim’s lawyer.

“When the girl was transported to Thailand by the associates of the accused, she was not given a job as a cook, but was instead sold to a brothel in Thailand”, where she was trapped for two years, Roth Chanthol said.

“She was forced to have sex with many clients until she eventually got pregnant and delivered a premature, stillborn baby,” Roth Chanthol said.

Uth Orn had taken advantage of the victim’s disabilities in convincing her to leave her home in Phnom Penh, Roth Chanthol added. The victim did not appear at the trial yesterday.

Judge Suos Sam Ath said identifying the perpetrator had proved difficult because of the victim’s disabilities, but that with the help of a sign-language interpreter, the victim’s family and her lawyer had helped compile sufficient evidence for a conviction.

“After reading the victim’s testimony through her translator and hearing the cases from the prosecution and the victim’s lawyer, there was enough evidence to convict the accused of cross-border human trafficking,” Suos Sam Ath said.

After convicting Uth Orn under Article 16 of the Kingdom’s anti-trafficking law, the judge issued a fresh arrest warrant for the defendant, whose current whereabouts are unknown.

Chan Sang of AFESIP Cambodia, a local anti-trafficking group, said his organisation had helped Ly Sam Oeun file a complaint to the court last year after picking up the victim near the Thai border and providing her with temporary shelter.

The victim, he added, had made it to the border with the help an unknown man.

Roth Chanthol said he was satisfied with the verdict, but urged law enforcement authorities to redouble their efforts to apprehend Uth Orn.

“The problem is that the accused remains at large, and we don’t know her whereabouts, so there can be no justice for the victim until the accused is brought in for prosecution,” Roth Chanthol said.

Police Blotter: 21 Jul 2010

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:00 Kaing Menghun

EX-MILITARY OFFICER GETS 15-YEAR TERM FOR RAPE

Phnom Penh Municipal Court has convicted a 38-year-old former military officer of rape and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. The sentence, which included an order for the man to pay compensation of 10 million riels (US$2,360), was handed down in late June but only announced this week. The man, who is from the capital’s Prampi Makara district, had been accused of raping the 14-year-old victim earlier this year. The suspect told police following his arrest that he did not rape the girl, and that he had only kissed and touched her. But the victim and her mother, who claimed to have witnessed the assault, said the rape occurred while the girl’s father was asleep.

KAMPUCHEA THMEY

POLICE SLOW TO MAKE ARREST IN MURDER CASE

It appears that investigators have run into trouble while trying to solve the murder of a 72-year-old grandmother, although they suspect that she was killed by her own grandson. The murder happened in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kork district late last year. Police say that the victim’s 25-year-old grandson, a fourth-year medical school student, is a prime suspect, but no arrests have been made since the December 2 crime, which saw the grandmother hanged. A maid, who police say witnessed the crime, was also killed.

RASMEY KAMPUCHEA

ARMED ROBBERS STILL AT LARGE, VENDORS COMPLAIN

Police officials in Preah Vihear province say two gunmen accused of robbing a local vendor are still on the loose. It is alleged that the two gunmen shot a 51-year-old market vendor last Friday and made off with his wallet and gold. Witnesses said the suspects threatened other vendors and residents in town. By Monday, the victim’s family still had not returned to run the family business because members were preparing for the funeral. Local residents and other market vendors suggested that authorities ramp up their efforts to find and punish the suspects.

RASMEY KAMPUCHEA

RIGHTEOUS TEENAGER KILLED IN KAMPOT

Police say a teenager was killed during a scuffle with a 36-year-old manon Saturday evening in Kampot province. Investigators say they believe the suspect was offended that the teenager tried to stop him from touching or otherwise molesting women in the village. The argument tumbled into a scuffle, which is when the suspect allegedly killed the teenager with a knife. Police called the attack a “cruel murder”. The suspect was arrested the next day.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

Kingdom's deficit on ADB radar

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:02 Jeremy Mullins

CAMBODIA’S current account deficit and high levels of public debt are “causing concern” at the Asia Development Bank, according to a new report, but the domestic economy is on pace to grow 4.5 percent this year.

The current account deficit – measuring the difference between a nation’s exports and imports, including foreign aid – was highlighted as a cause for concern in Cambodia, along with Laos and Vietnam, in the Asia Economic Monitor report, launched in Singapore yesterday.

Cambodia’s current-account deficit has averaged 4.6 percent of GDP over the last decade, the lowest among 14 Asian countries surveyed, meaning that the Kingdom has been importing more than it exports.

However, yesterday commentators said that a trade deficit was not necessarily a problem – provided that imported goods would be used to fuel future domestic production and create exports.

“A trade deficit doesn’t always reflect a country’s economic strength,” University of Cambodia economics lecturer Chheng Kimlong told the Post.

But officials at the ADB also say that it may be time for Cambodia to consider aspects of its economic policy.

“Indications [of economic recovery in Cambodia show] that it may indeed be time to begin to draw down the economic stimulus program,” ADB Senior Country Economist Peter Brimble wrote yesterday.

His comments came just one day after Cambodia’s Finance Minister Keat Chhon projected that government spending could increase by up to 50 percent to US$2.9 billion in 2011.

But the National Assembly’s Economy, Finance, Bank, and Audit Commission Chairman Cheam Yeap said yesterday that the $2.9 billion budget was an estimate that would be continually reassessed, keeping budgetary growth in line with government income.

Peter Brimble added that Cambodia’s public deficit, how much the government spends over its income as a share of GDP, was aimed to improve to 5.3 percent in 2010, from 5.9 percent in 2009.

Some analysts believe that keeping up fiscal stimulus in the coming year could benefit the country in the long term.

Increasing the Kingdom's public expenditure despite the recovery could be positive provided the money was well targeted, Leopard Capital managing partner Scott Lewis said.

“Investing in things like infrastructure is important in Cambodia,” he said. “It’s not like in other countries, where they are just sort of throwing money around.”

The Kingdom’s economy is slated to grow to 4.5 percent this year after GDP declined 2 percent in 2009 on the back of falling garment sales and slowing tourist receipts, according to the ADB report.

World Bank trade economist Julian Clarke said Cambodia’s economy had been able to “surf the wave” of increased international demand for garments pre-crisis.

“The recession in South Korea and Hong Kong, Taiwan has also lowered Cambodia's growth,” he wrote.

Time for Prey Speu to close

Photo by: Sovan Philong
A group of prostitutes sit on a wall waiting for clients in Phnom Penh

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:02 Dr Pung Chhiv Kek

Opinion

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Dr Pung Chhiv Kek

THE couple at Licadho’s intake desk is new, but we’ve heard their story before.

They are street people, the parents of young children. Their kids were recently abducted in broad daylight, from right under their noses. They saw it happen. They know where their children are. They even know who the perpetrators are.

That’s the problem, actually. This wasn’t committed by a gang. The men were staff from Phnom Penh’s Department of Social Affairs.

The couple tried to protest. But the officials pushed them away and tossed their children in a truck. The kids were destined for the Ministry of Social Affairs detention centre at Prey Speu.

Following the arrest, the father located the children at the Phnom Penh Social Affairs Department. There, he learned that one child had been beaten by staff because he was crying for his mother. The father asked a staff member why he would beat a child; the staff member responded by striking the father on his head. A few hours later, the children were sent to Prey Speu.

At the centre, the children were locked in a small room with children and adults of all ages and genders. They were only allowed out twice per day for short meal periods, when they were given watery porridge. One child was beaten by a staff member after they decided he was asking to go to the toilet too often.

After lengthy negotiations, Licadho finally succeeded in removing the children from the centre. We found them in a pitiful state. The children had had little to eat and wore the same dirty clothes for the duration of the detention.

This was hardly the first report of abuse we have received regarding Cambodia’s social affairs centres. Sadly, it is not likely to be the last.

Licadho has documented the abuses at Prey Speu since at least 2004. Since that time, we have interviewed numerous former detainees. The victims are of all ages, but always came from society’s most vulnerable groups: beggars, the homeless, street children, sex workers and drug users. They have all described, with chilling consistency, a pattern of arbitrary arrests on the streets of Phnom Penh, inhuman conditions at the centres and horrific abuses.

The evidence in favour of closing Prey Speu is powerful. But perhaps the most telling evidence is the government’s reluctance to allow regular, unannounced monitoring by independent NGOs. Licadho is routinely denied access to monitor the centres. What is there to hide?

The recent report from Human Rights Watch on sex workers (“Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia”) provides ample details as to why the government would want to avoid open access to these types of centres. But the details bear repeating.

First, the very existence of Social Affairs centres such as Prey Speu, where people are arbitrarily detained, is of dubious legality. None of the detainees has been charged with or convicted of a crime. Someone has simply decided they are unpleasant to look at. The authorities charged with imprisoning the detainees serve the role of judge, jury and jailer. There are no checks on their power.

Second, detainees are held on the pretence of rehabilitation, but in practice, the centres function as dumping sites for society’s “undesirables”.

They offer nothing in the way of rehabilitative programming, social services, training or assistance. In fact, Prey Speu can barely muster the effort to provide food, water and medical care to the detainees. Torture in these centres is rampant, including beatings, rapes and, in some instances, killings.

By all accounts, conditions may be even worse than in Cambodia’s prisons.

Finally, the so-called “voluntary” inmates at these centres are often voluntary only in the most cynical interpretation of that word. Some of them are employed by the centre or the relatives of these pseudo-staff members. Many others are mentally ill or otherwise lacking capacity for meaningful consent.

Licadho believes it is time for the government to stop its unlawful detention programme and shut Prey Speu, which has for nearly a decade been used to lock away the most vulnerable members of society. Further, if justice is to be served, the staff involved in the most serious human rights abuses at the centre must be prosecuted.

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Dr Pung Chhiv Kek is founder and president of the rights group Licadho.

Business laws in pipeline

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Booksellers hawk photocopied works outside the Royal Palace yesterday. The government is preparing to create a commercial court to help resolve cases such as intellectual property disputes.

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:01 May Kunmakara

DRAFT laws governing commercial contracts and a new commercial court, set to launch in 2011, are months away from being submitted to the Council of Ministers.

Var Roth San, director of the Department of Intellectual Property Rights at the Ministry of Commerce, said yesterday the laws were likely to be approved by the National Assembly in 2011 once they had been checked by the Council of Ministers – a move expected in “ two or three months”.

“Once they are passed, a commercial court will probably be established sometime in late 2011 or early 2012,” he told reporters yesterday at an advanced workshop on civil adjudication of commercial, intellectual property and international trade cases, held in Phnom Penh.

The two laws were being drafted under “technical assistance” from development partners and have already undergone multiple drafts and revisions to prepare them for the final approval, he said.

Ten judges, selected by the Minister of Justice from Phnom Penh’s municipal court and the provincial courts of Takeo and Kampong Chnang, were attending the four-day session at the InterContinental Hotel this week to gain advice from commercial judges from ASEAN-member countries.

“This workshop is timely for our country as the government reforms the judicial system and prepares to establish the commercial court,” Var Roth San said.

“It benefits our judges, whose experiences and knowledge [in commercial law] is low because normally they are working on the general [case disputes].”

Chhorn Ravuth, manager of Confirel Co Ltd (Cambodia) which makes sugar, wine and vinegar, welcomed the news and said it would give local producers more confidence in protecting product brand names and business-dispute resolution.

“This will be good for us as we will have a place where we can deal with disputes,” he said. “Now when we have problems, we don’t know where we can go so we just try to resolve by ourselves.”

Var Roth San said the government would also set up a sub-committee for Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement and a sub-committee for Education and Public Awareness.

Rents plunge as demand dries up

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:01 Soeun Say

APARTMENT rental prices fell up to 25 percent in the second quarter of 2010, compared to the first quarter, after the number of home seekers declined and new vacancies increased.

Keuk Narin, general manager of Bonna Realty Group and Secretary of the National Valuers Association of Cambodia, said yesterday prices in Phnom Penh have fallen between 15 and 25 percent in the second quarter.

“Demand is slipping because of the ongoing impact of the global financial crisis,” he said.

“In my view, I think the price might continue to drop because there will be increasing supply in third and fourth quarter this year.”

The cost of renting an apartment increased 25 percent to 35 percent from 2005 to mid-2008, according to NVAC statistics. But it has since dropped about 5 to 15 percent from mid-2008, the onset of the financial crisis, until the first quarter of 2010.

Figures released by NVAC yesterday show rentals are continuing to fall in the second quarter.

Average rent on a three-bedroom A-grade apartment in central Phnom Penh was US$2,500 to $2,800 per month on average in the first quarter. This dropped to $2,200 to $2,300 per month in the second quarter.

Compared to the second quarter last year, two-bedroom apartments are now $1,200 to $1,500, down from $1,700 to $1,800 last year.

Meanwhile, one-bedroom class-A units are $400 to $1,000, down from $500 to $1,300.

Mang Sovandara, property manager of Cambodia Property Ltd Co, with some 70 apartments and 500 villas for rent in the capital, said he expects the falling price trend to continue.

“Our company research shows the price for residential rent continuing to fall in the second quarter, and I think that it will continue to drop next year,” he said.

He said that the asking price across all grades of apartment – A, B and C – had dropped by $200 to $300 per unit, compared to the second quarter last year.

Ouk Vanna, the owner of a three-bedroom furnished apartment in Boeung Keng Kang II, said the world economic crisis had hit every business and likewise drove him to decrease his rental price.

Leading edge: Premium opportunity for growth

Photo by: Pha Lina
Cao Minh Son is chief executive officer of Cambodia Vietnam Insurance, which insures Cambodia Angkor Air.

via Khmer NZ

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 15:01 Nguon Sovan

Cao Minh Son is chief executive officer of Cambodia Vietnam Insurance, which has operated in Cambodia since November last year.

After almost a year in Cambodia’s market, what do you think about the insurance industry here?

From CVI’s point of view, Cambodia’s insurance market has a great deal of potential for growth.

When you look at the revenue statistics over recent years, it has increased every year, except in 2009 due to the global financial crisis which delayed several large construction projects. The Cambodian market is very competitive, even when compared with Vietnam.

Could you compare the insurance markets in Cambodia and Vietnam?

One of the most noticeable differences is that in Vietnam insurance companies look to co-insure and spread risks amongst each other, whereas in Cambodia it rarely happens. In Vietnam, sometimes insurers fight for customers, but sometimes they sit down together to provide co-insurance to big projects.

For example, if I insured a building for US$30 million, but I didn’t have enough ability to insure it alone, I could insure only a part of it for $1 million.

In the future, we should have greater co-operation with each other in order to build the local industry and keep premiums in country.

Cambodia has six insurers and one re-insurer, how does this compare to Vietnam?

Six players in this industry is reasonable at the moment with the population [of Cambodia] at 14 million.

In Vietnam, there are up to 29 insurers, however the population is also large – up to 86 million.

In terms of registered capital and premium revenues, it’s also far different. Cambodian premiums were just $20 million last year, but in Vietnam it was up to $870 million.

For registered capital, to open a insurance company here it’s required by the finance ministry to have the registered capital of $7 million, but it’s $16 million in Vietnam, and it is now going to increase to $27 million.

What do you think about the perceptions of Cambodians towards buying insurance?

Generally speaking, the concept of insurance is fairly new, and it will require the public several more years to become more acquainted with the concept of insurance as part of their everyday life.

What are the benefits?

Quite simply it provides a certain level of protection for either a family or individual or business from financial problems if something unforeseen should happen.

In addition, the insurance company is someone you can depend upon.

Some Cambodians earn a very low income; sometimes it is not enough to support their daily needs, do you think they have money to buy insurance?

Of course most people don’t buy insurance, but in the city and for companies’ staff [it is different]. Normally, companies provide benefits for staff by buying accident insurance and health insurance for them, so we focus on them.

Now, we are focusing on selling insurance to workers at Vietnamese-run rubber plantations.

What are premium insurance revenues and claims for CVI up of the end of June?

As of June, CVI’s revenue for 2010 to date is $508,000, which equates to 50 percent of the target we set ourselves for this year.

The majority of our revenue has come from aviation insurance to Cambodia Angkor Air, followed by fire and automobile insurance. So far, everything is very good, claims which have come up so far at CVI are not more than $1,000, just small personal accidents and auto-claims. We gained a profit from the first year of operations.

What types of insurance does CVI offer?

In our first few years of operation, CVI will focus primarily on property and engineering.

We will pay particular attention to the large number of local and foreign investment-driven infrastructure projects being undertaken, especially those from Vietnam.

We have become the leading provider of aviation insurance of late, so we will look to maintain and develop this niche, too. Also, we’re looking at the sectors of energy, mining, oil and gas.

What is CVI’s strategy to gain market share in this industry?

We will look to take advantage of our inherent strengths and continue to support the interests of our shareholders. We are looking to develop the market to its full potential rather than compete for existing business.

We will expand our operations to some key provinces such as Siem Reap, Preah Sihanouk, and Kampong Cham.