Climate change threatens food security, warns UNDP

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Brendan Brady
Monday, 09 June 2008

ncreasingly unpredictable weather caused by global warming poses a major threat to the Cambodia's already imperiled food supplies, says the UN Development Program.

The kingdom also needed to invest in environmentally-friendly energy sources like solar or wind power to help stave off the impacts of global warming, the agency said.

Agriculture-dependent Cambodia was especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change which have already triggered a damaging cycle of flooding and drought, said UNDP country director Jo Scheuer at a June 5 conference marking the UN's World Environment Day.

“When droughts, floods or storms strike, vulnerable people are forced to sell off productive assets, withdraw children from school and cut back on spending for nutrition and health,” added UN resident coordinator Douglas Broderick.

The conference, entitled “Kick the habit! Towards a low-carbon economy,” aimed at outlining ways for Cambodia to fight or adapt to climate change.

As Cambodia’s energy consumption increases, eventually making the country a net carbon emitter, it was becoming necessary to explore energy efficient technologies used in developed countries which have legal obligations to offset their carbon emissions, Scheuer said.

Solar and wind power projects in particular could be recipients of international funding, he said, adding that the UNDP and the Ministry of Environment had signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly attract such projects.

Prach Sun, secretary of state with the Ministry of Environment, said the government would also seek funds to plant trees to absorb greenhouse gases and would call on local businesses to reduce carbon emissions.

Tim Ponlock, national project coordinator for climate change at the Ministry of Environment, said Cambodia should also prioritize developing its bio-diesel technology to utilize the country’s substantial supply of discarded rice stalks and corn husks for fuel production.

Nop Polin, coordinator of the Climate Change Unit of the NGO Geres Cambodia, pointed to his agency’s energy-efficient stoves, which purportedly use just 25 percent of the wood or charcoal consumed by a traditional stove, to show that cleaner energy doesn’t have to be high-tech or expensive.

UN extends breakfast program for poor Cambodian schoolchildren after cash injection

In this April 29, 2008 file photo, a Cambodian boy eats rice in his classroom during a school breakfast, supported by the World Food Program, at Sangkum Seksa elementary school in Udong district, Kampong Speu province, about 70 kilometers (43 miles), west of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Last minute funding to buy rice has allowed the World Food Program to continue offering free breakfast to hundreds of thousands of Cambodian children, the agency said Monday, June 9, 2008.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)

In this April 29 008 file photo, Cambodian students serve rice in their classroom during a school breakfast, supported by the World Food Program, at Sangkum Seksa elementary school in Udong district, Kampong Speu province, about 70 kilometers (43 miles), west of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Last minute funding to buy rice has allowed the World Food Program to continue offering free breakfast to hundreds of thousands of Cambodian children, the agency said Monday, June 9, 2008.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)

By KER MUNTHIT
2008-06-09

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Last minute funding to buy rice has allowed the U.N. World Food Program to resume free breakfast for hundreds of thousands of Cambodian children, the agency said Monday.

The program ended this month because of rising rice prices. But a US$5.4 million infusion from WFP headquarters in Rome meant an extension through the end of the school year on July 5, said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the WFP in Bangkok.

Thomas Keusters, the WFP's program director for Cambodia, said he was «delighted» after receiving the news.

«We're going to deliver food to all 1,344 schools so that the school-feeding program can continue until the 5th of July,» he said Monday.

Classes will resume in October and Keusters said the fate of the meal program «will very much depend on the donations we will receive in the coming weeks and months.

Facing a budget shortfall because of the rising cost of food, the U.N.'s food agency said three months ago that breakfast stocks at Cambodian schools would run out before mid-June. Five local suppliers defaulted on contracts to provide rice because they could get higher prices elsewhere, program officials said.

It was just one of many WFP programs facing cuts amid a US$755 million shortfall in the U.N. agency's budget. But in recent days, the WFP received a US$500 million donation from Saudi Arabia along with a total of US$300 million from the United States, Australia and Europe.

Cambodian school officials, some of whom ended their program and others who were about to, expressed joy about the latest news.

«I am very happy if that is true,» said Nheng Vorn, principal of Choumpou Proek school, about 43 miles (70 kilometers) west of the capital Phnom Penh.

His school's rice supply ran out May 27, and the staff cooked the last 64 pounds (29 kilograms) of peas on Friday for the students.About six miles (10 kilometers) from Nheng Vorn's school, the Sangkum Seksa school was set to end its meal program this week.

«But maybe there will be no need to close it if we will really get more rice,» the school's principal Tan Sak said.

Russians to build $US472 MLN Cambodian resort

Artist rendering of the development on Koh Puos Island (Drawing by KPIG)

Russia Today
June 9, 2008

Russian company the Koh Puos Investment Group has begun construction work on a $US472 million island resort off Cambodia's south-west coast. The plans have gone ahead despite the company’s director currently being in prison.

The project will see a 900 metre bridge built on the island of Koh Puos, referred to as Snake island, with a coastal beach in the port city of Sihanoukville.

The bridge, worth $US 31.3 million, is to be finished by 2010, according to Cambodian transport minister Sun Chantol.

In 2006 Cambodia's government signed a deal with the Koh Puos Investment Group allowing the Russian firm to develop and manage resorts on the Island for 99 years.

The director of the Koh Puos Investment Group, Alexandr Trofimov, has been sentenced for alleged sex crimes in Cambodia.

No Abdication for King: Sihanouk

By Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 June 2008

Former king Norodom Sihanouk said Monday there was no plan for his son, King Norodom Sihamoni, to abdicate the throne, but he said the royal family does have a plan if ever the monarchy is abolished.

"This is not an abdication, but an exile without protestation, if Phnom Penh would abolish the monarchy," Sihanouk wrote in a letter issued Monday by the Royal Palace.

Sihanouk said in a letter Friday the monarchy had a chance of being deposed, but in that case his son would return to France and he would live in another country. He asked that his name not be used in association with the founding of the coalition party, Funcinpec, and that politics put the throne "under risk."

"In waiting for this abolition, we thought a long time ago about following a plan," Sihanouk wrote Monday.

In the meantime, the royal family would remain in Cambodia through the election period, leaving Aug. 1 to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

"After that King Sihamoni will have a general check-up at the central hospital of the state in Beijing," Sihanouk wrote. "After the check-up he will return to Cambodia. My wife and I will continue to stay for some period in Beijing to have general check-ups and medical treatment."

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith declined to comment on the message.

Court Mulls Bail for Opposition Editor

Dam Sith, the edotor of Monesekar Khmer

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Orignal report from Phnom Penh
09 June 2008

Phnom Penh Municipal Court is considering a request from the government that a jailed opposition newspaper editor be released on bail, officials said Monday.

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said Monday the ministry sent an official letter to Phnom Penh Municipal Court Monday morning requesting the courts release on bail Dam Sith, the editor of Moneasekar Khmer, a daily newspaper aligned with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.

Dam Sith, a parliamentary candidate for July's election for Phnom Penh, was arrested Sunday and charged with defamation and disinformation for publishing an article that quoted Sam Rainsy implicating Foreign Minsiter Hor Namhong with the Khmer Rogue regime.

Hor Namhong has denied in the past any involvement with the regime during his time as a prisoner at the Boeung Trabek camp in Phnom Penh, which operated between 1975 and 1979.
Dam Sith is currently being held in the capital's Prey Sar prison.

Lao Mong Hay, a researcher at the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, said the arrest was a violation of press law, and he appealed to the courts to drop the charges against him. Dam Sith had only quoted the words of Sam Rainsy, Lao Mong Hay said.

Phnom Penh Judge Chhay Kong said Monday he had received the ministry letter this morning and was considering a release on bail.

Dam Sith's attorney, Choung Choungy, said Monday he was surprised that the ministry had sent a letter to the court and said his client was clear of any wrongdoing. He had only quoted from Sam Rainsy's speech, the attorney said.

Groups Press Parties on Corruption Law

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 June 2008

Rights groups with more than a million signatures demanding anti-corruption legislation are now pushing competing political parties for July's election on their positions.

The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations Against Corruption will ask each party for a commitment on passing an anti-corruption law that has been stalled in the draft process for years.

"Corruption in Cambodia is serious, and we note that up to now, there has been no reduction of corruption," Sek Borisoth, program officer of Pact Cambodia, told reporters Monday morning.

"At the time of the election period, we take this opportunity to call for the political parties to make their promise to voters on how they will fight against corruption."

Corruption costs Cambodia an estimated $300 million and $500 million per year. Cambodia has enjoyed an economic growth rate of around 10 percent per year, but it still required $600 million from donors each year.

The Coalition said in a statement Monday that even though there is economic growth, corruption ensures only a select group benefit.

The government has promised for more than a decade to draft and pass an anti-corruption law, but it has so far failed. Donors urged the government in 2006 to adopt the law.

The draft law should only apply to the current status of members of government, Sok Samoeun, director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, told reporters Monday.

"If we had a perfect law to review the property, maybe this drafting of the law would be blocked," he said.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Prime Minister Hun Sen had mentioned several times the importance of the law, and this is one of the political platform points of the Cambodian People's Party.

Sin Vannarith, secretary-general of the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party, said his party, if elected, would require government members to declare their assets and would push for the adoption of the anti-corruption law.

Trafficking a Global Threat: US

By Taing Sarada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
09 June 2008

Cambodia may have moved out of US "watch list" status for its efforts to combat human trafficking, but it still must improve its efforts, US officials said.

The US moved Cambodia onto its list of "tier 2" nations last week, saying it had improved its efforts but still fell short of US standards for combating trafficking.

“Globally, human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report. "It deprives people of their human rights and dignity. It increases global health risks. It bankrolls the growth of organized crime and it undermines the rule of law. In recent years we’ve witnessed a hopeful global movement uniting civil society, governments, and international organizations-not just to confront this crime, but to abolish it.”

Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli, who is currently in the US, said Cambodia had shown a clear commitment over the last two years to fight trafficking, though the government does acknowledge it has a "serious problem."

World Bank supports Cambodia's education sector

MENAFN
09/06/2008

(MENAFN) The World Bank (WB) has announced a grant of $57.4 million for Cambodia to help the country's Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports carry out an education project during 2008-2010, Vietnam News reported.

The WB-financed (Sector Support Scale Up Action Program) comprises of three components to assist Cambodia expand early childhood education, improve primary education access and quality, and promote institutional development and capacity building.

It is expected that over 3 years, about 650 existing incomplete schools will be completed and about 25 new buildings for pre-schools, 25 new buildings for primary schools and 60 new district office of education (DOE) facilities will be built.

Australian company cements a place in Cambodia's island resort boom

The Earth Times
Mon, 09 Jun 2008
Author : DPA

Phnom Penh - Australia's Brocon Group Ltd cemented its place in the island development boom off Cambodia's coast, earning formal government approval for its planned 35-million dollar luxury resort, CEO Rory Hunter said Monday. "From July 2007 we had an in-principle agreement, but we have now received official approval on a 99-year non-renewable lease from Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Council for Development of Cambodia so we can go full steam ahead," Hunter said by telephone.

He said the company hopes to break ground this year, although it may be early next year, and completion is scheduled for 2010.

The development on the twin Song Saa, or Sweetheart Islands, 29 kilometres off the south-west coast of Cambodia, is being billed as a place for "well-heeled adventure travelers" and will feature a spa, restaurant, pool and luxury accommodation.

"We have interests in a few other areas, but this is our labour of love at the moment," Hunter said. Brocon also renovates French colonial era apartments in the capital, 240 kilometres away, for sale and rent.

Established in 2005, Brocon is a small company with just nine full-time staff in its Phnom Penh office but has been a success story in Cambodia's rapidly expanding real estate market.

Hunter said the coastal islands off Sihanoukville show tremendous tourism potential, claiming the atmosphere is reminiscent of Thailand's now world famous beach resorts 30 years ago.

Private Equity Funds Turn Toward Cambodia

June 9, 2008
Posted by Deal Journal

As Vietnam’s overheated economy teeters on the brink of crisis, its neighbor Cambodia is being labeled the next frontier market for private equity.

That should be good news for a country that’s normally only in the headlines for its bloody past, but it also raises an important question: Can foreign investment flourish in a state notorious for corruption, weak laws and business secrecy?

While finding suitable targets in Cambodia may be difficult enough, private equity buyers are also certain to face challenges when they try to exit years from now. “This really is a frontier market,” said Chris Leahy, a Singapore-based managing director at risk consultant Kroll Inc.

In a sure sign Cambodia has arrived on the global investment map, finance luminaries Marc Faber and Jim Rogers have poured praise on the country’s investment prospects. “Cambodia offers an enormous potential for future capital gains,” Mr. Faber wrote in a recent newsletter for acolyte investors. Messrs. Faber and Rogers are advising some of the private equity firms that will pour upwards of $500 million into Cambodia from already completed and continuing fund raising.

Last month, 22 mainly U.S. fund managers met in Siem Reap, Cambodia’s base for temple tourism, to assess the opportunities.

They aren’t the first. Malaysian interests have been active in the country for years and South Koreans are already investing in banking and property, including a $2 billion satellite city on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh.

The expatriate business community in Cambodia has long railed against negative perceptions of the country. One refrain: ‘Cambodia is more than a pile of skulls’ - a reference to Phnom Penh’s gut-wrenching “killing fields” museum. Some 1.7 million people, a fifth of the population, were killed during the communist Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror from 1975 to 1979. Special attention was paid to exterminating the educated. Three decades later, the consequences continue to ripple through the country; a lack of skilled people hampers efforts to lift millions out of grinding poverty.

Another legacy of that era, corruption, is well documented. Berlin-based Transparency International ranked Cambodia the 14th most corrupt out of 179 nations in its 2007 study.

It is also difficult to enforce legal rights and business contracts. “There are issues in Indonesia or Philippines enforcing rights but it’s much harder in Cambodia,” said Kroll’s Mr. Leahy. “A creditor needs more than 400 days to get a claim enforced, and that’s assuming the court decides to side with a foreign creditor’s claim,” he said, citing a World Bank report.

Given the perception that large-scale business activities require an unsavory accommodation with powerful figures in the government, staying small may be the key to success for private equity investors.

“We want the small- and medium-sized investments below the political radar screen,” said Douglas Clayton, a managing partner of Leopard Asia, which is raising $100 million for its Cambodia fund. Leopard’s fund opened for subscription in April and has so far raised $11 million. It’s targeting investments between $5 million and $15 million, with a preference for minority stakes and a willingness to start businesses from scratch.

Mr. Douglas said the group sees opportunities in food processing, the garments industry, agribusiness and property. Its first deal is a minority stake in a 250-unit condominium in Siem Reap. The projected return for the fund’s $2.5 million investment in the condo is 60%, well above its target for returns of 25%.

But finding enough suitable opportunities to absorb several hundred million dollars of private equity capital is another issue facing investors. The challenge is finding companies with accounting and management standards that approach international norms, said Peter Brimble, managing director of the Cambodia Emerald Fund, which is aiming to raise $100 million after splitting from Leopard late last year.

The money can be absorbed if the economy continues to grow strongly and the government continues to improve transparency and legal standards, Mr. Brimble said. “As we dig deeper into this country and connect with the entrepreneurial class we are finding a lot of opportunities,” he said.

“Five hundred million dollars is really just a few golf courses and hotels. A lot more could be absorbed,” said Douglas Broderick, the U.N. Development Program’s resident representative in Cambodia.

–Stephen Wright in Bangkok

THAI MUST BE BACK OFF!!

THE PREAH VIHEAR TEMPLE IS BUILDED BY KHMER PEOPLE AND BELONG TO KHMER PEOPLE. PREAH VIHEAR IS NOTHING TO DO WITH THAI AT ALL SO THAI MUST BE SHAME AND SHOULD BE BACK OFF

Vietnam detains, releases 5 Thai fishing boats

The Bangkok Post
09-06-2008

Hanoi (dpa) - Vietnamese authorities have released five Thai fishing boats they had detained late last week for violating the country's territorial waters, an official said Monday.

Coast Guard vessels from Kien Giang province in southern Vietnam escorted the five boats with 58 fishermen aboard, including 24 Thai nationals and 34 Cambodian nationals, to international waters and released them there on Saturday, according to Tran Xuan Nghiem, director of the Foreign Affairs Department of Kien Giang province.

"Vietnam and Thailand have friendly relations, so we just released the boats without punishing them," Nghiem said.

The boats were detained last Thursday while fishing in an area about 32 kilometres from Hon Khoai Island off Vietnam's southernmost province of Ca Mau, according to the official.

"They admitted to violating Vietnamese waters and promised not to do it again," Nghiem said.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal's Rebirth

By JOHN A. HALL
FROM TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
June 9, 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Eight months ago the United Nations-sponsored Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh didn't look like it was worth funding. The United Nations Development Program, which distributes donor funds to the Cambodian side of the tribunal, had tried and failed to suppress an embarrassing audit, first revealed on these pages. The Open Society Justice Initiative's Phnom Penh office brought to light various irregularities at the tribunal, including damning allegations that Cambodian tribunal staff and judges were required to kickback part of their salaries to keep their jobs.

Now the cash is running out. This week, the tribunal is expected to ask donor nations for around $100 million to fund its activities for the next three years. Given the advanced age and poor health of the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, the stakes are high. But the tribunal's progress over the past few months has been marked. It is now is worth funding.

Last year's audit noted grievous mismanagement, fiscal irregularities and grossly deficient staffing at the tribunal. In response to those complaints, hiring procedures have been improved and made more transparent. International managers now participate in evaluating Khmer staff; Cambodian appointees must meet the advertised minimum qualifications required for their positions, and the unqualified have been eased out. True, some reforms are more dubious, like the requirement that Cambodian staff sign a pledge stating their opposition to corruption at the tribunal. And the comical suggestion box set up for whistleblowers to report dereliction of duty remains unused. But the trend is generally in the right direction.

New senior managers show promise. Take Knut Rosandhaug, who last week took over as coordinator of U.N. assistance to the Khmer Rouge trials and deputy director of the tribunal administration. The pragmatic Norwegian lawyer boasts 20 years of experience in policy making, negotiation, program management, human rights and conflict negotiation. As a director at the U.N. mission in Kosovo, he won a reputation for knocking heads and getting results. He promises the same in Phnom Penh, where five senior Khmer Rouge leaders are – some 30 years after their alleged crimes – finally in the dock.

The tribunal's newly appointed "Special Expert," ex-Yugoslavia tribunal prosecutor David Tolbert, has also won plaudits – especially when it comes to the tribunal's much-maligned budget process. Having exhausted its woefully inadequate initial budget of $56 million, the tribunal submitted a new budget in January asking for an additional $114 million. Donor nations, reluctant to keep funding such a corrupted enterprise, tied their pledges to clear proof that their checks would not be squandered or stolen.

Mr. Tolbert has carved out better lines of communication between donors and the tribunal, after years of distrust and suspicion between them. He has also encouraged tribunal staff to adopt plans for increased fiscal and managerial transparency in order to keep cash pipelines flowing. The new budget, revised since January, will be formally proposed this week.

There remain good reasons to be skeptical of both the Cambodian government and the U.N. No investigation has ever been undertaken, for example, to address the kickback allegations. The Cambodians have insisted auditors found no such evidence. In fact the auditors did not investigate that issue, as it fell outside their mandate. Privately, international observers acknowledge that the Cambodian government will simply refuse to undertake such an investigation. One solution may be to ignore past allegations of corruption, while making clear that any future wrongdoing will not be tolerated. That's not a perfect solution, but it would allow the tribunal to move ahead and perform its work.

The greatest fear, of course, is "slippage"; the idea that the Cambodian side of the tribunal is on its best behavior because the donors are so focused on the issues of corruption and mismanagement, and will return to business as usual as soon as the magnifying glass is removed. The trick, then, will be to ensure that the good behavior is not fleeting, requiring airtight checks and balances to fend off the bad habits of old.

Despite these doubts, there is a growing sense in Phnom Penh that an important corner has been turned and that we may be witnessing the rebirth of a tribunal that deserves support.

Mr. Hall is an associate professor of law and director of the Center for Global Trade and Development at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California.

Thai efforts to combat human trafficking recognised

Radio Australia

Efforts in Thailand and Cambodia to combat human trafficking has been recognised in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report released this week.

Cambodia has even moved from a watch list to a Tier 2 alongside Thailand.

Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: David Feingold, International Coordinator for HIV/AIDS and Trafficking, Office of the Regional Advisor for Culture, UNESCO Bangkok; Andrew Hunter, Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers

HILL: Mark Lagon, the man in charge of the US State Department's Anti-trafficking unit, describes human trafficking as widespread, modern day slavery and says about 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. This year, Ambassador Lagon singled out the Thai shrimp processing industry for harsh criticism. Ambassador Lagon tells one Burmese woman's story, recruited to work in Thailand's shrimp industry.

LAGON: Desperate to leave her country, Aye Aye Wynn described her horror to me at finding herself locked in a factory compound in the middle of a jungle, prevented from leaving or calling family by phone, or even eating decently. She and her Burmese brethren weren't even paid.

HILL: He goes on to tell of how Aye Aye Wynn was beaten and chained up. David Feingold is international director for UNESCO's AIDS and Trafficking Project in Bangkok. He says most people who become victims of trafficking into Thailand are from Burma, coming across Thailand highly porous border. He says the government in Bangkok has made two major recent steps forward, however, to combat human trafficking. A nationality law now recognises a large number of formerly stateless people as Thai citizens, providing control and protection. The other new legislation is a recognition that men, like women and children, can also be victims of trafficking and will no longer be treated as illegal immigrants and charged. David Feingold says this corrects a major error in previous anti-trafficking law in Thailand.

FEINGOLD: It's particularly an important change when addressing issues of labour trafficking which have received far more attention in the US report this year then they had in previous years. Previously the nearly sole focus of the report was sexual trafficking which in fact is not the majority of trafficking in the world.

HILL: In neighbouring Cambodia, a national anti-trafficking task force was formed last year. New legislation governing the taskforce coordinates agencies, oversees a wide prevention program and gives police and law enforcement agencies greater powers. The US State Department has recognised the success, moving Cambodia off a watch list to Tier 2 on its global trafficking report. What the US State Department report fails to mention, however, is those who claim they have become victims of the new initiatives. The legislation has changed the legal definition of what is prostitution in Cambodia and now describes all sex work as trafficking or sexual exploitation. An industry which was once described as "a fixture of urban life in Cambodia" is now fighting forced detention, the mass closure of brothels and draconian police intervention such as using the possession of condoms as evidence of sex work. Phuong, a Phnom Penh sex worker, was interviewed for a video report produced by the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers. APNSW says she is just one of a number of victims of the new police powers.

VO: I got arrested in the park in front of the railway station. They took my watch and money. They took me to the station and they didn't beat me but they gang raped me, one after the other."

HILL: Andrew Hunter is from APNSW. He says the law is a violation of sex workers human rights, where even peer educators and union organisers can be arrested for human trafficking offences.

HUNTER: What's happened is there's been a mass closure of brothels across Cambodia which has led to huge numbers of sex workers being put out of work and large numbers of sex workers being sent to government and NGO rehabilitation centres against their choice. And large numbers of HIV positive sex workers are being sent to those centres where there's no medical care. In a lot of the centres there's massive human rights abuses - the guards are raping, and gang raping the women on arrival and in some cases regularly and daily.

HILL: Andrew Hunter says it is the US State Department's Anti-Trafficking report that lead to the persecution of sex workers in Cambodia.

HUNTER: Three years ago the draft legislation was tabled in Parliament, and the Women's Network for Unity here, the sex workers union, lead a campaign and met with the Prime Minister and got the legislation stopped. That lead to Cambodia being put on the US government watchlist in their Trafficking in Persons Report and since then there's been huge pressure from the US government under the threat of sanctions to actually pass this law.

Tribunal views from Khmer Rouge town

Moung Seng joined the Khmer Rouge because he had nowhere else to go

Ven Dara says local people want the five former leaders to be cleared

Sak Sokhum says he does not know why so much killing took place

By Philippa Fogarty
BBC News, Pailin, Cambodia
Monday, 9 June 2008

Sak Sokhum does not know who to blame for the estimated 1.7 million people who died under the Khmer Rouge.

He was only 15 when he joined the Maoist movement in 1974.

Everyone had to, he says. They were going to save Cambodia from capitalists and the mounting threat from the Vietnamese.

First he was a driver. Later, when the Khmer Rouge had emptied cities and sent millions of people to work in the fields, he became a bodyguard for a mid-ranking commander.

When the regime fell in 1979, he and many thousands of fighters fled northwest to continue the battle.

For years he was a signals operator, relaying information between base commanders and guerrillas in the jungle along the Thai border.

Then he worked in a medical corps. In 1995 his leg was blown off by a landmine laid by another Khmer Rouge unit.

When the fighting finally ended in the mid-1990s, Sak Sokhum settled down with his family to work as a welder.

He has regrets about the past, but says it was a war and he had to follow orders. He was happy when fighting ended, he says, because he always expected to die.

Now a UN-backed genocide court is preparing to try five of the most senior Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity.

"The trials are good for Cambodia, because we are all victims of the Khmer Rouge," he says. "It is a good example for the children - it shows that if you do wrong, you must face trial."

But he does not know who should take responsibility for the 20% of the population who died - from starvation, disease, execution and torture - under the Khmer Rouge.

Former head of state Khieu Samphan was a good guy, he says, as was Nuon Chea, deputy to the now deceased Pol Pot.

"At that time, there was killing everywhere. It is hard to say who specifically killed who and where," he says.

Potential witnesses

Sak Sokhum is among thousands of former fighters living in Pailin, a dusty, ramshackle town on Cambodia's border with Thailand.

The Khmer Rouge controlled Pailin for decades, using its gem fields and hardwood forests as a key source of funding.

After the fighting ended, top leaders lived freely in the town until their arrest by the tribunal last year.

Former fighters dominate the local administration. Governor Y Chhean was an ally of Pol Pot. His deputy is the son of former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary.

As victims of Khmer Rouge rule line up to testify before the Phnom Penh-based genocide court, tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath says getting the people of Pailin involved in the process is vital to its success.

They can be witnesses, he says, and whether it is for the prosecution or the defence is up to them. "In order to have a fair and credible trial, we need cooperation from all sides."

Earlier this year, about 200 local residents met visiting tribunal officials. Many were apprehensive, the spokesman said.

"They thought that one day they could become targets of the tribunal. So we explained to them that this trial is not about everyone - only the senior and most responsible people."

"We told them that their cooperation was very important."

'Look elsewhere'

One local resident with strong views on the tribunal is Ven Dara, a politician who lives near the main market.

A picture of her uncle hangs on the wall. It is Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge regional commander whose extreme brutality earned him the nickname "The Butcher".

She wants the tribunal to determine responsibility for what happened - but she wants it to look overseas, at the politics driving events in the region at the time.

"If the five leaders are held responsible, it is not fair. We need to look at the international factors - the role of the US, China, Russia, the French, the Vietnamese," she says.

"The Khmer Rouge thought that they were saving the people, but instead they are accused of being murderers and traitors. This is a regret."

She wants the court to move forward so that the five leaders can be cleared and the "real murderers" uncovered.

She is reluctant to acknowledge wrongdoing by the Khmer Rouge. Asked about killings under the regime, she talks in vague terms of direct and indirect responsibility - but does not answer the question.

'Move forwards'

Other residents, though, are more reflective.

O Lan is the deputy director of tourism. He fought for the Khmer Rouge, but his father and sister died under its rule.

"People who joined the Khmer Rouge when they were young, they have regrets," he says. "They don't know how it turned out like it did."

He thinks the tribunal will be good for victims' families, to help them find out the facts. As for blame, that is a matter for the government.

"Rather than looking backwards, we should keep moving forwards and develop the country," he says.

Moung Seng, a corn farmer, also thinks the past should remain the past.

He was orphaned by the regime, but then found shelter at a Khmer Rouge-run camp in the early 1980s and fought for the movement until the war ended.

He thinks the five leaders should be punished, because "they are responsible for killing their own people".

But five is enough, he says.

And he does not talk about the past with his children.

"We told them that there was not enough food and that people had to work hard," he said. "But no more."

Cambodian economic growth to drop to 7% in 2008

www.chinaview.cn

2008-06-09

PHNOM PENH, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian economic performance remains robust though the pace of growth is expected to ease to around seven percent in 2008, down from over 10 percent last year, local media reported Monday.

According to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement released recently, the drop in economic growth to around seven percent this year mirrors slowing growth in the garment sector, the Mekong Times newspaper quoted the IMF as saying.

Garment exports are under pressure because of a decrease in international demand and intensified regional competition, the IMF said.

Cambodia's garment industry is a major contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP) with 301 factories and over 340,000 workers exporting 2.9 billion U.S. dollars worth of garments last year.

"Tourism continues to expand at a healthy pace," the IMF stated, adding that with the Tourism Ministry reporting around two million tourists visiting Cambodia last year generating a total revenue of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Cambodia's tourism industry accounts for 15 percent of GDP and employs tens of thousands, indirectly benefiting many more.

Cambodia, as a net rice exporter, should benefit from higher rice prices, the IMF said, but it warned higher food prices will adversely affect the most vulnerable, particularly the urban poor and the landless.

An IMF staff mission led by Luis Valdivieso, visited Cambodia from May 28 to June 5, to hold discussions with senior officials of the Cambodian government on macroeconomic developments and policies.

Agriculture hampered by lack of funds in Cambodia

www.chinaview.cn

2008-06-09

PHNOM PENH, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Rural Development Ministry of Cambodia has announced that many Cambodian farmers are struggling with a lack of capital for land, fertilizer and insecticide, local media reported Monday.

A lack of investment in the agricultural sector and a land shortage is apparently compounding the situation, Sao Chivoan, the ministry's undersecretary of state, was quoted as saying by the Mekong Times newspaper.

Speaking at a round-table meeting organized by the Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ) on the development of Cambodia, Sao Chivoan said that agricultural development could be a sustainable way to develop the Kingdom.

"However, our country is still working on it ... so the 85 percent of Cambodia's population that live in rural areas continue to face challenges," he added.

Yang Saing Koma, executive director of the Center for Studies and Development of Cambodian Agriculture (CEDAC), said better irrigation and education in modern techniques would boost agricultural output.

He warned that sale of farming land could affect productivity.

Sao Chivoan also highlighted the uneven development currently taking place.

Most of development gathers around the Tonle Sap Lake where many people are living, he said, so development projects are not fully carried into more rural areas, especially border regions.

There are many barriers, including a lack of road infrastructure, budget and especially the NGOs' funds for development projects that are in the hands of donors, he added.

However, the government's rural development policies are beginning to bear fruit, with roads and schools becoming more common in remote areas, he said.

Editor: Du Guodong

Wat a controversy!

The Bangkok Post
09-06-2008

By Post Reporters
The Democrat party has urged the government not to rush to support Cambodia's attempt to register Preah Vihear temple as a new World Heritage Site.

Democrat deputy leader Alongkorn Ponlaboot said on Sunday that the government should think carefully before backing the Cambodian effort.

He was speaking after Phnom Penh redrew the boundaries of the ancient temple site to convince the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) that it now deserved to be put on the World Heritage list. The old map, which was opposed by Thailand, included overlapping areas.

Mr Alongkorn said that by supporting Cambodia on the issue, Thailand would automatically lose its right to reclaim sovereignty over Preah Vihear in the future.

On June 15, 1962, the International Court of Justice ruled the ancient temple belonged to Cambodia. Mr Alongkorn said the ruling was unfair and not based on law.

The Treaty of Versailles stipulated later that the demarcation of the disputed areas was questionable, and that was why Thailand wrote to the United Nations secretary-general on July 3, 1962, saying it reserves the right to reclaim the ancient temple in the future, he said.

"The present government has no right to either sell or reclaim Thai sovereignty in this case.

Next week, I hope, the National Security Council (NSC) and cabinet will review the issue.

Otherwise, it would be a shame and tantamount to betraying the nation and selling Thai sovereignty to another country," Mr Alongkorn said.

He suspects vested interests are behind the move to support Cambodia on the listing.

Mr Alongkorn suggested the government oppose the listing and ask Unesco's World Heritage Committee to drop the issue from the agenda of its July 2-10 meeting in Quebec.

The new Cambodian map will be discussed at the NSC's weekly meeting today. If the NSC approves the map, cabinet is likely to endorse the map tomorrow.

Cambodian perplexed by enigmatic letter from King Sihamoni's father

The Earth Times
Sun, 08 Jun 2008
Author : DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's royal palace officials on Sunday strongly denied an enigmatic letter distributed to the press by former king Norodom Sihanouk indicated that his son, King Norodom Sihamoni, might abdicate. But the palace did not say what the letter actually meant, while Sihanouk himself remained silent. The letter and its possible interpretations has caused a stir in some quarters with a national election looming in July.

In copies of the letter, handwritten in French and distributed Friday, Sihanouk speaks of a looming crisis for the Cambodian monarchy "in the near or far future", using the French words "chances" and "deposee."

He also speaks of a "simple life" abroad in Paris.

The monarchy is a pillar of the Cambodian constitution, and the king, seen as a demi-god by many ordinary people, is widely recognized as a symbol of stability.

Sihamoni took the throne in 2004 after his octogenarian father abdicated, citing old age and ill health.

Sihanouk may be the only monarch in the world to abdicate twice - once in favour of his own father so he could take a political role in the 1950's, and again, after many hints and false alarms, four years ago.

Sihamoni, 55, is popular with the public and politicians alike for his quiet manner and stately bearing. Unlike his father, he rarely makes public speeches or statements.

Random Cambodian Facts

TravelPod
Sunday, Jun 08, 2008

Here are a couple random facts from Cambodia that you might be surprised to learn:

1) Cambodians do not know their birthday. Due to the turmoil and poverty caused by the Cambodian revolution, individual birthday celebrations do not exist in Cambodia. As a result, I have not met a single Cambodian that knows what day or even what month they were born. Instead, to keep track of their age, Cambodians coincide their birthday with the Asian New Year which occurs every April and designates the start of rainy season. So, on Asian New Year, everyone turns one year older and celebrates together!

2) Cambodia uses American dollars as their currency. American dollars are accepted around the world, but this is the first place I have been where dollars are the main currency. ATMs dispense American dollars, prices are quoted in American dollars and it is definitely the preferred currency. Cambodia does have its own currency, the Rhiel, but this is only used to make change (in place of American coins); for example if something costs less than a dollar change is given in Rhiel. Right now it is 4,000 Rhiel to one USD, so 50 cents is 2,000 Rhiel. I doubt this practice will continue if the dollar continues to fall. Maybe euros are the new dollar...

Cambodia opposition candidate faces defamation charge

Radio Australia

A Cambodian newspaper publisher who is an opposition candidate in next month's elections has been charged with defaming Cambodia's foreign minister.

Dam Sith is a candidate for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party.

He's been charged with defaming Hor Namhong in an article about the Khmer Rouge.

Human rights activists have accused the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen of using the courts to intimidate the opposition ahead of the general election.

Hun Sen is widely expected to win the parliamentary election, possibly with a clear majority of seats.

From peas and salt to nothing for breakfast

Cambodian children eat rice in their classroom during a school breakfast, supported by the World Food Programme.

gulfnews.com
AP
June 08, 2008

Students at a rural elementary school in Cambodia enjoyed their last free breakfasts in class after the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP ) stopped supplying rice and other food because of soaring global prices.

Besides directly providing nutrition for children, the WFP breakfasts have provided an incentive for parents to send their children to school rather than sending them to work in the fields or stay home to look after younger siblings.

WFP said last week that the programme will be resumed later, probably around October, as the agency provides $1.2 billion (Dh4.4 million) in new assistance to help tens of millions of people in 62 nations hardest hit by the food crisis.

Meanwhile, though, Cambodia educators must convince parents to keep their children in the classroom.

The principal of Choumpou Proek school, about 70km west of the capital Phnom Penh, said he has been meeting with village leaders and families to encourage children to keep going to school, even without the benefit of extra nourishment.

The free breakfast programme in Cambodia began in 2000 and has recently been benefiting about 450,000 rural students. The World Food Program feeds almost 89 million people worldwide, including 58.8 million children.

No rice

Choumpou Proek principal Nheng Vorn - who did not know the programme is supposed to be restarted - said his 612 students enjoyed a final free breakfast of steamed yellow split peas with salt - but no rice.

The school's rice supply ran out May 27, so staff cooked the last 29kg of peas for the students, Nheng Vorn said by telephone from the school in a village in Kampong Speu province. The WFP also provided soybeans and cooking oil.

Even though the school is in a rice-growing area, the farms cannot produce enough of the staple to feed the entire community. WFP selected schools in poorest communities for the breakfast programme.

The UN's food agency said three months ago that breakfast stocks at the 1,344 rural schools under its programme would run out before mid-June, and stopped sending rice supplies in March.

The cutoff began after five local suppliers defaulted on contracts to provide rice because they could get a higher price elsewhere, programme officials said.

The price of rice tripled in the first four months of the year as the world food crisis deepened.

Soaring fuel prices have driven up the costs of fertilisers, farm vehicle use and transporting food to markets. Speculation and increased consumption of meat and dairy goods in China, India and other booming developing nations are also considered major factors in the food price hikes.

Global crisis

About 10km from Nheng Vorn's school, Sangkum Seksa school principal Tan Sak said his students have been eating breakfasts of steamed peas with salt since their WFP rice ran out two weeks ago.

The school's kitchen will shut down next week when the peas run out, he said.

Similar situations were occurring around the country and all over the developing world.

In Burundi, Kenya and Zambia, hundreds of thousands of people face cuts in food rations after June. In Iraq, 500,000 recipients will likely lose food aid. In Yemen, it's 320,000 households, including children and the sick.

Most, if not all, will now benefit from WFP's newly announced commitment to renew aid.

Coco Ushiyama, WFP's acting director for Cambodia, said in an interview last month that it was "really a tough decision" to end school food aid in favour of continuing programmes benefiting orphans of HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, who are in "more desperate need" of food aid.

US provides nearly $1 million for Bakheng temple restoration

Photo courtesy of WMF/Glenn BoornazianThousands of tourists descend on Phnom Bakheng each afternoon toenjoy the sunset over nearby Angkor Wat temple.

Courtesy of Phnom Penh Post

Written by Peter Olszewski
Sunday, 08 June 2008

The United States will provide almost a million dollars for continued preservation and conservation work on the Phnom Bakheng temple at the Angkor Archaeological Zone in Siem Reap, the US embassy said in a statement.

The $978,705, provided through the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation to the World Monuments Fund, will allow work to be done on the 9th century Hindu temple's most visible, but heavily-damaged portion.

“The historic city of Angkor is one of the world’s cultural and architectural wonders. Conserving its monuments, which are a crucial part of Cambodian history, is one way to promote peace and prosperity in the country," said US Embassy Charge d'Affaires Piper Campbell.

"This grant is therefore a significant diplomatic gesture, and it is important to note that it was made possible by strong Congressional interest," she added, speaking in Siem Reap on June 4.

Phase One of World Monuments Fund’s work at the temple was conducted between 2004 and 2007 with a separate $550,000 grant from the US State Department.

This work included archaeological research, conservation assessments, the creation of a plan for the management of tourism at the site and emergency conservation measures.

Phase Two will address some of the most urgent challenges at Phnom Bakheng –- protecting the temple structure from further deterioration through stabilization, waterproofing, repairs and partial reconstruction.

Located on a hilltop, Bakheng is a popular tourist spot to see sunset views of the nearby Angkor Wat temple, the most famous of the monuments in the Angkor complex.

But the large numbers of visitors who scramble each day up Bakheng's worn stairways makes it one of the most threatened temples in the park.

Cambodian perplexed by enigmatic letter from King Sihamoni's father

The Earth Times
Sun, 08 Jun 2008
Author : DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's royal palace officials on Sunday strongly denied an enigmatic letter distributed to the press by former king Norodom Sihanouk indicated that his son, King Norodom Sihamoni, might abdicate. But the palace did not say what the letter actually meant, while Sihanouk himself remained silent. The letter and its possible interpretations has caused a stir in some quarters with a national election looming in July.

In copies of the letter, handwritten in French and distributed Friday, Sihanouk speaks of a looming crisis for the Cambodian monarchy "in the near or far future", using the French words "chances" and "deposee."

He also speaks of a "simple life" abroad in Paris.

The monarchy is a pillar of the Cambodian constitution, and the king, seen as a demi-god by many ordinary people, is widely recognized as a symbol of stability.

Sihamoni took the throne in 2004 after his octogenarian father abdicated, citing old age and ill health.

Sihanouk may be the only monarch in the world to abdicate twice - once in favour of his own father so he could take a political role in the 1950's, and again, after many hints and false alarms, four years ago.

Sihamoni, 55, is popular with the public and politicians alike for his quiet manner and stately bearing. Unlike his father, he rarely makes public speeches or statements.

U.S. pays to rebuild temple in Cambodia

Calgary Herald
Sunday, June 08, 2008

restoration - A sacred temple in the historic Cambodian city of Angkor has received a $978,700 US grant to undergo the second phase of a restoration project.

The World Monuments Fund received the grant from the U.S. State Department and will use the money to rebuild and stabilize the severely damaged east elevation at Phnom Bakheng, the oldest temple in the city, fund spokeswoman Holly Evarts said in a telephone interview.

The temple, built by Khmer King Yasyovarman I in 907 AD, represents Mount Mehru, the mythical home of Hindu gods. Perched on the highest point of the Angkor alluvial plain, its stunning sunsets attract hundreds of tourists daily.

Benz family returns home

By Buzz Ball, Benz Family

By Buzz Ball
Carthage Press
Sun Jun 08, 2008

CARTHAGE, Mo. -
For the first time in more than three years, the Mark Benz family has returned to Carthage from its High Tower Ministries work in Cambodia.

But they have returned with a lot more than what they had when they left in 2004.

• Established is the Cambodian Orphan Aid;

• The Bykota House, a Christian Children’s Home, is in full operation with 16 kids;

• Shepherd’s Crook is an “at Risk” ministry vehicle through which a large variety of needs have been met for individuals and families who otherwise would be at great risk;

• The School of the Nation is a private Christian school to the reach of High Tower Ministry to specifically meet the educational needs of the children of Bykota House and dependants of High Tower Ministries staff.

• And most significantly, the Benz family has grown from seven when they left – two are married and still living in the states – to 10.

“We have five homemade kids and five adopted,” said Rhonda Benz. “We adopted two (Cambodian children) while we were still in the states, and we adopted three more since we have been there.”

Still residing and married in the States are Rebekah, 24, and Steven, 22. They both live in Carthage.

Benz children living in Cambodia are Kathleen, 19, Danielle, 18, and Isaac, 17. Adopted children who also went with Mark and Rhonda are Seth, 9 and Chantal, 7. The three children whom the Benzes adopted while in Cambodia are Christopher, 7, Mary, 6, and Madeline, almost two.

For Kathleen, Danielle and Isaac, moving to Cambodia to live for three years produced some mixed feelings.

“I really didn’t want to go,” confessed Isaac. “But now, I really enjoy it. I feel much differently now.”

Danielle had the same feelings, but really not about the present but about the future.“I was really upset, wondering where my future was going to go,” she said. “I thought that We would be living in a jungle and in tree houses. But once moving there and I found out differently, I adopted to it.”

But Kathleen was looking forward to the challenge.

“I was looking forward to moving there,” she said. “I have always had a heart for missions and I felt really at home there. Sure it was hard to move away from home, but I really love it in Cambodia.”

The Benz children are not just a part of the family, but they are part of the missionary team.
Kathleen works in the office, teaches and helps train the cooks.

Danielle is more fluent in Khmer (the Cambodian language) than the other members of the family.

‘Before we started the school, I taught English for a year or a year and a half,” said Danielle. “After that, I would help around and would translate. I’m also the worship leader at church on Tuesdays and you have to be fluent in the language to do that.”Isaac teaches art, guitar and drums.

“He brings a lot of life into the party,” said Rhonda. “But he also is our handy man. He is more skilled than a native adult plumber is. He has been a tremendous asset.”

Often times, a different environment and culture tests a family so much that it tends to grow apart. The opposite is the case for the Benz family.

“I think we have grown closer as a family, but it has been a struggle,” said Mark. “This different lifestyle has brought out different things in our personalities that we have had to deal with. We have had to rely upon each other to basically survive. We’ve had challenges, but those challenges have taught us that we need to rely upon each other, but more importantly, the Lord.”

Rhonda said she wondered if “we had made a big mistake right after we moved there. Learning the language was a big adjustment and living on the Equator was different and being in the minority. But we are Christians in a Buddhist country. That is very difficult. But we have survived.”

Being back for the first time in more than three years brings joy to Rhonda.

“We are very happy to be back in Carthage,” said Rhonda. “It is nice for our kids to see clean streets. They are all signed up for the Summer Reading Program at the library and we’ve already been to George Washington Carver and will go several other places while we are here.”
High Tower Ministries is based upon three foundational beliefs:

• We are Christ-Centered;

• We care for those most vulnerable;

• We seek to make disciples.

High Tower Ministry is sported by friends and family.

“We have a home team and that team faithfully sends us support each month,” said Rhonda. “Our home church is the Bykota Church, but we are not support by any actual church.”

The Benzes hope to take back some laptop computers for use in the school.

“We are not asking for new computers but just some used laptops,” said Mark. “We can’t take the towers because of the weight restrictions on the airplane.”

Those who want to be a part of the “home team” may contact High Tower Ministries, P.O. Box 535, Carthage, Mo., 64836, or visit www.hightowerministries.net.

Sacravatoons : " The Jap-Observators "

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

Sacravatoons : " Sacrava word "

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

Young Cambodians in fear of sexual slavery

8 June 2008
Nicola Kenkenezov

Every day, girls as young as 18 months are being sold into the sex trade in Cambodia.

The shocking news has touched Noosa hairdresser Leanne Naylor and artist Lyne Redfern so deeply they are focusing all their energy, and large portions of their personal money, into the She Rescue Home to help stop the suffering.

The pair are asking residents to support the cause by attending a fundraising garage sale tomorrow.

The She Rescue Home is a Citipointe Church Brisbane initiative started by senior pastor Leigh Ramsey.

Leigh and husband Mark founded Noosa Christian Outreach Centre in 1987, then moved to the US to pioneer the Christian Outreach Centre movement, before returning to Brisbane in 2000.

Two years ago, Leigh visited Cambodia and saw how young girls were trafficked into prostitution.

“Girls as young as five-years-old are working in brothels, servicing as many as 30 men a day,” she said.

“On my last night in Phnom Penh, my final meal was spent with a 12-year-old girl telling me:

‘My friend. She is 10. Two men tonight. Mother, father sell. You come, you help. Please?’
“For this girl, a rescue home may be her only hope.”

Lyne said the She Home project aimed to help children who were victims of a culture that encouraged women to have extra babies to sell off just to make enough money for their families to survive.

To date, four homes have been established, each caring for about eight girls. At the shelters they receive education, counselling, health care and training for a long-term job.

With running costs for each shelter about $4000 a month, Lyne said it was “not okay for us to ignore this worthwhile charity”.

She encouraged people to give generously to collection tins at businesses around town and attend a garage sale tomorrow at 17 Wyandra Street, Noosa Heads, from 7am-12 noon. A raffle will be held outside The Warehouse at Noosaville next Saturday, a Art in Park expo at the Noosa gallery on July 13, and a high tea is planned for July 26.

make a donation or assist with the fundraising and raffle, call Lyne Redfern on 0405 434 655 or email: lovely_ lyne@hotkey.net.au. For more information, visit: www.sherescuehome.org

Cambodian theatre group stages Ramayana in Bhopal

WORLD CELEBRATES RAMLILA: Playing music on wooden instruments is Cambodian way of paying homage to the gods.

Thaindian News
June 8th, 2008

Bhopal, June 8 (ANI): A Cambodian theatre group enacted ‘Ramayana’, a mythological drama depicting the life of Lord Rama, at International Ramlila fair in Bhopal organised by the State Government.

The nine-day long International Ramlila fair was held at the ancient Ujjain temple in Bhopal for the first time. The fair began on June 6 and will conclude on June 14.

People from different religions, different cultures, countries are staging Ramlila but in a manner that is prevalent in their culture. There are similarities but there are certain differences as well,” said Pawan Shrivastava, Organiser.

Cambodian theatre group named ‘Classical troupe of Kingdom Group’ enacted the Cambodian version of the epic Ramayana known as ‘Reamker.’

In Reamker, Lord Rama is known as ‘Preah Ream’ and Ravana is known as ‘Krong Reap.’ Sita is called ‘Neang Seda’ and Lakshman brother of Ram is called ‘Preah Leak.’ The name of Hanuman is the same but with a slightly different pronunciation.

Cambodian group artists enacted the entire epic in a ballet; there were no dialogues in the play. Mostly women performed all the roles in the epic. A woman played the role of Lord Rama.

“In our country, Ramayana is very popular, even the children know the main characters like Rama, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman,” said Hun Tha, a troupe artiste.

Cambodian culture has references of Hindu epic Ramayana from the 10 th century AD.

It is believed that Ramayana might have reached Cambodia through the contact with the South Indian kingdoms. Ancient Hindu temples there provide the earliest references of Ramayana and the world famous Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia depicts various episodes from the epic.

The fair will showcase different forms of Ramlila traditions of India and styles of staging the story of Lord Rama in south Asian countries.

Apart from Cambodia, groups from, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, Java, Laos, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh will be performing in the fair. (ANI)

Heaven And Hell In Cambodia

MySinchew.com
2008-06-08

Sitting under the shade of a tree, on a hot day in the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, 15km from central Phnom Penh, I felt horrified thinking of the suffering of the thousands of innocent people who were killed here by the Khmer Rouge regime.

A tiny ant was walking on my arm. Without giving it a second thought, I brushed it away. It rolled over but managed to regain its balance. Immediately I regretted the recklessness of my action.

In ordinary circumstances, I would not have cared about the life of an ant. But I'd just seen more than 8,000 skulls of victims arranged according to sex and age under glass panels in the memorial stupa on the Killing Fields.

My travel partner helped me get the ant off my arm and lowered it to the ground. "There you go," he said to the ant and we watched it walk away.

Before setting off for Cambodia, I'd had visions of touring the magnificent temples of Angkor in Siem Reap, which I eventually did. Cambodia's intense history, however, left a stronger impression than I'd expected.

Phnom Penh Before travelling on to Siem Reap, my partner and I spent two nights in the capital city, Phnom Penh.

There we visited the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, which also bear witness to the horror of the Khmer Rouge regime.

In 1975, the Khmer Rouge overthrew the US-supported Lon Nol government, seizing Phnom Penh. In the name of its 'peasant revolution', the Khmer Rouge ordered the mass exodus of two million Phnom Penh residents to the countryside, where they were forced to carry out hard labor. From 1975 to 1979, more than two million of the country's seven million people lost their lives.

The Tuol Sleng Museum, formerly Tuol Svay Prey High School, was transformed into a prison by the Khmer Rouge. It was renamed S-21. A number of prisons, such as the S-21, were scattered across Cambodia. In S-21, some 17,000 former government officials and intellectuals were tortured. The prisoners were later transported to Choeung Ek and killed - most bludgeoned to death in order to save bullets.

We took a guided tour around the museum. A Cambodian woman guided us from room to room, showing us the metal bed on which the prisoners died. We saw the claustrophobic chambers made of red bricks inside the rooms, in which prisoners were kept.

Hundreds of pictures of former prisoners and guards were displayed in the museum. The Khmer Rouge was very detailed in their documentation, taking pictures of prisoners when they first arrived at S-21.

It was inevitable that visiting the two historical sites would be emotionally draining. It was important though for us to visit them to grasp the intensity of the tragedy.

The remarkable thing about Phnom Penh is that, apart from the two historical sites, the city has a fun atmosphere. Almost 30 years after the end of the holocaust, Phnom Penh is thriving. Old French colonial houses stand alongside the traditional Royal Palace.

Big land cruisers, as well as scooters ridden by youngsters, fill the streets. At night, as the air cools down, Phnom Penh residents flock to the parks in front of the royal palace and near the National Museum (this park boasts a dancing fountain, with dangdut tracks included).

After a bittersweet journey through Phnom Penh, we committed ourselves to a six-hour bus ride through the flatlands of Cambodia heading to Siem Reap, the gateway to the temples of Angkor.

The construction of new buildings and new roads shows that the once still backwater is facing rapid development. Near the Tonle Sap riverfront, guesthouses and cool restaurants and bars flourish, giving tourists a place to relax after a long day of temple traipsing.

It would take more than a day to explore the 100 or so temples of Angkor, built between the ninth and 14th centuries, the time when Khmer civilisation experienced the height of its extraordinary creativity.

Staying in Siem Reap for five days, we chose the US$60 seven-day pass over the one or three day passes.

On our first day, we hit Angkor's star temple, the 12th century Angkor Wat, the biggest and one of the most preserved temples in Angkor.

The tips of the towers of Angkor Wat slowly emerged in sight as we neared them on a motorcycle-powered cart (tuktuk). I felt like I was in the mythical land of a children's storybook.

The wide moat surrounding the temple is breathtakingly beautiful.

Constructed by Suryavarman II, the Hindu temple oddly faces the west, believed to be the direction of death. The temple is thought to be a tribute to Vishnu, the Hindu deity the king identifies with, as well as his tomb.

Read counter-clockwise, the bas-relief tells various stories, the most intriguing of which is a depiction of heaven and hell where doomed souls are dragged along by devils.

Other temples in the complex are equally impressive. One of the Angkor kings, Jayavarman VII, reigned from the late 12th century to the 13th century. A Buddhist god-king, he constructed the fortified city of Angkor Thom, which is home to the Bayon temple and other structures.

The Bayon consists of 56 towers carved with 216 giant faces of Avalokiteshvara looking down.
Some scholars suggest that the faces may also be a representation of the king himself.

Some of the temple ruins in Angkor have been abandoned for hundreds of years and thus swallowed up by the forest. Tall trees grow on temple rooftops with their gigantic roots covering the buildings.

Angkor in the end does not only hold evidence of the extraordinary creativity of the ancient Khmer empire but also bears witness to the powerful forces of nature.

(By PRODITA SABARINI/ The Jakarta Post/ ANN)

Cambodian Girl Scout troop is at home in Philadelphia

By MELISSA DRIBBEN
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Article Last Updated: 06/07/2008

PHILADELPHIA—At the corner of Sixth and Ritner Streets in South Philadelphia is a construction site. You have to walk around a chain-link fence to reach the front yard, which is filled with rubble and a couple of hulking Asian dragon statues, giving you the distinct impression that whatever is going to happen here won't happen for quite a while.

But then, you enter the building at the south end of the lot. This is the Bra Buddha Ransi temple. And inside, you witness a subtle but profound transformation in the city's character, the neighborhood's identity, and the lives of seven girls.

Gathered in a circle on Oriental rugs in the sanctuary is Girl Scout Troop 971, the first, and so far only, troop in the United States organized exclusively for girls of Cambodian heritage.

Part of the troop's mission is to help the girls integrate their dual cultures "so that they're not too Americanized and not too Asianized," says Sophea Siv, whose two daughters, Emily, 15, and Sara, 13, were among the first to join.

Siv grew up pinched in the seam between two cultures.

Her family fled to Thailand from Cambodia in 1975 during the brutal Pol Pot regime and eventually settled in South Jersey. Because they were sponsored by local churches, Siv and her six siblings attended Christian services. But at home, they were Buddhist.

At school, Siv spoke English; at home, her native Khmer. Although she seemed like a regular teenager when out with her friends, at home she never dared challenge her mother.

"Girls must be very obedient," she says. "Very obedient. My mother doesn't give you dinner if you wear shoes or speak English."

Siv has ricocheted between both cultures most of her life. She studied mechanical engineering at the College of New Jersey and became a teacher in New Jersey public schools. But at 21, while her friends were all dating, she agreed to an arranged marriage to a Cambodian man she barely knew.

"I had one wish in life. Whoever I marry, I want him to be Cambodian, like my father." Her father was "eliminated" by the Khmer Rouge.

Now 38, Siv says she is still conflicted about her identity. With the help of the Girl Scouts, she hopes her daughters will not face the same struggle.

"It gives them a chance to learn about their culture and get to know other Cambodian kids," she says.

The Cambodian population is now estimated at 20,000 in Philadelphia and its suburbs, says Robert Koch, vice president of the Khmer Buddhist Humanitarian Association.

Koch, Siv's brother-in-law, helped form the Girl Scout troop last fall at a neighborhood peace march.

It was there that he met Ann Meredith.

Meredith, 45, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, didn't come to recruit, but after talking with Koch, she realized there was a need and an interest.

A month later, they founded Troop 971. By January, they had held their first meeting, and by the end of their first cookie sale had raised $1,600.

"The girls who need us most are middle school girls who are at risk in many ways. Self-esteem. Unhealthy eating. Risky behavior," says Meredith. "I see us as a lifeline." The need, she says, is particularly acute in immigrant populations where teenagers often feel they don't fit in.

The Girl Scouts has long been seen as the s'mores and good-deed-badges preserve of suburban white girls. At its inception in 1912, however, it was intended to serve diverse populations.

In the last few years, Meredith says, the organization has been trying to re-embrace that original intent.

Scouts meet with women prisoners at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Leaders have organized activities for girls in Philadelphia homeless shelters.

"We've been working hard," she says, "So that Girl Scouts reach everywhere, urban, rural."
And now, a Cambodian Buddhist temple.

Before their meeting starts, the girls of Troop 971 bow to the saffron-robed monk seated against the wall behind a long, low table. Then, armed with markers, they begin passing around a poster board, adding to lists of activities they were planning for the annual citywide Safe Night Philadelphia on June 6.

Under the heading "Community Service," they have: "1. Clean temple. Clean park. 2. Encourage recycling by making posters. 3. Food drive."

Their fundraising activities include "Writing name in Khmer." For a small fee, Emily Siv explains, the girls will translate your name into letters from the Khmer alphabet.

The monk begins chanting. He dips a white chrysanthemum into a silver urn, then flicks water from the petals at a woman kneeling before him.

"He's giving her a blessing. One of her children behaves badly all the time," explains Koch.

Part of the reason he organized the troop, he says, is to help keep his own twin 13-year-old daughters, Jasmine and Monique, on the right track.

At the moment, they are trying to arrange a summer camping trip.

"The 26th?" Jasmine proposes.

"I'm taking the SAT program," says Emily.

"How about the first week in July?"

Sara checks the calendar on her cell phone. "July 5?" "I guess July 5 is good," says Emily. "But won't everyone be tired after July 4?"

Her mother watches from the front door. "These kids," she says, "have got it made."

Cambodian kids enjoy last free breakfast as U.N. food aid ends

The China Post
Sunday, June 8, 2008

By Ker Munthit, AP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Students at a rural elementary school in Cambodia enjoyed their last free breakfasts in class after the United Nations World Food Program stopped supplying rice and other food because of soaring global prices.

Besides directly providing nutrition for children, the WFP breakfasts have provided an incentive for parents to send their children to school rather than sending them to work in the fields or stay home to look after younger siblings.

WFP said Wednesday that the program will be resumed later, probably around October, as the agency provides US$1.2 billion (euro763 million) in new assistance to help tens of millions of people in 62 nations hardest hit by the food crisis.

Meanwhile, though, Cambodia educators must convince parents to keep their children in the classroom.

The principal of Choumpou Proek school, about 43 miles (70 kilometers) west of the capital Phnom Penh, said he has been meeting with village leaders and families to encourage children to keep going to school, even without the benefit of extra nourishment.

The free breakfast program in Cambodia began in 2000 and has recently been benefiting about 450,000 rural students. The World Food Program feeds almost 89 million people worldwide, including 58.8 million children.

Choumpou Proek principal Nheng Vorn -- who did not know the program is supposed to be restarted -- said his 612 students enjoyed a final free breakfast of steamed yellow split peas with salt -- but no rice.

The school's rice supply ran out May 27, so staff cooked the last 64 pounds (29 kilograms) of peas for the students, Nheng Vorn said by telephone from the school in a village in Kampong Speu province. The WFP also provided soybeans and cooking oil.

Even though the school is in a rice-growing area, the farms cannot produce enough of the staple to feed the entire community. WFP selected schools in poorest communities for the breakfast program.

The U.N.'s food agency said three months ago that breakfast stocks at the 1,344 rural schools under its program would run out before mid June, and stopped sending rice supplies in March.

The cutoff began after five local suppliers defaulted on contracts to provide rice because they could get a higher price elsewhere, program officials said.

The price of rice tripled in the first four months of the year as the world food crisis deepened.

Soaring fuel prices have driven up the costs of fertilizers, farm vehicle use and transporting food to markets. Speculation and increased consumption of meat and dairy goods in China, India and other booming developing nations are also considered major factors in the food price hikes.

About six miles (10 kilometers) from Nheng Vorn's school, Sangkum Seksa school principal Tan Sak said his students have been eating breakfasts of steamed peas with salt since their WFP rice ran out two weeks ago.

The school's kitchen will shut down next week when the peas run out, he said.

Similar situations were occurring around the country and all over the developing world.

In Burundi, Kenya and Zambia, hundreds of thousands of people face cuts in food rations after June. In Iraq, 500,000 recipients will likely lose food aid. In Yemen, it's 320,000 households, including children and the sick.

Most, if not all, will now benefit from WFP's newly announced commitment to renew aid.

Coco Ushiyama, WFP's acting director for Cambodia, said in an interview last month that it was "really a tough decision" to end school food aid in favor of continuing programs benefiting orphans of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, who are in "more desperate need" of food aid.

She expressed concern that the end of free breakfasts could reverse gains already made in trying to improve education for rural children.

Cambodia's economic growth set to slow down

Radio Australia

The International Monetary Fund predicts Cambodia's economic growth will slow by more than three percentage points this year, while inflation rises sharply.

With inflation at 18.7 percent in January, the IMF is urging the Cambodian government to build up its central bank deposits to curb inflationary pressures.

The IMF says growth will drop from 10.3 percent last year to 7 percent because of the downturn in garment exports.

While acknowledging the continuing robust economic activity from growth in tourism and higher prices for rice exports, the IMF warns the country's poor still remain vulnerable.

Under employment and low wages mean that some 35 percent of the country's 14 million people still live on under 50 US cents a day.

Cambodia sends off third batch of UN peacekeeping deminers to Sudan

June 08, 2008

Cambodia sent off its third batch of deminers Sunday at the Bochentong Air Base to take part in the UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan.

"Today's send-off is evidence of the willingness of the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Cambodian people to provide essential security and support to those in conflict," said Douglas Broderick, UN resident coordinator in the kingdom.

The third batch consists of 139 staff members, 15 of whom had left on June 2 for camping work, said a military press release.

Ke Kim Yan, Commander in Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), told the send-off ceremony that Cambodia has participated in "the UN peacekeeping operation on humanitarian mine clearance in Sudan for the third consecutive year."

So far, Cambodian deminers have cleared 57,542,488 square meters of areas in Sudan, he added.

RCAF Lt. Gen. Sem Sovanny said that the third batch of deminers will replace the second one, who will return from Sudan to Cambodia Tuesday.

Along with consistent economic growth, Cambodia has also been seeking to enlarge its international military presence. It has joined two multinational military exercises respectively in Mongolia and Bangladesh, since peace was established in the kingdom in 1997.

Source:Xinhua

German Government Offers Scholarships to Young Cambodian Entrepreneurs to Bridge Digital Divide

Posted on 8 June 2008.
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 563

“With the aim to support developing countries in their efforts not to be excluded from important global processes and not to be hampered in the use of new and resource-saving technologies and products the German Government has decided to offer scholarships to bridge this digital divide.

“One of the possible negative results of the lack of information technology related knowledge is that productivity in developing countries is by international standards declining and the achievements of the UN Millennium Development Goals may be jeopardized.

“The programme is intended to enable young entrepreneurs from developing countries to successfully start up an information and communications technology (ICT) business in their home countries.

“Konrad Zuse [the inventor of the world's first functional program-controlled computer in 1941] scholarships are worth Euro 1.200 per month and granted for up to one year. This sum is intended to cover all expenses incurred in Germany for medical insurance, accommodation, food etc. In addition the German Government meets the cost of air travel for one return trip to Germany per beneficiary.

“For all beneficiaries individual training plans are drawn up tailored to their specific requirements as well as the sector in which they intend to start up their business.

“The training includes an academic component as well as internships in German companies active in the same sector as the prospective start-up.

“Further information is to be obtained on the website of the German Embassy Phnom Penh.

“Deadline for applications is 25 July 2008.”

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6365, 7-8.6.2008

Cambodian parents' group to honor grads

Press-Telegram
06/06/2008

LONG BEACH - Long Beach high school graduates of Cambodian heritage are invited to a Class of 2008 Graduation Celebration tonight at St. Mary Medical Center.

The Khmer Parents Association in conjunction with the Cambodian Association of America, the United Cambodian Community and St. Mary Medical Center will hand out more than $2,000 in scholarships to about 10 local graduates and expect about 200 local residents to attend.

Any 2008 high school graduate with at least one Cambodian parent is invited to the free dinner.
Appropriate business attire is requested.

The celebration, the brainchild of KPA president and activist Chan Hopson, returns after a three-year hiatus.

A French-school educated teacher in Cambodia before the rise of the Khmer Rouge, Hopson also sponsors Cambodian health forums in Long Beach. Education, however, remains her passion.

"We want to support them and motivate them to go higher in education," Hopson said of Cambodian students, noting that many high school graduates are the children of uneducated parents and have lacked to the direction of their peers.

"We want people to see in this country if you don't have a higher education, you're not going anywhere," Hopson said.

Today's dinner is from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Parr Enhancement Center Building at St. Mary Medical Center, 1055 Linden Ave. For information call Chan Hopson 562-276-5888.

- Greg Mellen