Dangkor villagers evacuated

Photo by: Sreng Meng Srun
Men and boys push a cart loaded with passengers and motorbikes through flash flooding along a national road in Takeo province.

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:02 Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

DANGKOR district officials evacuated nearly 700 families from villages close to the overflowing Prek Thnoat river in Phnom Penh yesterday, while Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town effectively shut down because of flooded roads, officials said.

On Friday, Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema issued a notice warning residents living near the Prek Thnoat river that they would be evacuated if water levels continued to rise.

Since then, a total of 573 families from Sak Sampov commune alone have been evacuated to higher ground, in some cases to the sides of roads, said Tith Sam Oun, the chief of the commune.

“We are very lucky that no one has been injured or killed by the floods, and we have managed to help them in time in evacuating them from their homes,” she said.

She added that water levels in the river and the commune had begun to recede, and that she expected a normal level to be reached within “two to three days”.

Deputy district governor Haem Darith said that, beyond the 573 families from Sak Sampov commune, 121 families from 20 villages in five other Dangkor communes had been evacuated. “We are now working hard to assist affected people,” he said.

“We have brought them from their houses to safer places and prepared medical care for them.”

He said six excavators had been used to pump water from the river, and that “hundreds of thousands” of sandbags were used to prevent overflowing water from entering the surrounding communes further.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology last week, the recent heavy rainfall is expected to continue through at least today.

The rains and resulting flooding, which began last Sunday, have been caused by low atmospheric pressure affecting lowland areas – including Phnom Penh – as well as Kampong Speu, Prey Veng and Svay Rieng provinces, according to a ministry statement issued last week.

Keo Vy, director of the National Committee for Disaster Management, confirmed yesterday that four people had died from drowning since the floods began: one each in Siem Reap, Kampong Chhnang and Preah Sihanouk provinces, and one in Phnom Penh.

He said an initial report on damage estimates caused by the floods should be ready later this week.

“We regret the deaths, and we are now working hard on this,” he said.

“We are also waiting for reports to be sent from the provinces. I hope that the primary report on total damages will come on Wednesday or Thursday.”

In Banteay Meanchey province, flooding has crippled the town of Poipet, where roads have been closed and residents prevented from going to work, said deputy provincial police chief Chan Kosal.

“There was no rain [yesterday], but the impact of previous rain has seriously impacted the province,” he said. “In Ou Chouv and Poipet districts, the waters are still high and people cannot go to work.”

In Pursat, deputy governor Khov Sokha said a 5-kilometre stretch of road had been damaged, and that more than 100 houses had collapsed due to flooding. He added that more than 10,000 hectares of rice fields had been affected.

Meanwhile, Keng Sameth, commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces engineering unit in Preah Vihear province, said on Saturday that heavy flooding had destroyed more than a kilometre of a road that connects Preah Vihear temple to nearby Keo Sekha Kiri Svarak pagoda.

“We are now working to remove big pieces of stones from the road so we can repair it,” he said. “We hope that we will be able to do this by [yesterday or today].”

He added that the road had been built by RCAF at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2009.

Monks held on suspicion of child rape

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:02 Phak Seangly

TWO teenage novice monks in Kandal province have been arrested on suspicion of raping two 6-year-old girls in a generator room at a monastery, officials said yesterday.

Van Sonsophan, an assistant in the office of Mok Kampol district’s Koh Dach commune, where the incident was reported, said the two novice monks were both 15 years old, and that they were living at Kra Pompich pagoda.

He said that on last Wednesday morning, the two monks allegedly lured the victims – students at Koh Dach primary school, which is on the pagoda grounds – to the monastery by promising to give them one package of noodles each.

“The victims followed the monks to the generator room, and about 20 minutes later they came out with pale faces,” he said.

He added that the monks were arrested on Thursday and taken to the Mok Kampol district police station, where they reportedly confessed to their crimes and were defrocked.

Kang Phal, deputy police chief in Mok Kampol district, said the suspects were transferred to Kandal provincial court on Friday but had not been charged.

Ouk Kimsith, a prosecutor at the court, confirmed yesterday that the two 15-year-olds were being held there but declined to comment further.

Tep Phara, the chief of Koh Dach village, where the victims live, said their parents had requested that the case be resolved with an out-of-court settlement payment.

“The parents of the victims wanted the case solved, not sent to the court, but the local police dared not do this because it is a big case,” he said.

He added that he did not know how much money the parents had requested.

Men Makara, provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said yesterday that he could not provide precise figures on reported rapes this year because he was away from his office. The last rape case in the province involving a member of the Buddhist clergy, he said, saw a 26-year-old monk in Kien Svay district flee after allegedly assaulting a 16-year-old girl. The suspect in that case remains on the run.

Rainsy to lodge K5 complaint

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 Meas Sokchea

OPPOSITION leader Sam Rainsy announced over the weekend that he planned to file new lawsuits abroad accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of crimes against humanity in connection with the “K5 plan” carried out by the People’s Republic of Kampuchea government.

“I want to see Hun Sen handcuffed,” Sam Rainsy said Saturday by video link from Finland during a press conference at Sam Rainsy Party headquarters in Phnom Penh. “This is also a crime against humanity.”

Sam Rainsy said that he planned to file lawsuits in Finland and other countries against Hun Sen, but would not reveal when or where. “I don’t want to say which country’s court I will file the complaint in so as to avoid Hun Sen knowing – in order to have Hun Sen slip up and be arrested,” he said.

In 1984-’85, the PRK government and its Vietnamese mentors devised the “K5 Plan” in response to the continuing threat from the Khmer Rouge, which had retreated to the Cambodian-Thai border region and resumed guerilla resistance efforts after being overthrown by the Vietnamese in 1979. Hun Sen became prime minister in 1985.

Historians estimate that between 140,000 and 380,000 Cambodians were enlisted in a conscripted work effort from 1984-’87 to clear, secure and mine the densely forested border region. It is thought that thousands died from malaria and land mines. Historian Evan Gottesman has said that 25,000 died from malaria alone.

Cheam Yeap, a senior lawmaker of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, yesterday dismissed the allegations against Hun Sen, saying people voluntarily participated in the campaign, and that it was necessary to protect the country from the Khmer Rouge.

“If K5 was carried out to defend Hun Sen’s house, I would be worried, but because [we] did it for the nation to block the return of Pol Pot’s regime, I am not concerned,” he said.

Prison officials on ice after inmate’s escape

via CAAI

Prison officials on ice after inmate’s escape

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 Chrann Chamroeun

THE director of Banteay Meanchey provincial prison said yesterday that the Ministry of Interior had temporarily suspended him and three security guards pending an investigation into the escape of a 29-year-old Cambodian-American prisoner last month. Nuon Vanna said he and three other officials were removed from their posts after being accused of negligence and accepting bribes following the September 20 escape of Alexander Proeun, who was convicted in 2008 of illegally detaining people and sentenced to 17 years in prison. “I was just temporarily suspended from the post and transferred to work at the Ministry of Interior for a while pending the completion of the investigation,” Nuon Vanna said.

KKKCC seeks UN action

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 Vong Sokheng

THE Khmer Kampuchea Krom Cultural Centre, along with 10 other Khmer Krom groups, has requested that United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon meet with them during his visit to the Kingdom later this month, KKKCC chairman Yont Tharo said yesterday. “We will request the secretary general to help intervene to [ask] the Vietnamese government to respect the rights of Khmer Kampuchea Krom in Vietnam,” he said.

Analysis: Chomsky should listen to his own advice and admit errors

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 Sophal Ear and Geoffrey Cain

Analysis

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

Sophal Ear and Geoffrey Cain

Stuart Alan Becker’s trite interview of MIT linguist Noam Chomsky (‘Noam Chomsky maintains the rage,’ October 5), in which the reporter – rather than a quoted knowledgeable source – describes Chomsky as “an equal-opportunity critic of all groups with power” and “so popular and welcome in so many places”, fell far short of journalistic excellence.

Becker’s promotional reporting skews and gives inappropriate credence to the statements of a scholar who has downplayed Khmer Rouge atrocities, doubted the reports of refugees and has refused to apologise for his errors.

Giving such friendly coverage to Chomsky in a country like Cambodia is outrageous and inappropriate. In introducing Chomsky, Becker does not even attempt to grace the long history of criticisms against Chomsky’s half-truths about the Khmer Rouge, instead cloaking them with his accomplishments as a linguist.

When Becker starts the interview, however, he gives Chomsky an easy exit. He asks a paltry question about one book, Manufacturing Consent, published alongside Edward Herman in 1988, a work Chomsky boasts is “a rare study that does not contain errors”.

While Chomsky may think so, that is because he backed off of statements on Cambodia from previous books by reducing his coverage to a few pages.

Chomsky cleaned up the righteous rhetoric of his earlier books and articles that received no mention in the interview despite their importance.

In those works, Chomsky expressed na?ve sympathy for the Khmer Rouge revolution based on his selective use of “evidence” and ignorant disregard for the plight of refugees.

Chomsky’s statements speak for themselves. During Pol Pot’s reign, he wagged his finger at refugees in his article “Distortions at fourth hand”, published in The Nation in June 1977, and later in After the Cataclysm, published in 1979, he continues to quote selectively and to obfuscate.

Chomsky praised, for example, the report of a Vietnamese refugee who claimed to have walked 350 miles across Cambodia over a two-month period and arriving in Thailand in April 1976 as stating “Walking across the country for two months I saw no sign of killing or mass extermination and nobody told me of it. I still don’t believe it happened.”

Later, also in After the Cataclysm, Chomsky and Herman wrote: “In the first place, is it proper to attribute deaths from malnutrition and disease to Cambodian authorities?”

Incredibly, Chomsky and Ed Herman then claimed: “If a serious study … is someday undertaken, it may well be discovered … that the Khmer Rouge programmes elicited a positive response … because they dealt with fundamental problems rooted in the feudal past and exacerbated by the imperial system.… Such a study, however, has yet to be undertaken.”

Perhaps that study had already been undertaken but was ignored, as Chomsky and Herman intimate: “The situation in Phnom Penh resulting from the US war is graphically described in a carefully documented study by Hildebrand and Porter that has been almost totally ignored by the press.”

This is high praise for a book that contained a propaganda picture of a Khmer Rouge “hospital” operating room.

Becker’s blatantly promotional content can be explained by his snug relationship with Chomsky – a conflict of interest that should have been disclosed in the article.

The reporter runs a school in Bangkok called The Enlightenment Institute, a language training school that he describes on his website as a “Chomsky school” because it places the study of Chomsky at its core.

Becker adds that he’s grown close to the scholar in the past few years, having “exchanged hundreds” of emails with Chomsky.

Why Becker did not disclose his affiliations, as any ethical journalist should, raises questions about his agenda.

When it comes to allowing for honest error, Chomsky will have none of it.

He refers, for example, to Father Ponchaud’s differing American and British editions of Cambodia: Year Zero as evidence of duplicity.

If he had cared to check with the easily accessible French priest, he would have learned that the error was due to his translator, who submitted the wrong edition to the publisher.

Writing about American leaders in At War with Asia (Pantheon, 1970), Chomsky poignantly argued that: “Perhaps someday they will acknowledge their ‘honest errors’ in their memoirs, speaking of the burdens of world leadership and the tragic irony of history. Their victims, the peasants of Indochina, will write no memoirs and will be forgotten. They will join the countless millions of earlier victims of tyrants and oppressors.”

Indeed, perhaps someday Chomsky will acknowledge his “honest errors” in his memoirs, speaking of the burdens of academia and the tragic irony of history.

His victims, the peasants of Indochina, will write no memoirs and will be forgotten.

The views of the authors do not necessarily represent the views of the US department of the navy, the US department of defense, the US department of state or the US government.

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

Sophal Ear is a professor of national security affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and a TED Fellow. Geoffrey Cain is a Fulbright fellow in Vietnam and a journalist who has covered Asia for Time, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal and others.

Police Blotter: 18 Oct 2010

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 Sun Narin

Possessed man takes power drill to own neck

A 28-year-old man suspected of being possessed by ghosts killed himself by taking a drill to his neck in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district on Thursday. The victim’s mother said that her son had been possessed “for nearly two years” and that at times he acted “crazy”, destroying furniture in his house. She said that on the day he died he held her in a tearful embrace before he went off and killed himself with the drill. A witness said the man drilled his throat and cut his neck until he died.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

Provincial pagoda hit by double suicide

Two men hanged themselves at a pagoda in Banteay Meanchey province’s Mongkol Borei district on Wednesday. Police said one of the men, who was 45, hanged himself with a scarf after his wife refused to leave him alone and go to her parents’ house late one night. Police said the second victim, 40, hanged himself with a hammock. Police did not have a theory as to the reason for the second suicide.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

Bike ends second-best in crash with truck

One man died and another was seriously injured when a container lorry sideswiped a motorbike in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district on Thursday. A witness said the truck attempted to stop at a red light, but overshot the line and collided with the motorbike. The driver of the motorbike, who was 29, died at the scene, and his passenger was severely injured. Police said the lorry had been taken to the police station and would be kept there until an investigation into the crash was completed.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

Boozy bather slips and drowns in local river

A drunken woman drowned as she was attempting to bathe in a river in Banteay Meanchey province’s Serei Sophoan district on Wednesday. The victim’s husband said she was extremely drunk at the time, and that he had told her to come inside. Instead, she went to wash herself in the river. When she failed to return, he went looking for her and found her floating in the river the next morning.

KOH SANTEPHEAP

Snake kills sleeping woman with one bite

A 30-year-old woman died after a snake bit her while she was sleeping in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district on Thursday. Police said that the snake had bitten her on the arm and that it apparently had been venomous, though they did not know the species. The woman was sent to hospital not long after she was bitten, but the venom had already spread throughout her body.

KAMPUCHEA THMEY

Road claims concern Forte

Crashed autos sit behind Phnom Penh Municipal Police headquarters. They are held until drivers and insurance companies complete paperwork and payments. Photo by: Heng Chivoan

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 Nguon Sovan

AN increase in road collision claims has become a concern for one of the Kingdom’s leading insurers, as the sector posted strong revenue growth in the first nine months of this year.

Youk Chamroeunrith, general manager at Forte, Cambodia’s largest insurer, said yesterday that the firm had seen a 35 percent increase in premiums revenues from January to September, compared to the same period of 2009.

But he said that claims for road collisions were becoming an increasing concern for Forte, which had seen claims grow by 10 percent this year.

“Now, they’re increasing at a controllable rate, but if they continue to rise in the future it will be bad for the insurance industry,” he said.

“As people's living conditions are better and they use more luxury vehicles – the cost of compensation will be higher.”

He called for the government to strengthen traffic laws and enforce strict penalties for drunken drivers, a factor he said was important in keeping the number of claims from expanding too rapidly.

Road collisions were also pushing up claims and premiums at Cambodian National Insurance Company, said the firm’s managing director, Duong Vibol, yesterday. However, growth was still at a “reasonable rate”.

Premiums at CNIC had increased by 23 percent in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period last year, and the number of claims had climbed 11.7 percent, he said.

Rival company Infinity Insurance had also seen an increase in motor vehicle claims, but Chief Executive Officer David Carter said they were growing in line with the increased number of vehicles on the road.

“Proportionally, we have not seen an increase in claims,” he said.

The firm has seen premiums grow 70 percent for the January to September period to US$4 million, compared to last year, he said. Cao Minh Son, chief executive officer of Cambodia Vietnam Insurance, has seen the firm’s premiums total $750,000 over the first nine months – while paying out less than $8,000 in claims during the period.

The firm set up shop in Cambodia in November of last year, and said its small claim payments came mostly from auto collisions.

“We hope that our premium would reach a $1 million target at the end of the year,” he said.

The two other firms providing insurance in the Kingdom – Campubank Lonpac and Asia Insurance – could not be reached for comment

yesterday.

In the first six months of this year, according to data released by the Interior Ministry’s Department of Public Orde – which collates road accident data from police reports – the number of road fatalities stayed almost steady at 931 from January to July, compared to 934 a year earlier.

The number of reported collisions declined 7 percent in the first half of this year – with totals dropping from 3,257 to 3,040.

Rising budget is within Cambodia's means

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 Steve Finch

ALTHOUGH the finer details of the proposed 2011 budget remain unclear, the government’s planned 18 percent increase in spending for next year represents good news for the economy in an age of global fiscal austerity.

Should the National Assembly approve the proposal – it seems unlikely it will change significantly given how the CPP rammed through the budget last year despite strong opposition – the government would spend around US$430 million more in 2011. That’s a much larger increase than the additional $163 million attributed to the budget in 2010, when military spending climbed a huge 24 percent – an economically unjustifiable policy given the stress caused by the global crisis.

The government has confirmed that defence spending is forecast to rise by $22 million next year, and Finance Minister Keat Chhon has said a large chunk of the extra spending would go to health, education and infrastructure.

This is reassuring, despite the fact that the private sector has been asked to pick up some of the military’s tab in the form of the bizarre partnerships imposed on a number of companies this year.

The budget outline suggests the government plans to invest in the long-term needs of the economy, a recommendation that the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank have been making since the onset of the economic crisis. Education and infrastructure have remained under-funded for some time. Further spending in these areas – albeit at levels that pale in comparison to many other countries – should be considered a priority.

Cambodia’s double-digit percent increase in spending represents something of a luxury that few other governments can justify but remains within the country’s means. Portugal, for example, forecast a tiny 0.2 percent rise in spending on Saturday, due to a budgetary headache mirrored across Europe. It is saddled with a budget deficit equal to 9.3 percent of GDP, while Cambodia’s deficit is more than 5 percent.

Most economists consider this acceptable in the short-term, given the need for stimulus measures. Even in the context of developing Asia, Cambodia’s state spending is relatively small.

The proposed 2011 budget represents a better proposition for the economy – and the country – than the 2010 plan.

MoU signed: Banks set to handle more public funds

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 May Kunmakara

TWO of Cambodia’s largest commercial financial institutions will bank government revenues and expenditures in 11 provinces under a deal with the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The agreement made late last week with ACLEDA and Canadia banks is part of the second phase of a plan to build a more accountable public financial-management system.

Under a plan, first launched in 2004, Cambodia aims to reach an international standard for government revenue management without the need for continuous external advice by 2015.

Finance Ministry Secretary of State Aun Porn Moniroth told the Post that increasing the involvement of commercial banks in handling government funds would make the process more accountable and effective.

ACLEDA will now expand its services to Kampong Cham, Mondulkkiri, Steung Treng, Preah Vihear, Koh Kong and Odday Meachney provinces, while Canadia is assuming responsibilities in Preah Sihanouk, Battambang, and Siem Reap provinces.

If the newly launched second phase proves successful, a third step would see commercial banks handling government revenues across all of the Kingdom’s provinces and cities.

Total weathers French storm

Workers demonstrate in Marseilles, France, last week over pension reforms. AFP

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:01 Catherine James

OIL firms, property investors and hoteliers with interests in Cambodia had mixed fortunes on international markets last week, as strikes hit Europe while companies looked towards Asia for expansion plans.

Mass labour strikes across France shut 12 oil refineries and temporarily brought down stock price for oil giant Total – which has exploration interests in Block III in the Gulf of Thailand.

Total SA, also parent company of Total Cambodge, saw its share price on the New York Stock Exchange drop 1.8 percent to US$52.42 on Tuesday’s opening as the news of strikes at France’s oil refineries spread through the market.

Total, France’s biggest refiner, recovered better than its counterparts partly driven by an announcement on Wednesday of a “significant new gas and condensate discovery” in Brunei. Its share price climbed 1.7 percent on the day immediately following the news before settling back to its opening price.

Total ultimately rose 2.2 percent over the week to close at $54.88 on Friday, in spite of labour disputes continuing throughout the week.

Meanwhile, regional property fund manager JSM Indochina climbed 6.9 percent to $0.31 on Monday, where it remained all week, after announcing it had a buyer for its 49 percent interest in Vietnam-based Hieu Duc property. London-listed JSM, which is looking to sell its entire Cambodian portfolio, will receive $12.3 million for the sale.

The InterContinental Hotels Group, which has a hotel in Phnom Penh, saw its share price climb in New York after reports on Thursday it was planning to double the number of hotel rooms in greater China.

Already the world’s largest hotelier by rooms, the group’s shares jumped 1.4 percent on Friday’s open to $18.88 and hit a 52-week high of $18.93 before settling back to close the week at $18.80.

The company planned to add about 50,000 rooms in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in the next three to five years, reports said. The group’s share price has climbed 37.7 percent in the last 12 months.

On the medical front, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which imports medicinal drugs to the Kingdom, saw its share price climb after announcing it would buy pain-killer manufacturer King Pharmaceuticals for $3.6 billion.

Pfizer shares rose 10 cents to $17.48, while King surged $3.99, or 39 percent, to $14.14 on the NYSE on Tuesday. Pfizer closed Friday at $17.75 – 1.66 percent up on its Monday open.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BLOOMBERG

Adding value to the garment sector

Workers stitch various clothes for export in Hefei, in eastern China’s Anhui province. Cambodia aims to add value to its sector. AFP

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:00 Jeremy Mullins

CAMBODIA will hold its first ASEAN-standard certification test for the Kingdom’s pattern-makers next week, a move that insiders say will help improve the value of the domestic garment industry.

Pattern-making involves creating prototype garments for mass production, but much of the work is presently sourced outside of the Kingdom, according to Mona Tep, president of the Garment Industry Productivity Centre.

The garment industry could benefit from completing patterns domestically, as factories incur large costs shipping products back and forth between factories and overseas headquarters.

“We’ve found pattern-making is something very much needed in the domestic industry,” she said.

She said that Cambodia’s garment manufacturing industry currently consisted of “cut, make and trim”. Value-added production – and its ensuing larger profits and higher wages – required increased skill levels from domestic workers.

Some 28 to 30 percent of the cost of a garment purchased from a store presently comes from the preproduction phase, of which pattern-makers were a key component, she said.

Private sector officials said yesterday they would like to increase the number of certified Cambodian pattern makers, as it cuts down on costs.

“Of course we would like to see more [domestic pattern-makers],” said Lee Thai Khit of June Textile Company yesterday.

The certification test will take place on Tuesday, overseen by the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia and the ASEAN Federation of Textile Industries.

Under the umbrella of USAID-funded Cambodia Skills Development Centre, GIPC is also looking to introduce classes in pattern-making.

Orchid Day aims to break cycle of family violence

via CAAI

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:00 Post Staff

SURVIVORS of abuse break the silence and cycle of terror on Orchid Day next month in a Phnom Penh evening to raise awareness for Hagar Cambodia, a group which helps women and children build a new life after domestic violence.

Hagar Cambodia and a host of local businesses are preparing an evening of fine wine and fashion, highlighted by courageous women from Hagar sharing their stories of overcoming abuse.

“Together we want to raise the awareness to start the end of the cycle of violence against women in Cambodia – first, by breaking the silence around the issue and second, by breaking the cycle of abuse,” said one of the event’s organisers.

The event on November 17 is believed to be Cambodia’s first to mark White Ribbon Day, a United Nations-sponsored event promoting the elimination of violence against women on November 25. Those showing support wear a white ribbon.

The day was created by a handful of Canadian men in 1991 on the second anniversary of one man’s massacre of 14 women in Montreal. The campaign urges men to speak out against violence against women.

Hagar’s clients have come from many frightening situations. “One day, my husband hit me until I was unconscious and I ended up in the hospital. Then I came to Hagar. Today, I am strong and happy in my life. I have a job and my children are studying at school. My life has been transformed,” says one woman client.

One hundred percent of ticket sales will go directly to support the work of Hagar Cambodia.

Orchid Day is just the start of a long-term journey – one that will lead to an annual and national event that will mobilise the necessary tools to end violence against women in Cambodia.

For more information on how Hagar helps women and children rebuild their lives with new skills and confidence, visit hagarcambodia.org.

When: Wednesday, November 17

Where: Hagar Catering, 23 Street 288, BKKI, Phnom Penh

Buy a piece of history to preserve a legend

Vann Molyvann’s Chaktomuk Conference Hall has survived, unlike others of his.

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:00 Sarah Macklin

THIS week is the last chance to buy a piece of history – and support Cambodia’s greatest living architect, Vann Molyvann.

A selection of eight autographed photos from his personal collection show some of his most striking buildings in their heyday, such as Phnom Penh’s Teacher Training College and Olympic Stadium just after they were built in the 1960s.

These are on sale at $100 for each print until the Vann Molyvann Project exhibition ends at the French Cultural Centre next Sunday.

Proceeds will help pay the costs of translating his doctoral thesis into Khmer and English for a wider audience. Vann Molyvann wrote it in French (student number 222536) at the age of 82. The subject? Southeast Asian cities from the past to the present.

Costs of translation were estimated at $10,000, said Bill Greaves, founder of the project to document Vann Molyvann’s surviving buildings before they fall victim to further urban development.

“This is the last chance for the great Khmer architects of the 1960s to make a connection with the next generation of young architects,” said Greaves. “This is an opportunity right now to preserve this modern architecture.”

Greaves and young architects and students measured and surveyed each of Vann Molyvann’s surviving buildings, creating detailed drawings and scale models to preserve them for posterity.

Greaves hopes to take the exhibition from Phnom Penh next to New York, Berlin and possibly France as he completes the final stages of his 18-month task and prepares to return to a more normal life as an architect in New York.

Demolition of Vann Molyvann’s National Theatre in 2008 sparked his determination to preserve what was left of his work. “I just quit my job in New York, came to Cambodia and started measuring and drawing,” he said wryly.

Luckily around 180 photographs of Vann Molyvann’s work escaped the destruction of the 1970s because his wife Trudy had sent copies to family and friends in Switzerland.

Images for sale have been drawn from his collection. Order forms are available at the French Cultural Centre on Street 184 until next Sunday, or the pictures can be ordered online by emailing info@vannmolyvannproject.org

Orchid Day aims to break cycle of family violence

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:00 Post Staff

SURVIVORS of abuse break the silence and cycle of terror on Orchid Day next month in a Phnom Penh evening to raise awareness for Hagar Cambodia, a group which helps women and children build a new life after domestic violence.

Hagar Cambodia and a host of local businesses are preparing an evening of fine wine and fashion, highlighted by courageous women from Hagar sharing their stories of overcoming abuse.

“Together we want to raise the awareness to start the end of the cycle of violence against women in Cambodia – first, by breaking the silence around the issue and second, by breaking the cycle of abuse,” said one of the event’s organisers.

The event on November 17 is believed to be Cambodia’s first to mark White Ribbon Day, a United Nations-sponsored event promoting the elimination of violence against women on November 25. Those showing support wear a white ribbon.

The day was created by a handful of Canadian men in 1991 on the second anniversary of one man’s massacre of 14 women in Montreal. The campaign urges men to speak out against violence against women.

Hagar’s clients have come from many frightening situations. “One day, my husband hit me until I was unconscious and I ended up in the hospital. Then I came to Hagar. Today, I am strong and happy in my life. I have a job and my children are studying at school. My life has been transformed,” says one woman client.

One hundred percent of ticket sales will go directly to support the work of Hagar Cambodia.

Orchid Day is just the start of a long-term journey – one that will lead to an annual and national event that will mobilise the necessary tools to end violence against women in Cambodia.

For more information on how Hagar helps women and children rebuild their lives with new skills and confidence, visit hagarcambodia.org.

When: Wednesday, November 17
Where: Hagar Catering, 23 Street 288, BKKI, Phnom Penh

National team held by PKR

Cambodian national team player Khuonla Boravy (right) vies with a Preah Khan Reach during their friendly match at Olympic Stadium. The game ended 0-0.

via CAAI

Monday, 18 October 2010 15:00 H S Manjunath

Cambodia national team head coach Lee Tae Hoon was left bitterly disappointed after his squad put up a disjointed display to record a lacklustre goalless draw in a friendly against Metfone C-League runners up Preah Khan Reach at the Olympic Stadium on Friday.

The South Korean tactician, who took up his new appointment at the end of the league season in August, was not in a mood to hold fire as he summoned the squad after the game and gave them a long and candid debriefing.

“Most of you played like individuals, and in a team game like football it doesn’t help if you are on your own,” Lee told the players through his interpreter.

Decidedly stronger on paper, the national team hardly raised the tempo against a military police side which held its own during a pedestrian first half.

The national side bucked up their efforts in the second session to stumble upon several scoring chances, but a lack of numbers in the box and poor coordination up front prevented them from scoring. The head coach was visibly upset during the the entire match.

“I could see some of you worked very hard but at the end of the day it meant nothing because you couldn’t combine well enough,” he told his men, adding that he did not want a repeat performance in their game against the Police Commissariat side, which kicks off at 3:30pm today at Olympic Stadium.

“There is little time left for us [before the Suzuki Cup qualifiers in Laos] and we need to put our heads together and think about it,” Lee said.

The coach gave a full game to goalkeeper Ouk Mich, who by keeping a sheet clean perhaps justified the choice. One incident of concern, however, was an injury sustained to the left eyebrow of defender Tieng Tiny.

Laos-bound for qualifiers

After today’s final tune up game, the squad leaves for the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Wednesday ahead of their first Suzuki Cup qualifier against the hosts on Friday. They will also play East Timor and the Phillipines, with the top two teams gaining places in the main competition held in Vietnam and Indonesia in December. Vietnam are reigning champions, while Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand have also already qualified.

Clinton coming to Cambodia

Photo by: AFP
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to Pristina, Kosovo, last week to meet officals as part of a Balkan tour that included Bosnia and Serbia.

via CAAI

Sunday, 17 October 2010 21:55 Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and James O’Toole

United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton will pay a visit to the Kingdom at the end of this month, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong has said.

Koy Kuong said that the US’s top diplomat would visit following the trip by United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who is scheduled to arrive next Tuesday for a two-day visit.

“So far, we do not have the exact date of US Secretary of State Her Excellency Hillary Clinton’s visit yet, but I know that she will be visiting Cambodia at the end of this month after the official visit of His Excellency Ban Ki-moon,” Koy Kuong said.

“We are working on this now, and we will release the formal information when it is completely done.”

The American embassy, however, could not provide details of the visit.

“The embassy has received no confirmation about her visit from Washington,” an embassy spokesman said.

The last time a US secretary of state travelled to Cambodia was in 2003, when Colin Powell held the post. In 1996, top envoy Warren Christopher visited.

Koy Kuong said the purpose of the visit was “to strengthen bilateral cooperation and friendship between the two countries”. Under President Barack Obama, the US has attempted to play a more vigorous role in the region and reassert its presence in the face of a rising China.

At an ASEAN security dialogue in Hanoi this July, Clinton riled Beijing by claiming the US had a “national interest” in seeing freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. China’s naval buildup and its territorial claims in the area have been viewed warily by ASEAN members such as Vietnam.

In July, the Kingdom hosted the US-sponsored “Angkor Sentinel” military exercises, which involved more than 1,000 military personnel from 26 countries.

Draft budget approved

via CAAI

Sunday, 17 October 2010 22:20 Nguon Sovan and James O’Toole

The Council of Ministers has approved a draft budget law for 2011 calling for an increase in spending of more than US$400 million compared to last year, including a $22 million rise in national security and defence spending.

Although a sector-by-sector breakdown of the budget was not available, Cheam Yeap, the chairman of the National Assembly’s Banking and Finance Committee, said spending would target key “social needs”.

“For Cambodia, our priority sectors are still education, health, rural development, agriculture, women’s affairs, social affairs and physical infrastructure,” Cheam Yeap said.

The draft budget calls for $2.4 billion in spending for 2011, up from $1.97 billion for this year, for a roughly 18 percent increase. This year’s $1.97 billion represented roughly a 4.6 percent increase from the previous year.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said the budget for defence and security spending had risen from $276 million to $298 million. This bump, he said, had been driven mainly by the military wage bill.

“The government raises salaries for them by 20 percent annually and has to pay benefits to retired officials,” he said. He could not provide detailed data on allocations for other sectors, but said “social sectors” had been the focus.

Officials at ministries including Education and Rural Development could not be reached for comment yesterday. Minister of Health Mam Bunheng said he was busy when asked about next year’s health spending.

Voice of America reported on Friday that the Ministry of Health was allocated $165 million for 2011 and the Ministry of Education budgeted $218 million, representing year-on-year increases of $21 million and $20 million – or 13 percent and 9 percent.

The 7 percent increase in defence spending fell far short of last year’s 24 percent rise, which drew criticism from civil society groups that said it was unjustified in view of the Kingdom’s needs in other sectors. Still, it is likely to be viewed with some annoyance by donor countries, who have continually pushed the government to direct more revenue towards its self-described “priority” sectors, said Carlyle Thayer, a professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

“It’s a pebble in the shoe,” Thayer said. “It’s an irritant, but [donors] have got a lot of scar tissue.”

In June, donors announced a record $1.1 billion in development assistance for the subsequent 18-month period.

Cheam Yeap said the government could tap its $95 million reserve budget if further funding was needed for national security and defence. In addition, Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a document in February approving a controversial programme in which local businesses provide funding to military units.

Chheng Kimlong, a lecturer in economics at the University of Cambodia, said the government would do well to focus spending on sectors that “reproduce investment or another stream of revenues”, including education and infrastructure development.

The government deficit was 5.9 percent in 2009 and will drop to roughly 5.3 percent this year, according to the Asian Development Bank. Although spending is set to increase 18 percent in 2011, ADB senior country economist Peter Brimble said this should not jeopardise what the International Monetary Fund described in September as the Kingdom’s “favourable debt sustainability outlook”.

“In the decision to increase the budget to this amount, we would be confident that the government would be careful to balance their objectives to reduce poverty against the need to maintain responsible debt-management practices,” Brimble said.

Nine-year-old girl allegedly tortured

via CAAI

Sunday, 17 October 2010 22:06 Mom Kunthear

Officials are investigating allegations that a 9-year-old girl was tortured while working as a housemaid for a family in Pursat province.

Ben Sivla, a commune councillor, said the girl’s neighbours reported the case to police and rights workers on Saturday after she fled the house where she lived and worked in Krakor district’s Anlong Thnout commune.

“She ran away from home because her [employers] fought her and accused her of taking their money,” she said.

She said officials had found “many wounds” on the girl’s head, hands, face and back – some of which appeared to have been inflicted with knives and ropes – and that the girl appeared to have been the victim of ongoing abuse.

“She has both new wounds and old wounds on her body,” she said.

She said the girl – who had previously worked for two other families and was sold to her current employers in exchange for 100 kilograms of rice – was being sheltered in an orphanage pending the results of an investigation, which would include interviews with the girl’s former employers.

“We are investigating her case to find out more evidence,” she said. “We don’t know for sure yet which family tortured her seriously.”

Keat Sam Ork, the commune police chief, said the girl’s current employers had denied torturing their young maid but had admitted to beating her after she allegedly stole money from them. He said investigations were ongoing, and that he did not know whether the girl’s employers would be arrested and charged.

“We can not assume that the house owners fought her when she was wrongly accused, or that the girl took their money; that’s why we have to take time to investigate this case,” he said.

Nget Theavy, provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said that regardless of whether the girl had stolen money, the owners should be prosecuted for beating a child.

She said the girl’s employers should have found other ways of punishing their maid if she had been stealing from them.

“They have to find other ways to stop her from doing that again besides beating her because she is too small,” she said.

She also noted that it is illegal for a 9-year-old to be employed as a maid, and for people to be sold into labour.

“With her age she has only one duty and that is to study; she does not need to work,” she said.

She said it was the first torture case she was aware of in Pursat province.

Hun Sen applauds Chile mine rescue

via CAAI

Sunday, 17 October 2010 21:43 Cheang Sokha

Prime Minister Hun Sen has praised the Chilean government for last week’s successful rescue of 33 miners who had been trapped since August following a partial mine collapse.

A statement issued Friday by the Council of Ministers said that Hun Sen regarded the rescue effort as a “lesson and experience” that officials could learn from when facing challenges in Cambodia. “Samdech Techo Hun Sen applauds the excellent help from the Chilean government for the 33 trapped miners,” it said.

The men were trapped on the August 5 by a huge rock collapse inside the mine and had been almost given up for dead before a probe sent down through a narrow bore hole stuck lucky on August 22.

Thirty-two of the miners were released from hospital on Saturday with one man remaining in the clinic for treatment of a dental problem, after they were all successfully rescued last Wednesday.

When the river runs dry

via CAAI

Sunday, 17 October 2010 21:26 Will Baxter

Cambodia and other countries in the lower Mekong region should delay any decisions about initiating hydropower projects for 10 years to allow for further research of potential impacts, according to a long-awaited environmental assessment study.

“Due to the uncertainties regarding scale and irreversibility of risks in such a complex river system ... decisions on mainstream dams should be deferred for a period of up to 10 years, with reviews made every three years to ensure that the necessary conditions to strengthen understanding of the natural systems as well as management and regulatory processes are conducted effectively,” said a statement that accompanied the study.

Tiffany Hacker, an interim communications adviser for the Mekong River Commission, which represents Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, said the recommendation for a delay was based on numerous “guidelines that essentially say there needs to be more supporting information, and that the potential impacts are not clear”.

“The full scale of the irreversible risks are still uncertain based on the information that [consultants commissioned by the MRC] were able to gather for the strategic environmental assessment,” she said.

The 11 hydropower projects proposed for the lower Mekong have received widespread criticism from conservationists and rights workers, many of whom welcomed the recommendation for a deferment.

Phal Lika, a hydropower and community rights project officer at the NGO Forum on Cambodia, said yesterday that the proposed decade-long delay was “a good

recommendation”.

Pich Dun, secretary general of the government’s National Mekong Committee, said yesterday that “if all the dams are built as planned, there will be affects on fisheries, biodiversity, ecology, and loss of wetlands”.

“In Cambodia, when wetlands are lost, it means that people cannot cultivate their crops,” he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHEANG SOKHA

Angkor Wat under threat

Photo by: Roger Mitton
Angkorian-era ruins of Banteay Chhmar temple in Banteay Meanchey province.

via CAAI

Sunday, 17 October 2010 19:46 Keeley Smith

 An international heritage conservancy has warned that the Angkor Wat temple complex faces “critical” threats in the form of heavy traffic and inefficient conservation techniques.

A report released by the Global Heritage Fund also said the fact that many tourism-related businesses were foreign-owned made it difficult for Siem Reap residents to benefit economically from the temples.

“Hundreds of thousands of visitors climb over the ruins of Angkor every year causing heavy deterioration of original Khmer stonework,” says the report, which is titled “Saving Our Heritage: Safeguarding Cultural Sites Around the World”.

According to the report, the number of visitors to Angkor Wat has increased by 188 percent since 2000, from 840,000 to 2,420,000 in 2009.

An Apsara Authority official said last week that Angkor Wat had seen a 24-percent increase in foreign tourists in the first nine months of 2010 compared with the same period last year.

“Mass tourism is overrunning the fragile archaeology site, with millions every year climbing unabated on the monuments,” said GHF Executive Director Jeff Morgan.

The report also says that the temples have been threatened by rapid development in Siem Reap, and that Bayon temple has already borne the brunt of this trend.

“The nearby sprawl of hotels and restaurants is sapping the region’s local aquifer, which has caused the Bayon Temple’s 54 towers to sink into the ground,” it states.

Morgan said that while the Apsara Authority, the government body tasked with managing the temple complex, and UNESCO had taken positive steps towards ensuring the temples were maintained, they did not have a presence at many heritage sites elsewhere in the country.

“Other provinces have little support for heritage preservation [in a situation] typical of most developing countries,” Morgan said.

Mao Loa, director of the Apsara Authority’s Department of Monuments and Preventive Archaeology at the Angkor Wat temple complex, said she had not seen the report, but that the body would be receptive to feedback on the management of the complex.

“We always wait to see constructive criticisms; we need them to raise straight points,” she said.

She agreed that more conservation efforts were needed outside Angkor Wat. In 2004, she said, Apsara expanded from five departments to 14 in a bid to expand its reach, but some pressing conservation issues remain unaddressed.

Who benefits?

Despite rapid development fuelled by a rising number of visitors, much tourism-related revenue – which the report pegged at US$436 million last year – is not going to locals, the report states.

“The local population is not benefiting due to exclusive concession at Angkor and high concentration of hotels in foreign ownership leading to leakages,” Morgan said.

“One stark example: There are 360 Koreans living in Siem Reap to manage all the Korean business. Little stays in the province. Most of the good hotels are Korean or Thai, or foreign.… In fact, Siem Reap is still one of the poorest provinces in Cambodia.”

The report also includes a case study of Banteay Chhmar temple in Banteay Meanchey province, which is lauded as a model for other countries.

In the 1990s, the site was a target of looters, and 25 square metres of bas-reliefs were stolen, according to the report. In 2007, the GHF began a restoration project led by the South Asian Conservation and Restoration Agency.

The report notes that conservation training at the site is being conducted “in the Khmer language by Khmers for Khmers”, thus making it a “landmark in the sustainable conservation process”.

John Sanday, GHF Field Director for the Banteay Chhmar Conservation Training Project, said the knowledge of Cambodian craftsmen was as important as his “technical conservation knowledge” in maintaining the site.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RANN REUY

Flooding on Thailand-Cambodia border still critical

via CAAI

Oct 17, 2010

(NECN/MCOT: Sa Kaeo, Thailand) - The border district of Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaew province was under water for the second day on Sunday, with more than 1,000 households being affected.

Flooding in the municipal area and Aranyaprathet's market was described as the worst in 13 years, forcing local residents and vendors to move their belongings and goods to areas with higher ground. Buddhist monks had to wade through floodwaters while on their morning alms rounds.

Many roads in the Aranyaprathet municipal area were heavily flooded and several sections of them could not be used by small passenger cars.

At the border market of Rong Kluea, which was earlier heavily inundated, saw receding levels of floodwater and was returning to business as usual. However, officials were removing large amounts of garbage brought by floodwater.

At Sa Kaew's Baan Klong Luek border checkpoint, cargo trucks from Thailand were prevented by Cambodian authorities from entering that country due to severe flooding in Cambodia's border town of Poipet. The Cambodians said there was no space left to store new goods and the local warehouses were being flooded.

Officials at the Aranyaprathet customs house said the Cambodian authorities order continued for the second day Sunday.

They said each day more than 150 trucks carrying Thai exports to Cambodia pass the Baan Klong Luek border checkpoint. It was estimated that the suspension of cargo transport caused 50 million baht in loss of revenue each day for Thai exporters.

Cambodia: slice of real life

via CAAI

By SARAH LAMONT - The Southland Times
18/10/2010

James Hargest College pupils who visited Cambodia on a mission trip had a "life-changing" experience.

Fifteen year 12 and 13 students and two teachers travelled to the country's capital Phnom Penh this month to work in an orphanage.

The students spent 12 days teaching English in a language school, as well as working in a programme with children from the slums.

James Hargest College head of department guidance counsellor Sandra Tyree said the students had fundraised for the trip themselves and paid the rest of the costs their own way.

The students were asked to give the trip a rating afterwards and they all gave it at least a 10 out of 10, and some said it was 100 out of 10, she said.

Year 13 student Lauren Brown said the trip had been life changing and it changed the way the students saw the world.

Mekong countries should delay dam projects for decade: study

Boats lined up along the Mekong River in Laos

 

via CAAI

PHNOM PENH — Countries in the lower Mekong River region should delay any decisions about building hydropower dams for 10 years, an influential new study said Friday, warning of the many risks involved.

The recommendation was made in a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report commissioned by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental advisory body that deals with all Mekong River-related activities.

The MRC -- which represents Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam -- is studying the possible construction of 11 hydropower projects on southeast Asia's longest river.

"The recommendation to defer dam construction for a 10-year period is very significant," said Tiffany Hacker, an interim communication advisor for the MRC.

Environmental groups have long objected to damming the river, arguing that it would damage fragile ecosystems.

The assessment, led by consultants with the help of the MRC, government agencies and civil society representatives, said more time was needed to study the risks that come with building dams in such a complex environment.

"The mainstream projects are likely to result in serious and irreversible environmental damage and... losses in biological diversity and ecological integrity," the report said.

It also warned that the dams would have a negative impact on fisheries and could "lead to increasing food insecurity for millions of people".

The MRC stressed that it was under no obligation to follow the report's recommendations, but Hacker told AFP that member countries were "likely to take the findings seriously".

The four countries will now study the findings "for at least six months" before deciding on how to proceed, Hacker said.

More than 60 million people rely in some way on the river, which is the world's largest inland fishery, according to the MRC.

The wildlife group WWF has warned that the Mekong giant catfish -- one of the world's biggest freshwater fish -- could be driven to extinction if plans to build hydropower dams on the river go ahead, blocking spawning grounds.