AKP - Agent Kampuchea Press

via Khmer NZ

PM Hun Sen To Meet His Thai Counterpart in Late September

Phnom Penh, September 3, 2010 AKP -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen will meet with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Sept. 24 during the ASEAN-U.S. Meeting to be held in the U.S.

Cambodian Information Minister H.E. Khieu Kanharith told this to reporters on Sept. 2 after a meeting between Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen and visiting Thai Minister to the Thai prime minister’s Office H.E. Ongart Klampaiboon.

Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Abhisit Vejjajiva could meet four times this year – in New York, Brussels, Hanoi and Phnom Penh, said H.E. Khieu Kanharith, adding that the meetings will not only focus on the border issue.

In the meeting, Samdech Techo Hun Sen asked both sides to do their best to minimize their dispute and maximize their cooperation, he said.

For his part, visiting Ongart Klampaiboon said Samdech Hun Sen expressed his goodwill to improve the relationship and promote the cooperation with Thailand, H.E. Khieu Kanharith said.

After the meeting, Mr. Ongart Klampaiboon praised the Cambodian premier Techo Hun Sen for his kindness and goodwill to strengthen the relations between the two countries. --AKP

(By LIM Nary)

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Cambodia, Thailand Agree to Establish Mechanism to Avoid Misinformation

Phnom Penh, September 3, 2010 AKP -- Cambodia and Thailand agreed to establish a mechanism to avoid confusion and misinformation, following the meeting here yesterday between Cambodian Minister of Information H.E. Khieu Kanharith and Minister to the Thai prime minister’s Office H.E. Ongart Klampaiboon.

The mechanism includes direct communications between the two ministers, close contact between Cambodian Secretary of State at the Information Ministry Nou Sovathero and the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh, and creation of Cambodian-Thai technical commission on information, H.E. Khieu Kanharith told a press conference upon the meeting.

H.E. Ongart Klampaiboon pledged to discuss with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Phiromya about the visit exchanges between the Cambodian and Thai journalists, and he hoped that the relationship between the two Information ministers would contribute to improve the relationship between the two countries, said H.E. Khieu Kanharith.

Both sides also discussed about the exchange of art performances between Phnom Penh and Bangkok, he said.

The Cambodian information minister further quoted Premier Techo Hun Sen as saying that when we do not have a concrete bridge, we should use a bamboo bridge first, and media or arts exchanges are the steps to transform the bamboo bridge into a concrete one. --AKP

(By SOKMOM Nimul)

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SAC Holds 2nd Conference to Review Work Performance in the Past 4 Years

Phnom Penh, September 3, 2010 AKP -- Scout Association of Cambodia (SAC) held the 2nd conference here on Sept. 2 to review the work performance in the past 4 years in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister H.E. Sok An, minister in charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers.

The conference was also attended by government officials and as many as 316 members of SAC.

The participants will discuss the amendment of SAC Charter and its internal regulation, as well as conduct an election for leaders of SAC in the 2nd mandate.

After the 1st conference, members of SAC made a great effort in the scout movement, said Mr. Chey Chap, chairman of the National Commissioner of SAC.

Scout Association of Cambodia became a member of the world organization of scout movement in July, 2008 and the membership certificate was conferred to SAC in 38th conference of the world organization of scout movement held in Jeju island of S. Korea on July 14-18, 2008, he said.

H.E. Sok An appreciated SAC for its efforts in scout movement until being recognized as a member of the world organization of scout movement.

He urged SAC to try the best to train and educate themselves, either mental or physical to be good citizens.

He also asked the participants to hold a deep discussion on the amendment of the scout charter and the internal regulation to ensure the proper importance in response to the real situation of the country. --AKP

(By THOU Peou)

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DPM Keat Chhon Meets IMF Representative for the Asia and Pacific Region

Phnom Penh, September 3, 2010 AKP -- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance H.E. Keat Chhon met here on Sept. 1 with visiting Representative of International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the Asia and Pacific Region Mr. Olaf Unteroberdoerster.

In the meeting, Mr. Olaf Unteroberdoerster praised Cambodia for the economic stability and development in the time of world financial crisis. He also appreciated Cambodia for having effectively used IMF’s resources for the country’s social and economic development.

In reply, H.E. Keat Chhon highly valued the good cooperation between Cambodia and IMF, which he said helped strengthen and develop Cambodia’s economic and financial sectors. --AKP

(By Théng)

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80,734 Tourists Visit Preah Vihear in First Six Months

Phnom Penh, September 3, 2010 AKP -- During the first six months of this year, the total number of visitors to Preah Vihear province, about 294 kilometers north of Phnom Penh capital city, saw an increase.

According to a report of the provincial authorities, for the first semester of 2010, some 80,734 tourists, of them 5,773 foreigners, visited the province.

The report attributed the increase to the province’s cultural and eco-tourism potentiality – especially the Preah Vihear Temple, a World Heritage Site, which stands on the Dangrek Mountain at the border with Thailand – and the local authorities’ efforts in promoting the province’s tourism.

The provincial authorities have so far published 3,000 copies of the book on Preah Vihear’s tourism resorts and products, of them 1,700 are in Khmer and the rest in English, it said. --AKP

(By KOM Heng)

Exiled Cambodians arrive

Sim Loeuth, aka Louis, a 43-year-old Cambodian national deported from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, talks to reporters outside the gates of the immigration police offices after arriving across the street at Phnom Penh International Airport yesterday. 2010 Rick Valenzuela

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:03 Brooke Lewis and Mom Kunthear

FIVE Cambodians, including one woman, arrived in the Kingdom yesterday after being deported from the United States as part of a controversial operation that the American embassy in Phnom Penh described as an example of “excellent bilateral cooperation”.

The new arrivals bring to 234 the number of Cambodians who have been deported from the US as the result of an agreement signed by the two countries in 2002. Only three of those are women.

All the deportees are former legal permanent US residents who have served prison sentences or been given suspended sentences for aggravated felonies, a classification that was expanded in 1996 to include some crimes that were previously misdemeanours.

The five returnees, who arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport at 11:20am and were immediately transferred into the custody of the Interior Ministry’s Immigration Department, were among a group of nearly 50 Cambodians held in the US in advance of being deported.

Activists in two US cities have decried the latest round of deportations. Deported Diaspora, a Boston-based organisation, collected more than 2,000 signatures on a petition that was scheduled to be sent to the US government last week. The petition asked the government to prevent the deportations from proceeding.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Tuesday that about 80 people had attended a rally on Monday to call attention to the case of 35-year-old Hov Ly Kol, who was expected to be deported this week.

But the US embassy said yesterday that the deportations were necessary.

“Every sovereign nation recognises the need to receive their citizens back to their countries, and both the Kingdom of Cambodia and the United States share this commitment,” the embassy said in an emailed statement. The embassy also said it remained “committed to helping the returnees successfully to reintegrate into Cambodian society”.

Cambodian officials have been largely mum on the details of the operation, offering no information about the individual deportees and scant information on how they were being processed.

Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, predicted on Monday that a group of 10 returnees would arrive this week, but said yesterday that he could not confirm when the other five would arrive.

He acknowledged that it may be difficult for returnees to adjust to life in a new country, but said the Kingdom would “welcome them because they are still Cambodian citizens and they do not have American nationality”.

He referred further questions to the Immigration Department, which referred questions to National Police spokesman Kirt Chantharith, who could not be reached for comment.

A deportee who arrived in Cambodia six years ago and went to meet the new arrivals at the Immigration Department facility where they were held yesterday afternoon said “a lot” of returnees end up homeless and jobless. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he accused the US embassy of not doing enough to help deportees adapt to life in Cambodia, a country with which many of them are unfamiliar.

“Most of these guys are shocked, traumatised, separated from their families. Someone has to help these guys stabilise mentally,” he said, and called for the embassy to facilitate reintegration by providing education, job placement and clinical supervision.

As he left the Immigration Department at about 4pm yesterday, Luis Sim, a 43-year-old deportee who was released into the care of family members in Phnom Penh, said he had not been to Cambodia since he was 12.

Though he said he was “very happy to come back”, he also expressed some trepidation. “I don’t know how they live over here,” he said.

SRP points finger at Vietnam

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Thach Le prays after his hearing at Takeo provincial court earlier this week.

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:03 Cheang Sokha

THIS week’s conviction of four men for distributing anti-government leaflets in Takeo province may have come at the behest of the Vietnamese government, an opposition lawmaker said yesterday.

Yont Tharo, a Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian and head of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Cultural Centre, connected the convictions with comments made by a top Vietnamese security official in Phnom Penh last month. The official praised Cambodia’s cooperation in disabling anti-Vietnamese “plots” – especially the activities of Khmer Krom activists.

“The sentence of the [men] in Takeo was in parallel to the cooperation raised by Vietnam, on the border issue and the issue of Khmer Krom activists. We see that [Cambodia] has clearly followed the requests from Vietnam,” Yont Tharo said.

On August 3, Vietnamese Vice Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang told a conference in Phnom Penh that “cooperation and positive assistance” from Cambodia had helped to “disable plots and operations of hostile forces opposing the Vietnamese revolution”.

In his speech, Tran singled out Khmer Krom activists in the Mekong Delta region as a target of the joint efforts, which he said had recently led to the arrest of one person for illegal possession of weapons and three others for anti-Vietnamese leafletting in the border area.

In the case heard in Takeo provincial court on Monday, three of the men – including one employee of local rights group Licadho – were jailed after being sentenced to two years in prison. A fourth suspect was convicted in absentia and sentenced to three years in jail.

The three were arrested in May for distributing anti-government leaflets in Takeo province, which borders Vietnam, ahead of the January 7 Victory Day celebrations marking the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime.

The fliers reportedly stated that the day should not be viewed as one of liberation, but as the day Cambodia became “abused and occupied” by Vietnam, which supported the overthrow of Pol Pot.

Takeo provincial police commissioner Ouk Samnang could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, did not comment specifically on whether Vietnam helped in the arrest of the three men, but said Cambodia maintained close law enforcement links with many other countries, including the United States, France, Australia, Thailand and Laos.

“We do not concentrate just on Vietnam,” Khieu Sopheak said. “But the cooperation with neighbouring countries is like tooth and tongue.”

He said the three men were arrested for publishing disinformation about current Cambodian leaders and “looking down” on former King Norodom Sihanouk.

KRT lawyers renew call for inquiry

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:03 James O'Toole

LAWYERS for former Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two Nuon Chea have appealed a decision by judges at Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal not to investigate allegations of political interference by government officials.

In a filing dated Wednesday, the lawyers said a decision from the court’s Office of the Co-Investigating Judges last month to reject their request was part of a pattern of placing “considerations of expediency above fair trial requirements”.

“The defence cannot help but feel that the OCIJ is afraid of somehow embarrassing the Cambodian authorities” with an investigation, the filing said.

In outlining their concerns about government interference, the lawyers pointed to statements by Prime Minister Hun Sen and others that six senior officials summoned by the court were not obligated to appear. They also suggested that Cambodian Co-Investigating Judge You Bunleng had been pressured into backing out of pending investigations in the court’s third and fourth cases that his international colleague, Marcel Lemonde, was conducting on his own.

A report to be released by the Open Society Justice Initiative today praises the court for the completion of its first case last month, but says concerns about political interference should be resolved before the second case goes to trial.

The OSJI also cites the importance of the court’s securing donor funding to make up for budgetary shortfalls. Currently, the court’s international side is short US$6.3 million for this year, while the domestic side is short $3.6 million, the report says.

Court spokesman Reach Sambath said Cambodian judicial and legal officers at the court had not been paid salaries in two months because of budgetary concerns, but were expected to be paid next week.

United Nations court spokesman Lars Olsen said fundraising was a “priority” for Clint Williamson, the UN’s special expert to the secretary general for the tribunal, as he travels to Cambodia this week to meet with officials from the Kingdom and donor countries.

State urges discretion in border coverage

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:03 Vong Sokheng

OFFICIALS from the Ministry of Information met yesterday with their Thai counterparts in Phnom Penh, emphasising the need for media outlets to report accurately and avoid fanning the flames of the border dispute.

The meeting came just weeks after Cambodia and Thailand returned their respective ambassadors and restored full diplomatic ties following the rift over Phnom Penh’s appointment of fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as an economics adviser. Thaksin, wanted in Thailand on graft charges, resigned from the position last month.

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said that as the countries work to repair their frayed relationship, their media must avoid needlessly stoking nationalistic passions.

“I appreciate the mature attitude of media from the two countries who don’t publish reports that will cause hatefulness or racism among the populations of the two countries, even though we’ve had problems in diplomacy,” Khieu Kanharith said.

Media outlets have often played a contentious role in Thai-Cambodian relations. In 2003, rioters burned down the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh following a false report, cited in a speech by Prime Minister Hun Sen, that a Thai actress had claimed the famed Angkor Wat temple complex belonged to Thailand.

More recently, Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper quoted Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as saying last month that Bangkok would consider “both diplomatic and military means” to solve the disagreement with Cambodia over a patch of land adjacent to Preah Vihear temple. Hun Sen cited this quotation in a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council, calling it an “obvious threat”.

Officials in Bangkok, however, later said that Abhisit’s statements had been misquoted and taken out of context, citing Thailand’s commitment to a 2000 Memorandum of Understanding with Cambodia that provides for peaceful demarcation of the border.

“We want to solve these problems peacefully, without the use of force,” Abhisit said last month, according to the Bangkok Post.

Moeun Chhean Narridh, director of the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies, said reporters had a responsibility to carefully handle the “very sensitive and delicate” issues at the centre of the Thai-Cambodian conflict. He said he worried about the tendency of news outlets in both countries to trade in inflated nationalism and war-mongering.

“The media has a role to not take sides and avoid conflict,” he said.

Ongart Klampaiboon, Abhisit’s Office Minister and the leader of the visiting delegation, said dubious media reports on the dispute were a continuing problem. On Wednesday, Ongart said, several Thai media outlets incorrectly reported that Hun Sen had backed out of a proposed meeting with Abhisit at an international summit scheduled for next month in Belgium.

But just as news outlets need to be discerning in their reporting, officials from the two countries should be discrete in their communications with one another, Moeun Chhean Narridh said, and avoid doing diplomacy through the media.

“The government should not rely on the media as statements representing any side,” he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JAMES O’TOOLE

Buddhist layman guilty of rape

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:03 Chrann Chamroeun

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court yesterday found a 56-year-old Kandal province layman guilty of raping two women, one who was underage at the time, and sentenced him to 17 years in prison.

Ros Sarin, a layman and director of construction at Sovan Thormareach pagoda in Ponhea Leu district, was arrested by military police last year and charged with raping and committing indecent acts against a 35-year-old woman and a 20-year-old woman. The latter woman was 14 when she was first assaulted.

The attacks date back to 1994. A complaint filed by the victims accused Ros Sarin of assaulting them in 1994, 2003, 2004 and 2009. It also accused him of raping many other women, some of whom were also underage.

During that period, Ros Sarin counselled women on “love problems”, and he often gave them “holy water and magic potions” during these sessions, said defence lawyer Lim Vanna.

The court also found Ros Sarin’s assistant, Heng Samoeun, guilty of serving as an accomplice to the attacks, concluding that he was aware of them. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Judge Duch Kimsorn said the court had ordered both men to pay a total of 50 million riels (US$11,862) in compensation to the two victims.

Te Chamnan, a lawyer for both victims, applauded the ruling. “I am very happy with the court’s decision, which is acceptable and just for the two victims,” he said.

But Lim Vanna said he did not believe there was sufficient evidence to convict his client.

Hang Borey, president of the International Communities Organisation of Cambodia, contended that the complaint was merely a ploy to get money out of Ros Sarin, who as director of construction was responsible for raising money for the pagoda from outside donors.

Man says court officials extorted

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Friday, 03 September 2010 15:02 Meas Sokchea

A JUDGE and deputy prosecutor at Battambang provincial court requested US$13,000 to secure the release of nine people arrested in a raid on a guesthouse suspected of doubling as a brothel, the owner of the guesthouse said yesterday.

Khan Socheat, owner of Cobra III Guesthouse and Restaurant in Battambang town, said he had filed a complaint to the Anticorruption Unit on Tuesday, alleging that Judge Phlong Visal and deputy prosecutor Long Hokmeng “extorted” the money from him in exchange for the release of nine workers.

Police arrested the nine during a raid on the guesthouse in April 2009, suspecting it of acting as a front for a brothel. Khan Socheat said his employees were released the following month, after he paid $13,000 at the request of the two officials.

“I have documents, evidence, I guarantee it. It is not an exaggeration or an illegal accusation. It is an offence of extortion,” he said. “I lodged a complaint to the ACU [because] the officials have taken their power, taken rights provided by the state for their personal interests.”

Khan Sovan, Khan Socheat’s brother, who helped filed the complaint, said he wanted the ACU to initiate legal action against the officials.

“There have never been people suing the court, only the court taking people to jail,” he said. “We wait to see about [ACU head] Om Yentieng’s achievement, whether or not he can do it.”

When contacted yesterday, Om Yentieng said he had not yet seen the complaint from Khan Socheat, and that the body – which held a swearing-in ceremony for some officers on Tuesday – had received seven or eight complaints so far.

Phlong Visal and Long Hokmeng could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Evictees face a difficult transition

Photo by: Will Baxter
A former resident of Phnom Penh’s Dey Krahorm community carries her sick child past the shack where she now lives at a relocation site in Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district. Families living at the site say it is prone to flooding, and that there are no job opportunities in the area.

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:02 May Titthara and Will Baxter

Kandal province

OVER the past eight months, Chork Teng has become an adept hunter of frogs and freshwater crab, stalking her prey at night in the rice fields near her ramshackle home in Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district.

But she laments the fact that she has been forced to adapt to this scavenger’s lifestyle.

A former resident of the Dey Krahorm community in central Phnom Penh, hers was among the 144 families evicted in a violent operation in January 2009, when police and construction workers employed by local developer 7NG Group levelled all remaining homes at the site.

The families were initially relocated to Dangkor district. Then, on December 12, 2009, a total of 467 former Dey Krahorm families and vendors were relocated yet again to the Tang Khiev community in Ponhea Leu’s Phnom Bat commune, said Va Savoeun, the community’s chief.

However, as a result of the lack of employment opportunities at the relocation site, which is over 40 kilometres from Phnom Penh, more than 240 families have since returned to the city to seek jobs, Va Savoeun said.

Chork Teng said that before the eviction she had been a construction worker.

“But now I only have 1,000 riels (about US$0.25) in my pocket, and when my child gets sick, I have to wait for support from an NGO doctor,” she said.

“I don’t have enough money to start a small business here,” she said. “We want to find jobs in Phnom Penh, but we have no money to rent a room there.”

Va Savoeun said yesterday that the government should provide jobs for his community. “They were happy to get land, but if we only have land and not jobs, how can we live?”

He said the families had been given 4-metre-by-6-metre plots on which they had built makeshift shelters of wood, mud, tarpaulins and corrugated tin. But many of the shacks do not even have walls, and the site is prone to flooding.

Meanwhile, 7NG has moved ahead with plans to construct a fitness centre on part of the former Dey Krahorm site.

Chan Vichet, a former Dey Krahorm representative, said it was ridiculous that 7NG Group had evicted an entire community when it had no clear development plan for the site.

“If the company is just going to put up a fence around the land and construct football fields, the government should give the land back to the residents,” he said. “I cannot find the words to say how upset I am about this development project.”

Meng Phally, 50, said, “I cry when I think about the fact that we have been forced to live in an area that floods, so that the company could construct a football field.”

Srey Chanthou, managing director of 7NG Group, declined to comment yesterday. In June, he told the Post that the company had no official plans for the site beyond constructing an exclusive fitness centre for its employees.

Mann Chhoeun, former Phnom Penh deputy governor, said it was “kindly of the company” to provide the 467 former Dey Krahorm families with land in Phnom Bat commune.

But Am Sam Ath, technical supervisor for the rights group Licadho, said it was an “injustice” that the company “has not developed anything on the site besides an office and football fields”.

Heng Samrin defends deputy

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Friday, 03 September 2010 15:02 Tep Nimol

NATIONAL Assembly first deputy president Nguon Nhel said yesterday that Assembly President Heng Samrin had written a letter defending him against charges from the opposition that he employed an excessive number of advisers.

Last week, a group of 13 lawmakers from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party wrote to Heng Samrin alleging that Nguon Nhel employed 71 advisers and asking for an investigation of this “irregularity”.

Nguon Nhel said yesterday, however, that the National Assembly president had come to his defence.

“Samdech Heng Samrin’s note said that having advisers is, according to the law, the indisputable right of all officials at the leadership level,” Nguon Nhel said. “This is justice for me, and it was a reasonable note according to the law.”

The SRP lawmakers alleged in their letter that the government pays a total of US$26,730 in expenses each month for Nguon Nhel’s advisers.

Among these advisers, the SRP said, is Nhem Thavy, a lawmaker from Kampong Thom province who is also Nguon Nhel’s brother-in-law.

Nguon Nhel said earlier this week that he was considering bringing a defamation suit against the SRP lawmakers who had written the letter. He said yesterday, however, that he considered the matter closed and was no longer considering such a suit.

SRP parliamentarian Ho Vann said yesterday that the opposition members had no intention of defaming Nguon Nhel with their letter, and were only seeking information.

“We asked so that transparency can be ensured for the National Assembly, parliamentarians and citizens,” Ho Vann said. “It was only a request for explanation.”

Nguon Nhel has declined to say the number of advisers he employs.

“I abide by the law and Royal decrees, and all requests are made in accordance with administrative law,” he said yesterday.

Cheam Yeap, head of the National Assembly’s Finance and Banking Committee, said this week that he employed three advisers, but that senior officials were authorised to employ larger staffs.

Rainsy appeal set for next month

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Friday, 03 September 2010 15:02 Meas Sokchea

THE Appeal Court will next month hear the case against opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two Svay Rieng villagers convicted of uprooting wooden demarcation posts on the border with Vietnam, the court said this week.

In a citation issued Monday, court prosecutor Nget Sarath ordered the three defendants to appear on October 5, when the court will hear their appeal against a verdict handed down by Svay Rieng provincial court in January.

Sam Rainsy, who is living in self-exile abroad, was sentenced in absentia to two years jail, and the two villagers – Meas Srey, 40, and Prum Chea, 41 – received one-year sentences.

The three were charged with racial incitement and the destruction of public property following an incident last October in which Sam Rainsy led villagers in pulling up the posts in Chantrea district during a protest against alleged Vietnamese encroachments.

Sam Rainsy’s lawyer, Choung Choungy, said yesterday that he was ready to defend his client against a sentence he described as “unjust”. “I have already prepared myself to defend him. The people cannot accept the court’s decision,” he said.

Sam Sokong, the lawyer for two jailed villagers, said his clients were being held at Kandal provincial court, and that they were suffering health problems because of their captivity.

Group calls Kingdom ‘repressive’ on labour

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:02 Sebastian Strangio

CAMBODIA continued to be a “repressive” environment for labour activists in 2009, despite the existence of relatively progressive legislation, according to a new report from United States-based watchdog Freedom House.

In the report, released on Tuesday in Washington, the group said Cambodia had laws in place that guaranteed labour rights, but that implementation continued to be lacking.

“Despite the fairly robust legal framework, enforcement of labour laws is weak,” the report said. “Anti-union harassment, dismissal of union leaders and supporters, and violence by vigilantes are common.”

The labour report, the first of its kind produced by Freedom House, also cited recent moves to amend Cambodia’s labour laws to allow for the increased use of short-term contracts, which it says discourage workers from supporting trade unions.

“The government has enjoyed increasing success in attractive private investment to Cambodia, and appears to favour the interests of investors and employers over workers‘ rights,” it concluded.

The report also decried the unsolved murders of union leaders including former Free Trade Union head Chea Vichea, who was gunned down outside a newspaper stand in 2004.

In Asia, Cambodia was rated alongside Afghanistan, China and Singapore as “repressive”, with Burma, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam given the lowest classification, “very repressive”.

Moeun Tola, head of the labour programme at the Community Legal Education Centre, said he agreed with the report’s main findings, especially its concerns about the use of short-term contracts.

At a Kampong Chhnang garment factory where dozens of workers fainted on the job last month, he said, workers told him they dared not stop for fear that their three-month contracts would be cancelled.

“My assessment is that if they let such a situation continue, working conditions will get worse,” he said.

Moeun Tola said that as long as Chea Vichea’s killing remained unsolved, the work of union activists would continue to be a “nightmare”.

But Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the Freedom House findings did not reflect the specifics of Cambodia’s situation.

Phay Siphan said that during the global economic downturn, the government had tried hard to “balance labour and employment”, and that it was still pursuing the killers of Chea Vichea.

“We have to try as much as possible to maintain employment for our people,” he said.

Later this month, more than 60,000 garment workers plan to hold a one-week strike in response to the refusal of the Ministry of Labour and industry groups to renegotiate the sector’s newly established minimum wage. The wage was increased by US$5 to $61 per month in July, but unions are demanding that it be raised to as much as $93.

Work halts at Vattanac tower

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Construction workers assemble in protest outside their worksite at the Vattanac Capital high-rise on Monivong Boulevard yesterday.

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:02 Sun Mesa

A KOREAN construction company is set to temporarily postpone work on the Vattanac Capital high-rise on Monivong Boulevard today following two days of protests by disgruntled workers, a union official said yesterday.

Sok Sovandeith, president of the Building and Wood Workers Trade Union Federation of Cambodia and a representative of the construction workers, said yesterday that Doo Song Construction Company would halt work on the building in order to discuss the workers’ demands with the project’s key investors. Representatives of Doo Song could not be reached.

More than 700 construction workers have come out against an order that they work an extra night shift in exchange for 3,000 riels (about US$0.75). The workers are currently paid $3.50 per day.

Sreng Nary, a workers’ representative, said the company had agreed to ask its investors for permission to increase workers’ wages from US$3.50 per day to $4 per day, and to restructure regular working hours.

Chhun Leang, president of Vattanac Properties Ltd, said his firm was investigating the dispute.

“We are investigating in order to determine who has caused this problem,” he said. “If it was caused by the [construction] company, the company must be responsible.”

Khieu Savuth, deputy director of the Department of Labour Disputes at the Ministry of Labour, said he believed the company would resume construction early next week.

Suspect in scalding assault walks free

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Friday, 03 September 2010 15:01 Chhay Channyda

POLICE in Mondulkiri province yesterday questioned and released an ethnic Phnong woman accused of attacking a malaria patient who was nine months pregnant with boiling hot water, causing serious burns to the victim’s face and torso.

So Sovan, the deputy provincial police chief, said investigators believed Tok Yob, 38, had carried out the attack, but that she was released because she has five young children to care for.

“We questioned her and then released her because we knew that she had five little children. So we will let the court decide,” he said. The case was to be forwarded to the provincial court today.

Police suspect Tok Yob attacked the victim, 31-year-old Yun Sren Mom, out of jealousy.

Yun Sren Mom is married to Chuos Ngeuy, who was first married to Tok Yob and never divorced her, though they now live apart. Tok Yob cares for their five children.

On Tuesday afternoon, Tok Yob went to the house where Chuos Nguey lives with Yun Sren Mom, demanded that Yun Sren Mom pay US$10,000 to support the five children and attacked her with water when she refused.

Tok Yob could not be reached. The family of Yun Sren Mom has asked for $5,000 in compensation.

Migrant work’s middlemen

Photo by: Iwin Loy
Ein Chhunly, a labour recruitment broker, shows a picture of her daughter, Seng Sreytouch.

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Friday, 03 September 2010 15:01 Irwin Loy

Kampong Cham province

THE houses in Prek Kruos village are modest dwellings, patched together with wood or thatched leaves. There are no cars to be seen; few families own motorbikes.

This is one of the poorest villages in Kampong Cham’s Sokorng commune, in Kang Meas district, local officials say. But business here has been good for one person.

Ein Chhunly is a recruiter for a labour agency that trains and sends domestic workers to Malaysia. She started working in January and has already recruited 20 women, she said.

“There aren’t many jobs here,” Ein Chhunly said. “Most women work in the farms. They can make only 10,000 riels [US$2.50] each day. It’s not much. So if the parents ask me to help them, I’ll do it.”

Observers say Cambodia’s labour export sector has seen a rapid expansion of late, fuelled in part by Indonesia’s decision last year to prevent its citizens from working as domestic servants in Malaysia, a major employer of household maids.

But although Cambodia licences its labour firms, critics say efforts have not gone far enough to prevent abuses.

In July, police raided two Phnom Penh recruitment agencies after women escaped from their training centre and said they had been forced to live in cramped conditions and barred from leaving.

The government has promised a major revamp of the regulations. But in the meantime, agencies are still actively recruiting young women.

‘I have a chance to help’ In neighbouring Angkor Ban commune, Yu Khorn gestures towards a large wooden house that dwarfs its neighbours. “The lady that lives here used to work in Malaysia,” he said. “Now she’s back. She had some savings and now she’s built a house.”

Yu Khorn started working as a broker for a licenced agency last August. He said he has heard reports of women who say they were treated poorly in training centres, or abused when they started their jobs in foreign countries – but he doesn’t believe them.

Yu Khorn shared a pamphlet he gives to prospective workers. The brochure shows photos of young women holding out fistfuls of US dollars, the bills spread into fans.

“I have a chance to help people in my community to be trained and get more income,” Yu Khorn said.

But Seng Khuy, Angkor Ban’s commune chief, said officials are apprehensive about the brokers, who have been active only in the past year. Lately, local newspapers have been running troublesome stories.

“I read about a lady who jumped from a building to escape,” Seng Khuy said. “But that’s just what the newspaper says. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know.”

In villages throughout this area, the decision to leave the country for work is prompted by a lack of options at home.

Lay Limheang, who returned from Malaysia earlier this year, said she struggled to make ends meet in her previous job in the garment sector.

Last year, a broker convinced her to sign up with a recruitment agency in Phnom Penh. She could double her monthly salary, she was promised.

But after two months in Malaysia, her life became “hell”, she said. Lay Limheang was taught basic English during her training. But her employers in Malaysia spoke to her only in Chinese. When she made mistakes, they responded with violence, she said.

“They used a belt to beat me. The husband slapped me. Once, they hit me until blood came out,” she said.

At one point, she said, her ear was twisted until it swelled into a bulbous lump. Her employers took her to the hospital. “When I told the doctor what happened, he just kept quiet,” she said. One day, her employers told her to pack her bags. She was put on a plane and flown back to Cambodia, her pockets empty. It had been eight months; she was never paid for her work.

Growing concern

Earlier this month, staff members of the NGO Community Legal Education Centre agreed to represent their first domestic worker clients – including Lay Limheang.

“I think it is a problem, but so far few people are making noise,” said Moeun Tola, the head of CLEC’s labour programme. “But now people are paying more attention.”

One industry figure acknowledges that there are significant problems to be addressed.

“We think a lot must be improved to protect migrant workers,” said An Bunhak, director of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies.

The biggest constraint, he said, is that the rules governing recruitment firms are contained in an inadequate 1995 sub-decree that contains no guidelines for basic conditions at training centres. There are no rules about labour firms’ qualifications. And although the Labour Law makes it illegal for employers to hire people to work off debt, there is no explicit language in the sub-decree regarding loans or debts.

But An Bunhak said authorities are serious about modernising the labour export industry. The government has formed a committee, on which he sits, to produce a dramatically revamped sub-decree on recruitment agencies.

Despite the current problems, An Bunhak said, domestic work presents a valuable opportunity for Cambodians – one that shouldn’t be rejected out of hand. “Workers may make $70 in the garment factories. When they go abroad they can get $300 or more. The gap is so big. Overseas migration is contributing to economic development in the households,” he said.

‘Like flying a kite’Back in Prek Kruos village, a small crowd surrounded Ein Chhunly as she unfolded a scrap of paper. She held up a photocopied picture of her eldest daughter, Seng Sreytouch.

The labour agency broker said she, too, had sent her daughters, 21 and 19, to work in Malaysia. Both had held jobs in garment factories, but they had struggled just to survive. So she signed them up with her own recruitment agency.

Though her daughters have yet to send money – the firm is deducting their wages for six months, she said, to pay for their plane tickets and other bills – they have sent word.

On the back of the paper is a handwritten note. She’s happy, Sreytouch wrote; her employers in Malaysia treat her like their own children.

Ein Chhunly said many young women in Prek Kruos are eager to go abroad, but they’re waiting to see what her daughters have to say.

For now, she said, she hasn’t decided if sending her children to Malaysia was the right move.

“I’m not even sure,” she said. “It’s just like flying a kite in the sky.”

Police Blotter: 3 Sep 2010

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:00 Sun Narin

Doctor saves lives of despondent lovers

A pair of star-crossed lovers tried to take their own lives because their parents refused to let them wed, officials in Kratie province said. However, a doctor saved the lovers’ lives after they had both swallowed poison. Neighbours said the man and woman had strolled to the outskirts of their village to commit suicide. Someone saw them lying there unconscious and took them to the hospital quickly, a moved that saved their lives. The man was reportedly injured “a little bit”, whereas the woman’s injuries were more serious because she apparently swallowed more poison. KOH

SANTEPHEAP

Car crashes into pole; power outage ensues

Electricity was cut in a Russey Keo district neighbourhood on Sunday after a speeding car crashed into an electricity pole, police said. Officers said the car sped up to overtake a slower motorbike. But it lost control and crashed into the pole, injuring two riders and cutting power to the area. Police took the car to the local station for use as evidence and to ensure the car’s owner would pay for the damage caused.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

Pair stumble off after car-versus-tree scrap

A car veered off into a tree in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district on Monday, losing a wheel in the process. The driver was considered lucky because no one was seriously injured as a result of the crash, which happened in the early hours of the morning. Witnesses reported seeing the car being driven very fast before hitting the tree. Two people stumbled out of the car in a state of obvious intoxication, witnesses said. They called for a motorbike taxi and left the scene. The car has been sent to the local police station.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

Neighbours speculate after man kills himself

Kandal province residents have been left looking for answers after a 23-year-old factory worker took his own life on Tuesday. Neighbours reported seeing the man looking very sad and troubled the day before. The man’s older sister said she did not know what problems her brother was wrestling with; she just knew that he was sad. Neighbours speculated that the man was having love problems.

KAMPUCHEA THMEY

Wrong-way driver meets untimely end

A 30-year-old man died instantly after he ploughed into a 12-seat minivan while driving the wrong way down National Road 4 on Monday. A witness said the force of the crash caused the motorist to fall to the road and die. Police said the minivan driver fled the scene and left the vehicle. Police are said to be investigating.

RASMEY KAMPUCHEA

Tobacco gets duty-free boost

Photo by: Rick Valenzuela
A man displays hand-rolled cigarettes of homegrown tobacco in front of a packhouse not far from Kampong Cham town.

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:00 Nguon Sovan

VIETNAM will allow duty-free imports of Cambodian tobacco later this month, as part of agreement set to revive the industry and save it US$2.4 million a year.

The move comes after a three-year deal – that enabled Cambodia to send 3,000 tonnes of tobacco leaf to Vietnam duty-free each year – expired at the end of 2009, a senior commerce official said yesterday.

When that deal ended, distributors hit by duties of around US$800 per tonne had less demand for domestic crops – cutting the price of tobacco by around 50 percent, affecting the Kingdom’s farmers.

The new deal will renew duty-free quotas for 2010 and 2011, a move farmers and tobacco buyers alike have welcomed.

“The agreement will be signed in mid-September,” Sok Sopheak, director general of the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. The ministry had seen a sharp drop in exports since the quota was stopped, he said.

Kun Lim, head of corporate and regulatory affairs for British American Tobacco, which produces ARA, Liberation and National cigarettes, supported the agreement.

BAT will now be allowed to export 600 tonnes per year duty free. So far this year, it exported no tobacco to Vietnam.

He said: “[The quota] will benefit everyone relevant to this sector. Prices will bounce back.”

Kun Lim advised the government to announce the quota publically, to enable tobacco farmers to prepare themselves for demand. He estimated that Cambodia yields 8,000 to 10,000 tonnes of dried tobacco a year.

Small-scale farmers have seen investments suffer in 2010.

Tobacco farmer Sdoeung Trap, 57, of Kampong Cham’s Koh Samrong commune, said yesterday: “Overall, I and other farmers lost about 20 percent of our investment in tobacco crops this year.”

He said the price of dried tobacco had dropped 50 percent this year, to $1.5 a kilogram from around $3 last year.

Tobacco is grown from November and yields in April. There are about seven exporters of the leaf in Cambodia.

Sok Sopheak said that Vietnam has also extended the quota for duty-free milled rice to 250,000 tonnes this year, up 50,000 tonnes on 2009. The quota would benefit Cambodia by around $2.5 million per year, as duty is around $10 a tonne.

Neither the spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy, Trinh Ba Cam, nor Vietnam’s commercial counselor, Le Bien Cuong, could be reached for comment yesterday.

Disarming beauty

Sculptor Blake with some sculptures from his Fragments series.

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:00 Peter Olszewski

HOTEL de la Paix’s Arts Lounge is going international, and the artist known as “Blake” is coming, in what is an art-world first for Asia, let alone Siem Reap.

The Arts Lounge has, until now, concentrated on showing local artists, mostly of the mixed media milieu. But on September 23 the venue will launch the Asian debut of Fragments, which, according to the press release, is not only “an evocative collection of sculptural works by renowned artist Blake”, but also an “emotive body of sculpture” that “addresses Southeast Asia’s tragic legacy of landmines”.

The feel-good, socially conscious exhibition will also double as a fundraiser – 30 percent of sales will be donated to the Siem Reap-based NGO Cambodian Self Help Demining, founded by former child soldier and now CNN Hero-nominee Aki Ra.

The exhibition comprises 15 bronze sculptures, and each work is named after a type of landmine.

The artist Blake, otherwise known as Blake Ward, was born in Yellowknife, Canada, raised in Edmondton and studied fine arts at the University of Alberta. In 1985 he moved to Paris to further study sculpture, and then went on to Monaco in 1991 to open his Monte Carlo studio.

His sculptures are categorised into three thematic groups: Traditional Figurative Blake sculpture explores notions of idealised beauty; the Re-Think collection is dedicated to the promotion of human rights; and the Fragments series of “dis-figurative work is dedicated to the survivors of landmines”.

Blake’s interest in the landmine issue in this region stems from his six-week visit to Vietnam in 2003 to teach at the Hanoi Fine Arts University. This was the first time a western professor had led classes at the institution since 1945, and during his time on the assignment, he travelled through Vietnam and Cambodia, becoming aware of the ongoing landmine legacy of a war that supposedly ended in April 1975.

His landmine sculptures are purposefully confrontational. Inspired by classical Roman torsos that showed the perfection of the human body, his Fragments works conversely show disfigured, dismembered and limbless bodies.

As the BBC reported in November of 2007, “Limbs have been torn off and flesh ripped apart. A woman has a breast missing. Yet the injured bodies are strangely beautiful. They are art – with a difference.”

Since 2007 the exhibition has done the rounds of Europe and North America and, over a two-year period, Blake has donated three-quarters of the profits from sales of the sculptures to a variety of de-mining groups – about $200,000 in all.

Coincidentally, on Sunday, his newest exhibition concludes in Canada. This is a video installation titled The Burning Buddha to pressure international leaders who refuse to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

To make the video, Blake sculpted a bronze statue of a naked girl seated in the lotus position. He poured gasoline over the figure and lit her on fire. A narrator identifies the countries that have not ratified the agreement.

This gives a good insight into where the artist is at and, on September 23, he’ll be at the Arts Lounge in person.

Blake told 7Days, “I will be there. I arrive a few days before.”

Vietnam agrees to supply additional power

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:00 Chun Sophal

CAMBODIAN officials said yesterday that Vietnam would supply another 30 megawatts of power to the Kingdom in response to an appeal from Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Suy Sem, minister of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said yesterday: “We are negotiating with Vietnamese officials and we hope that the additional power supply will be provided no later than the end of this year.”

According to a power-purchasing agreement signed in 2001, Vietnam agreed to supply 200 megawatts of power annually to Cambodia from 2009 – but it has fallen short of the target and supplied only 100 megawatts by March this year.

That prompted Hun Sen to call for Vietnam to supply 50 megawatts more as energy demand rose quickly.

In June this year, Vietnam supplied 20 megawatts more, but Cambodia insisted that the supply was still not enough.

Suy Sem said that power supply in Phnom Penh’s city centre met demand, but that suburban areas had not yet had access to additional power.

“We will use the newly obtained electricity to expand our power-distribution network to Phnom Penh’s suburbs, which at present do not have access,” said Suy Sem.

Phnom Penh, at the moment, consumes 300 megawatts a year. About 40 percent is drawn from Vietnam.

According to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, energy demand increases from 25 to 30 percent every year.

Ty Thany, director of the Department of Finance and Electricity Price Setting at the Electricity Authority of Cambodia, said that the new power bought from Vietnam was only meeting demand, so electricity prices would not change.

He told customers to expect price change only when all the hydroelectricity dams planned for Cambodia were finished. The dams will be finished between 2011 and 2016.

Building news: Approvals soar in July to $76.7m

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:00 Soeun Say

Building news

THE number and value of construction projects in the Kingdom substantially increased in July, according to the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.

Despite a 71 percent drop, the value of projects during the first six months, July saw the ministry approve 250 projects worth US$76.7 million, an 88.5 percent increase on the $40.7 million value of July 2009’s 180 projects.

Projects approved included a 16-storey condominium in Chamkarmorn district, Phnom Penh, a garment factory and warehouse in Dangkor district, and a development by Boeung Tumpun Economic Centre.

Lao Tip Seiha, director of the construction department of MLUC, said yesterday that the government had sought to better facilitate investment in construction and the results were clear.

He added that introducing the foreign property co-ownership law also made investors feel confident.

A sense of optimism seems to be growing in the sector, which learned yesterday that what would be the world’s second-tallest skyscraper is planned for Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island.

David Simister, chairman of CB Richard Ellis Indochina, said yesterday: “We believe that the market is now in a positive growth phase after two years of stagnation.”

Terrible twos no problem for local bar

Dean Williams and staff celebrate the second anniversary of Miss Wong bar. Photo by: NICKY HOSFORD

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Miss Wong has survived the two worst years to be in business in Southeast Asia
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via Khmer NZ

Friday, 03 September 2010 15:00 Nicky Hosford

MISS Wong, one of Siem Reap’s favourite bars, celebrated its second birthday last Saturday with flowing champagne cocktails for a packed crowd.

It’s been a rocky but fun-filled two years for the Shanghai-themed cocktail bar, and Kiwi owner Dean Williams is now standing rightly proud of his elegantly kitsch creation.

“We’ve been through some really tough times,” Williams said. “We opened two weeks before the economic crisis kicked in, then [came] the airport closure in Bangkok and other disturbances in Thailand. Miss Wong has survived the two worst years to be in business in Southeast Asia.”

Adding to the woes, for the first four months the bar was operational, water supplies in town had almost dried up, and the venue had to bring in 300 litres of water most days.

But, this being Cambodia, a resilient Williams kept the bar going, even taking on extra work to keep things afloat. He had to cope with dengue fever, a broken leg caused by negligent street maintenance in town and somehow managed to put his head in the ceiling fan – a move that made the whole town wince.

But having ridden out the worst of it, Williams is looking forward to the future.

“I have a lot of ideas for other bars. I’d like to open in another part of Southeast Asia although the economic crisis has put that on the back burner for the moment,” he said.

Williams’ mother described his style as being something like a bull at a gate, hence the accidents. Though this may also be why it seems that no economic crisis could hold Williams or Miss Wong back for long.