Arrest made in Koh Kong abuse case

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:01 Mom Kunthear and Khuon Leakhana

A KOH KONG woman accused of beating her 12-year-old stepson was questioned at the provincial court on Friday after her arrest one day earlier, a police official said.

Tat Koynor, the police chief of Khemarak Phoumin town, confirmed Sunday that the woman had been taken into police custody. “This woman did not beat the boy to make him be a good child. She beat him like he was her enemy,” he said.

“I think it is better if this kind of person is sent to prison to make a point that other people should not follow her example.”

The boy’s stepmother forced him to earn money for the family by collecting rubbish and selling the scraps. When he didn’t earn enough money, he was beaten, and when he earned too much, the stepmother also beat him, accusing him of stealing, said Chhin Chamroeun, a provincial monitor for rights group Adhoc.

“It is a good lesson for other mothers not to beat their children seriously,” she said.

Tob Chhun Heng, Koh Kong provincial prosecutor, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in Kampot province’s Kampong Trach district, an Adhoc monitor filed a complaint to police on Tuesday, alleging that a 16-year-old girl has received similar abuse from her aunt since age 10.

“The police, local authorities and I called the girl in so that we could check over her body, and we found more than 20 wounds, both old and new, on her body,” said Sim Sorphea, head of Adhoc’s women’s rights programme in Kampot.

She added that the girl has also been kept from attending school.

Soun Toeng, Lob village police chief, said the girl’s aunt told him she beat the girl “because she did not work quickly enough”. He said that the woman had agreed to cease the beatings, but that he will file a complaint to the provincial court if she mistreats her niece again.

60,000 sign land-dispute petition

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Yin Yan, 77, a resident of Russey Keo district’s Boeung Chhouk village, walks towards her home on Friday. Thirty-five families in the village are facing eviction.

via Khmer NZ News Media

Monday, 14 June 2010 15:01 Cheang Sokha and Chhay Channyda

AROUND 60,000 people have thumbprinted a letter calling on Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene and resolve a rash of land disputes that have put their homes, farms and livelihoods at risk, community representatives said.

Seng Sok Heng, who represents communities affected by land conflicts across the country, said that about 300 representatives of different villages plan to march from Wat Phnom to Hun Sen’s Phnom Penh residence on Tuesday to submit their petition.

“We have submitted a letter of request to the Phnom Penh Municipality seeking permission for the peace rally, but we have not yet received information from them,” he said.

He added that villagers involved in land disputes have also urged Surya Subedi, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights, to address the issue in talks with government officials this week. Subedi is focusing on the judiciary during his third mission to Cambodia, a 10-day affair that ends Thursday. “Although we know he is focusing only on judicial reform, land disputes are linked with the judicial system,” Seng Sok Heng said.

Chan Soveth, a senior monitor for local rights group Adhoc, said Subedi should make sure that the concerns of villagers affected by land disputes are communicated to the government.

“This issue was raised by Mr Surya Subedi in his previous mission, but still we have not seen any improvement,” he said in a statement last week.

“He has to follow up his recommendations and push the government to solve this issue without delay.”

Residents facing eviction in the capital’s Russey Keo district have also issued appeals for Subedi to intervene in their case. On Friday, villagers delivered a written request to the local office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, saying they were seeking help to forestall their eviction from land in Boeung Chhouk village, which authorities say is owned by a local businesswoman.

“I want Mr Surya to help us while he is on his mission in Cambodia, to talk with the government about land issues and human rights,” Seng Sna, a village representative, told reporters at the village on Friday.

On May 12, a letter signed by Russey Keo district Governor Khlaing Huot ordered 35 families from Boeung Chhouk to relocate within 14 days, saying they are living on a 163-metre-by-60-metre plot of land owned by businesswoman Lao Tong Ngy. But villagers remain confused, since the letter accuses them of living in Tuol Sangke commune’s Tuol Kork village. Sok Khim, chief of Kilometre 6 commune, on Friday said the families live in his commune.

But Russey Keo district Deputy Governor Koub Sles maintained that they live in Tuol Sangke commune, and that there was “a verdict from the court” granting the land to Lao Tong Ngy.

Villagers said UN officials accepted their petition on Friday, but Tuoch Huan, a spokesman for the UN human rights office, said he was not yet aware of the complaint.

Poor hygeine blamed for M’kiri deaths

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:01 Tep Nimol

THREE men in Mondulkiri province died on Friday after contracting acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), and five others have been sent to hospital, officials said.

Len Vanna, head of the Keo Seima district council, said another death had been recorded last Wednesday.

He said the five hospitalised patients – including his 39-year-old brother – had been sent to hospital in Vietnam.

“The five other villagers were sent to Vietnam, which is close to the border, including my brother, whose life probably can’t be saved because his situation is very critical,” he said.

The three men who died on Friday were all in their 50s, he said, and added that their illnesses were likely the result of poor hygiene and a lack of sanitation among villagers when consuming food and water.

Meanwhile, officials in Pursat province said Sunday that a separate outbreak of AWD in Koh Andeth district led to the hospitalisation of 24 people, 18 of whom are in critical condition.

Keo Sangphalbon, the director of the referral hospital in Pursat’s Bakan district, said officials there planned to test samples from the deceased.

“We haven’t taken their tests yet, but provincial health officials have been to the place and concluded that it is a serious [type of] diarrhoea which is similar to cholera,” he said.

The latest reports continue an ongoing spate of AWD outbreaks in a handful of provinces across the country, including one that claimed two more lives in Ratanakkiri last week.

Hoy Vannara, head of Ratanakkiri’s Communicable Diseases Control Department, said Sunday that the latest deaths brought the toll for the year to 22 in that province, and that there had been 700 reported cases.

Dr Nima Asgari, public health specialist for the World Health Organization, said Sunday that the government has taken significant steps to curb diarrhoea outbreaks, but noted that there are significant challenges to ensuring the campaign’s success.

“At the moment [the most important thing] is to get the right messages to the write people at the right time and that is always the problem with health campaigns,” he said.

“The government is doing a lot, and when people actually get to health centres, very few die. The problem is making sure they get to the health centres early enough,” he added.

Sok Touch, director of the Communicable Diseases Control Department at the Ministry of Health, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

Kiwi lawmaker criticised for spa expenses in Cambodia

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:01 Irwin Loy

A PROMINENT politician in New Zealand is taking heat after racking up hefty expenses on his government credit card, including charges for spa treatments while staying at an upscale hotel in Phnom Penh, according to media reports.

Chris Carter, an opposition parliamentarian and former cabinet minister, tallied a bill of NZ$2,336 – roughly US$1,600 – during a five-night stay at Raffles Hotel Le Royal in 2008, according to The New Zealand Herald.

That sojourn included a “spa treatment” priced at NZ$204 (US$140), which was charged to a ministerial credit card, then reimbursed, the report stated.

Carter, who stayed at the hotel in 2008 when he was a cabinet minister in the former Labour government, told the newspaper he purchased the massage treatments “to help cope with the 40C heat of Phnom Penh”.

The hotel’s in-house spa, Amrita Spa, offers clients a range of relaxation and therapeutic massage services priced between $35 and $60 for 55 minutes, according to staffers there. When asked if there was a service that would help guests adjust to the city’s hot weather, a receptionist who answered the phone Sunday said the spa is offering a special that includes a massage and a choice of coconut, coffee or sesame body scrubs.

“The coconut scrub makes your skin soft and smooth,” said the receptionist, who declined to give her name. “The coffee cleans the skin’s pores.”

Either way, the expense issue appears to have rubbed some in New Zealand the wrong way.

Media reports Sunday suggested that Carter and other politicians facing criticism for their expenses could be demoted to the backbenches.

Carter, New Zealand’s first openly gay cabinet minister, was also quoted in a Herald story Sunday suggesting he was considering leaving his job because he was tired of being portrayed as a “luxury-loving gay boy”.

New dollar sale to boost riel

Photo by: Pha Lina
An ACLEDA ATM offers the choice to withdraw money in riels or dollars Sunday. NBC is selling off seven lots of US$1 million this month.

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:01 Nguon Sovan

NBC to off-load additional US$7 million to stabilise struggling local currency

AN additional US$7 million will be put up for sale by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) this month in the organisation’s latest attempt to stablilse the value of the riel, it was announced Friday.

Banks, private companies and money lenders will be able to use riel to buy seven separate lots of $1 million from NBC.

Bidding on the first sale begins today with the last sell-off scheduled for June 30, according to an announcement signed by the bank’s Secretary General Sum Saniseth and released Friday.

The intervention, aimed at taking supplies of local currency out of the real economy thereby increasing demand for the devalued riel, follows the sale of $10 million carried out by NBC over the last three weeks.

So far, its attempt to revalue the riel has had a small but positive affect.

According to Ly Hour Exchange, the largest money changer in Phnom Penh, one greenback was worth 4,252 riels Sunday, a slight improvement on the 4,265 riels per dollar recorded a week earlier.

This strengthening interrupts a slide that has seen the riel depreciate to record lows.

Its value has fallen 1.47 percent over the past two months, from 4,190 riels per US dollar in mid-April, according to Ly Hour.

The riel “has gradually begun to appreciate after the central bank’s interventions”, said Sieng Lim, the owner of Ly Hour Exchange, on Sunday.

She believes the riel will stabilise when the harvest season begins in September.

It is the NBC’s policy to intervene when the riel depreciates to more than 4,200 riels per US dollar by dipping into its foreign reserves to buy in riel currency.

As of May, according to NBC data, the bank held $2.5 billion worth of foreign reserves.

According to last year’s annual report, in 2009 the NBC put 32 lots of currency worth $54 million on the market to ensure that the riel remained valued at between 4,000 and 4,200 per US dollar.

Cambodia has an estimated $500 million worth of riels in circulation.

Last week, Kang Chandararot, president of Cambodia Institute for Development Study, praised NBC’s interventions.

He said that the riel’s depreciation was the result of a strengthening US dollar – which has been affected by the weakened euro – and a reduced inflow of dollars into Cambodia through trade and investment.

Tal Nay Im, director general of the NBC, and Secretary Genearl Sum Saniseth did not reply to repeated calls for comment Sunday.

Battambang labourers to demand back pay

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:01 Kim Yuthana and Tha Piseth

REPRESENTATIVES of 500 construction workers in Battambang province hired to work for a Chinese hydropower company say they will file a complaint to the provincial court today, claiming their employer owes them more than US$14,000 in back pay.

Local police say the head of the unnamed local sub-contractor, which hired the workers to build 46 electricity poles for the Chinese firm, had disappeared without paying the workers’ salaries.

“The head of the construction escaped as the construction was finished, as it was time to pay the workers,” said Ouk Sovath, chief of the crime unit of the Battambang provincial police. “Local police are now investigating and plan to arrest the head of the [company].”

Yin Mengly, a provincial monitor for local rights group Adhoc, said the group had received word of the case, but was not closely involved in the investigation.

Tourism Ministry applies for coastline award

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:01 Chun Sophal

CAMBODIA has applied for 450km of coastline, stretching from Koh Kong to Kep, to be recognised by an international organisation in a bid to increase visitor numbers, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon has told the Post.

At a meeting held in Preah Sihanouk province late last week, the Minister said that the Kingdom has applied for membership to an organisation called the World’s Most Beautiful Beaches Club.

The club was established in Berlin in 1997 and has certified 30 beaches in 22 member countries so far.

Cambodia's application, which was made on April 30 and is backed by the private sector, has been made to support tourism and to provide an ongoing means of income to the local population.

“We hope Cambodia’s beach[es] will be officially recognised as a member of the World’s Most Beautiful Beaches Club next year because our coastal area has protected natural resources which are a big attraction,” Thong Khon said.

Club membership “also has the potential to develop the national economy”, he added.

To become a member, a country must fulfill requirements, which include requiring its beach to have projects in place to protect natural resources, be an attractive natural area and have the potential for economic development.

“We will act vigorously to implement environmental protection in all coastal provinces to ensure our beach is a beautiful area for both local and international visitors,” added Environment Minister Mok Mareth.

Government officials met with provincial authorities and business owners in Sihanoukville on Thursday to draft a strategic plan to prevent coastal areas from being polluted.

Thong Khon said the Kingdom’s coastline could become the second-most important attraction for international tourists after Angkor Wat, if it achieved official Club recognition.

Representatives from the beach body are expected to visit Cambodia to examine and evaluate its coastline in November this year.

According to a Ministry of Tourism report, only 7.15 percent of last year's 2.16 million international tourists visited the Kingdom's beaches.

Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, said that if Cambodia’s coastline was recognised by the Club, the country would be able to increase tourist numbers by 50 percent over the next five years.

Officials applied for the award following encouragement from the Apsara Authority and UNESCO.

Stock Roundup: Gold reaches a record global high

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:00 Catherine James

ASIAN markets were not spared last week’s global rout after unexpectedly poor US job data and new fears over Hungary’s sovereign debt levels.

Monday saw MSCI Asia Pacific Index slide 3.3 percent, its biggest decline since March 30, 2009, as economists scrambled to re-evaulate forecasts following fears of economic instability, Bloomberg reported.

However, the index recovered 1.2 percent on Friday on the back of a Wall Street rally. The Dow Jones had risen by 2.76 percent on Thursday on news of Japanese economic growth, soaring Chinese exports and falling Australian unemployment.

Gold rose to record levels across the world Friday, reaching US$1,254.50 an ounce in New York, as investors sought a safe alternative to currencies such as the euro.

Gold’s popularity may explain the rapid rise of non-NASDAQ over-the-counter stock Elray Resources, the gold and copper explorer behind Angkor Wat Minerals Ltd, which owns a 100 percent interest in Porphyry Creek – a 90-square-kilometre gold and copper claim around 290 kilometres north of Phnom Penh. The company’s share price rose 263 percent during the week.

It opened on Monday at US$0.033, and closed Friday at $0.12. However, shares remained almost $0.30 off its 52-week high of $0.41.

Australian Stock Exchange-listed Toll Holdings, one of the region’s largest logistics providers, which is currently renovating Cambodia’s railway network, said Monday that it was buying DPAX Group, an independent express air-freight operator, from Qantas Airways.

Although the price remains confidential, Toll said it expected the new business to make AU$30 million (US$25.5 million) in revenue in its first year.

The company opened AU$0.15 lower on Tuesday at AU$5.5 before closing at AU$5.86 – 1.38 percent higher than its Monday open.

Regional telecom company Axiata Group, owner of Cambodia’s Hello brand, solidified operations in Malaysia with a memorandum of understanding signed between its Malaysian subsidiary Celecom Axiata, and DiGi Telecommunications – the Malaysian arm of Norway’s Telenor Group.

Axiata said the MoU was “among the first such collaboration[s] in the world”.

Axiata said the MoU will see the two networks consider “extensive collaboration” of resources, including base station sites and equipment in order to cut costs by cutting “escalating” rental fees, utility bills and transmission costs.

Axiata’s price per share closed Friday at 3.85 ringgit (US$1.17). This was 0.9 ringgit higher than its Monday opening.

Police Blotter: 14 Jun 2010

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:00 Tha Piseth

GIRL RAPED AFTER PORNOGRAPHY BINGE

Two 12-year-old boys have been accused of raping a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl living in Russey Keo district’s Svay Pak commune after watching pornography late last month. The girl’s parents filed a complaint to the local authorities immediately after finding out that she was raped on May 30. The two perpetrators confessed to police, saying that before raping the girl they watched pornography on a mobile phone. The police released the boys after “giving advice” to them, and said that since they were below the age of 14, they could not be charged. KOH SANTEPHEAP

MEN INVADE HOUSE, POSTPRANDIAL

Two burglars were arrested one day after a gang of 10 broke into a house in Samrong Snou village, in Battambang province’s Ek Phnom district, and terrorised its owners before fleeing from the scene empty-handed. Police said that the group broke into the house immediately after consuming alcohol with their dinner on Thursday. They attempted to stab a man who was in the house using a long knife, but they were unsuccessful and ran away.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

UNHEALTHY MAN FAILS TO KILL HIMSELF

A 46-year-old man has recovered after he attempted to hang himself with nylon cord from the roof of a mezzanine in his Prampi Makara district residence. Police said the man, who suffered from regular high blood pressure and had high glucose levels in his urine, had attempted to take his life as a way of escaping from his recurring illnesses. The man was quickly found by his family, who freed him from the wire and took him to Calmette Hospital for treatment.

KAMPUCHEA THMEY

THREE THIEVES RUE FAILED SNATCHING

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday issued a citation authorising the detention of a group of three thieves who were seized by villagers on Monday last week after unsuccessfully trying to snatch the bag of a woman travelling along a road in Meanchey district’s Stung Meanchey commune. At first, villagers captured only two of the men, but police found the third after the villagers brought the first two to the police station.

KAMPUCHEA THMEY

Japanese photos capture life in Cambodia

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Monday, 14 June 2010 15:00 Ou Mom

Phnom Penh

THE work of eight young Japanese photographers, depicting everyday life in Cambodia, is on display at the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Centre in Phnom Penh until June 17.

The photographers, all of whom are university students, were part of a Japanese delegation of 10 people – also including two professors – that visited Cambodia from June 3 to 10 under the Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths programme.

The 24 photographs on display at the centre, located at the Institute of Foreign Languages on the campus of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, were taken by the students during their stay in Cambodia.

Their tour of the country included visits to “sites related to social, economic and cultural affairs, as well as local communities and Japanese official development assistance projects,” according to a statement released last week by the Japanese embassy in Phnom Penh.

One member of the delegation, photography professor Momose Toshiya from Kyushu Sangyo University, said he had never visited Cambodia before and was happy to see what life was really like in the country.

“Before visiting, I had heard more bad things than good things about Cambodia through the media, but it was a great relief to find that the country is more developed and peaceful than I expected,” he said.

“When I go back to Japan, I will tell everyone all the good things about Cambodia at the festivals where the photos will be displayed,” he said.

According to the embassy statement, “the students will exhibit [their] photos at various events in Japan, including an exhibition at the ASEAN Centre in Tokyo and university festivals” later this year.

The exhibition consists of three photographs from each student. One of the photographers, 19-year-old Tanaka Mayuko from Kyushu Sangyo University, said she was interested in capturing the bright sunlight of Cambodia, as well as different aspects of the country’s modernisation.

“I was really interested in Sorya Shopping Centre because we’ve heard a lot about genocide and traffic accidents in Cambodia, so I didn’t expect to find this kind of supermarket here,” Tanaka said. One of her photos shows the escalators at the shopping centre.

Baba Anomi, 21, from Nihon University, said she was interested in documenting smiling faces, life in the countryside and development in Cambodia “because war ended here only a short time ago”.

“I like to shoot pictures of smiling people because they can express many different feelings with their smiles. I find the smiles of Cambodians are pure, generous and friendly,” she said.

Professor Momose said he thought it was difficult to compare photography in Cambodia and Japan because Cambodia suffers from a lack of university programmes that teach the artform.

“In my observation, in Cambodia photography is used more for business than for the arts. But I have met many Cambodian photographers who are working very hard, so I hope photography will develop quickly in Cambodia,” he said.

The Phnom Penh Post News in Brief

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Archery tourney begins

Monday, 14 June 2010 15:00 Dan Riley

THE 2010 Cambodian National Archery Championship takes flight today at Olympic Stadium. The annual event will see 95 participants from six clubs compete over five days.

Beverage sector leads ad spending

Monday, 14 June 2010 15:00 Ellie Dyer

THE beverage sector spent the most on advertising in May, shelling out an estimated US$1.3 million on promotion, according to a new survey. Indochina Research Ltd’s (IRL) monthly ad spending poll, released late last week, found the drinks sector to be Cambodia’s highest-spending sector. It pipped spending from telcos, estimated at $900,416, and personal care businesses, measured at $770,609, to take first place. This year, the beverage industry has spent almost $6 million to date on advertising, IRL says.

Promoters must be licenced

Monday, 14 June 2010 15:00 May Kunmakara

THE Ministry of Information has called for companies which promote and print advertisements to register their businesses or face legal action. “Some companies have not registered or requested a licence, while others have done so,” said Ouk Prathna, chairman of public billboard committees and the ministry’s secretary of state. An announcement, issued Wednesday and signed by Ouk Prathna, requires all the companies to register by November 30. Ouk Prathna, said that all the companies which don’t comply will face the legal action from the ministry.

China Goes for Friendly Giant Role in Mekong

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By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER

Sunday, June 13, 2010

BANGKOK — The Mekong River is steadily emerging as a testing ground for public diplomacy, Chinese style. Beijing, it appears, wants to reach out to its southern neighbors who share the river more as a friendly giant than an imposing bully.

An unprecedented move to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding two of four dams on the upper stretches of the river that snakes through southern China is only the latest in a diplomatic shift towards openness taking shape since mid-March.

Children walk along the Mekong river in Phnom Penh. (Photo: Getty Images)

On Jun. 7, senior government officials from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam were offered their first glimpse of the newly built Xiaowan dam and the older Jing Hong dam as part of a fact-finding tour. It was a groundbreaking journey into the mountainous terrain of China’s Yunnan province that had, till this month, been forbidden territory to officials from the Mekong River Basin countries.

The welcome mat was rolled out by Beijing in early April during the first summit of the Mekong River countries, which also include Burma (or Myanmar), in addition to the four river basin countries and China. That summit in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin was to mark the 15th anniversary of the 1995 Mekong Agreement, which paved the way for the creation of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental body of the four lower Mekong countries tasked to manage and develop the basin area.

"The Chinese government indicated at the summit that they would like to be more open with governments in the lower Mekong countries," Damian Kean, an MRC spokesman, told IPS from his headquarters in Vientiane. "It was keen to address the concerns of the lower basin countries."

March marked a noticeable turning point in China shedding its secretive policies about its designs on the Mekong River, which begins its 4,660- kilometre long journey from the Tibetan plateau, heads through Yunnan, then passes Burma before snaking its way through the basin to empty out into the South China Sea in southern Vietnam.

What prompted this move was the withering criticism China’s four completed dams (of a cascade of eight planned on the upper Mekong) came under as the river dried up in the basin, hitting a low not seen in the past 50 years. Among the affected were the 60 million people living in the basin, who depend on fishing in the Mekong for their livelihood.

Thailand was the staging area for Beijing’s offer of an olive branch. After all, it was from this South-east Asian country that most of the anti-dam criticism by environmental and grassroots activists emerged. Groups like Save the Mekong Coalition, a Bangkok-based network, declared that the "changes to the Mekong River’s daily hydrology and sediment load since the early 1990s have already been linked to the operation of the (Chinese) dam cascade."

To calm such opposition, Chen Dehai, a Chinese diplomat from the Bangkok embassy, held a press conference in March, breaking China’s silence about the dams that had prevailed since the Manwan, the first of the Chinese dams in the upper Mekong, came on line in 1992.

The Chinese dams were not the reason for the record drop in the Mekong’s water level during this year’s dry season, Chen told reporters in the Thai capital. "The average annual runoff volume of the Lancang River at the outbound point (of China) is approximately 64 billion cubic metres, accounting for only 13.5 percent of the Mekong’s run off volume at the (South China) sea outlet," he said, using the Chinese name for the Mekong.

This view was echoed by another Chinese diplomat in a rare appearance at a discussion about the Mekong held on Apr. 1 at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. The Xiaowan, the largest of the dams, had begun to impound water since July 2009, but such operations had stopped at the beginning of the dry season, Yao Wen, the first secretary to the Chinese mission in Bangkok, told participants at the ‘Public Forum on Sharing the Mekong River’.

During his visit to Bangkok in March, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue had reportedly offered reassuring words of friendship to its Mekong neighbours.

"China would not do anything to damage mutual interest with neighbouring countries in the Mekong," Hu was reported to have told Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

"China has realised that its past approach of avoiding public engagement and public diplomacy with the lower Mekong countries has not worked," said Carl Middleton, Mekong programme coordinator for International Rivers, a US- based environmental lobby.

Yet what seems lacking so far is a recognition by Beijing about its past errors in building four dams without consulting communities in the lower Mekong, Middleton told IPS. "People need to be compensated for the past errors."

The information about the dams that China is now willing to share with the lower Mekong countries and the MRC should be given to the communities in the lower Mekong, he added. "China needs to recognise that the Mekong is a shared river if regional peace and prosperity is to be achieved."

Achieving such regional peace is in Beijing’s interest for geo-political reasons, too, say analysts in the wake of new interest shown by the US government to help manage and develop the Mekong river, which Washington lost interest in soon after its defeat during the US war in Vietnam.

In mid-May, the MRC and the Mississippi River Commission inked their first deal for river management cooperation, confirming a plan that was unveiled last July by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the first-ever US- Lower Mekong Ministerial Meeting in the southern Thai resort of Phuket.

During that visit, Clinton also signed the Treaty of Amity, a regional security deal that Beijing had already signed in 2003.

"China’s public diplomacy to reach out to the lower Mekong countries is a direct response to the U.S. signing the Treaty of Amity last year," said Kavi Chongkittavorn, a columnist on regional affairs for ‘The Nation’, an English- language daily in Thailand. "Beijing lost the advantage it had and cannot afford to have a negative image in the region."

Cambodia applies for coastline award to promote tourism

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Source: Xinhua

June 14 2010

Cambodia expects to include its coastal areas in the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World next year in order to attract more tourists to the Cambodia's coastal areas, local media reported on Monday, citing Tourism Minister Thong Khon.

The Tourism Ministry submitted the document of the Cambodia's 450 km coastal areas stretching in four provinces of Koh Kong, Sihanoukville, Kampot and Kep to list with the Club in early May, 2010 during the Club's 6th world congress in Halong Bay, Vietnam, said the minister at a meeting held in Preah Sihanouk province late last week, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

"Natural resources at our coastal lines have been preserved well, so we hope our coastal areas will be listed among the world's most beautiful bays next year in the 7th annual meeting of the Club," Thong Khon was quoted as saying. "When it gains the status, it would help to attract more tourists to the areas, which are a potential to develop the nation's economy."

Cambodia's coastal area is the second most popular destination for tourists after Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province. Cambodia received 2.16 million foreign tourists last year, but only 7 percent or 154,500 visited the coastal areas.

According to the Club's criteria, to be listed as the world's most beautiful bay, a bay must be under the protection project, an attractively natural area, recognized both local and regional level, a potential for economy development and recognized by UNESCO.

Advantages receives from the membership is information exchanges and boost the promotion of the potential in the coastal areas on international market.

Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodian Association on Travel Agents, was quoted as saying that if Cambodia's coastline was recognized by the Club, the country would be able to increase tourist numbers by 50 percent over the next five years.

The Club was established in March 1997, in Berlin, Germany, so far, 22 countries as members with 30 bays have been recognized as the most beautiful bays in the world.

Two killed by lightning in Cambodia, yearly toll hits 50

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Posted : Mon, 14 Jun 2010

By : dpa

Phnom Penh - Two sisters were killed by lightning in Cambodia, bringing the year's reported death toll to 50, local media reported Monday.

The teenagers were tending their family's cattle in a rice field in the southeastern province of Kampong Cham late last week when they were struck, the Cambodia Daily newspaper reported.

"We are noting the increase in lightning deaths, and our senior officials are paying attention to the issue," said Keo Vy, deputy director of the National Committee of Disaster Management.

"It could be a result of climate change."

Lightning last year killed 140 people in Cambodia, up from 95 recorded deaths in 2008.

AsiaRooms.com - Watch the World Cup final in Siem Reap

http://www.prlog.org/

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Anyone travelling in Cambodia who does not want to miss the football this summer will find that there are establishments broadcasting the games.

PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 13, 2010 – People who are staying in Siem Reap hotels (http://www.asiarooms.com/cambodia/siem_reap.html) during June and July will not need to worry about missing any of the World Cup matches.

Despite the fact that the Cambodian team is not competing in the tournament, there will still be plenty of establishments showing all the action.

And one party not to be missed will on the final day of the festival of football.

On July 11th, the top two teams will go head-to-head on the pitch, in a battle for the most-coveted trophy in the sport.

In Siem Reap, San Miguel has teamed up with a host of local bars to ensure that every game is shown.

For those who want to see every kick, tackle and goal of the final game, the X Bar will be hosting the party.

However, due to the time difference, it will actually be July 12th in Cambodia when the last game of the World Cup kicks off.

The Phnom Penh Post revealed that many Cambodians are intending to follow the football this summer.

Glenn Press, owner of the Walkabout in the capital, told the newspaper that his establishment is expecting big crowds throughout the tournament, adding that his bar has five screens and intends to show every match.

Posted by Delia Jones

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Riding with Cambodia's super sport bikers

Despite the kingdom’s cheap roads and expensive taxis, super sport bike enthusiasts are enjoying a roaring time in Cambodia

via Khmer NZ News Media

By Charlie Lancaster
14 June, 2010

“I call it The Beast,” says Lee of his 2006 Yamaha R1. He is one of the founding members of Independence Monument Riders, Cambodia’s first super sport bike club, which meets at Independence Monument in central Phnom Penh. The informal club is made up of people from different backgrounds, but are all connected through their love of bikes. And money. Some of the 1000cc beasts can cost as much as US$20,000, and the net worth of the bikes in the group is estimated at over US$150,000. Malaysian-born Aru is the proud owner of an Aprilia Haga 1000R, one of only 300 in the world.

Since the first super sport Suzuki RF900 was spotted in Phnom Penh in 2000, the number of 600cc big bikes in the capital has reached around 100. However, as riders look to challenge themselves further and keep up with the rest, Lee expects the number of 1000cc bikes to increase in the coming years. For now though, they remain something of a rarity in Cambodia.

If you’re tempted to join them or just fancy checking out the bikes, head down to Independence Monument early evening at the weekends. Don’t forget to take a camera.

Feeling inspired to ride the open roads or get off the beaten track but don’t have your own wheels? Head down to The Bike Shop to hire a dirt bike from US$25 a day or a Harley Davidson from US$200 a day.

The Bike Shop, No 31, Street 302, Tel 023 211 610 www.motorcyclecambodia.com

Largest ever Redlands Adult School class graduates

http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/

via Khmer NZ News Media

By JOY JUEDES, Staff Writer

Posted: 06/13/2010

Edwardo Diaz celebrates after being announced as the recipient of the Jack F. Binkley Scholarship during the Redlands Adult School Commencement at the Redlands Bowl Friday. (ERIC TOM/Redlands Daily Facts)REDLANDS - The largest class in Redlands Adult School history graduated Friday night at the Redlands Bowl, each with obstacles overcome and challenges met.

When Sonnary Sor entered the school in 2003, she did not speak English. On Friday night, she graduated as an English-speaking U.S. citizen.

"I started in the beginner class and kept trying and trying because I really wanted to get my high school diploma," said Sor, a native of Cambodia who lives near the border of Loma Linda and San Bernardino.

She advanced through Redlands Adult's four levels of ESL classes until she tested out and entered the high school diploma program, counselor Danielle Elgan said. She completed all 200 credits and passed the exit exam, became a citizen in 2006 while she was in the citizenship classes, and took computer classes.

"All the teachers were so nice and encouraged me, the principal, everybody," said Sor, who has a 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. She is entering the LVN program at San Bernardino Valley College in August.

"I'm so excited to get my diploma and so thankful to the school giving me this opportunity, and want to tell people who want to reach their goal, they have to try hard and don't give up," she said.

Graduate Tasha Escudero of Redlands wanted her 3-year-old daughter Miyah to see her walk down the aisle.

"I passed the GED this year, it was really important for me to show my daughter I did it even after having a hard time," said Escudero, who attended Redlands and Orangewood high schools.

"I'd been trying to get my diploma and was set to graduate in 2007. I got pregnant and kind of fell behind a little bit but kept trying," she said. "I ended up having a great teacher who helped me understand math."

She graduated Friday with best friend Debbra Yglesias. She wants to attend college to become a social worker.

"She (went) back to school, worked hard, now she's 21 years old and graduating," said mom Diane Escudero.

Principal John Massie said staff talked with students about setting and working toward goals.

"Every student, that's what they did, in not the best circumstances," he said. "Tonight is one of the best reminders."

This year's class of 168 shattered the previous record of 120. Staff worked with less manpower and time to ensure more students graduated, Massie said.

"They held with them to the end," he said.

The Redlands Unified School District Board of Education voted in January to eliminate the district's adult education program in response to statewide funding cuts. In April, Redlands Adult School announced receiving a grant that will keep the school's core programs - ESL and the high school diploma program - open next year.

At Friday night's commencement, four students spoke, thanking family, friends and school staff.

Utumalama Tauave said the class "weathered some challenges over the past year. You've shown yourselves to be strong and hardworking people."

Maria Sandoval said Redlands Adult School "was the one that did not deny me a second chance to achieve my goals staff members would constantly motivate me to continue, and they did this until the last day of school.

"Sleep to me became a privilege instead of a need, because often times I would stay up and struggle through the night to stay focused on my homework," she said. "Every time I faced a challenge I had to push myself to continue. Now that I have gotten here I'm aware that I am capable of accomplishing anything I set my mind to."

Monica Amaya said her biggest inspiration was her son Edward.

"Sometimes when I had to leave early from class I would wait until Danielle (Elgan) would leave the room, and I would sneak out. Because if she saw anyone leave early she would tell us not to come crying to her in June when we did not graduate.

"I am the second in my family to graduate from high school and will be the first to graduate college," she said.

James Braga told those in attendance that "you are worth it, and the effort is more than worth it. Whether you have children, are married, single, or mature in years."

The ceremony included student awards, and scholarships totaling more than $5,000.

San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Gary Thomas gave the commencement address.

"I've been to a number of graduation ceremonies the past two weeks," he said. "This one is different.

"I have heard some of your stories," he said. "No doubt that for some of you, this diploma means many years of commitment and toil.

"Know this: Success is just beyond your comfort zone. Never quit. Surely this experience has shown you that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to."

Daily Facts archives contributed to this report.

E-mail Staff Writer Joy Juedes at jjuedes@redlandsdailyfacts.com  

'All teenagers have a desire to be heard'

Delta Charter High School speech-and-debate team coach Reed Niemi, left, is the proud instructor of national competitors Sheelah Bearfoot, William Hanson and Melissa Pacheco.
Michael McCollum/The Record

http://www.recordnet.com

via Khmer NZ News Media

Delta Charter students to compete in national speech-and-debate tournament

By Tony Sauro

Record Staff Writer

June 13, 2010 12:01 AMWhat do a bottle-rocket contest, a Miley Cyrus song, YouTube and the exhilaration of "liberation" have in common?

Each played a role in the ultimate success of three Delta Charter High School students who are competing in the National Forensic League Speech and Debate Tournament today through Friday in Kansas City, Mo.

Their heritages - American-Indian, Cambodian and a former teenage athlete -speak well of the county's diversity.

Sheelah Bearfoot, a 16 1/2-year-old sophomore, was competing in a science-class bottle-rocket competition when Reed Niemi, coach of the 300-student Tracy charter school's speech-and-debate team, spotted her.

"One day, he introduced himself at the high school," said Bearfoot, who'll be competing in international extemporaneous speaking as she did in the April 16-18 California state tournament. "He asked me about speech and I started thinking about how much fun it would be. A lot of people were skeptical, but everyone's been wonderfully supportive. Speech and debate is so unbelievably liberating."

Melissa Pacheco, 17, was back by popular demand at her school's May 27 graduation, singing Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" for her 143 senior classmates. An aspiring actor and theater instructor, she'd done the same thing (different song) in 2009.

"She's a very good singer, actress and performer," Niemi said of Pacheco, who's competing in dramatic interpretation - as she did in the state tournament - and can be seen on YouTube. "She's got a great performing knack."

YouTube helped direct junior William Hanson, 15, to his humorous interpretation routine: 10 minutes from "Rinse the Blood off My Toga," a 1957 bit by (Johnny) Wayne & (Frank) Shuster, a Canadian duo that became popular on Ed Sullivan's TV show in the 1950s and '60s.

"I thought it was funny," said Hanson, who also has competed in team debate and international extemporaneous speaking at the state tournament. I had to change it up a lot. It's about a Roman detective looking for the killer of Julius Caesar. But he's a clueless inspector."

Bearfoot, Pacheco and Hanson will be joined at the national tournament by Tyson Bonaparte and Will Nobriga, Bear Creek High's public forum debate team, and St. Mary's High's Matt Gordon (national extemporaneous) and San Singh, competing nationally for a second year in Lincoln-Douglas debate (see accompanying box).

The virtues of such achievements are obvious to Niemi, 41, once a successful speech student at Stockton's Stagg High. Delta Charter won a perpetual trophy (for "annually demonstrat(ing) continued excellence") during the national qualifying event it hosted on April 10.

"All teenagers have a desire to be heard," said Niemi, whose 30-member team - assisted by vice-principal/coach John Cardoza - represents 10 percent of Delta Charter's enrollment and has had nine students compete in the national tournament the past four years. "They want someone to listen to what they have to say - an adult captive they can show off to.

"Which is odd, since they really want to avoid embarrassment as teenagers. I remember that well. They also see the value where college is concerned. The Wall Street Journal (in 1999) said speech and debate is a No. 1 consideration when applying for college admissions. I tell them they can get a date, too. That takes confidence. It's the same with job interviews."

His three national competitors definitely don't lack self-esteem.

Bearfoot, whose heritage is half Chirakawa Apache, is a mighty mite with big ambitions.

She's aiming for Stanford University, the University of New Mexico or University of Alabama, where the bio-chemistry program (not just its football team) is first-rate and its speech-and-debate team ranked fifth nationally.

"It's become such a part of my life that I identify myself as a speech-and-debater," said Bearfoot, who makes turquoise jewelry and competes in academic decathlon. "I don't want to lose that identity. I want to do all-natural medicine. I want to know my being alive made a difference for someone else. I think bio-medical is the way to go."

She said her toughest challenge - preparing a seven-minute speech on a randomly selected question in 30 minutes - "was my very first topic ever: 'Is Myanmar (formerly Burma) on the road to democratic change?' "

Pacheco is headed for San Francisco State University, where she'll study drama, hoping to "start in little Broadway shows and, one day, be on the big screen. If not, I'd like to open my own mini-Juilliard (School), so I can teach."

She assembled her 10-minute reading from Loung Ung's book "First They Killed My Father: a Daughter of Cambodia Remembers," reliving the terror and trauma of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal 1975-79 war in Cambodia.

"It's a woman telling her side of what really happened," said Pacheco, whose Cambodian mother emigrated to the U.S. at age 7 and has heard her daughter's adaptation. "She has cried like a storm. It just brought back memories. A good handful of her family now is in Cambodia."

"Hanson was into sports (baseball, basketball, football). When he enrolled, though, Delta Charter wasn't. So he focused his competitive energies on speech and debate, but didn't start doing his Wayne & Shuster bit until second semester this school year.

"He has, wow, a very high IQ and EQ as well as regular intelligence," Niemi said. "He's learned a lot about how to refine his natural gift of gab, which is good, and still utilize it."

"I found out I was really, really good at it," Hanson said. "It's a lot of fun. I never was really shy. I wasn't one of those who don't feel like speaking. It was just easygoing for me."

He'll be back next year and hopes to combine his interests in problem-solving and mysteries into a career as a "criminal-justice astronomer."

He's not sure what to expect, but hopes the stars will be aligned favorably this week in Kansas City.

"I'm going to be practicing a lot and just trying to perfect and polish it up," Hanson said. "I hope I do well, but I'm not sure how I'll do until see what the competition is when we get there."

"I've just got to get it over with and see how far I can get," Pacheco said. "I used to tell myself I'm not gonna do good. Now I think I'm gonna do good. We're all winners by just being there."

Contact reporter Tony Sauro at (209) 546-8267 or tsauro@recordnet.com . Visit his blog at recordnet.com/lensblog.

East meets West

via Khmer NZ News Media

Sunday, June 13, 2010

(Source: New Haven Register)By Donna Doherty, New Haven Register, Conn.

Jun. 13--NEW HAVEN -- When Fred Frumberg went to Cambodia in 1997 as a UNESCO consultant, it was to offer his experience in theater and opera to aid in the revival and preservation of Cambodian traditional and contemporary performing arts.

It was supposed to be a one-year assignment. But, as he puts it, "It's one of those stories -- I never left."

His temporary stint stretched into founding Amrita Performing Arts in 2003, which will be performing one of its most successful collaborations, the world premiere of Emmanuele Phuon's dance "Khmeropedies I & II," starting Wednesday for five performances at the Iseman Theater as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

The Brussels-based French choreographer's work is the epitome of what artistic administrators such as Frumberg and artists like Phuon have been working to do in the war-ravaged country: blend the classic Khmer court dance technique with contemporary Western movement.

"This is one of our first efforts in our ongoing mission to work with Cambodian artists to come up with a contemporary vocabulary of their own ..., " said Frumberg by phone from the capital city of Phnom Phen, where he has lived since 1997.

"Emmanuele was very cautious because of her classic Cambodian technique, not to superimpose those, but give Cambodians a chance to free themselves up. It gives them a chance to step out of their box."

That box to which Frumberg refers is the distinct movements anyone who has seen some Asian dance may recognize.

"Elbows rigid and fingers extended. They start at age 6, and have to train their muscles to make these moves. They're extremely rigid, and the masters enforce that ...," he said.

What audiences in New Haven will see for the first time is a melding of the first work, which Phuon created for a solo dancer with a work for her quartet of Khmer dancers, the II of the title.

Phuon developed II with Frumberg after they were brought together in 2008 by The Howard Gilman Foundation at Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project in Florida, where Phuon was dancing. What started as a workshop funded by the Asian Cultural Council, turned into a full piece. With additional ACC funding, Phuon went to Cambodia to work with Amrita, where the quartet work premiered in March 2009.

The name "Khmeropedies" comes from the words "Khmer" and "Gymnopedies," a reference to the composer Satie -- what Frumberg said is "about manipulating and changing a classical vocabulary into a new style, but still with recognizable elements of traditional Khmer."

The hour-long work has elements that have never been done together in one evening.

From here, it will be performed at New York's Baryshnikov Dance Center.

The quartet piece explores some of the "issues in the handing down of traditional elders to younger masters and the conflict they find in trying to find a new vocabulary and keep their roots," described Frumberg.

Phuon has the perfect resume for the task: Trained in classical Cambodian dance from childhood, she went on to study in Bangkok, France, Montreal and New York. In addition to performing and working with White Oak Project, she has also worked with Elisa Monte Dance Company, Martha Clarke, Joachim Schloemer, Meg Stuart and Yvonne Rainer, among others.

Amrita is based in Phnom Phen, but the hope is "that some of the dancers will move out to other parts of the country and train in the provinces," said Frumberg.

When Frumberg first arrived in Cambodia, he was a little nervous about how he would be received. After all, to many Cambodians, the United States was just another in a long line of warring factions that had come in and bombed the country, making refugees out of millions of its citizens.

What he found were a people anxious for some semblance of normalcy, which is why he's still there.

"Cambodians in general are very hospitable people," he said. "They want to move on, to get over their tragic past, and whatever it takes to make that happen, they embrace it, especially in the performing arts. They're excited when Western people come here and want to work here."

He added that, "Their only issue was to make sure I wasn't here for some glorified project, because there are a lot of people who come here, do the project, then move on. That's all they look for -- sustainability and continuity. Once you do that, you are part of the family. ... This is my life."

Changing Approaches to Old Problems – Sunday, 13.6.2010

http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

via Khmer NZ News Media

Posted on 14 June 2010

The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 668

Though the development of labor unions has progressed over the years, there were always also tensions. First, it has to be acknowledged that there will always be tensions, that is: between labor unions on the one side, through which workers express their opinion and negotiate their claims and rights – and the owners of the enterprises where they work. Both sides need each other, and it is always necessary to work towards an equilibrium between both sides and their interests.

In many countries with a market economy system, it is the state that is watching over this balance of power so that it is fair and helps maintain social peace and, if possible, also economic progress in a society. But when one of these sides has the impression that the state does not take a neutral position, but is favoring one side over the other, relations get strained.

The recently passed legislation to restrict public demonstrations by limiting the number of participants to 200, and to designate a place for these people to meet, restricting their public display by marching together, followed by announcements that the Ministry of Labor is drafting a new law on Labor Unions. While there was no general opposition to regulate the role of labor unions by law, it was greeted by suspicion that it is another attempt to control the unions, for example be imposing some mechanisms how they have to report their finances transparently. – It is not publicly known that the government is planning to impose similar regulations on the other side. The Ministry of Labor has indicated that the draft of the law would be made available for discussion in time – again this is not yet seen to come, after the draft anti-corruption law had been kept confidential almost until the time when it was discussed and voted upon.

At the same time where such a move to more regulation by the state is perceived in Cambodia, there are unprecedented movements in China that workers of some international companies are breaking out of the system of the Chinese, state regulated labor unions, where workers have started to act independently – not 200, but close to 20,000 in one place – to claim public attention to their situation.

The Bangkok Post presented an interesting analysis and overview of these developments – and its problems – on 13 June 2010:

On Friday morning, about 17,000 workers at a Honda car parts plant in Zhongshan, China, held a protest march to the factory gates. They were demanding an almost doubling of their wages and the right to form their own labor unions, as opposed to the government controlled national federation of trade unions. This was the third Honda plant hit by a work stoppage in the last two weeks…

It is more that a little ironic that China, a country that in March announced a new certification system for reporters which requires training in Marxist theories, has been seeing increasing incidents of labor groups demonstrating for greater rights.

It is, of course, a basic premise of Marxism that capitalism exploits the working class, who are the true producers of wealth in society.

The events in Zhongshan follow close on the heels of the bad publicity surrounding a spate of suicides at the giant Foxconn Technology group… which employs more than 300,000 workers making iPhones and other electronic devices. Workers at the compound complained that they were driven like robots by the excessively fast assembly line…

The company agreed to a 65% pay increase for workers, which it says will be passed on to the buyers of its electronic goods.

It is encouraging that the company has taken steps to improve the lot of workers, but this coincides with the announcement that the company might move some of its production lines back to Taiwan, if the government there offers enough incentives, especially lowering the minimum wage for hiring foreign laborers.

The awakening of China’s labor force has to be considered a good thing, but striking a balance that allows a much better quality of life for workers, and enough profitability to keep the companies offering foreign direct investment interested will be a challenge for the workers, for the companies, and for the government.

The Mirror had reported recently about a protracted labor conflict – and that the plan of workers to suspend their work for three days, to demand an increase of salaries, and that the employer obey the labor law, is still not canceled.

Such developments may have an influence also on Cambodia. Not only in terms of labor-management relations in Cambodia, but it may also lead to new job opportunities for Cambodian workers abroad – an increasing number of people finding employment and economic returns in other countries: in Malaysia, in South Korea, and increasingly in some Arab countries.

And this at a time – though in a different context – when the Cambodian Watchdog Council is requesting that the number of foreigners living in Cambodia should be made more transparent, and probably more controlled.

Please recommend The Mirror also to your colleagues and friends.