EDITORIAL Shock move by White House

Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com

Published: 16/06/2009

The latest decision on Southeast Asia by US President Barack Obama is the second disturbing action by Washington affecting this region. Late last Friday, after the main news cycles for the week had elapsed, Mr Obama announced a major new policy initiative. The low-level statement that he was declaring Laos and Cambodia eligible for major US loans and trade concessions took the rest of the region by surprise.

The first visit to Southeast Asia by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton largely ignored the longest and strongest US allies. Now, the decision to give special treatment to Laos and Cambodia came as a bit of shock, including in Thailand.

Mr Obama's "determination" about each country was a brief official statement, posted at the White House media room and website. Such presidential determinations are legal obligations in many cases in the United States; these were the 20th and 21st of an early presidency. But as these statements showed, they are often "game changers" by the president. In these almost identical statements, Mr Obama declared that Laos and Cambodia are eligible to be beneficiaries of US Export-Import Bank loans for American businesses in those countries.

The reason, Mr Obama said, is that each "has ceased to be a Marxist-Leninist country".

Mr Obama was apparently not concerned with the nuances of Marxist evolution. It was mandatory to declare Laos and Cambodia were not communist countries in order to achieve his true goal - to provide millions, and perhaps billions, of investment capital for American businesses to set up, operate in and trade with the two neighbouring countries.

Mr Obama did not explain why he set this goal. Indeed, the manner of the announcement was to keep all questions and justification to a minimum.

This apparently was to stifle the negative reaction of political groups in the US who are appalled at the treatment of Hmong tribespeople by Laos.

A more important result, however, is that Mr Obama has created negative fallout in Thailand and the region.

The US Exim Bank rarely is involved with Thailand, and generally supports one-time sales rather than investment.

In 2003, it provided support for sales of Boeing 747 aircraft to Thai Airways International, and there are occasional cases where the bank has backed smaller deals. As the Thai economy has developed, the US Exim Bank has been an ever-smaller presence.

That is why Mr Obama's unexpected support for Laos and Cambodia disappointed many in Thailand. For years, Thai businesses have expanded into these countries. The overseas business expansion - ironically with the frequent support of the Exim Bank of Thailand - has been a major engine of Thai growth. This in turn has led to decreasing dependence upon foreign help and special programmes by Washington.

The sudden entry of the US Exim Bank into these Thai markets will affect Thai trade and the economy. By failing to warn and prepare Thai authorities and businesses, the Obama administration has created a shock that will have negative implications, at least at the start.

This problem could easily have been avoided had the White House warned of the coming decision and allowed time for diplomatic talks and business preparations. Failing to do so again begs the question of whether the United States is seriously engaged with its long-time allies in this region.

Exhibition displays chemical-free crops in Cambodia

The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua): An exhibition displaying chemical-free crops was held in Cambodia's kampong Chhnang province aimed at promoting crops grown without the use of chemicals, local media reported on Tuesday.

Nearly 1,000 farmers from Kampong Chhnang province showed their "natural method" agricultural products during the exhibition on Monday. The exhibition gave farmers a chance to show off their naturally farmed products and helped other farmers become nore aware of so-called non-chemical crops, English newspaper the Phnom Penh Post quoted Yang Saing Koma, president of the Cambodian center for Agricultural Studies and Development (CEDAC), as saying.

Dozens of vegetables and other agricultural products were shown at this year's first exhibition.

"We support the production of agricultural products without using chemical substances, and we are encouraging farmers to do more with their jobs in order to ensure food security for our country and to increase exports," said Ith Nody, under secretary of state of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

According to a report by the ministry, farmers throughout Cambodia have produced 259,610 tons of vegetables from a total land area of 47,781 hectares in the 2008-2009 farming year.

Touch Savy, a farmer from Kampong Chhnang province said the exhibition would help create market opportunities for her products and hoped more exhibitions would be organized.

Cambodian authorities consider opening Angkor Wat temples at night for tourists

http://www.post-gazette.com

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodia is considering opening the famed Angkor Wat temples at night to draw more tourists to the impoverished country, an official at the archaeological site said.

Similar night tourism efforts have been introduced at other sites in Southeast Asia.

Cambodia already has installed some lights at the network of centuries-old temples, said Bun Narith, who leads the agency responsible for managing the Angkor park.

Tourism is a major foreign currency earner for cash-strapped Cambodia. More than a million foreign tourists are expected to visit this year, with most from South Korea, Japan and the United States. More than half of tourists visit the Angkor temples, by far the country's biggest draw.

Visitors are now ushered out of Angkor at sunset, but authorities are considering extending visiting hours to as late as 8:30 p.m. local time.

"We want tourists to see all views of the temple, even in the dark places where they may have not have seen some of the sculptures and statues," Bun Narith said.

But conservationists have long expressed concerns about tourism's impact on Angkor. They say the uncontrolled pumping of underground water to meet the rising demand of hotels and residents in the nearby town of Siem Reap may be destabilizing the earth beneath the temples.

Khmer Krom: Activist Confident on Political Asylum Prospects

UNPO
http://www.unpo.org

Monday, 15 June 2009

Political Activist Tim Sakhorn is optimistic about receiving refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand.

Below is an article published by the Phnom Penh Post:

As the June 18 [2009] deadline for his asylum application draws near, Buddhist monk and human rights activist Tim Sakhorn says he is confident the United States government will grant him political asylum and allow him to settle in America.

Tim Sakhorn, an advocate for the rights of southern Vietnam's ethnic Khmer minority, popularly known as Khmer Krom, fled from Cambodia in April and has been living at an undisclosed location in Bangkok awaiting the US government's decision, expected next week.

"I am now waiting for an official confirmation from [the UN High Commissioner for Refugees]," Tim Sakhorn said by phone from Bangkok, adding that he is going to have a meeting with officials from the US Embassy in Bangkok soon.

"I strongly believe that I deserve asylum status since the threats from the Vietnamese authorities are real."

The 41-year-old monk, who was arrested and defrocked in Cambodia in June 2007 before being deported and jailed for a year in Vietnam on charges of undermining its national unity, fled to Thailand when Vietnamese authorities allowed him to enter Cambodia on April 4 to visit family in his native Takeo province.

"It is difficult for Khmer Krom to stay in this country: The Thai authorities will arrest as soon as they find us," Tim Sakhorn said.

"It is a bit easier for monks since they can rely on pagodas for day-to-day support, but regular Khmer Krom have a hard time even finding shelter or paying for food. Khmer Krom will face serious problems if the UN fails to recognise our rights to refuge," Tim Sakhorn said.

The Bangkok office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has granted temporary refugee status to five Khmer Krom monks, allowing them to stay in Thailand pending the approval of an asylum bid to other countries.

Ang Chanrith, executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organisation, said the UNHCR is expected to release the official verdict on Tim Sakhorn's case on Thursday, while the refugee status of the other five Khmer monks will be finalised by early July [2009].

He said Thailand is now a temporary home for more than 200 Khmer Krom currently applying for residence in third countries.

Since early 2009, the UNHCR has helped four Khmer Krom refugees obtain political asylum in the United States, while an additional 71 have received temporary refugee status and are waiting to move on to another country.

Worsening situation

Thach Setha, president of Khmer Kampuchea Krom Association, said the rapid increase in the number of Khmer Krom refugees in Thailand was due to the series of protests against rights abuses committed by the Vietnamese authorities in 2007 and 2008.

"Even after having fled to Cambodia, [the Khmer Krom] are not safe. The Vietnamese authorities continue to track them down here. This is why they must seek asylum in another country," he said.

In a report on the Khmer Krom issued in January, Human Rights Watch recorded the "severe and often shrouded" methods used by the Vietnamese government to stifle freedom of religion and other basic rights of the Khmer minority in the Mekong Delta.

The US Embassy in Bangkok could not be reached for comment Thursday [11 Jun 2009].

International visitors learn about improving environment

Paul W. Gillespie - The Capital
Dr. Kifle Workagegnehu, from Ethopia; Khalifa AlJahwari, from Oman; and John Zins,with the US State Department, taste fresh blueberries from a bush on the grounds of the Chesapeake Ecology Center.

http://www.hometownannapolis.com

Annapolis tour includes rain gardens, green roofs

By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer
Published 06/15/09

They came from all over the world - Mexico, India, Thailand, Serbia - to a quiet corner of Annapolis where purple coneflowers bloom and switch grass sways in the breeze.

For the second time in two weeks, the Chesapeake Ecology Center hosted an international delegation of environment officials who are touring America to gather and exchange ideas.

On June 4, visitors came from Latin America. On Thursday, a group of 19 officials from just as many countries toured the center's gardens and helped with some mulching.

The ecology center's Zora Lathan explained concepts such as rain gardens, green roofs, rain barrels and native plants to the visitors. She talked about how the various gardens at the ecology center, located on the grounds of J. Albert Adams Academy, are designed in a manner that's natural to the landscape.

She talked about how humans tend to flatten the landscape when clearing trees and putting up buildings, removing hills and valleys that naturally control the flow of water.

"These gardens help re-establish the balance of nature. ... We're imitating nature by creating contours in the landscape," Lathan said.

Lathan also put them to work, taking a giant pile of mulch and spreading it across a wooded area to help suppress weeds and retain moisture.

The international visitors also planned to visit the town hall in Highland Beach, just south of Annapolis. The town hall is a "green" building that earned platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

The visitors came from a variety of backgrounds, though all are connected to the environment. Some work for their country's government in wildlife conservation, environmental protection or parks. Others came from nongovernmental organizations.

They're spending 21 days in the United States as part of an international leadership program run by the U.S. Department of State.

They spent last week in the Washington, D.C., area, and then headed to Miami and the Florida Everglades. They then will split into groups to spend time in New Mexico, Texas or Rapid City, S.D., before rejoining in Colorado. The goal is to learn from American environmental programs as well as from one another.

Hiek Sopheap, executive director of the Association of Buddhists for the Environment in Cambodia, said he was impressed with the gardens and the idea of using them as a teaching tool.

"This garden is good and it can spread information to people," he said.

He said in Cambodia, residents don't always understand the implications of their actions, such as the harm done by cutting down trees.

"It's very interesting the people here know about environmental concerns," he said.

Likewise, Patricia Quintana, who works for the Ministry of Environment in El Salvador, also was impressed with Americans' environmental knowledge. Quintana said America seems to put much more money and government attention into the environment.

In El Salvador, she said, "the priority of the topic is not as much as it is in America."

Churchill Collyer, a wildlife officer in Botswana, a landlocked country in southern Africa, was looking forward to seeing some of America's more wild places.

He was a bit taken aback by all the hustle and bustle he saw in the government offices the group visited in the District. Collyer said things move at a much slower pace in Botswana.

He also passed along a compliment that few Americans hear: "Americans are very friendly."

Defence for the accused Khmer Rouge explains its positions and fears

Kambol (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). 10/06/2009: Richard Rogers, head of the Defence Support Section, during a joint press conference with the ECCC spokespersons
©John Vink/ Magnum

Ka-set
http://cambodia.ka-set.info

By Stéphanie Gée
16-06-2009

Richard Rogers, head of the Defence Support Section at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, returned, during a press conference on Wednesday June 10th at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), to the last requests made by the defence teams, first among them the request for the publication of a United Nations report on the graft allegations within the hybrid jurisdiction. The call was since then supported by the co-Prosecutors and the lawyers for civil party groups 1 and 2. “If the evidence were invalidated by corruption, the judges could not be able to rule properly and the trial not be fair,” the British official explained, before detailing the positions and concerns of the defence at this stage of the proceedings.

The same went, Richard Rogers continued, for the allegations of interferences by the Cambodian government in the tribunal’s affairs. That was why the defence team for Nuon Chea, the former ideologist of the Khmer Rouge regime, requested clarifications on this issue both from the co-Investigating Judges and the co-Prosecutors. To this day, only the international co-Investigating Judge, Marcel Lemonde, responded to their letter, Richard Rogers stressed. “If the co-Prosecutors decide to issue indictments according to political affiliations and not evidence, there is no equality before the law,” he argued and added that for the time being, these were “only allegations and concerns.”

Denouncing misjudgements about the defence
The coordinator for the defence teams also reviewed what he considered to be misconceptions. For instance, equating the fact of raising concerns over the tribunal’s credibility with a defence tactic aimed at stretching the proceedings. “That is simply not true,” he stated. He argued that the investigation in case file 2 was continuing as normal and that the defence’s endeavour could not be labelled as an obstructionist move, because any question relating to the validity of a fair trial must be asked and solved. And as evidence that these requests were not “frivolous”, he added, parties took them seriously. A second misconception according to him was to say that the defence preferred to take shelter behind this debate rather than to prepare their clients’ cases. There again, Richard Rogers tore into pieces that point of view and explained that getting down to the challenges raised by a fair trial did not replace but instead complemented the work done by the lawyers regarding the evidence.

Moreover, according to Richard Rogers, several defence teams appreciated little the comment made by the co-Investigating Judges during their press conference on May 27th, that the defendants were slowing the proceedings down by using their right to remain silent. Some of the lawyers, he observed, deemed “inappropriate” to place the responsibility of the length of the proceedings on the accused, who only made use of one of their rights. “One of the roles of the judges is to help protect the rights of the accused and not to criticise the use of their rights,” he thus recalled.

Another misconception, Richard Rogers continued to list, was to say that it was not necessary to worry about possible political interferences, as the Pre-Trial Chamber was there to solve such issues. If such a mechanism was in place, it nonetheless remained, he insisted, that concern over a potential lack of independency of the court could not be dismissed on the sole ground that these cases were sent for examination by the Pre-Trial Chamber.

When medical issues becomes legal issues
Richard Rogers also reported that the defendants’ lawyers complained about their inability to have access to their clients when those, who are aged, are transferred to the hospital, Calmette in this case, or to prompt and specific information on their health status. The message was heard by the co-Investigating Judges who were currently “doing their best to assist the defence” on this point, even if not everything was settled yet “due to complicated relations between the Calmette hospital and the tribunal,” he confided.

Another matter questioned by the lawyers was the delay between the time they filed a request with the tribunal and the time when the request was heard by the Pre-Trial Chamber. Richard Rogers lamented that the delay often stretched over long months.

Investigation on the “Waterlilygate” closed, Helen Jarvis supported by the tribunal
Following the head of the Defence Support Section, the international spokesperson for the ECCC, Lars Olsen, read a statement of the tribunal reviewing the recent criticisms against it. Regarding what the press dubbed the “Waterlilygate” - a confidential letter from the office of the lawyers for Nuon Chea was found in a ditch in the tribunal’s courtyard, without the defence team’s knowing -, the investigation of the security office of the ECCC concluded that no evidence supported the hypothesis of a criminal act or a theft of document and recommendations to strengthen security were issued. “Each tribunal office must be responsible for the destruction of its own documents,” Lars Olsen recalled.

Regarding the concerns raised among others by the lawyers for Ieng Sary (former head of the Khmer Rouge diplomacy) and Nuon Chea, following the appointment of Helen Jarvis at the head of the Victims Unit, Knut Rosandhaug, deputy director of the Office of Administration of the tribunal, specified in a letter the distribution of responsibilities between the Victims Unit and the Public Affairs led by the Australian until then. He also recalled that any staff member had the right to have political opinions and added that the political affiliations of Helen Jarvis, who had co-signed in 2006 a letter of the Australian Leninist Party Faction (LPF), were known long before her appointment. He expressed his full support to her new assignment.

Cambodia: Drop Charges Against Opposition MP and Her Lawyer

http://www.alertnet.org

15 Jun 2009

Source: Human Rights Watch

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

(New York) - Cambodia's ruling party should cease its threats, harassment, and spurious legal action against opposition members of parliament and lawyers defending free expression, Human Rights Watch said today.

On June 22, 2009, the National Assembly is expected to decide whether to strip the parliamentary immunity of Mu Sochua, a member of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and one of the assembly's few female members. Stripping Sochua's immunity would allow a criminal defamation case against her to go forward. The case is based on a complaint by Prime Minister Hun Sen of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), who has also brought defamation charges against her lawyer.

"Hun Sen has a long history of trying to muzzle Cambodia's political opposition and undermine the independence of the legal profession," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "This most recent case should be ringing alarm bells among Cambodia's donors, particularly those who fund judicial and legal reform."

On April 23, Sochua and her lawyer announced her intention to file a defamation complaint against Hun Sen for allegedly making derogatory comments about her, accusing her of "inciting" problems and acting like a gangster. Hun Sen responded by filing defamation suits against both Sochua and her lawyer, Kong Sam On.

On June 10, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court dismissed Sochua's lawsuit against the prime minister, claiming that no defamation occurred, while continuing to process his counter-suit against her.

Kong Sam On, one of the few private lawyers in Cambodia willing to represent opposition officials in high-profile court cases, is also being targeted for his involvement in the case. In addition to Hun Sen's defamation suit against him, Hun Sen's lawyer, Ky Tech, has filed a complaint with the Cambodian Bar Association accusing Kong Sam On of violating the lawyers' code of ethics.

The supposedly independent Bar Association has historically been subject to interference by senior government officials. In 2005, for example, the politically controlled court system overturned the election of an independent candidate as president of the Bar Association, who was replaced by Ky Tech, the government-backed candidate.

"Kong Sam On faces being suspended or even disbarred for simply representing the interests of his client," said Adams. "This will have a chilling effect on Cambodia's legal profession and the willingness of lawyers to represent the opposition party or other people who file complaints against government officials."

Other SRP members of parliament may also be under threat. Since late April when Sochua filed her lawsuit, government and ruling party officials have filed a series of lawsuits against individuals affiliated with the SRP. These include a defamation suit by the Phnom Penh Municipal Governor against party leader Sam Rainsy; a suit by a group of military officers against SRP parliamentarian Ho Vann, alleging defamation and incitement; and a suit by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An against Heng Chakra, editor of an SRP-affiliated newspaper, alleging incitement.

Opposition figures convicted on politically motivated charges after their parliamentary immunity was lifted include Cheam Channy, an SRP member convicted in a biased trial in 2005 on unsubstantiated charges of creating a rebel army, and Sam Rainsy himself the same year for allegedly defaming government leaders.

"These lawsuits are a clear attempt to intimidate the opposition and prevent members of parliament from exercising free expression," said Adams. "Even by Cambodian standards, the state of freedom of expression and democratic rights is growing more fragile by the day."

New national carrier to launch in Cambodia

Travel Blackboard
http://www.etravelblackboardasia.com

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

The Cambodian government and Vietnam Airlines are set to launch a new national carrier, according to a source within the Phnom Penh International Airport.

The official, who spoke to the Phnom Penh Post on condition of anonymity, said the government would own 51 percent of Cambodia Angkor Air and the state-owned Vietnamese carrier 49 percent.

The airline is expected to make its maiden flight on July 18 and it will initially fly two routes linking Preah Sihanouk province's Kang Keng Airport to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, the official said.

The source did not disclose how much would be invested into the joint venture, or any other financial details.

An unnamed source at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation also confirmed the joint venture was with a Vietnamese airline, but did not specify which carrier.

The news comes after Vietnam Airlines last week signed a $120 million loan package with a consortium of banks to finance the purchase of six 72-500 aircraft from ATR.

The contract was signed in December, in addition to five ATR 72-500s already on order, AFP reported last week.

Vietnam Airlines Corp Head of Market Planning Trinh Ngoc Thanh refused to comment when contacted by the Post.

He said the airline would release a statement "when it is appropriate".

Aom Chenda, an information official at the Council of Ministers, said that Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told a Vietnamese oil company delegation that a new national carrier would make its maiden flight on July 18.

He repeated the comment to reporters but did not disclose who owned the airline, saying only that it was a local company.

He than contradicted the earlier statement saying the maiden flight would be July 17.

Meanwhile, Mau Havannal, secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA), said Tuesday said that an "anonymous private local company" was preparing documents to apply to run flights out of Kang Keng Airport.

However, Mau Havannal continued to say that no official application had been received.

"We do not know who owns the national carrier because it has not been named yet," he said.

Chea Aun, director general of the SSCA, confirmed that the "private local company" would use French-made ATR planes.

The planned launch of Cambodia Angkor Air appears to have brought to an end a joint-venture relationship between the government and two Indonesian companies first mooted in November 2003.

Sok An signed a memorandum of understanding on the joint-venture carrier with officials from Rajawali Group and PT Ancora International.

According to the MoU the foreign partners would take a 49 percent stake but receive 70 percent of the profits.

Rajawali was founded by Indonesian entrepreneur Peter Sondakh, ranked by Globe Asia magazine last year as the 19th wealthiest Indonesian with a net worth of $510 million.

The chairman of PT Ancora International, Ith Vichit, was CEO of Cambodia's last national flag carrier, Royal Air Cambodge, which ceased operations in 2001 due to bankruptcy caused by tough competition and mismanagement.

A statement released by Rajawali on April 10, last year announced that the deal was still going ahead and it contained no mention of PT Ancora.

The airline was due to have launched last year, with Sok An having since drawn heavy criticism from Prime Minister Hun Sen over the delay.

Another domestic carrier, Siem Reap Airways, was banned in November amid concerns over safety standards and financial irregularities.

According to a source within the SSCA, the ban came after an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) audit found the Kingdom in breach of 107 international standards, adding that it would ban all Cambodian airlines if action was not taken.

Phnom Penh's Eviction Epidemic

Far Eastern Economic Review
http://www.feer.com

by Geoffrey Cain
Posted June 16, 2009

Sewage scraps blow through the alleyways of Andong, at the outskirts of Phnom Penh, giving it a putrid scent accented by damp air and daily floods. Just outside a line of crammed huts, across a garbage-strewn field with cows grazing, the town well too is contaminated, making life doubly hard for the poor souls forced by the government to live here. The village chief, donning a camouflage jacket and flashing his gold teeth, eyes the video camera of the United Nations film crew I’m traveling with. “We don’t need anything here, he says. “Only to stop the flooding.”

The villagers, like 58-year-old Teth Neang, aren’t so optimistic. After she was evicted from her slum in 2006 for a private development, she claims soldiers “dumped” her in this field without a house, land title and access to health services. Authorities promised her all of these. “They said they would reimburse us with $250 each, but the village chief went to every family, and demanded the money,” she recalls. “If we didn’t give him the money, we didn’t get housing after the eviction.” She slept in the field for a week, swashing through mud and floods.

Even after Phnom Penh’s recent property boom dwindled, the once-bare capital is developing at breakneck speed, and the city's poor are being displaced at an alarming rate. Activists are calling it the largest epidemic of evictions since the Khmer Rouge emptied all of Phnom Penh in 1975. Last week, local rights group Licadho blasted the government in a report for failing to control land-grabbing, claiming 133,000 people, or 10% of the population, have been evicted in Phnom Penh since 1990. That’s not counting the 250,000 victims of land-grabbing in 13 other provinces.

Modern Phnom Penh is a young city, the bulk of its population consisting of countryside migrants who came after the Khmer Rouge were toppled in 1979, and during the United Nations peacekeeping operation of 1992-93. Slum squatters, who according to some estimates number nearly a million, are swelling a city designed under French rule for 200,000 residents. Today, Phnom Penh is crammed beyond repair, and the fact that many squatters live on prime real estate means the government needs them out quickly.

Of course, governments all over the world use the power of eminent domain, meaning they can evict people for the public good. But in Cambodia, land-grabs come more with the promise of fattened wallets that actual development projects. Most land is ceded in secret, for government-connected moguls building hotels and high-end condominiums, sometimes by intimidating local residents with armed force or arrest. Like in Ms. Neang’s case, the evictees are often thrown into squalor outskirts without health-care services, clean water and sanitation, in remote areas where they can’t commute to the city.

At the center of Phnom Penh’s eviction epidemic is Boeung Kak lake, once integral to the city’s broken drainage system, but now being filled by Shukaku Inc., a secretive property development firm owned by a senator. Residents around the lake have been locked in a four-year battle with the company, which plans to evict them to build hotels on top of the filled lake. Cambodia’s land law, however, declares that lakes are public property and cannot be destroyed. Needless to say, reports of intimidation against activists and journalists surface regularly. City officials have reportedly tried to disrupt NGO gatherings around the lake by threatening to close local guest houses who host them. When I went to the filling site last month with a the U.N. film crew, a guard threatened to take our equipment if we stayed.

Meanwhile, in central Phnom Penh, a community of HIV-positive families awaits the arrival of police this week, after the government announced they too will be evicted to the outskirts. Many residents say they haven’t been provided with documents guaranteeing them new flats, even though officials have promised a portion of them housing. If all follows the pattern of most other evictions, they’ll be left far away from the medical care they need, and, like Ms. Neang, without proper sanitation and housing—a point that nongovernmental organizations have repeatedly raised without much response.

Not surprisingly, the government has dismissed NGO concerns, and doesn’t seem to admit there even is a problem. Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun lashed out on Monday at Licadho’s report, telling the Phnom Penh Post that the organization is “not Khmer.” Yet despite tooting slogans of stability and growth under the current regime, even Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned of the dangers of land grabbing. As one evicted villager bemoaned to former Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia Peter Leuprecht, “Under Pol Pot we died quickly, but we kept our forests. Under the democratic system it is a slow, protracted death. There will be violence, because we do not want to die.”

Geoffrey Cain is a freelance journalist based in Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh.

SME finance crucial

http://www.phnompenhpost.com

Written by James Lowrey
Monday, 15 June 2009

Recovery depends on backing key elements of the economy, which in Cambodia means SMEs

COUNTRIES around the region continue to amend GDP forecast downwards as trade volumes soften and destination countries show little sign of improvement.

The de-coupling theory has failed to hold true, exposing the heavy reliance most Asian economies have on export activity as opposed to domestic consumption. Cambodia is reliant on export markets to support its garment, tourism and agricultural sectors, three key pillars of the economy.

The major concern is that this economic crisis started in the financial sector in developed countries - the United States and Europe - and has wreaked havoc on the "real economy", as opposed to prior crises.

Though many governments have introduced fiscal stimulus through public investment to fill the gap, the global economy can only start to enjoy a broad recovery when demand for goods recovers. Demand has been impacted by the loss of wealth many households have incurred through key assets such as housing and investments. On top of this, corporations and businesses have either retrenched to cut costs to survive or collapsed.

Banks have not been immune to this. Not only has the financial sector been a larger employer historically, it also plays a critical role in financing business investment and household consumption.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are often credited as the engine room of the economy. Though they are smaller and less noticeable than large corporations, they employ the lion's share of the labour force and contribute substantially to overall economic activity. As both global and local banks' balance sheets have come under pressure due to the economic crisis, they have reduced the amount of finance they are willing, or able, to provide. Not only has access to finance been a problem for struggling SMEs, so too has the cost.

Earlier this year, the government of Vietnam announced an economic stimulus package to help Vietnamese SMEs maintain production and boost exports this year, one of many countries in the region that has initiated SME-targeted lending. The package includes interest-rate subsidies for a maximum of 12 months for local companies using loans for importing essential business or capital goods.

In Cambodia, SMEs also have access to several loan schemes and business-improvement programmes. Many international and local development agencies support expansion of the country's SME sector, including support for working capital and trade finance, and business or technical advice. Assistance can be found for most industries; however, there is particular focus on building the export capacity and improving productivity and processing in the agriculture sector.

Whilst Cambodia's banking and finance sector has avoided the direct shocks that have hit many other countries, it has been impacted indirectly, thus lending suppport for SMEs would be a welcome step.
____________________________________________
James Lowry is head of corporate and institutional banking at ANZ Royal Bank Cambodia.

Always More to give

In front of a poster from a Bangkok performance, Bruce More displays some of the mementoes from this year's Asian tour by members of the Prima Choir and the UVic Chamber Singers.
Photograph by: Adrian Lam, Times Colonist, Times Colonist

Retiring conductor worked tirelessly to take students and song around the world

By Grania Litwin, Times Colonist
http://www.timescolonist.com

June 15, 2009

For more than 35 years, Bruce More taught conducting and music theory at the University of Victoria, but in his spare time he took thousands of students -- members of UVic's Chamber Singers and the Prima Choir he founded -- on musical adventures around the world.

When the choral conductor decided to retire recently, his swan song was one more trip, this time to South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong and Cambodia where his 45 students sang 15 concerts in 16 days.

"I got bitten by the travel bug in graduate school in Yale," he confessed. "So when I started teaching in 1970 I got the tour thing going, first off the Island, then to Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia. Since 1987, I've taken the choirs to 145 cities in 42 countries."

And the moss didn't grow under his feet at home, either.

After taking his doctorate in voice performance and conducting at Yale, where he conducted the first Yale University Women's Chorus as well as four ensembles, the Ocean Falls native returned to B.C. and founded the Music Department of Malaspina College. He taught theory, history and private voice, conducted three ensembles and set up a summer choral program for the Courtenay Youth Music Camp.

After joining UVic's faculty in 1973, he became founding president of the Vancouver Island Opera Society (now Pacific Opera Victoria), conducted the Victoria Choral Society and was president of the UVic Faculty Association. In 1994 he founded the 80-voice Prima Choir, a UVic ensemble, and since 1973 has also conducted the 36-voice UVic Chamber Singers, whose members sing as part of their degree requirements.

In 2006, he took time out to accept the Herbert Drost award for his lifetime service to choral music in B.C.

The recent trip to southeast Asia was his third with students -- the first to Cambodia -- and organized on a shoestring with "immense help from two former students who went back to Korea to teach ESL, and married local women."

Fundraising concerts and grants from the university meant each student paid only $1,800 for 21 days, including travel, room and board. And at the end there was a little left over and each student gave $50 to a women's centre in Cambodia, said More.

"Any singer will tell you, travelling to exotic places and performing for large appreciative audiences is very special and memorable, but the cultural exchange is deeply fulfilling and expanding too."

Arne Sahlen, president of Canada's Cambodia Support Group who helped plan the Cambodia tour, said More's last name is appropriate. "More and more. Between him and his wife Connie (who founded VIVA Choir) the care and commitment they have is awesome.

"It's pretty challenging working in a trust-shattered country like Cambodia, but Bruce is so flexible, he believes in balance, partnerships. Just watching him is inspiring."

More added meaning to the trip by having students (average age 20) not only tour famous sites but stay overnight at a Buddhist temple where they rose at 3 a.m. to meditate. They visited a women's shelter, a Pol-Pot genocide centre, and the largest dump in Cambodia, home to hundreds of wretched families.

"We saw a Third World country struggling to bring itself out of many horrors, but we also saw rural parts that were absolute eye candy, gorgeous," More said.

Sometimes students sang alone, sometimes with locals, and mostly they performed classical music.

"We didn't really know what to expect, but everywhere we were greeted like royalty, with standing ovations. Sometimes people went nuts, yelling and screaming. Music really is the universal language."

UVic associate professor Christopher Butterfield said Bruce More has left "very, very big boots to fill."

"I'm not quite sure people really understand what he has accomplished over 35 years. He has done more for the University of Victoria globally than any other person. You hear about choirs making little tours of English cathedrals in the off months, but this man has taken students to every continent except Antarctica.

"You'd think it was the greatest choir in the world."

Former student Graham Specht, 31, concurs. "I went on three tours through Asia and two to Central America with Bruce, and married a Korean woman who's now at UVic. She and I went along on this trip to help out, and I sang as well.

"Bruce has been very influential in my life and the lives of a lot of people."

What does More plan to do in retirement? "Anything I want," he joked, adding he will likely spend more time volunteering at the new Our Place shelter, where he produces the monthly volunteer newsletter and also has installed and maintains a 1,500-volume paperback library.

glitwin@tc.canwest.com

The temples of Angkor – featured in the film Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie (as Lara Croft)

Tomb Raider Movie Poster

Examiner
http://www.examiner.com

June 15, 2009

The little I knew of the temples of Angkor was from the popular movie Tomb Raider, in which Angelina Jolie goes skulking through Cambodia in the search for the “Triangle of Light”, and of which I’ve only seen approximately 20 minutes. I’d switched the TV on for background noise while I was running around my tiny studio apartment, trying to find clothing appropriate for teaching kindergarteners about animals (my preferred method was to yell out an animal name and have the little guys act it out, then walk around and correct their interpretation: “a little more roar. Your lion sounds like it ate a canary”). Angelina Jolie was smart mouthing some colleagues, and I was instantly intrigued – I love watching daytime movies, and this one looked like a beauty. Alas, my tiny students were waiting and to this day, I’m not entirely sure what the triangle of light was, and why Lara Croft was searching for it.

Scenes from Tomb Raider had been running through my head since my friend Donna and I had arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The temples of Angkor are among the most spectacular in the world, inspiring and unforgettable, where thousands of people flock yearly to pay respect to their astounding beauty (according to our Lonely Planet, which we had come to consider a crucial text, akin to a space traveler’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”). We couldn’t wait. We’d already decided to hire a car and driver, as some of the temples are spaced widely apart, from our guesthouse. Hiring a car and driver cost us $20, which is standard. We’d also decided to hire a guide, which cost an extra $10. Having someone to explain the history of the temples and the surrounding area is amazing and well worth it, so if your budget isn’t too tight, splurge on a guide. Most guesthouse and hotel staff will be more than happy to help you arrange for this sort of thing, and if not, there are many storefronts along the main roads that advertise Angkor tours. It is also possible to approach a driver on the street and try to arrange something.


Sophorn Ke! Photo Courtesy of Donna K.

Our tour guide was a short, slender man from Penom Pehn named Sophorn Ke. He was our age, 25, soft spoken and extremely friendly. He was wonderful. Before we’d even arrived at the temples, he’d not only introduced us to our driver (a smiling, bright eyed man with a wonderful deep chuckle), he had given us 20 minutes worth of background information on the temples, including colorful stories about the Hindu and Buddhist gods we would see decorating the temples. As we drew closer to our first stop, Angkor Thom, we were drooling with anticipation, craning our necks to be the first to glimpse the temple amidst the trees. We had no idea what we were in store for!

Risk, hope, havens and hard labour

Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
http://www.odt.co.nz

Tue, 16 Jun 2009

In this week's reader postcard Steven Foote dodges roadworks in Cambodia.

In Poi Pet, Cambodia, the main road is a simple dirt one that they are presently upgrading.

This resulted in us playing a cat-and-mouse game with heavy rollers and graders every time we went to cross the road.

Instead of using big orange road cones, they have human road cones, Cambodian poor spaced out evenly in the middle of the road leading up to an area with roadworks.

We met up with Chomno, who founded the Cambodian Hope Organisation where we were to help for a fortnight.

We looked around many projects they were developing: Schools for children, with 20-30 children on one mat placed down in a clearing among trees. They have more than 500 children being taught this way so far.

These are for children whose parents could not afford to send them to local schools and schools in isolated villages.

Teaching young boys with no education how to repair motorcycles.

Sewing classes for the girls using those old sewing machines that require continuous foot pedalling.

Orphanages for children who have either been freed from child trafficking or been abandoned.

Providing food and support for HIV/Aids patients and their families.

Their main objective is to stop the trafficking of children, particularly in Poi Pet where it is notoriously bad.

They are working with government organisations to eradicate this and free these children.

Much of our time was spent building a "Safe Haven" - 10 houses for children freed from child slavery and orphans in family units with a couple caring for each unit.

The organisation plans to build additional buildings as schools and are setting up vegetable gardens, fish ponds and a small pig farm to teach these skills.

The work we did was mainly physical.

We dug trenches into very stony soil and made bricks for a large wall to surround the area as protection for the children who could be snatched.

Then we spent two days at Siem Reap visiting the large temples around Angkor Wat.

It was hard to comprehend the amount of hard labour put into building these temples for their king.

Exploring these was risky as the steep crumbling stone stairs were designed for a person with a foot about half the size of our feet.

I managed to fall up the stairs once, and still have the battle wound to show for it, but this outcome was much better than falling down the high, steep structures. - Steven Foote

a0551 BC-AS-Cambodia-Genocide 06-15 0436

The Hay's Daily News
http://www.hdnews.net

Khmer Rouge defendant says own staff also killed

By SOPHENG CHEANG

Associated Press Writer

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- The man accused of running a torture center for the Khmer Rouge testified Monday that its own guards and interrogators were among those executed, sometimes for making minor mistakes.

Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch (pronounced Doik), commanded Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured before being sent to their deaths when the communist group held power in 1975-79.

Duch, 66, is being tried by a U.N.-assisted tribunal for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. About 1.7 million Cambodians died from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions under the ultra-communist regime.

He said Monday that more than 100 personnel from S-21 and the Prey Sar prison -- a reeducation center on the outskirts of Phnom Penh -- were arrested, tortured and executed, in some cases for simple irregularities and mishaps in carrying out their duties.

Duch said he was the one who reported such incidents to his superiors.

He identified one of those killed as an S-21 staffer named Huy, who was in charge of radio communications but was arrested and killed because he allowed one of the prison's radio operators to run away.

The arrests of staffers were approved by two of the regime's senior leaders, Nuon Chea -- who is also in the tribunal's custody -- and Son Sen, the group's defense minister, who was killed during a power struggle in 1997, Duch said.

Those killed included torturers, security guards and interrogators. Their wives and children were also arrested and executed because they were considered the regime's enemies, he said.

While Duch was testifying Monday, another defendant at the tribunal, former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, 77, was taken to the hospital for a medical checkup, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Senior leaders Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith are likely to face trial in the next year or two.

Jailed Khmer Rouge Face Prospect of Release

http://www.voanews.com

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
15 June 2009

Already halfway through a maximum three-year detention period, jailed leaders of the Khmer Rouge have the chance to be released if proceedings don’t speed up, legal experts say.

Prosecutors have argued that each of the five jailed leaders represents a flight risk if released before their trials, but under the rules of the tribunal, so-called pre-trial detention can only last three years.

Four of the senior-most leaders of the failed regime—Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith—have reached the midway points of their provisional detentions, and yet none has seen trial. Some observers worry about a release of those four in early 2010, but others argue that authorities will have to find ways to keep them detained.

Long Panhavuth, a program officer for the Open Society Justice Initiative, told VOA Khmer by phone that the case of four senior leaders—designated Case No. 002 by the court—is more complex than Case No. 001, for Duch, the former prison administrator now on trial.

Prosecutors for the second case will have to put responsibility for many crimes committed by cadre nationwide on the leaders at the top.

That will be difficult, Long Panhavuth said, because there has so far been no cooperation from key witnesses in the government, while the right to remain silent for defendants will slow the trial process.

“So if in 2010 there is no trial on Case No. 002, that means that the temporary three-year term of detention will expire, and according to the internal rules, there should be the release of the four accused,” he said. “That’s my concern.”

There may also be an absence of judges after 2010 if there are no trials, which will mean people who have been waiting a long time for justice will face deep disappointment.

Caitlin Reiger, head of the Cambodia program at the International Center for Transitional Justice, acknowledged that the second case is indeed complex, but the court may be able to find a way to continue it.

“The court can impose other conditions even if the people are released,” she told VOA Khmer by phone from New York, including house arrest, bail and promises not to tamper with witnesses or evidence.

Tribunal regulations say the court can extend pre-trial detention only two times, for a maximum of three years. A closing order on the case must be issued inside those three years to keep the detainees in custody.

“I would expect the closing order to be entered prior to the expiration of the three years,” said one US tribunal observer, on condition of anonymity.

John Hall, an associate professor of law at Chapman University, told VOA Khmer in a recent e-mail that “the slow pace poses a real threat to the court, given that funding is far from guaranteed.”

“The court is still plagued with unresolved corruption allegations, allegations of political interference by the Cambodian government, conflict between the co-prosecutors over the number of additional defendants, and now concern about the newly appointed head of the Victims Unit, and fears that the offices of defense teams may have been compromised and documents stolen,” he wrote. “It now appears that we may have to be content with the trial of just Duch at least for the present, as it is unlikely that we can expect to see the remaining four accused face trial before late 2010 or even 2011.”

Peter Maguire, a US professor and longtime observer of Asian affairs, told VOA Khmer by email there was a “distinct possibility” that Duch will be the only one tried by the tribunal.

“If Duch is served up like a sacrificial lamb, and the big four are released due to a technicality, these trials will end on an especially farcical note,” he wrote.

Duch’s case is simple, he said, but the court has been unable to complete it. The case against the other four is more complex, but he doubted they would be released any time soon.

“This tribunal is definitely in a perilous position at the moment,” he wrote. “The Cambodian side seems to be losing political will and falling back to familiar defensive positions.”

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath called worries over the trial of the four leaders “speculation.”

“The most important task is that co-investigating judges are working very hard today, and they are doing their work not under any political pressure, and they are doing their work independently according to the law,” he said.

Khieu Samphan’s limit expires in September 2010. The other three would face the prospect of release a month later.

“What the concern is, where the complexity and doubt are, is that this procedure is not only delayed because of regular procedures, but delayed because of irregularities, which could be political interference, corruption and corruption allegations,” said Seng Theary, executive director of the Center for Social Development.

The government and the UN remain at loggerheads over how to deal with corruption allegations at the tribunal, including charges from Cambodian staff that they must pay kickbacks to work at the UN-backed court.

Foreigners, Minorities Died at Prison: Duch

http://www.voanews.com

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
15 June 2009

At least 400 foreigners and minorities, including Arab and Pakistani Muslims, were killed at the Tuol Sleng torture center of the Khmer Rouge, the prison’s chief administrator told tribunal judges Monday.

Monday’s testimony by the prison chief, Duch, 66, came as the tribunal ruled not to release him on bail.

He is facing charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder, but not genocide. Under the Khmer Rouge, minority groups like the Cham Muslims suffered as the ultra-Maoist regime sought to create a pure society and an agrarian utopia.

Its efforts left up to 2 million dead of starvation, disease, overwork and execution. Duch oversaw the deaths of up to 16,000 people, historians say, though prosecutors are charging him with 12,380 deaths.

In a June 15 decision, the Trial Chamber rejected a request for Duch’s pre-trial release.

Parliament To Debate Opposition Immunity

http://www.voanews.com

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
15 June 2009

The National Assembly will wait until June 22 to decide on whether to suspend parliamentary immunity for an opposition representative mired in a defamation suit with the prime minister.

A member said Monday the committee will investigate the claims of Prime Minister Hun Sen that a lawsuit brought against him by Sam Rainsy Party member Mu Sochua was itself defaming.

Mu Sochua sued Hun Sen in April for degrading and sexist remarks he allegedly made during the 2008 national election campaign. The court has dropped that suit and is now pursuing Hun Sen’s countersuit.

Cambodia’s court system is widely seen as politically biased toward Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, despite efforts by international donors who push for judicial reform.

The CPP now dominates the National Assembly with 90 of 123 seats.

Sok Roeun, deputy prosecutor of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, wrote a letter to the president of the National Assembly on June 10 to request the suspension of Mu Sochua’s parliamentary immunity through the Ministry of Justice.

Cheam Yiep, CPP chairman of the National Assembly’s finance committee and a member of the permanent committee, told VOA Khmer Monday the permanent committee would put the suspension request to the full session.

“The suspension of Mu Sochua’s parliamentary immunity has been put onto the agenda for the full session on 22 June, to pave the way for the whole session to pass it,” he said. “I think that the National Assembly respects and implements particularly the request by the Ministry of Justice.”

Mu Sochua told VOA Khmer she supported the decision, because she wants the entire National Assembly to debate the request.

“I understand that the suspension of my parliamentary immunity is very unjust,” she said. “I do not worry about the suspension of my parliamentary immunity, but I ask [the permanent committee] to implement the law and to respect the constitution as our supreme law,” she said.

“I’m not making any preparations besides facing the court,” she said. “The constitution and the court have been violated. The suspension of my parliamentary immunity is not responsible and would violate the constitution.”

Mu Sochua said she would not run from the charges.

“I will not flee the country,” she said, “and I would like to clearly confirm that I am not going any place outside the country.”

Corruption Should Not Impede Justice: Experts

http://www.voanews.com

By Sothearith Im, VOA Khmer
Original report from Virginia
15 June 2009

The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal is facing nettling allegations of kickbacks and corruption. But experts at a recent genocide conference in Arlington, Va., say allegations of corruption at the tribunal should not be a central question in the court’s ability to dispense justice.

Alex Hinton, Rutgers University professor at the department of sociology and anthropology and director of the Center for the Studies of Genocide and Human Rights, said he has been disappointed that some certain problems are overshadowing the important aspects of the proceedings.

“No trial is pure and perfect,” he said. “The idea is that you try to aspire for those high standards. But the problem is, if you get focused on the negatives, you fail to see the positive things, and that’ll be a very disappointing thing if that’s the only thing that the Khmer Rouge tribunal is remembered for.’’

Greg Stanton, president of Genocide Watch and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, told VOA Khmer in an interview allegations remain unproven, even while they are being pursued by the UN and by defense lawyers.

“The UN has been asked to come in and help [Cambodia] govern this tribunal. I think it needs to have very high standards, and I’ve always insisted on that,” Stanton said. “So, I do believe the tribunal needs to be free of corruption.”

However, he said, we should not take the allegations to be an excuse to ignore the crimes committed by Khmer Rouge.

“If we let what are probably rather minor types of corruption undermine the credibility of this court, we would be ignoring the big picture, which is the tremendous crimes that the Khmer Rouge committed,” he said.

Dacil Keo, a Cambodian-American doctoral student of political science at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told VOA Khmer that corruption at any level could affect the process of justice sought by victims of the regime.

“In particular, a lot of Cambodians right now don’t generally trust government officials,” she said. “They know that Cambodia has a corrupt government. I think with that existing perspective on the Cambodian government, the Khmers should work very hard to make sure that, you know, if there’s corruption, they deal with it.”

Cambodia Tribunal Reduces Sentence for Khmer Rouge Torture Chief

Undated photo of Kaing Guek Eav (L), former head of the S-21 detention center and first Khmer Rouge official tried by the UN-backed Cambodian war crimes tribunal and handout (R) taken 30 July 2007 (file photo)

http://www.voanews.com

By Daniel Schearf
Bangkok
15 June 2009

Cambodia's U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal has ruled a former Khmer Rouge torture chief now on trial was detained "unlawfully" by the military and would be compensated for time served. The ruling means the only Khmer Rouge official to face justice can no longer be sentenced to life in prison.

Cambodia's war crimes tribunal says the military violated the rights of Kang Guek Eav in detaining him after his 1999 arrest.

Better known as Comrade Duch, the former head of the notorious Khmer Rouge S-21 detention center was held for eight years before being turned over to the tribunal.

Duch was arrested and is on trial for his role as head of the detention center, charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder and torture.

He was facing up to life in prison if convicted, but will now have all his time in detention subtracted from any sentence he may receive.

The tribunal's legal communications officer, Lars Olsen, says that means at least 10 years taken off, depending on how long the trial lasts.

"And he would also be entitled to additional remedies which the trial chamber in its decision today said they would address when the time for the sentencing would arise," Olsen said. "That could be typically that he would get extra time off of a sentence because of his unlawful detention."

Olsen says the arrest of Duch was legal, but his detention from 1999 to 2007 was illegal under Cambodian law, which only allows a maximum of three-years provisional detention.

Duch's defense team had asked that he be released from his current detention, but the court rejected that request.

Duch is the only senior former Khmer Rouge official to face justice for crimes committed under its brutal late 1970's rule. He is also the only one to admit responsibility, although he claims he never personally killed anyone.

Under Duch's supervision, more than 12,000 prisoners there were accused of being enemies of the communist Khmer Rouge and then systematically tortured and executed.

Four more senior former leaders are set to face trial in the next year or two.

Up to two-million Cambodians were worked, starved, and executed by the Khmer Rouge in their attempt to create a Communist utopia.

Alleged Khmer Rouge torturer cries in court

By SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press Writer
Published: Monday, June 15, 2009

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- A man accused of running an infamous Khmer Rouge torture center broke down in tears at his trial Monday as he spoke of the imprisonment and execution of former comrades in the facility he commanded.

Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch (pronounced Doik), testified to Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal that the prison's own guards and interrogators were also among those executed during the regime's brutal rule, in some cases for simple irregularities and mishaps in carrying out their duties.

He commanded Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured before being sent to their deaths when the communist group held power in 1975-79. About 1.7 million Cambodians died from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions under the regime.

The tribunal also ruled Monday that Duch - who is being tried for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture - was held in government custody longer than is legally allowed, and if found guilty can apply to have his sentence reduced.

The 66-year-old displayed rare emotion during his testimony as he spoke of seeing fellow revolutionaries locked up in the cells of his prison.

"I did not want them to see my face when they were in such conditions," he said as tears rolled down his face. He said even today he tries not to recall them.

"Betraying friends, yes, I did. That was beyond cowardly," he said.

Duch had previously testified that being sent to S-21 was tantamount to a death sentence. Most prisoners were tortured into giving fanciful confessions that suited the Khmer Rouge's political outlook, though they generally had been loyal members of the group.

He also said more than 100 personnel from S-21 and the Prey Sar prison - a reeducation center on the outskirts of Phnom Penh - were arrested, tortured and executed for minor offenses. He said he was the one who reported such incidents to his superiors.

Those killed included torturers, security guards and interrogators. Their wives and children were also arrested and executed because they were considered the regime's enemies, he said.

Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. He could face a maximum penalty of life in prison; Cambodia has no death penalty.

The tribunal's judges agreed Monday that Cambodian laws only allowed him to be held for three years without trial. Duch had been held by Cambodia's military court from 1999 until 2007, after which he was transferred to the tribunal's custody.

His lawyers have applied several times - most recently in April - for his release from provisional detention, as well as credit for time served and a reduced sentence to compensate Duch for the violation of his rights.

The judges said his detention until 2007 "constitutes a violation of the Cambodian domestic law applicable at the time" and of "his internationally recognized right to a trial within a reasonable time," the judges said in a 15-page ruling.

They said the tribunal was not responsible or liable for the prior abuse of Duch's rights, but agreed that if found guilty, "he is entitled not only to credit for time already spent in detention, but also to a reduction in sentence as a result of previous violations to his rights."

Duch's age, however, means that a reduction in his sentence would have little impact should he be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders will face trial in the next year or two. They include Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith.

Cambodia shows how not to clean up the sex trade

Prostitutes in Phnom Penh: Efforts to wipe out the sex trade led to abuses and and hurt the fight against HIV.
Photograph by : NICOLAS ASFOURI, AFP; GETTY IMAGES

The Gazette (Montreal)
http://www2.canada.com

The Economist

In eerie, deserted silence on the outskirts of Phnom Penh sits the Prey Speu detention centre. Barely legible on its grimy walls a few weeks ago were cries for help and whispers of despair from the tormented souls once crammed into its grimy cells. "This is to mark that I lived in terror under oppression," read one message.

It recalls a Khmer Rouge torture centre from the genocidal 1970s. But in fact the building was used just last year as a "rehabilitation" centre, where detained sex workers, along with beggars and the homeless, learned sewing and cooking. They were rounded up in a crackdown on trafficking for the sex industry.

At first an attempt to clean up Phnom Penh, it soon escalated into a violent campaign by the police against prostitutes and those living on the street. According to Licadho, a local human-rights group, guards at the centre beat three people to death, and at least five detainees killed themselves. Sreymoa, a trafficked sex worker detained in May 2008 with her 4-year-old daughter, recalls daily beatings, rapes and one death.

Partly to allay the previous U.S. administration's concerns about trafficking, Cambodia in February 2008 outlawed prostitution. Three months later the U.S. Department of State took Cambodia off its annual "watch list" of human-trafficking countries. But the police read the law as entitling them to lock up all sex workers, not help victims of trafficking.

Reports of abuses soon surfaced, at first denied by the government. But in August it halted the raids as the United Nations and NGOs expressed mounting concern. One worry was that they would endanger HIV/AIDS-prevention programs. The prevalence of HIV in Cambodia had fallen to 0.8 per cent of the population since the government adopted a campaign in 2001 for "100-per-cent condom" use.

Now, however, fearing the brothels where they worked would be raided, many sex workers had started plying their trade on the streets or in karaoke bars, where health- care workers could not find them to distribute condoms.

Tony Lisle, of the UN's AIDS organization, says that since the raids stopped, HIV-prevention efforts have resumed with more success. Sex workers in bars as well as brothels are to be covered, and the police to be encouraged to teach sex workers about condom use. But those campaigning for sex workers' rights have objected, fearing that this might give the police a pretext to renew the raids. Jason Barber of Licadho says that for years the government has stopped arbitrary detentions when a fuss has been made, only to restart them as soon as attention has shifted.

Indeed, just before a regional summit in Phnom Penh in late May, the police again herded up beggars, sex-workers, and drug-users and sent them back to Prey Speu, newly reopened (with the graffiti painted over). Detaining sex workers is much easier than arresting the traffickers. But the global slowdown is adding to the ranks of the unemployed.

The World Bank forecasts that 200,000 Cambodians will fall below the poverty line this year. Many will fall into prostitution or beggary, whatever the law says and high-minded donors hope.

Maybank Opens Fourth Branch In Cambodia

http://www.bernama.com

KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 (Bernama) -- Maybank has opened its fourth branch in Cambodia.

Located at Tep Von Street, Siem Reap City, the branch will offer full banking facilities and services including deposits, mortgage financing, trade financing, deposit, remittance as well as foreign exchange services.

It also offers ATM facilities, which are linked to the Maybank ATM network in Phnom Penh, the bank said in a statement here.

Maybank Head of International, Abdul Farid Alias said the opening of the branch was part of the bank's strategy to tap the growth potential of the region as well as support the development of the business and tourism sectors there.

"Siem Reap is one the fastest growing towns in Cambodia and has the advantage of being the gateway to the famous Angkor Wat as well as many other ancient temples," he said.

Siem Reap province has a relatively large population of one million and Siem Reap is the second largest city in Cambodia.

An estimated 70 percent of its population, consisting both local and foreigners, live in Siem Reap City itself.

Abdul Farid said that Maybank also planned to open four more branches in Cambodia by the end of the next financial year, subject to approval from the authorities.

The Maybank Siem Reap branch further reinforces Maybank's international network, which currently has over 400 offices in 13 countries, in addition to 384 branches in Malaysia as well as associates in Pakistan (MCB Bank) and Vietnam (An Binh Bank).

Maybank first established its presence in Cambodia in 1993, and has three other offices in the Kingdom, all located in the capital city, Phnom Penh.

Maybank Cambodia registered a 22.37 percent growth in revenue for the 11 months of the bank's current financial year compared to the previous corresponding period.

Total loans to various sectors of the economy as at May 2009 grew 64.25 percent over the previous period.

The top three sectors it provides financial support to are telecommunications, manufacturing and general commerce.

-- BERNAMA

Do Khmers really love Khmers?

The Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com

Written by Ambassador Julio A Jeldres
Monday, 15 June 2009

Dear Editor,

Reading the article "Deputy Governor faults land-grabbing report as biased, un-Cambodian", (June 9) made me realise with sadness that Cambodian government officials do not seem to appreciate that by continuing to hide evictions beneath the banner of development, they are pushing the people being evicted to desperate actions that may lead to instability.

The Licadho report is a compassionate, well-researched, factual and moving report on the plight of the people who have lost their land through forced evictions by powerful elites that control today's Cambodia.

It is becoming more and more common for Cambodian officials to respond to factual criticism on forced land grabbing, corruption and other violations of human rights as "foreign interference in Cambodia's internal affairs".

The logo "No one loves Khmer more than Khmer" is becoming the fashionable mantra of the government's response to any critical remark to its actions. I often wonder if this "No one loves Khmer more than Khmer" really comes from the heart of the officials who use it.

Otherwise, how do you explain the violent deaths of Piseth Pilika, Chea Vichea and so many other Khmers?

Yet, while Cambodian officials become more and more "anti-foreigner", they do not seem to have any compunction to constantly request further funds from foreign countries, which continue to support the Cambodian government's request for assistance because of their genuine concern for the welfare of the people of Cambodia.

The contemptuous manner in which Professor Yash Ghai, the former special representative of the UN Secretary General for Human Rights, and Ms Carol Rodley, the US Ambassador to Cambodia, have been treated by government officials for drawing attention to genuine violations of human rights, such as land grabbing, and other problems such as the corruption affecting the livelihood of the less privileged of Cambodia, is morally wrong, historically unsound and totally unacceptable.

Cambodian government officials need to understand that foreign governments, in particular the signatories of the 1991 Paris Agreements who are the guarantors of the Cambodian people's rights, cannot remain silent in front of so much injustice.

Likewise, we ordinary citizens of the countries that provide multiform assistance to Cambodia, contribute through our taxes to the national reconstruction of Cambodia and, therefore, have the right to expect our respective governments not to remain silent when these continuous violations of human rights take place in Cambodia.

Ambassador Julio A Jeldres
Adjunct Research Fellow
The Asia Institute, Monash University

Cambodia-Vietnam drug and gun ring suspects indicted

ThanhNien
http://www.thanhniennews.com

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court received indictments for 15 people accused of involvement in a trans-Vietnam-Cambodian drug and gun trafficking ring this week.

City police began arresting suspects in the case in July, 2007, rounding up the last of the 15 in August last year. The city People’s Procuracy, the municipal prosecutors’ office, prepared the indictments.

The gang had moved dozens of 350- gram heroin blocks and thousands of crystal methamphetamine, or ICE, tablets through the Cambodian border to Ho Chi Minh City since 2005, according to investigators. Court documents also allege the group had moved the contraband to the neighboring coastal city of Vung Tau as well.

In 1994, former prison guard Nguyen Tan Duy helped Le Hoang Hoi escape from Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s Xuyen Moc Prison, where Duy had previously worked, according to police reports. The two fled to Cambodia and began dealing in drugs there, said police.

They opened a café in Phnom Penh where they received heroin from Nguyen Van Binh, according to the indictment. They then sold the contraband to Le Thi Anh Dao, a tobacco smuggler with experience breaching the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Nga, a dancer in Phnom Penh, said the indictment.

Nga resold her goods to several drug dealers in Vietnam, including Tran Dinh Tam, Tran Minh Quang and Truong Quoc Thang, all of whom she is also accused of supplying K59 handguns to, said investigators.

In September 2006, Tam asked Nga for a handgun and she introduced him to a man named Bay Viet, another of Nga’s drug suppliers, who sold him a pistol for US$600. Viet is wanted by police but has yet to be apprehended.

In October, Nga helped Quang buy a pistol and eight bullets from Hoi.

Quang lent the gun to his friend Vu Manh Hung to repay a debt, but Hung was then caught with the gun by police.

In 2007, Thang asked Nga to help him get a similar gun. Nga then sold Thang a gun she had bought from Hoi for $600. Hoi had bought the gun from Duy for $320. Duy had bought the gun at a Cambodian market for $300.

Police have seized Thang’s pistol, but not Tam’s.

The trial’s start date has yet to be released.

Australia's Toll to help revive Cambodian railway

http://www.reuters.com

Mon Jun 15, 2009

PHNOM PENH, June 15 (Reuters) - Cambodia has awarded a 30-year contract to manage its railway system to a venture led by Australia's Toll Holdings (TOL.AX), which should boost trade and attract more tourists, company officials said on Monday.

The Southeast Asian country has two lines dating back to French colonial days in the 1930s running over 652 km (405 miles).

Toll is a leading provider of transport and logistics services in Asia. Eugene Cody, its general manager for Cambodia, said Toll would have a 55 percent stake in the venture, with 45 percent going to local partner Royal Group.

He and other officials would not reveal the investment planned nor give details on profit sharing with Cambodia's government, but they said the new system would be in place in 2011, complete with new imported locomotives.

The first line links the capital, Phnom Penh, to Poi Pet near the border with Thailand, while the second links Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville beach, the country's second-biggest tourist destination.

"Can you imagine being able to catch the train from Thailand to Cambodia, down through the rice fields before going to the beach. It's beautiful," said Australian Ray Yager, a spokesman for the Royal Group in Phnom Penh.

The rail infrastructure was badly damaged during the country's civil war in the 1970s but a service has continued for both freight and passengers.

The Asian Development Bank said in March it would provide a loan of $42 million to help renovate the railways.

(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)

Cambodia war crime court rules Duch's rights violated

Cambodia's war crimes court has ruled Khmer Rouge jailer Kaing Guek Eav's (Comrade Duch) rights were violated. [Robert Carmichael/ABC]

Australia Network News
http://australianetworknews.com

Karen Percy, South East Asia correspondent

Judges in Cambodia have ruled former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Geuk Eav has been detained unlawfully for the past decade.

Kaing Geuk Eav, also known as Comrade Duch was arrested by the Cambodian military in 1999.

In a 15 page ruling, the five trial chamber judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, have determined that Comrade Duch was imprisoned contrary to Cambodian law.

Comrade Duch was the supervisor of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh during the 1970s where more than 12,000 people were sent to their deaths in the "killing fields".

The ruling means that if he's found guilty the time he's been detained so far will probably be cut from any sentence.

If he's acquitted Comrade Duch will be able to claim compensation.

The judges refused a request to release Comrade Duch saying he remained a flight risk and say he must remain in detention for his own security and to ensure public order.

During his trial so far Comrade Duch has apologised to his victims.

He's also providing evidence that could prove to be crucial in the cases against four other defendants, who were senior Khmer Rogue members.

Cambodian judges rule genocide defendant detained illegally

Beijing News
http://www.beijingnews.ne

Monday 15th June, 2009

Cambodian judges have ruled that Comrade Duch, the man being tried in the Khmer Rouge genocide trial, has been detained unlawfully for over ten years.

Five trial judges determined that Duch was imprisoned contrary to Cambodian law when he was arrested in 1999.

Duch was the supervisor at Tuol Sleng prison, where thousands of people were sent to their deaths during the 1970s.

While the judges have ruled on Duch’s illegal detention, they have refused to release him.

If he is found guilty, time spent in prison will be deducted from his sentence.

He may also be able to claim compensation if he is acquitted.

'Unlawful' detention violated K.Rouge man's rights

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - at the UN-backed tribunal into atrocities committed by the regime in the 1970s. Cambodia's war crimes court has ruled that the former prison chief's rights were violated when he was detained for a decade before trial, a decision that could reduce any eventual sentence.
(AFP/Pool/File/Mak Remissa)

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodia's war crimes court has ruled that a Khmer Rouge prison chief's rights were violated when he was detained for a decade before trial, a decision that could reduce any eventual sentence.

Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - who was arrested by the Cambodian military in 1999, had to wait in prison until earlier this year to face crimes against humanity charges for his role in the 1975-79 hardline communist regime.

The chief judge at the UN-backed tribunal, Nil Nonn, said it was "unlawful" that the 66-year-old former maths teacher had spent so long in detention before the case came to court.

"The accused, under international law and the law of the kingdom of Cambodia is entitled to a remedy for the time spent in detention under the authority of the military court and the violation of his rights," Nil Nonn said.

The ruling appeared to be a small victory for Duch, whose lawyers in April argued he had been held illegally and urged the judges to compensate by subtracting time from his final sentence and softening their eventual verdict.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, took the stand in March and accepted responsibility for supervising the extermination of around 15,000 people who passed through the Khmer Rouge's notorious Tuol Sleng prison.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in jail if convicted by the court, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.

Wearing a striped short-sleeved shirt, Duch told the court Monday that he was the only staff member at the prison who spoke with senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

"It was me who reported to the upper echelons but it was not done in writing. It was done verbally," Duch said.

However he has consistently denied prosecutors' claims that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule and maintains he only tortured two people himself and never personally executed anyone.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998, and many believe the tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.

The court was formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and the Cambodian government, and is expected next year to begin the trial of four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders also in detention.

But the troubled tribunal also faces accusations of interference at the hands of the Cambodian government and claims that local staff were forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs.