Demand for high-end shopping plummets

Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON
The high-end retail sector had seen rapid expansion in recent years following growth in the Cambodian economy, but the recent economic downturn brought on by the global crisis has caused a slump in sales, retail outlets say.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Soeun Say
Friday, 27 March 2009

Shopping malls and supermarkets report drop in sales of between 20 percent to 50 percent as Phnom Penh's consumers feel the pinch.

SHOPPING in supermarkets and malls - a fairly recent trend in the Kingdom - has dropped off, with the economic downturn forcing consumers to cut back on spending, Phnom Penh's major outlets said this week.

Four of the city's main shopping centres have reported that sales have plummeted since the beginning of the year.

Sales at Sovanna Mall have been reduced by half, said That Rithy, a representative of the store.

Svanna Mall opened in July last year and pulled strong sales until the end of 2008. But the subsequent onset of the effects of the global economic crisis has hit sales, he said.

Pencil Supermarket General Manager Svay Sovann Ratana's said sales at his store have dropped 20 percent.

The country's marquee mall, Sorya, located in the heart of Phnom Penh, has seen a 25 percent drop in sales, according to its general manager, Lam Sopheap.

"Customers have less cash to spend since the financial crisis forced their incomes down," he said.

Food sales had remained relatively stable, while consumers were acquiring fewer nonessential items like electronics, he added.

"I keep spending on food, but I won't spend on things that are not important," said Pen Rechana, 37, an independent land speculator shopping Thursday in Sorya.

2007 and 2008 were boom years for business, she said, but the dropoff in the rea-estate sector had hit her personal finances, she added.

Sorya and Sovanna have tried to keep retailers operating in their retail units by offering reduced power costs, they said.

But for retailers, the slight reduction in operating costs has been far outpaced by a much steeper decline in retail sales. "It has become very quiet," said Touch Sotheara, who runs a shoe shop in Sydney Shopping Centre.

Staff reported a 30 percent decline in sales at Sydney since the turn of the year.

"Customers come just to look; they don't buy as often as they did last year," he added. "Last year I earned between US$1,000 and $1,500 a month. Now it's more like $500 [a month]."

Cambodia has seen a downturn in a number of key sectors in recent months, leading to increasingly low GDP growth forecasts for this year.

The Asian Development Bank is due to revise its prediction for 2009 downwards next week.

Isolated Iran takes business East

Photo by: BLOOMBERG
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses crowds at a recent rally.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by George Mcleod
Friday, 27 March 2009

As Western countries ratchet up the pressure on the Islamic republic, Iranian officials say that trade and investment with Asia is growing steadily, despite the global economic crisis.

With Western political and economic pressure on Iran mounting, the Islamic republic's officials tell the Post that Asia is at the front line of the country's trade policy.

Cambodia is likely to become an increasingly significant trade partner with Iran as it builds commerce ties with the non-Western world, analysts said.

Even with the economic crisis cutting global trade and investment, Iran's trade with Asia continues to grow. Two major delegations have visited Southeast Asia in the past two years, with more high-level visits in the works.

"Iran is working hard to increase bilateral relations with all countries in the region," said Iran's Ambassador to Thailand Majid Bizmark.

He cited trade with China, which has skyrocketed from US$9 billion five years ago to more than $20 billion in 2008; and Thailand, which is expected to grow from $800 million currently to $1 billion next year.

Trade with Cambodia remains small, but the ambassador says that officials hope that will change.

Stronger Iran-Asia relations come as trade and financial ties with the West are hit by ever-tightening sanctions.

"In the situation [Iran] is in, with hostile countries in the region, it needs to make as many friends as it can ... obviously Iran has to take a strong stance," said Reza Molavi, executive director of the Centre for Iranian Studies at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

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In the situation [iran] is in, with hostile countries in the region, it needs to make as many friends as it can.
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The United States has led an international effort to isolate the Iranian government, which it says is sponsoring terrorist groups and working to develop a nuclear weapons program.

Iran cites reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency that say no evidence has been unearthed to indicate Iran's atomic program is weapons-related.

US law bars investment of more than $20 million in Iran, and financial transactions are severely restricted.

The US Treasury reported that more than 40 banks reduced their operations in Iran due to US pressure.

One of Iran's responses, analysts said, has been the Look East policy, creating ties with Asian countries that stress noninterference. Iranian officials say the program is an ideal match between energy-rich Iran and energy-hungry Asia, where foreign policy is also driven by noninterference.

"Look East is one of our top foreign policy priorities, and Cambodia is certainly one of the countries we are looking at," said Iran's ambassador.

Stronger ties with ASEAN are high on the agenda, and Iran has applied for Sectoral Dialogue Partnership with the regional group, which would put it on par with India as a partner nation.

Military and energy cooperation are also in the works through Iran's move to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a group that some analysts tout as a possible competitor to NATO.

The global economic crisis has failed to dampen Teheran's drive to increase trade, political relations and major energy deals.

For Cambodia, Middle Eastern countries may soon become important players in the agricultural and telecoms sector, led by Israel, Qatar and Kuwait. Iranian investment is being welcomed for a country being hit by the economic downturn.

"We are in talks with a number of Iranian investors for property and agriculture ... Iran is not yet a big player, but that could change," said a local business leader who asked not to be named. "We are certainly keen to attract Iranian investors," said the source.

The government could not provide data on Iranian investment in Cambodia for 2008.

But some Iran experts downplayed Look East.

"[The sanctions] are having a serious impact on the Iranian economy. They are doing a variety of things to get around this, most of it is muddling through. They need to address their policies with Western countries," said Steven Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC.

Iran rejects West's pressure

Photo by: PHOTO SUPPLIED
Iranian ambassador to Thailand Majid Bizmark says his country is looking East.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by George McLeod
Friday, 27 March 2009

Iranian Ambassador to Thailand Majid Bizmark discusses Iran's plans in Asia with the Post's George McLeod.

Iran says it is pushing for stronger economic political and economic ties with Asia through the Look East policy. Can you say a bit about Look East?

The "Look East" policy devised by Iran in recent years is ... [to increase] trade and economic ties with Asia, along with political interactions. Iran is also keen to foster her participation with the Asian community through ASEAN in different fields including energy, tourism and investment.

Nowadays, more than 60 percent of Iranian trade is with Asians.

Iran is under pressure by Western-led trade sanctions. Is Look East an escape route from the sanctions?

It is not the case. The financial sanctions are not working at all. In fact, the sanctions have helped us to stand on our own feet. The will of the Iranian nation is too powerful to be affected by those hollow, obsolete methods. You have seen we have made giant leaps in technology and were able to launch a satellite. The sanctions haven't been effective. Our people have benefited by looking to the local economy. As well, we have had good experiences dealing with Asian countries that we consider are our true friends.

Do you believe Iranian-US relations will improve with the more moderate Obama administration?

The negative approach of the [Bush] administration was criticised and condemned, not only in the Middle East but also widely around the world. They made the mistake of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. With the new administration, we would like to see practical steps for the changes they have claimed. They say they want change; now we are waiting for that to happen. There has been a lot of propaganda, but we are waiting to see what they do.

The recent International Atomic Energy Agency report expressed concerns about Iran's nuclear program. Do you have any response to the findings?

Iran believes in the non-questionable right of all nations to use peaceful nuclear power. Unfortunately, some monopolist powers, as a routine behaviour against developing nations, have put tremendous pressure on Iran to derail it from enjoying her rights to access new technologies.

We are a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but those that are not members are free to develop a military nuclear program, such as the Zionist regime [Israel]. That's a double standard that the world is witnessing.

The scarcity of fossil fuel, huge demand for abundant electricity ... as well as environmental considerations have forced Iran to strive for renewable energy sources including solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power.

Now Iran's annual electricity demand is growing by 8 percent and should be addressed in an economical and more environmentally friendly way. We need nuclear energy for the development of our economy.

This program isn't for military purposes - in fact it's against our religion [to have nuclear weapons].

Why should we stop our peaceful activities when it is the right of our people? They [Western powers] have no right to use this as a political issue.

Naga forced to end all sports gambling

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by May Kunmakara
Friday, 27 March 2009

FOLLOWING a government reprimand of NagaWorld, the casino has ended sports-betting operations but maintained its core gambling operations.

Keat Chhon, minister of economy and finance, said Thursday that his office issued a letter at the beginning of last week demanding NagaWorld fall in line with last month's nationwide state ban on gambling.

The order was confirmed by Chea Peng Chheang, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Finance who is in charge of the government's relations with the gambling industry.

"In the letter, we told them to stop all activities banned by the government order," he told the Post Thursday.

The government action comes in the wake of criticism against NagaWorld's exemption from the sports-betting ban at the end of last month.

Nancy Chau, the officer manager of Cambo Six's Phnom Penh office - the company that had been the country's most popular sports-betting establishment before the government ban - previously complained that NagaWorld continued taking sports bets, an exception the government said was because Cambodians are prohibited from going there.

Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Yim Sovann said Thursday that NagaWorld should have been reined in.

"It's the biggest casino and it's along the riverside, in plain sight of all tourists," he said.

Pushing artistic boundaries

Photo by: Photo Supplied
Video art from "Virtual Geometries."

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Erin Gleeson
Friday, 27 March 2009

The all-video art exhibit ‘Virtual Geometries' aims to change the landscape of creative communication in the Kingdom.

Throughout the 1960s pioneers of video art began using new technology that enabled them to instantly play back recordings rather than wait for film processing. The portable and closer-to-real-time process was liberating for artists who were all searching for new ways to communicate.

Nearly a half-century later, artists and audiences in Cambodia are appreciating video as an art form. Despite the time and technology lag, the country is not as far behind as it might seem. Only in this decade have the world's leading art schools widely validated video art as an area of study.

While the few art schools in Cambodia seem far from offering degrees in any contemporary medium, informal education opportunities seep in via workshops with visiting artists, offering students options beyond their classical training, such as video art.

"Virtual Geometries" - an exhibition dedicated solely to video art - opens at the French Cultural Centre this Saturday. Its production was organic and can be traced to the complementary paths of its co-curators - Colombian-born artist Carlos Franklin and French Cultural Centre Director Alain Arnaudet.

While Arnaudet created the collaboration system between Cambodian and foreign artists, Franklin, who graduated from the esteemed Le Fresnoy - a postgraduate art school in France known for its excellence in all audiovisual media - both worked with artists and made selections of video art from around the world.

Of the 26 artists in the show, four are Cambodian, while many others have connections with Le Fresnoy or are based in Phnom Penh.

The wide-ranging material that was collected or created offers a thorough introduction to video art under the theme of "landscape".

"As Phnom Penh is changing so quickly, I decided to choose work that considers in some way our landscape or surroundings," Franklin said.

Audiences can discover works - all under 15 minutes - in a variety of ways. Single-channel videos play on old television and new plasma screens, and as projections onto walls. Some videos are silent, others need headphones and still others fill the gallery space with sound.

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Only in this decade have ... leading art schools widely validated video art as an area of study.
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A 10-minute piece by Swiss artist Anna Katharina Scheidegger is perhaps a good example of accessible and strong video art that relies on low technology and no language. The making of the video was spontaneous, said Arnaudet.

"Scheidegger happened to be wearing her camera when she noticed a simple and comic scene of a man with a large belly looking out to an unknown landscape."

In the video, we see the man straining to see something in the distance as he uses his hand as a visor to block the sun. Other characters join him, standing on the same plane and looking out with the same gesture. Scheidegger never turns her camera. We never learn what they are looking at. Consequently, she shows us there are other things worth knowing, like not knowing.

Arnaudet characterises Schiedegger's witty approach as the height of a learning curve.

"Artists can move little by little from capturing something [akin to a] straight documentary, to something more personal, to something more removed or conceptual until they are always ready to catch things like this."

Cambodian classical dancer Belle Chumvan Sodhachivy, who collaborated with Phnom Penh-based multimedia artist Victor Corolleur, is beginning to understand this learning curve.

Corolleur found himself working backwards from his usual process in which he first defines sound, which he often samples from the natural environment, as inspiration for visual content and finally overall concept.

"One day he asked me to dance a colour, the next day he asked me to dance a sound. We did this without any color or sound in the room, though," she said. The result is Belle in the City, two three-minute, twenty-second videos.

When asked to consider how Cambodian audiences may react to the exhibition, Belle said, like herself, most Cambodians have never considered video as art.

"But maybe," she added, "because now we know TV commercials and film trailers, which sometimes have suspense, we can understand a little more now than we could before."

In effect, "Virtual Geometries" is describing a tradition, but also helping to define and create one.

The exhibition opens this Saturday and runs through to April 4 at the French Cultural Centre.

Koupreys made to look small

Photo by: JACOB CAWTHORNE
Brunei prop Shafiee Matali (centre, facing) is tackled by Kouprey prop Chro Kim Seang with Sam Chanphearom (left) looking on during Wednesday night's Asian 5 Nations reginal tournament match.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Ray Leos
Friday, 27 March 2009

SAVANNAKHET, LAOS

The Cambodian national rugby team were outsized and outclassed Wednesday by Brunei, who won comfortably 21-10 in Savannakhet, Laos.

Brunei exploited its size advantage in the forwards and scored on two interceptions as it defeated the Cambodian Koupreys, 21-10 Wednesday night at Savannakhet National Stadium in the HSBC Asian 5 Nations Southeast Asia Regional Tournament.

It was a satisfying victory for the Brunei side, as it rebounded from a 28-8 defeat at the hands of Laos in its tournament opener Sunday night.

It also marked the first victory for Brunei in the HSBC Asian 5 Nations Series' second year of competition, after being drubbed last year by Guam 76-0 and the Philippines 101-0.

"I'm so happy for our boys to finish up here with a win," enthused Brunei coach Steve Pyrgos. "Our game plan all along was to work through our big forwards to move down the field and wear [Cambodia] down."

For the Koupreys, it was another disappointing performance as they were again plagued by costly penalties and inconsistent play from their backs.

"It was same thing, just like last year," said disappointed Kouprey captain Pich Ratana. "Except for the last few minutes of the match, we couldn't do anything with our running."

Kouprey's veteran number eight Chey Sophal added that the Kouprey forwards also didn't play very well.

"We didn't get a good push in the scrums and we were going backwards much of the time," he said. "I know Brunei was bigger, but we've beaten a lot of bigger teams in the scrums before. That should not have been a problem [Wednesday] tonight. I don't know what happened."

Both sides played each other evenly through most of the penalty filled first half, which saw three Kouprey players - wing Bros Sophorn, centre Francois Bleriot, and Chey Sophal - yellow carded.

Brunei finally broke through in the 38th minute, as fullback Petrus Tuan darted in front of a startled Kouprey flyhalf Chan Samedi to make an interception, and then sprinted 70 metres untouched for the try. Scrum half Richard Chu made good on the conversion, giving Brunei a 7-0 lead at the intermission.

The Koupreys answered back in the opening minutes of the second half as fullback Nheb Rotha fielded a kick and raced in for the try from 80 metres. But halfback Pich Ratana missed the conversion to allow Brunei to keep a two-point advantage.

The Koupreys were unable to muster a consistent running attack during the second period, and Brunei started to keep the ball in close among the forwards, winning the set pieces and slowly wearing down the smaller Koupreys.

With 15 minutes to go, Brunei began an impressive scoring drive from the 50-metre line, using eight phases of hit ups and pick-and-goes by its front five to move swiftly down the field. The drive culminated with flanker Faez Anuar rumbling in to score from five metres out and Tuan's successful conversion kick extended the Brunei lead to 14-5.

However, the match was far from over as the Kouprey backs, who up to that point had been effectively shut down by the Brunei defence, finally found some gaps to run. In the 75th minute, Chan Samedi took a pass off a ruck from ten metres out to score a try and narrow the gap to four points. Pich Ratana missed on his second conversion of the night, and the score remained 14-10.

Brunei kept its poise after the ensuing kickoff and maintained the pressure, pinning the Koupreys inside their ten-metre line. Brunei victory was confirmed with a minute of regulation time to go when Brunei prop Shafiee Matali intercepted a pass by Kouprey flanker Ut Vuthy and ran in for score from five metres out. Tuan's final conversion of the night capped the scoring at the final whistle.

Kouprey coach Peter Maley felt his team suffered from a lack of consistent play and focus.

"Our backs looked like they weren't running on all cylinders, and our forwards, who usually play well, looked out of synch in the scrums," stated Maley.

"Brunei played well and had a good game plan, but we also beat ourselves with penalties, dropped balls, and missed passes."

Despite the disappointing loss, Maley praised the play of a number of his younger players, in particular, Nheb Rotha.

"Rotha looked a little shaky in the opening minutes. I think he was a bit nervous, this being his first international and all. But I think he settled down and played very well in the second half, especially after he scored that try."

Cambodia next plays host Laos Saturday night in the final match of the tournament and Maley hopes his players will focus on the challenge ahead.

"Laos beat us both times last year, and they are constantly improving. We are going to have to be at our best on Saturday to win."

Kickoff for Saturday's match at Savannakhet National Stadium is slated for 8pm.

The Phnom Penh Post News In Briefs

In Brief: Five-year health grant from USAID

Written by Robbie Corey-Boulet
Friday, 27 March 2009

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Thursday a five-year, US$77 million health program designed to support the government's national health plan and expand upon existing efforts to combat HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. With the new program, US support for the Cambodian health sector will total $175 million over the next five years. USAID funding for the year 2008-09 totals $35.5 million, including $15.6 million devoted to HIV/AIDS programs.


In Brief: Education ministry announces grants

Written by Mom Kunthear
Friday, 27 March 2009

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport plans to provide more than 3,000 scholarships for students to attend 13 universities in the 2009-10 academic year. The universities include the Royal University of Phnom Penh and the National University of Management. The ministry said at least 10 percent of priority scholarships would go to students in remote rural areas and 15 percent would go to poor students.


In Brief: New NA session set to open

Written by Cheang Sokha
Friday, 27 March 2009

The National Assembly is to begin a new session on Wednesday, Cheam Yeap, a member of the assembly's permanent committee, told the Post. Cheam Yeap, who is also chairman of the assembly's Banking and Finance Committee, said Thursday the assembly would debate a range of proposals from the Council of Ministers, including proposals pertaining to relations with Kuwait, Hungary and the Czech Republic. He said the assembly would also formally approve an agreement reached with India that would enable the transfer of prisoners between the two countries.

Day in Pictures

Crocodiles in the famous "Dead Fish Restaurant". Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Vegetables in the market. Siem Reap, Cambodia

Cambodian children water lettuce at their backyard in Chambak Meas village, Mok Kampul district, Kandal province, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. They help their family after the school.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian Harm Sokhun, 60, plants lettuce at her backyard in Chambak Meas village, Mok Kampul district, Kandal province, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Sokhun begins her lettuce plantation on Wednesday and will wait about more than three weeks before collecting to sell it at the market.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Interior Design

D.B. Kim
March 27, 2009
Photography by D.B. Kim.

“We perceive atmosphere through our emotional sensibility – a form of perception that works incredibly quickly, and which we humans evidently need to help us survive.” –Peter Zumthor

What a glorious experience to walk through the temple of Angkor Wat! Stepping through the columns leads to various inner courts, giving one the opportunity to calm down and forget the intense humidity of Siem Reap, Cambodia. While passing through the processional columns, tip-toeing and hopping over the graces of paved stones, I sensed spirits and angels. They helped me hum forward to peel away layers of the walled colonnades.

Angkor Wat is a national treasure of Cambodia—important enough to be found in the center of the national flag. Angkor Wat translates as “City of Temple” and, in turn, is a complex of temples built for King Suryavarman II in the 12th century. Another important fact: it was a Hindu temple at first, dedicated to Vishnu, but later became a Buddhist structure.

Architecturally, there are two plans to Angkor: the older one, inspired from India, called Temple Mountain, and the more recent Galleried Temple. Thus, as a Khmer temple, it has the profile of a high mountain, with vertical and horizontal layers of galleries.

Through these different galleries of temples, one experiences a graceful procession, and, due to the incredible passages, the mood is peaceful and hallowed. While traveling through colonnades, one often arrives at irregular apertures: openings that provide options to change directions or take a break to enjoy the framed views.

Small and large, old and new, one should be inspired by the processional qualities within a space like Angkor Wat. The photos I have taken represent the city of temples in an elemental way. I hope you enjoy.

Living On A Knife Edge Under Pol Pot - A NZ Cambodian's Story

guide2.co.nz

Friday, 27 March 2009

Ahead of the first trials of Khmer Rouge leaders starting on Monday, MAGGIE TAIT of NZPA talked to Cambodians who fled to New Zealand during the Pol Pot regime. This is Sambath Mey's story. Wellington, March 27 NZPA - Sometimes he felt he was about to be executed any minute.

"People sleeping next to me get picked up and disappeared," Wellington man Sambath Mey describes life under Cambodia's brutal Pol Pot regime.

Mr Mey came to New Zealand in 1980, married his sweetheart who he met in a refugee camp, and set about educating himself by working almost full-time while studying commerce at Victoria University. Now a public servant, the father of three young-adult children recalls nearly dying of starvation and the fear of execution when he was a young man.

The Mey family were fruit growers in Prey Khmeng village in Siemreap Province when the extreme communist Khmer Rouge gained power. Mr Mey was living in Phnom Penh studying at university in 1975 when the city fell to Khmer Rouge forces.

"I thought that's just impossible."

The fall of Phnom Penh marked Year Zero and the start of a new calendar under the Khmer Rouge. Their first act was to order the refugee-swollen population of about 2 million out of the city to work in rural communes.

The streets were thick with people and Mr Mey said it took a day to travel a kilometre.

On the way he lost what he calls his naivety.

A young soldier directed him to stand to the side of the road to make way for expected high ranking Khmer Rouge but after losing his spot a few times Mr Mey stepped back on the road after the soldier passed.

"This time I heard the cranking of the gun up to here (Mr Mey points at his head) and I think by the time he's finished talking I was probably no more.

"I thought these people meant business."

He took off his glasses at that point realising all the bizarre stories that the educated were considered part of an elite class and were first to die were true.

Bodies and other signs along the road made the reality of their situation sink in even more.

Mr Mey with his sister Chheng who was studying to be a teacher and some university friends broke away from the slow chain heading east out of the city to go north where a friend had family.

Eventually after being turned away from other villages along the Mekong River they were allowed to stay in the relatives' village called Taek in Kandal Province about 30km north of Phnom Penh.

From May 1975 that was their home for just over three years.

Life was hard. Digging in fields, manual pumping of the land, back-breaking labour. Free time involved sitting at meetings and avoiding saying anything that could have them singled out for punishment or death.

The lowest point for Mr Mey was when he was sent to work away from the village for the entire dry season. Camped by a rice field meant there was no way to boost food supplies by picking fallen fruit or other opportunities in the village and he nearly starved to death.

When offered food he couldn't take it.

But he had a lucky break, the rain came and the village wanted its workers back and he managed to pick up and start eating again.

Mr Mey said he nearly died several times and was lucky not to be one of those taken for "re-education" in the middle of the night.

His village was relatively moderate. Each village belonged to a commune, a few hundred metres away but in a different province's commune all the "new people", as city evacuees were known, were killed in a single night in 1978.

"If I were to go half a kilometre away I would've perished."

Vietnam liberated Cambodia in 1979 and Mr Mey eventually managed to get a bike and regain his health before travelling to his family village.

He discovered his parents and youngest brother were dead. The last time he saw them was in 1973. Mr Mey, chatting and detailed in his narrative until now, clams up.

"It was very cruel," is all he can say.

The other siblings -- scattered across the country with one brother Chhoeung Mey living in New Zealand since 1974 on a study scholarship -- all remarkably survived.

"A combination of good luck, some planning and I don't know."

Mr Mey spent about seven months in refugee camps on the Thai border before his New Zealand-based brother found him and organised to take him here.

"I was skinny to the bone, I was almost dead. It took me about six months to recover."

Chhoeung Mey lost his wife and children to the regime but managed to take a brother and sister back to New Zealand.

Mr Mey's fiancee was sponsored by a church group and was able to bring her family. They married in October 1981.

Mr Mey had worked hard and fast to learn English before emigrating.

He found the new country "quiet, unbelievably quiet. In the camp there was 100,000 people."

It took him a while to realise he was free to come and go.

Mr Mey's story from there is one of hard work -- he did manual labour jobs working up to 30 hours a week while he studied for his commerce degree. Since then Mr Mey has achieved an accounting qualification and worked in a variety of roles.

"I am doing reasonably well. I am not a person to complain a lot, I tend to be content with what's available."

Asked what he thought of the trials of Khmer Rouge before the joint Cambodian-international court that New Zealander Dame Silvia Cartwright is sitting on, he noted that only a few at the highest level Khmer Rouge are being held accountable.

"It's good that they do that but it seemed to take long and whether they are going to achieve anything I am not too sure. I just want to move on in a way.

"At some time we have to move on, forget the past."

* Maggie Tait is travelling to Cambodia with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

Khmer Rouge Tribunal Impacts On Kiwi Lives

guide2.co.nz
Friday, 27 March 2009

Thirty years since the end of Pol Pot's bloody rule in Cambodia one of his henchmen is to finally go on public trial on Monday. MAGGIE TAIT of NZPA talks to New Zealanders whose lives were impacted by the regime and what they think of the trials.

Wellington, March 27 NZPA - Rower Rob Hamill's brother Kerry was killed at the torture centre and prison run by Kaing Guek Eav or Duch who goes on trial on Monday.

If he had a chance to send a message to the 66-year-old former teacher, Rob Hamill said it would be to acknowledge "the terrible pain that he and the other leaders of the regime caused, the complete loss and grief that was felt and the impact it had on our family.

"I often think about how things could have been better, not that things are terrible, but you know having Kerry in our lives would have (been better)."

Kerry Hamill was 27, sailing from Singapore to Bangkok in August 1978 with Canadian Stuart Glass and Briton John Dewhirst when their yacht strayed into Cambodian waters and they were arrested.

Records at the prison show Mr Hamill was forced to write a 4000-word "confession" that claimed his father was a colonel in the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who had recruited him into the agency.

Under torture, he described in considerable detail CIA plans to subvert the Khmer Rouge regime, then he and Mr Dewhirst were killed. Mr Glass was shot earlier.

Mr Hamill's treatment was also meted out to the 14,000 mainly Cambodians who entered the doors of S21 or Tuol Sleng.

Most victims at the prison were tortured and forced to confess to a variety of crimes -- mainly of being CIA spies -- before being bludgeoned to death in a field on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Women and children and babies were also killed. Few inmates survived.

Rob Hamill would like to be at the public hearing and has provided the court with a statement but the expense and timing made it impossible to attend.

"I am feeling a compelling sort of need to be out there now."

However, he doubts a guilty verdict would provide the family closure.

"It's more accountability and to see that some sort of justice has been done. It's been over 30 years now and it's about time."

The deaths at the prison were a small fraction of the 1.5 million Cambodians who were starved and worked to death. At least another 200,000 were executed.

Trials of four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders are to follow. Pol Pot died in 1998.

Lim Meecham survived the regime, she almost died several times and gave up her two children to other families.

Now living in Wellington, she and husband Roger did manage to reunite the family but the pain is still there.

Mrs Meecham cried silently, recalling the deaths she had seen. The trials produce mixed feelings.

"I want to forget about it. I don't want to remember everything. But people who (are to blame) have to pay for it," she said.

"My life has gone on, I don't want to go back. I hurt enough."

Another of the 4661 Cambodian refugees whom New Zealand accepted between the end of the regime in 1979 and 1992 was Sambath Mey.

He almost starved under the regime and thinks the trials are positive but only a few are being charged.

"It's good that they do (hold trials) but it seemed to take so long and whether they are going to achieve anything I am not too sure. I just want to move on in a way.

"At some time we have to move on, forget the past."

Sovann Dowall struggles to see the point of the trials, especially considering the current Prime Minister Hun Sen's past involvement in the Khmer Rouge.

As a Christian she thinks it is time to forgive but will never forget.

"It cannot bring my dad back, it cannot bring my family back. I feel that it is time to forgive them, they know they are bad, they are scared enough, they are guilty enough.

"I know I can forgive them."

Stanley Harper, originally from Palmerston North, now lives in Phnom Penh with his Cambodian wife. Only a couple of yeas ago he completed a film that took 18 years to make. The message of the film is reconciliation and that is something he does not think the trials will achieve.

"Why didn't it happen before now?"

Harper says the trials seem like a gravy train with lawyers getting incredibly high salaries in a Cambodian context.

"Who are they taking to trial, five old men. Why not seven why not 100 why not everybody over the age of 35? Inasmuch as it was an internal Khmer conflict so maybe everyone in some way was guilty."

Duch has said he ordered people killed to avoid death himself.

"... what would anybody in their right mind do when they see that everyone thing was happening was turning into a genocidal maniac regime.

"You either have to keep supporting it because you're afraid if you don't you're going to be killed. Or if you have the means or possibility you escape, you get out."

Harper does not believe the trials have any deterrent effect and their cost -- $170m for five years -- could have been used in far more practical ways in Cambodia.

"Are these trials worth it? Will they bring anything to Cambodia? I genuinely think the answer is no.

"It's certainly not going to bring around a healing reconciliation process."

Former governor-general and High Court judge Dame Silvia Cartwright is a trial judge for the Duch hearing.

"I think that it will go some way to answering the questions that ordinary people have about how did this happen and what actually happened and who is responsible for the terrible suffering.

"Even a trial just over one institution like Tuol Sleng will help answer a lot of the questions. Whether the accused is convicted or acquitted there will still be a huge amount of information that will come forward during the course of the trial."

A survey of 1110 people by the Victims Participation Project Documentary Centre of Cambodia published this month found 56.8 percent wanted more than the five, including Duch, to be charged.

The centre noted concerns over the slow progress of trials and age and health of those yet to face the tribunal.

Another New Zealander, who prefers not to be named, says the political leadership was part of the problem.

Prime Minister Hun Sen is a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla installed as prime minister by Hanoi in the mid-1980s who was later part of a shaky 1993 elected coalition and has remained in the top job.

Dragging out negotiations for trials was a way of keeping Cambodia in aid donors' minds.

Domestically it was a cautious game with politicians not wanting to be drawn into trials themselves and there were also arguments about how far to reach given the extent of the Khmer Rouge's hold on people.

* Maggie Tait is travelling to Cambodia with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

Search continues for former Unique Living resident

Shelby Star

Thursday, Mar 26 2009
David Allen

Will answers to Mouy Tang's disappearance soon surface after some technological intervention?

Family members hope so.

Mouy, a 46-year-old native of Cambodia and former Unique Living resident, was last seen Sept. 3 near Burns High School in Lawndale. Subsequent searches haven't unearthed a single lead.

An imaging team from Indiana has the capability to shine a colored light on the world - or at least the areas they take pictures of.

Quyhn Tang, Mouy's sister-in-law, said the team will take several aerial shots from where Mouy originally went missing.

From there, they'll color-code the findings to see if anything pops up.

The color imagery software was developed in Europe and is not available for regular public use, Quyhn said.

"Supposed to be already done or this week coming up," Quyhn said.

Attempts to contact the team for comment were unsuccessful.

Quyhn was told in January that officials drove out to search for Mouy, a diabetic, around 15 minutes after they realized she was gone from Unique Living.

Quyhn said that while Mouy couldn't walk well, she was supposedly long gone when employees began searching.

"Apparently they couldn't locate her," Quyhn said in a previous interview. "It might have taken her 30 minutes to get to that intersection (of Philadelphia Road and Stagecoach Trail where Mouy was last seen)."

The numbers just didn't add up.

Family members recently accepted what some professionals suggested after the last search, Quyhn said.

"She was picked up instead of wandered off," Quyhn said. "We came to terms with it. They did another 5-mile search. Thirty-two people from all over. Nothing."

But the imaging technology could reveal what human eyes haven't until this point.
"They have to have everything back and analyzed by April 15," Quyhn said.

Following the imaging, members of the South Carolina-based S.T.A.R.R. team will be called back for another search based on the new information.

Earlier this month, an independent review panel in Raleigh recommended fining Unique Living, the now-defunct adult care home, $50,000 for three major violations cited in July 2008 by the Division of Health Service Regulation Adult Care Licensure Section.

All three penalties against Unique Living are Type A violations, defined as those that result in death or serious physical harm or the strong likelihood that would occur.

"When you open a facility like this, you are responsible and this should show every facility that they will be held accountable," Quyhn said at that time.

Trust and confidence are crucial, speaker says

The Brown and White

By Fazle Rabbi
Issue date: 3/27/09

Companies and people must be agile and build trust to deal with the economic realities of the world, computer company Lenovo's CEO Bill Amelio, '79, said during a lecture in Perella Auditorium Monday.

High trust organizations tolerate mistakes, share information openly, share credit abundantly and have more positive, creative and innovative people, Amelio said.

"As a leader, it is important not to add a brick to the people working, but to take one away," Amelio said.

Building trust in a business leads to increased efficiency and decreased cost, he said.

"Trust is a factor hard to build but easy to destroy," Amelio said. "If we don't trust, we can't buy, we can't sell and the underlying economy can't be built."

Banks might also refuse to lend money to an organization if it fails to build a certain level of trust with it, Amelio said.

Agility is also important and requires businesses to assume unpredictable and disruptive changes, act promptly when changes occur and decentralize knowledge expertise and decision-making responsibilities, he said.

Amelio said embracing change with passion can help the company flourish in business. He said giving and receiving feedback is important, even when it is difficult, because it allows people to identify mistakes and aim for a change.

Doing one's best with an unshaken confidence level aids the process.

"I never ask my son if he got an A or a B," Amelio said. "I ask him if he tried his best."

Amelio said some of his objectives for a better global economy are diverse global perspectives, the ability to serve anywhere and to operate in all time zones. He said it's important we achieve these goals as soon as possible.

Amelio said the population has been increasing and technology has made worldwide communication easier, reversing what would otherwise become a chaotic process.

Faster means of realization, replication and exchange of ideas have shielded today's world from being affected by the large population when it comes to management, he said.

For example, the introduction of cell phones to Indian fishermen has eliminated their need to travel between market places for the best price, Amelio said. Now, it's just a phone call away.

He said today's products should be labeled "made globally," since most products go through a variety of assembly processes in many different countries with the help of many different people.

Amelio said the best world economy ever seen can be achieved when the East and West come together.

Amelio has worked worldwide as a global leader for Lenovo and launched Caring for Cambodia, a charity organization promoting education for underprivileged children in Cambodia.

Last year, Amelio was the commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2008. In his speech, Amelio said a Lehigh education is one of the best tools to succeed in a fast-moving world.

He also said the secret to success is the ability to admit one's mistakes and learn from them.

Tough Job Ahead For Nz Judge Dame Silvia Cartwright

guide2.co.nz
Friday, 27 March 2009

Dame Silvia Cartwright will next week start to hear the case against a man who ran Cambodia's most notorious torture centre and prison. MAGGIE TAIT of NZPA talks to her about the unusual role.

Wellington, March 27 NZPA - As many as 1.7 million Cambodians perished in the Khmer Rouge reign of terror, 14,000 of them "class enemies" of the Communist regime executed at Tuol Sleng, the S-21 torture centre and prison.

New Zealand judge and former Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright is one of five trial judges who must now decide if the man who ran the prison, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, is guilty of crimes against humanity.

It will be the first case heard by the United Nations-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

It has been a long road to the first case, after the hybrid local-international court was set up three years ago -- a decade after Cambodia sought United Nations help to try those most responsible for the 1975-79 Khmer Rough genocide.

Khmer leader Pol Pot died in 1998.

Dame Silvia, who has been living in Phnom Penh since last July, has been preparing for her role by reading a mountain of evidence.

"I don't think I have read everything by any stretch of the imagination but, by heaven, I've read a fair bit. It's huge," she tells NZPA.

The ECCC is based on the local Cambodian law, with international law and expertise, and uses the Civil Law system.

It varies from the New Zealand system, in which police investigate and a decision is then made whether to lay charges, followed by a preliminary hearing, then a trial.

Under a civil law system, a complaint is made to prosecutors who gather information which goes to investigating judges. After they investigate, a summary of the evidence and charges to be answered is prepared.

That process in the Duch case took a year and was in private. Last month a hearing decided what witnesses would be heard.

The trial judges -- one French, three Cambodians and Dame Silvia -- now have the case file and are preparing to go through it in the public hearing.

"Effectively it's our job to test the evidence in public and to allow the witnesses to say what they need to say in public and we then decide whether there is sufficient evidence to convict."

Dame Silvia has been wading through evidence on her computer in her ECCC office.

Once the trial gets under way she will be allocated certain areas to focus on.

"I might be asked to focus on how S21 or Tuol Sleng was actually established, or I might be asked to focus on methods of torture or focus on how many people died or something like that, and it will be my job to be totally on top of the evidence. The evidence goes to hundreds of thousands of pages."

Unlike New Zealand the evidence can be indirect -- for example there are at least 50 films in the file.

"Unlike our system in common law world it includes everything that anyone ever said on the subject that's been put in this case file, whether its got any evidentiary value or not."

As soon as one of the judges refers to any item in the file it becomes part of trial evidence, and the judges then decide what weight to give it.

"People are still putting material into the case file."

Another challenge for the judges was managing the civil parties. There are 95 in this case but there are thought to be already 3000 applications for the next investigation of senior Khmer Rouge figures and that figure could go as high as 10,000.

Dame Silvia says each civil party the judges approve is allowed to call and question witnesses.

There are more than a dozen civil party lawyers in the court.

Hearing the witnesses proposed by the prosecution is expected to take about three months.

There will be other witnesses and the judges will also be presented with personal information about the defendant.

If there is a guilty verdict sentencing will form part of the judgement.

A former teacher who is now a Christian, Duch, 66, has admitted his guilt, but the legal system as practised in Cambodia has no mechanism for a plea of guilty.

The judges decide his guilt or innocence after considering all the evidence.

It is alleged most victims at the prison were tortured and forced to confess to a variety of crimes -- mainly of being CIA spies -- before being bludgeoned to death in a field on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Women and children and babies were also killed. Few inmates survived.

New Zealander Kerry Hamill, 28, brother of rower Rob Hamill, died at the prison in 1978, where he was taken after his yacht was blown off course.

Apart from the judgement and sentencing, the judges will also have to resolve difficult legal issues around the charges.

They will make decisions on whether civil parties have proved they suffered damage, and whether they are entitled to reparations.

The tribunal has no money to pay financial reparation and no power to order the government to act.

"All we can really do is to say that these civil parties qualify because they have satisfied us they have suffered damages . That's the extent of our jurisdiction."

The ECCC has been beset with allegations of corruption within the administration, and of being politically influenced.

Its budget, originally $53 million for three years, has increased to $170m for five years.

The Cambodian branch of the ECCC is running out of money after a UN report highlighted problems with salaries and over staffing.

A hold has been put on donor money until problems are resolved.

Other accusations included that staff had to pay kickbacks of up to 30 percent of their salary in order to get the job.

Corruption is rife generally in Cambodia, but Dame Silvia says the ECCC is quite separate from the rest of the justice system.

Whatever may happen in the administration of the Cambodian arm of the body, Dame Silvia does not think there is a problem with the judiciary.

"I have no hint of any corruption of any description amongst my Cambodian judge colleagues."

One commentator has said the court's viability is in question.

"I don't believe the court is compromised to that extent," Dame Silvia said.

"If it were, a number of the judges would pack our bags and go away."

Any issues of corruption would have to dealt with in local courts.

NOTE: Maggie Tait is travelling to Cambodia with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

NZPA PAR mt kn

Poverty 'worsening' in Asia-Pacific

Espac says the global economic downturn is leading to worsening poverty levels [EPA]


Al Jazeera
Thursday, March 26, 2009

A United Nations reports says poverty is worsening in the Asia-Pacific region due to the global economic crisis.

Unstable food prices and climate change are contributory factors, the report by the UN Economic Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Espac) says.

The report, entitled Addressing Triple Threats to Development, was released on Thursday in over 20 cities across the region.

Among other things, Espac said that food and fuel prices rose dramatically in 2008.

It also said that record high oil prices last year contributed to an increase in the price of rice up by 150 per cent.

Rice is the region's staple, so price increases have hit the poor the hardest.

That triggered an increase in the number of undernourished people to 583 million.

'Triple threat'

The Espac report urged governments not to forget two "longer term crises", while dealing with the global economic downturn.

Food-fuel price volatility and climate change are converging with the economic crisis to create what Espac has labelled as "the triple threat".

"With almost two-thirds of the world’s poor and half of its natural disasters, Asia and the Pacific is at the epicentre of the triple crises," a press statement said.

The Espac report calls for 'adequate social protection system' to fight poverty [EPA]

The report also claims that the triple crises are "interlinked" and are reinforcing the impact of each other.

At the same time, studies have shown that natural disasters disproportionately affect the poor and the most vulnerable.

Asia is the most disaster-prone region in the world, and experiences almost half of global natural disasters. The region was home to almost 98 per cent of worldwide fatalities from natural disasters in 2008.

The Espac report says that climate change threatens to further magnify the vulnerability of the poor by increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters and crop failures in the region.

Noeleen Heyzer, the UN undersecretary-general and executive secretary of Escap,
told Al Jazeera that an "inadequate social protection system will make matters worse for the poor".

"Unfortunately, this is a region where, despite its economic growth, there is growing disparity".

Social protection

To illustrate her point, Heyzer said about 20 per cent of the population have access to health-care systems and "at the same time, if we look at the elderly, 30 per cent of will have access to pension schemes.

"Therefore the need to strengthen social protection systems as a way of stiumlating domestic demand, stimulating the economy and ultimately increasing income security and the feeling of security in our population is vital."

This is the second time in a decade Asia and the Pacific has been hit by a financial crisis.

Asian crisis experience

The Espac report says measures undertaken since 1997 made the Asia-Pacific region more resilient at the beginning of the current crisis.

Those steps involved the implementation of macroeconomic policies, banking reforms and foreign exchange reserve accumulation.

But that resilience started to erode when, in the fourth quarter of 2008, trade, the region’s most important sector, moved from double digit growth to double digit declines.

"The fact is that the Asia-Pacific region is more economically integrated with the rest of the world then with itself," Heyzer said.

"Intra-regional trade among developing countries accounts for only 38 per cent of exports in the region, compared with Nafta [The North American Free Trade Agreement] at 51 per cent and the European Union at 68 per cent."

Cambodia Tribunal Web Site to Host Video Footage of Trials

Website also provides latest news, information and commentary about the trials

CHICAGO, March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor web site - www.CambodiaTribunal.org - will host ongoing video footage from the long-awaited Khmer Rouge trials, which are scheduled to begin Monday, March 30. On trial will be senior officials of the Khmer Rouge regime for atrocity crimes.

Launched in September 2007 in anticipation of the trials, the Chicago-based Cambodia Tribunal Monitor web site is considered the primary source for information on these historic proceedings. In addition to hosting tape-delayed video footage of the trials, the site will also provide the latest news updates, official documents regarding the trials and regular commentary from leading international experts on the court proceedings as well as on topics such as the recent history of Cambodia, politics, human rights and international law.

From April 1975 to January 1979, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodian citizens died under the Khmer Rouge regime. After nearly 10 years of negotiations, a special war crimes tribunal has commenced near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The first to face prosecution is Kaing Geuk Eav, also known as "Duch", who allegedly oversaw mass torture and execution in prison camps, including Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng, or S-21, camp. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as the special Cambodian court is formally known, will oversee the proceedings and is a joint partnership of the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia. The trials for additional senior Khmer Rouge officials have not yet been set.

The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor was developed by a consortium of academic, philanthropic and non-profit organizations committed to providing public access to the tribunal and ensuring open discussions throughout the judicial process. The site sponsors include Northwestern University School of Law's Center for International Human Rights, the Documentation Center of Cambodia and the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation.

The Web site concept was conceived by Illinois State Senator Jeff Schoenberg, a Chicago-area legislator who also advises the Pritzker family on its philanthropy.

For more information on the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor web site or to interview internationally renowned legal experts, please call Patrick O'Connor at 312.573.5510 or 512.659.0858.

SOURCE Cambodia Tribunal Monitor

CAMBODIA: The high price of jealousy

Photo: William Grut/Rose Charities
Many children also suffer when some of the acid thrown towards an adult accidently drops on them

PHNOM PENH, 26 March 2009 (IRIN) - Sreygao is house-bound, her life destroyed after a jealous wife doused her face and neck with acid. It burned into her skin and blinded her.

“Everything has been taken from me because someone was very jealous,” she told IRIN.

Before the attack, Sreygao worked as a hostess at a karaoke parlor. Every night over beer, she flirted with and sometimes solicited sex to wealthy men, prompting an angry wife to take revenge on the 19-year-old.

“I have no face, no job, and I will suffer forever,” she said.

Deeper than scars

Acid throwing is a common form of retribution in Cambodia, usually perpetrated by jealous lovers, said William Grut, a surgeon at Vancouver-based Rose Charities, which provides free treatment.

“Whether male or female, jealousy is jealousy,” he told IRIN. “It's not a question so much for gender discussions but rather why it's so prevalent and how it can be reduced.”

Cambodia's pattern of gender blindness marks it out from Pakistan, India, and Malaysia, where it is usually the men who use acid on women for punishment or reasons of honour.

Between 1999 and 2002, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) documented 44 cases in local newspapers – the most thorough research to date, as no government body or NGO compiles data on acid attacks.

An attack occurs every 25 days, the group said in its report. But Jason Barber, a human rights consultant for LICADHO, told a radio station that the real number of attacks remained unknown since many went unreported.

Grut said the numbers available correlated with more populated areas, such as the capital, Phnom Penh, and smaller cities in Kandal and Kampong Cham.

Manifestation

I have no face, no job, and I will suffer forever.

The widespread availability of acid to replenish old batteries, weak law enforcement mechanisms, and what Grut calls “tertiary conflict injury”, have all popularised acid-throwing.

Tertiary conflict injury is a mindset in war-torn countries that problems can only be solved with violence, with beatings and acid attacks commonplace.

For decades, Cambodia has experienced coups, civil wars and a genocide in 1975-1979 that killed two million people.

“Cambodian history has regularly been very stressful for the [ordinary] person,” he told IRIN.

“This is not the same as PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], though arguably it may be a sort of long-term manifestation of it,” he said.

Repairing the damage

Corrective surgery is out of reach for most Cambodians, with 35 percent of the population living on less than US$1 a day, according to government statistics, so most sufferers must rely on emergency services from NGOs.

“Clearly in Cambodia, facilities are far more limited than in western countries, where one would have a long series of repetitive operations gradually working things back, reconstructing, and grafting,” Grut explained. “It would all be accompanied by very close counselling and peer assistance.”

But first, more attention needs to be paid to acid attacks as they are usually not a priority for local NGOs and government agencies, he added.

“There's not enough recognition at the NGO level, but at the street level there is,” he said. “People tend to know about acid attacks as the word goes around.”

Nepalese professor appointed as Human Rights envoy for Cambodia

The UN Human Rights Council has appointed Prof Surya Prasad Subedi as the next UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia. The Council voted unanimously to endorse the nomination made by the President of the HRC to appoint Prof Subedi at its meeting in Geneva on March 25.

Speaking at the meeting of the Council in Geneva after the Council decision to appoint Prof Subedi, the Cambodian ambassador to the UN welcomed the appointment and expressed the willingness of his government to cooperate with him in discharging his responsibilities as an independent human rights law expert.

Dr Subedi is Professor of International and Human Rights Law at the University of Leeds in England. He also is a Barrister in England, an Advocate in Nepal, and holds a doctoral degree in international law from the University of Oxford, a Master of Laws degree with Distinction from the University of Hull in England and an LLB from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

Commenting on his appointment, Prof Subedi said, “I am delighted and honoured by the trust and confidence placed in me by such a high level UN body in recognition of my work in the field of international and human rights law.”

Since this is a non-residential appointment, Prof Subedi would be working for the UN from his university in England and visiting Cambodia to monitor the human rights situation there and reporting to the UN Human Rights Council.

nepalnews.com Mar 26 09

Visions of Cuba and Cambodia

Nancy Carbonaro
"Survivor"

Wellesley Townsman

By By Anne-Marie Smolski, Townsman Staff
Thu Mar 26, 2009

Wellesley - When Nancy Carbonaro hung her photography exhibit in the Wellesley Free Library lobby at the beginning of the month it should have taken her two hours. Instead, because people were so interested in the images, it took five.

“CUBA/CAMBODIA/CARBONARO,” an exhibit of 19 photographs, is still attracting lots of attention. Carbonaro said each time she stops by the library, she has to bring more cards about the show and business cards for her photography studio on Crest Road, since they’ve been flying off the small table in front of the exhibit. As of last week, she had sold 10 photos (they are in editions of 25 per image). Proceeds from the sales will go to nonprofit foundations helping the children of Cambodia.

As the owner of Carbonaro Photography in Wellesley for the past seven years, she has specialized in creating natural, spontaneous portraits of children and families.

What is it that drives her to the slums of Phnom Penh?
“It’s the connection to the people. I use the camera to connect with people and learn who they are,” while always being careful to be respectful, Carbonaro said. That connection builds trust, she said.

In 2005, she had the opportunity to attend a private photography workshop taught by Ernesto Bazan in Cuba. When she was studying with Bazan, who has won international awards for his documentary work, she used the wide-angle lens of 28 mm, to be as close as possible to her subjects. “We had to be in our subjects’ world,” she explained.

For the workshop, she had to shoot in black and white. (The photos in the exhibit are in color. She used a Canon 20-D in Cuba and a Canon 5-D in Cambodia). Part of the workshop involved documenting various elements of life in Cuba, specifically in Vinealas and Havana. Carbonaro visited homes, tobacco farms, and even attended a cock fight. The class visited a tobacco farm, where Bazan had been documenting the family for years. “They’d raise the pig, they’d slaughter the pig. The next day they’d serve it for lunch,” Carbonaro said.

She loves learning about the customs of other countries, she said. For instance, there was the time when she was photographing a young girl who was receiving a scholarship in Cambodia. Carbonaro wanted to photograph the girl with her parents, but was told they wanted to include another person because they believed it was not good to have odd numbers of people in photos. In Cuba, she found when visiting poor families in their homes they would offer her group anything they had. “If it’s offered, it’s like a gift,” she said. How do you turn down a gift?” And although she doesn’t consider herself a “political person,” she finds that once she gets into these countries, she feels compelled to find out what’s going on there.

Inspired by her trip to Cuba, Carbonaro visited Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2006. The experience was memorable in more ways than one — a member of the workshop in which she was participating got run over by a bull. “She was a real trouper,” Carbonaro said. The woman was a little scuffed up, but OK.

In 2007, she had the time and the money to visit Cambodia, where the average family earns $400 a year.

“What I’d like to do is to get back to these countries. I’d really like to set up a project where I could be there for an extended period of time and really get to know the people,” Carbonaro said.

In the meantime, she is thinking of going to Brazil in September, and would really like to go to Appalachia. “They’re the poorest of the Americans,” she said.

Called a humanitarian photographer by Word Press, Carbonaro sees her work as “shedding light on those that live in darkness. These are the people of the world that don’t have a voice. It is her vision to give them a voice, a place to be seen and be heard.

From butter to photos
Born on wheels in an ambulance, Carbonaro is from Minneapolis. She went to college in Wisconsin, at UW-Stout.

She came to Boston when she was 30. She said she thought, “I’ll get a camera and document life in Boston.” She took continuing education classes at Mass. College of Art and New England School of Photography, and recalled that she “really started to fall in love with [photography].”

At the time she was working for Land O’Lakes in consumer product sales. “I sold butter,” she said. She continued working for Land O’Lakes for seven more years, and left as a district sales manager before starting her own photography business.

As for the work she does in Wellesley and nearby towns, she said, it’s a happy job. “I give a product to my clients that they love. It’s going to bring back, hopefully, really good memories. That’s the joy, that it makes people happy.”

Married and living in Newton, she spends her free time renovating her house. She also takes courses, and likes adventure sports, such as hiking, skiing and go-cart racing. She said she enjoys “anything that is on the edge,” anything that pushes her out of her comfort zone.

box
About the exhibit

CUBA/CAMBODIA/CARBONARO is on view at the Wellesley Free Library, 530 Washington St., through March 31. In April, the exhibit moves to Boston University, at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 940 Commonwealth Ave. In May, she’ll be showing at Coldwell Banker Hunneman in Jamaica Plain, and in September, the show will go up at the Center for Adult Education in Cambridge. Framed 16x20 prints are available for $295, with profits from the sale going to foundations that help the children of Cambodia. For more information, call 781-237-5990; www.carbonarophotography.com.

Former Rebels Skeptical of Guilty Verdicts

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Cambodia
26 March 2009

With five leaders awaiting trial at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, former cadre and other officials say the court could have a hard time building cases against them. Not everyone agrees.

“How can [evidence] be found?” asked Sok Pheap, a former Khmer Rouge division commander, in an exclusive interview with VOA Khmer at his home in Malai district, Banteay Meanchey province.

Now a major general in the army, following a defection from the Khmer Rouge in 1996, Sok Pheap is a deputy chief on the Cambodian side of a joint border committee with Thailand.

“Who were the killers?” he asked. “I didn’t know; I was the soldier in the forest, and when I came back home also my relatives had gone missing, killed, and most of villagers had died.”

The five jailed senior leaders—Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Kaing Kek Iev—are all facing various atrocity crimes charges and are being held in detention. Kaing Kek Iev, better known as Duch, will have the first day in court, March 30, in what is expected to be the easiest case to try.

Directly linking other leaders to the killings might be harder than it seems, and have unintended consequences, former rebels said.

Long Norin, the ex-aid to former foreign minister Ieng Sary, told VOA Khmer that trying leaders who were not responsible for the killing will cause people to feel unstable.

He gave as an example Khieu Samphan, who was the nominal head of the Khmer Rouge but who Long Norin says held no real power.

“Those who killed their fathers are still free and alive today,” he said. “That’s what I’m concerned about. Why are they not arrested? Khieu Samphan…not even a chicken would he dare to kill.”

Long Narin said the tribunal won’t be able to find justice for the deaths caused by the Khmer Rouge and will only impair development of the country.

Meas Muth in an interview with VOA Khmer

Former Khmer Rouge division commander Meas Muth, who experts say could face indictment if the tribunal widens its prosecution, said the Khmer Rouge should not be blamed for killings. If the courts are legitimate, he said, anyone who was guilty should be arrested.

“For instance, the skull bones that have been displayed: the court must know which skull belonged to a person killed by the Vietnamese, which belonged to a person killed by B-52 bombers, or any of the Khmers who did not die by the Khmer Rouge.”

The Khmer Rouge tribunal’s international prosecutor, Robert Petite, has said more indictments should be investigated, a recommendation opposed by his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang. The Pre-Trial Chamber has yet to decide on whether more people will be investigated.

Tep-Kunna, a former aid to Pol Pot and KR ambassador to the UN, talks to VOA Khmer.

However, Tep Kunnal, a former aid to Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge ambassador to the UN, said the tribunal law passed by the National Assembly specifies that only senior leaders of the regime will be prosecuted.

He said he supported whatever the UN and Cambodian positions of further indictments turn out to be, as both sides would be seeking to find solutions to tribunal problems.

“In peace-building like we have today, and joint development of the country like we have today,” he said, “one would not do anything backward; one would take Cambodia as a sample for other places in solving every issue.”

Tep Kunnal would not comment on what difficulties the court might face finding documents to link senior leaders to the killing fields.

However, lawyer Sok Sam Oeun, director of the Cambodia Defenders Project, said Khmer Rouge cases that have been buried for 30 years could be difficult to find evidence and witnesses for. Those who know the most are former Khmer Rouge cadre, he said, and unlikely to testify against their supporters.

“There are two issues in the Khmer Rouge trial,” he said. “One: to find evidence that the crime happened, and at this point, that’s not hard for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. But because our Khmer Rouge court does not charge the perpetrator—we charge those most responsible—it may be hard to find evidence or witnesses that can say, ‘Oh, the most responsible person is that name, A, or that name, B.’”

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has given more than 600,000 documents to the court, disagrees.

“There are many that want to be witnesses, no one is afraid,” he said. “The number of documents is not important, but wisdom to understand the story, to understand the history, and the legal aspects, is important. And that’s the role of the court.”

Many documents exist that former Khmer Rouge cadre are unaware of, even those linking the killings to their orders, he said. Skulls can now be verified through scientific experts and DNA, and analyzed for cause of death.

“It’s the obligation of the lawyers to make historical documents into evidence,” he added, “and it’s the obligation of the courts to connect these documents to the crimes that occurred.”

US Begins $77 Million Health Program

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 March 2009

The US Embassy on Thursday launched a new five-year health program, allotting $77 million over five years to combat HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and infectious diseases.

Cambodia has seen improving health indicators in recent years, the US Embassy said in a statement, but maternal mortality rates and tuberculosis remained a concern.

The US health program "is designed to help address many of these challenges in order to improve the health of all Cambodians, especially the poor and vulnerable," US Ambassador Carol Rodley said in remarks Thursday. "This program builds on over 15 years of successful work and collaboration in Cambodia, and it reaffirms the continued commitment of the United States to improve the health of all Cambodians."

The money, through USAID, will be distributed to government and non-governmental health agencies, including the Ministry of Health, the University Research Company, Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia and Cambodia Reproductive and Child Health Resource Center.

"USAID assistance at this time is a very important contribution to the development of the health capacity and public capacity of the health system," Health Minister Mam Bunheng said Thursday. "Our country still faces enormous challenges, and there are many requirements in all sectors."

Tuberculosis Continues To Kill

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 March 2009

Laying in bed at the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control, thin to the tendon, Sin Pich, 49, said she decided to go to the hospital after a cough that had persisted for around a year began producing.

She’d been at the center for two months, and she was getting weaker. Doctors say she’ll survive, but not all Cambodians are so lucky.

Health officials are facing a persistence of tuberculosis, which kills up to 35 Cambodians a day. That’s roughly the same number of people who died from the disease 5 years ago, according to USAID.

USAID ranks Cambodia one of nearly 20 most-burdened countries by tuberculosis, estimating that 64 percent of all Cambodians are infected.

In 2006, around 13,000 people died of the disease, according to the agency, which announced Thursday a $77-million health initiative, a large part of which would be to fight tuberculosis.

The government says it is working to build a network of treatment centers, but about 70,000 new cases appear annually, while many of those who die are also afflicted with HIV or AIDS.

“We have had a strategy, called DOTS, since 2004,” said Team Bak Khim, deputy director of the tuberculosis center, referring to directly observed treatment over a short period of time. “In this strategy, the patient can heal 100 percent.” However, that strategy is only in 11 provinces, or 36 districts.

The government is trying to use this strategy in all the provinces, he said. The problem is people don’t come to the hospital because they live far away. “We have to reach them,” he said.

Team Bak Him said he doesn’t believe the USAID figures. In 2008, only a few hundred people died from the disease, he said.

Cambodia keen to open tour to Phu Quoc island

03/26/2009

The Cambodian Ministry of Tourism has decided to open a new tour that links its four coastal provinces with Phu Quoc island of Vietnam.

Cambodian Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said he hoped that the new tour connecting Phu Quoc island with the provinces of Koh Kong, Kongpong Som, Kampot and Posat, would help increase the number of foreign travellers, including those from neighbouring Laos and Vietnam, to Cambodia.

The minister explained that Phu Quoc island is emerging as an attractive destination for tourists in the region, and according to some forecasts, it can draw around 3 million visitors each year by 2012.

He noted Cambodia needs to improve its infrastructure facilities as well as the tourism environment in a move to develop the non-smoking industry in the years to come.

Minister Thong Khon added that Vietnam’s tourism sector has attracted a growing number of foreign visitors thanks to its increased amount of investment poured into tourism facilities and traffic infrastructure.

VNA/VOVNews

VOA Khmer Launches New TV Program in Cambodia

(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington, D.C., March 25, 2009 - VOA Khmer Discovering, a new daily Voice of America ( VOA ) television product showcasing news features, begins airing across Cambodia on Monday, March 30, 2009.

VOA's first regular television segment in Khmer will be broadcast by National Television Kampuchea ( TVK ) on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 8:00 p.m. ( Cambodia time ), and at 8:00 a.m. Monday and Tuesday.

News feature programs on VOA Khmer Discovering will include feature stories in several areas, such as health, science, travel and life in America. The first show looks at jobs in the United States and space exploration, among other topics.

Information from the VOA Khmer Service ( www.VOANews.com/Khmer ), on radio and the Internet, has long been widely used in Cambodia, reprinted by blogs and other sites. VOA's weekly audience share of more than 29 percent makes it the largest international broadcaster in Cambodia.

"Television will allow us to expand our audience even more," said Chris Decherd, VOA's Khmer Service Chief.

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 134 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.

For more information, call VOA Public Relations at ( 202 ) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.