A refugee turned role model

Photo by: NORA LINDSTROM
Activist and trade unionist Sambeau Sam-Koskitanner says that though she considers Finland her home, she would like to see young women in Cambodia enjoying the same rights she is fighting for.

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WE NEED TO COOPERATE ... IF WE ROW IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS, THE BOAT WILL TIP OVER.
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The Phnom Penh Post
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
NORA LINDSTROM

With Finland turning more to the political right, a Cambodian-born refugee is an unlikely advocate for workers rights and the virtues of multiculturalism

For Sambeau Sam-Koskitanner, helping and serving others is simply second nature.

So it came as no surprise when the Cambodian-born refugee and activist was awarded Refugee Woman of the Year by the Finnish Refugee Council last year, she said.

"I never considered being rewarded, but of course it felt amazing all the same," Sam-Koskitanner said.

"It was funny though - I kept thinking that I've been Finnish for a good 20 years, and now suddenly I'm Refugee Woman of the Year."

Acknowledging her long-term work in trade unions and other grassroots activism in Finland, Sam-Koskitanner, now 30, was described by the panel as a role model and cultural ambassador.

Together with her surviving family, Sam-Koskitanner settled in Finland in 1988, when she was 9 years old. The family's journey through the jungles of northwest Cambodia and refugee camps in Thailand began as the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979.

Despite having spent most of her life in Finland, the refugee label has been hard one to shake off.

"I've become so Finnish that I can only visit Cambodia as a tourist," she said. "Even though I wouldn't want to be, I think I'll always be a refugee."

Two cultures in one
Sam-Koskitanner may be a refugee, but she is also fiercely and lovingly Finnish.

"You don't necessarily feel like the country you were born in is your homeland," she said. "Finland is my homeland. I get tears in my eyes when I hear the Finnish national anthem," she said in her near-perfect Finnish.

Yet she will never forget her Cambodian roots. In addition to her trade union activism, Sam-Koskitanner has worked with an educational volunteering project to bolster education in Cambodia.

Her job as an interpreter for the 200 or so Cambodians living in Finland means she is in constant touch with Khmer life and culture.

Describing herself as Finnish-Cambodian, she is the embodiment of multiculturalism, something many of her Finnish compatriots see as a threat.

"It is my life's work to convince people that we need to cooperate; we don't have a choice. If we row in different directions, the boat will tip over," she said.

Not everyone understands her message in what for a long time was a culturally homogenous country. Sam-Koskitanner said people found it difficult to understand why she as a "foreigner" would want to work for the benefit of Finland.

"They say I don't have roots here. But my children and grandchildren will live in Finland, and that to me is already quite a good reason to work for the best of the country. Sometimes I've been able to make people understand this, other times not," she said.
Ice blocks in the sky

Though Sam-Koskitanner may have integrated into Finnish life better than other foreigners, her journey was not without anxiety and tragedy.

Describing the hardships she and her family endured, including the loss of eight of her siblings, she is visibly moved.

"That my past as a refugee was very difficult, that didn't stop me. In contrast, it's made me more determined," she said.

"I'm alive, and thus I have the right as well as duty to help others."

She said that when she stepped onto the aeroplane from the refugee camp, she didn't even realise it was a plane. "All I thought was 'What a nice metallic door opened'.... When the door was finally opened again, we were in a country where the trees had no leaves and some kind of flakes came from the sky," she said.

She realised the tok kok falling from the sky were not like the ice blocks she was used to seeing back home, but snowflakes.

Following her award last year, Sam-Koskitanner was invited to the prestigious President's Independence Day Ball.

"Walking in there, it struck me in what a complete opposition that situation was to my life as a refugee, as well as before reaching the refugee camp," she reflects.

Though her work is centred on Finland, thoughts of Cambodia are not far behind.

"I live in Finland as young, modern woman, and I would like to see women in Cambodia to have that opportunity, too," she said.

CTN reality series closes in on Kun Khmer Champion

Photo by: ROBERT STYARKWEATHER
With relentless low kicks, Phan Sothy (right, blue gloves) stopped Sok Ratha in the second round of their third place playoff bout of CTN’s Kun Khmer Championship at CTN arena Sunday

Photo by: ROBERT STYARKWEATHER
Sok Ratha (left) leans against the ropes in the second round as referee Chhit Sarim counts to eight.

The Phnom Penh Post
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Robert Starkweather

Battambang's Phan Sothy blasts past Kampot's Sok Ratha Sunday to take third place in CTN's televised boxing reality series with a second-round win

THE penultimate match of CTN's Kun Khmer Champion reality series came to an early, brutal end Sunday when Phan Sothy stopped Sok Ratha in the second round with a series of vicious low kicks.

Midway through the second round, the taller Phan Sothy chased Sok Ratha into the neutral corner with jabs and low kicks, the packed house punctuating every blow with a roar. With Sok Ratha leaning against the turnbuckle and clinging to the top rope, Phan Sothy smashed away at his legs with half a dozen more low kicks.

Sok Ratha fell to the seat of his pants and stayed there.

The victory earns Battambang's Phan Sothy third place in the show, billed as "Cambodia's toughest reality series". Kampot's Sok Ratha takes fourth.

The second season of Kun Khmer Champion began in March. Produced by CTN, the series puts 12 rookie fighters together under one roof to live and train.

"Hopefully it can reach out to people who are only casual fans of kickboxing, or even those who don't find the sport particularly appealing, to show them another side of the sport," said Aaron Leverton, a consultant to the show.

Meas Sokry from the Ministry of Interior boxing club and Sok Vichay from Kleang Meurng boxing club trained the fighters. Vorn Viva, the ISKA world middleweight champion, served as assistant trainer.

Through tests of physical strength, contestants were selected for weekly fights. Winners stayed on the show; losers went home.

Phan Sothy's route to third
Phan Sothy, a 24-year-old from Thma Kuol district in Battambang, entered Sunday's third place playoff bout with a professional record of 5-2, of which two wins and one loss came in Kun Khmer Champion bouts. The victory Sunday improved his record to 6-2.

To reach the show's semifinals, Phan Sothy beat Chorn Vichen. In that fight, Phan Sothy scored an eight count early in the second round with a flying knee. A minute later, following a series of low kicks and then an elbow, Chhorn Vichen's corner threw in the towel with 1:10 left in the round.

In a brief but thrilling semifinal match, Prey Veng's Sam Ounlorng knocked out Phan Sothy in the second round with a straight right hand.

Sok Ratha, a 23-year-old from Kampot, entered the bout Sunday with a record identical to his opponent's, both inside and outside the TV series.

To earn his place in the semifinals, Sok Ratha came back from a first-round knockdown to stop Heam Samnang in the third.

In his semifinals match, Sok Ratha scored two second-round knockdowns against Siem Reap's Puy Neurn and was microseconds away from scoring a third and winning by referee stoppage when the bell rang. Puy Neurn came back in the third to score a TKO over Sok Ratha with an elbow.

Sam Ournlourng and Puy Neurn will step into the ring Sunday to fight for the championship. The winner will pocket US$1,750, a huge figure by local boxing standards. The loser will get $800.

"I can beat Puy Neurn, I am 80 percent sure," said Sam Ournlourng after knocking out Phan Sothy.

Crown play Thai leaders

The Phnom Penh Post
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
KEN GADAFFI

Reigning CPL and Samdech Hun Sen Cup champions Phnom Penh Crown are heading to Thailand today for a couple of friendly matches against Thai Premier league leaders Chonburi FC. According to Crown manager Makara Be, the team is taking time off to prepare for the tough schedule ahead as they look set to consolidate their position in the league following Saturday's 3-1 spanking of National Defense Ministry. The team will play its first match Friday, and then another Sunday before returning to play their next league game against archrivals Naga Corp July 22.

Police Blotter: 14 Jul 2009

The Phnom Penh Post
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
KONG SAKUN

POLICE HOSTAGE IN DOMESTIC DISPUTE
Eight police officers were held hostage for an hour on Sunday after they attempted to intervene in a love triangle. Choun Kim Seang, 24, and her brother, Choun Kim Doch, 21, locked the police officers in a rented house in Kandal's Ang Snuol district. Police said the violence broke out when Bun Chhay, 34 accused Choun Kim Seang of "stealing" her husband. During the dispute, Choun Kim Doch sided with his sister and attacked Bun Chhay with a samurai sword. A female witness to the altercation called police, who were subsequently locked in the rented house of Choun Kim Seang. Once released, the police arrested the siblings and confiscated the samurai sword.
KOH SANTEPHEAP

COCKS SEIZED IN B'BANG RING STING
Battambang police officials confiscated seven cocks, nine eggs and six motorcycles, following a raid on a cockfighting ring on Saturday. The incident occurred in the province's O Mal commune, at a location owned by provincial military official Mok Someth. Koy Kan Yan, a provincial prosecutor, said Mok Someth must be fined and re-educated in order to put a stop to the illegal activities.
KOH SANTEPHEAP

STOLEN BIKES SEIZED FROM PAWNSHOP
Poipet police searched and confiscated eight motorcycles from a pawnshop owned by Nop Chanto last Thursday. Police said the search followed a complaint by Pum Bunna, 27, who claimed his black Honda Dream with no number plate was stolen and then sold to the shop. The pawnshop is located in Poipet city's Kbal Spien village.
KAMPUCHEA THMEY

TWO NABBED OVER K SPEU MURDER
Two men were arrested on Friday in connection with the killing of a 26-year-old man whose body was thrown into Preak Thnot River. Kampong Speu's Samroang Tong district police identified the killers as Sok Touch, 29, and Vak Thy, who both reside in the district's Voa Sar commune. After the arrest, police said the perpetrators confessed that they killed the man by punching and strangling him before hurling the victim's body into the river. The motive for the killing was not disclosed.
KOH SANTEPHEAP

THIEVES TAKE $4,000, INJURING BYSTANDER
A group of armed robbers injured a 28-year-old bystander and stole US$4,000 from a money changer on Saturday in Russey Keo district's Tuol Sangkae commune. Police identified the money changer as Sun Dara, 27, and the wounded bystander as Lak Lida, who both reside in the commune's Tuol Kork village. Eyewitnesses said the group consisted of four to six people armed with two handguns.
KAMPUCHEA THMEY

In Brief: DELL, PTC ink deal

The Phnom Penh Post
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Post Staff

DELL Computer announced Friday that PTC Computer Technologies Co has been selected as the authorised distributor in Cambodia. The agreement, which is effective from July, includes all Dell consumer and small and medium business products, including Vostro, Inspiron, Studio and Studio XPS notebooks and desktops, LCD monitors and ESG products.”PTC is a large distribution company and with a vast dealer network across the country and having tied up with them we have fulfilled our ... objective to have a complete national presence, Dell Consumer Marketing Manager Krittawit Krittayaruangroj said in a statement.

.'Killing Fields' Trial

Cambodian man takes photographs of a small shrine with human bones and skulls, alleged victims of the Khmer Rouge, at Ampe Phnom village, Kampong Speu province, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) southwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

A handout picture released by the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia shows witness Ly Hor, a former prisoner of the Khmer Rouge regime, at the courtroom in Phnom Penh. A woman who said she survived the brutal regime's main torture centre has identified chilling photos of family members killed at the jail.(AFP/HO/ECCC/File)

Photographers take picture of Mam Nai, a former Khmer Rouge Chief of Interrogation Unit of the notorious S-21 prison, seen on a screen at the court press center of the U.N.-backed tribunal trying Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, July 13, 2009.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Journalists take pictures from a live feed of Man Nai, a former chief of interrogation of S-21during the trial of the Khmer Rouge regime's chief torturer Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh July 13 , 2009.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Journalists take pictures from a live feed of Man Nai, a former chief of interrogation of S-21during the trial of the Khmer Rouge regime's chief torturer Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh July 13 , 2009.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, former chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, known Tuol Sleng genocide museum, is seen on a screen during his trial, at the court press center of the U.N.-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, July 13, 2009. Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. He is charged with crimes against humanity and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the U.N.-assisted tribunal.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, former chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, known Tuol Sleng genocide museum, is seen on a screen during his trial, at the court press center of the U.N.-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, July 13, 2009. Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. He is charged with crimes against humanity and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the U.N.-assisted tribunal.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian Nam Mon, 48, center, a nurse for the former Khmer Rouge prisoners of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, known as Tuol Sleng genocide museum is seen on a screen during the trial for Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison at a court press center at the U.N.-backed tribunal, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, July 13, 2009.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

A foreign journalist looks at a PC screen as Cambodian Nam Mon, 48, above, a nurse for the former Khmer Rouge prisoners of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, known as Tuol Sleng genocide museum, on a screen at a court press center during the U.N.-backed tribunal Thursday, July 9, 2009 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The U.N.-backed tribunal is on going to try Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, of a radical communist regime that killed and starved to death about 1.7 million Cambodians in the late 1970s.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Delegating is key to improving govt service

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
Tong Soprach

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to the article "Government, US start training sessions for future spokespeople" (July 7, 2009).

I think this is a good start by the government to equip each ministry with a designated spokesperson, but I disagree with the senior government official who stated that the problem we are facing right now is the lack of human resources to fill these positions.

In my opinion, this might have been true during the 1980s and 1990s, in the wake of the Khmer Rouge regime. But this can no longer be used as an excuse.

Many government officials are well-educated and have graduated from local and international universities with financial support from the government through scholarships each year, not counting the years of personal work experience in their various positions.

In addition, NGOs have often provided additional resources, including technical assistance.

In fact, some government officials are even teaching at universities.

I do not think it is a difficult thing to create the position of spokesperson for government individuals or ministries.

The difficulty lies in whether any potential spokespeople will be allowed to speak, and who might be interested in doing such a difficult job.

Cambodia has a long tradition of everyone deferring to the boss, who rarely delegates responsibility or decision-making to others.

In fact, decisions tend not to be made until the boss makes them, even if action on any particular issue has to be put on hold.

This approach can be a barrier in the maintenance of Cambodia's governmental bureaucracy, as sometimes a long period of time can pass before permissions, agreements or other documents can be obtained from government bodies.

Therefore, I would suggest that government officials should open their minds and encourage staffers under their supervision to take more responsibility and to help in capacity-building.

They must delegate some of their obligations in order to improve the quality of government services.

Tong Soprach
Phnom Penh


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Send letters to: newsroom@phnompenhpost.com or PO?Box 146, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Post reserves the right to edit letters to a shorter length.

The views expressed above are solely the author’s and do not reflect any positions taken by The Phnom Penh Post.

Khmer Rouge horrors still haunt victims 30 years on

Joel Brinkley

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Kampong Speu, Cambodia -- They started arriving before 8 a.m., middle-aged men and women, poor rice farmers mostly - damaged survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime.

The Documentation Center of Cambodia, a private research organization that collects evidence on the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, was bringing to this small provincial town a video projector and a DVD. It shows highlights of the testimony in a Khmer Rouge trial under way in Phnom Penh.

"I want to contribute to engaging the victims in the court process," explained Youk Chhang, the center's director. The founding agreements establishing the court opened the proceedings to victims of the Khmer Rouge. "Some Cambodians have moved on," he added. "But there are others who still suffer, and these are the ones we are targeting." That's just whom he got.

For an hour, about 75 people watched transfixed as Kaing Khek Lev, commander of S-21, the notorious prison-torture chamber where thousands of Cambodians died, described his crimes. He is better known as Duch, and he told how he supervised as his soldiers executed victims by whacking them on the back of the head with a hoe.

Duch is 66 now and looked directly at the judges with a calm and confident gaze, seeming to be the commander still, as he confessed to his terrible crimes, apologized and asked for forgiveness.

"I was given a directive to use a plastic bag to suffocate prisoners," he acknowledged.

When the video excerpts ended, the room sat silent - stunned, it seemed. A documentation center official asked audience members to talk about what they had seen.

The DVD was paused on a scene in which Duch seemed to be staring directly at the crowd with a stern, almost threatening, gaze.

The first woman who raised her hand took the microphone and promptly broke into tears.

"Forgiveness is not acceptable," she declared, wiping her eyes. "They killed my father and two older brothers."

Next a middle-aged man told of how six of his relatives died, and as he spoke his large brown eyes grew red and filled with tears. Still another man was choking up so that his words were hard to understand.

"I was a child, and I was starving," he stammered. "They gave us no food, and sometimes I would fall down and pass out and then wake up again." And so it went.

Cathartic? Perhaps. Injurious? Maybe.

The problem is, almost half the adult population of Cambodia, those older than 35 or 40, shows symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, a severe psychological condition that typically afflicts soldiers, but also civilians who live through trauma - like the horror here 30 years ago.

And for them, psychiatric experts say, watching a video like the one these people saw is like poking a stick in a hornet's nest. It triggers all of the symptoms: pain, rage - even violence.

One medical study of Cambodian refugees in Long Beach - the largest concentration of Cambodians in the United States - found that 62 percent of the adults had PTSD.

That and other studies found a generally dysfunctional population with high levels of alcoholism, drug use - and terrible violence.

Daryn S. Reicherter, a psychiatrist at Stanford University, served as a consultant to the Documentation Center here in the spring and came back concerned. "There needs to be some medical follow-up with these people" after the show has ended, he insisted.

So far, the Documentation Center has trucked more than 10,000 villagers to Phnom Penh to see the trial - or brought DVD excerpts to show in their own villages.

Youk Chhang understands the doctors' concerns but points out that he is a researcher, not a treatment specialist. The government, he says, should provide any needed psychiatric services. But then, Cambodia has only about 26 psychiatrists in the entire nation.

Yim Choy, a 44-year-old farmer, shouted at the crowd, saying that he had been conscribed to a child-labor team. "I cannot forgive Duch," he declared, his voice laced with bitter anger. "How can I when I saw him throw little boys against a tree?"

Afterward, he told me that, even now, he cannot talk about those times without growing angry. And yet he has a hard time keeping the thoughts out of his mind.

He even dreams of the horrors - a hallmark of PTSD. "I see myself with my hands tied behind me." All of that makes him angrier still.

After watching scenes like this, Reicherter posed a rhetorical question: "Why is this important?"

"Children are growing up," he explained, "with violent, PTSD parents who are drunk and beat them. That's the generation that is coming."

Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times. To comment to him, e-mail brinkley@foreign-matters.com. Contact us at forum@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page E - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Different Opinions about the End of the Publication of Moneaksekar Khmer – Monday, 13.7.2009

Posted on 14 July 2009
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 621
http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“Moneaksekar Khmer – ‘Khmer Conscience’ – which had been an opposition newspaper for more than 10 years, stopped its publication, and this newspaper can no longer be purchased at the newspaper stands in Phnom Penh since 10 July 2009. The end of the publication of this opposition newspaper makes an opposition voice disappear, and supporters, including civil society, really regret this.

“But the Sam Rainsy Party does not blame the editor-in-chief [of Moneaksekar Khmer, Mr. Dam Sith,] for it understands his difficulties.

“Moneaksekar Khmer halted its publication in exchange for the order from Mr. Hun Sen to government lawyers to withdraw 18 complaints, related to 18 articles previously published by Moneaksekar Khmer, which the government claims are inciting and provoking friction among the Cambodian People’s Party, and the complaints were brought to the court as criminal complaints. Because of these complaints by the government for alleged disinformation, the editor-in-chief wrote letters of apology to Mr. Hun Sen and to other leaders of the Cambodian People’s Party, surprisingly with the promise to support the government policy under the leadership of Mr. Hun Sen, and Mr. Dam Sith agreed to stop the publication of Moneaksekar Khmer.

“The deputy prosecutor of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Mr. Sok Kalyan, told The Cambodia Daily on Friday that he had been ordered to withdraw the complaints against Mr. Dam Sith, but he added that he has not yet decided whether to continue to follow up on this case or not.

“The editor-in-chief was quoted by The Cambodia Daily yesterday that there were no newspapers on sale on Friday any longer, but he did not add any further comments.

“This end of the publication of Moneaksekar Khmer came at the time after the Phnom Penh Court had convicted the editor-in-chief of Khmer Machas Srok [also an opposition newspaper], Mr. Hang Chakra, to serve 12 months in prison, and had fined him Riel 9 million [roughly US$2,200] for disinformation and inciting social unrest.

“The loss of well-known newspapers and journalists supporting the Sam Rainsy Party is a problem for the opposition party, when seeing the publication scene in Cambodia at present. Many critics notice that most television and radio stations show a bias in favor of the Cambodian People’s Party, while the opposition parties are allowed to broadcast only two hours per day through some radio stations and some not well-known newspapers.

“Observers and media experts deplore the halt of the publication of Moneaksekar Khmer, and they strongly criticized the decision of the editor-in-chief of Moneaksekar Khmer to close down the newspaper and to apologize, as this poses concerns for the future.

“The executive director of Committee for Free and Fair Elections, Mr. Kol Panha, said that the Sam Rainsy Party now lost one of its few instruments to communicate its messages. He added that, worst of all, the apology by the editor-in-chief of Moneaksekar Khmer for articles previously published in his newspaper might weaken the opposition against the government and the ruling party.

“Mr. Kol Panha said, ‘This apology affects the opposition party, as it means that previously published criticism was wrong.’

“The director of the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies, Mr. Moeun Chhean Nariddh, said on 10 July 2009 that Moneaksekar Khmer had played an important role in the media of Cambodia, functioning as an opposition voice to stand against the many pro-government newspapers. He said, ‘Moneaksekar Khmer raised a voice from another side, not the voice of the government. Therefore, we now lost the balance in the media.’

“Mr. Chhean Nariddh added that the decision of the editor-in-chief to halt the publication of Moneaksekar Khmer and his apology for the articles that had been published, can affect the future of the local media. He stressed, ‘We don’t want the culture of apology; the court had not yet found that he is guilty. His decision to apologize is therefore serious.’

“The director of the Sambok Khmum Radio, which frequently broadcasts criticism and sells air-time hours to the Sam Rainsy Party and to the Human Rights Party, Mr. Mam Sonando, believes that Mr. Dam Sith decided to stop the publication under pressure from the government. However, he added that an individual who works with a public voice for an opposition party should withstand, upholding their conviction, even though they might be imprisoned.

“He went on to say, ‘They (the government) will not abandon their strategy of threats, but that is their problem. As for us, as a challenging team, we must be clear – if having said something and then we are arrested and sent to prison, let it happen. To apologize so that you are not imprisoned is wrong.’ He added, ‘They can jail me, but they cannot jail my opinions and my will. I have been imprisoned twice and if it happens a third time, I will drive my motorbike to the prison and wait at the gate.’

“The Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian from Battambang, Mr. Eng Chhay Ieng, said that Mr. Dam Sith does not disappoint the Sam Rainsy Party because of his apology to Prime Minister Hun Sen. He added that Mr. Dam Sith still stays with the Sam Rainsy Party; ‘We know his difficulties.’ He continued to say, ‘I am not surprised, because I know the policy of the current leaders who do not want to hear an opposition voice.’ He is worried about the impact on the Sam Rainsy Party, as it can lose support from Khmer citizens.

“The spokesperson of the Council of Ministers, Mr. Phay Siphan, said that Mr. Dam Sith decided himself to close Moneaksekar Khmer. He said, ‘He did it for his personal reasons, and no one forced him to close Moneaksekar Khmer.’”

Khmer Machas Srok, Vol.3, #445, 12-14.7.2009
Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Monday, 13 July 2009

Recycled ‘cemetery goods’ flood Vietnam

The 'cemetery goods' at Chau Long market

http://english.vietnamnet.vn

13/07/2009

VietNamNet Bridge – A huge volume of used goods from the ‘rich countries’ seeps into Vietnam across its border with Cambodia. The trade in seconds, irregulars and second-hand clothing, fabrics and electronic gear, unsanctioned but clearly tolerated, has flourished since the early days of ‘doi moi.’

In Chau Doc, a city in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang province, Chau Long Market has become well known as an entrepot for used goods ‘smuggled’ into Vietnam from nearby Cambodia. The people of the Delta call them ‘cemetery goods.’ According to Lam Van Tuoi, deputy manager of the market, some 275 households now trade in ‘cemetery goods’, including clothes, handbags, footwear and fabric.

The general depot of ‘cemetery goods’

Every morning at Chau Long, big trucks arrive to deliver goods. Bales of goods, one after the other, are unloaded from the trucks and carried to every household before they are delivered to customers.

Every bale of used clothes weighs 100 kilogrammes and sells from three million to over five milliion dong. Customers here are mainly wholesalers who carry the used goods back to their home provinces.

Another market, next to the Tinh Bien border crossing, specializes in foreign made fabric. At Tinh Bien, there are some 300 kiosks; many sell ‘irregular’ fabric or liquidated stocks of imported fabric at very low prices. Some fabric sells for only 3,000-5,000 dong per metre, so cheap that it is called ‘cemetery fabric’.

Like the used clothes, the fabric is sold in bales, each containing 50-120 meters of cloth.

“People purchase the fabric to make clothes or door curtains to sell at markets,” said T, a vendor at the Tinh Bien Market. Customers who purchase goods in big volumes need only provide their addresses and put money down; their goods will be delivered to their doors.

Imported footwear, wallets, hats, ties and children’s toys are also on offer. There are some ten traders of these kinds of products in Chau Doc town. The traders said they travel to Rong Kloea flea market in Thailand to collect goods to resell in Vietnam.

The route of the ‘cemetary goods’

At Tamau Market in Takeo, Cambodia, boats arrive from Phnom Penh laden with second-hand products, irregulars and overstocks: electronic goods, consumer electric products, bicycles and consumer products.

At Tamau market is the transit place, Vietnamese traders collect the goods they have purchased in Phnom Penh, Kompong Som port (Cambodia) and Rong Kloea Market. From there, the gods are carried across the border line to depots in Chau Doc town. From the depots, goods pour out every day to Chau Long Market and other markets in neighboring Delta provinces.

Tamau is but one of many cross-border transit places. There is a depot in Prekchray (Cambodia’s Kandal province). This is a huge, metal-roofed house containing many tens of tons of old fabric and clothes. Prices there are cheaper by 500,000 dong per bale, so a lot of Vietnamese traders come to Prekchray.

The ‘cemetery goods’ are also carried on boats from Phnom Penh through Bac Dai border crossing, and then carried along the track to Dong Thap in Long An province, enroute to HCM City, where the goods are re-sold in Ba Chieu, Tan Binh and An Dong Markets.

Wastes, too, are being brought to Vietnam

‘Cemetery goods’ are selling well in Vietnam because many Vietnamese consumers are happy to buy dirt cheap products.

Traders said that the quality of the illegal imports has deteriorated. Previously, every 100 kilos of shirts (400 shirts on average) had 170 first-class shirts, but now there are only 100. (‘First-class’ products mean the ones which still look new and have acceptable quality). It’s the same for jeans. Only 20 pairs of jeans are found ‘relatively good’ in every 50 kilos of the products, according to Tuan, who has been trading goods from Phnom Penh.

The threat embodied in these imports, says an environment official in An Giang province, is that Vietnam is becoming the place which consumes the refused products of the rest of the world’s countries.

Cross-border traders say that nowadays liquidated fabric from China’s textile factories have been carried to Cambodia to be re-exported to Vietnam.

Tuoi tre newspaper has reported that this kind of fabric has been purchased by private garment workshops which make low cost clothes, blankets, pillow cases and window curtains for sale in rural areas. Besides, the fabric is also used to make uniforms for workers and as lining for other products like handbags and seat cushions.

To ‘renew’ overly old products, the fabric is reportedly treated with chemical substances which are harmful to human health. Besides, used products may bear the germs of their original users.


The ‘cemetery goods’ trading began in the 1990’s. At first, the goods were mainly clothes, including relatively new products, and were widely popular. Later on, cemetery goods came to include electronics, consumer electric products, children’s toys and many other consumer goods. The products are gathered from many countries, including the US, South Korea, Japan, Canada and Hong Kong, and carried to Singapore.

In Singapore, they are classified and packaged and then are exported to Phnom Penh or Rong Kloea flea market in Thailand. B.K.A, a big trader of ‘cemetery goods,’ said that nearly ten tons of goods reach Vietnam every day, a level even higher than the volume of Vietnam’s new garment exports.

An Giang Customs Agency said that since the beginning of 2008, the agency has seized 17,000 kilogrammes of used clothes and 4,000 metres of fabric.

Khmer Rouge survivor relives horror ordeal

http://www.iol.co.za/

July 13 2009

Phnom Penh - A Khmer Rouge survivor on Monday told Cambodia's war crimes trial she saw the regime's prison chief kill her two uncles - the first testimony that Duch executed detainees at the main jail.

Nam Mon told the UN-backed court she witnessed Duch, known to her during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule as Brother East, killing her uncles while she worked as a medic at Tuol Sleng, the central torture centre and prison.

While Duch, real name Kaing Guek Eav, has admitted responsibility for overseeing the torture and extermination of around 15 000 people who passed through the prison, he denies personally killing anyone.

But 48-year-old Nam Mon said: "Outside the gate, near the coconut tree, both my uncles were ordered to kneel down and they were beaten and killed. I was shocked but I did not do anything".

"I saw this Brother East use a metal bar about half a metre long to beat those people underneath a coconut tree," she added.

"After they were killed... I was terrified, I could no longer speak and I could not concentrate on my work any longer".

Asked by Judge Nil Nonn whether she had any questions for Duch, Nam Mon said: "Are you going to deny the truth of the facts that I have said in front of the chamber?"

Duch, 66, responded that Nam Mon could not have worked at Tuol Sleng because no female medics were employed there.

"Yes, I acknowledge they suffered, she suffered, but not at (Tuol Sleng)," he said. "All the names that she provided, when I checked the list (of detainees), it's non-existent. There's no evidence at all."

Recognised as a civil claimant in the case against Duch, Nam Mon was revealing her story in public for the first time, her lawyer said last week.

However, judges have cast doubt on the authenticity of several civil claimants who have testified that they were at Tuol Sleng.

Earlier on Monday, Nam Mon was comforted by a court-appointed psychiatrist while she identified chilling black and white photos of her parents, three brothers and a sister-in-law whom she said were imprisoned and executed at Tuol Sleng.

"This is the photo of my father the moment he was dying," Nam Mon said after being shown an image of an emaciated man lying down, staring into the air.

She told the court on Thursday that one of her brothers had been ordered to kill her father. Her testimony was adjourned last week when she began to weep uncontrollably.

Nam Mon said that her two elder brothers were guards at Tuol Sleng before her family was killed at the notorious jail, while she initially lived and worked there before being interrogated herself.

"I treated the sick. I saw prisoners who were beaten and interrogated... I only saw the wounds and the bleeding on bodies of prisoners while I treated them," Nam Mon said on Monday.

Duch begged for forgiveness near the start of his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity after accepting responsibility for his role overseeing the jail.

But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he held a central leadership role in the Khmer Rouge.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia. Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation, overwork or torture.

Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in detention and expected to face trial next year. - Sapa-AFP

Malaysian group to invest $160m in Cambodian power

Mon Jul 13, 2009

PHNOM PENH, July 13 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Leader Universal Holdings Bhd (LUNS.KL: Quote, Profile, Research), southeast Asia's largest cable and wire group, will invest $160 million in a coal-fired power plant in southern Cambodia, a government minister said on Monday.

The deal aims to meet the increasing demand for power in Cambodia and will increase production by 100 megawatts by late 2011 or early 2012, Ith Praing, deputy minister of industry, mines and energy, told Reuters.

He said the plant would be situated in the costal province of Sihanoukville and was expected to take two years to complete.

Cambodia currently produces an estimated 300 MW of electricity and has planned to meet its demand of 400 MW with supplies from neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam.

The high cost of electricity in Cambodia, which has a unit price of $0.20 per kilowatt hour, has limited foreign investment in the impoverished country as it seeks to rebuild after three decades of civil war.

The government is hoping to attract $3 billion of foreign investment to build six hydro power plants and a coal power plant by 2018 and more than double the current levels of production. (Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Martin Petty and Jon Boyle)

Stop thief! Teens swipe girl's donation jar

http://www.lowellsun.com/

By Robert Mills, rmills@lowellsun.com
Updated: 07/13/2009

LOWELL -- Police are looking for two young teens who went into a Broadway Street convenience store and stole a donation jar that was placed there by a 10-year-old girl who was raising money for poor children.

Officers were called to P&S Convenience, at Willie and Broadway streets, after a passing motorist saw a clerk chasing someone down the street last night about 9:15 p.m.

Store owner Peter Nhim said the clear plastic container had been chained and locked to the store's counter, but that one of the boys yanked on it hard enough that the plastic container broke free.

He chased the boys through the parking lot behind his store and saw them escape down Cross Street, toward Fletcher Street.

"I'm so upset right now. She worked hard on this thing," Nhim said of his 10-year-old daughter, Chresina, who was collecting the money. "Even kids put their change in there."

Nhim said there were $5 and $10 bills in the container.

He said his daughter was raising money to buy school supplies for poor children in Cambodia, since she had been there and met students who barely had any supplies.

She came up the idea on her own, and Nhim agreed to support it by putting a jar on his store's counter.

The jar was made of clear plastic, and bears a picture of a young girl, about 8 years old, holding a younger child.

"She was so happy," Nhim said of his daughter. "Right now if I called her she would cry."

The boy who grabbed the jar is described as a black male, about 5-foot-5, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and black pants.
The boy who was with him was described as an Asian male, about 5-foot-9, clean cut, wearing a white shirt, jeans and a baseball cap.

Both were in their early teens.

Anyone with information is asked to call Lowell police at (978) 937-3200.

The Asia Foundation Appoints Gavin Tritt as Country Representative in Cambodia

Press Release
Source: The Asia Foundation
On Monday July 13, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO & PHNOM PENH, Cambodia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, The Asia Foundation announced the appointment of Gavin Tritt as Country Representative in Cambodia. He succeeds Roderick Brazier, who served as the Foundation’s Country Representative from 2006 to May 2009.

An expert on governance, counter-corruption, and education in Asia, Mr. Tritt joined the Foundation in 1993 as a program officer for economics in the Foundation’s Center for Asian and Pacific Affairs.

From 1999-2002, he was the Foundation’s Deputy Country Representative in the Philippines, where he developed and managed programs, including in economic and counter-corruption reform. Mr. Tritt also managed the Pacific Economic Outlook project. For the following six years, as director of the Foundation's Books for Asia program, Tritt oversaw the dramatic expansion of the program, which now donates one million books a year throughout Asia. During his tenure, the number of book donations tripled and the program expanded to provide books and educational materials to Afghanistan, India, and Bhutan. Tritt then moved from the Books program to serve as director of the Foundation's Governance programs. In this capacity, he led the design and implementation of programs on counter-corruption and local governance, as well as the Foundation’s strategic planning and evaluation efforts.

Tritt holds a B.A. in East Asian studies from Yale University and a M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University.

ABOUT THE ASIA FOUNDATION

The Asia Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region. The Foundation supports programs in Asia that help improve governance, law, and civil society; women's empowerment; economic reform and development; and international relations. Drawing on more than 50 years of experience in Asia, the Foundation collaborates with private and public partners to support leadership and institutional development, exchanges, and policy research.

With offices throughout Asia, an office in Washington, D.C., and its headquarters in San Francisco, the Foundation addresses these issues on both a country and regional level. In 2008, the Foundation provided more than $87 million in program support and distributed over one million books and educational materials valued at $41 million throughout Asia.

Officer follows dream, joins the force

Carol Hoglen/The Dispatch
Tonney Neouv stands outside the Lexington Police Department on Friday. Neouv, who is Cambodian, is the first Asian police officer to join the force.

http://www.the-dispatch.com

BY RYAN JONES
The Dispatch

Published: Monday, July 13, 2009

Like many middle-schoolers, Tonney Neouv admired the adventurous life of fighting crime as a badge-wearing “man in blue.” Unlike most of his peers, however, Neouv actually followed through with his dream and recently finished training as an officer for the Lexington Police Department.

After a four-year detour to the U.S. Marine Corps following his 2003 graduation from Central Davidson High School, Neouv decided the time was finally right to enroll in the Basic Law Enforcement Training Program at Davidson County Community College. He graduated from the program last December.

“The wait was well worth it,” the 24-year-old said of his longtime dream.

Now with months of field training under his belt, he is excited to start work as a full-fledged police officer. And police administrators are happy to have him. To them, Neouv represents many things for the Lexington department.

Particularly, Neouv is a testament to the success of the police department’s Junior Explorer Program, which operates in conjunction with the Boy Scouts to target middle and high school youths interested in learning the basics of law enforcement. Participants receive the chance to ride along with select officers on routine calls to observe how traffic stops are made and what to look for when conducting an investigation.

Neouv joined the program when he was in the eighth grade.

“I got a letter from the police department, so I decided to act on it and got in,” he said. “From then on I was in the Explorer program, from eighth grade until the end of high school. I just always wanted to be a police officer.”

Chief John Lollis said Neouv’s application for employment stood out because of his time as a Junior Explorer.

“We’re real excited to have Tonney because he started in our Explorer program,” he said, adding that he has enjoyed seeing Neouv gain experience and confidence.

“Anytime we have an officer that starts in our Explorer program and comes back to be an officer, that’s a success to us,” said Capt. Tad Kepley.

Though reluctant to identify himself as unique, Neouv also represents an important milestone for the Lexington police force. He is the first person of Asian decent to work as an officer there.

Neouv’s family moved to the U.S. from Cambodia in the early 1960s.

“He’s just got a wonderful personality,” Lollis said. “And we think it’ll create some inroads with the community and with some of the Asian people in Lexington. We also think he’ll be a good role model for teenagers.”

Kepley said it is important to establish trust as a police officer, and people are more likely to trust someone who looks like them and understands their culture.

But Neouv, who prefers a modest approach to his accomplishments, said he had never considered himself as different in that way.

“We all wear blue,” he said.

Neouv joined the Marine Corps right after high school because he was two years shy of the age limit to become a police officer. He agreed with Kepley that the discipline he learned there will serve him well as an officer.

“A lot of their structure seems to be very similar to what our structure is about, and that makes someone like Tonney attractive to us. It makes a real good fit,” Kepley said. “He represents what our police officers are all about, and that’s professionalism.”

Three weeks ago Neouv took his first call on his own as an officer: a larceny of money out of a wallet.

“There’s not really anything I don’t like about it,” he said of those first couple weeks. “I plan on being here for a while.”

Ryan Jones can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 227, or ryan.jones@the-dispatch.com.

Church workers reflect on emulating Saint Paul in Cambodia

July 13 2009

PHNOM PENH : Missioners and lay Catholics said the recently concluded Year of Saint Paul has helped them to see how their work of evangelization in the country parallels that of the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Father Bob Piche, from the Paris Foreign Missions Society, said that just as Saint Paul proclaimed the Good News to communities of different cultures, "so during my 11 years in Cambodia as a missioner, I have spent a lot of time learning the culture, traditions and way of life of the local people."

Father Piche, who is a parish priest in Phnom Penh, added that "the Good News will be easy to proclaim if we appreciate the culture and traditions of local people."

The priest was among more than 1,000 Catholics from across the country who attended a Mass on June 27 to close the Pauline Year. The special year ran from June 28, 2008, to June 29, 2009.

Father Paul Roeung Chatchai from the Thai Missionary Society, speaking to UCA News, said Saint Paul is his role model in his missionary work among Cambodians.

"He went to many places where the people did not know Jesus. I came to Cambodia where most people do not know Jesus," said the priest who is the coordinator for the Catholic Social Communications office in Phnom Penh.

Duong Savong, a catechist, noted that "Saint Paul was a clever missioner who used the cultures of nations to proclaim the Good News of Jesus."

"In Cambodia we are using his style (of evangelization) to catechize people," he added.

He noted that among Cambodians attending catechism classes, some belong to marginalized communities that Church organizations support, while others want to learn more about Christ. Whatever their reasons, "we always give them love and show them how Jesus calls people to love one another," he said.

During the June 27 Mass, Bishop Emile Destombes, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, praised all missioners, community leaders and Church workers in Cambodia for their work in making the Gospel flourish in the country over the last 20 years. "We have come a long way since 1989," he said.

Since that year, when Bishop Destombes became the first missioner to return to Cambodia after two decades of civil war and religious persecution, the Catholic Church has revived, as has religion in general in the predominantly Buddhist country.

In Phnom Penh apostolic vicariate, one of three Church jurisdictions in the country, there are now 38 Catholic communities, including those that speak English, French and Korean, and 40 Religious congregations and societies.

All these communities are a good resource for proclaiming the Good News, Bishop Destombes noted.

Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, the Bangkok-based apostolic nuncio to Cambodia, also attended the Mass. He encouraged the whole Catholic community in Phnom Penh to continue proclaiming the Good News.

About 95 percent of the more than 14 million Cambodians are Buddhists. Christians form approximately 2 percent of the population.

Courtesy : UCAN

KRouge victim identifies photos of dead family

A foreign tourist looks at portraits of victims of the Khmer Rouge regime at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. A woman who said she survived the Khmer Rouge's main torture centre has identified at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court chilling photos of family members killed at the infamous jail.
(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Mon Jul 13,

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – A woman who said she survived the Khmer Rouge's main torture centre has identified at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court chilling photos of family members killed at the jail.

Nam Mon, 48, was testifying at the trial of prison chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and extermination of around 15,000 people who passed through Tuol Sleng prison during the regime's brutal 1975-1979 rule.

"This is the photo of my father the moment he was dying," Nam Mon said after being shown an image of an emaciated man lying down, staring into the air.

As a court-appointed psychiatrist comforted her, Nam Mon identified black and white prison photos of her parents, three brothers and a sister-in-law executed at the prison.

Recognised as a civil claimant in the case against Duch, Nam Mon told the court Thursday that one of her brothers had been ordered to kill her father. Her testimony was adjourned last week when she began to weep uncontrollably.

Nam Mon said that her two elder brothers were guards at Tuol Sleng before her family was killed at the notorious jail, while she initially lived and worked there as a medic before being interrogated herself.

"I treated the sick. I saw prisoners who were beaten and interrogated... I only saw the wounds and the bleeding on bodies of prisoners while I treated them," Nam Mon said Monday.

The 66-year-old Duch, real name Kaing Guek Eav, begged for forgiveness from victims near the start of his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, after accepting responsibility for his role overseeing the jail.

But he has consistently rejected claims by prosecutors that he held a central leadership role in the Khmer Rouge, and says he never personally executed anyone.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia. Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation, overwork or torture.

Four other former Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in detention and are expected to face trial next year.

Leader to build Cambodia power plant

Business Times
http://www.btimes.com.m

MALAYSIA'S Leader Universal Holdings Bhd will invest US$160 million in a new coal-fired power plant in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, to meet the local increasing demand for electricity, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.

Presently, the capacity of all power plants in the Southeast Asian nation is only around 410MW while the demand is estimated at 808MW, according to the local state-owned power company, “Electricite du Cambodge”.

The power plant with a designed capacity of 100 MW is scheduled to commence its operations in 2012 after two years of construction, said Leader’s Managing Director Sean H’ng Chun Hsiang.

The company is leading wire and cable producer located in Penang. The Group's principal activities are manufacturing and selling telecommunication, power and optical fibre cables, and various electronic wires.

Other activities include providing power generation services, property development, letting of properties, insurance agent and investment holding.

Besides Malaysia and Cambodia, the Group also carried ot projects in Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Belgium and Saudi Arabia.

Sean also revealed a plan to develop a 700MW power plant in Sihanoukville and the project will start after the completion of the 100MW plant in 2012.

Cambodia currently relies on importing electricity, with 220 MW from Vietnam and 30 MW from Thailand. - Bernama

Malaysian-driven energy for Cambodia coastal town

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

HANOI, July 13 — Malaysia’s Leader Universal Holdings Bhd will invest US$160 million (RM560 million) in a new coal-fired power plant in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, to meet the local increasing demand for electricity, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.

Presently, the capacity of all power plants in the Southeast Asian nation is only around 410MW while the demand is estimated at 808MW, according to the local state-owned power company, “Electricite du Cambodge”.

The power plant with a designed capacity of 100MW is scheduled to commence its operations in 2012 after two years of construction, said Leader’s Managing Director Sean H’ng Chun Hsiang.

The company is a leading wire and cable producer located in Penang. The Group’s principal activities are manufacturing and selling telecommunication, power and optical fibre cables, and various electronic wires. Other activities include providing power generation services, property development, letting of properties, insurance agent and investment holding.

Besides Malaysia and Cambodia, the Group also carried out projects in Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Belgium and Saudi Arabia.

Sean also revealed a plan to develop a 700MW power plant in Sihanoukville and the project will start after the completion of the 100MW plant in 2012. Sihanoukville is a popular coastal town located about 200km south-west of Phnom Penh.

It is one of the fastest-growing regions in Cambodia due to its beaches and island hops as well as a few casinos currently in operation.

Cambodia currently relies on importing electricity, with 220MW from Vietnam and 30 MW from Thailand. – Bernama

Officials meet in Siem Reap for golf and informal talks

Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON
Cambodian soldiers walk down the mountain near the Preah Vihear temple complex last week. Cambodian military officers said Sunday that Thailand had brought in reinforcements to the border area.

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
Vong Sokheng

Meeting between Thai, Cambodian military brass seeks to further dialogue between front-line commanders, defence official says.

HIGH-ranking Cambodian and Thai authorities held an informal meeting Thursday in Siem Reap to encourage their regional commanders to set up additional meetings in an effort to reduce tension along the border near Preah Vihear temple, a defence official said.

Chhum Sucheat, the spokesman and undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Defence, told the Post Sunday that ministry officials hoped the meeting would push the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) commander of region 4 and the Thai commander of region 2 to meet more regularly.

"We are optimistic from the meeting that the result will be more dialogue between Cambodian and Thai commanders, which will help reduce tensions in order to avoid armed confrontation," he said.

Neang Phat, a secretary of state at the Defence Ministry, and advisers to General Anupong Paochinda, commander-in-chief of the Thai army, participated in the meeting, said Chhum Sucheat, who added that after the meeting the Cambodian and Thai delegation played golf together.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is normal for both Cambodia and Thailand to reinforce troops at the border.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chhum Sucheat said the next meeting between the Thai and Cambodian defence ministries would be an annual meeting to discuss border issues, which will be held in Bangkok between July 21 and July 23.

Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON
Thai Captain Manus Sripitak (second from left) meets with Cambodian officials at Sambok Khmum last week. Officials from the two countries also met informally in Siem Reap last Thursday.

Along the border, Cambodian military officers said Sunday that the Thai army had brought in reinforcements to the border area.

Yim Phim, commander of Brigade 8, said Sunday that Thailand brought tanks, artillery and infantry to the border.

"So far, nothing has occurred, and the armies at the front lines remain on alert," Yim Phim said.

Chhum Socheat would neither confirm nor deny reports of troop reinforcements but downplayed their significance.

"It is normal for both Cambodia and Thailand to reinforce troops at the border ... therefore both sides now want to try to hold more meetings between regional commanders," Sucheat said. "We will try to set up more meetings in line with the recommendation of Prime Minister Hun Sen."

Cambodia and Thailand have long disagreed about the ownership of the area near Preah Vihear temple, and the dispute turned violent after UNESCO granted the 11th-century temple World Heritage site status last July.

Periodic gunbattles, the last one in April, have killed seven soldiers since then.

Although in 1962 the World Court ruled that the temple was in Cambodian territory, recently Thailand said it would seek joint listing of the temple, further raising tensions on the border.

The area near the temple has never been officially demarcated, in part because the border is still littered with land mines.

Deportees at border cite fears

Photo by: HOLLY PHAM
A group of travellers passes through the Poipet border crossing Friday.

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
CHEANG SOKHA and HOLLY PHAM

Khmer Krom sent from Thailand to Poipet face hunger, deportation.

Banteay Meanchey Province

NEARLY a fortnight after their deportation by Thai immigration authorities, Khmer Krom asylum seekers staying in Banteay Meanchey province say they are suffering from hunger and fear as they encounter the uncertainty of life in a strange country.

Since their July 2 deportation, 33 of the 56 deported have left the border, counting on friends and relatives across the country for food and shelter.

But the remaining 23 deportees, born and raised in southern Vietnam, have no family in the Kingdom and are now living in limbo at a small pagoda outside Poipet town. The deportees did not want their exact location to be published.

Several deportees told the Post Friday that the group had endured harsh living conditions since arriving in Poipet. Despite aid from a Christian charity, they said they have been forced to survive on a single meal a day, drink pond water and sleep on the floor in cramped living quarters with no mosquito nets.

"We can't leave the house and can't go to the market, let alone go to work to try and sustain ourselves. It's dangerous out there. We can't trust anyone," said deportee Nguyen Van Hai (names have been changed).

Worst of all, said Pham Van Thanh, another deportee, was the constant fear of repatriation to Vietnam, where Khmer Krom claim they face restrictions of freedom of expression and religion.

"What we are most concerned about is that Cambodian authorities do not allow us to stay here and will send us back to Vietnam," he told the Post.

"If we are sent back, we will be jailed."

The 56 Khmer Krom fled southern Vietnam for Thailand between six months and six years ago and were awaiting the results of their asylum applications when arrested as illegal immigrants by Thai police and detained at Bangkok's Immigration Detention Centre on June 12.

The Khmer Krom said they had been living in isolation from the rest of Thai society and had received no news from home prior to their arrest.

"We have absolutely no contact with our families in Vietnam. We have no idea what's happening to them now. It's likely that they're being spied on," said Vu Van Ba, another of the deportees.

Nguyen Van Hai said it had been hard to live a normal life in Thailand.

"We could not do anything there. No work, no business, and we were under surveillance at all times," he said

At the time of their deportation, the Bangkok office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was in the middle of processing their asylum applications. The deportees said they were angry the UNHCR had been unable to intervene after their arrest.

"UNHCR did not provide any assistance when we were in Bangkok," Pham Van Thanh told the Post. "When arrested by the Thai police, we called UNHCR officials in Bangkok asking for intervention, but their hands were tied."

Sara Colm, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said Sunday that the deportation might put an end to the group's attempt to seek asylum abroad.

"It's difficult for the refugee process to be completed now that they have been deported to Cambodia," she said, noting that UNHCR Cambodia will not consider the asylum claims of Khmer Krom.

She said that UNHCR operates according to Cambodian government assurances that all ethnic Khmers - including those from southern Vietnam - have the automatic right to Cambodian citizenship, making it technically impossible for them to claim refugee status while staying in the country.

Article 4 of the 1996 Nationality Law also states that any person with one Khmer parent can become a citizen.

But the difficulty facing the deportees is that the government does not seem willing to grant them the rights of citizenship enshrined in law, with one official saying they face deportation to Vietnam.

"We do not have any principle of providing these people with shelter or accommodation," said Try Narin, the governor of Poipet town. "I have asked local authorities to find them, and if we [do] we will send them back to their homeland."

UNHCR's office in Phnom Penh could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Govt 'rejects' Thai Web site

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
Sam Rith

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs voices its anger over Web video.

THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to send a diplomatic note to Thai officials this week voicing its disapproval of a Web site launched by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that claims parts of Cambodia as "lost" Thai territory.

Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Sunday that officials had decided to "reject" the Web site, which launched July 4, and would send the note "early this week".

The site, www.ilovethailand.org, features a video that includes a green map of the Siamese Empire at its most expansive. As images of Thai kings appear on the screen, sections of the empire turn dark red before they are removed from the map.

Sections lost to Cambodia include parts of Siem Reap and Battambang provinces as well as the land on which Preah Vihear temple sits.

Towards the end of the five-and-a-half minute clip, a narrator addresses "the talented people of the young Thai generation" and emphasises the importance of understanding their country's history.

But Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said Thursday that the video was actually "twisting the facts of history".

And government officials are not the only ones to have criticised the video.

Michel Tranet, a Cambodia historian and lecturer, said Sunday that the video was "absolutely wrong".

He argued that Thailand had violated Cambodia's sovereignty far more often than the reverse, saying: "The Thai historians themselves and the internationals know that Thailand has regularly ventured into Cambodian ancestral territory."

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, said the Thai government was being dishonest in its presentation of Thailand's past actions towards Cambodia.

"If we actually look at history, today's Thailand was the Khmer Kingdom's territory before," he said.

Thai Embassy officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Input sought on domestic worker law

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
Khuon Leakhana

ILO seeking feedback from officials, NGOs.

THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) is seeking advice from the Cambodian government and civil society groups in drafting an international convention on domestic workers' rights, the ILO told the Post.

"We would like all countries to share with us their advice on a draft convention that aims to protect domestic workers," Tun Sophorn, the national project coordinator for the ILO, said last week.

The ILO, she said, needs a convention that is accepted and understood by all countries so it can be successfully implemented.

Oum Mean, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour, said the ministry had yet to receive the ILO's questionnaires, but that officials intended to help the ILO with the project.

Though the drafting of the convention would be a significant achievement, Oum Mean said the real test would come during the implementation phase.

An Bunhak, chairman of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies, said it was "important" for Cambodian domestic workers to know that laws are in place to protect them.

Tun Sophorn said she could not accurately estimate when the convention would be drafted and implemented, adding that she would have a better idea after an ILO summit scheduled to be held in Switzerland in June 2011.

According to the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies, 2,378 domestic workers travelled to Malaysia for domestic work in the first six months of 2009.

China actions 'appropriate'

Photo by: Christopher Shay
A Uighur man in Kashgar, Xinjiang, watches Chinese soldiers march past in July 2008. Tensions between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese in Xinjiang have been simmering for years.

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
Sam Rith and Christopher Shay

Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses support for China's broad crackdown in Xinjiang province, calling it an 'internal' decision that will 'restore social order'.

THE Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement Saturday supporting China's actions in the restive Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, where, according to the Chinese government, unrest between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese has left 184 dead.

"The government of China is taking appropriate measures to address the problem and restore social order," the statement said in reference to China's crackdown in Xinjiang.

In the wake of the riots in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, Chinese state media have reported that many mosques in Urumqi were closed Friday, and that public assembly without police approval has been banned.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called these government actions China's "exclusive internal affair".

Rebiya Kadeer, the president of the World Uighur Congress, wrote in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday that deaths in Xinjiang are likely much higher than reported by Chinese state media, saying her sources claim 400 Uighurs have been killed in Urumqi.

Uighurs, a Turkish-speaking Muslim minority in Xinjiang, have long complained about discrimination and the suppression of their language and culture.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong told the Post that the ministry issued the statement "to show Cambodia's stance that China is a friendly country".

Relations between China and Cambodia, however, have not always been so friendly. In a 1988 essay, Prime Minister Hun Sen called China "the root of everything that was evil in Cambodia", referring to China's support of the Khmer Rouge.

But after Hun Sen ousted Prince Norodom Ranariddh in a 1997 coup, China was the first country to recognise Hun Sen's rule, delivering to Cambodia military cargo valued at up to US$2.8 million, according to Julio Jeldres, Norodom Sihanouk's official biographer.

Since 2006, China has pledged $880 million in loans and grants to Cambodia. China also built and financed the more than $30 million Council of Ministers building.

The Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh said Sunday that it welcomed Cambodia's statement of support but declined to comment further.

A(H1N1): American contracts swine flu

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
Cheang Sokha

A(H1N1)

An American man has become the most recent person to be stricken with the AH1N1 virus, taking the number of confirmed cases in Cambodia to nine, said Ly Sovann, deputy director of the Ministry of Health's Communicable Diseases Control Department. Ly Sovann said the 34-year-old, who works and lives in Cambodia, tested positive for the virus on Thursday. Health officials said they suspected he contracted the virus after he returned from Bangkok last week. "He is fine now and is staying at his home in Phnom Penh," Ly Sovann told the Post Sunday. He said the 15-year-old Australian girl who tested positive for the virus last week had been released from Calmette Hospital on Saturday.

Timber export ban to save forests, promote carbon-credit trading

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
Khouth Sophak Chakrya

Agriculture Ministry says programme will offer sustainable development options that improve people's lives and safeguard the environment.

CARBON MARKET

Cambodia's "avoided deforestation project", part of an agreement signed last month with nine community forestry groups in Oddar Meanchey, is expected to generate 8.5 million tonnes of carbon-offset credits over 30 years, according to the NGO Terra Global.

MINISTER of Agriculture Chan Sarun on Thursday announced a Kingdom-wide ban on timber exports in a move aimed at protecting forests and promoting a future carbon-credit trading programme.

"We must stop illegal timber exports and make a greater effort to protect our forests," Chan Sarun said. "With carbon credits, we can develop the country and improve the lives of our people without damaging our environment."

In years past, illegal logging for domestic use and cross-border trade has stripped Cambodia of much of its natural forest cover, he said, adding that the government has confiscated nearly 300,000 hectares of land cleared of its forests by developers and land speculators.

"We have [also] confiscated more than 52,000 cubic metres of illegal timber, some 319 trucks used by illegal loggers and prosecuted more than 600 individuals involved in the illegal timber trade," Chan Sarun said.

Ma Soktha, head of the reforestation office at the Ministry of Agriculture's Forestry Department, said the government spends between US$850,000 and $1 million each year on conservation efforts, tree plantings and security efforts to prevent logging in protected areas.

"We will not have to worry about illegal logging if we enforce existing laws and halt all timber exports as well," he said.

Ma Soktha said the government has also planted nearly 50,000 hectares of trees and laid the groundwork for a carbon-credit programme.

"We have created two carbon-credit sample areas on 24 hectares of forest land in Oddar Meanchey and Koh Kong provinces," he said.

Amanda Bradley, country director for Community Forest International, said last week that the export ban and increased conservation efforts were important steps towards combating global warming and developing a new sustainable market for carbon credits for Cambodia.

"The government stands to profit substantially from developed countries with a carbon-credit programme, which in turn would help people improve their economic situation," she said.

Nop Polin, national coordinator of climate change awareness at Geres, said trading in fresh air, as he described the carbon-credit programme, instead of illegal timber could reduce greenhouse gasses and help prevent global climate change.

"We need forests to protect against global warming and other natural disasters," he said. "And we can sell the world our carbon credits, which is to say we can sell them fresh air."

Under the gaze of the Divine Eye

Photo by: SEBASTIAN STRANGIO
Caodai adherents pray at Phnom Penh’s Caodai temple during its fortnightly service in April this year.

The Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 13 July 2009
SEBASTIAN STRANGIO and Sam Rith

Phnom Penh's small Caodai temple, the Cambodian outpost of a curious southern Vietnamese religious sect, continues to attract local converts, attracted by its all-inclusive religious doctrine.

AGONG rings out over the city, swallowed by the noise of the morning traffic, as the devotees arrive in their Sunday best - flowing white robes and small black caps for the men - and gather in the main prayer hall.

Incense chokes the air as three priests, clad in gold and red, lead the congregation in chants under the unblinking gaze of the Divine Eye, suspended in a sky-blue frame above the altar.

For adherents of Caodaism, a religious sect native to southern Vietnam, the ceremony is a fortnightly ritual that emphasises universal peace and the oneness of man, God and the universe.

"Since I started participating in Caodaism, my family is happier because I stopped using violence against my wife, stopped drinking wine and stopped having a mistress," says Phan Van Quang, 64, who started going to the temple when he was 25 to "understand the dharma" and gain good fortune.

Phnom Penh's Caodai temple, a shaded citadel down an alley off Mao Tse-Tung Boulevard, has been the Cambodian home of Caodaism since 1934; and temple elders say that before the Khmer Rouge, it boasted a congregation of over 10,000.

Though that number has dwindled to around 2,000 today, the temple continues to find eager converts among the city's Vietnamese community.

"Day after day, more and more people are respecting Caodai," said Tran Van Ngoan, the head of temple security.

"We do not force people to participate in this religion. People respect it by themselves voluntarily."

Today, he said, there are over 1,300 Caodai temples in southern Vietnam, and over 5 million adherents, spread as widely as Japan, North America, Europe and Australia.

East meets West
Caodaism - more properly known as Cao Dai Dam Ky Pho Do, or the "Third Great Universal Religious Amnesty" - was born in southern Vietnam in the early 1920s, when Vietnamese civil servant Ngo Van Chieu claimed to have made contact with spirits who communicated to him a symbol - the "all-seeing eye" - and a new creed reconciling the great religious philosophies of East and West.

In an attempt to create the ultimate religious synthesis, Chieu poured everything but the kitchen sink into Caodaism, which counts Sun Yat-sen and French author Victor Hugo among its saints.

Although the doctrine itself is a melange of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, it also incorporates arcane aspects of 19th-century French spiritism, including seances, Ouija-boards, and the bizarre practice of pneumotographie, in which pieces of paper are placed in envelopes and suspended above the altar, where they are supposedly inscribed with messages from God.

Caodai architecture is the same synthetic brew as its doctrine, combining Buddhist sculpture and European baroque into what British author Graham Greene once described as a "Walt Disney fantasia of the East".

Though a more modest affair than its elder brother, the Caodai Holy See in Vietnam's Tay Ninh province, Phnom Penh's temple is the same technicolour feast, with menageries of dragons, lotus flowers and coloured flags covering every available surface.

Tran Van Ngoan said that in order to participate in the religion, adherents have to adopt a vegetarian diet, starting with six days a month during the first six months, and then 10 days a month thereafter.

But attendance at the temple is only required for the main fortnightly services, and the religion - unlike Christianity or Islam - does not demand strict loyalty from its adherents.

"I follow both the Caodai and Buddhist religions - they are not so different from each other," says Yin Chhay, a 56-year-old Khmer from the city's Meanchey district who attends four Caodai services a month but goes to the pagoda for Buddhist festivals.

Photo by: SEBASTIAN STRANGIO
A painting at Phnom Penh’s Caodai temple depicts Victor Hugo and Sun Yat-sen, two of the religion’s saints.

A holy exile
Phnom Penh's Caodai temple also has a peculiar claim to fame as the resting place, from 1959 to 2006, of Pham Cong Tac, one of the religion's founders and first known "mediums".

Known to adherents as the Ho Phap, or "Defender of the Faith", Tac also brought Caodaism to Cambodia in 1927, when he was posted to Phnom Penh as a junior official in the French colonial administration.

Hum Dac Bui, a spokesman for Caodai.org, a California-based nonprofit organisation, said Tac was sent to Cambodia to prevent him spreading the religion further in Vietnam, but that he quickly went about establishing it in Phnom Penh.

Upon his return to Vietnam, the religion continued to grow at a remarkable pace under Tac's leadership. By the 1950s, an estimated one in eight South Vietnamese was a Caodai, and the religion ran most of Tay Ninh province as a feudal theocracy, collecting its own taxes and maintaining a standing militia of tens of thousands of men.

Tac had achieved such stature within Vietnam that in May 1954 he attended the Geneva Conference, where he tried in vain to prevent the partition of the country.

But when South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic, came to power in 1955, the domestic political calculus began to turn against the Caodai.

In 1956, Diem forcibly disbanded the Caodai militias and other nationalist rivals. Tac and a close circle of followers sought political asylum in Cambodia, where he died in 1959.

"Pham Cong Tac moved to Cambodia because he did not want to see our Vietnamese people fighting with each other. He asked for his body to be taken back only when Vietnam was again at peace," said temple manager Vo Quang Minh, referring to Tac's deathbed request to Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

In November 2006, his remains were finally sent to be interred at Tay Ninh, bringing to an end nearly a half century of exile in Phnom Penh.

Vietnamese restrictions
But whether Vietnam remains a truly "peaceful" place for Caodaists remains unclear. Although the Caodai militias initially fought alongside the communist Viet Minh against the French authorities during the 1940s and 1950s, they turned against them once the colonists were expelled in 1954.

Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, the communists took their revenge, confiscating Caodai property and arresting or exiling many of its leaders.

Vo Quang Minh said that relations between the Cambodian Caodai and the Vietnamese government were difficult during the occupation of the 1980s, but have since improved.

But despite some positive changes, rights groups and exiles say the Vietnamese government continues to ban participation in independent Caodai factions and oversees all internal Caodai affairs.

"Undercover government agents have infiltrated the administration of Caodai, and the religion has to function according to the government's [rules] without respecting the current religious constitution," said Hum Dac Bui.

"The Tay Ninh Holy See has become more or less a place of tourist interest for the profit of the government and is totally paralysed from a religious point of view."

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said that only the government-approved Caodai sect is legally recognised, and that those who belong to splinter groups are subject to "harassment, arbitrary detention, and imprisonment".

In September 2004, he said, 12 Caodaists from Vietnam were arrested in Phnom Penh when they attempted to deliver a petition to delegates attending an ASEAN meeting.

After being deported to Vietnam, nine members of the group were sentenced to prison terms of up to 13 years on charges of undermining Vietnam's national security.

Adams added: "Cambodia is generally much more free with regard to freedom of religion than Vietnam, whose government sees unregistered church groups ... as a threat to the authority of the Communist Party."

But Tong Dinh Duong, 30, a member of the Saigon Caodai temple on Tran Hung Dao Boulevard in Ho Chi Minh City, told the Post last year that whatever the political situation, Caodaism's unique blend of Western mysticism and Eastern philosophy would prevail.

"When religion combines these together, people living together in the future won't fight together," he said. "In the future, we will have peace."