Chim Manavy: Women Dare to Break the Silence and Get Rid of a Culture Affecting Their Rights

Posted on 9 March 2008.
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 550

“Phnom Penh: At the occasion of the International Women’s Day on 8 March 2008, reporters of Rasmei Kampuchea interviewed Ms. Chim Manavy, the Director of the Open Institute, a local non-governmental organization working in many areas, including for the promotion of the role of women. Below is the content of the interview:

“Question: What do you think about the respect for women’s rights, in particular comparing the situation of one year ago?“Answer: During the last several years, we have seen that the respect for women’s rights has grown much, compared to before, because citizens have now a better understanding of human rights. During the same time, the government and civil society organizations pay also more attention to implement policies of gender mainstreaming. Women are encouraged to participate in many social activities. The Commune Council elections provided opportunities for women to show their capacities. They competed with their male counterparts to contribute to the development of their communities. Actually, during the Commune Council elections from 2002 to 2007, we saw an increasing participation of women in the leadership of the country. During the first Commune Council election in 2002, women who stood for election accounted for 919 or 8.16 percent of the total candidates. But at the second Commune Council election on 1 April 2007, the women who stood for election accounted for 21 percent of the total candidates. It made much a difference in relation to women’s participation in decision making.

Women who were elected in 2007 as members of Commune Councils totaled 1,662 (but the Ministry of Interior’s figure was 1,683) or 14.64 percent. This was a satisfactory increase if compared to 920 or 8 percent in 2002.“Question: What do Khmer women do to celebrate their day?“Answer: 8 March is International Women’s Day. Not only Khmer women, but also women in many countries across the globe, celebrate the day. International Women’s Day is an international day to celebrate women’s achievements relating to economic, political, and socio-economic sectors. Many countries (such as Russia and the former states within the Soviet Union) across the globe include International Women’s Day into their culture. The day is not celebrated only in political terms, but it is also celebrated as an opportunity for men to express their love for the women around them. It is similar to Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. Moreover, the topics of politics and human rights, set by the United Nations, has been widely discussed.

Information about the struggle of women in the world, concerning political and social issues, have been revealed and analyzed.

“Everybody should do something to participate in celebrating the day according to their respective skills and means. Women can share their good experience with others, they can write poems and stories about themselves and others. These reflect women’s talents, or they are advocacy for the equality between men and women. Women dare to break the silence and get rid of a culture affecting their rights.“Question: When the Open Institute inaugurated a Women’s Web Portal on the Internet, what kind of response have you received from the visitors, and what roles does the Women’s Web Portal play in disseminating the concerns of CEDAW - the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women?

“Answer: The Women’s Web Portal is an activity of the Open Institute, supported by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development, the Open Society Institute [in the USA], InWEnt [in Germany], and UNESCO. The Women’s Web Portal rectifies some deficiencies in the information about women and their rights. It plays a role as an important tool to disseminate information, and it is a means to communicate and share knowledge with women and among women’s organizations. This will further strengthen existing networks of women relating to empowering women and to improving their work. As permanent member of the Cambodian NGO Committee on the UN Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Open Institute disseminates on the Women’s Web Portal this Convention, and is providing further comments of the Cambodian NGO Committee on CEDAW, and other relevant documents for men and women working on CEDAW related concerns. Such information is available on the Women’s Web Portal to promote gender capacity, to help women to use their rights in a balanced manner, and to help build women’s capacity so that they have more self-confidence and self-independence.

“The Women’s Web Portal is a meeting place for interested organizations to share information and to increase cooperation. Electronic information can spread across the country and the world, wherever the Internet can be accessed. Those who receive a lot of information will have much better understanding and can make better decisions.

“Until now, the Women’s Web Portal has attracted more than 300 readers. This figure is not surprising, as the country has only few users of information and communication technology. The readers of the Women’s Web Portal expressed their interest in and their satisfaction for the dissemination of laws and other information relating to rights, in the Khmer language, through electronic communication, which is easy to be researched and read, and is useful for them.“Question: What do you want to say more about the International Women’s Day?

“Answer: I see that global trends and the government’s goodwill have made the situation of Cambodian women turn for the better. The government promotes policies on gender mainstreaming, to be implemented by state institutions, civil society organizations, and in the private sector. However, discrimination against women still exists, as women have not yet received full support from men. This has also caused women to lack self-confidence. To change discriminative attitudes against women, women have to try their best to build up and to promote their capacities, so that they can influence other people, become key agents for social change, work towards progress, and contribute to build a society with knowledge and justice.”

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4535, 8.3.2008

Border talks on oil and gas

Bangkok Post

Thailand and Cambodia plan to set up Joint Development Areas (JDA) covering 26,000 square kilometres of overlapping border areas to facilitate the exploration of natural gas and crude oil, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said yesterday. Mr Noppadon said the Thai and Cambodian foreign ministries will hold talks on the establishment of the JDA to manage the overlapping border areas which are rich in natural gas and crude oil.

The value of the natural resources is expected to be about 3.5 billion baht for natural gas and 1.5 billion baht for crude oil. If successful, Thailand will enjoy greater energy security essential to electricity generation and the development of the petrochemical industry, said Mr Noppadon.

He added that the Foreign Ministry will join the Energy Ministry in talks with Cambodia as soon as possible on the issue, which is regarded as very important.

Splendour of a magnificent past

Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sunday Herald

The remains of the mighty Khmer empire are there for us to see at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, writes Vaasanthi

As I stand before the magnificent temples I can hardly think of the tumultuous history of the land on which they have been standing for centuries. As if mocking history, they are a reminder of a past splendour that also speaks of what must have been an unrivalled empire spanning across South East Asia. Forgotten to the world for centuries, hidden behind the steaming jungles of Cambodia, rediscovered in the 19th century by diligent French explorers, the thousand-year-old stunning religious monuments of Angkor Wat stand as a testimony to human aspirations and imagination.

From Bangkok in Thailand, it is an hour’s flight to Siem Reap the nearest town to the fabled temples of Angkor in Cambodia. Siem Reap, a little more than a village before, is now undoubtedly Cambodia’s fastest-growing town.

It seems to have undergone a metamorphosis ever since the miraculous discovery of the temples. The past decade has seen its rapid growth from a sluggish impoverished village to a booming tourism spot. It is brimming with tourists from all round the world and quickly reinventing itself as a sophisticated centre for the new wave of visitors passing through each year. There are 100 hotels and thousand guesthouses and the number is going up every month; restaurants and bars every week.

It is still a small town with all the charm that goes with small towns. Thanks to tourism development the roads are good and the streets clean and oh, the people from old to the young and the very young always smiling and friendly. Who can say that this has been a land ravaged mercilessly in recent history by war and crime? They seem to have put their lives of recent past of terror and trauma behind to revel in the memory of a glorious past, which now remains a source of inspiration and national pride.

Contemporary Cambodia is the successor state to the mighty Khmer empire which during the Angkor period (9th to 15th centuries) ruled much of what is now Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The remains of the empire are there for us to see at Angkor Wat, the ultimate of Khmer genius, described by travel brochures as ‘unrivalled in scale and grandeur in Southeast Asia’.

Tough times

The first glimpse of Angkor Wat is indeed staggering especially if you remember what Cambodia has gone through. Things were good in the past, culminating in the vast Angkor empire, unrivalled in the region during four centuries of dominance. Then the bad set in, from the 13th centuries neighbours steadily chipped off chunks of its territory. In the twentieth century it went downright ugly, as a bloody civil war lead to the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge (1975-79) from which Cambodia is still recovering.

But meet the man in the street, you will hardly see any rancour towards the evil done. Cambodians have weathered through poverty, bloodshed and political chaos but their smiles have not faded. The tourists that throng and rush to the temple campus in the wee hours of the morning to catch the magnificent view of Angkor Wat at the first light of dawn are not bothered either. Their main worry is the overcast sky that threatens to break into a pouring rain.

As the sun slowly lights up the sky Angkor Wat turns into an ethereal golden hue with its reflection weaving magic in the lily pond. It is like divine inspiration. And yet it is the work of human hands that toiled to create such divinity out of sand stone. It takes some time to see how big the temple complex is.

Angkor’s monuments are spread throughout a huge forest. Heading north from Siem Reap, you first come to Angkor Wat, then the walled city of Angkor Thom to the east and west of this city are two vast reservoirs which helped to feed the Angkor Thom population. Further east are the temples of Ta Prohm and Pre Rup and in the north east is the beautiful well preserved temple of Banteay Srei. There are in fact a hundred temples and probably more.

What is of particular interest to the Indian visitor is the remarkable evidence of the spread of Hinduism and its gods and fables across the seas and the earth more than a thousand years ago. Angkor Wat temples are a celebration and glorification of the Hindu god Shiva and the mythologies of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Though the lingams are no longer there and stone statues of the Buddha have taken over, the carvings of scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata on the walls of the long corridors of Angkor Wat have been restored and are intact. Hinduism and Buddhism were both the preferred faiths followed alternately according to the reigning king’s belief. The myth of the churning of the milk ocean by Asuras and Devas seems to have fascinated Angkor sculptors and kings. There are two huge rows of the scene at the gate of Angkor Thom temple.

Naga worship must have been prevalent as the snake motifs with erect hoods are carved in stone almost in all the temples. In the temple of Bantaey Srie, which is praised as the jewel of Angkor, the pillars come alive with dancing apsaras and the gateways are filled with exquisite carvings depicting scenes from the Ramayana. So the story goes...

There is an interesting story about the origin of the Indian connection. Cambodia came into being, so the story goes through a union between a Hindu Brahmin named Kaundinya who sailed by and a princess, the daughter of a dragon king who ruled the watery land. They fell in love and the king gave the land as dowry to Kaundinya to rule over. The kingdom was called Kambuja. The myth may or may not be true but it does say something about the cultural influences that affected Cambodia. Cambodia’s religious royal and written traditions stemmed from India. Buddhism spread there when Asoka sent his emissary to Cambodia. The long list of powerful Angkor kings has Hindu names beginning from Jayavarman II- who started building Angkor Wat two hundred years before Raja Raja Chola built the big temple of Tanjavur— the list has names like Yashovarman, Harsha varman, Rajendra Varman, Ishwara Varman— similar to the names of the Pallava kings of south India.

The French ‘discovery’ of Angkor in the 1860s made an international splash. It was only in 1901 the Ecole Francaised’Extreme-Orient began its long association with Angkor by funding an expedition to the Bayon temple. In 1907 Angkor, which had been under Thai control, was returned to Cambodia and the EFEO took responsibility for clearing and restoring the whole site. Since the temples had Indian connection and the theme Hinduism, the cooperation of the Indian government was also taken for some sites. It was a stupendous task indeed. The monuments of Angkor were left to the jungle for many centuries. A large number of monuments are made of sandstone that tends to dissolve in prolonged exposure to wind and rain.

Monuments that wow!

At Ta Prohm, the jungle had stealthily made an all out invasion. The huge roots swoop down the monuments as if to devour them and the visual is at once breathtaking and awesome. What is striking about the sculptures is that no structure is made out of single rock boulders like you see in the temples of South India, but an assembly of blocks. The remarkable symmetry and serenity that prevails in the faces of the Bayon temple is truly amazing. The temples of Angkor are the heart and soul of Cambodia. When our guide made a repeated reference to ‘My people, my country’ there was not only a natural pride but also the belief that Angkor was a true symbol of inspiration for the people to rise to eminence leaving behind the memories of suffering and trauma…

PM talks about trip to Cambodia on weekly show

(BangkokPost.com) – Mr Samak Sundaravej told viewers of his weekly television programme this morning about his first visit to Cambodia as Thailand’s prime minister. He said he was surprised and flattered by the amount of locals who came to greet him at Phnom Penh international airport.

He compared the country, which has a population of 14 million, to how it was 50 years ago and said that it had developed a great deal with major roads leading to the capital now.

Mr Samak also revealed how he was granted an audience with His Majesty the King Norodom Sihamoni.

“From talks with His Majesty, he expressed a wish for MK Suki to set up business there,” the premier said.

MK Suki is one of the leading hot pot restaurants in Thailand.

Cambodia's thriving real estate market enriches the elite

thestar.com.m
Sunday March 9, 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP): An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building _ a 42-story twin condominium tower. A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.

Cambodia is experiencing a construction boom fueled by foreign investment, particularly by South Koreans, and buying and selling among the country's few nouveaux riche _ while leaving the poor majority behind. Shopping malls and tall apartment buildings are sprouting up, transforming the capital's landscape that once bore the charm of colonial French-styled villas but resembled a ghost town at the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime nearly 30 years ago.

Political stability and robust economic growth of nearly 10 percent have lured investors to the real estate market that has seen prices surge over the last few years _ though they are still lower than in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand.

"Cambodia was sleeping for many years and now it's waking up,'' said Claire Brown, managing director of Britain-based Claire Brown Realty who began buying and selling property in Phnom Penh two years ago.

"Everybody wants to get a piece of the action,'' she said by phone. "The time to get in is now because soon it's going to be too late.''

Prime city land prices have tripled over the last two years to US$3,000 (euro2,000) per square meter. Those kinds of returns have drawn rich and middle-class Cambodians, as well as those living abroad.

"In buying and selling land, they could get profit 100 or 200 percent a year, if they make the right bet on the right location,'' said Dith Channa, the sale manager of CPL Cambodia Properties Ltd., a Phnom Penh-based real estate agency.

But the soaring real estate market is also widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

"Phnom Penh city is getting modern every day _ of course for the wealthy,'' said Chhorn Et, a former slum dweller now living with hundreds of others in a village in the middle of rice field about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the capital.

"The government swept us away because they regarded us as very unpleasant for their eyes,'' said the 34-year-old woman who scavenges for discarded cans and bottles to sell for a living.

The flourishing property market is also happening in the shadow of problems of land rights disputes that, in recent years, have often pitted the poor against wealthy developers with links to the Cambodian political establishment.

"We're moving toward possibly about 10 percent of the population owning 90 percent of the land in Cambodia,'' said Naly Pilorge, director of the nonprofit human rights group Licadho.

That could fan social and political unrest, she and others have warned.

The biggest projects are being funded by South Korean investors and companies, which have been the leading investors in Cambodia following the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1997.

Investment and tourists from South Korea have surged following a 2006 visit to Cambodia by former President Roh Moo-hyun.

World City Co. Ltd., a South Korean company, is investing US$2 billion (euro1.3 billion) to build a "satellite'' urban complex called Camko City on a 120-hectare (300-acre) area on the northwest side of Phnom Penh. The project, the single biggest foreign direct investment in Cambodia to date, will include residential, commercial and public facilities _ villas, condos, trade and financial centers, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, schools and hospitals.

Meanwhile, at a busy corner leading up to the city's landmark Independence Monument, an old government hospital has been torn down to make way for a 42-story condominium and shopping complex worth about US$250 million (euro162 million). That's going to dramatically change Phnom Penh's skyline, where the tallest building now is a 15-story hotel.

It is going to be the first luxury residential building and tallest structure in Cambodia, said Kim Tae-Yeon, chairman of Yon Woo Inc., a South Korean developer.

Kim said the towers will have about 500 units of apartments, office space and retail shops with price tags ranging from US$112,000 (euro72,647) to US$1.8 million (euro1.17 million) a unit.

Construction will start next month and take 3 1/2 years to complete, but Kim said nearly half of the units have already been bought.

In recent years, Siem Reap, a northwestern town near the famed Angkor Wat ruins, also has seen a frenzy of hotel and guesthouse construction for the growing numbers of tourists.

Thrilled with the boom, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said it has been made possible by the political stability he has brought. In a recent speech he warned that if he is not re-elected in July elections, property prices could nosedive.

"It was a threat, a dirty trick to gain votes,'' said Son Chhay, an opposition party lawmaker.

Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.

"This is not going to be healthy for the Cambodian economy,'' Son Chhay says.

There are also concerns that the rapid price gains are creating a bubble that will eventually pop.

Eric Sidgwick, senior economist at the Asian Development Bank office in Phnom Penh, said the real estate market has been "driven by a combination of genuine demand for business-related and residential construction,'' as well as a growing population, increased urbanization and speculation.

Still, there were "reasons to be concerned about the recent increase in real estate prices and the dangers of further inflating a speculation-led bubble,'' he said in an e-mail. He declined to comment about any possible link between money laundering and the property market boom.

Meanwhile, poor residents like Chhorn Et, the former slum dweller who was moved outside the capital, are left to cope with a stark reality in their new village, which has no running water or sewage system.

Although each family has been given a small piece of land, they complain of the lack of means to support their livelihoods. They have to travel daily to the capital to do odd jobs as motorbike taxi drivers, construction workers or scavenge for bottles and cans to sell to buy food.

Many of them are too poor to afford a latrine and have to use a nearby rice field as a toilet, said 37-year-old Mom Somaly, a mother of five children.

Pointing to a distant land-for-sale sign, she said "soon they may not even have a field to use as toilet any longer.''

Cambodian King wants MK Suki to open branch: Samak

Cambodia's King Sihamoni would like Thai sukiyaki chain MK Suki to open its branch in his country, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Sunday.

In his live talk programme on Channel 11, Samak said he had visited the Cambodian king for 40 minutes during his recent trip to the neighbouring country and the King would like MK Suki to open its branch in Phnom Penh.

The Nation

Cambodia travel – some like it hot

Photo: Robert Nielsen / Your Scene, Los Angeles Times

Susan Derby
Special to the Los Angeles Times

If you’re thinking about visiting Cambodia soon, go this month (March) if you can handle some heat (by April, it’ll be even hotter). Or plan a trip for summer, when monsoon rains cool things down and really only inconvenience you for part of the afternoon.

A few years ago I traveled around Cambodia in late April, when the heat was really beginning to escalate (which it does starting around March, before hitting a peak in May or June to initiate monsoon season). The temperature was in the 90s and the humidity oppressive.

I remember stumbling around after a trip to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. The gravity of what I’d observed there was enough to make me delirious, but in addition I’d come down with heat stroke. I spent the next couple days cooped up in my room with fever, a migraine and nausea. If you go to Cambodia in April, bring a big hat, and drink bucketfuls of water.


Why go: Thailand’s neighbor to the southeast, Cambodia is fascinating in many ways, but it has a sobering yet educational impact on many tourists; its recent history is so heartbreaking that you can’t leave the country the same person that you were upon entry. Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples and ruins are truly sights to behold. And adventurous foodies can try all manner of unusual edibles: locusts and spiders, for instance.

What’ll it cost me?: In his article “Countries where dollars go the distance,” L. A. Times Staff Writer Jason La breaks down general food and lodging costs. Right now you’ll spend around $1200 for a flight from LAX to Phnom Penh (PNH) after taxes. Maybe that sounds exorbitant, but if you’re shelling out $10/night for a room, you may decide it evens out. If you’ve got miles, though, all the better.

PM talks about trip to Cambodia on weekly show

(BangkokPost.com) – Mr Samak Sundaravej told viewers of his weekly television programme this morning about his first visit to Cambodia as Thailand’s prime minister. He said he was surprised and flattered by the amount of locals who came to greet him at Phnom Penh international airport.

He compared the country, which has a population of 14 million, to how it was 50 years ago and said that it had developed a great deal with major roads leading to the capital now.

Mr Samak also revealed how he was granted an audience with His Majesty the King Norodom Sihamoni.

“From talks with His Majesty, he expressed a wish for MK Suki to set up business there,” the premier said.

MK Suki is one of the leading hot pot restaurants in Thailand.

Samak says he has talked to Cambodian Govt over joint tourism development

March 9, 2008

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Sunday that he has talked to the Cambodian government over proposal to jointly develop tourism industry of the two countries.

He said Thailand would develop roads to link the two kingdoms so that tourists could travel by buses from Thailand to Cambodia.

He said the joint development could allow foreign tourist who visit Pattaya to continue to visit Cambodia with convenience.

The Nation

Cambodia's rising property prices sidelines poor

csr-asia.com
09 March 2008

An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building - a 42-story twin condominium tower.

A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.

Property prices in Cambodia are on the rise, but opposition party lawmaker Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.

See this weekend's Bangkok Post for a very intersting story on some of the issues arising from this booming market. The picture shows a billboard for Camko City.

Mr. Hun Sen: Resign or Not to Resign?

Friday, March 7, 2008

Courtesy of Khmerization : http://khmerization.blogspot.com/

"One can only lie once. If one lied too many times over, then that person is no different to a prostitute who claimed to be a virgin. The person who made the claims will no longer be credible anymore."

Editorial by Khmerization:- I welcome Prime Minister Hun Sen’s appeal for all political parties, including his own Cambodian People’s Party, not to engage in political violence and intimidations, before and during the upcoming election. I also welcome his promise to step down if he loses the election (read the link below).

But it is hard to know if his appeal is genuine or deceptively made in his political posturing designed to fool the opposition parties and the international community, including the donor countries.

With past experiences, it is almost inconceivable to imagine an election free of violence and intimidations. In hindsight, it is also inconceivable for anyone to have any faith at all in Mr. Hun Sen’s many broken promises.

Political violence and intimidations, pre- and post-election, were often orchestrated and perpetrated by Mr. Hun Sen's own Cambodian People's Party. It is rather cynical and hypocritical of the Mr. Hun Sen to naively go to great length in order to try to con and fool public opinion. But, with his public appeal, the political tension will ease and the opposition parties will undoubtedly have a peace of mind. But whether his appeal will have any effectiveness at all remains to be seen.

Cambodians had been through the election two times post-UNTAC, with every election violently contested and spuriously claimed by the oppositions as fraudulently rigged.

Cambodians had also heard Mr. Hun Sen’s broken promises all before. Whether his promise this time is anything difference from his previous promises is anyone’s bet. But, mind you, I will not bet on his promises.

Mr. Hun Sen could have resigned after the 1998 and 2003 elections when the oppositions didn’t want him as the prime minister. He could have stepped down and offered the PM post to one of his CPP colleagues, the likes of Mr. Sar Kheng, Sok An, Tea Banh, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin and so on. The fact that he fought bitterly so hard to remain in that post, including the arrest and exiling of Mr. Chea Sim, the president of Mr. Hun Sen’s own Cambodian People’s Party in 2003, proved that Mr. Hun Sen will cling to power at all cost.

The lists of his broken promises go on and on. Mr. Hun Sen had promised to resign if he cannot eliminate illegal logging. Not only that the illegal logging had not been contained, but it continued and continued with the maximum willing participation of Mr. Hun Sen, as reported by Global Witness in the Cambodia’s Family Tree report. He promised to step down if he cannot curb official corruption but it continues. He promised to resign if he cannot stop hoodlums. Again, the lists go on and on.

One can only lie once. If one lied too many times over, then that person is no different to a prostitute who claimed to be a virgin. The person who made the claims will no longer be credible anymore. This time I will give Mr. Hun Sen the benefit of the doubt. But Mr. Hun Sen has to earn my trust if his promise this time is to have any credibility and trustworthiness at all.

Former Japanese PM Abe to visit Cambodia soon

chinaview.cn
2008-03-08

PHNOM PENH, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Cambodia soon, said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday.

Abe is to visit Cambodia on behalf of the Japanese parliament, Hun Sen told the opening ceremony of an irrigation system in Pursat province.

"He will lead members of a school-building association to the kingdom to help us build schools," he added.

Hun Sen once met with Abe last year in Japan while Abe was still in office.

Japan has remained as Cambodia's largest donor country for years.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Cambodia seeks Japan's help in Sudan peace mission

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen walks past a demining unit, during a ceremony before the departure of the Cambodian humanitarian demining unit for the UN peace keeping operation in Sudan, in Phnom Penh April 12, 2006. (Reuters)

Asahi.com
03/08/2008

BY KAZUTO TSUKAMOTO, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Cambodia wants Japan's support for the Southeast Asian nation's first U.N. peacekeeping mission, which is becoming increasingly tense due to fighting in Sudan, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Tea Banh said Friday.

Tea, who is also the Cambodian national defense minister, told The Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo that Cambodian troops sent to southern Sudan "have not yet been directly attacked, but the situation is tense."

About 300 Cambodian Army corps engineers have been sent to Malakal in southern Sudan, mainly for demining, since April 2006, according to Tea.

The Cambodian troops, which have been cooperating with troops from India and Bangladesh, have removed a total of 1,613 mines so far, he said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura has proposed that the Self-Defense Forces be sent to Sudan to participate in the U.N. peacekeeping mission. But the security situation will likely lead to further calls in Japan for a more cautious approach.

"Cambodia will continue to fulfill its duties in peacekeeping operations with the cooperation of Japan," Tea said.

He asked for continued support from Japan in terms of fostering human personnel for peacekeeping operations.

"Japan sent a peacekeeping mission to Cambodia and now Cambodia has sent such a mission to Sudan," Tea said. "If Japan and Cambodia can cooperate in Sudan, it would mean a new page in the history of peacekeeping cooperation between Japan and Cambodia."

Japan first sent SDF members on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in 1992 to Cambodia.

But in Sudan, the situation is so unstable that the legal conditions under which SDF members can be dispatched on peacekeeping missions may not be met.

For example, SDF members cannot be sent on peacekeeping mission to areas that are considered combat zones.

In addition to mortar attacks near where the Cambodian troops are housed, fighting has broken out about 6 kilometers from a site where mines were being removed, Tea said.

The fighting forced the Cambodian troops to suspend peacekeeping activities for 15 days.

The troops have been helping local residents who were victims of the mortar attack.

Dengue Fever a new kind of world music

The L.A.-based six-piece Dengue Fever. Guitarist Zac Holtzman, seated far left, says he doesn't speak much Khmer, so writing songs for Cambodian vocalist Chhom Nimol, centre, can be a challenge.

Hot band mixes psychedelic rock with Cambodian pop – while redefining the term 'world music'

Mar 08, 2008
Raju Mudhar Entertainment Reporter

The Global Positioning System is chattering away in Dengue Fever's tour van.

During a phone chat while the group is on the road from Philadelphia to New York, main songwriter and lead guitarist Zac Holtzman notes the addition of a disembodied voice offering directions is one noticeable and pleasant upgrade from their previous tours.

The L.A.-based band is currently trekking across North America in support of their acclaimed third album, Venus on Dreams, which stops in at Sneaky Dee's tonight as part of a showcase at Canadian Music Week.

While the GPS can help the band get to where it's got to go, trying to navigate its musical mix is a different matter.

A perfect example of East-West fusion, the California-based six-piece merges retro psychedelic rock with Cambodian pop. Chhom Nimol sings in Khmer, although a few English tracks appear on the new album, which also incorporates surf guitar, Afrobeat and even country.

The band's stated goal is to emulate the sound of music in Cambodia in the 1960s, when American rock influences melded with traditional Asian pop.

"I mean, it was just this really cool twist that they put on all that music. They brought in their own style of singing and it's just this kind of interesting balance of stuff that's vaguely familiar and stuff that's totally from a different world," says Holtzman.

"A lot of the singing, they do a lot of pitch bending and tracking into high voices and falsettos and I think that's a lot of what I was attracted to.

"Sometimes they would bring in traditional Cambodian instruments like a takhe to do an intro to more of a rock 'n' roll number."

Holtzman says inspiration for the band came from his brother, Ethan (who plays farsifa in the band), who returned from trekking Cambodia in 2001 with music from the region.

The brothers decided they wanted to pursue the sound and held auditions in the Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach. They found Nimol, already a pop star in her native country.

Adding to the Lost in Translation vibe is that, while Holtzman is the main songwriter, he speaks little Khmer, so penning lyrics is a necessarily collaborative process.

"I usually do the vocals when I write the songs, and then we (he and Nimol) kind of go over them. We go over the melody ideas that I have, and then she'll kind of elaborate on those ideas," he says.

"Sometimes I'll send them to a friend. He speaks fluently in Khmer and English, so he'll translate them. We've done a few translations on our own, but I think he does a better job."

While in the past Dengue Fever's mix of music might have ended up in the world-music bin at the local record store, the reaction this album is receiving allows the group to cross the line that divides rock and ethnic music arenas – as the band sees fit.

"If your idea of world music is 20 guys on stage in really colourful outfits, with lots of drums, then we're not that kind of world music. But yeah, our singer is Cambodian, she sings in Khmer, we're playing sort of a hodgepodge of different stuff that we like, so yeah, it's been a lot of fun," he says.

"We kind of walk both lines of playing rock 'n' roll venues and kind of getting invited to these world music festivals and the thing is that we stand out and are different in either of those groups."

Sacravatoons : " The Chidren of God from Pailin "

Courtesy of Sacravatoon : http://sacrava.blogspot.com/

Sacravatoons : " Brothers in arm "

Courtesy of Sacravatoon : http://sacrava.blogspot.com/

Thailand to talk with Cambodia over JDA project

March 8, 2008

Foreign Minister Noppadol Pattama said Saturday that the Thai Foreign Ministry and Energy Ministry would negotiate with Cambodian to launch a project of joint development areas.

Noppadol said Thailand and Cambodia have some 26,000 square kilometres of overlapping areas along the border and the areas were rich with natural gas and oil resources.

He said it was estimated that the areas had natural gas worth Bt3.5 trillion and oil worth Bt1.5 trillion so the two country should jointly develop the areas.

He said talks would be held how to divide benefits from the project between the two countries.

The Nation

Flying deportees home is costly endeavor

Los Angeles Times
3/8/2008

Many of the immigrants around deportee Henry Fuentes had never flown before. They looked out the windows anxiously, fumbled to get their seat belts fastened and gasped any time the plane hit turbulence. A few received Dramamine to quell their motion sickness.

Although there are regularly scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights every weekday to Central America, the U.S. government also has flown immigrants home to Nigeria, Cuba, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines.

Tens of thousands of Mexicans are flown to the border and then walk back into their country.

The deportation flights' cost jumped from $96 million in the 2007 fiscal year to $135 million this fiscal year.

That works out to slightly more than $600 per deportee.

Because detaining an immigrant costs nearly $100 a day, Michael Pitts, chief of the flight operations unit for the ICE, said, "it's more effective for us to expeditiously get them out of the country."

Troubled teen? Get him to a monastery

Washington mother thinks she saved her son's life by leaving him with Cambodian monks for two years.

BY CHRISTINE CLARRIDGE
Seattle Times

SEATTLE - Michael Sa-Ngoun is no longer a monk. The 19-year-old from Tukwila, Wash., who spent two years in a Cambodian monastery because his mother was desperate to stop his self-destructive behavior, is not prone to deep philosophical meditation these days.

He doesn't work very hard to resist the desires of most young men his age, nor does he seek humility at every turn.

It took surprisingly little time, family members say, for him to turn back into a regular American young man after his return from Cambodia a little more than a year ago. He was profiled then by the Seattle Times.

He now works at a car dealership because he likes to make money, but he doesn't know what he wants to do for a living.

He stays out too late with his friends, wastes too much time watching movies and spends too much money at restaurants, he says. He also doesn't keep his room as clean as his mother wants, nor does he do his chores without being asked.

But he hasn't been in trouble with the law since his return, and some of the things he learned while living the austere life of a monk have stuck with him.

He said he still believes in karma, and he does his best to do right by others. He'll capture an ant and release it outside rather than kill it.

His mother, Chou Sa-Ngoun, said she was disappointed when most of Michael's enlightened behavior quickly gave way to the material world.

"I wish sometimes that I wouldn't have brought him back from there until he was past a teenager," she said.

But she thinks she may have saved his life. And basically she's OK with how things are.

Left at a monastery

When Michael was about 12, he started skipping school, hanging out with the wrong kids, trying drugs and getting arrested for petty crimes.

His mother tried grounding him and taking away privileges like television and video games. She switched his schools, got him into counseling, let him pay his own fines after juvenile arrests and let him languish in detention centers.

She called the Army, but her son was too young then to enlist. She looked into disciplinary boot camps but found them too pricey.

She begged the state to place him in a temporary foster home, but was told the authorities could do nothing until he committed a more serious crime.

She was afraid he would die violently in a car crash, in a gang altercation or in a drug deal.

Then the couple hit upon an idea while planning a family trip to their ancestors' Cambodian homeland. Sanny Sa-Ngoun thought experiencing hardship would be good for Michael and suggested leaving him behind for a short time. A friend knew of a Buddhist monastery in the Kampong Cham region that would accept Michael as a novitiate if he took the vows of poverty and selflessness.

They flew in November 2004 to Phnom Penh, spent a few days doing tourist things, and made their way to the isolated village of Krolong, where Michael's mother told him he would remain until he had changed. Michael -- who did not speak Cambodian or have any of his own money -- argued, begged, went on a hunger strike and thought about running away. Finally, he gave up and allowed his head to be shaved and prayers said over him.

He spent the first few weeks in shock and despair before slowly settling into the routine.

In silence, he rose at 5:45 each morning, drew water and laid out rugs, place settings and towels for his teacher and the elder monk, whom he called "Grandpa."

He then set a place for himself and called his elders, and together they ate their meal of rice and meat or fish. He rested for 10 minutes and went to work on chores around the temple and school grounds.

He and the other young monks learned to mix mortar, lay stone and build fences. Alongside his comrades, he prayed and studied the teachings of Buddha, trying to learn to free himself from "wanting things," he said.

His mother said he could return when he had earned his high school diploma, which she arranged for him to do online from a nearby village he reached by motorbike once a week.

His return

When he returned to Washington in November 2006, his head was shaved and he was wearing a flowing orange robe. He was nearly silent, and he honored the vows that forbade him from hugging his mother because she's female.

Because Michael chose not to further pursue a life as a monk once he returned, he was released from his vows and his robes in a traditional cleansing ceremony.

Michael got a job working at a restaurant and then at a car dealership, where he details cars, moves them, runs some errands.

His aspirations are not far-reaching.

"Really, I just want to have fun with my friends and get a new car," he says.

'He's just a teenager'

Michael's mother is sometimes disappointed, after all that he's been through, that he didn't retain a higher level of discipline and consciousness.

"He's slipped," she said one day this month when his room wasn't clean and his chores were undone. "I feel like he hasn't changed that much. Sometimes I think there is something missing in his brain, but then I remind myself that I shouldn't overreact. He's just a teenager with a teenage brain."

Because he has stayed out of trouble since his return, Michael will be able to petition the court soon to expunge his juvenile criminal record.

His mother says she's trying to stop worrying and let him make his own mistakes.

"I guess I'm going to have to. He doesn't really know what life is about, but he won't know until he finds out. We can steer him, but we have to let him fall."

World adoption of Cambodian children down by 15% in 2007

March 08, 2008

International adoption of Cambodian children decreased by 15 percent in 2007 compared to 2006 due to more strict censor by the government, English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodian Daily said on Saturday.

A total of 249 Cambodian children, 104 girls and 145 boys, we readopted by foreign parents in 2007, compared to 294 children, 143 girls and 151 boys, in 2006, said Keo Borentr, director general of technical affairs at the Ministry of Social Affairs.

"We need to find adoptive parents locally first because the living conditions and family economy of the Cambodian people have improved," he was quoted as saying.

Cambodian orphanages' capacity for orphans has also improved over the years, he said.

In 2007, parents in Italy adopted 164 children, those in Austria 31 and those in France 19, he added.

Adoption of Cambodian children has become ever popular since United States movie star Angelina Jolie adopted a Cambodian boy years ago. The boy has lived a happy life with her in New York with frequent global media exposure.

Source: Xinhua

International arms dealer Viktor Bout arrested in Thailand

From Wikinews,
March 8, 2008

Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer, has been arrested in Thailand. Bout was arrested by the Royal Thai Police on Thursday, after checking in at a Sofitel luxury hotel in the Si Lom district of Bangkok.

Viktor Bout is suspected of supplying arms to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, FARC, as well as combatants on both sides of African civil wars. He has been dubbed the "Merchant of Death" by the press as well as the book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun.

At a press conference held by Thai police they said that Bout is being investigated for "procuring weapons for terrorists and conspiring with terrorists." According to Maj. Gen. Surapol Thuanthong, Bout said "The game is over" when he was arrested.

"This multi-country operation culminating in the arrest of Viktor Bout in Thailand is a model for how suspected dangerous international criminals need to be investigated, charged and brought to justice in the 21st century," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble.

Federal prosecutors in the United States hope to get Bout extradited for prosecution on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

The 2005 film, Lord of War has been said to have been inspired by Viktor Bout.

Internet game which feeds poor attracting lakhs of people

8 Mar, 2008
The Economic Times

NEW YORK: An Internet game launched by UN World Food Programme (WFP) six months ago has proved so popular that it has generated enough rice to feed 1.1 million people for a day.

The interactive vocabulary game allows a player 20 grains of rice for each correct answer. The money raised through advertising is used to underwrite rice donations.

Thus it allows children simultaneously to bolster their vocabularies and help feed world's hungry children.

With between 3 lakh and 5 lakh people playing it daily, it has generated 21 billion grains of rice for WFP.

The first recipients of the website's aid were refugees from Myanmar taking shelter in Bangladesh. Ugandan school children and pregnant and nursing mothers in Cambodia were among other beneficiaries.

Next batch of rice will be distributed among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.

"I never imagined that things would move this fast or that it would be such a success," said the game's creator John Breen, an online fundraising pioneer from the United States.

"Quite apart from the actual amount of rice generated, FreeRice is a fantastic way of spreading the message about world hunger."

A new audio function lets players hear how words are pronounced, and Breen said a team of lexographers is working to expand the database of 10,000 words. To scale up the game's appeal to younger and non-native English speakers, visitors can now select the level of difficulty.

Volunteer in Cambodia
Ethical and Affordable Volunteer Opportunities in Cambodia
www.globalteer.org

Heavy lifting for new homes

Rotaractors from the University of New South Wales, Australia traveled to Cambodia in 2007 to help needy residents build new homes. Photo courtesy of the Rotaract Club of the University of New South Wales.

By Maureen Vaught
Rotary International News - 7 March 2008

Rotaractors from the University of New South Wales in Australia will travel to India and Mongolia in July as part of Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village Youth Program, which sends volunteers ages 14-25 to other countries to help needy people build new homes.

Since 2004, the Rotaractors have traveled on the program to Cambodia, Fiji, the Philippines, and Thailand. They’ve paid their own travel and lodging expenses with help from corporate donations and eight Rotary clubs in New South Wales.

Rotaractor Yiling Cheah went on the Philippines trip in 2005 and led another trip in 2007 to Cambodia. There, she and 10 others built two houses in six days and donated money to build a home for a blind elderly woman and her grandson.

Covered with mud and sweat, the volunteers in Cambodia mixed cement, laid bricks, and hauled soil in wicker baskets. The work was exhausting, but the bigger problem was the ankle-deep water caused by flooding. “The soil we carried was wet, meaning that it was a lot heavier to carry. It also meant that we had to work with things hidden in the water, whether it was our tools or parasites,” Cheah recalls.

The hard work seemed worthwhile when the homes were presented to their new owners in a special ceremony. “The homeowners were in tears of joy. They were also in tears of sadness because we were about to leave, and they never really got to know us due to language barriers,” Cheah says. “The homeowners didn’t know how to thank us for what we had given them, and we didn’t know what to say. It was only then that our team members realized what a huge contribution we had made to two families’ lives in a matter of six days.”

Sign Here

washingtonpost.com
Sunday, March 9, 2008; Page P04

Bonus week! We've chosen two funny signs to spotlight, thanks to our eagle-eyed readers. Both receive Washington Post Travel section tote bags for sharing their finds with us.

Gail Boesel of Severna Park sent us the beaut at left, taken at the St. Lucia crocodile sanctuary in South Africa. "It wasn't a joke," Boesel assured us. Wheelchair users might want to add this place to their do-not-visit lists -- or at least check their brakes.

The sign at right arrived in our mailbox courtesy of Sherri Powar of the District. She stumbled across it during a January 2007 visit to Siem Reap, Cambodia, noting that it meant "No squatters." We think it's a plea by authorities to keep visitors from doing a cannonball into the toilet.

Seen an amusing sign in your travels? Read on.

Write you r name, contact information and caption on the back of your photo. Photos may be in color or black-and-white. Send prints or photo-quality printouts to Travel Section Sign Contest, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Winners receive a Travel tote bag. Photos become property of The Post, which may edit, publish, distribute or republish them in any form. No purchase necessary.

Thailand stakes claim to Ta Moan temples

Details are Sketchy
March 8, 2008

No sooner had Thailand and Cambodia papered over the issues surrounding Preah Vihear, and now the Thais are crying over Ta Moan.

The Foreign Ministry summoned on Friday French and Cambodian ambassadors to complain maps of Cambodia publish in France and Cambodia wrongly claimed Thai territory.

The envoys were told that maps of Utdor Mean Chay and Preah Vihear provinces published in France and Cambodia claim that parts of the Ta Mean Prom temple in Surin province are in Cambodia.

Director of Treaty and Legal Affairs, Virachai Plasai, told the ambassadors the area in question is “overlapping” and requires demarcation under a treaty signed by Thailand and Cambodia in 2000.

For starters, the Ta Moan temples — there’s actually three of them — lie in a declared “white zone,” as agreed to by both countries under the treaty that Virachai is talking about. That’s supposed to mean that neither side can use or occupy the temples until both sides resolve the demarcation issue.

That’s not what is happening. Today the Ta Moan temples are occupied by a heavily armed unit of the Thai military, in violation of the treaty. The Thais have undertaken road construction in the disputed area, in violation of the treaty. And the Thais have benefited financially by allowing tourists to visit the temples, in violation of the treaty. As if that were not enough, Thailand refuses Cambodians entry.

If anybody has a grievance here, it’s Cambodia.

Los Angeles Master Chorale announces 2008-09 season

Cambodian-born Chinary Ung will create a new work for the chorale's third installment of the 'LA Is the World' project.

By Chris Pasles,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 8, 2008

Three world premieres, two West Coast premieres and the close of the multiyear "Homage to Haydn" programs will highlight the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 2008-09 season, to be led in Walt Disney Concert Hall by music director Grant Gershon.

Cambodian-born, San Diego-based composer Chinary Ung will create a work as the chorale's third installment of the "LA Is the World" project. Ung came to the United States with his family in 1964 after graduating from Cambodia's national music conservatory.

His piece, to premiere Nov. 9, will be created in collaboration with dancer-choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, a Khmer Rouge killing fields survivor who immigrated in the early 1990s to Long Beach, where she established one wing of the Khmer Arts Ensemble, dedicated to preserving the classical arts of her homeland. (The other base is in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.)

The Ung-Shapiro collaboration will be paired with Lou Harrison's "La Koro Sutro" (Esperanto for "The Heart Sutro"), composed for gamelan ensemble and choir.

The other world premieres are Andrea Clearfield's "Dream Variations" and a piece by Steven Sametz written to honor Gershon and the chorale. Both works will be sung Feb. 22.

The West Coast premieres will be Nico Muhly's "Expecting the Main Things From You" (also Feb. 22) and Roberto Sierra's "Missa Latina"(May 31, 2009). Washington Times critic T.L. Ponick called Sierra's Mass "shockingly brilliant" when it premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2006. Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and baritone Nathaniel Webster will reprise their Kennedy Center solo roles.

Bass-baritone Eric Owens, who sang the title role of Elliot Goldenthal's "Grendel" for Los Angeles Opera in 2006, will sing the lead role in Mendelssohn's "Elijah" on Jan. 25.

The season will open Oct. 12 with selections from Rachmaninoff's "The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom" and Haydn's "Harmonie Mass.

"Gershon will share podium duties with the chorale's assistant conductor, Ariel Quintana, for two concerts, a holiday program Dec. 14 and a folk music program March 29, 2009.

The final installment of the Haydn project will take place May 3, 2009, when the composer's "Heilig Mass" will be paired with Messiaen's "Trois petites liturgies.

"There will be two "Messiah Sing-Along" concerts (Dec. 7 and 15).

As a supplement to the season, which runs through May 31, 2009 opera composer Ricky Ian Gordon ("Grapes of Wrath," "Orpheus & Euridice") will write a work for the 20th anniversary of the chorale's High School Choir Festival, in which more than 1,000 students from two dozen Southland high schools will participate April 24, 2009.

Heng Pov Appeals for Televised Hearing

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07 March 2008

Khmer audio aired March 7 (921KB) - Listen (MP3)

Jailed former police chief Heng Pov has requested the courts give him a public appeals hearing and a hearing chamber large enough to contain an interested audience when next he appears before the court.

The former police chief of Phnom Penh was arrested in 2006 and is serving an 18-year prison sentence for colluding in the murder of a municipal judge.

He has accused Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Police Chief Hok Lundy of conspiring in the 1997 grenade attack on opposition supporters, as well as the murder of popular actress Piseth Pilika.

Heng Pov lawyer Kao Soupha said previous trials for his client were held in rooms too small to contain the hundreds of people interested in attending. His client was requesting a larger room, and that the hearing be televised.

Sassafras Oil Export Worries Drug Officials

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07 March 2008

The use of sassafras tree oil in the production of the drug Extacy is a rising concern for authorities.

Cambodia has become an exporter of the oil of the sassafras tree, which is used in the manufacture of the drug Extacy.

Sassafras oil mainly comes from the three provinces of Koh Kong, Pursat and Battambang, said Luar Ramin, secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, at a recent conference.

The sassafras tree, especially Cambodia's mountain variety, produces an oil high in the chemical safrole, which is in turn used to produce the head-shaking, euphoric drug.

"According to the report of Vietnam, submitted through [the UN drug control office], between 2003 and 2005, the tree oil has been shipped in the hundreds of tons, through Vietnam for the international market," Luar Ramin said. "When Vietnam stopped buying it, the tree oil was exported through Thailand, and they seized 50 tons of it. This is a critical sign of worry."

Cambodia's forestry law prohibits the harvest or transport of sassafras oil, which is classified as a top-tier controlled substance.

Eng Chhunthan, a rights worker for Licadho based in Pursat, said he has received verbal reports that the cultivation of the oil continues in forests far from provincial centers.

Gov't, UNDP Fight Harmful Car Air-Con

By Seng Ratana, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07 March 2008

Khmer audio aired March 07 (951KB) - Listen (MP3)

The Ministry and Environment and UNDP said Friday they would help car owners pay to have polluting air-conditioners in old cars updated.

Cars built before 1996 have air-conditioners that cool through the use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC, a chemical compound harmful to the atmosphere's ozone layer.

UNDP officials said Friday they would help car owners change to healthier systems, subsidizing half the cost of the upgrade.

Cambodia has 23 garages that can change the system, including 13 in Phnom Penh, for a cost of about $52.

Khieu Muth, secretary of state for the Ministry of Environment, said that the ministry has been working on the problem with UNDP.

Cambodia, which leads the region in such efforts, expects to emit no harmful CFC by 2010, he said.

Redistribution of Land Angers Villagers

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
07 March 2008

Khmer audio aired March 7 (923KB) - Listen (MP3)

Villagers from 736 families are protesting the authorities of Kampong Thom province for allegedly shorting them on the redistribution of land in favor of a concession to a rubber company.

The villagers complained to a local rights group earlier this week, saying Kampong Thom provincial governor Num Tum proposed to Prime Minister Hun Sen that 5,415 hectares of state forest be distributed to 459 families, at three hectares per family, according to official documents obtained by VOA Khmer. The remaining 4,000 hectares of land were provided by authorities to a private company to plant rubber trees, villagers say.

Num Tum said Friday the government sought to give legal land rights to all the families in the area, to provide them with a livelihood, and that those who were protesting had vested interest in other property.

Tribunal Expediting Bail Hearings

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
07 March 2008

Khmer audio aired March 6 (1.26MB) - Listen (MP3)

The Khmer Rouge tribunal is working to speed up pre-trial release hearings for three remaining jailed leaders of the regime, a spokesman said.

"Then things will be moving very fast, and it won't be like earlier," said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

Hisham Mousar, a legal expert for the rights group Adhoc who is monitoring the tribunal, said the speed of the processes depended on the complexities of each Khmer Rouge leader's case.

Cases facing "high politics" could become more complicated and take more time, he said.

US Economy Woes Concern Cambodia: Expert

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
07 March 2008

Khmer audio aired March 6 (5.98MB) - Listen (MP3)

With the US economy in decline and Vietnam a member of the World Trade Organization, a leading economist warned Thursday the government must diversify its economic activity.

Chab Sotharith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said Cambodia must pay attention to the US economy and other potential hazards.

The US, Cambodia's top buyer of garment exports, could be facing a recession, having spent much money on a costly war in Iraq and facing a housing market plunge, Chab Sotharith said Thursday, as a guest on "Hello VOA."

Cambodia's economy, meanwhile, which is held up by tourism, garments, construction and agriculture, has seen much growth in recent years, he said.

International Workshop On Military Simulation and Disaster Preparedness Planning

Posted on 8 March 2008.
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 550

“An international workshop on military simulation and disaster preparedness planning was held on 6 March 2008 at Le Royal Hotel, presided over by H.E. Nhim Vanda, the First Deputy President of the National Committee for Disaster Management, representing the Royal Government of Cambodia, with the participation of ambassadors from other countries, representatives of the Ministry of National Defense, and 200 participants from 24 countries.

“The international workshop on military simulation and disaster preparedness planning was held for one day on 6 March 2008 in order to share experiences and find ways to reduce difficulties caused by disasters in a spirit of cooperation, good relations, and mutual respect, especially whenever disasters strike anywhere in the countries represented.

“In his address at the workshop, H.E. Nhim Vanda, a Senior Minister and representative of the Cambodian government, expressed his warm welcome to the multi-national planning team that strengthened the organization of the workshop today. On behalf of the National Committee for Disaster Management and the Royal Government of Cambodia led by Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen, the senior minister expressed his deep appreciation and thanks to the presence of the [US] Pacific Regional Military Commander, who is fulfilling his mission in close cooperation with the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, increasing the capacity of the work of disaster management and emergency aid. Cambodia is one of the ASEAN countries that suffer from natural disasters, especially floods and drought.

“H.E. Nhim Vanda stated that Cambodia has many experiences in response to flood disasters which happen every year along the Mekong River. The disasters cause damage to many people’s lives and to public infrastructure, and obstruct socio-economic development and poverty reduction in Cambodia. With its effort to reduce disasters, Cambodia is focusing on disaster preparedness planning to ensure people’s livelihood, mostly in areas which rely on agriculture.

“H.E Nhim Vanda, the Senior Minister, said that to respond to the impact of disasters, the Royal Government of Cambodia set up the National Committee for Disaster Management in 1995. The roles and duties of the National Committee for Disaster Management are to take preventive measures to reduce disasters, such as providing emergency aid to disaster victims in a timely and effective manner.

“The National Committee for Disaster Management not only plays a coordinating role to respond to disasters in the country, but it also assumes the responsibility for coordinating efforts for response at regional and international levels. Therefore, the National Committee for Disaster Management not only builds a disaster response plan in the country, but also assists the ASEAN Secretariat in building mechanisms and procedures of ASEAN for regional cooperation for the work of disaster management. The ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response was signed in Vientiane in Laos on 26 July 2005. After receiving approval and ratification from the supreme legislative organization [the National Assembly], the King of the Kingdom of Cambodia signed the Royal Decree promulgating the agreement on 15 February 2008.

“During the workshop, H.E Nhim Vanda confirmed that the workshop is not only important for the Kingdom of Cambodia, but also for the participating relevant organizations. The workshop will provide opportunities for government officials from 24 countries in order to build relations in a spirit of cooperation and respect, in particular in times when disasters are occurring anywhere in those countries.

“With the participation from important humanitarian organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, H.E the Senior Minister said, ‘We will further increase the awareness about our respective systems and we will expand significant relations with each other.’

“The roles of ASEAN were prepared before and after signing the ASEAN agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response through the mechanism of National Committees for Disaster Management, and by discussing to organize an ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Center) and by building a Standby Arrangement and Standard Operating Procedures (SASOP) for regional preparedness and coordination to respond to emergency aid. These efforts will help to improve the possibility of ASEAN to support each other in times of disasters.

“Therefore, the efforts for international cooperation in times of big disasters will be increased. As the population across the globe has been on the increase, many people have been victimized by disasters, in particular when they are forced to live in regions where they did not reside before. When a nation is progressing, the impact of disasters on the infrastructure is on the increase. The disasters which before had little impacts on some regions are now having a broader impact. The globalization affects the whole world, particularly the economy.

“H.E Nhim Vanda, the Senior Minister, confirmed that international large-scale response to the Tsunami and the earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004, and to other earthquakes in 2004, are indicators of international future cooperation to respond to disasters.

“’This workshop provides opportunities to all participants to improve the understanding about and the development of mechanism to respond and to work together in times of disasters in future.’

“’Again, on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, I would like to thank the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and the [US] Pacific Regional Military Commander for having recognized the key roles of the National Committee for Disaster Management in controlling and responding to emergencies in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Likewise, I would like to thank the participants from humanitarian organizations, from the ASEAN Secretariat, and other participants from 24 countries for their efforts to improve the multi-national cooperation in times of disasters.’ H.E. Nhim Vanda, the Senior Minister, confirmed, ‘I believe that the work and the results which have been achieved at the meeting will contribute to saving many people’s lives in times of disasters in future. Most important is the cooperation and the trust with each other. The workshop will bring fruitful results.’”

Raksmei Angkor, Vol.15, #1287, 7.3.2008

21 billion grains of rice generated by popular UN-backed Internet game

7 March 2008 – With between 300,000 and 500,000 people playing it daily, an Internet game that to date has generated 21 billion grains of rice for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is proving to be an online sensation.

Launched six months ago, freerice.com is an interactive vocabulary game in which players donate 20 grains of rice to WFP every time they answer a question correctly, allowing children to simultaneous bolster their vocabularies and help feed the world’s hungry.

The money raised from advertising is used to underwrite FreeRice’s donation to WFP, and so far, enough rice has been generated to feed 1.1 million hungry people for one day.

The first recipients of the website’s aid went to refugees from Myanmar taking shelter in Bangladesh.

“This rice I receive from WFP allows me to feed my family adequately,” said Gool Bahar, 39, a widow supporting her family in the Nayapara refugee camp by growing vegetables.

Additional rice has also gone to Ugandan schoolchildren and pregnant and nursing women in Cambodia. The next batch will be distributed to Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.

“I never imagined that things would move this fast or that it would be such a success,” said the game’s creator John Breen, an online fundraising pioneer from the United States. “Quite apart from the actual amount of rice generated, FreeRice is a fantastic way of spreading the message about world hunger.”

A new audio function lets players hear how words are pronounced, and Mr. Breen said a team of lexographers is working to expand the database of 10,000 words. To scale up the game’s appeal to younger and non-native English speakers, visitors can now select the level of difficulty to start out at.

Teachers have voiced their appreciation for a vocabulary game that has the power to draw their students in.

“You cannot imagine the joy in my heart when I look out and see 25 kids doing vocabulary homework and enjoying it,” one teacher from California told the School Library Journal.

The appeal of the online game to children is such that freerice.com ‘communities’ have blossomed on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

“Wow this is so great! You prepare for English tests AND help out others. My total count so far is 6,100 grains,” a New York high school student said in a comment on Facebook.

OPERATION SMILE MEDICAL MISSION TO TAKE PLACE IN PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA, FROM MARCH 13-21, 2008

TransWorldNews
3/07/2008

International Medical Mission Team to Provide Free Surgery to Children Born with Cleft Lips and Cleft Palates

An Operation Smile Medical Mission team will arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for an international medical mission taking place March 13-21, 2008 to assist children born with facial deformities. The team consists of more than 50 medical and non-medical volunteers from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore and the United States. Founded in 1982, Operation Smile is a worldwide children’s medical charity dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults.

Who: An Operation Smile International Mission Team comprised of credentialed medical professionals from 9 countries to include:Norrie Oelkers, R.N., Clinical Coordinator from New Jersey Dr. Alice Smith, Speech Pathology Adjunct Assistant Professor at University of IowaDr. Mok Theavy, Plastic Surgery and Program Director for Operation Smile Cambodia

When: March 13-21, 2008
Where: Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodian street kids spearhead Khmer food revival

The Vancouver Sun
Saturday, March 8, 2008

Gillian Murdoch, Reuters

Phnom Penh - First kill your tarantulas by pressing hard on their bodies then remove the fangs and wash the spiders thoroughly, advises the glossy in-house recipe book from Phnom Penh's Romdeng restaurant.

Served with a lime and pepper sauce, the crispy arachnids, fried to remove their venom, became a delicacy during Khmer Rouge reign over Cambodia when Pol Pot's plan to create an agrarian utopia forced millions from cities to the country.

The spiders are part of the restaurant's mission to champion Khmer food from the present and dating back to the Khmer Kingdom of over 1,000 years ago while also helping provide work and a new life for street kids.

Virtually annihilated during the Khmer Rouge's reign that ended in 1979, Cambodia's traditional specialties are less well-known than Western-friendly pad thais and rice-paper rolls from bigger neighbors Thailand and Vietnam although many regional dishes have their roots in Khmer cooking.

But with Cambodia rapidly developing, restaurants such as Romdeng are helping spearhead a comeback, said founder Sebastien Marot and top chef Sok Chhong who put together the cookbook "From Spiders to Water Lillies."

While the spiders may seem like a gimmick, the restaurant also has a serious social mission -- getting young people off the streets and into employment and education.

Run by Cambodian non-profit Mit Samlanh or Friends, Romdeng and its sister restaurant Friends are staffed by former street kids who design the menus, cook the dishes, wait tables, and even sew the silk cushions for the chairs.

So what will Cambodia's breakthrough dish be if tarantulas are not to everyone's taste?
The country is considering submitting its "prahok" fish paste and peppercorns from the southeastern town of Kampot for trademarking as distinctive national products but it is "amok" curry that probably has the widest crossover appeal.

Milder than other curries, as Cambodia's traditional dishes were first cooked up in the days before traders introduced chili to the region, it is named after the dark green amok leaf that's shredded into the dish as a seasoning.

Not surprisingly in a country crisscrossed by the Mekong and two other mighty rivers, the Tonle Sap and the Bassac, fish and shrimps feature heavily on Cambodian menus.

A range of local vegetable dishes also get a creative spin, in dishes like morning glory and water spinach salad, and sautéed rice and chive flower cakes on green papaya salad.

As there are no starters or mains in Khmer culture, all the food comes at once, and there are also no knives so don't wait for anything more than your fork and spoon.

Washed down the meal with a bottle of local Anchor beer, a shot of honey-flavored Khmer rice wine, or fancy combination juices such as sweet tamarind, guava and honey.

True converts to Khmer cooking can end the meal with a commitment by buying the cookbook that feeds its profits back into the endeavor.

Romdeng:#21, Street 278 Phnom Penh (Tel:+ 855 92 219 565)

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Cambodian Disabled Arts Festival Promotes Equal Rights

Cambodian landmine victims Keo Vuthy, 43, left, and Sim Sameth, 27, head to prepare a water well in Veal Thom village, southwest of Phnom Penh (2005 File)

By Rory Byrne
Phnom Penh

07 March 2008

Byrne report - Listen (MP3)

A festival aimed at promoting disabled artists in Cambodia has just ended in the nation's capital, Phnom Penh. Despite having one of the world's highest rates of disabled people, social, political and economic discrimination against the disabled is widespread in Cambodia. Organizers say that the aim of the festival was to try to help change popular perceptions of disability in Cambodia by promoting disabled people's abilities rather than their disabilities. Rory Byrne reports for VOA from Phnom Penh.

Hundreds of mainly disabled children took part in the opening parade of the Spotlight Festival - the first of its kind in Cambodia aimed at promoting the rights of the disabled.

The children came from towns and cities all over Cambodia bringing a big splash of color on an otherwise dull afternoon in Phnom Penh.

Hannah Stevens, the Director of the Spotlight, says that the festival is trying to show how the disabled can play a fuller role in Cambodian society,

"I believe that Spotlight gives people the opportunity to prove their abilities. In Cambodia, we still have quite a problem where people with disabilities aren't integrated into society, there isn't full access to education, people aren't necessarily able to get jobs," said Stevens. "I think this project - the whole point of it is to promote the abilities of these people so that actually they're very, very capable to go to school, and to receive education, to participate in the arts and to participate in society generally."

Decades of war and poverty have left Cambodia with one of the highest rates of disabled people in the world. A 2005 report by the Asian Development Bank estimates that about 15 percent of the population is afflicted with some form of disability

That includes an estimated 40,000 land-mine survivors and 50,000 victims of preventable diseases like polio.

Like in other developing countries, disabled people in Cambodia are typically among the poorest of the poor. Many suffer discrimination in their daily lives.

Polio victim Ngin Saorath is the Executive Director of the Cambodian Disabled People's Organization.

"In Cambodia, there are a lot of discrimination towards people with disability because the people in Cambodia believe in Karma - they say that you did something wrong - because you did something very bad - in the past life, that's why you live and you're born with disability," explained Saroth.

Saroth says that disabled people in Cambodia are often denied access to education and employment opportunities.

"In the family most people they got the children with disability - they not allow the children to go to school or they just let the children to stay home and look after or cooking for the relative," added Saroth. "They feel that [a] disabled person cannot do anything - just look after the cow or take care of the sister or the nephew - so they cannot get education, they don't send their children to get education because they feel that in society there is no available job for [a] disabled person."

The Spotlight festival featured performances and workshops from a number of acclaimed disabled artists from Cambodia and the wider region

Performers included blind Cambodian musician Kong Nay, master of the so-called "Mekong Delta Blues," who some call the "Ray Charles of Cambodia" because of his trademark sunglasses.
Also performing at the festival was acclaimed drumming team Koshu Roa Taiko from Japan. All of the drummers are deaf and play by feeling the drum's vibrations

Mary Scott is the Country Director of the Cambodian Trust, a British NGO working to promote disabled rights in Cambodia:

"The Spotlight Festival was groundbreaking in Cambodia," she said. "There has never been a festival like that where people with disabilities and people without disabilities have pulled together to bring together a cultural programme."

As well as showing how the disabled can play a full role in the arts, the festival succeeded in bringing some joy into the lives of some of Cambodia's most vulnerable disabled children.
Organizers hope that festivals like Spotlight can help to bring about a general shift in attitudes towards the disabled in Cambodia and the wider region.

Cambodia to expand international airport

news.opodo.co.uk
07 March 2008

Access to Cambodia is set to be improved in the future, with plans to expand Sihanoukville airport, according to reports.

The government is set to invest around $35m (£17.3m) as it attempts to develop the Cambodian tourism industry.

Finance minister Keat Chhon said that the developments will turn Sihanoukville airport into a thriving international hub, according to the Cambodia Daily newspaper.

Larger aircraft will be able to land at the airport, with runways set to be extended to 2,500 metres this year and eventually to 4,000 metres.

The expansion plans have been enabled by a loan that was given to Societe Concessionaire des Airports, the company that operates Sihanoukville, along with Siem Reap and Phnom Penh airports.

Cambodia is situated in south-east Asia, where it is sometimes overshadowed by the more popular locations of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

DFNN to close deals across Asia

The Manila Times
Friday, March 07, 2008

DIVERSIFIED Financial Network Inc. (DFNN) is set to fold in a Cambodian slot machine operator and is eyeing similar deals in Japan and Singapore through its wholly-owned gaming subsidiary.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, DFNN said Singapore-based unit Pacific Gaming Investments Pte Ltd. (PGI) has concluded due diligence on Poseidon Co. Ltd., a Cambodian slot machine operator, which would be acquired this month.

Results of the due diligence showed that Poseidon posted revenues of $21.23 million for the seven-month period that ended in December last year with a net profit of $1.086 million.
DFNN disclosed that PGI would be acquiring 90 percent of Poseidon for $4.2 million through a locally incorporated company in Cambodia called PGI Cambodia.

Miguel Manzano, DFNN director told The Manila Times on Thursday that the company is also eyeing similar deals around the region and is negotiating with several slot machine and online gaming operators in Singapore and Japan as part of PGI’s aggressive expansion program.

He however was mum on how much the company is willing to spend for these firms as the possible deals in the two countries are still at the preliminary stage.

Earlier, DFNN announced that Hatchasia Inc., its business process outsourcing (BPO) leasing unit, would be selling up to 33 percent of the company for the first time by the second half this year. Hatchasia aims to raise P100 million to P200 million in fresh capital to fund its expansion to the provinces and possible acquisitions.

The firm is looking at expanding its operations—mainly the provision of BPO facilities to start up and established firms that need shared facilities and resources in the IT, logistics and education sectors—in new growth areas like Clark, Subic and Tarlac. Besides being on the look out for opportunities in online gaming and education, Hatchasia may also consider acquiring BPO operations and assets.

At present, Hatchasia has about 9,000 square meters of office space in Fort Bonifacio leased out to companies like Marubeni Power Corp. and a Filipino animation studio.

Another DFNN unit, Intelligent Wave Inc., would still push through with its planned maiden share offering to the public also by the second half this year to raise about $5 million to $6 million to boost its manpower and infrastructure.

The software development subsidiary initially planned to expand operations and increase personnel from 100 to 500 while developing software for business applications with some Japanese companies.

--Likha C. Cuevas-Miel