Deum Ampil ex-backer speaks

Photo by: Sovan Philong
Information Minister Khieu Kanharith (centre), businessman Kith Meng (right) and others walk through the audio recording suite at the Nokor Wat Media Centre after its inauguration on Friday.

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:02 Chhay Channyda

THE former financial backer of the Deum Ampil Media Centre has presented her version of the events that led to its abrupt scale-back earlier this month.

Speaking after the official launch of the new Nokor Wat Media Centre, Sieng Chanheng accused Deum Ampil’s former director general, Soy Sopheap, of managing the company’s finances in a reckless manner and accepting bribes from businesses in exchange for favourable coverage.

“Soy Sopheap was not faithful to my company, which was the financial supporter of DAP,” said Sieng Chanheng, also the owner of the Heng Development Company.

On July 1, Soy Sopheap announced that Deum Ampil would suspend operations for Deum Ampil newspaper, Radio FM 93.75 and Morokot magazine, citing a lack of funds. The media centre’s website is still being updated.

He said at the time that he decided to go ahead with the suspension after he was asked by Sieng Chanheng to cut the total expenses of the operations in half, in part by laying off many of his 110 staff members.

Sieng Chanheng has denied asking Soy Sopheap to cut expenses, though she has acknowledged losing tens of thousands of dollars each month on her Deum Ampil investment.

At the launch of the Nokor Wat Media Centre on Friday, she said Deum Ampil’s finances were in order until Soy Sopheap assumed control of them from her daughter, former deputy director general Dim Sopheavy.

At that point, she said, Soy Sopheap began increasing salaries for his preferred employees and entering into arrangements with companies that allowed him to pocket tens of thousands of dollars.

“I always heard rumours that there were some companies or individuals paying money to DAP every month,” she said. “I never wanted a situation where when people paid you money, you wouldn’t write bad things about them.”

Last month, she said, she came across a list of 15 “groups” that had paid Soy Sopheap US$60,000. “I tried to correct him then, but he did not listen to me,” she said.

Soy Sopheap declined to answer questions for this article.

Sieng Chanheng went on to express regret that the two had parted on bad terms. “I like Soy Sopheap, who is brave and has courage,” she said. “That is why I invested in this media organisation with him – he had the knowledge, and I had the money to open DAP.”

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Friday that Prime Minister Hun Sen had requested that his ministry support the Nokor Wat Media Centre as it begins operations. He said this was evidence of the government’s interest in promoting “breaking news that the readers will like to read”.

Sieng Chanheng said Dim Sopheavy would assume the role of editor in chief of the new media centre, but that other top positions had yet to be filled.

Police arrest man in pagoda voyeur case

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Police gather evidence related to the video scandal at Srah Chak pagoda, including discs and a computer confiscated from a monk suspected of recording women bathing there.

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:02 Chrann Chamroeun

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court sentenced a man to a month in jail after finding him guilty of distributing pornographic videos linked to a defrocked monk, officials said.

Keo Thea, director of the municipal bureau of anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection, said that Soeun Sophak, 24, was arrested in Tuol Kork district on Thursday after police found him downloading video clips of naked women bathing at Srah Chak pagoda.

“We are now searching for others who are watching these video clips,” he said.

“Those who do will face interrogation by police and punishment under the law.”

The video was allegedly taken by Neth Kai, a 35-year-old monk at the pagoda who was arrested on June 26 and is serving pretrial detention. He has been accused of using a cell phone to secretly record hundreds of videos of women showering in a public bathroom at the pagoda.

In the wake of the scandal, Neth Kai was quickly defrocked, and Phnom Penh Municipal Court has charged him with producing and distributing pornography. If found guilty, he faces a sentence of a month to a year in jail and a fine of between US$48 and $480.

Meas Kung, 45, the former chief abbot of Srah Chak pagoda, was forced to resign from his post after news of the monk’s voyeurism was made public.

He said yesterday that he has since worked to refute allegations that he was involved in the filming of the videos.

“I am still terribly regretful and disappointed for Neth Kai’s worthless attitude to do such a foolish thing,” Meas Kung said.

“I welcome all police efforts to delete these video clips, in order to protect the value of women and to restore Buddhism’s reputation. Anyone who is caught viewing these video clips must be held responsible by law.”

Keo Thea said Soeun Sophak was the first man besides Neth Kai to be arrested in connection with the Srah Chak videos, but that police expect to make more arrests.

“If people are caught watching these video clips, they will face a punishment of a week to a month in jail and a fine of 100,000 to 200,000 riels,” he said. “This is a move to restore the value of women.”

Health officials comb afflicted Svay Rieng

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:02 Tep Nimol

BETWEEN 30 and 40 new cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been reported in Svay Rieng province, prompting health officials to go door-to-door administering treatment, the head of the provincial Health Department said yesterday.

Seven of the newly sick have been hospitalised, Pen Sina said.

The outbreak began just two days after a 9-year-old girl died of the disease.

Pen Sina said there had been “hundreds” of cases reported since late June.

He also said the department had received cholera test results from the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh, and that two of four samples from the end of June had come back positive, as had three of four samples from early July.

He added that this information would not likely be shared with villagers in Svay Rieng so as to avoid sowing panic.

“They tell the patients that it is just a simple disease,” he said of the health officials.

As of July 6, the Health Ministry had recorded 465 cases of cholera dating back to November 2009.

The cases have been spread across 18 provinces, according to a report available on the ministry’s website.

Pursat has also experienced a recent outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea, officials there said.

Sao Daroeung, the governor of Bakan district, said 47 people had been stricken with the disease on Friday. He said the cases had likely been caused by dirty water.

Police Blotter: 12 Jul 2010

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:00 Tha Piseth

ALLEGED PHONE THIEVES TO BE CALLED TO ACCOUNT

Four teenagers, the oldest of them 18, were arrested last week on suspicion of stealing mobile phones from motorists stopped at intersections, police said. The thefts were allegedly carried out near a market in Chamkarmon district, with the suspects swiping phones out of the hands of drivers gabbing while waiting for the light to turn. Two of the suspects confessed during interrogation, and police seized two phones to be used as evidence. The other two suspects were released. The case has been sent to Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

RASMEY KAMPUCHEA

BUYER OR THIEF OF BIKE, ONLY COURT CAN DECIDE

A robbery case in Banteay Meanchey province last week saw police juggling one stolen motorbike and two competing claims. A 25-year-old suspect found with the motorbike said that he bought it from three men in his village in Battambang province. The bike’s previous owner, however, said the motorbike had been stolen while he was riding home from school. Police believed the second man and arrested the first last Monday. The bike has been returned to its original owner, and the case has been sent to provincial court.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

TUOL KORK POLICE NAB THREE IN ONE DAY

Police in Tuol Kork district arrested a trio of suspected thieves Friday in unrelated busts. Investigators said the suspects are between the ages of 21 and 25. The 21-year-old man, who has been in prison several times, is accused of stealing a motorbike. The 22-year-old suspect allegedly swiped a necklace from a woman while she was cruising on her motorbike. The third man, 25, is accused of stealing a mobile phone. All three cases have been referred to Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

RASMEY KAMPUCHEA

OFFENDED DRUNK DESTROYS FIELD IN A FIT OF RAGE

A 44-year-old man suspected of destroying a farmer’s valuable crops told police that he became enraged after the farmer banned him from getting drunk in his field. Kandal provincial police arrested the man Thursday, after he was blamed for the destruction of a field full of soy in the middle of the previous night. A total of 456 plants were said to be ruined. The suspect allegedly told investigating officers that he had asked several times for permission to get drunk in the field, but had been denied each time. The case has been sent to provincial court.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

Police deport illegal Vietnamese miners

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:02 Khouth Sophakchakrya

AUTHORITIES in Ratanakkiri province have deported six Vietnamese miners who were arrested for entering Cambodia illegally.

Mar Vicheat, O’Yadav district’s police chief, said yesterday that the arrests were carried out during a Friday raid on a mining compound in Badal village. During the raid, police and military officials found nine machines that were being used to dig and pan for gold.

“After we received a call from the provincial governor, we sent all the arrested people back to provincial police headquarters,” he said.

It would have been difficult to transport the machines, so officials decided to destroy them in order to send a warning to other would-be miners in the area, he said.

Provincial Governor Pav Ham Phan declined to reveal the names of the men who were arrested, but said that all six were deported to Vietnam on Saturday.

“They are Vietnamese citizens, so we must send them back to their country and allow Vietnamese authorities to sentence them through their own institutional laws,” he said.

But Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said he doubted that the Vietnamese miners would be punished for their infractions.

“I suspect they will be released without being sentenced,” he said.

Workers need a little support

Photo by: Tracey Shelton
Garment workers attend to their jobs at a factory in Phnom Penh last year. A debate over the Kingdom’s minimum wage has provoked threats of a strike by garment workers that could further affect a sector hit hard by the global economic crisis.

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:02 Laura Emily Ismay Robson

On July 8, government officials, union leaders and workers’ representatives met on the campus of the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training to decide upon the minimum wage for the garment industry.

After a discussion that lasted all morning, there was bitter disappointment about an outcome that revealed the government’s proposal of a mere US$5 per month increase had been settled upon, bringing the minimum wage up to just $61 per month, including living allowance.

For the more than 200 local union leaders that had gathered on the campus and lined the dusty streets outside the building to observe the meeting, the situation seemed hopeless. Eye-witnesses described the crowds as outraged as they spoke to the media about their dissatisfaction and as local affiliates were called in.

The unions’ demand of a minimum wage of $93 monthly was quite clearly never on the agenda for the pro-government members of the committee, who voted to keep the minimum wage unacceptably low.

According to research produced in 2009 by the Cambodian Institute of Development Study, the basic spending needs of garment factory workers cannot possibly be met on a monthly salary of less than $72. The study examines two scenarios regarding the minimum wage, based upon food expenses.

In the first, the estimated $1.06 spent daily on food, which is the National Institute of Statistics’ projected figure for a healthy calorie intake, brings the minimum wage by necessity to at least $71.99 per month. However, The NIS also acknowledge that in order to obtain quality food, it is necessary to spend $1.15 per day, which implies that the minimum wage should in fact be $74.85 per month.

The current salary unquestionably leads to considerable health deterioration and ensures most parents are incapable of paying their children’s school fees.

Moeun Tola, the head of the labour programme at the Community Legal Education Centre, in his initial reaction described the meeting as a “show”, where “everything is already prepared, already set up, allowing the union to talk without any real cause. Most of the representatives from the government, such as Vorng Sot, the labour minister, and His Excellency Mean Sophea, the minister of commerce, just defended the government proposal without trying to better the workers’ situation”.

Moeun Tola went on to comment on the unfair voting procedures. The high proportion of government officials on the Labor Advisory Committee (14 in total), coupled with the seven members from the Employers Association, means that even if all seven of the union members opposed the meeting’s outcome, they would still be overruled by the pro-government majority.

Thus, Moeun Tola argues, “The result from the voting is not viable.”

He also expressed shock after the representatives from the Ministry of Commerce declared that workers should consider the high utility and transportation expenses in Cambodia, implying that the minimum wage is hard to increase due to other government costs.

The government has a responsibility to fix this, said Moeun Tola. They should work to lower these prices by cutting down on bureaucracies and eliminating unprofessional payments and corruption to enable a higher minimum wage. The utility and transport costs should not, he emphasised, be excused to reject the workers’ wage increase.

There are already plans under way to produce and disseminate pamphlets to encourage workers to organise themselves and prepare to strike.

The major obstacle for striking will undoubtedly be the constraints of the short-term contracts that the majority of workers are tied to. This enables employers not only to blacklist those who do protest by striking, but to refuse to renew their contracts after three months, leaving the prospect of unemployment after the strike exceedingly high, and making a strike something that these workers literally cannot afford to participate in.

Now more than ever, Cambodian workers are in need of international attention and support. This post-conflict country, with its soaring numbers of illiterate children and almost half of its inhabitants malnourished, depends upon the garment trade to keep its economy stable.

More than 90 percent of its export trade is produced from the garment industry. However, the money the workers in this sector receive is simply not enough to cover their daily costs, and with the government’s meager pay rise approved, it is increasingly likely that garment workers will be forced to find jobs in other sectors, which would cause havoc in the garment industry and pose a major threat to Cambodia’s national economic growth.

This setback in the struggle for a decent, reasonable salary appears to be the last straw for distraught Cambodians suffering severe poverty and working 48-hour weeks. The anger and desperation after the decision was announced was tangible, and the Cambodian Labor Confederation immediately summoned a meeting to discuss striking.

A strike of several thousand workers is now a near possibility, and predictions are that it would continue until they attain their demands. Such disruption would create a massive problem for the industry and have devastating consequences for Cambodia’s economy, reputation and ability to compete on a global scale. With only two months to appeal the decision, the urgency of the situation is undeniable, and the response of the workers to this result is critical.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Laura Emily Ismay Robson is a Briton working with the Community Legal Education Centre in Phnom Penh.

Bid to raise trade along east border

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:01 Chun Sophal

THE Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Laotian Assemblies have jointly announced a bid to boost trade and investment at the border between the three countries.

The announcement followed a 2004 master plan for the triangular border area, and aims to develop the regions commerce to its “fullest strength”, Cambodian National Assembly Committee of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Information and Propaganda chairman Chheang Vun said yesterday.

Representatives agreed to investigate joint passports for regional residents and increase border crossings, during a meeting held in Kratie province late last week.

The three countries also pledged to encourage private business associations and increase investment and trade activities among the respective border provinces, according to a written announcement signed by each country’s representatives.

“We hope the area where the three countries border will become more developed soon,” Chheang Vun said yesterday.

Thirteen provinces are considered part of the region slated for economic development. They include Cambodia’s Ratanakkiri, Mondulkkiri, Steung Treng, and Kratie provinces, along with four provinces in Laos and five in Vietnam.

Japan has previously pledged some US$20 million to develop the region, with $7.5 million each given to Cambodia and Laos, $3.5 million to Vietnam, and the remainder to regional infrastructure projects.

Cambodia Institute for Development Study President Kang Chandararoth said yesterday that the region had unrealised potential, especially in mining and ecotourism sectors.

Chheang Vun said that adjustments to the master plan would be handed to the three countries’ respective prime ministers to examine before a meeting in November.

Kampot's first casino to open in September

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:01 Soeun Say

THE first casino to be built in Kampot province is slated to open on the Cambodian border with Vietnam this September.

The nine-storey Ha Tien Casino and Resort is being built about 300 metres from the Prek Chak international border, said the governor for Kampot's Kampong Trach district, Um Sinath.

“This is the first casino in Kampot. It will open in September. Currently, 90 percent of construction has been completed,” he said yesterday.

The governor welcomed the casino’s opening as an opportunity to boost employment and tourism in the area.

“It will bring a hundred jobs to people in the district,” he said.

Construction on the complex, which was born of a joint venture between an American company and a Cambodian investor, started in early 2009, he said.

“I cannot say exactly how much it cost to invest in the casino, but it’s around US$100 million,” he said.

Lao Tip Seiha, director for the department of construction at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said that the plan was first approved in 2008.

Although Ha Tien is the province’s first casino, said Lao Tip Seiha, it won’t be the last.

The Sokha hotel group is currently building a casino complex on Bokor mountain, close to the provincial capital of Kampot.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Cambodia’s revenue derived from casinos was US$17.5 million in 2009.

CCC signs trade deal

Photo by: Julie Leafe
Imported Philippine products are displayed on the shelves of Filmart, on Street 51, Phnom Penh. The store has been selling and distributing Philippine products in Cambodia for two years.

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:01 May Kunmakara

CAMBODIA’S trade and investment ties with the Philippines are poised to grow following the signing of a memorandum of understanding calling for increased commercial interaction.

Agreed between the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the memorandum calls for increased bilateral interaction by respective business communities rather than containing specific deals, signatories said.

“Creating awareness is the key objective,” CCC President Kith Meng said at a signing ceremony at Phnom Penh’s InterContinental Hotel, during the First Philippine Trade and Investment Mission to Cambodia.

“I think Philippine businesses will participate more in Cambodia, and Cambodians will look for opportunity in the Philippines.”

Fostering bilateral ties would increase the number of Philippine investors and traders in the Kingdom, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice president Roberto de Venecia said at the signing event.

“Bilateral trade and investment will increase over time,” he said Friday. “We are friends ... and Cambodia is an emerging market for business in Southeast Asia.”

Philippine-Cambodia Business Council agribusiness investment specialist Pablito Villegas said that Philippine companies were exploring the domestic market to secure rice exports, after stating to Philippine news outlet GMA News TV last week that the nation wished to buy up to 300,000 tonnes of Cambodian rice.

“The Philippines is presently 85 to 90 percent self-sufficient in rice production. It’s a major opportunity for Cambodia,” he said.

The Philippines’ President Benigno Aquino took office last month determined to guide the nation, a major importer, towards self-sufficiency in rice production, Villegas said.

However, he said that increasing international volatility of agricultural yields due to environmental factors would provide markets for Cambodian producers even if Philippine demand for rice imports eventually subsides.

“There will always be an opportunity for rice exporters,” he said.

Philippine investors could also bring modern rice-production technology and practices to the Kingdom, he said, benefiting the industry by boosting yields.

Trade between the two countries totalled US$18.3 million from January to November last year, according to the most recent statistics made available by the Philippine department of trade and industry.

In that time, Cambodia exported $9 million to the archipelago, and $9.3 million was shipped the other way.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JEREMY MULLINS

AMK profits increased more than 50 percent

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:01 Nguon Sovan

PROFITS at Cambodia’s fifth-largest microfinance institution Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea grew 56 percent to US$322,000 during the second quarter, compared with $206,000 for the first quarter of the year.

“Quarter-on-quarter profit growth is due to an increase in the size of the loan portfolio and a drop in the rate of bad loans,” AMK CEO Paul Luchtenburg said yesterday.

The firm’s outstanding loans totalled $28.3 million at the end of June, up 8 percent from $26.2 million at the end of the first quarter, he said, and its rate of non-performing loans fell to 2.54 percent for the latest quarter, from 2.76 percent previously.

“The drop in non-performing loans was due to continued efforts to work with clients,” he said. He also said the firm had not written off any bad debts in the last three years, apart from clients who had died.

He added that the firm is committed to cutting its NPL rate to less than 2 percent by year’s end. AMK’s outstanding portfolio would continue growing until the end of the year, he said, as the firm extended loans to remote areas it presently does not serve.

Cambodian Microfinance Association president Chea Phalarin said the domestic economy was improving, leading to a slight growth in loans during the second quarter. NPL rates were likely to have dropped in the second quarter as clients increasingly repaid bad debts, he said.

In the first quarter of 2010, outstanding loans at Cambodia’s MFIs, excluding ACLEDA bank, totalled $312.7 million, up 4.5 percent from $299 million in the previous quarter.

Europe looks to cash in on Cambodian rice

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:01 Chun Sophal

THE Cambodian Small and Medium Industries Association will begin exporting 2,656 tonnes of rice worth nearly US$1 million to four European nations later this month.

Fetching $355 per tonne from buyers in Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Sweden, the rice shipments would last from July until mid-August, and would be worth a total of $942,880 on the European market, association secretary general Outh Renne said yesterday.

“We hope companies will be able to export more rice to European markets in the coming years,” he said.

Some 1,440 tonnes of the 25 percent broken rice will be shipped to Poland, 1,000 tonnes to Lithuanian buyers, 168 tonnes to Estonia, and the remaining 48 tonnes will travel to Sweden, according to a report.

Last month, $583,000 worth of rice was shipped from Cambodia to Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Estonia.

The association also exported some 5,000 tonnes to European markets from January to July this year, and aims to ship a total of 7,000 to 10,000 tonnes to European countries including France, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Germany, Estonia and Latvia during the rest of 2010.

It said it received support from the Ministry of Commerce and the Export Market Access Fund, a World Bank-supported organisation with the mission of addressing financial and technical constraints faced by Cambodian exporters.

Stock Roundup: Samart Corp closes on eight-month high

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:01 Catherine James

STOCKS in Thai companies with operations in Cambodia performed strongly in Bangkok last week, following positive profit forecasts and new contracts.

Krung Thai Bank, one of Cambodia’s 28 commercial banks and Thailand’s second-biggest lender, closed at the end of last week on 13.3 baht (US$0.41) per share on the Stock Exchange of Thailand – its highest price since April 7.

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that KGI Securities increased its profit forecast for the bank this year by 13 percent to 14.5 billion baht on strong loan growth and low non-performing loans.

Meanwhile, Thai telecommunication services company Samart Corp – owner of Cambodia Air Traffic Control – said Tuesday that its 99.17 percent subsidiary, One To One Contacts Co, had secured two call centre contracts totalling 525 million baht with Thai government agencies.

The company rose to its highest level in more than eight months to close that day, and ultimately the week, at 6.50 baht per share.

But Thai satellite operator Thaicom, majority owner of Cambodia's mobile operator Mfone, fell last week after reports that a government committee said it may need a new satellite.

Thaicom stock fell 3.2 percent to 6.1 baht, the biggest one-day fall in two weeks.

According to Bloomberg, Thaicom chief executive Arak Chonlatanon said the company had not received any formal notification from any state agencies.

Nevertheless, the stock fell a further 1.64 percent on Friday’s trading, closing the week at 6 baht.

However, Thaicom’s shares remain higher than its May 4 close of 5.2 baht, when the SET peaked before Bangkok was engulfed in political chaos.

Indeed, for some investors, the political instability is an “opportunity to buy”, according to the portfolio manager of Daiwa Securities Trust’s Thai Capital Fund Vijchu Chantatab.

In a statement released Friday, he pointed to the SET’s gain of 10.6 percent in the past month. The Daiwa fund, which invests only in Thai-listed companies, released the statement urging investors to heed the opportunity.

Tennis Fed to award points at tourneys

A school boy lines up a return during a practice game at the official opening of the TFC’s National Training Centre, where the Cham Prasidh Cup championship will be played from this Saturday. Photo Supplied by TFC

via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:00 H S Manjunath

THE Tennis Federation of Cambodia will introduce a performance-linked points system to nationally rank men, women and juniors, beginning with the week-long Cham Prasidh Cup championship, to be held at the National Training centre from Saturday.

“This is our first big step towards an organised approach to tennis development and tournament play,” TFC Technical Director Braen Aneiros revealed to the Post Saturday.

“For the first time in Cambodia, we will rank players so that they know exactly where they stand. The ranking list also reflects the depth of talent and records the ups and downs in a player’s career. This data is as important to individuals as it is to the federation.

“Based on the performances, we will allot points which in turn will determine the rankings,” said Aneiros, who doubles up as the national coach and is on the organising committee of the upcoming tournament. “We will update these rankings after every tournament.

“By the end of the season we will have two more events, the Cambodian Open in September and the Tep Khunnah Commemoration Cup in December. Leading up to a new season next year, we would have put a viable system in place.”

The Cham Prasidh Cup, which offers “cash and kind” prizes totalling US$2,000, is an open competition involving men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and junior U14 and U18 events.

In the men’s event, winners of first-round matches move up to the next round, while losers get another chance to play in what is known as the back draw.

“This way players get a chance to play more matches,” said Aneiros. “Every win no matter in which section will earn them points.”

The organisers are planning a round-robin format for the women’s event, but will revert to a group setup if there are more than eight entrees.

The draw for all the events will be made following the close of entries at 11:00am Friday. The entry fee for expats has been fixed at $10, while Cambodians will pay $2 per event. Entries can be sent to Khith Sipin at tfc@online.com.kh or made by phone on 012889001.

The Phnom Penh Post News in Brief

via Khmer NZ

Border Dispute: Rainsy trial to go ahead next month


Monday, 12 July 2010 15:03 Vong Sokheng

Border Dispute

OPPOSITION leader Sam Rainsy will be tried at Phnom Penh Municipal Court on August 6 on charges of falsifying public documents and spreading disinformation, court officials said yesterday. Deputy judge Ker Sakhan said the trial would be conducted in absentia if the Sam Rainsy Party president, currently in self-exile abroad, did not attend. In January, Svay Rieng provincial court sentenced Sam Rainsy to two years in jail for his involvement in an October 2009 incident in which he joined villagers in uprooting six wooden border posts. An appeal hearing in that case is scheduled for August 9. The new charges refer to maps and documents published by Sam Rainsy after the Svay Rieng verdict, alleging widespread Vietnamese encroachments in Cambodian territory. If convicted on both charges, he faces up to 18 years in prison. Sam Rainsy’s lawyer, Choung Choungy, said he could not predict the result of the trial, but that he had “already prepared enough evidence” to defend Sam Rainsy. SRP lawmaker Chea Poch said that if the court is independent it will acquit the SRP leader. VONG SOKHENG

Thai border talks: Joint panel to discuss ’10 agenda

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:02 Cheang Sokha

Thai border talks

Members of the Cambodia-Thailand General Border Commission are to meet this week in Thailand to devise an agenda for next month’s annual conference, Ministry of Defence spokesman Chhum Socheat said yesterday. Chhum Socheat said the Cambodian delegation would be led by Neang Phat, a secretary of state at the ministry. Whereas the bilateral Joint Border Commission covers demarcation issues, the General Border Commission deals with matters such as combating trafficking of workers and drugs, and promoting trade and tourism. Chhum Socheat said this year’s conference would focus primarily on “maintaining security” and avoiding armed conflict. The three-day meeting this week is to begin Wednesday, though Chhum Socheat could not provide specific dates for next month’s conference. “The formal conference is set for next month, but it depends on Thailand because they have still not resolved their internal matter,” Chhum Socheat said, in an apparent reference to the fallout from large-scale Red Shirt protests that were broken up in May. Neang Phat could not be reached for comment.

Bank of India birthday

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:00 Nguon Sovan

THE Bank of India will mark its one-year anniversary in Cambodia on Tuesday, Chief Executive Ramesh Chandra Baliarsingh said yesterday. The branch, which opened in Phnom Penh on July 13, 2009, has seen lending grow 25.54 percent in the second quarter. "We are committed to building a stronger presence in Cambodia’s banking sector in the future,” he said.

NOCC to protect identity

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:00 H S Manjunath

VATH Chamroeun, Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia (NOCC), flew yesterday to the Oman’s capital, Muscat, to attend a seminar on Olympic Solidarity autonomy. The four-day seminar starting today is organised by Olympic Solidarity, a branch of the International Olympic Committee, and is designed to strengthen the Olympic Movement and propagate its free spirit in the face of changing circumstances and renewed challenges. The delegates are also expected to get an overview of Muscat’s preparations for the World Beach Games later this year. The NOCC official also revealed he is scheduled to meet experts from the IOC’s legal cell to discuss “matters pertaining to the use of the Olympic Movement and its logo for commercial purposes believed to be so widespread in Cambodia.” The Olympic Charter demands that prior permission be sought from the IOC to brand products as Olympic or to use the Olympic logo. Recently, the NOCC slammed a Phnom Penh-based drinking-water plant for branding its product as “Olympic.” An unofficial survey last month estimated that several commercial establishments have been marketing so called “Olympic” brands without official sanction. “Once we know what the legal status is from the IOC on this branding issue, we can take it up on a case by case basis here in Cambodia,” declared Vath Chamroeun. “Right now we can only caution them; we cannot take any action.”

Stop Abuse in Int`l Marriages

via Khmer NZ

JULY 12, 2010

A 20-year-old Vietnamese bride was killed by her Korean husband last week eight days after she arrived in Korea. The 47-year-old man had met her through an international marriage broker in Vietnam in February and tied the knot 10 days after. She arrived in Korea July 1 and was dead at the hands of her husband seven days later.

Since 2002, the man had been hospitalized or treated for depression and mental illness 57 times. Shortly before going to Vietnam, he was hospitalized for five days. Whether the matchmaker had prior knowledge of the man’s condition is crucial. If the broker knew of the man’s mental problem but went ahead with the process anyway, this is inexcusable. With the number of small international marriage brokers mushrooming, many of them are incapable of getting sufficient information on Korean men who want foreign brides. Even if they get such data, such brokers can choose to gloss over unfavorable traits that suitors might have such as mental illness. This will cause more domestic conflict and divorces among multicultural couples.

Korean men living in rural areas find it nearly impossible to get married unless they search for brides from Southeast or Central Asia. Last year saw 43,000 international marriages in Korea, accounting for 13 percent of all marital unions in the country. Despite the rapid rise in international marriages in rural areas and poorer neighborhoods in inner cities, Korea is not ready to embrace multicultural families as evidenced by the numerous problems involving foreign wives.

Foreign women who come to Korea through marriage do so in search of a better life. Many of them end up divorced or even dead in the worst-case scenario because of abuse from their husbands and in-laws. In 2007, a teenage Vietnamese bride was killed after being beaten by her 40-something Korean husband. His beating was so vicious, 18 of her ribs were broken. In the same year, another Vietnamese bride was killed after falling from an apartment building. She had tried to escape by jumping off her apartment’s veranda after being held as a virtual prisoner by her Korean husband. These incidents led the Vietnamese president to urge Koreans to take better care of Vietnamese brides through the Korean ambassador to Hanoi. Worse, Cambodia temporarily banned international marriages with Korean men after marriage brokers arranged interviews in which dozens of Cambodian women were lined up for one Korean man.

Such incidents greatly damage Korea’s national image. In a welcome move, the Korean Justice Ministry has taken steps to prevent further abuse of foreign brides. Koreans who want to visit a foreign country to search for a spouse will require training. In addition, those convicted of domestic violence or bankruptcy and those seeking to marry much younger spouses will be banned from international marriages. Also needed is strengthened monitoring and supervision of marriage brokers.

Philippines to exchange technology with rice

via Khmer NZ

MANILA, July 10 (Commodity Online): World's largest rice importer, Philippines said it will provide post harvest technology along with other agricultural produce to Cambodia in exchange for rice.

Philippines Agriculture ministry said the country wants to forge a counter trade deal with Cambodia for 300,000 metric tonnes of rice during the first Philippines-Cambodia Investment and Trade Mission this week.

In a statement, it said Cambodia has a lot of exportable rice surplus. Part of our mission is to get them to agree to a counter trade agreement wherein the Philippines will source 200 to 300,000 metric tonnes Cambodia rice in exchange for Philippine agricultural produce and post harvest technology.

"The problem with Cambodia is that they are not exporting their rice. It shares common border with Vietnam and Thailand, so that Thailand siphons majority of their rice. Technically speaking, what we buy from Thailand is Cambodia rice," the statement said.

Beyond the Killing Fields? Not as Long as Brutal Wars Remain a Growth Industry

http://www.politicsdaily.com/

via Khmer NZ

Walter Shapiro

Senior Correspondent

Five Politics Daily staffers -- Carl Cannon, Melinda Henneberger, Walter Shapiro, David Wood and James Grady -- are joining in an online discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg about politics and the press as seen through the prism of his new book, "Beyond The Killing Fields."

In today's essay, Walter Shapiro notes that more than three decades after the genocide in Cambodia, all of us are still grappling to find a larger meaning embedded in the horrors of the Killing Fields.

Decades from now when, alas, The New York Times is a distant memory and long-form reporting and writing have become synonymous with Tweets, I hope that the lonely keepers of the journalistic flame will still revere the remarkable Telex that Sydney Schanberg sent from a dying Phnom Penh on April 14, 1975.

With the Khmer Rouge encircling the Cambodian capital and with the last planes filled with foreign nationals about to take off, Schanberg cabled the Times: "I HAVE MADE JUDGEMENT TO STAY. I WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORTING THAT JUDGEMENT RATHER THAN SENDING ME ALARMIST CABLES WHICH WILL ONLY MAKE A DIFFICULT DECISION MORE DIFFICULT...I MADE MY JUDGEMENT SANELY AND I WILL DO MY BEST FOR THE PAPER. I WILL FILE WHATEVER AND WHENEVER I CAN."

As a young political reporter in Washington -- whose idea of journalistic bravery was coping after missing a press bus in Iowa -- I was awed that the Times had a reporter who had decided to remain in Phnom Penh. Rereading Schanberg's final dispatches from Cambodia, now collected in "Beyond the Killing Fields," I still respect and admire his decision to remain behind to await the Khmer Rouge. But considering his words now, with the passions of the Indo-China wars behind us, I also detect parallels with another doomed city.

What stays with me are not the war scenes themselves, but the glimpses of civilians stubbornly clinging to the remnants of normal life as the apocalypse approaches. With a novelistic eye, Schanberg noticed the driver for hire, who "leaned on the fender of his Land Rover, a mirror in one hand and tweezers in the other, pulling stray hairs from his chin." And he reported, "An elderly French woman, a teacher who is a legendary figure at the Hotel Le Phnom, sat in her regular chair at poolside this morning, wearing a white dress as always, with a white shawl over her shoulders."

What I kept thinking about was "Suite Française," Irène Némirovsky's tragically unfinished novel about the fall of Paris and the Nazi takeover of France. The difference, of course, is that the Parisians (from would-be collaborators to assimilated, but imperiled, Jews like Némirovsky) should have possessed a blunt understanding of what awaited them with the arrival of Nazi jackboots.

In contrast, the crazed genocidal fury of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge was unfathomable. Typical was the reassuring rumor, passed on to Schanberg by a Cambodian journalist, that the Khmer Rouge had been saying on their way to Phnom Penh, "Don't worry. We will not harm Cambodians. We have come to kill all the Americans." Just days later, the Khmer Rouge forced everyone (including the sick and dying in hospitals) to march out of Phnom Penh for supposed purification in the countryside. "A once throbbing city became an echo chamber of silent streets lined with abandoned cars and gaping, empty shops," Schanberg wrote in his final dispatch from Cambodia. "Street lights burned eerily for a population that wasn't there."

Thirty-five years later, all of us are still grappling to find a larger meaning embedded in the horrors of the Killing Fields. You can begin with Schanberg's own simple but dead-on justification for the retelling: "We Americans are notoriously difficult about taking lessons from our own history. So perhaps this book will remind people what war is really like."

Despite the crazed hawkishness that led to the invasion of Iraq and the jingoistic rituals of our day like the incessant playing of "God Bless America" at baseball games, Americans, for the most part, are not war lovers. Rather we are a well-intentioned -- but heedless and easily distracted -- people who treat small countries like Cambodia as playthings and then move on. Henry Kissinger's destabilization of Prince Sihanouk's neutral Cambodia was, in geopolitical terms, the equivalent of taking a single pawn in a lengthy chess game. But it led to the slaughter of roughly 2 million people, a quarter of an entire nation.

We fight wars for a while and then move on, as the Afghan people learned in 1989. These days who thinks about Granada, Panama, Somalia or even Iraq? Drone missiles are the perfect 21st century American weapon -- deadly, technologically advanced and not requiring any real-world connection with the civilian population. Sometimes it seems, American foreign policy begins and ends on the Potomac River -- designed totally for domestic consumption but with tragic global consequences.

As Schanberg reminds us in a 1997 Vanity Fair article included in this collection, the United States added to its shame all through the 1980s by supporting the Khmer Rouge's dubious (both practically and morally) claim to Cambodia's UN seat because the alternative would have empowered Vietnam. Reading that passage, I wanted to shout, "What part of genocide do you not understand?"

My colleague David Wood, in a prior installment in this bookish chain letter, mourned the passing of the era when the media marketplace unhesitatingly paid for battlefield reporting: "Great newspapers that once maintained foreign bureaus and sent forth aggressive journalists...are going or gone. Where are the Sydney Schanbergs of the future?" The sad-eyed future is almost certain to bring new and depraved versions of genocide and the Killing Fields. Brutal wars remain a growth industry even if war reporting itself is in bitter retreat.

Faced with a future Pol Pot -- a megalomaniac willing to slaughter his own people -- the civilized world is likely to do...well...a little public hand-wringing. The notion of the kind of humanitarian military intervention that belatedly forced a negotiated settlement in Bosnia and ended ethnic cleansing in Kosovo is so 1990s. After Iraq and Afghanistan, the American people are unlikely to support any military action that is not narrowly grounded in immediate U.S. self-interest. And after the worldwide economic collapse, the Europeans are too tight-fisted to send new troops or pay their bills.

The lamentable truth is that as long as the governments of the major powers are feckless -- even if reporters like Sydney Schanberg are brave --we will never truly move beyond the Killing Fields.

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia develop triangle area

via Khmer NZ

07/11/2010

Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have pledged to develop the border triangle area.

In a joint communiqué issued on July 9 after the four-day second conference of the External Relations Committees of three National Assemblies in Kratie, Cambodia.

The Development Triangle Area (DTA) includes Dak Lak, Dac Nong, Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces of Vietnam, Attapeu, Saravan and Sekong provinces of Laos, and Mondulkiri, Rattanakiri and Stung Treng of Cambodia.

Under the joint communiqué, the three countries will set up a joint checkpoint in their border area, organise conferences of relevant provinces and build a joint website in English and their languages.

This was the first time Cambodia had hosted such conference. The first one was held in Vietnam in 2009.

In 2002, leaders of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia reached an agreement on the DTA which aims to boost economic benefits, tourism and cultural exchange, security and social order cooperation, and poverty reduction in the three nations.

On July 9, Cambodia’s “Rasmei Kampuchea” daily said that the Japanese government proposed an aid of US$20 million for strengthening economic development cooperation between DTA provinces. Of which, Laos and Cambodia will receive US$7.5 million each while Vietnam will be given US$3.5 million. The rest will be used for infrastructure projects in the area.

Cambodia to host large scale military exercise next week

via Khmer NZ

July 11, 2010

As planned, Cambodia will conduct first ever large scale military exercise next week, a part of the United Nations Peacekeeping framework for strengthening peace and security.

Chhum Socheat, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense said Saturday that the military exercise will be conducted on July 17 through July 30 with participations of 26 countries and more than 1,000 forces.

Of those forces, the largest number will be coming from Cambodia as a host country and from the United States, the co- organizer of the exercise.

The other participating countries, the majority of which are the members of the United Nations include France, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, India, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mongolia and the United Kingdom among others.

According to the plan, Chhum Socheat said the military exercise which is part of the Global Peace Operations Initiatives (GPOI), a UN-US peacekeeping-training program will be conducted in two separate forms with one to be organized in Kompong Speu province, about 50 kilometers from Phnom Penh, and that will be a field exercise.

The second of its kind will be conducted in Phnom Penh as part of the far command from headquarters.

The military exercise in Cambodia will be called as "Angkor Sentinel 2010".

Source:Xinhua

Human Rights Watch Criticizes Cambodian Military, but Cambodia Dismisses the Criticism – Saturday, 10.7.2010

http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

via Khmer NZ

Posted on 11 July 2010

The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 672

“Phnom Penh: Human Rights Watch [“Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice”] criticized the Cambodian military for being involved in forced evictions.

“This criticism is made as Cambodian military forces cooperate with the US army to organize a big military exercise starting on Sunday next week.

“According to a report from New York issued on 9 July 2010, Human Rights Watch said that the joint military exercise, which the United States of America decided to organize in Cambodia, will affect the US commitment to promote human rights in Cambodia.

“Human Rights Watch said that Cambodian military forces are used to protect the interest of private companies [see Phnom Penh Post of 2 June 2010] and to evict Cambodian people by force in order to grab their land. In addition, Cambodian armed forces beat and sometimes shot at Cambodian innocent people over land disputes.

“Human Rights Watch asked the United States of America to suspend its military aid to Cambodia, where it granted about US$1.8 million in 2010 for the construction of a military training center.

“Anyway, high ranking officials of the Royal Government of Cambodia dismissed this criticism, adding that the cooperation between Cambodia and the United States of America continues.

“The spokesperson and Undersecretary of State of the Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Chhum Socheat, said that what was mentioned by the Human Rights Watch was without clear basis and thus it is unreliable. Cambodian troops have never committed anything as criticized [see Phnom Penh Post of 10 May 2010].

The Asian Human Right Commission (AHRC) has learned that on November 14, 2006, three villagers were allegedly assaulted in relation to a land dispute by members of the military from the ACO command headquarters (tank headquarters)

“The spokesperson of the government, Minister of Information Mr. Khieu Kanharith, said that the Cambodian armed forces are used to protect and to maintain security and social order, and every country uses armed forces, also the United States of America. But the government has never ordered troops to grab people’s land.

“The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Koy Kuong, said that the criticism of Human Rights Watch is unnecessary and useless.

“He added that the relations of Cambodia and the United States of America are smooth in all sectors, both in such fields as diplomacy and military. These ties will continue without change.

“It should be noted that the criticism of Human Rights Watch was made a week before Cambodian forces start to cooperate with the US Pacific Command to jointly organize a big multi-national military exercise and training from 17 to 30 July 2010. Twenty six countries will join in this exercise which is named Angkor Sentinel 2010.

“The multi-national exercise is organized with the aim to strengthen the capacity of military forces for peacekeeping missions in the region and in the world.

“Lieutenant General Chhum Socheat said that twenty six countries will participate in the military exercise which is divided into two parts: a ‘command post’ exercise in Phnom Penh in the Intercontinental Hotel, and field training exercise at the area of the ACO ['allied command operations'?] Tank Command Post in Kompong Speu, along National Road 4.”

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.18, #5246, 10.7.2010

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:

Saturday, 10 July 2010

Dinner with Pol Pot / Middag med Pol Pot

LevandeHistoria

In 1978 a Swedish delegation traveled to Democratic Kampuchea, present-day Cambodia. They visited hospitals, work collectives and emptied cities. They even had dinner with Pol Pot. Why didn't they see the mass murder that was going on?

Victim to warrior

via Khmer NZ

Tithiya Sharma, Hindustan Times

July 10, 2010

Around the world in 54 weeks destination 4: Cambodia I’ve been travelling for a couple of weeks in South East Asia now. I’ve had quite the adventure navigating through the hands-on tourism here. I’ve been tugged into shops, duped by sweet old ladies and even roughed up by a Tuk-Tuk driver. Every shop,home and average Joe on the street has a ‘side business’; booking tickets, finding a room or just giving ‘generous’ advice. It’s all about luring customers. Rules are flexible and tolerance high. Much to the delight of some very satisfied tourists; all tanned and stuffed from indulgences they can’t afford back home.

But the gloss barely camouflages the gory details. I cringed at the sight of flabby retirees with teenage ‘girlfriends’. Regardless of the time or location, their faces are painted with gaudy make-up and cheery smiles. They dote on the men like lovers and the men are only too happy to be fooled by the farce.

Sadly, the situation gets less shocking as you spend more time here, eventually choosing to look away and fake the modicum of normalcy required to share the same spaces as them. But the truth is hard to ignore for long. Many of the girls are enslaved by the brothels who bought them from family members and friends who accompanied them to the cities. The story was familiar: girls, some as young as six, being lured under the pretext of getting a good job, while they end up being drugged, raped repeatedly and tortured into submission.

While in Pnom Penh, I went to meet a young girl who was the victim of similar circumstances. Sina Vann was born in Vietnam and sold into prostitution in Cambodia when she was barely 13. She spent three drug addled years as a sex slave in a brothel before being rescued in a police raid. The raid was organised by The Somaly Mam foundation, an anti-slavery organisation headed by Somaly Mam, a former victim of trafficking.

Sina told me she had felt hopeless during those years. “Between the drugs, torture and forced sex, your spirit breaks. You stop dreaming and lose the ability to trust anyone. The men who come to these brothels see the beautiful faces and not the pain in the girl’s eyes”. Sina chokes, recounting her first few days. She didn’t speak any Khmer or English and begged the white man who had bought her virginity to help her. He didn’t. If she protested or disobeyed she was starved and locked in a dungeon beneath the brothel.

Sina says wants to spend her life helping other victims because she understands the hell they’re living in. She explains it’s easier for her to communicate with girls and for them to trust her because of her past. Now at 25, Sina is leading the ‘Voices for Change’ programme at the Somaly Mam Foundation. The programme encourages trafficking survivors to share their stories and rehabilitates rescued girls with language, computers and vocational skills.

Sina said, “People need to know the truth about girls living as sex slaves. This is not the life they dreamed of, I wanted to be a lawyer but that Sina died at the brothel. Working to rescue other girls is my life till I die”.

Sina gave me a warm hug as I bid her goodbye. I lingered in her embrace, feeling empowered by this remarkable woman. This time around, I choked.

Tithiya Sharma is on a year-long journey across the globe to find 100 everyday heroes — and hopefully herself — along the way.

U.S. Chooses Abusive Cambodian Military Units to Host Joint Exercises

General Hun Sen at celebration honoring Brigade 70 (photo: DAP)

via Khmer NZ

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Despite its own reports documenting abusive behavior by Cambodian military units, the U.S. State Department agreed with the Department of Defense to allow Cambodia to host a military exercise for international peacekeepers.

The “Angkor Sentinel” exercise, part of the 2010 Global Peace Operations Initiative, will host 1,000 military personnel from 23 Asia-Pacific countries. It also will feature a two-week field training exercise hosted by Cambodia’s ACO Tank Command Headquarters in Kompong Speu province.

The problem with this, says Human Rights Watch (HRW), is that the ACO Tank Unit has been involved in illegal land seizures, which have been noted by the State Department and by Cambodian and international human rights organizations. In 2007, soldiers from the unit destroyed villagers’ fences and crops and confiscated land.

HRW officials point out that the Angkor Sentinel exercise is likely to include elite Cambodian military units, such as Prime Minister Hun Sen’s personal bodyguards and Brigade 70, “both of which have been linked to a deadly March 1997 grenade attack on the political opposition, and Airborne Brigade 911, which has been involved in arbitrary detentions, political violence, torture, and summary executions.”

“For the Pentagon and State Department to permit abusive Cambodian military units to host a high-profile regional peacekeeping exercise is outrageous,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The U.S. undermines its protests against the Cambodian government for rampant rights abuses like forced evictions when it showers international attention and funds on military units involved in grabbing land and other human rights violations.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff