Fighting to be remembered

[Photo by Tracey Shelton]
THE COURTROOM: Millions of dollars have been spent - and misspent - for the trial of Khmer Rouge leaders.

[Photo by Tracey Shelton]
Sophal Stagg points toward holding cells during a tour of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal compound in Cambodia.

A SURVIVOR: Sophal Stagg tours the Khmer Rouge Tribunal compound in Cambodia. A survivor of the mass killings in that country in the 1970s, she now works to educate the public there about the nation's grim history. [Photo by Tracey Shelton]

By Elena Lesley,
Times Staff Writer
February 10, 2008

Sophal Stagg stopped in front of the villa built to house former leaders of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime and yanked a long weed from the ground. - "This is what I ate to survive," she explained to fellow members of a group touring the Khmer Rouge Tribunal compound in Cambodia. "I thanked God I had this."

They listened quietly as Stagg explained how she sneaked weeds, mice and bugs into the watery rice porridge that was her only sustenance under Pol Pot's notorious regime.

"And these five criminals are living in a luxury house," she continued, angrily pointing toward the villa where five former leaders wait to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"They have three meals a day - their choice - TV, one even has a special toilet. What kind of justice is this?"

Decades have passed since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Stagg, who now lives in Palm Harbor and goes by "Sophie," thought she and other survivors would never see justice. Yet even though a United Nations-backed tribunal is set to try key leaders this year, she is still unsure what effect it will have on her home country.

Stagg distributes goods in Cambodia every year as part of her work for the Southeast Asian Children's Mercy Fund, the charity organization she founded. But this January marked her first visit to the tribunal complex. Construction on land outside of Phnom Penh, the country's capital city, started several years ago.

In the past, Stagg always bypassed the site. She thought the government would never allow the tribunal to happen and she didn't want to be disappointed.

But now that the country appears determined to try Pol Pot's henchmen, Stagg still has misgivings.

"I can't believe the world has poured so much money into this," she said, referring to tribunal funding she believes has been misused. "It's like an elaborate stage for a two-minute show. Are the international donors blind?"

Stagg said she was shocked by the number of sleek buildings constructed especially for the trials, the inflated salaries of tribunal staff and the "pampering" of defendants.

Each of the aging leaders has a personal doctor. A bulletproof Land Cruiser transports them the 50 yards from their villa to the courthouse, she said.

"I got very sarcastic on the tour," she said with a wry smile. "I said I was surprised they didn't have a red carpet for the Land Cruiser."

After visiting the compound, Stagg said she is more convinced than ever that many involved in the tribunal are "trying to drag it on as long as they can, suck out as much money as possible."

She isn't the first to notice the perceived waste. Allegations of corruption, mismanagement and political interference have long plagued the tribunal.

Negotiations for a court to try leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, which is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7-million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979, got off to a slow start in 1997.

Though Pol Pot died of natural causes in 1998, the United Nations and Cambodian government reached an agreement in 2003 outlining a process to try other Khmer Rouge figures.

Fundraising efforts lagged for years, but in July 2006, Cambodian and foreign judges were finally sworn in. A year later, prosecutors submitted a list of suspects to tribunal judges and since that time five people have been taken into custody.

But no one has stood trial, and the tribunal has eaten up most of its $56.3-million budget. Organizers are lobbying for more funding. And they have a good case.

"It is very, very important to put these people on trial as an example to other dictators," said Paul Chuk, a Pinellas Park resident who lost both his parents to the Khmer Rouge. "You cannot abuse people this way and get away with it."

But with all the emphasis on the trappings of justice, Stagg worries the message may not get through to actual Cambodians. She'd like to see less money squandered on construction and salaries, and more devoted to educating the public.

Cambodian schools teach little about the Khmer Rouge regime, and many who lived through it are too traumatized to discuss their experiences, Stagg said. As a result, most young Cambodians know strikingly little about that period.

"Some young people don't even believe it happened," she said.

The lack of information is especially disturbing to Stagg, who has spent much of the past decade trying to raise awareness about the Khmer Rouge. Her memoir, Hear me now: Tragedy in Cambodia, is part of the curriculum in many local schools, and she has given numerous lectures about the Cambodian holocaust.

"I fight to teach about this in American schools," she said. "But I can't believe I have to do it in my own back yard, in Cambodia."

Yet she is now considering doing just that. While she has long brought much-needed goods to the country, Stagg now hopes to raise money for books and a Khmer Rouge curriculum.

The tribunal, she fears, won't be enough.

"They say they want to leave a legacy, but what kind of legacy is that?" she asked. "There will be no justice without education."

Sacravatoons: FBI's Gift

Courtesy of Sacratoons; Please click on link here to see full article http://sacrava.blogspot.com/

Searching for the truth

Filmmaker Socheata Poeuv's documentary to be shown at CSULB genocide forum

By Phillip Zonkel, Staff writer
02/09/2008

Socheata Poeuv's family was living in Dallas, but in some ways, her parents never left Cambodia.
"My father pruned our trees in a sarong with a kitchen cleaver, and my mother stored stinky fermented fish under the sink," says Poeuv, 27, who migrated with her family to Texas in 1982.

"I thought everything about my parents was 'old country,' but in fact, they were desperately trying to forget their past," she says.

Poeuv's parents - in fact, her whole family - are survivors of the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and orchestrated the death of 1.7 million people through starvation, disease or execution.

Poeuv is called "the lucky one" - she was born on the Cambodian New Year in a Thai refugee camp.

But her parents never told her how she got there.

"New Year Baby" is Poeuv's personal documentary, a search for the truth about how her family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide and why they buried the truth for so long.

The film will be screened Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Cal State Long Beach in the University Student Ballroom. The film is part of CSULB's "The President's Forum on International Human Rights: Modern Genocides and Global Responsibilities," a three-day event beginning Monday that consists of a series of lectures, art exhibits, panel discussions and film screenings exploring topics such as the meaning of genocide and the role of governments in preventing it.

Monday's schedule looks at the magnitude of genocide and Tuesday focuses on talking with survivors and the horrific impact genocide has had on them. The final day on Wednesday explores what responsibility the global community has to cooperate and eradicate racial and ethnic intolerance, which are some of the catalysts to genocide.

All events are free and open to public. Registration is not required, but seating is on a first-come basis.

Francis Deng, the United Nation Secretary General's Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide to the Secretary General of the United Nations, will deliver the keynote address on Monday night at 7 p.m.

"So much time and resources go into debating, 'Is it genocide or isn't it?' My job is to stop these atrocities before they reach the 'g' word," Deng says. "If we get involved in the beginning, before letting situations escalate to the point of accusing people of genocide and then people get defensive and aggressive, we can do enormous amounts to help people."

Genocide defined

In 1944, lawyer Raphael Lemkin published a comprehensive account of Nazi actions and defined them with a new word - genocide, formed from the Greek "geno," meaning race or tribe, and from the Latin "cide," meaning killing. The United Nations adopted the term in 1948 at the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide," establishing genocide as an international crime.

Taking that definition into account, in the last 108 years, 36 examples of genocide have taken place around the globe (Pakistan, El Salvador, Guatemala, Rwanda, Nigeria, etc.) resulting in the mass killings of more than 87 million men, women and children, according to a 2006 National Geographic magazine report.

Mariana Xuncax Francisco, from the Maya Kanjobal tribe, is a survivor of genocide in Guatemala. She will be part of a survivors' panel discussion at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the University Student Union Ballroom.

Since the Spanish Conquest, the Maya have been subjected to discrimination and repression at the hands of the fair-skinned Spanish and ladinos (people of mixed heritage), which often has resulted in great poverty for the Maya and great wealth for the ladinos.

In 1960, a genocide campaign was initiated to exterminate the Maya. The war lasted 36 years and killed 200,000 and displaced 25 percent of the country's population. In addition, more than 45,000 people "disappeared," according to the United Nations' Historical Clarification Commission.

In 1999, the commission released an explosive report, accusing the Guatemalan government of genocide against the Maya and also implicated the United States, CIA and subsidiaries of several American businesses of being accomplices to the genocide.

Witness to killings

During the early 1980s, at the height of the government's genocide, Francisco was a nurse administering inoculations in the town of San Marcos Barranca de Galvez. Once, she arrived at the vaccination center, but government soldiers prevented her from entering. She heard gunshots and watched waiting patients flee as the soldiers left.

Inside, Francisco saw three dead people, two adult men and a 5- or 6-year-old boy. They had been strangled. Their necks - with dark purple scars - showed signs of torture, and they had been shot.

"Things like that happened every week," says Francisco, 50, who recounts another incident at another clinic where 22 patients were shot and killed.

Francisco says the violence, murder and torture subsided for a short time in the mid-1980s, but then escalated in the late 1980s.

In 1990, Francisco migrated to Los Angeles and was granted political asylum five years later.
Gabriel Estrada, assistant professor in the American Indian Studies program, selected Francisco for the panel not only because of her testimonials but also her Maya heritage.

"The history books in the U.S. and Latin America don't teach about contemporary indigenous people," Estrada says. "They leave them in the past, like something that disappeared 500 years ago. But they're still living with us today. The majority of the Guatemalan population is Maya."
Startling revelation

Poeuv's parents also are genocide survivors, but they almost never talked about it. Almost never.

On Dec. 25, 2002, Poeuv's parents called a family meeting and revealed 25 years of secrets to Poeuv and her siblings.

Poeuv's two sisters are her nieces, orphaned when the Khmer Rouge killed their parents. Her older brother is her half-brother, the surviving child from Poeuv's mother's first marriage.

In November 2003, Poeuv's parents took Poeuv and her brother to Cambodia for the first time. The revelations from Poeuv's parents raised more questions than they answered, which motivated Poeuv to document the family story.

In Cambodia, Poeuv learned her family's struggle and sacrifice and how they survived hideous acts of human cruelty.

Says Poeuv: "My parents are inspirations for me of what humans can endure."

Ex-Khmer Rouge minister out of hospital

The Associated Press
Sunday, February 10, 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) A former Khmer Rouge foreign minister returned to detention under Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal after spending nearly a week hospitalized for a urinary tract problem, officials said Sunday.

Ieng Sary was discharged from the hospital Saturday evening and returned to his cell at the tribunal's custom-built compound, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

Ieng Sary is one of five former high-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge who were taken into custody last year, and are now awaiting trial in connection with the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people through execution, overwork and starvation when the group held power from 1975-79.

Many victims of the Khmer Rouge have long feared some of the defendants, now aging and infirm, could die before facing trial.

"Doctors have told us he is fine, and he is now back in detention" at the tribunal, Reach Sambath said.

Ieng Sary's lawyer, Ang Udom, said his client's health condition "has improved."

Ieng Sary was hurried to Calmette Hospital - Cambodia's best medical facility - on Monday last week after urinating blood. It was the second hospital visit in 10 days by the 82-year-old former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, who also has a history of heart trouble.

Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs in the Khmer Rouge government, are both held pending trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The couple have appealed against their detention, but the tribunal has not yet set dates for hearings.

Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge main ideologist, was confronted by a genocide survivor last week in a hearing on his appeal against pretrial detention. Judges are expected to announce a ruling on his appeal in coming days

Ahearn: A restaurateur’s American success story

Credit: H. Scott Hoffmann/News & Record
Marie Peng's hard work in the Asian restaurant business has made her a classic American success story.

By Lorraine Ahearn
Staff Writer
Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008

Just hired, the young Vietnamese dishwasher watched the petite, middle-aged woman pull on heavy-duty rubber gloves and start scrubbing the stainless steel kitchen as if her life depended on it.

The dishwasher had to ask.

"How long have you worked here?"

This sent a roar of laughter through the kitchen staff at Phoenix Asian Cuisine, the city's first top-drawer Chinese restaurant, as owner Marie Peng composed her reply: "Since Day One."
I guess this is your classic American success story, the moral being that enough elbow grease can move mountains.

Even so, the place where this story begins — an escape on foot from genocide in Cambodia — is hard to reconcile with where it's ended up. That is, this quick, savvy matriarch of a businesswoman, sitting at the marble bar of her own bistro, with fine wood paneling, linen napkins, a long wine list and Frank Sinatra playing.

They are one and the same, she and the teenager who fled Cambodia with only the clothes on her back as the reign of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge rose like a bloody tide.

It's a story that predates "Day One," but began in the spring of 1975, a moment of unfathomable and cold horror. It was, in the words of the despot who was about to execute, march to death or slowly starve to death 2 million of his countrymen, "The Year Zero."

***
When the capital at Phnom Penh fell, it was celebration for the communist soldiers, like the Chinese New Year all over again. Marie Peng, traveling near the Thai border with her aunt, thought it was a good omen.

"We can go home now," Peng, then 16, told her aunt. "The war is over. Everything is OK."
"No," the older woman answered. "It's not OK."

At the head of a teenage guerrilla army, Pol Pot renamed Cambodia the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea, which he decreed would be a Utopian peasant society. First, it had to be "purified" of, among other things, family and parental authority, churches, health care, education, money, newspapers, radio, TV, foreigners, bicycles, even — for some reason — eyeglasses.

But all Peng and her aunt knew was, the roads and bridges were closed. And so they crossed into Thailand on a pedestrian catwalk, making their way to a refugee camp where they lived for six months, sleeping in a tin-roofed barracks, bathing in a muddy river.

As world opinion drowsily awakened to the Pol Pot nightmare, makeshift consulates opened in the camp, and the lines formed. Like playing the lottery, the refugees applied to go anywhere, everywhere — France, Germany, Switzerland.

Peng and her aunt found themselves on the way to the U.S., arriving at the Greensboro airport one night, then on their way out of Greensboro, where there were few lights and a lot of trees. The two women spoke in Cambodian the whole way.

"Uh-oh," Peng whispered to her aunt, as she watched the scenery from the sponsor's car window get farther from town. "They must be dropping us off somewhere in the jungle."

In fact, the destination was Asheboro, and a house with a well-stocked kitchen. They were thankful, but with no English, no friends and no news out of Cambodia, all Peng had to do for the first weeks was wait for word from home.

"I cried. I was so alone," recalled Peng, who finally got a letter from her mother. "My mom said I was very lucky to get away. They were making them work in the fields and the rice paddies. They were from the city. They weren't used to this. She said I might have been first to die."

It was happening everywhere in Kampuchea. Young, ruthless, trigger-happy soldiers had forced the city dwellers out to collective farms, where they worked slave labor, 4 a.m. until 10 p.m., and were fed only a small bowl of rice every other day.

Peng, realizing she now had to fend for herself — and might be her family's only hope to follow her to America — went to work at a hosiery mill, packing socks for $2.34 an hour.

After that was a succession of waitress jobs — the Bamboo Palace, Beijing Restaurant. Learning English on her feet instead of in a classroom, Peng quickly picked up on local customs such as the "free refill" and a grayish concoction with crunchy noodles that Americans called "chow mein."

Her fortunes would change after she was hired as a waitress at Lin's Garden on East Bessemer Avenue, and eventually bought the place when the owner moved back to New York. The same year, 1981, she finally got a second letter from her mother.

The news was part sweet, part bitter. Most of the family had survived the four years under Pol Pot. But her father and two brothers had not, the restaurant owner learned. The brothers had starved and the father had literally been worked to death.
***
The children called it "lucky money," pocket money enclosed in little red envelopes and given out on the Chinese New Year by grandparents, aunts, uncles. These were the only gifts, and on New Year's Eve, amid firecrackers and the traditional Lion Dance, the children would gleefully tally up their take.

It was one tradition Peng always kept in her new country, with her two sons — the lucky money. And a full 15 years after locating her lost family, she finally used her savings to bring them here, one by one, 24 people including siblings, nieces, nephews, and Peng's mother.

After 26 years on her feet in the kitchen, in the dining room, doing the prep and cleanup herself to keep the payroll down, Peng decided to retire a few years ago, after a relative took over Lin's Garden. Peng wanted to travel the world.

"All those years, I was like a bird in a cage. I wanted to go here, go there," she said. "I did, for a while. Then I said, 'I have to go back to work.' "

Just not a buffet. Never again. The sight of all that wasted all-you-can-eat food always made her ache.
So she and her grown sons, Tommy and David Peng, decided to open a first-class Asian restaurant. The upfit at what used to be a golf store behind Carrabba's Italian Grill on New Garden Road was a thing to behold: 2,200-square-foot kitchen, remodeling by Design One, hand-painted peacock mural over the bar.

Not the kind of place where you get to keep the chopsticks. No chop suey to be found. And on New Year's Eve last Thursday, the Year of the Rat, Peng emerged from toiling over sauces in the kitchen to greet customers at the packed dinner hour and watch the Lion Dance.

Beforehand, servers offered diners little red envelopes embossed with gold Chinese characters. They look decorative, like holiday ornaments, but the savvy businesswoman circulating among her well-heeled clientele knows better.

She knows what a 16-year-old girl crossing out of Cambodia knew. The red envelopes represented luck, a future, and life, if she could only imagine it, beyond The Year Zero.

Cambodia takes spotlight Asia comes to Tacoma

PHOTOS BY PETER HALEY/THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Denise Yin peeks through the curtain as Daravy Oum, Melinda Oum and Amie Yin, from left, wait for their troupe, Cambodian Classical and Folk Dance of Tacoma, to be called to the stage Saturday at the Asia Pacific Cultural Center’s annual New Year Celebration at the Tacoma Dome.

STEVE MAYNARD
February 10th, 2008

Pat Walton enjoyed a plate of Korean kimchee and fried pork Saturday and watched Indian dancing, surrounded by hundreds of other people celebrating the Asian New Year in Tacoma.

Taking in the celebration for the first time, the 48-year-old Tacoman called it “spectacular.”
“I really enjoy the culture – and the food,” he said. “That’s part of the culture.”

A multicultural array of food, dance and music was among the attractions at the 10th annual New Year Celebration, organized by the Asia Pacific Cultural Center.

At least 4,000 people attended the all-day celebration at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall, said Phil Chang, executive director of the Asia Pacific Cultural Center in Tacoma.

They helped celebrate the new year, which began Thursday. This Asian New Year, based on the Chinese zodiac cycle, is the Year of the Rat.

Before sampling the Korean cuisine, Walton tried pot stickers and noodles prepared by members of the Chinese Christian Church of Tacoma.

Church member Ming Alwin of Fircrest watched the dancing with her 2-year-old daughter, Danni. Alwin said the celebration is a way for non-Asians and Asians to get to know the diversity of Asian cultures. Youths from her church demonstrated tai chi.

“We want to export our Chinese culture to the society,” Alwin said.

Asians make up 5.9 percent of Pierce County’s population, according to data from the U.S. Census and a 2006 survey cited in the celebration’s program.

The exhibition hall was lined with booths for non-Asian and Asian businesses. Up front, the backdrop for the stage was a giant image of Angkor Wat, the ancient temple in Cambodia.

Each year’s celebration highlights a different culture, and Cambodians enjoyed the spotlight this year.

At least 500 Cambodians attended from as far away as Everett, said Rong By of Olympia. The celebration included Cambodian bands and Cambodian folk and classical dances.

Cambodians want to make themselves known to the general population, said By, who helped emcee.

“The most important thing is that people over here know Cambodians exist as part of the melting pot,” he said.

That ethnic diversity was demonstrated when the Samoana Dancers from Stafford Elementary School in Tacoma took the stage.

The 45 girls, ages 5 to 11, include Cambodian, Russian, Korean, Latino, black and Samoan dancers, said teacher Ala Talo, who started the group four years ago.

They wore Samoan dresses with bright pink and blue flower prints. In four lines on stage, they swayed and stepped, performing Samoan dances and singing in Samoan before their largest crowd ever and for the first time at New Year Celebration.

Nadia Yun, a 9-year-old third-grader, said she likes Samoan dance.

“It’s nice and graceful,” she said.

Talo said the dance is “teaching them how to respect somebody else’s culture.” It also instills positive messages, “empowering the girls that they can do anything if they put their hearts into it,” she said.

“We are so nervous because this is our first year,” Talo said. “But they did good.”

Earlier, Mary Ohno presented Japanese dance and music from her Kabuki Academy for the 10th straight year.

Ohno’s seen the event expand and grow.

“The people start understanding,” she said, “and they’re more interested in other cultures.”

Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister discharged from hospital, back in detention cell

The Associated Press
February 10, 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia : A former Khmer Rouge foreign minister returned to detention under Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal after spending nearly a week hospitalized for a urinary tract problem, officials said Sunday.
Ieng Sary was discharged from the hospital Saturday evening and returned to his cell at the tribunal's custom-built compound, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

Ieng Sary is one of five former high-ranking members of the Khmer Rouge who were taken into custody last year, and are now awaiting trial in connection with the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people through execution, overwork and starvation when the group held power from 1975-79.

Many victims of the Khmer Rouge have long feared some of the defendants, now aging and infirm, could die before facing trial.
"Doctors have told us he is fine, and he is now back in detention" at the tribunal, Reach Sambath said.

Ieng Sary's lawyer, Ang Udom, said his client's health condition "has improved."

Ieng Sary was hurried to Calmette Hospital — Cambodia's best medical facility — on Monday last week after urinating blood. It was the second hospital visit in 10 days by the 82-year-old former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, who also has a history of heart trouble.

Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs in the Khmer Rouge government, are both held pending trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The couple have appealed against their detention, but the tribunal has not yet set dates for hearings.

Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge main ideologist, was confronted by a genocide survivor last week in a hearing on his appeal against pretrial detention. Judges are expected to announce a ruling on his appeal in coming days.

Casting ballots for the US Democratic presidential primary in Phnom Penh

Cambodian-American Vaddey Ratner (R) and her husband Blake Ratner (2nd R), regional director of Greater Mekong, from Minnesota, cast their ballots for the Democratic presidential primary abroad at a supermarket in Phnom Penh February 9, 2008.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

Americans cast their ballots for the Democratic presidential primary abroad at a supermarket in Phnom Penh February 9, 2008.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

Americans cast their ballots for the Democratic presidential primary abroad at a supermarket in Phnom Penh February 9, 2008.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

Mark Turgesen (R), from Washington, poses as he casts his ballot for the Democratic presidential primary abroad at a supermarket in Phnom Penh February 9, 2008.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

Americans cast their ballots for the Democratic presidential primary abroad at a supermarket in Phnom Penh February 9, 2008.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

Pre-Trial Chamber Postponed the Announcement of the Judges’ Decision on Nuon Chea’s Appeal

10 February 2008.
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 546 - For the Khmer version, the Kanhchok Sangkum, click here.“

Phnom Penh: On 8 February 2008, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal decided to postpone the judges’ decision to an unspecified date on Nuon Chea’s appeal, whether to release him or to continue to temporarily detain him.

“The hearing on 8 February 2008, which was the third day of the appeal hearings of Nuon Chea, was intended for arguments against the detention order issued by the co-investigating judges. All parties raised their legal reasons respectively.

“Three victims or their civil party lawyers supported the co-prosecutors’ conclusion of 7 February requesting the chair of the pre-trial chamber to keep the defendant temporarily jailed.
“The civil parties’ attorneys said that there were two main reasons why they want Nuon Chea to remain in detention.

“The lawyers stated that the first reason is the personal security of Nuon Chea if he were out of jail. Nuon Chea’s current condition has been well known by the public both in the country and around the world through the media. Prior to his detention, Nuon Chea had not been well-known.

“The victims’ lawyers added their second reason, saying that if Nuon Chea is freed, it can affect the public order, because victimized Cambodian people, who live all over the country, might see him outside the jail; they might demonstrate against him and create chaos around the country.

“Ms. Seng Theary, Executive Director of the Center for Social Development, said in the hearing that the court should continue to detain Nuon Chea. She said, ‘We think that the conditions stated in the internal rules should be fully implemented by the court.’

“The Executive Director of the Center for Social Development added that if the chamber decided to allow Nuon Chea to be release on bail, he could be killed by whatever cause before entering into any future hearing. She added, ‘We think that it would be a big loss for Cambodian victims, who want to see justice.’

“Mr. Son Arun, Nuon Chea’s Khmer co-lawyer, had denounced the decision of the co-investigating judges during the last three day of hearings for detaining Nuon Chea, who is his client, claiming that legal procedures had not been followed.

“Mr. Son Arun denied the co-prosecutors’ arguments which had stated that if his client is on bail, he would threaten witnesses or destroy documents.

“Mr. Son Arun said that his client is very old. So if he is allowed to be out of jail, he will not have the power to threaten or kill witnesses. Even when coming into the courtroom, Nuon Chea needs to be supported to walk [as he is weak].

“The lawyer claimed also, on behalf of his client, that the prediction that Nuon Chea might destroy documents, is baseless. He thinks that by now, there remains nothing un-documented, even not one sheet of paper, because the Documentation Center of Cambodia has collected all papers during the past 10 years.

“On 8 February, the co-prosecutors still maintained their accusation unchanged, as before, and asked the pre-trial chamber to continue to detain Nuon Chea, as decided by the co-investigating judges.

“On the afternoon of 8 February, after deliberations, the Chamber decided to hold a one-hour closed door hearing and then resume the public hearing, allowing the defendant Nuon Chea to deliver a final speech.

“Mr. Nuon Chea said, ‘Respected compatriots, nowadays, our country is moving forward peacefully; peace, national unity, and development are improving gradually. But the difficulties and obstacles in the country are caused by outsiders, which hinder Cambodia’s growth.’ Nuon Chea said, ‘The Rectangular Strategy and the win-win strategy of the Royal Government led by Samdech Akak Moha Senapadei Dekchor Hun Sen are really addressing these problems and effectively bringing progress for the country. I myself as well as all the ccompatriots hope that the pre-trial chamber will use their pure, clean, and smart wisdom and conscience to judge my request to be released on bail.’

“At the end of the hearing, Mr. Prak Kimsan, chair of the pre-trial chamber, stated that the pre-trial chamber’s decision will have two elements.

“Mr. Prak Kimsan added that one decision is relating to the participation of the civil parties, and the second one concerns the appeal against the detention of the charged person, Mr. Nuon Chea.
“The chair of the pre-trial chamber finally stated that the decision related to the civil parties will be announced first, and the pre-trial chamber will inform the public two days prior to the announcement of each decision.”

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4511, 9.2.2008

Malaysia's holiday bonanza no fun for business

By Ivy Sam
Agence France-Presse
02/10/2008

KUALA LUMPUR--It's Chinese New Year and Malaysia's capital is deserted once again as citizens enjoy one of the many holidays observed by a nation with an array of races and religions.
But the nonstop stream of festivals, which began last October when Muslims celebrated the end of the fasting month, is being met with grumbles from business and industry who say the nation cannot afford all the merry-making.

After Malaysia's majority Malays celebrated Eid al-Fitr, it was the Hindus' turn with the Diwali festival of lights, then Christmas, followed by traditional New Year and now Lunar New Year.

"I can't get anything done!" laments lawyer Karen Lynn Johnson, who is frantically preparing for her upcoming nuptials. "Every supplier I call comes back to me with the same reply: wait until after Chinese New Year."

Malaysia's ethnic Chinese community dominates business and the long holiday weekend saw a lull at construction sites, shopping malls and restaurants as city-dwellers flooded the highways to return to their home villages.

"For business people it is never in their interests as it affects sales and trading," said M. Vivekananda from the Malaysian Employers' Federation.

"Our stand has always been that public holidays should not inhibit business activities. The markets should be kept open."

Business people complain that sales figures drop, trading on the bourse is halted and manufacturers who need to keep their factories open have to pay hefty overtime and triple holiday rates.

"Not only is it expensive, it disrupts the production of goods and sometimes deadlines cannot be met because there is not enough manpower," Vivekananda said.

Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, has 16 national holidays when the stock market, banks, schools and businesses are closed.

In addition, each state has its own set of holidays, so residents of central Selangor state which governs much of the capital Kuala Lumpur are generally entitled to four or five additional holidays.

As if that weren't enough, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last month declared the colourful Hindu festival of Thaipusam a public holiday just a few days beforehand, sending people scrambling to shift functions and events.

There are no figures on the costs involved, but in February last year exports shrank 14.41 percent to 41.1 billion ringgit ($4.24 billion) compared with the previous month due to "shorter working days and festivities", according to government data.

"On the stock market millions of ringgit in business transactions are lost and we miss the opportunity to make money. This could affect our market's performance," said businessman Michael Chiam.

"But this is how it is here, everyone gladly celebrates every festival together," said Chiam, a shipping merchant who chairs the Commercial Employers' Association of Peninsular Malaysia.

Singapore, the rich neighbouring city-state which has the same racial mix as Malaysia, has a modest 11 public holidays, in line with the norm in many developed nations like the United States and Britain which both have 10.

On the other end of the scale, impoverished Cambodia has the region's highest number of holidays at 26. Indonesia meanwhile cut three of its 23 holidays this year to boost the economy amid fears of a global slowdown.

However, Malaysian political economist Charles Santiago argues that holidays are an important stress buster for the overworked.

"Private businesses feel there are too many holidays and therefore not helpful but rested workers can also provide better productivity and benefit the economy in the long term," he said.

Insight into the world / Approach Myanmar with long-term initiatives

Takashi Shiraishi
Special to The Yomiuri Shimbun

In mid-January, the Japan-Mekong Foreign Ministers' Meeting took place in Tokyo, involving Japan as host and the five Southeast Asian nations through which the Mekong River runs: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

In the talks, Japan agreed to deepen its partnership with the Meong subregion in view of the area's rise in importance as a result of self-reliance efforts and infrastructure development, such as the east-west economic corridor. To that end, Japan will cooperate with the countries to promote regional stability and prosperity, enhance exchanges aiming to better integrate the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and extend economic assistance as required.

At the conference, Japan pledged to provide 20 million dollars for the improvement of distribution and customs services along the east-west corridor, linking Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Bangkok, and another 20 million dollars for the "Development Triangle" project, which involves Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

What is the significance of these developments?

A north-south corridor from Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan Province, to Bangkok via Laos is being constructed, while China is increasing trade with and economic aid to the Mekong subregion. In light of this, Japanese initiatives are routinely read as Japan's countermove against China's southward expansion.

But this kind of simplistic geopolitical observation does not help us understand what is really going on. A road is a road regardless of who builds it. Besides, the east-west corridor and the north-east corridor both extend to China. The subregion is not an arena of Japan-China rivalry.
What, then, is happening there? I would like to touch on two things in particular.

First, the countries in the subregion, except for Thailand, are still in "transition." Vietnam and Laos are in transition from socialist party states to what I call "socialist market states" under one-party rule. Cambodia, where a long civil war ended in the 1990s, is also in transition as it embarks on national and economic reconstruction. In Myanmar, the military junta--which calls itself a "provisional" government pending the enactment of a new constitution--is eternally in transition, at least since the 1988 coup d'etat.

The success of all these transitions hinges to a large extent on viable economic development. The four countries are still poor. Annual national income per capita in 2005 stood at 620 dollars in Vietnam, 440 dollars in Laos, 380 dollars in Cambodia and 176 dollars in Myanmar.

Nevertheless, except for Myanmar, their economies have been growing rapidly. From 2002 to 2006, Vietnam registered an annual average economic growth rate of 7.8 percent, Cambodia 10 percent and Laos 6.5 percent.
===
Future of Mekong development

Second, trade volume in the subregion has been rising sharply, reflecting remarkable economic growth. Trade with China is growing, but China is not the largest trading partner for all of the Mekong countries. According to 2005 trade statistics, China is the largest exporter to Cambodia and Myanmar at 47 percent and 34 percent, respectively. But the United States was the biggest destination of Cambodian exports at 63 percent, while Myanmar's biggest export market is Thailand at 49 percent. Thailand also was Laos' largest trading partner, receiving 43 percent of Laotian exports and supplying 69 percent of Laos-bound shipments.

As for Vietnam, 21 percent of its exports were shipped to the United States, followed by 12 percent to Japan and 6 percent to China, while 17 percent of its imports came from China, followed by 13 percent from Singapore, 10 percent Japan, 9 percent from South Korea and 7 percent from Thailand. This means that Vietnam does not rely heavily on one particular country. The same goes for Thailand.

As these figures show, countries in the Mekong subregion are deepening their economic interdependence with the help of economic and infrastructure development. In this open regional network of mutual reliance, Thailand is functioning as a hub, with Vietnam emerging as a second hub. Regional trade with China is increasing, but trade with China is growing in tandem with the expansion of trade with Japan, the United States and other ASEAN member countries. Such a positive development is a natural consequence of deepening economic interdependence underpinned by transnational and regional business networks.

What is happening in the economic sphere has implications for diplomacy. Even as Thailand and Vietnam are enhancing ties with China, they are pressing ahead with the integration of ASEAN and maintaining strong diplomatic connections with Japan and the United States. Such an approach is possible thanks to the progress in economic interdependence in the subregion.

Here lies the significance of the development of the Mekong subregion. As the subregion develops economically and is integrated into the global and East Asian networks of interdependence, the countries there will be in a position to forge open and balanced foreign relations in both political and economic fields.

In this connection, however, there is one sticking point--Myanmar. In Myanmar, the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections. But the junta ignored the results and has since ruled the country as a "provisional" regime. For this reason, the United States has called Myanmar an "outpost of tyranny" and imposed economic sanctions.

ASEAN has adhered to a policy of constructive engagement toward Myanmar in an attempt to help the country "democratize" itself.

Given that the military junta has controlled Myanmar for 20 years now, both economic sanctions and constructive engagement have failed to help Myanmar achieve transition. Meanwhile, China has provided Myanmar with large official loans for the development of infrastructure, such as highways and electrical power stations, while India has been strengthening relations through natural resource development and joint military exercises.

Newlyweds lend a hand in Cambodia's struggle against war, poverty

Saturday, February 09, 2008
By Chris Gray, The Philadelphia Inquirer

SIEM REAP, Cambodia -- Let's be honest: It was the specter of tigers, temples and tom yam soup that led my husband and me to honeymoon in Southeast Asia. We wanted an adventure to remember, on a continent where neither of us had been.

But as I researched our trip, I realized that we should spend at least a little time practicing "voluntourism," giving back to people who are still struggling for the basics after decades of war and poverty.

We found a way to have it all in Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of the ancient temple complex Angkor Wat -- and Ponheary Ly, a tour guide who considers it her mission to help educate as many Cambodian children as possible.

I found Ly, a Siem Reap native and survivor of dictator Pol Pot's labor camps, through the Asia message board on Fodors.com. Ly, 44, is a veteran guide who has arranged private tours of Angkor Wat and other Siem Reap attractions in both English and French -- languages she learned in secret during the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia -- since 2000.

A former English teacher, Ly has also worked for seven years to enroll children in Cambodian schools. While public school in the country is ostensibly free for the first three years, many rural children do not have the $12 necessary for shoes, school supplies or uniforms, she said.

"As a teacher, I knew about the difficulties of the kids and families who couldn't send the kids to schools. Also, I found that the kids are smart, but they don't have any occasion to show how smart they are. To build the country, we have to build the education for all people, especially the kids."

It's a message that Ly's clients -- mostly Americans who prefer independent travel with native guides to packaged tours -- could support. In addition to touring the temples, more and more visitors asked Ly whether they could visit the schools and donate money for bicycles, supplies and uniforms.

Lori Carlson, formerly of Austin, Texas, was one such convert. When she visited here in 2005, Carlson was struck by Ly's background and dedication. On her return to the States, she founded the Ponheary Ly Foundation (www.theplf.org), a registered nonprofit that channels money directly to the schools.

As of December, Carlson, 48, had raised $90,000 for five schools -- and quit her job to move here to work fulltime with Ly. She formed a board of directors for the PLF, which distributed school supplies to 1,955 children last fall.

"I believe the travelers who go to visit the temples at Angkor Wat understand they bear at least some of the responsibility to gently nudge these children toward school rather than reinforce the idea that it's good to stand on the corner and beg dollars from tourists," she said.

With such strong advocates, Don and I were excited to meet Ly and do our part. We arrived here to find a city undergoing massive change. The number of tourists visiting Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, has exploded in recent years, spurring an increase in hotels, shops, restaurants and other businesses.

While the influx of dollars has been good for many Cambodians (merchants prefer U.S. dollars to the Cambodian rial), it's disconcerting to see barefoot bicyclists ride past $800-a-night hotels. Young children hawk maps, books and trinkets near the temple grounds; tuk-tuk drivers fight over $1 fares.

That's not to say that Don and I eschew luxury (it was our honeymoon, after all). We turned down a $20 room at Ly's simple guesthouse, primarily because it didn't have a pool, which we considered essential to deal with the area's crushing humidity. At $95, our poolside room at Bopha Angkor was spacious yet not ostentatious, and the package included daily breakfast, a traditional Khmer dinner, and a massage.

Just a few hours after we landed, we went to Angkor Wat with Ly's brother Dara as our guide. There are more than 300 temples in the complex, but Dara steered us to the ones that would provide the most interesting backdrops for my husband, the photographer.

As we sweated in the 90-degree heat, I asked Dara about his family's experience under the Khmer Rouge. He told us that his father, a teacher in Siem Reap, was among the first wave of educated people to be killed under Pol Pot's regime. As a result, Dara and his siblings were sent with their mother to the countryside to work.

It's a sobering tale, and we heard more from Ly over the next few days. Ly, who was 13 when the Khmer Rouge came to power, and her siblings survived, mainly because villagers would leave food for them at night.

"We were given this much rice," Ly told us, holding up the tip of her finger. Dara would "crawl out on all fours, like a cat" to get extra food; sometimes, actual cats or monkeys would have gotten to the rations instead, she said.

Still, the extra nourishment kept the family alive -- and the Khmer Rouge noticed. Officials asked her mother why her children were still alive when so many other youngsters had died, Ly said. When her mother refused to answer, she was horribly beaten.

Such atrocities were common in the Pol Pot years. Yet most Cambodians don't like to talk about the time under the Khmer Rouge, Carlson said. It's rare to find it discussed in schools, primarily due to the country's Buddhist beliefs, which hold that people -- even war criminals -- are responsible for their own karma.

Ly is different, Carlson said. She understands that it's important to talk about the past so it doesn't happen again. We were talking in Ly's van, on our way to deliver lunch to the 476 children at Knar school, out in the Cambodian countryside. On the road, we saw men on bikes toting crates filled with piglets and open huts with children playing in the dirt.

Cambodian families expect all children, no matter how young, to contribute economically, Ly told us. Which is why even the kids who are lucky enough to go to school attend for a half day; at home, they are needed for chores, farm work, or other ways to make money.

In addition to a donation made before our trip, we gave Ly $40 for lunch, which buys two noodle packets for each child. That's essential, Carlson said, because if the child received only one packet, he or she would take it home to the family instead of eating it. The school tries to feed the children at least once a day to make sure they have enough energy to learn, Carlson said.

We arrived at Knar School, which consists of several one-story classrooms. As Don carried the boxes of noodle packets into the rooms, the children's eyes grew wide. They straightened in their seats and thanked us by pressing their hands together and bowing.

Carlson and Ly showed us around the school and talked about the improvements that have been made. Incentives such as bicycles, uniforms, and extra noodle packets show the families that there are tangible benefits to their children attending school, Carlson said.

"I would like to have my country be the same as the other countries," Ly said, with Cambodian children able "to have good education to work well to get out from the poor life."

The children seemed to love school, showing off their uniforms and books. An impromptu game of soccer ensued, with Don in the thick of it. It was an emotional sight for me, which sparked later discussion: Although we had been together several years, Don and I had never talked about the greater good we could accomplish as a couple.

It's a conversation that all newlyweds should have, wherever their honeymoon takes them. For us, road-testing our fledgling marriage in an underdeveloped country not only gave us the adventures we sought, but also set the course for a more permanent path. And that's definitely a trip worth taking.

TWO SIDES OF CAMBODIA

There are no direct flights to Siem Reap from the United States. You can fly there from various Asian cities, including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi.

We stayed at Bopha Angkor (www.bopha-angkor.com), booking the "Poolside Evasion package." The cost was $285 for both of us for three nights, including airport transfers, breakfast, a dinner, and a massage for two.

We booked Ponheary Ly as a guide by e-mail (ponhearyyahoo.com). Ly charged us $145 for 21/2 days of touring, which included three half-day sessions at Angkor Wat, the visit to Knar School, and a visit to the floating village on Tonle Sap lake.

MORE INFORMATION: To donate or read more about the Ponheary Ly Foundation, go to www.theplf.org. Or e-mail Lori Carlson at donatetheplf.org.

After 30 years, victim of Khmer Rouge faces leader in court

independent.co.uk
By Andrew Buncombe,
Asia Correspondent

Saturday, 9 February 2008

It has been three decades since the Khmer Rouge murdered the parents of Theary Seng and shackled her and her four-year-old brother in one of its jails.

But yesterday, she had only one question to ask of Nuon Chea, 81, one of the organisation's few surviving leaders, who is accused of genocide. "If Nuon Chea claimed he was not responsible, then who was for the loss of my parents and other victims' loved ones?" she asked. "What we know is that Nuon Chea was the second leader after Pol Pot."

Ms Seng came face to face with Mr Chea in the courtroom of the UN-assisted tribunal in Phnom Penh that has been established to try those surviving members of the Khmer Rouge, whose Maoist-inspired organisation seized power in Cambodia in 1975 and which was responsible for the deaths of more than 1.7 million of its own citizens.

There are five former regime leaders in the tribunal's custody – Mr Chea, Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, and Kang Kek Iew.

Ms Seng, a Cambodian-American who works for a charity that monitors Cambodia's judiciary, says she felt no bitterness towards Mr Chea. "It is more exciting to see this [justice] being done. I have, in one small way, honoured my parents," she said.

Officials said it was the first time a victim had confronted a Khmer Rouge leader in a court. "It's extremely symbolic," Peter Foster, a tribunal spokesman, said. "We made history today."

Mr Chea has denied that he was involved in the genocide and insisted that he is not a "cruel man". Yet there is evidence that he was head of the regime's internal security division and he is widely credited with being the regime's main ideologist.

European Union Funds of US$900,000 to Support Projects of Human Rights and Democracy

8 February 2008.

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 546 - For the Khmer version, the Kanhchok Sangkum, click here.

“Phnom Penh: Cambodian Non-Governmental Organizations that have suitable qualifications are invited to submit small grant proposals on human rights and democracy to receive funds from the ‘European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights’ [EIDHR] program of the European Union. The fund, from which such support can be call for Cambodia has a total volume of Euro 600,000 (around US$900,000). The common purpose of this initiative is to strengthen the role of civil society in promoting reforms on human rights and democracy, supporting peaceful reconciliation processes among different interest groups, and strengthening the participation in and the representativeness of political processes.

“This fund was prepared to support projects which have the goal to promote discussion between civil society and political circles, concerning the independence of the courts, the right to justice, professional and impartial information dissemination by independent, professional and accountable media, advocacy for awareness raising, and training on children’s and women’s rights, promoting participation and strengthening the rights and the power of local actors related to policy development, as well as improving and strengthening the rights and the power of minorities so that they can protect their own rights. The applicants for EIDHR program support shall be non-profit institutions. The grant for each project is between Euro 10,000 and Euro 600,000. The European Union grant can cover between 50 to 80% of the total costs for each project.

“Further information is available at
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/worldwide/eidhr/index_en.htm

Detailed information on the call for proposals is posted in the guidelines for applications, which can be retrieved from [[information in the newspaper sees to be deficient – if we can clarify, it will be provided at a later date – from the editor]]. The deadline for applications is 6 May 2008, at 17:00 local time in Phnom Penh.”

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6266, 8.2.2008

Putin lashes out as term nears end

seattletimes.nwsource.com
Saturday, February 9, 2008

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Khmer Rouge victim confronts defendant

A Cambodian genocide victim confronted a former Khmer Rouge leader in a courtroom Friday, demanding to know who was responsible for the "hellish regime" that killed 1.7 million people, including her parents.

Tribunal officials called it a historic moment when Theary Seng took the stand on the second day of a hearing of former leader Nuon Chea's appeal for release from pretrial detention at Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal.

"It's the first time a victim is able to stand up and confront a defendant. It's extremely symbolic," said Peter Foster, a tribunal spokesman. Nuon Chea, who was the main ideologist for the now-defunct communist group, has been held since Sept. 19 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the Khmer Rouge's ruthless 1975-79 rule. He is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders detained by the tribunal, expected to hold the first trials later this year.

Barrie woman giving the gift of sight; Will deliver glasses to southeast Asia

thebarrieexaminer.com
Saturday, February 9, 2008

Barrie's Brandi Atkinson has her sights set on Cambodia after her store collected more eyeglasses than any other in Canada.

Every year, the charitable organization Give the Gift of Sight sees stores collect thousands of recycled eyeglasses for those in need around the world.

Pearle Vision in Orillia, where Atkinson is manager, brought in 2,330 pairs last year, ranking them No. 1 in Canada and No. 8 in North America.

As a result, Atkinson will deliver the specs herself to people in the southeast Asian nation of Cambodia.

"Clear vision is a basic right, not a luxury. I believe that," she said. "Vision can change people's lives."

Glasses can help a child do better in school and give adults confidence while searching for a job, she noted.

During her mission from May 19-31, Atkinson will administer three-point eye exams and try to best match individuals with their prescriptions.

Having not travelled to southeast Asia before, she's not sure what to expect. Although the itinerary calls for "work, work, work,"

Atkinson and her team of more than 20 people will have at least a couple of days to be a tourist, as the Lions Club will organize accommodations and "something fun."

Newlyweds lend a hand in Cambodia's struggle against war, poverty

Saturday, February 09, 2008

By Chris Gray,
The Philadelphia Inquirer

SIEM REAP, Cambodia -- Let's be honest: It was the specter of tigers, temples and tom yam soup that led my husband and me to honeymoon in Southeast Asia. We wanted an adventure to remember, on a continent where neither of us had been.

But as I researched our trip, I realized that we should spend at least a little time practicing "voluntourism," giving back to people who are still struggling for the basics after decades of war and poverty.

We found a way to have it all in Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of the ancient temple complex Angkor Wat -- and Ponheary Ly, a tour guide who considers it her mission to help educate as many Cambodian children as possible.

I found Ly, a Siem Reap native and survivor of dictator Pol Pot's labor camps, through the Asia message board on Fodors.com. Ly, 44, is a veteran guide who has arranged private tours of Angkor Wat and other Siem Reap attractions in both English and French -- languages she learned in secret during the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia -- since 2000.

A former English teacher, Ly has also worked for seven years to enroll children in Cambodian schools. While public school in the country is ostensibly free for the first three years, many rural children do not have the $12 necessary for shoes, school supplies or uniforms, she said.

"As a teacher, I knew about the difficulties of the kids and families who couldn't send the kids to schools. Also, I found that the kids are smart, but they don't have any occasion to show how smart they are. To build the country, we have to build the education for all people, especially the kids."

It's a message that Ly's clients -- mostly Americans who prefer independent travel with native guides to packaged tours -- could support. In addition to touring the temples, more and more visitors asked Ly whether they could visit the schools and donate money for bicycles, supplies and uniforms.

Lori Carlson, formerly of Austin, Texas, was one such convert. When she visited here in 2005, Carlson was struck by Ly's background and dedication. On her return to the States, she founded the Ponheary Ly Foundation (www.theplf.org), a registered nonprofit that channels money directly to the schools.

As of December, Carlson, 48, had raised $90,000 for five schools -- and quit her job to move here to work fulltime with Ly. She formed a board of directors for the PLF, which distributed school supplies to 1,955 children last fall.

"I believe the travelers who go to visit the temples at Angkor Wat understand they bear at least some of the responsibility to gently nudge these children toward school rather than reinforce the idea that it's good to stand on the corner and beg dollars from tourists," she said.

With such strong advocates, Don and I were excited to meet Ly and do our part. We arrived here to find a city undergoing massive change. The number of tourists visiting Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, has exploded in recent years, spurring an increase in hotels, shops, restaurants and other businesses.

While the influx of dollars has been good for many Cambodians (merchants prefer U.S. dollars to the Cambodian rial), it's disconcerting to see barefoot bicyclists ride past $800-a-night hotels. Young children hawk maps, books and trinkets near the temple grounds; tuk-tuk drivers fight over $1 fares.

That's not to say that Don and I eschew luxury (it was our honeymoon, after all). We turned down a $20 room at Ly's simple guesthouse, primarily because it didn't have a pool, which we considered essential to deal with the area's crushing humidity. At $95, our poolside room at Bopha Angkor was spacious yet not ostentatious, and the package included daily breakfast, a traditional Khmer dinner, and a massage.

Just a few hours after we landed, we went to Angkor Wat with Ly's brother Dara as our guide. There are more than 300 temples in the complex, but Dara steered us to the ones that would provide the most interesting backdrops for my husband, the photographer.

As we sweated in the 90-degree heat, I asked Dara about his family's experience under the Khmer Rouge. He told us that his father, a teacher in Siem Reap, was among the first wave of educated people to be killed under Pol Pot's regime. As a result, Dara and his siblings were sent with their mother to the countryside to work.

It's a sobering tale, and we heard more from Ly over the next few days. Ly, who was 13 when the Khmer Rouge came to power, and her siblings survived, mainly because villagers would leave food for them at night.

"We were given this much rice," Ly told us, holding up the tip of her finger. Dara would "crawl out on all fours, like a cat" to get extra food; sometimes, actual cats or monkeys would have gotten to the rations instead, she said.

Still, the extra nourishment kept the family alive -- and the Khmer Rouge noticed. Officials asked her mother why her children were still alive when so many other youngsters had died, Ly said. When her mother refused to answer, she was horribly beaten.

Such atrocities were common in the Pol Pot years. Yet most Cambodians don't like to talk about the time under the Khmer Rouge, Carlson said. It's rare to find it discussed in schools, primarily due to the country's Buddhist beliefs, which hold that people -- even war criminals -- are responsible for their own karma.

Ly is different, Carlson said. She understands that it's important to talk about the past so it doesn't happen again. We were talking in Ly's van, on our way to deliver lunch to the 476 children at Knar school, out in the Cambodian countryside. On the road, we saw men on bikes toting crates filled with piglets and open huts with children playing in the dirt.

Cambodian families expect all children, no matter how young, to contribute economically, Ly told us. Which is why even the kids who are lucky enough to go to school attend for a half day; at home, they are needed for chores, farm work, or other ways to make money.

In addition to a donation made before our trip, we gave Ly $40 for lunch, which buys two noodle packets for each child. That's essential, Carlson said, because if the child received only one packet, he or she would take it home to the family instead of eating it. The school tries to feed the children at least once a day to make sure they have enough energy to learn, Carlson said.
We arrived at Knar School, which consists of several one-story classrooms. As Don carried the boxes of noodle packets into the rooms, the children's eyes grew wide. They straightened in their seats and thanked us by pressing their hands together and bowing.

Carlson and Ly showed us around the school and talked about the improvements that have been made. Incentives such as bicycles, uniforms, and extra noodle packets show the families that there are tangible benefits to their children attending school, Carlson said.

"I would like to have my country be the same as the other countries," Ly said, with Cambodian children able "to have good education to work well to get out from the poor life."

The children seemed to love school, showing off their uniforms and books. An impromptu game of soccer ensued, with Don in the thick of it. It was an emotional sight for me, which sparked later discussion: Although we had been together several years, Don and I had never talked about the greater good we could accomplish as a couple.

It's a conversation that all newlyweds should have, wherever their honeymoon takes them. For us, road-testing our fledgling marriage in an underdeveloped country not only gave us the adventures we sought, but also set the course for a more permanent path. And that's definitely a trip worth taking.

TWO SIDES OF CAMBODIA

There are no direct flights to Siem Reap from the United States. You can fly there from various Asian cities, including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi.

We stayed at Bopha Angkor (www.bopha-angkor.com), booking the "Poolside Evasion package." The cost was $285 for both of us for three nights, including airport transfers, breakfast, a dinner, and a massage for two.

We booked Ponheary Ly as a guide by e-mail (ponhearyyahoo.com). Ly charged us $145 for 21/2 days of touring, which included three half-day sessions at Angkor Wat, the visit to Knar School, and a visit to the floating village on Tonle Sap lake.

Once he killed; now he’s back as peacemaker

Sareth Kim was slashed on his 7th birthday. Imprisoned for killing at 17, he’s back on the street, trying to settle disputes among rival gangs.

Friday, February 8, 2008

PROVIDENCE — Sareth “Tony” Kim, a founding member of the Providence Street Boys gang, had killed a man.

At the time, he was still a teenager, but his life had been in a downward spiral for the better part of a decade.

Kim sat in his prison cell and wondered about his infant daughter. He also wondered why his so-called friends for life in the gang didn’t bother to visit or write him at the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Really, he thought, why continue to live life as a gang member?

“Everything is drama,” he said. “It’s all about putting other people down. It’s so negative.”

He had made peace with rival gang members from the Oriental Rascals and Laos Pride. He had also earned his GED — high school graduation equivalent degree — and took classes in anger management and developing life skills.

Today, Kim, 32, is a free man and father of three who lives a productive life as a senior streetworker for the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence on the city’s South Side.

He uses his experiences as a former gang member to resolve disputes between rival gangs and keep kids out of trouble. He helps them stay in school and find jobs.

“They know that I’ve been through it,” he said. “The main thing is that they trust me. They can come to me for anything.”

Kim was part of the gang culture back in the early ’90s, when it first took hold in the city’s West End and South Side. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, the first son of a family that had escaped the killing fields of Cambodia. His childhood in Providence was entrenched in violence that he experienced or witnessed as a first generation immigrant. He quickly learned that it was safer to hang with a gang than to be “punked” by other gangs or ethnic groups.

“I was just full of anger,” he said. “I decided that I would rather victimize someone else than be a victim.”

Kim was just 7 when he had his first bad experience on the street. It was his birthday, Jan. 1, 1983, and his mother, Savoeun, who worked long hours in a factory, gave him $5. He was excited about the prospect of buying goodies at a corner store on Elmwood Avenue, a short walk from the family’s apartment.

Kim bought candy and stuffed the change in his pants pocket. As he left, a man approached and grabbed his candy. Then, he reached into the boy’s pockets and stole his change.

“Let me see your hand!” the robber yelled.

Kim extended his hand and the guy sliced his palm. He ran home dripping blood on the newly fallen snow.

A year or two later, the Kim family bought a house on Waverly Street in the West End. Tony Kim remembered seeing a man shot outside his home and hobbling toward Cranston Street with a gunshot wound. Once he reached Cranston Street, a car pulled up and a barrage of gunfire finished him off.

There was no escape from the bloodshed.

One afternoon, a few years later, Kim was heading home from Samuel Bridgham Middle School. He and his friends were planning to play volleyball in the park near the Messer Street firehouse.

Suddenly, a wild shootout broke out between the Asian Boyz and Tiny Raskal Gang.

Bullets were flying and several gang members were hit. Kim saw one man get shot in the head, and he thought, “This is the world that I have to accept and live in.”

Kim said the Asian Boyz and Oriental Rascals both wanted him to join their gangs. He was hanging out with the gang members on a daily basis and one of his best friends was part of the Asian Boyz.

One day, several of the gang members asked Kim whether he wanted to join them on a trip to Minnesota. He was thrilled with the possibility of taking a vacation to a faraway place. Since he had arrived in Rhode Island when he was 3, Kim had never left the state.

Now, this group of older teenage boys wanted to include him in a getaway trip. Kim, who had little adult supervision, agreed to go.

“I never told my parents anything,” he said. “My dad worked two jobs all through my childhood, and my mom worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. I’d hardly see my parents. They worked hard, but they missed out on my childhood.”

Kim joined about 8 to 10 other Asian Boyz and Oriental Rascals and they took two cars to Minnesota. Halfway there, Kim learned that the gang members were plotting a home invasion of a Cambodian gambling operation.

In Minnesota, they stayed in an apartment and someone delivered a bag with about 30 handguns and shotguns. Kim said two of the gang members argued over a handgun. One of them grabbed the gun and jokingly pointed it at him and another gang member. Then, he loaded a bullet into the gun and spun the chamber. He placed the barrel to his head and pulled the trigger.
The explosion of the report was deafening. Kim’s friend had blown his brains out. The gang members got rid of the guns and the police arrived. The home invasion never went down, and the Rhode Island boys headed home.

“I came back traumatized again,” he said.

Kim decided to turn his back on the Asian Boyz and Oriental Rascals. He told them that he was done with the gang life. He was a freshman at Central High School, but he was skipping more classes than he was attending. He was constantly getting into fights and getting suspended.

Kim spent most days hanging out with friends in the attic of a house. They would head out and steal bikes in Warwick and Cranston. One day, a group of Oriental Rascals burst into the attic and warned them against forming their own gang. Kim said they had no intention of forming a gang until the Oriental Rascals confronted them.

In response, they formed the Providence Street Boys. They set out and desecrated all the Oriental Rascals graffiti in the West End. In no time, scores of young people across the city wanted to join the new gang. Most of the gang members were Cambodian and Laotian.
The gang members had no great master plan. They hung out, played volleyball and basketball and watched one another’s backs.

About six months later, the Providence Street Boys were involved in a large rumble with the Oriental Rascals at the public park off Messer Street. The newcomers outnumbered the Oriental Rascals and won the battle.

Tony Kim and the Providence Street Boys had become a force on the streets of the city.

A few weeks later, though, the Laotian boys broke away from the Providence Street Boys and formed their own gang — Laos Pride.

A few weeks before Christmas and his 18th birthday, Kim’s world came crashing down.

On the afternoon of Dec. 9, 1993, the police received a report that a man driving a van had been shot and killed on Waverly Street. The day before, Kim’s older sister had been raped by the van driver, Samang Pha, 27, of Providence.

Tony Kim and five of the Providence Street Boys decided to take justice into their own hands.

They had planned on abducting the man at gunpoint and bringing him to the basement of Kim’s house at 48-50 Waverly St. But during the confrontation, Kim’s .357-magnum handgun discharged, sending a bullet into Pha’s face. Kim told police that he intended to wound — not kill — Pha.
Kim pleaded no contest to manslaughter and received a 30-year sentence —10 years to serve and 20 years suspended. The other five gang members also were arrested and spent time in the state Training School or the ACI.

Kim spent about four years in prison before, on his first attempt, he was paroled. He feels fortunate that he is able to work for the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence and give back to the same streets where he wasted his adolescence. He worries about young people who seem more impressed than ever with the gang lifestyle.

“It’s more accepted,” he said. “Now, it’s more of a trend. Everybody wants to be a gangster.”

Teny Gross, executive director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, said that Kim’s ethnic background and experiences as a gang leader are critical in resolving disputes.
He said Kim has placed himself in harm’s way on many occasions, and he likened his role in the community to that of a soldier in Iraq.

“He has a strong passion for his community,” Gross said. “He is doing something that we should all be grateful for.”

NEC: Most Election Funds Pledged

By Sok Khemara,
VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
08 February 2008

Audio in Khmer - Listen (MP3)

Cambodia is about $1 million shy in election funds, following pledges from donors and the government in recent weeks that have nearly filled the coffers, election officials said Thursday.

The July elections will cost around $17 million, and most of that has been filled, said Tep Nitha, secretary-general of the National Election Committee.

The government will spend about $10 million, along with $3 million from Japan, with the rest coming from other countries.

The rest of the funds will come through the UNDP via donors, he said, “but we missed about $1 million.”

UNDP spokesman Men Kim Seng said Japan, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and Australia had met over funding in recent weeks.

“The discussion is continuing so we have not received any final decision,” he said. “But we hope to get that soon in the coming days.”

The money will fund administration, staff and services, when as many as 50 political parties compete for parliamentary seats July 27.

Activist: Disunity Could Doom Small Parties

By Chun Sakada,
VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
08 February 2008

Audio in Khmer - Listen (MP3)

Small parties allied against the ruling Cambodian People’s Party will be beaten in July’s election if they don’t stand together, a leading rights activist said Friday.

Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc, said that divided parties will divide the votes, helping the CPP win parliamentary seats.

“If other non-CPP political parties cannot make an alliance to participate in the race on a one-on-one basis with the ruling CPP in the coming 2008 election, and if the CPP is able to keep its 47 percent [of parliamentary seats], as in the 2003 election, we will see the CPP get more than their current 73 parliamentarian seats,” Thun Saray said. “Because there were only two parties to receive the remaining seats in the previous election. But now there are four parties.”

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Friday the statements put the CPP in an inaccurate adversarial light.

More Defections Plague Opposition

By Sok Khemara,
VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
08 February 2008

Audio in Khmer - Listen (MP3)

A long-time opposition parliamentarian quit his party Friday, adding to the pre-election woes of an opposition that has seen a number of defections in recent weeks.

Ngor Sovann, who represented the Sam Rainsy Party in the National Assembly for 11 years, said he left due to internal conflicts in the party and petitioned to join the Cambodian People’s Party.

“I submitted my resignation today, and, approved or not, it’s not important,” Ngor Sovann said.
He applied to a position as deputy chief of Kandal Province, he said.

Ngor Sovann’s resignation follows moves by several other opposition members last week.

Sam Rainsy said Friday the defections would clear room for grassroots supporters.

Nuon Chea Makes Final Bid for Bail

By Mean Veasna,
VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
08 February 2008

Audio in Khmer - Listen (MP3)

Jailed Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea made his final plea to a pre-trial panel of judges Friday, wrapping up a second day of bail hearings.

Nuon Chea and his defense sought to counter prosecution arguments that he would flee the country, destroy evidence or threaten witnesses against him.

“Nowadays, our country’s peace is moving forward,” Nuon Chea told the courts, reading slowly from a piece of paper. “I myself as well as all the countrymen hope that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia will use their wisdom to judge my request to be released on bail.”

The judges released no decision Friday, but tribunal observers were doubtful that Pol Pot’s former lieutenant would be released ahead of his atrocity crimes trials.

“There was nothing found to claim Nuon Chea would be safe and secure if he staid outside the prison,” said Lor Chunthy, a lawyer for Legal Aid of Cambodia.

Noun_Chea_pre-trial_hearing_6

Noun_Chea_pre-trial_hearing_2

Noun_Chea_pre-trial_hearing4_1.

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Nuon_Chea's Pre-Trial 2, 33 min 31 sec - Feb 6, 2008

Nuon_Chea's Pre-Trial Chamber 1; 5 min 33 sec - Feb 6, 2008

Opening of Nuon Chea's Pre-Trial

Friday, 8.2.2008: European Union Funds of US$900,000 to Support Projects of Human Rights and Democracy

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 546 - For the Khmer version, the Kanhchok Sangkum, click here.

“Phnom Penh: Cambodian Non-Governmental Organizations that have suitable qualifications are invited to submit small grant proposals on human rights and democracy to receive funds from the ‘European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights’ [EIDHR] program of the European Union. The fund, from which such support can be call for Cambodia has a total volume of Euro 600,000 (around US$900,000). The common purpose of this initiative is to strengthen the role of civil society in promoting reforms on human rights and democracy, supporting peaceful reconciliation processes among different interest groups, and strengthening the participation in and the representativeness of political processes.

“This fund was prepared to support projects which have the goal to promote discussion between civil society and political circles, concerning the independence of the courts, the right to justice, professional and impartial information dissemination by independent, professional and accountable media, advocacy for awareness raising, and training on children’s and women’s rights, promoting participation and strengthening the rights and the power of local actors related to policy development, as well as improving and strengthening the rights and the power of minorities so that they can protect their own rights. The applicants for EIDHR program support shall be non-profit institutions. The grant for each project is between Euro 10,000 and Euro 600,000. The European Union grant can cover between 50 to 80% of the total costs for each project.

“Further information is available at

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/worldwide/eidhr/index_en.htm

Detailed information on the call for proposals is posted in the guidelines for applications, which can be retrieved from [[information in the newspaper sees to be deficient – if we can clarify, it will be provided at a later date – from the editor]]. The deadline for applications is 6 May 2008, at 17:00 local time in Phnom Penh.”

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6266, 8.2.2008

Cambodian Khmer Rouge Genocide Court Sifts Evidence (Update1)

bloomberg.com
By Ed Johnson

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- A United Nations-backed genocide court in Cambodia said officials are sifting through evidence from more than 500 victims of the Khmer Rouge about crimes committed by the regime in the 1970s.

The statements may help judges try five former Khmer Rouge officials who are already in custody, or result in new prosecutions, the court said in a statement late yesterday.

``Information received from victims is crucial to our success,'' said Robert Petit, a co-prosecutor with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

The trials are central to the process of reconciliation in the Southeast Asian nation, where one in five people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. The movement, which forced the population out of cities to work on collective farms as it tried to establish an agrarian state, is blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million people through starvation, disease or execution.

Vietnamese forces ended the rule of the Khmer Rouge when they captured the capital, Phnom Penh, in January 1979. Khmer Rouge fighters resisted in the west of the country until the final units surrendered to the Cambodian army 20 years later.

Pol Pot

Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge's prime minister, died in his jungle hideout in 1998. Ta Mok, the group's military chief, died in custody in July 2006.

Nuon Chea, 81, the regime's second-in-command, is among five officials in custody awaiting trial and is appealing against his detention.

The tribunal has ``violated the human rights of an old man,'' Agence France-Presse cited his lawyer, Sun Arun, as saying during a court hearing yesterday.

The judges ``put physical and emotional pressure on my client,'' Sun Arun said, adding Nuon Chea was without a lawyer for his first three court appearances, a violation of criminal procedures, AFP reported.

Known as ``Brother Number 2,'' Nuon Chea is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, imprisonment, enslavement and persecution.

Prosecutors allege he controlled the Khmer Rouge's internal security apparatus and directed, implemented and enforced its policy of forced labor.

Prison Chief

Kang Kek Ieu, also known as Duch, 65, was charged in July for atrocities allegedly committed while he ran the regime's S- 21 jail. He was the first official to be charged by the court in Phnom Penh, which comprises international and Cambodian judges.

Former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, 82, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, 75, and Khieu Samphan, 76, the former head of state, are also in detention awaiting trial. They all deny charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Of the more than 500 complaints received, about a fifth are missing information such as when, where and what crimes are alleged to have occurred during the Khmer Rouge's rule and victims are being contacted to elaborate, the court said.

A victims unit was set up in January to help people file complaints. In a first for an international criminal tribunal, victims are allowed to take part in the proceedings as civil parties, with legal representation, according to the court.

Theary Seng, whose parents were killed during the regime's rule, appeared before the court today and called on the judges not to grant Nuon Chea bail, AFP said.

``They treated us inhumanely. For us, the graveyard was our playground,'' AFP cited her as saying. ``As victims, we have been waiting for 30 years for justice. There is a risk that the accused will fail to appear in court, and without his presence we will suffer a great loss.''

The tribunal process was scheduled to last three years and cost $56.3 million, with the UN providing $43 million and Cambodia's government $13.3 million. Funds may run out as early as next month.

The court, convened in 2006, is seeking another $114 million from international donors to keep it running until 2011, AFP cited Chief of Public Affairs Helen Jarvis as saying yesterday.

ECCC wants $167 million for more staff

Phnom Penh Post, Issue 17 / 02, January 24 - February 7, 2008

As the judicial side of the court creaked slowly forward, the court revised its own budget upwards to $169.7 million, covering an additional two years and the trials of eight defendants, according to January 30 court documents.

There was no immediate reaction from tribunal funders. If the revised budget is approved by tribunal donors, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia would last until 2011.
The Japanese are the largest contributor to the tribunal budget. Others are Britain, France, the European Union and India.

According to the new documents, the budget for the UN side of the tribunal has leapt from an original $43 million to $134 million with the vast majority of it, some $99 million, going on administration.

The Cambodian side of the tribunal would get $35 million with the lion’s share again going to administration.

According to Rupert Skilbeck, head of the ECCC defense support section, there are many different ways to run a hybrid tribunal, some expensive and some cheap. The cheapest example of a UN hybrid tribunal was in East Timor, where the initial budget was just $6 million.

Another more cost-effective example of a hybrid tribunal is the court of Bosnia and Herzegovina where, with a budget of some $10 million per year, they are currently trying 400 individuals for war crimes and serious crimes.

“That budget was difficult to achieve but it was done by excluding all unnecessary costs that were secondary to the judicial process and by setting local salaries at competitive levels,” Skilbeck said. “For example, all staff, including judges in the court, have to catch the bus to work. The court has no vehicles.”

Moreover, at the Bosnia and Herzegovina tribunal it was determined there was no need for security. Skilbeck said one other way the Bosnia trial kept costs down was by having a very streamlined administrative staff – for example, a personnel department of two to manage a staff of 400.

The vast majority of the new revised budget, however, would go on staffing. The number of staff in the ECCC’s judicial offices has doubled, and overall the court will be adding 28 UN posts.
The revised staffing rates for the UN side of the tribunal are now estimated at 168 posts of which 65 are in the judicial offices and 103 in the Office of Administration. The Cambodia side of the tribunal is estimated to need 362 posts with 62 of those being in the judicial offices and 300 in the Office Administration.

This estimate does not include a salary for the proposed Special Advisor, a position many donors are eager to see established as soon as possible. The Cambodian government is not in favor of the idea. According to several sources, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told the UN last week the position was not necessary.

“It is broadly acknowledged that there have been problems at the ECCC in terms of management of this project and we would be grateful for any help we can get,” said Skilbeck.

“Any international court needs expert advice on how to operate. And now, with six international tribunals under its belt, there are individuals with a broad range of experiences on how best to run hybrid tribunals. It would be silly not to take advantage of that expertise in order to make the ECCC as efficient as possible.”

The original budget of $56.3 million for three years was to pay for five to ten persons to be tried.

Global casino developer sets sights on beachfront

Phnom Penh Post, Issue 17 / 02, January 24 - February 7, 2008

London-listed casino developer Queenco Leisure International (QLI) announced it has purchased land on the southern side of Sihanoukville and will invest $10 million in building a beachfront resort and casino.

Company official Daniela Cormano said QLI purchased nine hectares of land located along beachfront near the area of Ream National Park and the Sihanoukville airport in February.
He said the development project will start in the near future.

“It is a tourist project that combines the good weather and beautiful beach,” Cormano told the Post by email on February 6. “It is very likely that it will attract more tourists.”

QLI, which is also listed in Tel Aviv and describes itself as an emerging markets casino developer, said in a statement that the nine hectares comes in addition to its earlier acquisition of 48 hectares of land in Sihanoukville and includes the exclusive rights for a stretch of beach in front of the site.

“Foreign investment is primarily driving the significant increase in real estate value in Sihanuokville and the surrounding areas,” the statement said.

“The company aims to develop a destination beachfront resort around the casino and will include hotels, conference centers and other related attractions.”

Within the last few years more than 20 coastal beaches and islands southwest of Kampot and Sihanoukville have been leased to local and foreign companies for the tourist developments worth millions of dollars, according to the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), which governs investment projects.