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Wednesday, 14 October 2009

CFR announces record field for Angkor 10s

Photo by: Joe Garrison

2008 Angkor 10s champions Les Piliers d’Angkor became the first all-Cambodian team to win the annual rugby tournament.

(Post by CAAI News Media)

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 15:00 Ray Leos

THE Cambodian Federation of Rugby (CFR) announced Saturday the confirmed lineup of teams for the 2009 ANZ Royal Bank Angkor 10’s, which will be held on October 23-24 at the Olympic Stadium.

Twelve sides will compete in the main competition Saturday while four sides take part in a special Veterans (over 35) competition Friday, making it the largest field ever in the nine-year history of the tournament.

“We are excited that so many teams will be coming this year,” said Angkor 10’s Tournament co-Chair Peter Maley. “The Angkor 10’s has gained a reputation for being one of the best social rugby tournaments in Asia, with good fun and good rugby being played.”

The field includes sides from Dubai, France, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand, along with local sides Sisowath Knights, Stade Khmer and defending tournament champions Les Piliers d’Angkor.

The tournament has also seen a dramatic increase in Cambodian participation. Over 40 local players took part last year, compared with none in the tournament’s first year in 2001, and just two in 2002. Maley estimates that between 50 and 60 Cambodians will be taking to the field this year.

Last year, Les Piliers d’Angkor – an all-Cambodian side primarily made up of players from defending Cambodian Rugby Premiership champions PSE Garudas – became the first side without foreigners to win an Angkor 10’s title, and will be a strong contender again this year.

They will be challenged by the Manila Nomads, the 2003 champions, who will be returning to the tournament after a four-year absence. Also in the running are 2006 winners, the French Asia Barbarians of France, and the Hong Kong-based Rhinos RFC, a touring side making its Angkor 10’s debut featuring players from several first-division Hong Kong clubs.

The main competition Saturday sees a 10-a-side format, as opposed to the 15-a-side matches of the standard Rugby Union. “The 10-a-side features a faster, more wide-open game, which makes it more entertaining for spectators,” noted Maley.

The Angkor 10’s also marks the unofficial kick-off of the Cambodian rugby season and is a key fundraising event for the CFR. The domestic season begins in November for its fifth edition, with the Cambodian Rugby Premiership for senior players along with competitions in junior and women’s divisions.

CFR President Tan Theany said the Angkor 10’s tournament plays an integral role in national rugby development. “Our players need this kind of international competition to improve their playing skills,” she remarked.

“The Angkor 10’s also helps to heighten interest in rugby and encourages more Cambodian young people to take up the sport and participate in our rugby clinics and schools. This will help increase our pool of players for selection to our men’s and women’s national teams.”

Police Blotter: 14 Oct 2009

(Post by CAAI News Media)

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 15:03 Chhay Channyda

WOMAN TOLD NOT TO MARRY, POISONS SELF

A woman has poisoned herself and died after a fortune-teller warned her not to marry the man of her dreams because the lovers’ birthdays did not align. It happened Sunday in Banteay Meanchey province’s Svay Chek district. The pair had been in love for nearly 12 years. After the death, the boyfriend reportedly attempted to kill himself as well, but was stopped when his family saw him about to ingest a fatal poison.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

FAMILY CALLS COPS ON ADDICTED SON

A Battambang man has been arrested after his own family accused him of threatening them for drug money. The 33-year-old man previously served a jail term after stealing more than US$30 from his frightened family. Police said the man has been addicted to drugs for seven years.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

RAPE VICTIM KNEW SUSPECT NEIGHBOUR

A man in Kandal province has been arrested after allegedly beating his six-months-pregnant wife and then allegedly raping his neighbour. The 25-year-old suspect was accused of the crimes after he became drunk on wine, police said. The suspect was caught because the rape victim – his next-door neighbour – recognised and reported her attacker, police said.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

EVERYBODY WAS KUNG FU FIGHTING

One man is dead and another hospitalised after a violent skirmish broke out in the middle of a dance party in Kampong Cham province Sunday. It happened at a dance for young people in Trean district. Police said the victim saw a group of dancers wielding wooden sticks, a knife and an ax while dancing. The victim tried to slip away, but he was caught in the middle of fighting and killed, police said. Police were unable to identify the suspect dancers.

RASMEY KAMPUCHEA

MAN ACCUSED OF THROWING STONES

Six suspected “gangsters” have been arrested for allegedly causing a ruckus at a Phnom Penh bar. It happened Sunday in the capital’s Chroy Changvar district, police said, after the bar’s owner complained to police that the “gangsters” were causing anarchy by throwing stones in his establishment. Police said the six men, who work as “cow killers”, denied the claims.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

The Phnom Penh Post News in Brief

(Post by CAAI News Media)

In Brief: Mobitel spends $40m

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 15:00 Steve Finch

CAMBODIA’S leading mobile company by market share, Mobitel, has spent $40 million of a loan disbursed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with private partners including ABN Amro finalised earlier this year. Julia Brickell, the IFC’s representative in Cambodia, said 40 percent of the total $100 million package had been used by the firm by the end of September. The IFC said on its Web site that the loan was for rural expansion of the network. Mark Hanna, chief financial officer of Royal Group, a minority stakeholder in Mobitel, was unavailable for comment on the issue.

In Brief: No legal progress

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 15:00 POST STAFF

SOK Roeun, the deputy prosecutor overseeing Mobitel’s legal case against mobile competitor Beeline, said Tuesday there has been no further progress in the case at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. He told the Post at the end of September that the case, which centres on Mobitel’s allegations against Beeline that it has been price-dumping and using Mobitel's prefixes illegally, was filed at the beginning of August. Since that time the government has passed a prakas (edict) on interconnectivity and is due to pass another on pricing.

Cambodia, Japan film commissions come into focus

http://www.screendaily.com/

14 October, 2009 | By Liz Shackleton

(Post by CAAI News Media)

Recently-launched film commissions from two vastly different filmmaking cultures – Cambodia and Japan – were introduced at the BIFCOM locations showcase and Film Policy Plus (FPP) in Pusan this week.

Established with finance from France’s Agency for Overseas Development, the Cambodia Film Commission (CFC) is the country’s first organisation dedicated to helping overseas productions shoot in the country.

“Cambodia is now a safe place to shoot and infrastructure is improving,” said CFC chief executive Cedric Eloy who heads the commission with director Sovichea Cheap. “You have to bring in cameras but modern lighting and grips equipment is now available locally.”

Cambodia doesn’t have the financial resources to offer production incentives, but its advantages include low costs, a wide variety of locations and no import tax for foreign film productions.

The government has also dedicated funds to help improve the local filmmaking infrastructure, which was destroyed during the Khmer Rouge years, but is now stirring back into life. Overseas productions to have recently shot in the country include German director Boje Buck’s Same Same But Different and David Fincher’s The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. It also famously hosted Tomb Raider back in 2000.

Meanwhile, the Japan Film Commission (JFC) was also out in force at BIFCOM and FPP. Launched in April, the commission aims to coordinate the efforts of the more than 100 regional film commissions that have sprouted up in Japan over the past eight years.

Although the recent change of government in Japan has slowed down introduction of new policies, the JFC is reviewing the possible introduction of incentives which are lacking in Japan. The organisation also stated its aim to increase collaboration between the Japanese film industry and the rest of Asia.

“Our newly elected prime minister commented that the new government will strengthen the relationship between Japan and other Asian countries,” said JFC chairman Ken Terawaki at FPP’s keynote speech. “As a new member of AFCNet we have a new determination to work with you, to partner with you and to discuss the issues we need to overcome in the cultural industries.”

BIFCOM (Oct 12-14) and FPP (Oct 13-14) are organised by the Busan Film Commission (BFC) and AFCNet [Asian Film Commissions Network].

The Freedom Awards: Celebrating Anti-Slavery Heroes

Peggy Callahan

Co-founder and Executive Producer of Free

the Slaves and The Freedom Awards

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Posted: October 13, 2009

(Post by CAAI News Media)

How can something so disturbing, so dark, look so ordinary to the untrained eye? They could be young girls hanging out on a warm evening anywhere. But they're not -- they are sex slaves in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. My guide knew this better than anyone. Until a few years ago, she was one of them.

Twelve years ago, Sina Vann was forced to have sex with 20 to 30 men a night. Tonight, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are presenting her with an award for her heroism in freeing others from sex slavery.

Incredibly, after escaping the hell of daily serial rape, Sina chose to go back and confront human traffickers like the one who enslaved her and fed his greed with her life. She told me, "If I didn't service customers I would be locked in the dungeon. They would tie my hands and tie my feet. And they would splash water over me, and they would shock me. When I was shocked, I felt like my spirit just left me."

Sina continues to go back to this underworld nearly every day, often risking her own life, to help women and girls out of sex slavery and into lives of self-sufficiency and purpose.

Sina was showing me around the brothels as we shot her story. The footage will be seen for the first time tonight at the 2009 Freedom Awards where Free the Slaves honors the Harriet Tubmans and Frederick Douglasses of today.

She is joined by Veero from Pakistan, who escaped slavery and went on to help bring 700 more slaves to freedom.

We're also honoring two young people through the Anne Templeton Zimmerman Fellowship, Alexis Weiss and Betsy Bramon, who are promising new leaders in the anti-slavery movement.

The awards honor freedom, not slavery, and we're ready to celebrate. Jason Mraz, Camilla Belle, Emmitt Smith, Isabel Allende, Ambassador Lou C. deBaca, Pam Omidyar and Maurice Greene will be there. You're invited. Watch it streaming live here at 7 p.m. PST.

I dreamed up the Freedom Awards because in Free the Slaves we insist that the people who are closest to slavery should be the leaders and spokesmen and women of the anti-slavery movement. Who better to tell the world that this is real slavery? Who better to explain how people are held against their will, forced to work under threat of violence, and can't walk away? They know in their hearts that the end of slavery is possible for the 27 million people in bondage today. They know it is possible because they have lived liberation.

In our work in many countries we've watched as slaves band together and demand their rights. The slaveholder's thugs may beat them, but they stick it out until they get their freedom, especially when they know that people around the world care and are rooting for them.

But how can we help slavery survivors speak out? I hit the road as a film producer. I've been honored and humbled documenting the stories of slaves and former slaves in seven countries. Most jumped at the chance to talk, and we now have the largest modern slavery film library in the world that we make freely available to journalists wanting to tell the story.

What drives me is the firm belief, the deep knowing, that others should have the chance to witness these souls emerging into freedom, to watch their hearts and lives unfold and bloom. These slaves and former slaves have asked me to share, so share I will. It has become my life's work.

Every time a slave or survivor shares their story with me, they relive great pain. They insist on doing it anyway because they trust that we'll help tell their stories truthfully and without sensation. Somehow they have faith in the people they have never met, but who will hear their story. They pray that once they know, their listeners will act to keep others from slavery.

Khmer story has multiple origins

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

http://www.guampdn.com/

(Post by CAAI News Media)

Ideologically or politically motivated historians can make a study of history confusing. Allowing for some personal bias to affect one's interpretation is understandable. Surely one man's bias is another's objective telling.

Nevertheless, careful research will reveal that interpretations motivated by a political viewpoint can turn out to be demonstrably wrong.

The fashion has been to claim the U.S. B-52 bombings of Cambodia and the U.S. invasion of "neutral" Cambodia in 1970 were the primary catalyst for the rise of the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime.

I wrote in this space on Sept. 16 that Cambodia's "neutrality" was destroyed in 1963, and I cited a 1972 KCNA News Service Release and the "Protocol" to the 1965 agreement for China's military aid to Cambodia, allowing the Vietnamese communists' use of Khmer soil in the war against the Americans.

The pre-1970 Cambodian Ministry of Information published an invaluable collection of then Chief of State Sihanouk's speeches, "Les Paroles de Samdech Preah N. Sihanouk."

In the January-March 1964 collection, Sihanouk's political outlook was stated on Feb. 21: "In all frankness, it is not to our interest to deal with the West which represents the present but not the future. ... Our interest is to deal with the camp which will one day dominate the whole of Asia -- and to deal with it before its victory."

This was the foundational rationale for Cambodia's assistance to Vietnamese communist forces. In March 1964, demonstrators sacked the U.S. Information Service Library, besieged the U.S. Embassy, tore up the U.S. flag, and burned parked cars.

In June, Sihanouk told a press conference in Paris: "The four-fifths of our frontiers with South Vietnam are occupied, in a permanent or occasional fashion, by the troops of the National Liberation Front."

The 1907 Second Hague Conference's Convention V on Rights and Duties of Neutral States in War on Land stipulates the territory of neutral states is inviolable. A neutral state must not allow belligerent troops, munitions or supplies on its soil.

In international law, when a neutral state fails, for any reason, to prevent a violation of its neutrality by one belligerent, the other belligerent may justify its action on the neutral territory.

In 1968, Sihanouk's foreign policy accommodated opponents of communism. He declared "no objection" to a U.S. presence in the region as a "counter-weight" to China, which "inspired and directed" local communist activities. He wrote to the French newspaper "Le Monde," charging Peking and Hanoi with subversion and conspiracy to "overthrow our regime from within." This was Cambodia's "neutrality" -- to balance opposing forces by ceding license to each.

The first U.S. B-52 bombing strike, three to five miles inside Cambodia, occurred on March 18, 1969. On March 28, Sihanouk showed reporters a detailed map of the location of Vietnamese communist forces "by entire battalions and regiments" along the Khmer border from northeastern Rattanakiri to the southern sea -- an area of 3,500 square kilometers. Not until the May 13, 1969, press conference did he speak of "the first report" he received on "several" U.S. B-52 bombings.

Srey Pheach, 77, a 1958-1975 civil servant of the foreign ministry, wrote that after U.S. reporters discovered a Vietcong base on Khmer soil during Jacqueline Kennedy's 1967 visit, Sihanouk wanted the International Control Commission to visit the area. As it took the ICC three months to accept the invitation, Pheach says, it was arranged for Vietnamese forces to withdraw, their base converted into a Khmer training center. When Pheach took the ICC team to Kompong Cham, there were no Vietnamese.

Back at his office, Pheach learned that North Vietnam's ambassador had just registered Hanoi's dissatisfaction with Foreign Minister Prince Phurissara over the ICC's inspection -- it impeded its struggle against the U.S.

As Vietnamese troops in northeastern Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces prevented Khmer troop movements, Pheach met with the Vietcong and North Vietnamese diplomats to ask them to remove their troops before another ICC visit. The Vietnamese declined to leave and told Pheach they would shoot. Phnom Penh's solution was to end the ICC's presence in Cambodia.

Pheach confirmed William Shawcross's allegation in "Sideshow" that in Paris, Sihanouk told Lon Nol to stage anti-Vietnamese demonstrations to show Khmer discontentment with the Vietnamese communist presence, before the prince was due to visit Czechoslovakia to plead with socialist countries to help get Vietnamese troops out. Like all demonstrations, mobs can run out of control, as Lon Nol's staged ones did -- Vietnamese Communist embassies were set on fire.

Pheach, posted in 1969 in Prague, where Sihanouk's son, current King Sihamoni, was a student, learned from the latter, "not to worry," the prince's father would deal with the traitors upon his return to Phnom Penh.

Pheach said the "coup" on March 18, 1970, was "accidental" -- Phnom Penh leaders who heard tape recordings menacing them with death decided to pre-empt the Prince.

The French say, "Les absents ont toujours tort" -- those who are absent are always in the wrong. Lon Nol, who led Cambodia during its five-year alliance with the U.S. during the last years of the Indochina war, is not alive to tell his story.

In today's alliance between King Father Sihanouk and Big Brother Hun Sen, Lon Nol remains a convenient target for the missteps in the pursuit of Cambodia's foreign policy goal of neutrality, and for the rise of the Khmer Rouge.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

DFAT demands fee for murder files

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

(Post by CAAI News Media)

Mark Dodd | October 14, 2009

Article from: The Australian

THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wants $2946 for the release of information on the fate of two Australian yachtsmen arrested more than 30 years ago by Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge and then jailed, tortured and executed on suspicion they were CIA spies.

Trudy Wiedman, from Sydney, a family friend of one the yachtsmen, Ronald Dean, says DFAT has been stalling for months on the release of files that might finally shed light on the fate of the two men and bring a measure of comfort to family and friends.

The information is not for personal gain but simply to help bring closure to an unresolved 1978 tragedy, Ms Wiedman told The Australian yesterday.

A UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh has provided some new information on the fate of the men after their yacht, Sanuk, was seized by a Khmer Rouge gunboat in the Gulf of Siam in early 1978.

But Ms Wiedman says she believes DFAT's files of the incident could provide more complete answers.

"They (DFAT) want me to publicly explain the reason for waiving the $2946.32 Freedom of Information fee for information about Ron Dean and David Scott," she said.

"And DFAT is a publicly funded department of a publicly funded government.

"There has been no coroner's inquest and there has been no public government inquiry into what happened to the Australians held in Tuol Sleng (extermination centre), only silence and varying levels of disinterest."

In response to queries by The Australian, DFAT defended its decision to charge thousands of dollars for the release of the files but admitted it was within its powers to provide the material free.

"Under the FOI Act, charges can be waived if the release would be in the public interest, if financial hardship can be demonstrated, or for any other reason," a spokeswoman said.

"The department ensures that FOI applicants are aware that they can apply for the charges to be waived."

The official correspondence file on the yachties comprises more than 500 documents, of which 81 will not be released on the grounds of national security, Ms Wiedman said.

After submitting an FOI application on August 19, she was contacted by DFAT, which demanded confirmation of her relationship to Dean's family, which was provided in the form of a statutory declaration signed by his wife.

"So, thus far, there has been three letters, three telephone conversations, one statement from the family but DFAT continues to delay the process," she said.

Ms Wiedman last week applied for a fee waiver but is yet to receive an answer from DFAT.

Thailand rejects widening of Cambodia border dispute

Asia Pacific News

14 October 2009

(Post by CAAI News Media)

BANGKOK : Thailand said Tuesday that its border dispute with Cambodia should be dealt with through bilateral negotiations, rather than being "internationalised" at an upcoming regional summit.

Cambodia on Monday proposed neighbouring Thailand put the dispute -- which has sparked deadly skirmishes between troops -- on the agenda when it hosts this month's summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

However, a spokesman for the Thai foreign affairs ministry said Cambodia's proposal was based on an inaccurate report in the Thai press.

Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya was reported to have said last week he would seek approval at the ASEAN meeting to establish a neutral body that would help settle the Thai-Cambodia dispute.

But this "stems from a misquote and something that was taken out of context" from a talk he gave earlier this month on the Thai-Cambodia issue, Thani Thongphakdi of the ministry said.

"Thailand will continue to seek a peaceful resolution of the problem through bilateral negotiations" under the framework of the Thai-Cambodian joint boundary commission, he told AFP.

"As such, we believe this issue should not be internationalised nor raised within the ASEAN framework."

The dispute focuses on an area of land around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, where clashes have killed seven soldiers since nationalist tensions between the neighbours flared last year.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around Preah Vihear for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence in July last year when the temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area, with the last gun battle near the temple area in April leaving three people dead.

The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

What do you know about Cambodia?

(Post by CAAI News Media)

I didn’t know much before I got here, to be honest. We’ve been in South-East Asia for six weeks now — a month in Thailand, and just two weeks in Cambodia, and the country has me totally flummoxed.

We started off in Siem Reap, the town famous for the extraordinary temple ruins of Angkor Wat, and infamous for its border-crossing scams, where nicely dressed men and women speaking good English will try to separate you from your dollars in a whole host of sneaky ways. You really can’t trust anyone — we thought we were being extremely clever buying bus tickets across the border from the State Railways of Thailand, and it was still a scam.

Siem Reap was completely flooded when we arrived (you can read the whole sorry tale of Our Most Hectic Day Yet here) but as a town it was actually quite pleasant. A lot more harassment from tuk-tuk drivers and food sellers than we were used to in Thailand, but bearable.

Then we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital city, and quickly escaped north to Kratie, a small riverside town on the banks of the Mekong. Our logic was that when we cleared the city limits (by a good 6 hours) we would find the authentic, rural Cambodia — the beautiful country. We discovered the rural part, no problem, but we were really hard-pressed to find much beauty. And this is the troubling part.

I can’t decide if it’s because we were spoilt by Thailand, with its forests, mountains, beaches and tidy, clean villages, or if Cambodia is really filthy. The small town we stayed in had piles of rubbish on the side of every road. I saw a woman drinking a cooldrink and throwing the can across the road … to nowhere in particular. A guy bought some food from a shop and dropped the plastic bag in the river. Piles of decomposing rubbish piled up under fresh washing in otherwise fairly neat (although rundown) houses.

But the people are lovely.

It’s a strange dichotomy this — really warm and friendly people, who treat their surroundings despicably. We took an ordinary (ie not “tourist class”) bus back to Phnom Penh yesterday, and the woman in front of me spat her fruit pips into the communal bus aisle. Her husband gobbed repeatedly out of the window, and coughed up phlegm which he spat on the floor. When we stopped for a food break, all the passengers finished eating and dropped their refuse on the floor. But it doesn’t look like anyone ever picks it up.

We couldn’t figure it out. It didn’t seem to make sense. And then we went to the Killing Fields, and the Genocide Museum, and all of a sudden a murky logic is beginning to take shape in my head.

The Khmer Rouge was only toppled in 1979 — 30 years ago, still a blip in the timeline of these people, whose entire world was shaken upside down. Pol Pot and his regime destroyed education, schools, religion, money, commerce, books, artefacts, family structure and urban living. They brutally (so brutally) killed anyone with an education or conflicting views, and essentially reduced a country that had been running fairly smoothly to the Stone Ages. And a legacy like that doesn’t just disappear in a few decades, even though the country is by and large back on its feet again.

This paragraph, by researchers and writers Olivia Altaras and Sarah Jones Dickens, on display at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, summed it up for me: “In essence, although the Khmer Rouge regime officially ended … in 1979 … the Khmer Rouge’s policies of forced collectivisation and social reconstructivism left behind a legacy that lingered long after its formal demise. The Khmer Rouge left behind a vastly uneducated and unskilled society; a displaced, diasporic and traumatised nation; a population of 70% women, many widowed from the regime; and a country riddled with landmines … it is a legacy far from over and a legacy that will take generations to heal.”

In the face of this, is it petty to complain about dirt and filth and a general lack of beauty? Am I holding this distinctly un-Western country up to my Western ideals? Am I expecting too much too soon? Or is this the attitude you develop when life and order as you know it has been destroyed, and things take on a new perspective.

What do you think?

What do you know about Cambodia?

Thais Prefer Bilateral Border Talks: Official

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer

Original report from Phnom Penh

13 October 2009

(Post by CAAI News Media)

A Thai official said Tuesday the government would prefer to solve an ongoing border dispute with Cambodia through bilateral talks, a day after Phnom Penh proposed adding it to the agenda of an Asean meeting later this month.

Thailand would prefer not to see the issued “internationalized,” a spokesman for the Thai Foreign Ministry said.

Asean leaders are expected to meet in Thailand Oct. 23 through Oct. 25.

The Cambodian request followed alleged remarks by Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Phiromya the dispute over Preah Vihear temple could be solved through a third party.

“The minister might have been quoted out of context in media reports,” Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi told the English-language Nation on Tuesday.

Cambodian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Koung declined to comment on the media report. The ministry was waiting for a formal response, he said.

Thai Embassy officials could not be reached for comment.

PREVIEW-World Food Prize eyes gains, setbacks in hunger

* 2009 World Food Prize Symposium

* Oct. 14-16, Des Moines, Iowa

* Food security threats eyed in wake of price spikes

* Bill Gates, CEOs of Pepsi, ADM to speak

* Can world act quickly on plans to reduce hunger?

By Roberta Rampton and Christine Stebbins

(Post by CAAI News Media)

DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Researchers and others who seek to alleviate hunger by boosting farmers' productivity will gather this week in the heart of the U.S Corn Belt to focus on the political risks when people don't have enough to eat.

Last year, fears of food shortages gripped grain markets, sending wheat and rice prices soaring to record highs and sparking hoarding and riots.

The unrest was a powerful reminder of the risks of food insecurity and helped spur the world's richest nations to promise to spend $20 billion over three years to help small, subsistence farmers improve their productivity. [ID:nLA547470]

"This is one of the key, crucial questions of the coming decades that has to do with whether the world is going to live at peace or not," said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, which hosts the symposium this week in Des Moines, Iowa.

"Whether it's terrorism, or internal conflict, or relations between states over the trade of food and water ... what do we do to address it?" said Quinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia.

The World Food Prize was founded by Norman Borlaug, the father of the "Green Revolution" that lifted crop yields in Latin America and Asia, who died last month from cancer at age 95 while still grappling with the problem of how to end hunger.

The number of chronically hungry has now ballooned past 1 billion people -- a crisis felt most acutely in Africa, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has said.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the world will need to boost production by 70 percent by 2050 to feed growing numbers -- a challenge given scarce land and water and the changing climate. [ID:nLN517136]

Critics of the first "Green Revolution" have warned about the overuse of chemicals, corporate control of seeds, and the displacement of small farmers as the world moves again to increase crop output.

The forum links scientists with philanthropists, executives and others staking ground in the issue: Bill Gates, PepsiCo (PEP.N) CEO Indra Nooyi, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM.N) CEO Patricia Woertz, and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

This year's World Food Prize will go to Gebisa Ejeta, a Purdue University scientist who developed drought- and weed-tolerant crops and worked to get the seed into the hands of small farmers in his native Africa. [ID:nN11502970]

It will take more than a jump in yields to achieve food security, said past laureates interviewed by Reuters, noting investment needed in education, health and infrastructure.

Plans for how best to spend money pledged to agricultural development continue to be deliberated in the United States and around the world. Some worry that dithering could stall momentum either for donors or within developing countries.

"We've got so many plans developed for almost every country in the world. We now need to pick them up and put them into action," said Per Pinstrup-Andersen, an economist at Cornell University and a Food Prize laureate.

For more from that interview, please see: link.reuters.com/vac63f

In Africa, it took a long time to lay the foundation to address agriculture's role in hunger, said Monty Jones, head of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, who won the World Food Prize in 2004 for his work on rice.

But nations are beginning to take ownership of the issue and move forward on plans, Jones said.

"We've done this in good faith. We've taken our time. We've got a good plan. We are now implementing that plan," he said.

"I am very confident in the short term to the medium term, we'll begin to see the impacts of this very good plan on work on the ground," Jones said.

Where African countries have invested in fertilizer and seed for farmers -- like Malawi -- yields have shot up, said Pedro Sanchez of Columbia University's Earth Institute, a World Food Prize laureate who works extensively in Africa on hunger.

"The African Green Revolution is possible, and it's a way that hunger can eventually be eliminated on that continent," Sanchez said. Previous World Food Prize winners [ID:nN13143823] (Editing by Jim Marshall)

Heat on KRouge judge upped

The move follows motions over the past week seeking to disqualify Marcel Lemonde (left) from the court for alleged bias, filed by defence teams for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and former head of state Khieu Samphan. --PHOTO: AFP

Oct 13, 2009

(Post by CAAI News Media)

PHNOM PENH - DEFENCE lawyers increased the pressure on the French investigating judge at Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge court on Tuesday, filing an appeal accusing his office of withholding information.

The move follows motions over the past week seeking to disqualify Marcel Lemonde from the court for alleged bias, filed by defence teams for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and former head of state Khieu Samphan.

Now, Ieng Sary's lawyers are arguing in an appeal that the co-investigating judges have refused to answer a May request to reveal how they collect and weigh evidence against leaders of the brutal late 1970s regime. 'This denial effectively obstructs the defence's ability to ensure Mr Ieng Sary receives a fair trial and has negative implications for the transparency of the proceedings,' said the appeal, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

Tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said Tuesday that the investigating judges did not consider they had rejected the request from Ieng Sary's lawyers, but had been occupied by a number of other time-consuming defence filings.

'The request by the defence team is currently under consideration by the co-investigating judges. There has been no intention to not answer their request,' Mr Olsen said.

The accusations of bias also facing Mr Lemonde were based on a sworn statement by his former chief of intelligence, alleging the judge told subordinates to favour evidence showing suspects' guilt over evidence of their innocence. Mr Lemonde has refused to publicly comment on the allegations, but indicated he will provide necessary information about the issue to the court. -- AFP

Cambodia's leading resorts see arrivals fall in first nine months

October 13, 2009

(Post by CAAI News Media)

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 13 — Foreign visitors to Cambodia's two key tourist centers fell over the first nine months of the year on an annualized basis, with an increase in arrivals from Vietnam failing to offset a fall from key East Asian markets, local media reported on Tuesday.

The number of foreigners visiting Siem Reap was down eight percent over the period compared to a year earlier to just over 700,000, the Phnom Penh Post quoted the figures from the Siem Reap provincial tourism department as reporting. Visitors to the southern resort town of Sihanoukville fell 12.43 percent to 94,102, according to provincial data.

Chheuy Chhom, administrative director of Siem Reap's tourism department, blamed a combination of bad weather, the global economic crisis and concerns over A(H1N1) flu for the downturn, but said the province appeared to be turning the corner with arrivals up two percent in the third quarter compared to the three months prior.

"I hope it will be better again during the last quarter because it is the holiday period for foreigners," he was quoted by the Post as saying.

A sharp increase in Vietnamese tourists had offset some of the losses from South Korea, Japan and China, he said. Nearly 200,000 Vietnamese visited the home of Angkor Wat over the first nine months of the year, he added.

Seng Mony, administrative director at the Sihanoukville Tourism Department, said the first nine months of the year had been hard for the resort town, but that local visitors had not fallen as sharply as foreign arrivals. Local visitors were down just two percent to 311,616, based on hotel booking information.

The slight decline was due largely to bad weather over the past few months, with local arrivals holding firm in the first two quarters of the year. Typhoon Ketsana had dented arrivals this month, he added.

National tourism statistics released this month show the number of foreign visitors to Cambodia was up l.37 percent to 1.422 million over the first eight months of the year.

However, air arrivals were down 15.21 percent at Siem Reap International Airport as the number of visitors from South Korea, Japan and China plummeted. Land arrivals were up 20.54 percent, boosted by a 43.66 percent increase in visitors from Vietnam. (PNA/Xinhua)

The Cambodian military take part in a parade to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Brigade 70

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen greets the honour guard as he arrives to attend the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Brigade 70 on the outskirts of Phnom Penh October 13, 2009. The brigade which cracks down on terrorism has more than 600 armed combatants including the prime minister's body guards, an emergency unit and a military unit to assist fighters when needed.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) poses with his son Hun Manet during the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Brigade 70 on the outskirts of Phnom Penh October 13, 2009. The brigade which cracks down on terrorism has more than 600 armed combatants including the prime minister's body guards, an emergency unit and a military unit to assist fighters when needed. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)

The Cambodian military take part in a parade to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Brigade 70, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh October 13, 2009. The brigade which cracks down on terrorism has more than 600 armed combatants including the prime minister's body guards, an emergency unit and a military unit to assist fighters when needed. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)

The Cambodian military take part in a parade to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the establishment of Brigade 70, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh October 13, 2009. The brigade, which cracks down on terrorism, has more than 600 armed combatants, including the prime minister's body guards, an emergency unit and a military unit to assist fighters when needed. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)

A member of the Cambodian military salutes from a tank during a parade to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Brigade 70, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh October 13, 2009. The brigade which cracks down on terrorism has more than 600 armed combatants including the prime minister's body guards, an emergency unit and a military unit to assist fighters when needed. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAAI News Media)

Cambodia's floating villages

Tonle Sap largest freshwater lake in Asia

By Michael McCarthy, Vancouver Courier

http://www.vancouversun.com/

(Post by CAAI News Media)

One of the great wonders of the world is the vast temple complex of Angkor Wat, spread through the jungles of northern Cambodia. Aside from the gigantic size of the complex --it was the largest city in the world in the Middle Ages before the jungle consumed it after its unexplained abandonment--one wonders why the Khmer empire was located here in the middle of nowhere, with no rivers or trading routes to support the city and its huge population. However, another great wonder of the world can be found a few miles away.

Tonle Sap is Cambodia's Great Lake and the most prominent feature on the map of Cambodia, a huge body of water stretching across the northwest section of the country. In the wet season, the Tonle Sap Lake becomes the largest freshwater lake in Asia, swelling to an expansive 12,000 square miles, and the largest freshwater floodplain in the world. More than three million people live on the floodplain around the Tonle Sap but what's interesting are the 170 floating villages found on the lake itself.

In the rainy season, a unique hydrologic phenomenon causes the Mekong River to reverse direction, filling the lake up instead of draining it. The inflow expands the surface area of lake more than five-fold, inundating the surrounding forested floodplain and supporting an extraordinarily rich and diverse eco-system. More than 100 varieties of waterbirds and over 200 species of fish, as well as crocodiles, turtles, macaques, otter and other wildlife inhabit the inundated mangrove forests. The Tonle Sap provides more than half of the fish consumed in Cambodia.

Sitting on the edge of the lake are these distinctive floating villages, many sitting on towering stilts, with their economy and way of life deeply intertwined with the lake, the fish, the wildlife and the cycles of rising and falling waters. Visiting them is not easy unless you happen to travel with your own motorboat, but not far from Angkor Wat you'll find the tiny port of Chong Khneas, where a fast ferry departs daily for the capital of Phnom Penh, a five-hour journey across the great waters. Here the Khmer and Vietnamese boat people live in their floating homes and a guided two-hour boat trip through the floating village costs $6 U.S. and is an experience worth the time and effort.

Drifting through these drowned villages on a boat is the weirdest thing. In the dry season the houses stand eerily atop stilts in a sea of mud. At the height of the rainy season, the tops of trees poke through the surface of the water in a drowned landscape. Depending on the time of the year and the depth of the lake--it can be as little as a foot deep at times--trucks and cars look like they are being driven on top of the water and villagers appear as if they are walking on the surface. Huge fish traps are placed everywhere. Some of the houses float, others are on stilts, and yet others are boats on which entire families live.

Being so close to a major tourist site like Angkor Wat, this floating village gets plenty of visitors, and the villagers have devised interesting tourist attractions like the crocodile farm, where you can get face to face with some nasty creatures who are, thankfully, kept in a pit. Just don't fall in. Then there are the snake girls, who live on barges and run up to visiting boats thrusting giant water snakes into people's faces. Certainly you can take a photo, but be prepared to pay a fee. There are even floating bars and restaurants, markets, a clinic and a school. Watching kids play basketball in the middle of a vast lake is something different. If you don't want to descend from your boat to explore, villagers will paddle out to meet you, offering excellent ice-cold Cambodian beer and snacks.

Other more remote floating villages can be visited at more time and expense, and bird watchers will go crazy floating through the giant mangrove swamps spotting the 100 different species of waterbirds. But make sure you don't fall out of the boat, because a floating clinic 200 miles away from the nearest hospital likely won't be able to patch up any crocodile attacks.

PM: Cambodia not allow any one to use Cambodia as shelter against other countries

www.chinaview.cn

2009-10-13

(Post by CAAI News Media)

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said that his country does not allow foreigners and international organizations to use Cambodia as a stronghold to create illegal political and international organizations to oppose neighboring countries.

Hun Sen made the remarks at the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Brigade 70 on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

"The government has followed a policy that does not allow any illegal political and military organizations which has the purposes of making turmoil in the country to use Cambodia as a stronghold to do activities to oppose the neighboring countries," Hun Sen said.

"We strongly opposed illegal political and military organizations to conduct subversion in the country and in neighboring countries," he added. "Our armed forces are playing a key role to fight against these activities," he noted. "Moreover, our armed forces also contribute to humanitarian mission and to fight against terrorism cooperated with international communities."

In 2003, Cambodia arrested Thai nationals including Muhammad Yalaluding and Abdul Azi Haji Chiming, both from Yala province and sentenced them to life in prison on charges of helping the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) plot a terrorist attack against western embassies in Cambodia.

Editor: Lin Liyu

Don't internationalise dispute

Cambodia on Monday proposed neighbouring Thailand put the dispute - which has sparked deadly skirmishes between troops - on the agenda when it hosts this month's summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). -- PHOTO: REUTERS

(Post by CAAI News Media)

BANGKOK - THAILAND said on Tuesday that its border dispute with Cambodia should be dealt with through bilateral negotiations, rather than being 'internationalised' at an upcoming regional summit.

However, a spokesman for the Thai foreign affairs ministry said Cambodia's proposal was based on an inaccurate report in the Thai press. Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya was reported to have said last week he would seek approval at the ASEAN meeting to establish a neutral body that would help settle the Thai-Cambodia dispute.

But this 'stems from a misquote and something that was taken out of context' from a talk he gave earlier this month on the Thai-Cambodia issue, Thani Thongphakdi of the ministry said.

'Thailand will continue to seek a peaceful resolution of the problem through bilateral negotiations' under the framework of the Thai-Cambodian joint boundary commission, he told AFP. 'As such, we believe this issue should not be internationalised nor raised within the Asean framework.'

The dispute focuses on an area of land around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, where clashes have killed seven soldiers since nationalist tensions between the neighbours flared last year.

CAMBODIA: An "epidemic" of evictions

Photo: Phnom Penh Post

A man holds his child as he walks through the remains of a community known as Group 78 in central Phnom Penh

(Post by CAAI News Media)

PHNOM PENH, 13 October 2009 (IRIN) - About 700 police and soldiers in riot gear arrived early one morning, waking 58-year-old Teth Neang with a baton and forcing her into a truck.

After they bulldozed her home, they drove her to the outskirts of the capital. She alleges they then dumped her - and 1,000 other families - in an open field, and drove off.

That was three years ago. Since then, Neang has lived in a government-sponsored relocation site at Andong, 20km outside Phnom Penh, without healthcare or a job.

The land she was removed from - Sambok Chap village, in central Phnom Penh - remains barely used by a private developer.

"The developer didn't give me a home like they promised," she told IRIN. "I slept in the field for a week, even in the rain."

With the help of a local Christian missionary, Neang has managed to build a tarpaulin hut but her home is regularly flooded and she has no source of clean drinking water.

"How am I supposed to work here? In Phnom Penh we had jobs and ways of living. Out here, nobody takes care of us."

Going landless

In recent years, NGOs and rights groups have raised concerns over what they say is an epidemic of forced evictions amid spiralling land prices and lax enforcement of laws.

Many evictions make way for hotels and skyscrapers in the rapidly developing capital. In the countryside, evictions are often justified to make way for logging, mining, resorts, casinos or plantations, say NGOs.

Licadho, a Cambodian NGO, said in a May report that 133,000 people, or 10 percent of Phnom Penh's 1.3 million, were believed to have been affected by evictions since 1990.

And more than 250,000 people in 13 provinces have been hit by land-grabbing and forced evictions since 2003, it said.

Meanwhile, rural landlessness has soared from about 13 percent in 1997 to as high as 25 percent in 2007, according to Bridges across Borders Southeast Asia (BABSEA), a regional NGO that works on land rights in Cambodia.

"The mismanagement of state land has negatively impacted [on] the poorest Cambodians most," said David Pred, director of BABSEA, in a statement on 1 October. "Rural and indigenous communities have been deprived of the land on which their lives depend."

NGOs report that many evictees such as Neang are denied basic healthcare and water services in their relocation sites, provided by the government and usually in areas too far from the inner city to find jobs.

Records destroyed

Scores of land documents were destroyed under the Khmer Rouge regime, leaving many Cambodians unable to prove ownership.

The government has justified evictions as part of the country's development plan, and has claimed that residents squat on land illegally. But according to Cambodia's 2001 land law, anyone who has used land for the past five years can claim full title to it.

One World Bank land-titling programme, the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), was cancelled by the government in early September. The US$24.3 million project had issued 1.1 million titles since 2002 in an attempt to address Cambodia's rampant landlessness.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said in early September that the move was due to "complicated and difficult conditions" surrounding the project.

However, Annette Dixon, the World Bank's director for Southeast Asia, has said the Bank and government could not agree on a protection mechanism for land disputes.

"The government is making a mistake. The LMAP could be a tremendous boost for poverty reduction, giving people security to their land, which would lead to better planning and investment," Ou Virak, head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, a local NGO, told IRIN.

"Land conflict is the one issue that could undermine the current government and cause social unrest," he said.

Controversial development

In perhaps the most controversial case, a politically connected Cambodian developer, Shukaku Inc., is filling in the Boeung Kak lake in northeastern Phnom Penh - one of the city's few natural sites that attracts thousands of tourists each year.

The company has evicted about 900 families from the land since August 2008, and another 20,000 are set to be pushed out, according to BABSEA. Activists say the legality of the project is unclear, since Cambodia's 2001 land law states that lakes are public property and cannot be destroyed.

However, officials have said the land belongs to the state, not families, and that the development is necessary.

"At Boeung Kak lake, we don't evict people because it is state property," Pa Socheat Vong, sub-governor of the Phnom Penh municipality, told IRIN. "We do things according to the law, and we need to build infrastructure and develop Phnom Penh. Foreign NGOs and journalists don't know the truth about it."

As part of the project, Shukaku has entered into a 99-year lease to develop 133ha of the lake and surrounding areas. It reportedly plans to build flats and shopping complexes.

Thailand rejects widening of Cambodia border dispute

File photo shows Cambodian soldiers standing guard near by the Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province. Thailand said Tuesday that its border dispute with Cambodia should be dealt with through bilateral negotiations, rather than being "internationalised" at an upcoming regional summit. (AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Tue Oct 13

(Post by CAAI News Media)

BANGKOK (AFP) – Thailand said Tuesday that its border dispute with Cambodia should be dealt with through bilateral negotiations, rather than being "internationalised" at an upcoming regional summit.

However, a spokesman for the Thai foreign affairs ministry said Cambodia's proposal was based on an inaccurate report in the Thai press.

Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya was reported to have said last week he would seek approval at the ASEAN meeting to establish a neutral body that would help settle the Thai-Cambodia dispute.

But this "stems from a misquote and something that was taken out of context" from a talk he gave earlier this month on the Thai-Cambodia issue, Thani Thongphakdi of the ministry said.

"Thailand will continue to seek a peaceful resolution of the problem through bilateral negotiations" under the framework of the Thai-Cambodian joint boundary commission, he told AFP.

"As such, we believe this issue should not be internationalised nor raised within the ASEAN framework."

The dispute focuses on an area of land around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, where clashes have killed seven soldiers since nationalist tensions between the neighbours flared last year.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area, with the last gun battle near the temple area in April leaving three people dead.

The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.