A bootiful gesture

BOOTS MADE FOR KICKING: New boots bring a smile to the face of a Cambodian child and (inset) David Lewis.

Source: Southern Courier
Author: Joshua Levi
Tue 15 Apr, 2008

Underprivileged Cambodian children are wearing the best soccer boots money can buy thanks to the generosity of Eastern Suburbs parents and the Indochina Starfish Foundation.

Eastern Suburbs Football Association representative David Lewis recently travelled to Cambodia with hundreds of soccer boots for the kids and saw firsthand the squalid conditions kids live in.

"The kids go to the rubbish dump every day and just collect items that they can sell so that their family can eat," he said. "They earn about 25 cents a day. I can't even describe the rubbish dump because it is literally mountains of rubbish, you can smell the stench from kilometres away."

Lewis said the foundation's program seemed to be working.

"Instead of throwing money at these people, we provide food to parents, which is worth a lot more than 25 cents, on the proviso that the parents send their kids to our schools," he said.

"Then we tell the kids that they can have the outfits and play soccer if they attend classes, so everyone wins."

Many Eastern Suburbs parents throw out soccer boots valued at nearly $200 after only a year because kids are grow out of them. Lewis now asks local clubs for boots at the end of every season to send to Cambodia.

"Our kids are kitted out better than their national soccer team," he said. "If you take into account that they earn 25 cents a day, you can only imagine what it must be like to get soccer boots worth more than $100 that, in many cases, have only been worn about 30 times."

Through his friend Puma Korea general manager Ian Woodcock, Lewis has also secured more than $10,000 worth of brand new puma gear.

Lewis said the foundation would now focus on providing better resources for education.

"Australian schools waste paper, books, coloured pencils and pens, these kids don't have basic supplies," he said. Over the next year we will have a major focus on collecting second hand items and items that we often waste."

Petra Nemcova horrified by human trafficking in Cambodia

April 15th, 2008
by admin

Washington, Apr 15 (ANI): Witnessing human trafficking first-hand during a recent visit to Cambodia left supermodel-turned-humanitarian Petra Nemcova totally shaken and horrified.

Nemcova was so shocked by the experience that she teamed up with Southeast Asian-based charity the Somaly Mam Foundation in an effort to raise awareness for the devastating crimes.

“It makes me so angry. Girls and boys get sold as young as four-years-old and are put in animal cages. Some of them never see the light anymore, Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

We met this girl who was 13 and a pimp made her lose her right eye. The words ‘pimp’ and ‘child’ should never be in the same sentence,” she added.

The Czech Republic-born model was very much moved by the foundation and its work, with its main purpose being to seek and rescue women and girls from the horrors of a life in brothels or on the streets.

Nemcova displayed her support by wearing a dress hand-sewn by women rescued by the group, to a recent charity gala.

The model had suffered her own hardship during her 2004 vacation in Thailand, where she got caught in a tsunami, receiving multiple broken bones and internal injuries and losing her fiance, photographer Simon Atlee. (ANI)

Survivor tale to inspire students

Press-Telegram Los Angeles
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
04/14/2008

LONG BEACH - It was another typically busy day in the Wilson High library.

Librarian Lia Ladas was watching students meander through a school visual arts display, which was concluding its weeklong run at the school, on Thursday.

She was also eagerly looking forward to today's visit by a local writer for Author's Day.

Ladas, who has been at Wilson for four years, said this was the first time she had the funding to present an Author's Day program.

After a sellout response, she hopes to make it an annual occasion.

Today, Oni Vitandham, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, will talk to students about tales from her autobiography "On the Wings of a White Horse." She will also sign copies of her book for sale.

Vitandham says she has spoken more than 15 times locally in recent years. She will talk to students about her battle to survive in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, under which about 1.7 million Cambodians died, and her subsequent tribulations as a refugee in the United States.

"I try to provide inspiration to kids," says Vitandham, who understands firsthand the despair, fear and poverty many teens live with in Long Beach.

Ladas said she was finally able to put on an Author's Day program when she received $250 in funding. She says that since announcing the presentation she has been inundated with interest and will have a standing-room-only crowd of 250 for each of the two sessions.

Vitandham will speak in one-hour blocks at 9:45 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. and will also be available at a lunch at 11 a.m.

The Wilson talk is the first in a busy slate for Vitandham, who is traveling to Goodyear, Ariz., near Phoenix, for three days of talks.

Ladas, despite the seating challenges, is happy with the Author's Day experiment. The librarian also provided study packets for teachers who will be bringing their classes to the talk.

"It's brought a whole new dimension to the job (of) dealing with the authors," Ladas said. "I'm enjoying it."

She also hopes Vitandham's book and story will highlight the need for more multicultural literature in schools.

Cambodia quietly marks Pol Pot's death

AMID FEARS FOR KHMER ROUGE TRIAL

Agence France-Presse
04/15/2008

PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia on Tuesday quietly marked the 10-year anniversary of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's death, amid fears that time is running out to try his aging surviving cadre before a genocide tribunal.

Pol Pot, the tyrant who turned Cambodia into the killing fields in the late 1970s, died on April 15, 1998, reportedly from heart attack, in the remote northern Cambodian outpost of Anlong Veng, the Khmer Rouge's final stronghold.

He was unceremoniously cremated under a pile of rubbish and tires.

"Pol Pot died a criminal, responsible for millions of lives," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which collects evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities. "He is not the kind of person Cambodian people should commemorate."

Nhem En, deputy governor of Anlong Veng and a former Khmer Rouge member, told AFP by telephone: "It is the 10-year anniversary of Pol Pot's death, but there is no commemoration for his soul."

Up to two million people died of overwork and starvation or were executed under the 1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge, which abolished religion, property rights, currency and schools.

Millions more were driven from the cities onto vast collective farms as Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist regime sought to create an agrarian utopia.

"Pol Pot is a person the world hates," said Nhem En, a former photographer at the Khmer Rouge's notorious Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh.

A joint Cambodia-UN tribunal convened in 2006 after nearly a decade of haggling has experienced delays and a funding crisis, raising concerns that the defendants could die before standing trial for their alleged role in one of the 20th century's worst atrocities.

As tribunal officials try to pull together the additional $114 million needed to finish the process, many of the five defendants detained by the court complain of weakening health.

One of them, 82-year-old Ieng Sary, has been repeatedly hospitalized.

"If one of them dies (without standing trial), it is a failure for the court and is not acceptable," said Youk Chhang. "The justice that we wanted from Pol Pot died along with him."

Public trials of the regime's five top leaders are expected to begin later this year.

Originally budgeted at $56.3 million over three years, the tribunal has raised its cost estimates to $170 million, which would allow the court to continue operating until 2011.

Court officials travelled to the United Nations in New York in March to seek $114 million, but so far only Australia has come through, promising $450,000 more for the cash-strapped court.

International backers appear hesitant to pledge more money to the process amid allegations of mismanagement and political interference.

PETRA NEMCOVA - NEMCOVA HAUNTED BY CAMBODIA CHARITY TRIP

Caption: Petra Nemcova. Somaly Mam Foundation Benefit held at the Tribeca Rooftop Grill - Arrivals. New York City, USA - 08.04.08

Also see: Petra Nemcova
Courtesy of http://www.contactmusic.com

15/04/2008

Supermodel-turned-humanitarian PETRA NEMCOVA was horrified after witnessing first-hand the brutality of human trafficking during a recent visit to Cambodia.

The Czech Republic-born model was so jarred by the experience she has teamed up with Southeast Asian-based charity the Somaly Mam Foundation in an effort to raise awareness for the devastating crimes.

She says, "It makes me so angry. Girls and boys get sold as young as four-years-old and are put in animal cages. Some of them never see the light anymore. We met this girl who was 13 and a pimp made her lose her right eye. The words 'pimp' and 'child' should never be in the same sentence."

Nemcova was so moved by the Foundation, which seeks to rescue women and girls from the horrors of a life in brothels or on the streets, she wore a dress hand-sewn by women rescued by the group to a recent charity gala.

The model suffered her own hardship during a 2004 vacation to Thailand, surviving multiple broken bones and internal injuries when a tsunami hit land, killing her then-boyfriend, photographer Simon Atlee, and leaving her stranded for hours in a palm tree.

Spirits of People Belief : Keeping out the bad spirits

This Ting Mong has a body of straw and a face drawn on paper

Keep your eyes open for Ting Mong like this next time you're in the countryside

Close-up of this Ting Mong that didn't scare away the cattle!

A Ting Mong found on Route 6 just outside Kompong Thom

Courtesy of Andy's Cambodia: http://www.andybrouwer.co.uk/

Scarecrows are usually found in a field of corn or other crops to scare away birds but in Cambodia they can also be seen outside homes and are called Ting Mong. As part of village life and the belief systems of Cambodians in the countryside, animism plays a central role in those beliefs which can be seen in the relevance of spirit forces like Neak Ta and the Ting Mong.

People believe that an unknown force is embodied in the scarecrow, puppet-like figure, which they call Ting Mong, that will protect them from disease or death. Often you will find these Ting Mong constructed using spare clothes and placed in front of the house doorway in the belief that it has the power to drive away the spirit of disease, danger or death including epidemics of dengue fever for example. Ting Mong is also the name given to the larger-than-life puppets with giant heads that you see at certain festivals in the Khmer calendar.

Visit Ten Historical Places of Cambodia

Courtesy of http://www.associatedcontent.com/
Apr 14, 2008
By JD

The Kingdom of Cambodia belongs to the Southeast Asian nations. Cambodia relies solely on its textile and garment production and industry as well as tourism to sustain the needs of the country. As for tourism, everybody wants to go visit Cambodia's historical places, and here are some of them.

1.) Angkor Archeological Park

This is the location of the world-famous Khmer civilization, a civilization so modern during its time that it still awes its present-day visitors. Here, you can visit the Temple of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom as well as the Bayon Temple. The best way to view all that Angkor has to offer is to take one of their tours, since they are more comprehensive than by just touring it yourself.

2.) Bokor National Park

This national park is the site where an old and dilapidated French hill station is located. It is rich in history as a lot of Khmer lost their lives for the creation of this used-to-be magnificent building. But other than this, you can also see a myriad of floras and faunas in the national park.

3.) Kampong Cham

This is Cambodia's third biggest city and is also a popular tourist destination, although not as popular as Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. You can also see a lot of beautiful places here like the Nokor Wat as well as the Bamboo Bridge that connects Koh Paen to Mekong. This city is also rich in French influence.

4.) Kompong Luong

This floating town is a must-see if your destination is Cambodia. This is a floating village in Tonle Sap where you can experience Cambodian culture firsthand. It is a delight to any foreigner to see schools and houses and restaurants float over the lake of Tonle Sap.

5.) Phnom Penh

Recognized as the biggest city of Cambodia, it is also Cambodia's capital city. There is a lot you can do here like visiting the Sisowath Bay where you can enjoy its quasi-carnival ambiance. This is also where The Royal Palace is located as well as The National Museum.

6.) Banlung

Here in Banlung, you will definitely enjoy visiting Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake where you can take picnics as well as swim in the lake. Virachey National Park is also located here, or you can visit the Wat Rahtanharahm where you can find the famous reclining Buddha. There are also a lot of wonderful waterfalls that you can visit here like Cha Ong and Kan Chang.

7.) Battambang

These are the must-go-to places in Battambang. You have to visit Wat Banan or what they call small Angkor Wat, and you have to go to Wat Baydamram or the bat temple where you can see fruit bats live in hundreds. Wat Ek Phnom is also a must-see place in this area.

8.) Resort town of Kep

This is a favorite seaside destination in Cambodia. Here, get to enjoy the Cambodian sun as you dine in platforms and eat fresh seafoods, and this is a great place where you can just relax and enjoy the sun and the sea. Visiting the Rabbit Island is also a must as you will definitely enjoy its white sand beaches.

9.) Koh Kong

Koh Kong is more for the nature lover as you will definitely enjoy majestic views of mountains and waterfalls as well as jungles. You can also visit their local zoo and the casino here if you want a more modern touch. Boat tours are popular here as you visit its islands and mangroves.

10.) Siem Reap

It is another favorite tourist spot in Cambodia. What you can see here is the Landmine Museum, which is dedicated to teaching and educating both the locals and the visitors about the hazards of land mines. You can also find a floating village here called the Kampong Phluck.

Cambodia Protects Endangered Bird

In this photo released by Allan Michaud, a Bengal Florican is seen in Kampong Thom province, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on May 13, 2006. Conservationists in Cambodia think they may be turning the corner in their fight to save one of the world's rarest birds. Since 2005, a rush to turn grasslands into large-scale rice farms has gobbled up one-third of the habitat of the Bengal Florican in Cambodia, threatening the critically endangered bird with extinction. Most of the world's Bengal Floricans, believed to number less than 1,000, live in scattered pockets on the fringes of Cambodia's Great Lake.(AP Photo/Allan Michaud)

By JERRY HARMER

STOUNG, Cambodia (AP) — Conservationists in Cambodia think they may be turning the corner in their fight to save one of the world's rarest birds.

The Bengal Florican, known in Cambodia as "the whispering bird," is remarkable for a male mating display that amounts to a dance competition to attract a mate.

Since 2005, a rush to turn grasslands into large-scale rice farms has gobbled up one-third of the Bengal Florican's habitat in Cambodia, threatening the critically endangered bird with extinction.

Now, a land protection plan devised by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, along with British-based BirdLife International and Cambodian authorities, appears to be slowing this controversial real estate grab.

Most of the world's Bengal Floricans, believed to number less than 1,000, live in scattered pockets on the fringes of Cambodia's Great Lake. The rest are in India, Nepal and Vietnam.

The Cambodian program to protect Florican habitat bans development in five zones totaling 135 square miles. Villages and farms within the zones can remain, preserving traditional ways of life.
Police patrol by motorbike during the dry season and by boat when floods come.

Since the program was adopted, three planned developments have been canceled and another put on hold, says Tom Evans, a Wildlife Conservation Society technical adviser in Cambodia.

"Some prospective developers have been deterred at an earlier stage when they learned that the areas had a special designation," he added.

More such zones, dubbed Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Areas, are planned.

In mid-March, the height of the dry season, the grasslands near Great Lake are at their bleakest. They stretch to the horizon, brown and flat under the blazing sun, with barely a tree to break the monotony. Smoke curls into the air where farmers burn off scrub to rejuvenate pasture for their cattle. Ox carts trundle down deeply rutted tracks. An occasional motor vehicle kicks up clouds of dust.

But for the patient and the sharp-eyed, this landscape offers a sight to behold: the courtship display of the male Bengal Florican.

The bird, a black-and-white bustard that looks like a small ostrich, struts into a clearing, stretches its long neck and ruffles up its feathers. Then, it flits into the air before fluttering back to the ground in an undulating pattern, like a parachutist caught in a crosswind.

As it descends, it emits a deep humming sound that has earned it its Cambodian name, "the whispering bird." The displays are usually carried out within sight of other males, in what amounts to an open dance competition to attract a mate.

"They're really unique," says Lotty Packman, a 24-year-old researcher from the University of East Anglia in England. "They're very striking and very charismatic."

Packman was spending long days in the heat, netting Floricans and attaching tracking devices to learn more about them, especially the elusive female of which very little is known.

"You can't conserve it if you don't know its natural history," Packman said after tagging and releasing a male with a solar-powered transmitter that will send back data every two days. "It's a race against time."

The species was rediscovered in Cambodia in 1999. Until then, the country's decades-long civil war had made detailed exploration of the countryside too dangerous.

But peace has proved to be a far greater threat.

Businessmen have snapped up thousands of acres of land in often murky deals and built more than 100 strip dams, which turn the grassland into emerald-green rice paddies that can produce rice during the dry season.

Conservationists have worked hard to win the villagers' support, but despite the restrictions on development, a new plantation has been laid out in one zone and preparations have been made for another. Signs marking the protected areas have been knocked down — it's not clear by whom.

Opposition Threatens Second Strike

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh

14 April 2008

Khmer audio aired April 14 (708 KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 14 (708 KB) - Listen (MP3)

The opposition will hold another public demonstration in coming weeks if the government fails to check the rising cost of goods, party president Sam Rainsy said Monday.

The party held a demonstration of about 300 people April 6, but Sam Rainsy said he would lead a larger one in late April or early May through the main streets of the capital.


Cambodians have been feeling the sting of inflation in recent months, with the cost of goods, including rice, as much as doubling.

The government has sought to curb the rising prices by enacting a partial ban on the export of rice, injecting government subsidized rice into the market and lifting a ban on pig and pork from Vietnam.

Sam Rainsy said Monday he would hold a demonstration with or without permission from municipal authorities and accused the police of barring supporters from the April 6 rally.

Police have denied those allegations.

“I will inform Phnom Penh Municipality about the demonstration,” Sam Rainsy said. “Even if the Phnom Penh municipality does not permit it, [the party] will still hold that demonstration.”

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Man Chhoeurn said decisions over demonstrations were not officially his to make, but he warned that the Sam Rainsy Party should first seek permission before demonstrating.

“If he does not do in the right way, we have difficulty understanding this,” Man Chhoeurn said. “It is better that [he] should ask for permission.”

Foreigner Caught Mailing Drugs

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
14 April 2008

Khmer audio aired April 11 (812 KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 11 (812 KB) - Listen (MP3)

A Danish woman is facing charges of drug smuggling, after she was caught trying to mail pills containing codeine—a controlled substance—from a Phnom Penh post office, officials said Friday.

Axelexen Johanne Vinther, 45, had mixed thousands of tablets containing codeine among other medicine and toys in a package bound for the US, officials said.

Authorities confiscated about 1 kilogram of codeine tablets for lab inspection, said Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Sok Kalyan.

“They kept only the suspect codeine tablets, and took out the toys and medicine in the package,” he said.

Codeine, a widely used opiate, remains legal to buy over the counter in Cambodia, but illegal to ship overseas.

“We have implemented Cambodia and international law,” said Lt. Gen. Lour Ramin, secretary-general of the National Drug Authority. “If she claims innocence, why did she hide codeine with medicine and toys? Now it’s a court matter.”

Vinther has said she was asked only to mail a package in exchange for money, he added.
Court officials say there will be more investigation and lab work in the case.

Several foreign nationals are serving jail time in Cambodia for attempting to mail heroin.
Vinther faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted.

Gang Beats Policeman Unconscious

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
14 April 2008

Khmer audio aired April 14 (586 KB) - Download (MP3)
Khmer audio aired April 14 (586 KB) - Listen (MP3)

One policeman was knocked unconscious and another one injured following an altercation with a “gang” on the second day of New Year celebrations in Bantey Meanchey province, officials said.

Policeman Meas Samuth, one of the injured, said his colleague was conducting a traffic investigation following a collision between a motorcycle and child, when a “two gangs” began blowing whistles.

“My friend asked them to stop,” he said, adding that they told the group the police were working.

“They did not stop,” Meas Samuth said. “And then my friend asked them to give him the whistle, but they didn’t want to.”

A fracas ensued, and the youths began beating the police, knocking one of them out, Meas Samuth said.

“They started fighting me, and I ran around like they were fighting a dog,” he said.
Ten teenagers were arrested following the fight, said Yort Roy, a police official in Banthey Meanchey.

WB UN Procurement - Cambodia, RURAL ROAD MAINTENANCE

WORLD BANK UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS SERVICE PROCUREMENTS - APRIL 2008

Country: Cambodia

Project: PROVINCIAL AND RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT

Financing: World Bank

Abstract: DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGY FOR RURAL ROAD MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Sector: Consultants

Loan/Credit Number: Credit No. 3822-KH, Project ID P071207

Contract/Bid Number: Expressions of Interest

Deadline: 7 May 2008

Contact:
http://www.devbusiness.com
Tel: 1 (212) 963 1516
Fax: 1 (212) 963 1381

This request for expression of interest follows the update of the general procurement notice for this project that appeared in UN Development Business No. 723 of 31 March 2008.

The Royal Government of Cambodia through the Ministry of Economy and Finance has received a credit (Credit No. 3822-KH), from the International Development Association (IDA) toward the costs of the Provincial and Road Infrastructure Project (PRIP).

The objective of the Project is to assist the Royal Government of Cambodia to enhance the livelihood in the Project Provinces by providing sustainable access to markets and essential services through: (i) a program of road rehabilitation and maintenance; (ii) a program of capacity building and training; and (iii) development of improved public policies and strategies.

The Royal Government of Cambodia represented by the Ministry of Economy and Finance has appointed Crown Agents as Procurement Agents for selected World Bank funded projects in Cambodia.

The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) as one of the implementing agencies of PRIP intends to use part of the proceeds of the credit for the services of a qualified international individual consultant to assist MPWT to undertake the first step towards the establishment of a full pledged Rural Roads Maintenance Management System (RRMMS). The Consultant is expected to set up the framework for the system in terms of its scope and overall design in cooperation with the MRD and World Bank. The services are estimated for one month effort of the Consultant.

The selected consultant must demonstrate the following qualifications:

Bachelor Degree relevant to the assignment
At least 15 years international experience on road management systems, training and institutional development
Experience in Cambodia and/or Southeast Asia is preferred

The Crown Agents, acting for and on behalf of the Ministry of Rural Development are requesting expressions of interest from qualified international individual consultants to undertake the above mentioned services. The successful consultant will be selected in accordance with Section V. Selection of Individual Consultants under the World Banks Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants by World Bank Borrowers, (January 1997, Revised September 1997, January 1999 and May 2002).

In submitting their expression of interest, interested consultants must provide updated detailed curriculum vitae indicating personal and technical skills, academic qualifications, experiences in similar assignments and names of at least three (3) referees with contact (phone or fax and e-mail address). Expressions of Interest may be submitted electronically.

Interested consultants may obtain copies of the Terms of Reference (in English) for the assignment from the address below, Monday through Friday during office hours from 0830 to 1730 hours

Expressions of interest must be submitted to the address below on or before 1730 hours on 7 May 2008.

Notice Number: WB1607-726/08
UNDB Print Edition: Issue No. 726, 16 May 2008

Japan, ASEAN finish inking free trade pact

The Post
Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Agence France Presse

TOKYO: Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said Monday they had finished signing a deal to tear down trade barriers between the world's second-largest economy and the 10-member bloc.

The deal, which is set to come into effect later this year, was formally signed Monday by Malaysia, the last of the 10 members of the ASEAN bloc to sign off. In a joint statement, Japan and the ASEAN said they looked forward to the early operation of the agreement, saying it would provide "a strong impetus for further invigoration of trade and investment in the region.

"Under the pact, which was finalised in November, about 90 percent of trade between Asia's largest economy and the ASEAN bloc will be tariff-free within 10 years.

It will be the first multinational free trade agreement (FTA) for Japan, which also has been seeking to conclude a flurry of bilateral pacts amid a breakdown in global trade negotiations.

"Japan hopes that the early entry into force of this agreement will further invigorate the trade and investment relations between Japan and ASEAN," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in a statement. He said Japan hoped the deal would also beef up "the strategic partnership between Japan and ASEAN," which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. As a next step, ASEAN members and Japan will start domestic procedures, such as seeking legislative approval, to allow the deal to come into force.

Nation’s Khmer minority celebrates New Year

14/04/2008

VietNamNet Bridge – The middle of April is a thrilling time for Khmer ethnic people in the southern province of Soc Trang as they await Chaul Chnam Thmey (New Year's Day) Festival, their biggest event of the year.

Preparations started days before the festival. With the festival kicking off today, the weekend saw Khmer ethnic people hanging flags, decorating the pagoda with flowers and tidying houses and ancestral altars.

Chaul Chnam Thmey is a holiday unique to the Khmer ethnic people, helping them pray for an abundant crop. It is similar to Lunar New Year festivities in the rest of Vietnam.

The festival is mostly a high-spirited event, full of folk games like singing competitions, tug-of-war, boat races on the river and wrestling.

The festival takes place over three days. On the first day of the New Year, people wash up to attend the festival procession and a ceremony following Khmer people's belief, honouring God.

The ceremony runs until mid-night. Buddhist priests recite scriptures to wish luck for the New Year.

On the second day, people bring vegetarian food to the monks. The monks thank them and wish happiness for the people. The food is intended for hungry spirits.

Khmer people hope for pleasant weather by building small sandy mountains as a symbol of the universe. A man called Achar hosts the ceremony in the afternoon.

On the third day, the people wash a statue of Buddha in a formal and solemn ceremony. People then visit the graves of their forefathers and commemorate their ancestors. Following the solemn day is an upbeat festival that runs until the evening.

On this occasion, many families bathe their grandparents and eminent monks in a simple ritual to recognise their honour.

The festival is a chance for the Khmer people to bring out their local specialities, including vermicelli, swallow's nest pie, fried pie made from rice, pork, shrimp, green pea and soy-bean and pineapple pie.

(Source: Viet Nam News)

Cambodia Suspends Foreign Marriages

By Rory Byrne Phnom Penh
14 April 2008

Byrne report - Download (MP3)
Byrne report - Listen (MP3)

Cambodia has temporarily banned marriages between foreigners and Cambodians because of concerns over the rising number of brokered unions involving poor, uneducated women. The move follows the publication of a report highlighting the abuse of many Cambodian brides who went to South Korea following hastily arranged marriages. Rory Byrne reports from Phnom Penh.

The ban will at least briefly halt the increasing number of marriages of poor Cambodian women to foreign men, mostly from Taiwan and South Korea.

Most such marriages are hastily arranged by brokers who charge clients up to $20,000 for each bride. Of this, only $500 to $1,000 typically goes to the Cambodian woman's family - the brokers pocket the rest.

A recent report by the International Organization for Migration says more than 1700 South Korean marriage visas were issued to Cambodian women in 2007, up from just 72 in 2004.

The IOM says the grooms were mostly factory workers and farmers who had trouble finding wives in South Korea because of their low job status.

While the report found no evidence of systematic abuse of Cambodian women who married South Koreans, it says that many do suffer violence.

Srey Roth is the director of the Cambodia Women's Crisis Center.

"Some they cannot stay with the husband because the husband (is) so violent," Roth said. "And then the husband forces them to earn money for support their family. And they cannot get the nationality (citizenship), so it means that they stay under the husband or mother-in-law's control."

Experts say that many marriage brokers from Taiwan and South Korea have moved to Cambodia since Vietnam banned them two years ago.

Now the Cambodian government appears to be cracking down. Three South Korean marriage agencies have been closed recently, accused of using arranged marriages as a front for people trafficking.

The blanket ban on foreigners marrying Cambodians is seen as the next step in the process, designed to give the authorities here more time to properly investigate brokered marriages.

Srey Roth opposes a blanket ban on mixed-marriages, but says that the government should run background checks on all foreigners who wish to marry Cambodian women.

"I want our government (to) have one department to investigate the guy before agree(ing) the foreigner (can) marry to our Cambodian (women)," Roth said. "They should know about the background and living situation and then tell our girl and then our girl can make the decision if they want to marry or not."

Although the IOM report focuses on marriages between Cambodians and South Koreans, it emphasizes that the potential for problems exists globally. It says all brokered unions needed to be better regulated.

Cambodian officials say the ban on foreigners marrying Cambodians will be lifted after the government develops a legal framework to address these marriages.

Ith Chhun of Phnom Penh before the revolution: Gone but not forgotten

World Tribune
Monday, April 14, 2008

By Donald Kirk

The young man approached me with a simple enough offer as I strolled through the grounds of the Royal Palace near the banks of the Tonle Sap in Phnom Penh all those years ago. Did I need a guide; maybe an interpreter?

The response was easy. Sure, why not? The price was right too – less than the equivalent of US$1for a one-hour look around as music tinkled from a pavilion and dancers rehearsed a ballet for Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s entourage.

Those were “the old days” when Cambodia was, as Prince Sihanouk liked to say, “an oasis of peace”, at least as seen by correspondents visiting from the far more dangerous war in Vietnam.

My guide, Ith Chhun, had learned English from Christian missionaries, and made just enough to support himself by showing people around the palace grounds.

He was happy to interpret for me for interviews in Phnom Penh and around the country.

Cambodia then was on the verge of the war that Prince Sihanouk had hoped to avoid by staying “neutral” while the North Vietnamese set up bases near the Vietnam border. He was travelling from Europe to Moscow and Beijing when he was overthrown in March 1970 by his U.S.-backed prime minister, Lon Nol.

As the war spread, Ith Chhun interpreted for an article I wrote for The New York Times Magazine on the terrible Cambodian army and for stories for the old Washington Star on battles down deceptively tranquil roads. One morning, as we drove towards the South Vietnam border, we discovered the bodies of 90 Vietnamese, men, women and children, mowed down by Cambodian soldiers as anti-Vietnam hatred ran wild.

Later, after I got back from writing a book on the widening war, I went down roads that seemed serene and secure, turning back when old men and women warned Ith Chhun the Khmer Rouge were nearby. While journalists were getting killed on forays from Phom Penh, I reported for the Chicago Tribune on villages terrorised by Khmer Rouge executions and on high-level corruption in the capital.

These memories flashed by as I read recently of the passing in New Jersey of Dith Pran, the Cambodian interpreter who became famous from the film The Killing Fields. Dith Pran worked mainly for The New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg. When Schanberg was away and Ith Chhun was with his family in some outlying town, Dith Pran worked for me and others.

He and Ith Chhun were among a small group of interpreters taking the same risks, setting forth with journalists in old Mercedes-Benz cars from the Hotel Royale in Phnom Penh.

I was in New York when Cambodia fell to the Khmer Rouge, in April 1975, two years after America had stopped bombing Cambodia and left US-equipped government soldiers to fend for themselves. I read about the evacuation of Schanberg and others from the French embassy, feared for Dith Pran’s life and was immensely relieved when he showed up in Thailand after four years surviving in a jungle ruled by the Khmer Rouge.

I wondered, though, what had happened to Ith Chhun. Stories of slaughter in the countryside, during the three years, eight months and 10 days of Khmer Rouge rule, reminded me of the kidnappings and executions that peasants had told Ith Chhun and me were going on in the early 1970s while scholars were writing that nothing bad would happen when the Khmer Rouge took over in an “agrarian revolt”.

I thought of Ith Chhun concealing any knowledge of English, throwing away his glasses, books and notes, and joining the peasantry as their new masters drove them from the cities into the fields. As a Christian in a Buddhist society, Ith Chhun would have been more vulnerable than even the Buddhist monks whom the Khmer Rouge killed off as they destroyed pagodas and shrines.

When I returned, in May 1985, after covering the 10th anniversary of “the fall” of Vietnam, I ran into people in markets, repair shops and drink stands who remembered me. Some pointed to scars on their bodies where they had been bound and beaten. They all told of the loss of relatives and friends.

I asked about Ith Chhun, revisited the palace, heard from drivers who thought maybe they had heard about him but weren’t sure. The last time I was there, six years ago, no one remembered him.
I wondered if his bones were among those piled up in “the killing field” that visitors see outside the capital – a sampling of all the places where people were bludgeoned or strangled by guards to whom shooting was a waste of bullets.

It was as if he had never existed, had vanished in a time of killing when 2 million people like him had died, their images faded in flickering memory, nameless and forgotten.

THAILAND MUST IMPROVE ITS MIGRANT POLICY IF IT’S NOT TO RECEIVE INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION

Pattaya Daily News
April 14, 2008

The recent death of the 54 Burmese migrants in a container in Ranong, on April 10 represents, but the tip of the iceberg. Human rights lawyers and labour rights activists in Thailand say that violence against Burmese migrant workers is on the increase. They accuse Thai authorities of doing too little to protect Burmese working in Thailand.

The Migrant Worker Group, a coalition of NGOs, cited at least documented 10 cases in which more than 100 people had died being transported to Thailand in the past year. Since the beginning of 2008, scores of Rohingya Muslims from Burma have drowned in the Andaman Sea in an attempt to reach Southern Thailand, However, rather than help, Thai PM Samak Sundaravej has recently announced he will detain them on a deserted island to deter more arrivals.

"These preventable deaths are the tragic result of people fleeing repression and poverty in Burma, only to find abuse and exploitation in Thailand. Thai policies denying migrants basic rights contribute to such tragedies and urgently need to be revised or scrapped. These deaths put Thai authorities squarely on notice that reform cannot wait," said Elaine Pearson, Deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Over 2 million Burmese migrants are estimated to be working in Thailand, less than 500,000 of them legally. Yet the numbers rise steadily—the lure of jobs and the hope of a better life outweighs all the uncertainty and threat of physical danger, murder and exploitation that these people suffer.

Nearly 20,000 registered Burmese migrant workers work in the Mae Sot area of Thailand's Tak border province with Myanmar, where cases of abuse are particularly high. Moe Swe, head of the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association in Mae Sot, said because migrant workers were reluctant to get involved with the police, many incidents go unreported. Unregistered migrants fear deportation if they complain to the authorities.

800 cases of abuse, including murder and rape, were reported to the Seafarers Union of Burma from mid-2006 to November 2007. Union member Ko Ko Aung maintained 30% of the reported cases involved murder. It appears some Thai employers resort to murder, rather than pay their migrant workers.

Adults are not the only victims of Burma's instability, children are also represented. Here estimates are vague, there being no official statistics, but NGOs cite 20,000 as a generally accepted figure. The economic crisis and instability in Burma is driving hordes of Burmese children into hard labour, begging and the sex trade, claims exiled Burmese rights groups. Paw Ray, the chairperson of the BMWEC, which operates nearly 50 schools for children of Burmese migrant workers in Mae Sot maintains "there's no security and no protection for migrant workers or their children. Neither the authorities nor employers can give them security."

With many Thais avoiding mundane, dirty and dangerous work in agriculture, fishing and construction, and Myanmar's generals refusing to improve their crippled economy, Thai officials say the influx of cheap, migrant labour will continue.

However, most Thais are unaware of the positive contributions that migrant workers make for Thailand. Estimates of their contributions amount to Bt370 billion, or about 6.2 per cent of Thailand's GDP and the average unskilled migrant earns between 50 and 80% of the average unskilled Thai. Yet it appears as if the Thai political leaders, captains of industry and ordinary citizens - who most benefit directly or indirectly from migrant labour - have conspired to suppress such information. Those who benefit most in the absence of any genuine attempt to regulate the inflow of migrants from Burma, Cambodia and Laos are unscrupulous Thai employers bent on exploiting labour to maximise profits.

And Thailand continues to treat these people with utter contempt and prejudice. In fact, it appears the more Thailand comes to depend on migrant workers for its economic and social well-being, the worse the Thai people treat them.

Successive governments, including the outgoing Surayud government, have been complicit in the systematic exploitation of migrants, for failure to secure borders, and lax enforcement of laws relating to immigrants and their employers.

Human Rights Watch maintains "If Thailand's labour laws were followed across the board, fewer migrants would resort to illegal crossings or be susceptible to trafficking, and could travel and work with basic rights under law." They continue.

"It's time for the Thai and Burmese governments to implement transparent measures that protect the lives and basic rights of migrant workers."

A decade after Pol Pot's death, some Cambodians ask the spirit of once feared despot for luck

PR-inside.com
AP
2008-04-14

ANLONG VENG, Cambodia (AP) - Ten years after the death of brutal Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, his grave has become a symbol of spiritual comfort to some in the village where he died.

Villagers pray at the site, asking for blessings of luck, happiness and even protection from malaria _ despite the mayhem he wrought upon their country. He died on April 15, 1998, apparently of heart failure.

«I know it is odd, but I just do as many people here do, asking for happiness from his spirit,» said Orn Pheap, a 37-year-old woman who lost a grandfather and two uncles during the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror from 1975 to 1979.

«I don't know how long I can stay angry with him, since he is already dead,» she said. Her house sits 100 meters (yards) from the grave.

Officials in Anlong Veng, 305 kilometers (190 miles) north of the capital, Phnom Penh, say only a small minority of the area's 35,000 residents pray at Pol Pot's grave.

For most, Pol Pot is remembered as a murderous tyrant with fanatical communist beliefs. Under his leadership, the Khmer Rouge turned the country into a vast slave labor camp, causing the deaths of some 1.7 million people from starvation, forced labor and execution.

Last week, the grave _ a pile of dirt covered by a knee-high corrugated zinc roof _ was cluttered with clay jars filled with half-burned incense sticks, a sign of prayer and worship.

Cambodians believe in the influence of spirits and superstitious forces on their daily lives and fortunes, which may be why some worship at the grave.

Many may still view their former tormentor as a powerful figure, said Philip Short, author of «Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare,» a biography of the former despot.«Evil or good is not the issue,» Short said in an e-mail interview. «He has imposed himself on Cambodians' imaginations, and in that sense he lives on» in the world of spirits.

Once a jungle war zone, Anlong Veng is now a sprawling border market town bustling with the kind of capitalist activities Pol Pot and his comrades sought to stamp out.

Ramshackle shops are filled with clothing, house wares, pirated DVDs and other goods from nearby Thailand.

Cambodian pop songs blare from a coffee shop near Pol Pot's grave, which has been designated a tourist attraction. It is among the few remnants of Khmer Rouge history, which the government is trying to preserve.

Some Cambodians have traveled to Anlong Veng to spit on Pol Pot's grave and curse him in anger, said 37-year-old Sat Narin, who owns a nearby clothing shop.

«Given his bad reputation, he should not be venerated,» he said. «But somehow he is popular with some people.

Among the worshippers who seek blessings from Pol Pot's ghost are ethnic Vietnamese who live in the community _ a sharp irony given Pol Pot's massacres of ethnic Vietnamese during his rule.

A 33-year-old Vietnamese resident, who goes by her adopted Cambodian name of Van Sothy, recalled a nightmare in which she saw a black-clad man sitting on a tree near her hut.

When she described the vision to her Cambodian neighbors, they advised her to bring offerings of fruit and boiled chicken to Pol Pot's grave to ask his spirit for protection.

«I have prayed at his grave ever since. I just want to show some respect to the spiritual master of the land,» she said.

If Pol Pot were alive, he would likely be facing war crimes charges along with five of his former comrades currently detained by Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal.

The long-delayed trials are expected to start later this year.

Nhem En, who was forced to work as the photographer at the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh, says he is setting up his own museum in Anlong Veng about the communist group _ not to glorify them but for educational purposes.

He too used to light incense and pray at Pol Pot's grave, he said, but «only for him not to butcher people again in his next life.

15 April 1998, Remembering the ten-year anniversary of the death of Pol Pot

A Khmer Rouge soldier stands near the body of leader Pol Pot in a small hut near the Thai-Cambodia border about a mile from Chong Sangam Pass, Thailand, Thursday, April 16, 1998, in this file photo. Pol Pot died on April 15, 1998, and this marks the ten-year anniversary of the death of Pol Pot, who as the leader of the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of about 1.7 million of his countrymen.(AP Photo/David Longstreath, FILE)

The body of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot lies on a mattress in a small hut near the Thai-Cambodia border about a mile from Chong Sangam Pass, Thailand, Thursday, April 16, 1998, in this file photo. Pol Pot died on April 15, 1998, and this marks the ten-year anniversary of the death of Pol Pot, who as the leader of the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of about 1.7 million of his countrymen.(AP Photo/David Longstreath, FILE)

Poem by Sarika :" Chhuong Sopheak Meinkol "

Courtesy of Sacravatoon at http://sacrava.blogspot.com/

Threats by Telephone and Six AK-47 Assault Rifle Cartridges at the Gate of Radio Free Asia Reporter

Posted on 14 April 2008.
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 555


Apologies for the late posting of the Saturday materials. - There are now frequent electricity cuts in Phnom Penh, and this resulted also in the delay in producing the Saturday materials in time. Later I was on international flights and could not finish this work earlier.
Because of the Khmer New Year holidays, we will resume normals production only on 17 April 2008.
But we will still post the weekly editorial, due yesterday, in a couple of hours.

Norbert Klein

“Battambang: At 7 o’clock on the morning of 10 April 2008, Radio Free Asia reporter Mr. Lem Piseth’s eleven-year-old daughter found six AK-47 assault rifle cartridges near the fence while she was sweeping the yard in Group 8, Wat Kor village, Battambang. After getting this information, Mr. Lem Piseth hurried to call and to report to the local police and to inform human rights organizations in Battambang immediately.

“Concerning this event, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights is concerned about Radio Free Asia reporter Mr. Lem Piseth’s safety, after finding the cartridges in front of his house on 10 April, because Mr. Lem Piseth had received threats by telephone twice. As a reporter, Mr. Lem Piseth has reported straightforwardly about corruption in the court system, about land disputes with powerful people, and about deforestation at Prey Lang [Kompong Thom], and he published a magazine with the title Free Newspaper.

“All this information may ruin the benefits of or affect the individuals involved. Already on 18 January and again on 15 February 2008, anonymous people had sent him messages by telephone, telling him to be careful, and they even told him to meet them in a hotel, but he did not go out of concern for his safety.

“The Cambodian Center for Human Rights stated that all threats might be related to his work as a reporter. Therefore, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights calls on the authorities to investigate this affair immediately in order to maintain safety for the reporter.

“Regarding the six the AK-47 cartridges, Sey Keokanitha, 11, Mr. Lem Piseth’s daughter, told the local police and district police that she found the six AK-47 cartridges at 7 o’clock in the morning of 10 April 2008, while she was sweeping the yard. As she swept at the gate, she found five AK-47 cartridges very well placed behind the gate, and another cartridge placed in front of the gate. Immediately after she had found the cartridges, she called a boy next door to come and see them. As he recognized that the items were cartridges, the boy told her to inform her father Lem Piseth who was watching television in the room.

“Mr. Lem Piseth said on the morning of 10 April 2008 that while he was watching a Cambodian Television Network channel, his daughter entered the room and told him that these cartridges were placed near the gate. So he went to the gate and saw five cartridges placed behind the gate and another cartridge placed in front of the gate, and then he reported this to the district police, so that they should come to check and make a report.

“The district police and the Wat Kor commune police confirmed that Mr. Lem Piseth, who had just come to live in Wat Kor village about three months ago, has never had any arguments with his neighbors. As for placing the six AK-47 cartridges and the threats by telephone, they considered them personal rancor and not political.”

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4565, 12-17.4.2008

Kelley: Dith Pran showed how to make world better

By Beverly Kelley
Monday, April 14, 2008

In the trailer for Roland Joffe's 1984 Academy Award-winning "The Killing Fields," Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston), a New York Times reporter whose coverage of the Cambodian war would earn him a Pulitzer Prize, says: "It was there in the war-torn countryside amidst the fighting between government troops and the Khmer Rouge guerillas that I met my guide and interpreter Dith Pran — a man who was to change my life in a country that I grew to love and pity."

Dith Pran also changed my life when he visited my radio show March 13, 1995. He referred to himself only as a messenger but, oh, did he ever bring a powerful message.

Dith was, in his own words, "a one-person crusade who must speak for those who did not survive and for those who still suffer." Dith, who coined the term "killing fields" to describe the countless corpses he encountered on a daily basis, would continue to advocate for victims of the Cambodian holocaust until his own death from pancreatic cancer two weeks ago at a New Brunswick, N.J., hospital. He was only 65.

The Cambodians themselves certainly didn't expect the genocide instigated by a Paris-educated Communist named Saloth Sar, who went by the nom de guerre "Pol Pot." The subsequent bloodbath would claim the lives of nearly 2 million civilians (28 percent of the population) in a frenzy of anti-intellectual, anti-Western cleansing.

The Khmer Rouge attempted an overnight step-back-in-time as they carved Cambodia into farming cooperatives and demanded total devotion to the state. To dissent was to die.

Dith, a product of a middle-class family, grew up near the ruins of the ancient temple called Angkor Wat, where he picked up English from tourists — a talent that would equip him to serve as a guide and interpreter to Schanberg in 1972.

Three years later, two weeks before the fall of Saigon, Schanberg and Dith (after Dith's family was safely evacuated) decided to stay and report as the Khmer Rouge stormed the capital of Phnom Penh.

Only a few days would pass before Schanberg and two other journalists would be arrested. Dith managed to convince the authorities that the reporters were French and they ended up at the French Embassy. Since Dith held a Cambodian passport, he ended up in a forced labor camp.

To survive, as Dith told me in 1995, he reinvented himself as an illiterate taxi-driver who remained under the Khmer Rouge radar by keeping his mouth shut and praying without ceasing. Dith labored 14 hours a day in the fields. To supplement the inadequate meals supplied by his captors, Dith opted to add insects and vegetation, no matter how unappetizing, to his diet. Many of his fellow prisoners and 50 of his relatives would not fare as well.

Dith may have been small in stature but a winsome smile that seemed to transform his entire face and a generous spirit made him appear larger than life. Years of torture had already taken a toll on his body — lining his face, slumping his shoulders and halting his speech. He mentioned, only in passing, the post-traumatic stress disorder that plagued him for two decades.

Yet, it was his eyes that seemed to mesmerize me — they were deep brown pools, dazzling with hope. In fact, his whole demeanor sparkled with the credibility that seems to cloak a speaker of pure, unadulterated truth.

In addition, I was most impressed by his total lack of resentment or rancor at being abandoned by his closest friend. When Schanberg and Dith were finally reunited in a refugee camp nearly five years later, Schanberg asked with some hesitation, "You forgive me?" Dith, his face wreathed in his usual ear-to-ear grin, quickly responded, "Nothing to forgive, Sydney. Nothing."

Back in 1995, as a member of the Cambodia Documentation Commission, Dith continued to seek out and preserve evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities in preparation for the time when the perpetrators could be brought to justice before an international tribunal.

Not only did Dith serve as an eloquent spokesman for the victims of the Cambodian slaughter, but he also sought out funding to dismantle the approximately 10 million land mines that lay buried in the soil of his homeland.

"Like one of my heroes, Elie Wiesel, who alerts the world to the horrors of the Jewish holocaust," Dith told me 13 years ago, "I try to awaken the world to the holocaust of Cambodia, for all tragedies have universal implications."

No quotation seems more appropriate to end this piece than Wiesel's own words on the subject: "The killer killed his victims once, and there is nothing on Earth we can do about it. But if they are forgotten, they will be killed a second time, and this we can and must prevent."

Aren't those words that could change your life?

— Beverly Kelley, Ph.D., who writes every other Monday for The Star, is an author ("Reelpolitik" and "Reelpolitik II") and professor in the Communication Department at California Lutheran University. Visit http://beverlykelley.typepad.com/my_weblog/. Her e-mail address is Kelley@clunet.edu.

The romance of Indo-China

MSN
Monday, 14 April 2008

Junk the usual summer international destinations like London and Paris and try a different kind of holiday. Fly to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, also known together as Indo-China

Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are worth a visit this summer.

Junk the usual summer international destinations like London and Paris and try a different kind of holiday. Check out parts of Asia so far inaccessible for many. Fly to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, also known together as Indo-China. There are still no direct flights to get to these countries from India but there are flights that take you there via either Malaysia, Singapore or Thailand . Once you reach, you are transported to a completely different world. Before this old world and natural beauty is lost, plan a trip fast.

After decades of war, Vietnam is finally rebuilding itself and attracting tourists in a big way. The two major cities in the country — capital Hanoi and modern Ho Chi Minh City are a major contrast and a must visit for any tourist.

Throughout the thousand years of its eventful history, marked by destruction, wars and natural calamities, Hanoi still preserves many ancient architectural works including the Old Quarter and over 600 pagodas and temples, which are quite a sight to behold. Hanoi also has 18 beautiful lakes such as Hoan Kiem Lake, West Lake, and Truc Bach Lake, which are the lungs of the city.

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon in the Mekong Delta, on the other hand, is one of the most important cities in Vietnam after Hanoi, being its commercial centre. Ho Chi Minh Museum, formerly known as Dragon House Wharf, Cu Chi Tunnels, museums, theatres, cultural houses are some of the places to visit. And if you like architecture, don’t miss the city’s beautiful buildings.

The two main cities to visit in Cambodia are its capital Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Phnom Penh is located at the confluence of three rivers — the Mekong, the Bassac and Tonle Sap. The most attractive part of Cambodia are undoubtedly its unending list of temples. The temples at Angkor Wat, about six kilometres from Siem Reap, south of Angkor Thom, are the most famous.

The oldest and loveliest of Laos city’s, Luang Prabang, was founded between the sixth and the seventh centuries and is renowned for its serenity. Much of the town and its pagodas are protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When in the city, don’t miss Wat Xieng Thong, a temple built in 1560 and which was used for royal ceremonies.

The other city, Vientiane was partially rebuilt during the colonial period, with French-style buildings and is small, and picturesque. It contains some pagodas, museums, wide boulevards and attractions like Patuxai and Vientiane’s Arc de Triumphed.

Source: Business Standard

Workshop on poverty-environment relationship

Kuensel Online
14 April, 2008

14 April, 2008 - Although Bhutan is still clean and intact, a growing population and the increasing development activities are putting the pressure on the fragile Himalayan environment. The majority of Bhutanese live in rural areas and rely on natural resources to earn income in sectors such as agriculture, fishing, and forestry. Natural resources also provide food and shelter for the poor.

Therefore, environment conditions account for a significant portion of health risks to poor people, who are more vulnerable to natural disasters, effects of climate change, and environment shocks that damage livelihood and undermine food security. Improving environmental management reduces vulnerability.

Representatives from different countries in the region met in Thimphu for a three-day workshop, that began on April 9, to discuss the link between poverty and environment and integrating environment management in poverty reduction and growth strategies. The workshop was jointly organized by the United Nations development programme and the United Nations environment programme.

A consultant from UNDP and UNEP, Prabu Buddha Thoki, said that they chose Bhutan for this workshop, because of its rich environment and environment-related policies and strategies. He said that the participants from other nations could learn from Bhutan and apply the knowledge to their own policies and strategies.

Pulakeshr Mondal, a representative from the ministry of environment, Bangladesh, said that the main problem in his country was flooding, water pollution and solid waste management.

“The government has stopped two-stroke engine vehicles and introduced compact natural gases (CNG) to reduce pollution and has involved marginal people to work at reducing solid waste,” he said.

Bounsamack Sayyaseng, the deputy director general, ministry of planning and investment, Lao PDR, said that major poverty-environment problems faced by Lao PDR include deforestation and degradation of agricultural land and biodiversity.

He said that the poor had inadequate understanding about poverty-environment linkage issues. The government had set up the national environment committee under the Prime Minister’s office, which coordinates, guides and monitors the government’s responses to emerging poverty-environment issues. The government had been successful in fashioning solutions for local populations to cope with the environment impacts of mega projects, like the Nam Teun 2 Dam project.

The director general for planning ministry in Cambodia, Tuon Thavrak, said that deforestation was a major problem for sustainable development in Cambodia. “This causes destruction of primitive forests, wetland habitat, fisheries and wildlife, leading to changes in the ecological system,” he said. “Most rural poor living in these areas rely on those resources for their daily living.”

Based on country experiences, it was concluded that there is a need for an enhanced understanding of the linkage between environment and poverty. It was further concluded that a cross-ministerial approach was necessary to ensure effective environment-poverty mainstreaming, and that the mainstreaming should be a result of joint efforts by the ministries of planning, finance and environment.

The participants recognized that the joint UNDP-UNEP poverty-environment initiative could have a catalytic role and be instrumental in developing partnerships between donor agencies, governments and non-governmental organizations to institutionalize poverty-environment mainstreaming at both national and regional levels.

A major outcome of the workshop was the development of a country-wise outline of priorities of planning, financial and environmental agencies; immediate capacity gaps, and areas of possible UN support for poverty-environment mainstreaming.

By Tandin Wangchuk

Former U.N. ambassador speaks at CSULB

Sichan Siv, who survived a rebellion in Cambodia, was awarded by President Alexander for the establishment of Cambodian communities.

Joanne Tucker
Daily 49er
Issue date: 4/14/08

Former U.S. Ambassador for the United Nations Sichan Siv spoke on Wednesday at Cal State Long Beach on his upcoming book "Golden Bones" that describes his survival of the communist Khmer Rouge rebel occupation of Cambodia.

Karen Quintiliani, assistant professor for the department of anthropology, commended Siv as "putting Long Beach on the map in a whole new way." She noted that he helped establish Cambodia Town in Long Beach, which is home to the largest Cambodian community outside Southeast Asia.

CSULB President F. King Alexander also presented a gift to Siv for his encouragement and hope for the Cambodian communities.

Siv described his book, which will be released July 1, as a memoir and history of the Khmer Rouge occupation.

"By the early '70s I began to see so much death and destruction," Siv said. "I saw a lot of markets where civilian lives were lost."

Siv was offered a flight out of the country by the American Embassy on April 12, 1975. He missed the opportunity but remained at the embassy with his mother, brother, sister and their families.

After only five days, all of them were kicked out and they ended up in a forced labor camp.

"I knew my background put everyone, my family, in danger," Siv said, who had worked for an American organization, CARE.

"My mother gave me her blessing," Siv said. He left his family to journey through Cambodia on a bicycle for three weeks before being captured by the Khmer Rouge.

In order to avoid persecution and death because of his education and background, he convinced the Khmer Rouge that he was a former truck driver.

Siv is the only survivor out of the 16 family members.

"Whenever I went to bed I never knew if I would be alive the next day," Siv said, adding his goal was to eventually travel to Thailand for refuge.

On Feb. 13, 1976, Siv found a chance to escape. For three days he traveled through the jungles of Cambodia without food and drink avoiding patrols of the Khmer Rouge. After finally reaching Thailand, he was jailed for illegal entry and put into a refugee camp.

Bac Lieu builds houses for poor Khmer ethnic households

TradingMarkets
Monday, April 14, 2008

Bac Lieu, Apr 13, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- -- ? The southernmost province of Bac Lieu has built over 4,500 houses for poor Khmer households over the past three years under the Government?s programme 134 to support poor people.

Mass organisations and socio-economic establishments in the province also built an additional 1,700 houses for Khmer people, helping improve their living conditions.

During the annual Khmer New Year Festival, Chol Chnam Thmay, which falls on April 13-15, local officials has been paying visits and presented gifts to Khmer pagodas and people.

Bac Lieu province is home to over 65,000 Khmer people. They live mainly in Bac Lieu town, and Hoa Binh, Vinh Loi and Hong Dan districts.

MobilityOne signs deals in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia

ANTARA
04/14/08

London (ANTARA News/Thomson Financial) - Digital payment services provider MobilityOne Ltd. announced three deals in Asia as it continues its expansion in the region.

The company said it has secured its first contract in Cambodia through a deal with Telekom Malaysia International, expanded into Indonesia with a deal with Finnet, and has been appointed as a third-party acquirer for a payment scheme run by Malaysian Electronic Payment System.

Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

He needs the money, but not this badly

Pretoria News & Independent Online
14 April 2008

Geneva - A doctor running hospitals in Cambodia said on Sunday he had refused a donation raised by selling a picture of France's first lady in the nude, because Cambodians disapproved of exploiting female flesh for money.

Swiss paediatrician Beat Richner, head of a children's medical care group, said he had turned down an offer of $91 000 (about R707 000) raised at a New York auction last week of the 1993 picture of Italian ex-model Carla Bruni, now married to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"My decision was taken out of respect for our patients and their mothers," he said in an interview with the weekly Le Matin Dimanche.

"Accepting money obtained from exploitation of the female body would be perceived as an insult.

"In Cambodia "use of nudity is not understood in the way it is in the West".

He did not wish his institution, the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital Association, "to be involved in the media exploitation of Madame Bruni."

"The idea behind this gift was to get publicity for the auction and the photographer," Richner was also quoted as saying. "It was a way of using us.

"Michel Comte, the Swiss photographer who took the full-frontal picture of Bruni posing naked, was quoted in the Swiss press last month as saying he had thousands more images of her, including some much more explicit.

Several British newspapers published the shot of the first lady as she and Sarkozy visited Britain last month.

Comte had persuaded the seller, German collector Gert Elfering, to offer the money through the sale to a humanitarian cause, said Le Matin Dimanche.

The money will now instead be donated to a Swiss research institute.

- Sapa-AFP

Woman claims she was defamed, held against will

Monday, April 14, 2008
By PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Sopharie Leang was born into a royal family in Cambodia, and her husband Song was an ambassador to Austria before the Khmer Rouge regime ravaged their families in the 1970s.

But she is traumatized by a more recent event, according to her lawyer.

A former teacher at School 11 in Jersey City, Leang is in a legal battle with school officials, saying she was harassed, slandered and held against her will in a bizarre incident six years ago.

Leang was counting books along with students and aides in her classroom on June 24, 2002 - her last day of a year of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at the Bergen Avenue school - when she was approached by a fellow ESL teacher, Vladimir Ashworth.

Leang alleged in a 2003 lawsuit that Ashworth, who she said sexually harassed her throughout the year, then fabricated a threat by Leang.

When she commented that, because of work on her doctorate degree, she was under stress that "could have killed some people," Ashworth asked whether Leang wanted to kill everyone in the room, according to the lawsuit.

After Ashworth reported the supposed threat, Principal Angela Bruno held Leang in a nurse's office for several hours against her will, Leang claimed.

"Why not just send her home?" her Jersey City attorney, Daniel Sexton, said in a phone interview. "She wants to clear her name."

Leang, who claimed she was also roughed up by police in the incident, was then taken to Christ Hospital for psychiatric evaluation and released later that night.

Claiming false imprisonment, defamation and wrongful termination, she sought punitive damages from Ashworth, Bruno and the Jersey City Board of Education, as well as from the Jersey City Police Department and Jersey City Medical Center, whose employees removed her from the school.

Although Superior Court Judge Frances Antonin threw out the lawsuit in 2005, a state appeals court slammed the dismissal in a ruling April 2, saying that Antonin did not justify her decision and should be removed from the case. The appeals court said portions of the lawsuit should go forward.

Leang has settled her claims against the JCPD.

In addition, the appeals court dismissed a sexual harassment claim against Ashworth, who had defended himself by saying he is gay.

A spokesman for the Board of Education, Gerard Crisonino, said that Ashworth resigned in 2005 and Bruno retired last year. He said he could not comment on pending litigation.

Sexton said the remaining claims could go to trial in May or June.

Australia to give Cambodia fresh aid

Radio Australia

Australia has committed $A3.5 million dollars to Cambodia to help the kingdom reduce its high maternal mortality rate and improve reproductive and child health.

The Cambodian Health Ministry says that despite an increase in its budget, maternal mortality still remains the highest in the region.

The donation will go to the United Nations Population Fund, which says it will use the money to improve decentralised health service delivery services, and to implement a comprehensive assessment of neonatal care for 2008 -2009.

The UNFPA says just 44 percent of Cambodian mothers deliver their children with the help of a trained health professional.

Midwives are in short supply and distance and lack of money also mean many women go without pregnancy and childbirth services.

Cement company to set up Cambodian joint venture

Monday, April 14, 2008

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has issued an investment license to Can Tho Cement Company to establish a joint venture to mine laterite ore in Cambodia.

Can Tho Cement and Cambodian company Omsaura will form a joint venture with a total capital of US$900,000.

Can Tho Cement will contribute $459,000.

The planned joint venture will start construction next month and begin exploiting laterite, a high-iron clay, two months later.

The project, to expire in 49 years, will have an estimated output of 50,000 tons of ore per month.

It marks the first mineral exploitation cooperation project between the Mekong Delta’s Can Tho City and Cambodia.

Source: VNA

Conservation efforts helping endangered Cambodian bird recover

PR-inside.com
AP
2008-04-14

STOUNG, Cambodia (AP) - Conservationists in Cambodia think they may be turning the corner in their fight to save one of the world's rarest birds.

Since 2005, a rush to turn grasslands into large-scale rice farms has gobbled up one-third of the Bengal Florican's habitat in Cambodia, threatening the critically endangered bird with extinction.

Now, a land protection plan devised by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, along with British-based BirdLife International and Cambodian authorities, appears to be slowing this controversial real estate grab.

Most of the world's Bengal Floricans, believed to number less than 1,000, live in scattered pockets on the fringes of Cambodia's Great Lake. The rest are in India, Nepal and Vietnam.

The Cambodian program to protect Florican habitat bans development in five zones totaling 135 square miles (350 square kilometers).

Villages and farms within the zones can remain, preserving traditional ways of life. Police patrol by motorbike during the dry season and by boat when floods come.

Since the program was adopted, three planned developments have been canceled and another put on hold, says Tom Evans, a Wildlife Conservation Society technical adviser in Cambodia.

«Some prospective developers have been deterred at an earlier stage when they learned that the areas had a special designation,» he added.

More such zones, dubbed Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Areas, are planned. In mid-March, the height of the dry season, the grasslands near Great Lake are at their bleakest. They stretch to the horizon, brown and flat under the blazing sun, with barely a tree to break the monotony. Smoke curls into the air where farmers burn off scrub to rejuvenate pasture for their cattle. Ox carts trundle down deeply rutted tracks. An occasional motor vehicle kicks up clouds of dust.

But for the patient and the sharp-eyed, this landscape offers a sight to behold: the courtship display of the male Bengal Florican.

The bird, a black-and-white bustard that looks like a small ostrich, struts into a clearing, stretches its long neck and ruffles up its feathers. Then, it flits into the air before fluttering back to the ground in an undulating pattern, like a parachutist caught in a crosswind.

As it descends, it emits a deep humming sound that has earned it its Cambodian name, «the whispering bird.» The displays are usually carried out within sight of other males, in what amounts to an open dance competition to attract a mate.

«They're really unique,» says Lotty Packman, a 24-year-old researcher from the University of East Anglia in England. «They're very striking and very charismatic.

Packman was spending long days in the heat, netting Floricans and attaching tracking devices to learn more about them, especially the elusive female of which very little is known.

«You can't conserve it if you don't know its natural history,» Packman said after tagging and releasing a male with a solar-powered transmitter that will send back data every two days. «It's a race against time.

The species was rediscovered in Cambodia in 1999. Until then, the country's decades-long civil war had made detailed exploration of the countryside too dangerous.

But peace has proved to be a far greater threat.

Businessmen have snapped up thousands of acres (hectares) of land in often murky deals and built more than 100 strip dams, which turn the grassland into emerald-green rice paddies that can produce rice during the dry season.

Conservationists have worked hard to win the villagers' support, but despite the restrictions on development, a new plantation has been laid out in one zone and preparations have been made for another. Signs marking the protected areas have been knocked down _ it's not clear by whom.

Khmer New Year

The 16-strong troupe from the Cambodian Light Children's Association

One of the performers who collected money in a pouch on a long stick

The performers entering the Hanuman premises

One of the demons dressed in mask and blue costume

Courtesy of Andy's Cambodia: www.andybrouwer.co.uk

The arrival of Khmer New Year has brought bad karma for some residents of Phnom Penh when a fire swept through the Russei Keo district of the capital and destroyed around 450 shanty homes in Boeng Chhouk village yesterday. The fire engines were again in action early this morning when another large fire took hold of a building at the Naga Casino complex near the riverside. I didn't go and see but I could hear the constant drone of the fire engine claxons and I could see the smoke billowing into the sky from a couple of kilometres away. Khmer friends told me, "its that time of year."

On a more positive note, Khmer New Year is enshrouded in ceremony and celebration. Over the last few nights the music and laughter has been ringing out til late at night in the streets surrounding my house with traditional games such as Angkunh, Leak Kanseng, Chhoung and Dandoeum Sloek Chhoeu being played by groups of boys and girls, who've also formed dance circles until midnight. At the Hanuman office today we enjoyed another special New Year's ceremony called Robam Trot, which originates from Stung Treng and involved youngsters from the Cambodian Light Children's Association orphanage. Dressed up in traditional costumes, they symbolized chasing away any bad spirits and bringing prosperity by re-creating the hunting of a deer.