Sunday, 21 June 2009

Cambodian Gov. Evicts HIV Positive Families from Their Home


By Amnesty International , Working To Protect Human Rights

Yesterday morning, the Cambodian government forcibly evicted about 20 families living with HIV/AIDS from their homes in Borei Keila and resettled them at Tuol Sambo, a resettlement site just outside the capital, Phnom Penh. The site lacks clean water and electricity and has limited access to medical services.

Evicted families were compensated with inadequate housing at the site and 50 kilograms of rice, soy sauce, fish sauce, water jars and US$250, but they were warned that anyone who did not comply with the move would not receive compensation. A human rights worker present during the transition described the families as despondent and noted that those who are ill were exhausted by the move.

When Amnesty International visited the site – in a semi-rural area where houses are built from green metal sheets – villagers in the vicinity saw it as a place for HIV/AIDS victims. The evicted families expressed fears that being forced to live in this separate, distinct location will bring more discrimination and stigmatization than they already are forced to deal with because of their status as HIV-positive.

Forced evictions are a tactic Cambodia has employed more and more often, and this is not the first time the Cambodian government has taken this sort of action against people living with HIV-AIDS. In March 2007, the Municipality of Phnom Penh resettled an additional 32 families living with HIV/ AIDS against their will in temporary green, corrugated-metal shelters in appalling conditions to make way for the construction of a number of new houses. The families believe that the authorities are discriminating against them because of their HIV status.

World joins Mekong citizens in battle to stop dam building


Sun, Jun 21, 2009
Vietnam News/Asia News Network

VIETNAM - In a bold outpouring of public concern for Southeast Asia's Mekong River, people from the six-country Mekong region and around the world have urged governments to abandon plans for hydropower development along the river's mainstream.

In the face of strong government backing for dam building on the river, which feeds 60 million people, over 11,000 citizens in the region have signed the "Save the Mekong" petition addressed to the Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam urging them to keep the river flowing freely and to pursue less damaging electricity options.

The petition was signed by fishers and farmers along the river's mainstream and tributaries, as well as by monks, students, city folk and even some of the region's celebrities. Another 5,000 people around the world signed postcards and an online petition with personal notes.

The petition written in seven languages was hand-delivered to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Wednesday in Bangkok, and sent to other government leaders within the region.

"People are now more aware of the threat to the Mekong and the movement calling to protect the river and the life of the people living along the Mekong has spread out thanks to the signature collection," said Premrudee Daoroung of the Bangkok-based, non-profit Foundation for Ecological Recovery at a press conference for the petition launch.

With the postcards and signature collection, the regional governments are expected to make decisions to save the life and the environment of their own countries, said Mekong Programme Co-ordinator Carl Middleton.

The Mekong is host to the world's largest inland fishery and its second behind the Amazon River in diversity of aquatic animals. The river drains an area of 795,000sq.km. From the Tibetan Plateau it runs through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam.

The building of dams is one of the most controversial issues to raised wide-spread concern among riverbank communities and the wider public over the severe consequences these dams will have.

Livelihoods

Since 2006, 11 big hydropower dams have been proposed for the river's mainstream in which seven dam sites are in Laos, two in Cambodia and two on the Thai-Lao border. This has been criticised on grounds of cost as well as damage to the environment and to the livelihoods of affected villagers.

Viet Nam is expected to suffer the most of the building it is at the lowest part of the river with 17 million Vietnamese people - almost one- third of the Mekong River citizens - living along the river.

"Broken ecosystem, soil erosion, bad impact of changed water flow on the transport system and dry fields are among the key concerns of Vietnamese farmers and citizens living along the river," Ngo Xuan Quang, of Aquatic Ecology and Biodiversity, said.

"An Giang and Dong Thap are the two Mekong Delta provinces having most severe soil erosion while Tien Giang is suffering most in dry fields," Quang said.

Poverty stricken Cambodia is one nation that is completely dependent on the river for food and the vast majority of its fledgling economy. The annual floods provide much needed water for crops for the otherwise dry dusty land, and to refresh the Tonle Sap, yet its major cities are all vulnerable to flooding.

Since the building of the first Chinese dam, many species have become endangered, including the Mekong dolphin and manatee; water levels have dropped and ferries get stuck, fish caught are small and the catch is less than half of that before the dam was built.

Mekong fisheries provide a critical source of food and income for millions of people along the river. Recent official estimates place the annual value of the river's wild capture fisheries at up to US$3 billion. Mainstream dams will block the massive fish migrations that accounts for up to 70 per cent of the river's commercial fish catch and that ensures regional food security. Experience around the world demonstrates there is no way to mitigate the fisheries impacts of such large dams.

China's dam construction on the upper Mekong mainstream (Lancang) has already caused serious environmental problems in the form of declining fish stocks, riverbank erosion and hazardous water level fluctuations in downstream Myanmar, northern Thailand and northern Laos.

Similarly severe cross-border impacts could create cross-border disputes.

Other environmental concerns arise from increased water flow in some parts as China clears rocks and sandbars, blasts gorges and slows water as it dams and floods other sections and causes the relocation of indig-enous peoples.

Cambodia, by far the most exposed, depending on a fine balance of water flow, fears scenarios of mass famine and devastating floods the likes of which destroyed the Angkor kingdom 700 years ago.

Vulnerable

Laos's biggest cities all hug the Mekong as does Viet Nam's largest city and financial hub, HCM City, which would be vulnerable mostly to low flow and pollution from these projects.

"Acting to protect the Mekong's natural wealth will ensure sustainable economic growth, protect food security and promote regional peace and prosperity," said Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, in his statement to PM Abhisit.

"In a world facing a growing food and water crisis, we are asking the region's leaders to work together to protect the Mekong River for the benefit of all the region's people and to pursue better ways to meet the region's electricity needs," Sam Ath said.

Vietnam News/Asia News Network

Abhisit won't back down

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence last July when the temple was granted UN World Heritage status. -- PHOTO: AP

The Straits Times
http://www.straitstimes.com

June 21, 2009

BANGKOK - THAI Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva refused to back down on Sunday after reopening a debate over an ancient temple on the disputed border with Cambodia which has provoked bloody clashes.

Bangkok this week asked world heritage body Unesco to reconsider its decision to formally list the 11th century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia, as ownership of land surrounding the ruins is still in dispute.

Cambodia on Saturday rebuked Thailand for raising the matter, saying that its soldiers would defend their land again if necessary following outbreaks of violence in the past year which have left seven dead. But Mr Abhisit - who made a one-day visit to Cambodia last week in an attempt to push forward border talks - said the Unesco move itself was to blame for the tensions.

'We are concerned that the moves by Unesco may speed up conflicts, tensions or a border clash,' the Oxford-educated Abhisit said on his weekend television programme.

He said Thai deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban would soon travel to Cambodia to explain Thailand's position, but said that Bangkok still believed all border issues should be solved by peaceful measures.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence last July when the temple was granted UN World Heritage status.

Although the World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, the most accessible entrance to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings is in northeastern Thailand.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area, with the last gunbattle in the temple area in April leaving three people dead.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said in Phnom Penh on Saturday that his country 'welcomes Thailand militarily, diplomatically, internationally or through peaceful negotiations.'

'(But) it (border fighting) has happened twice... (so) if they want to send their troops to Cambodia a third time, we will welcome them too,' he said. -- AFP

Thai PM hits back in Cambodia border temple row

Cambodian soldiers stand guard near the controversial Preah Vihear temple on the Cambodia-Thai border

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has refused to back down over a debate involving the ancient Preah Vihear temple

BANGKOK (AFP) — Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has refused to back down after reopening a debate over an ancient temple on the disputed border with Cambodia which has provoked bloody clashes.

Bangkok this week asked world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider its decision to formally list the 11th century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia, as ownership of land surrounding the ruins is still in dispute.

Cambodia on Saturday rebuked Thailand for raising the matter, saying that its soldiers would defend their land again if necessary following outbreaks of violence in the past year which have left seven dead.

But Abhisit -- who made a one-day visit to Cambodia last week in an attempt to push forward border talks -- said the UNESCO move itself was to blame for the tensions.

"We are concerned that the moves by UNESCO may speed up conflicts, tensions or a border clash," the Oxford-educated Abhisit said on his weekend television programme.

He said Thai deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban would soon travel to Cambodia to explain Thailand's position, but said that Bangkok still believed all border issues should be solved by peaceful measures.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence last July when the temple was granted UN World Heritage status.

Although the World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, the most accessible entrance to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings is in northeastern Thailand.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area, with the last gunbattle in the temple area in April leaving three people dead.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said in Phnom Penh on Saturday that his country "welcomes Thailand militarily, diplomatically, internationally or through peaceful negotiations."

"(But) it (border fighting) has happened twice... (so) if they want to send their troops to Cambodia a third time, we will welcome them too," he said.

The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

Preah Vihear appeal 'targets UN, not Cambodia'

By THE NATION ON SUNDAY,
THAI NEWS AGENCY, AFP
Published on June 21, 2009

Thailand's objection to the listing of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site is directed at the World Heritage Committee and Unesco and not at Cambodia, Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya said yesterday.

He said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, who will attend next week's World Heritage Committee meeting as an observer, would brief the panel's chairman beforehand regarding Thailand's objection to unilateral listing of the temple, which sits on the border between the two countries.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters yesterday that soldiers would be ready to defend their territory again if necessary.

"Cambodia welcomes Thailand militarily, diplomatically, internationally or through peaceful negotiations," Hor Namhong said. "[Border fighting] has happened twice ... If they want to send their troops to Cambodia a third time, they are welcome to," he said.

"I hear the Thai second in command on the border has put his troops on alert, and I'd like to tell him that Cambodian soldiers are on alert too," Hor Namhong added.

The World Heritage Committee is part of the United Nations' Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

"This issue is between Thailand and the World Heritage Committee and Unesco, and not between Thailand and Cambodia," said Kasit, noting that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had said that Cambodia was not involved.

Kasit declined to say whether the Thai action would affect the decision last year to register Cambodia's unilateral listing of the Hindu temple because it was up to the committee and Thailand was attending not as a member but as observer.

He said the meeting also had other matters on its agenda and might also act on Thailand's proposal of other historical sites for World Heritage status.

Abhisit said yesterday that Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban would meet Cambo-dian Prime Minister Hun Sen next week in order to clarify Thailand's objection to the listing of the Preah Vihear Temple ruins as a World Heritage Site.

Abhisit said that he did not expect conflict between the two countries to worsen. The Cambodian leader last week expressed "deep regret" after Thailand announced its intention to ask the World Heritage Committee in Seville, Spain, next week to review last year's decision.

Hun Sen said the issue had not been raised when Abhisit met him in Phnom Penh last week.

The Thai premier, however, expressed hope yesterday that after meeting Suthep in Cambodia Hun Sen would better understand Thailand's stance.

"I haven't talked to [Hun Sen] or the Cambodian ambassador, but I do not think this will worsen the situation and believe the discussion will clarify the matter," Abhisit said.

Suthep is also expected to discuss with Hun Sen the Thai-Cambodian demarcation of overlapping sea areas during his visit to Phnom Penh, according to Abhisit.

Unesco approved Cambodia's application for Preah Vihear to be designated a World Heritage site last July. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but armed clashes have since then occurred periodically near the temple, especially in a 4.6-square-kilometre disputed area.

Deputy PM gets Hun Sen task

Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com

By: PRADIT RUANGDIT and MANOP THIP-OSOD
Published: 21/06/2009

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban is to explain Thailand's stance against the unilateral listing of the Preah Vihear temple to Cambodian Premier Hun Sen.

Yesterday's decision by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva comes after Hun Sen showed regret over the Thai move to reiterate its opposition to the decision by the World Heritage Committee (WHC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) last year on approving the Cambodian application for listing.

Mr Abhisit said he and the Cambodian prime minister had not been in contact since the Thai government decided to make its move on the issue in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Abhisit did not raise the issue in talks with Hun Sen during his visit to Phnom Penh on June 12.

Related story: Cambodia lashes out

The premier was optimistic that the issue would not lead to a new military conflict between the two countries as efforts were being made to improve bilateral understanding.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti left for Spain on Thursday leading Thai officials to talks with the WHC and Unesco in Seville, where the committee will start its meeting tomorrow.

He is scheduled to meet with committee chairwoman Maria Jesus San Segundo of Spain prior to its annual meeting, according to Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.

Mr Suwit would raise Thailand's objection to the unilateral listing of the ancient Hindu temple, he added.

The key message to deliver to the committee would be that Unesco's approval of the listing is not fair to Thailand, said Mr Kasit.

"This is a matter between Thailand and the World Heritage Committee and Unesco, not between Thailand and Cambodia," he said, echoing Mr Suthep's statement made on Friday.

Preah Vihear, which is called Phra Viharn in Thai, was granted to Cambodia in a 1962 International Court of Justice ruling. Thailand and Cambodia claim the land around the temple area.

In the Seville meeting which runs until June 30, the committee will consider requests for the inscription of new sites on Unesco's World Heritage List and examine the state of conservation of sites already on the list.

Thailand is an observer to the meeting of the 21-member WHC.

Chief torturer for the Khmer Rouge distances himself from his past

MAK REMISSA; Duch

By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times
Sat, Jun. 20, 2009

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia He is deceptively unassuming, a small man in a neat white shirt, sometimes wearing reading glasses as he studies the legal documents he brings every day from his cell to the courtroom.

He gives the judges a humble greeting, both palms pressed together, an obsequiousness that is annoying to some who once suffered at his hands and now sit across the courtroom from him.

But in nearly three months of trial proceedings, a harder man has emerged — alert, vigorous, with a self-confidence that has begun to shade into condescension as he corrects an attorney or a witness about details of his life as the chief torturer for the Khmer Rouge.

This is Kaing Guek Eav, 66, known as Duch, the first person to face trial in the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979 when the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia.

If convicted, he would face a possible life sentence for crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as homicide and torture.

Four higher-ranking leaders await their turns.

In the courtroom, Duch has clearly taken pride in the efficiency with which he ran the prison, called Tuol Sleng, or S-21, and he seems to relish his role as the public face of the Khmer Rouge.

Under the guidance of an experienced and nimble French attorney, Francois Roux, Duch has constructed a complicated bait-and-switch defense since the trial opened in March.

But the culpability he admits has become more nuanced as he distances himself from the worst brutality of the regime and places himself within a chain of command where disobedience often meant death.

“The horrendous images of the babies being smashed against the trees, I didn’t recognize it at first,” he testified recently. “But after seeing the photographs I recalled that it had happened. It was done by my subordinates. I do not blame them because this was under my responsibility.”

Court analysts say Duch will not be able to avoid a conviction but is working to soften his image to produce a more lenient penalty.

Exploring Temples Outside Angkor

The crumbling ruins of Beng Mealea are a 90-minute drive from Angkor but a world away from the better-known area's tourist crush. (By John Burgess For The Washington Post)


The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Getting to Banteay Chhmar from Angkor takes about four hours, maybe longer. And in Cambodia you need to be game for some adventure, or at least for some delays. But other ancient sites beyond Angkor can be reached more quickly.

The 12th-century temple complex of Beng Mealea lies about 1 1/2 hours by road -- a good road -- east of Angkor. Being so close, it has some tourist bustle, but nothing like Angkor's.

The temple was built at roughly the same time as Angkor Wat and shares many of its style characteristics. Perhaps Beng Mealea was a trial lab for the better-known temple's style. Visit and you may wonder: If the ancient Khmers had Beng Mealea, why would they need Angkor Wat?

It's a mysterious maze of dark corridors and hidden chapels, of crumbling libraries and courtyards. For a true grasp of size, walk the temple's eastern causeway: You'll have to go close to half a mile, crossing a moat and passing holy ponds, before you come to steps and the remains of a platform that mark the temple's farthest limits.

Another site, Koh Ker, lies an hour and a half beyond Beng Mealea by a generally rough road. If you go, make sure to stop at the first bridge you come to, just a few hundred yards beyond Beng Mealea. In the streambed below is an ancient quarry; you can see the outlines of blocks of sandstone that were cut away, probably to be floated downstream to Beng Mealea.

Koh Ker is an area, not a single temple, that for centuries was a center of provincial culture. In A.D. 928, when its prince became King Jayavarman IV, the capital came to him, rather than vice versa, for reasons perhaps related to his feuding with the previous king.

Today Koh Ker has dozens of stone creations, some large and imposing, some small and intimate. The most spectacular is a complex that is three temples in one, including the Prang, the largest pyramid that Khmer architects built. Faced in sandstone, it has seven levels and stands about 115 feet tall. This was Jayavarman IV's state temple.

From that complex, we drove a circuit through wooded land, coming to smaller but still remarkable temples every few hundred yards. Prasat Krachap has many images of the god Shiva. Banteay Pichean has two brick towers standing in front of a collapsed central sanctuary. At those places and others, I encountered only a guard who was posted there to prevent art theft.

Without question, the most spectacular of the Khmer monuments outside Angkor is Preah Vihear, built atop a 1,700-foot cliff. The visitor ascends a long stone-paved avenue, arriving at ever-larger holy buildings. At the top is the main sanctuary and, a few steps beyond, a jaw-dropping view of Cambodian countryside.

But for now, Preah Vihear is best left off your schedule. Situated in Cambodia right at the border with Thailand, it has since last year been the scene of a military standoff between the two countries' soldiers. This is the latest flare-up in a long feud over the temple, which the World Court ruled in 1962 belonged to Cambodia.

But if on a future trip the soldiers have left, give thought to a visit. Going from Siem Reap is daunting: perhaps five hours each way over very rough roads, then a hike or motorcycle taxi in the heat up the cliff. Accommodations are minimal. The more comfortable and common way to reach the temple, assuming the border is open, is from Thailand. Thai tour companies can make the arrangements.

But remember: Check first about security.

-- J.B.

Poverty is a human rights issue

The Tehran Times Daily
http://www.tehrantimes.com

By Kate Allen
Sunday, June 21, 2009

Contrary to recent articles by Conor Foley and William Easterly, Amnesty International does believe that poverty is a human rights issue. To be clear – the basic human rights of the millions of people around the world who are living in poverty are being violated. Thousands of families forced to live in slum conditions in Kenya and Cambodia and facing the constant threat of imminent eviction by authorities who won't consult them; Palestinian children who are prevented from going to school because of Israeli curfews and road closures; women who die in childbirth because they live in societies that condone early marriage and where a basic standard of maternal care is not provided – these people are all having their human rights violated. Just because a single individual neat violator can't always be sited does not mean that injustice is not being done.

The main problem however with Foley's critique of Amnesty's work is that he refers in the main to aid and aid policy, and he seems to think Amnesty is simply moving into this area too, as if that's all poverty was really about. Far from it. For us at Amnesty living in poverty is more than suffering material deprivation – it is being marginalized, being without power or influence over decisions that affect your life. Amnesty is currently campaigning to stop the forced eviction of more than 7,000 people from their homes in Nairobi, Kenya, where the local authority wants to sell the land to developers. “Deep Sea” residents have been forced from their homes in the middle of the night, which were then destroyed by bulldozers. The police stood by while it happened. This ongoing campaign is much more complex than “straightforward poverty” or the rights and wrongs of aid relationships. But it is without doubt a struggle for human rights.

Foley also seems to equivocate over whether the international community is obliged to provide protection for people affected by conflict or disasters, and development assistance in general. He rightly says that economic and social rights are supposed to be implemented progressively, but then balks at what follows — that all states must ensure these rights are realized, including, when they are in a position to do so, by providing international assistance. There may be a debate about how exactly this is to be done, but international law is clear that everyone is entitled to an adequate standard of living, to be free from hunger, to basic healthcare and to at least a free primary education. And in case there is any doubt about this these rights have been tested in law – they are written into the constitutions of India and South Africa and have for example been used to require governments and companies to make anti-retroviral drugs for people living with HIV/Aids available to them.

What is most disappointing about Foley's piece is that we know he's one of the good guys. Governments, companies and international institutions rely on the very complexity of economic, social and cultural rights violations to make would-be advocates throw their hands up and not know where or whether to start. But that sense of the enormity of the task ahead was there after the second world war when the original human rights treaties were drawn up, and now decades later we have changed the discourse about rights and what governments know they can and cannot do.

In the real world many aid agencies, UN agencies and donor governments have already adopted a rights-based approach to development. Amnesty believes strongly that bringing human rights into the debate on poverty is one of the most powerful ways to make poverty alleviation accountable to those it is supposed to help. And exactly because we are not an aid agency, trying to work with a given government's acquiescence, we can be very bold in challenging governments to be accountable to all their citizens.

(Source: The Guardian)

In Vietnam, sex trade a dangerous lure

Danh Thi Anh, 20, takes a moment to brush her hair away from her face as she sorts plastic bags to sell to recyclers, at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Rach Gia City in Kien Giang Province, Vietnam. She earns the equivalent of US$1.75 for a full days work. Anh was one of the 7 girls rescued from a sex trafficking scam in December 2008, after she accepted a phony job offer to work in a cafe in Ho Chi Minh City.

Truong Thi Nhi Linh, 17, collects plastic bags from fresh garbage to sell to recyclers, at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Rach Gia City in Kien Giang Province, Vietnam.

Taiwan News
http://www.etaiwannews.com

By John Boudreau
San Jose Mercury News
2009-06-20

Modern-day slavery targets desparately poor families

The offer came to families on the edge of desperation, living and working around the clock on garbage dumps whose sickening stench seeps into their clothes.

A motherly woman accompanied by a kindly gentleman arrived one day in early December, shortly before the New Year's Tet celebration when the poorest of the poor hope for a little extra cash for modest festivities. The two said they were looking for attractive young women to work in a Ho Chi Minh City cafe, and they were ready to give each family a US$60 advance - a small fortune for people barely scraping by on a couple of dollars a day - or less.

Though at least two fathers objected, they were overruled by their wives and daughters, who were willing to take any risk to help their struggling clans. After examining each girl like livestock, the man chose five of the prettiest teenagers, and picked two more from a neighboring area. The teens quickly packed a few belongings and left.

Seventeen-year-old Truong Thi Nhi Linh was one of those chosen. It was, she says, the best chance to help her family - a chance to make considerably more money than she earns working 4.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m. in the dump, sloshing around on rainy nights in knee-high sludge among swarms of other workers looking for bits of junk.

She reassured her parents, who opposed her leaving. "I said, 'It's OK. I'm just going to work.' " She added, "I want to help my family."

Hours later, one of the few parents with a cell phone received a panicked call from their daughter - they were not headed north to Ho Chi Minh City but to Cambodia, where the girls would be forced into the sex trade.

Uninformed

It is a misfortune that falls on many young women in Southeast Asia with the twin vulnerabilities of being pretty and poor. Like their parents, they often are illiterate and profoundly uninformed about the dangers of international sex trafficking and how strangers drug or lure unsuspecting teens into a life of satisfying the cravings of foreign men. Their innocence is prized: Some Asian men are willing to pay as much as US$600 to have sex with a virgin because they believe it will restore their youth, give them good fortune or even cure them of AIDS.

Vietnam, with an abundance of beautiful young women living in desperate straits, is a magnet for human brokers - some of whom pay families to marry off their daughters to men in Korea, Taiwan and China; others are linked directly to human trafficking. Parents often ignore the dangers to their daughters in pursuit of a better life.

"The families are so poor," said Quach Thi Phan, chairwoman of the Women's Union of Rach Gia City in Kien Giang Province, which organizes anti-trafficking educational campaigns. "They just think about how to get money, how to find a job."

In the case of the Rach Gia teens, the police conducted a last-minute raid near the Cambodian border to rescue them after receiving calls from a community member and, eventually, at least one worried parent. The almost routine incident received no local news coverage, underscoring the virtual daily threat to the world's underclass.

"It's globalization in its ugliest form," said Diep Vuong, president of Pacific Links Foundation, a Milpitas, Calif., nonprofit started by Vietnamese-Americans. The organization works to prevent human trafficking by providing educational opportunities to at-risk Vietnamese girls and those who escape the sex trade.

"If you don't know how to read the public announcements or have enough money for newspapers and you barely have enough to eat, how can you understand there are risks?" she said. "It's so easy to look the other way. I meet many young women who say, 'I know it's risky, but I must try because we are so poor.' I tell them, 'Do you think you'll be able to sleep with 15 guys a day?' They are mostly terrified and surprised; 'What are you talking about?' they ask."

A half-million young women are trafficked each year around the world, according to the U.S. State Department. In Vietnam, the government recently reported that last year there were 6,684 victims of trafficking, with 2,579 returned to their homes. It also said there were 21,038 people reported missing who could have been sold into prostitution. Experts, though, question the accuracy of the Vietnam government's statistics and fear the numbers are higher.

Vietnamese authorities in recent years have moved aggressively to stop sex trafficking. Police in the home province of the seven teens, for instance, have officers dedicated to cracking down on traffickers. Overall, though, neither the national nor local governments have enough resources to adequately fight the problem, experts say.

In 2004, NBC's "Dateline" news show broadcast a report about Cambodia's sex trade. To the horror of the Vietnamese-American community, the young prostitutes spoke Vietnamese. As a result of the broadcast, a number of Vietnamese in the Bay Area and elsewhere began creating programs to prevent such sexual exploitation, said Benjamin Lee, chairman of San Jose-based Aid to Children Without Parents.

They set up organizations to provide opportunities and hope for those at the bottom of the economic ladder and assistance to those who escape forced prostitution.

For the family

But they face a culture that makes their task difficult; in some cases, parents willingly sell their daughters to traffickers for thousands of dollars. "In the Eastern way of thinking, the children have to obey their parents: 'I have my body. I will do this for my family,'" said Nguyen Kim Thien, director of Ho Chi Minh City's Little Rose Warm Shelter for sexually abused girls.

This modern-day slavery takes root in regions isolated by abject poverty and close to Cambodia's thriving sex trade, such as parts of the Mekong Delta. One such place is on the outskirts of the bustling port city of Rach Gia in a majority ethnic Khmer community.

Though Vietnam boasts a literacy rate of about 90 percent, many of the residents in this community have little or no education. They spend their days and nights picking through heaps of garbage for recyclable materials, such as plastic and metal. Children, barefoot and barely clothed, play amid the foul-smelling waste.

"This is a community in which we had to teach them how to use soap, how to use a bathroom - the basics of the basics," said Caroline Nguyen Ticarro-Parker, co-founder and executive director of the U.S.-based Catalyst Foundation, which has set up a school in the area and is working with Habitat for Humanity to construct homes for people in the community.

"Their day-to-day life is, 'How do I get food on the table today? Who is going to take care of my child today?' " she said. "Life has been so hard for them. They can't think of the future."

They live in huts with thatch roofs on or near a garbage dump swarming with flies and mosquitoes. On a recent morning, 23-year-old Kim Thi Mau sorted dirty plastic bags. Last year, her 4-year-old son Lam drowned when he fell in a ditch filled with water while she and her husband worked nearby. She has two other sons, 20 months and 4 months old.

"I hope there is a school that can take care of my children - some place not like this, dirty," said Kim who, like her 28-year-old husband, is illiterate.

So it can be difficult to resist strangers who arrive in a village promising good-paying jobs. Many of these families survive on US$1 or US$2 a day. In the case of the seven teens, the traffickers said they could pay each one about US$120 a month working in a city cafe.

On that December morning, a unwitting family in Rach Gia's Vinh Quang ward sent out word about the employment offer. More than a dozen girls and their families gathered at a house.

"The man looked at our faces and said, 'This girl is OK. This one is OK,'" said Danh Thi Anh, a shy and soft-spoken 20-year-old, who was one of those picked and 19 at the time.

The selection process began at 11.00 a.m. By 1.00 p.m., the teens were on the road. Soon after they left, a Catalyst employee who tried to dissuade the teens from going told one member of the community to call the police.

Most of the young women had never been far from home by themselves. Within a few hours, one figured out they were not heading to Ho Chi Minh City, Truong and two other teens recalled.

The girls, using a cell phone one of them had, began calling home, and eventually one of their mothers called the police.

Some of the teens began to cry. They had arrived in An Bien City, south of Rach Gia, and were to travel to the coast and board a fishing boat to Cambodia.

"We were very afraid," Truong said. "We did not know where we were."

But police, who had tracked other human traffickers taking the same route, found them at 10 p.m. They arrested the woman who was escorting them. The man got away.

About 4.00 a.m. the next day, the teens were back in Rach Gia.

It is unclear what the community learned from the narrow escape. Catalyst Foundation representatives held community meetings afterward. "We said, 偲his is what will happen: Your child will be raped, and not by one person, but by many people,'" said the organization's co-founder Nguyen. But she can't be sure it won't happen again.

For those living in brutal conditions, Nguyen said, "It is a lot of money."

Seventeen-year-old Truong, who lives in a cramped thatched home elevated over water with nine family members, said she has not given much consideration to what would have happened to her had she ended up in Cambodia.

"I don't think about that," she said passively. "If it had happened, it would have been because it was my destiny. That's the life."

Cambodia Is Ranked in the Second Tier for Human Trafficking in the 2009 US Report – Friday, 19.6.2009

Posted on 20 June 2009
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 617
http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“Phnom Penh: The 2009 report of the US Department of State shows that this year Cambodia stays in the Second Tier [of three] in the assessment on human trafficking. Though, in general the Cambodian government has improved in responding to trafficking, last year the efforts to fight human trafficking declined, especially in the prosecution of human trafficking crimes.

“The report of US Department of State gives some details that Cambodia is a transit country and is targeted for the trafficking of men, women, and children who are victimized by trafficking for sexual exploitation and for forced labor. Children and women are trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia to exploit their labor and for forced prostitution. Some Cambodian men who migrate to Thailand by themselves and to Malaysia to seek jobs are forced to do hard work as fishermen on fishing boats, as construction workers, and as agro-industrial workers. Cambodian women and men sent back to Cambodia recount that they were forced to work hard there, after they had left Cambodia to work there through Cambodian worker recruiting companies. Cambodian children were trafficked to Thailand and Vietnam to do begging and to sell candy or flowers, or to shine shoes. Sometimes, parents sell their children to work as servants or to beg, or they sold them to brothels for sexual exploitation, or to force them to work as house servants. In Cambodia children are trafficked to become beggars. They become scavengers or work at salt fields, at brick and tiles kilns, and at quarries.

The Cambodian government has not fully met the minimum standards of trafficking elimination. Although the government is making remarkable efforts to fight trafficking, the government has not really proven that there are improvements in the prosecution and punishment of human trafficking perpetrators as well as officials who had colluded with those perpetrators, and it has not shown how it is protecting human trafficking victims. Therefore, Cambodia is ranked second in the observation list. To improve this rank, Cambodia should do more to bring human traffickers and colluding officials to be prosecuted and punished.

“Based on the adoption of a law to protect victims of human trafficking in 2000, which was later amended, the US parliament requires the US Department of Sate to send annual reports to the US parliament. These reports on 164 countries are the most comnprehensive reports worldwide about the efforts of various governments to fight human trafficking. The reports aim at encouraging activities and stepping up partnership arrangements worldwide to fight this new form of slavery. Countries defined as having many human trafficking victims will be included in any of the three following ranks. Countries evaluated as meeting “the minimum standard to eliminate serous human trafficking” as stated in the law will be put in the first tier. Countries assessed of not meeting the minimum standard but making significant efforts will be included in the second tier. Countries assessed as not meeting the standard and not making any significant efforts will be placed in the third tier.

“This report continues that the law even requires the US Department of State to deliver a special watch list for countries that have been assessed again temporarily for the report by 1 February every year. In addition to the assessments of various countries with improving ranks from third to second to fist, this special watch list even creates a fourth rank. This ranks includes countries in the third tier defined as (1) not making any efforts a year ago and (2) being able to avoid the third rank because of commitments to conduct reforms against human trafficking in the future or (3) having fairly many victims of human trafficking or having fairly increasing rates of human trafficking victims.

“The US Embassy waits to cooperate more with the Royal Government of Cambodia next years in order to achieve success to bring Cambodia to the first tier at last. It should be noted that in 2008, Cambodia was in the second tier also.”

Koh Santepheap, Vol.42, #6679-6680, 18-19.6.2009
Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Friday, 19 June 2009

Preah Vihear appeal 'targets UN, not Cambodia'

The Nation
By THE NATION ON SUNDAY,
THAI NEWS AGENCY, AFP
Published on June 21, 2009

Thailand's objection to the listing of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site is directed at the World Heritage Committee and Unesco and not at Cambodia, Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya said yesterday.

He said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, who will attend next week's World Heritage Committee meeting as an observer, would brief the panel's chairman beforehand regarding Thailand's objection to unilateral listing of the temple, which sits on the border between the two countries.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters yesterday that soldiers would be ready to defend their territory again if necessary.

"Cambodia welcomes Thailand militarily, diplomatically, internationally or through peaceful negotiations," Hor Namhong said. "[Border fighting] has happened twice ... If they want to send their troops to Cambodia a third time, they are welcome to," he said.

"I hear the Thai second in command on the border has put his troops on alert, and I'd like to tell him that Cambodian soldiers are on alert too," Hor Namhong added.

The World Heritage Committee is part of the United Nations' Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

"This issue is between Thailand and the World Heritage Committee and Unesco, and not between Thailand and Cambodia," said Kasit, noting that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had said that Cambodia was not involved.

Kasit declined to say whether the Thai action would affect the decision last year to register Cambodia's unilateral listing of the Hindu temple because it was up to the committee and Thailand was attending not as a member but as observer.

He said the meeting also had other matters on its agenda and might also act on Thailand's proposal of other historical sites for World Heritage status.

Abhisit said yesterday that Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban would meet Cambo-dian Prime Minister Hun Sen next week in order to clarify Thailand's objection to the listing of the Preah Vihear Temple ruins as a World Heritage Site.

Abhisit said that he did not expect conflict between the two countries to worsen. The Cambodian leader last week expressed "deep regret" after Thailand announced its intention to ask the World Heritage Committee in Seville, Spain, next week to review last year's decision.

Hun Sen said the issue had not been raised when Abhisit met him in Phnom Penh last week.

The Thai premier, however, expressed hope yesterday that after meeting Suthep in Cambodia Hun Sen would better understand Thailand's stance.

"I haven't talked to [Hun Sen] or the Cambodian ambassador, but I do not think this will worsen the situation and believe the discussion will clarify the matter," Abhisit said.

Suthep is also expected to discuss with Hun Sen the Thai-Cambodian demarcation of overlapping sea areas during his visit to Phnom Penh, according to Abhisit.

Unesco approved Cambodia's application for Preah Vihear to be designated a World Heritage site last July. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but armed clashes have since then occurred periodically near the temple, especially in a 4.6-square-kilometre disputed area.

Cambodia lashes out


Published: 21/06/2009

Phnom Penh - Cambodia rebuked Thailand on Saturday for reopening a debate over ancient Preah Vihear temple - and vowed it is ready to fight.

"Cambodia welcomes Thailand militarily, diplomatically, internationally or through peaceful negotiations," Hor Namhong said.

"It (border fighting) has happened twice... if they want to send their troops to Cambodia a third time, we will welcome them too," he said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made a one-day visit to Cambodia last week in an attempt to push forward border talks, but did not discuss the temple with his counterpart Hun Sen.

His subsequent comments only appear to have reignited the dispute.

"I heard that the second Thai commander on the border put his troops on alert and I'd like to tell them that Cambodian soldiers are also on alert," Mr Hor Namhong added.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence last July when the temple was granted UN World Heritage status.

Thailand intends to counter the UN declaration this week at the World Heritage meeting in Spain, with a proposal that the grounds of the temple be placed under joint Thai-Cambodian maintenance.

The 11th century Preah Vihear, atop a high and sheer cliff in Si Sa Ket province, is almost impossible to reach without going through Thai territory. Almost all visitors approach from the Thai side.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area and occasional outbreaks of violence between them have triggered gunbattles that have killed seven troops in the past year.

The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated. (AFP)

Cambodia in war of words with Thailand over border

A view of the Preah Vihear temple

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia on Saturday rebuked Thailand for reopening a debate over an ancient temple on their disputed border that has led to seven soldiers being killed.

High-ranking Thai officials this week asked world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider its decision to formally list the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, as ownership of land surrounding the ruins is still in dispute.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area and occasional outbreaks of violence between them have triggered gunbattles that have killed seven troops in the past year.

But Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters that soldiers would be ready to defend their land again if necessary.

"Cambodia welcomes Thailand militarily, diplomatically, internationally or through peaceful negotiations," Hor Namhong said.

"(But) it (border fighting) has happened twice... (so) if they want to send their troops to Cambodia a third time, we will welcome them too," he said.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made a one-day visit to Cambodia last week in an attempt to push forward border talks, but his subsequent comments only appear to have reignited the dispute.

"I heard that the second Thai commander on the border put his troops on alert and I'd like to tell them that Cambodian soldiers are also on alert," Hor Namhong added.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence last July when the temple was granted UN World Heritage status.

The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

Thailand's objection directed at World Heritage Committee, not Cambodia: Kasit

June 21, 2009

Thailand's objection to the listing of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site is directed at the World Heritage Committee and Unesco and not at Cambodia, Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya said Saturday.

He said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, who will attend next week's World Heritage Committee meeting as an observer, would brief the panel's chairman beforehand regarding Thailand's objection to unilateral listing of the temple, which sits on the border between the two countries.

The Nation

Cambodia rejects report of Mekong River dolphins extinction


Phnom Penh, June 20: The Cambodian government has rejected as "a total lie" the report by an international conservation group that dolphins living in parts of the Mekong River between Cambodia and Laos are on the brink of extinction due to pollution.

The report by the World Wide Fund for Nature was aimed at attracting and convincing donors to inject more funds into the group, Chairman of Commission for Conservation and Development of the Mekong River Dolphin and eco-tourism Touch Seang Tana, told Kyodo News.

Inhabiting a 190-kilometer stretch of the river, the Irrawaddy dolphin population has suffered 88 deaths since 2003, of which 58 were calves under 2 weeks old, bringing the latest population to an estimated 64 to 76 members, the WWF said in its report.

WWF researchers found high toxic levels of pesticides such as DDT and environmental contaminants such as PCBs as well mercury after analysing 21 dead dolphins retrieved between 2004 and 2006, the group said.

According to Tana, the number of dolphins instead has increased to 160 from the 120 recorded in 2000.

"There are no such critical pollutants, otherwise, some 50,000 people living along the 200-km stretch of the river and who are using and drinking the water might have died before the dolphins," he said.

Bureau Report

Cambodia rebukes Thailand

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong (left) gestures with repeated comments made by top Thai government officials over the complaint to withdraw Preah Vihear temple from World Heritage site. --PHOTO: AP

The Straits Times

June 20, 2009

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA on Saturday rebuked Thailand for reopening a debate over an ancient temple on their disputed border that has led to seven soldiers being killed.

High-ranking Thai officials this week asked world heritage body Unesco to reconsider its decision to formally list the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, as ownership of land surrounding the ruins is still in dispute.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area and occasional outbreaks of violence between them have triggered gunbattles that have killed seven troops in the past year.

But Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters that soldiers would be ready to defend their land again if necessary.

'Cambodia welcomes Thailand militarily, diplomatically, internationally or through peaceful negotiations,' Hor Namhong said.

'(But) it (border fighting) has happened twice... (so) if they want to send their troops to Cambodia a third time, we will welcome them too,' he said.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made a one-day visit to Cambodia last week in an attempt to push forward border talks, but his subsequent comments only appear to have reignited the dispute.

'I heard that the second Thai commander on the border put his troops on alert and I'd like to tell them that Cambodian soldiers are also on alert,' Mr Hor Namhong added.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence last July when the temple was granted UN World Heritage status.

The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia. -- AFP

Cambodia FM: Thailand threatens Cambodia and UNESCO over Preah Vihear temple

www.chinaview.cn
2009-06-20

PHNOM PENH, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Top Thai leaders are using the words to threaten Cambodia and UNESCO over listing Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple as World Heritage Site, a senior Cambodian official said on Saturday.

Hor Namhong, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation told reporters at a press conference at the ministry that Thai prime minister, deputy prime minister and foreign minister are using words of lack of thoughts on the matter of the belongs of Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple and sending a threaten message to UNESCO before the meeting of World Heritage Committee to be held in Spain on June 23.

UNESCO agreed to register Perah Vihear temple as World Heritage Site of Cambodia in July 7, 2008. But since then from July 15, troops from both Cambodian and Thailand have confronted at the border near Preah Vihear temple.

Hor added that Thai leaders wanted to review about registering Preah Vihear temple (of Cambodia) with the Committee of World Heritage of UNESCO and also wanted to register jointly for Preah Vihear temple. "Preah Vihear temple and land surrounding areas belongs to Cambodia not Thailand according to the verdict of World Court's rule in 1962," Hor stressed.

"It is big mistake and serious one that were created by Thai leaders," he said, adding that they have spoken without thoughts.

"If they want to have armed conflicts for third time, we welcome," he said, adding "today we have known that Thai command for second region put their troops on alert, our troops also is ready for fighting, but so far the situation there is calm."

Moreover, Hor Namhong said "the border tension was caused by Thai side. We (Cambodia) want to resolve the border issue peacefully and friendly. But our effort made no result."

"Military tension has not occurred yet today, but tomorrow I do not know," Hor said, adding that Preah Vihear temple already registered as cultural and humanitarian matters for all people.

"We are ready to deal border issue with Thailand by using peaceful resolution, international law, military, or diplomatic ways," he noted.

According to Thai newspaper The Bangkok Post on Wednesday, that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit would request that UNESCO's World Heritage Committee review last year's decision to register Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site when the body convenes its annual meeting later this month in Spain. He would also request that the temple be registered jointly as a World Heritage Site by Thailand and Cambodia.

Editor: Bi Mingxin