Elephant Walk a worthwhile venture

Media Credit: Max Breistein Matza
The Elephant Walk's decor is characterized by warm, welcoming lighting, simple decor and cozy settings.

The Justice

by Njideka Orjiako
1/20/09

Cambodian-French cuisine. If this combination sounds like heaven to you, then welcome to my world. The chance to savor two completely different cultural dishes in one meal had my taste buds zinging before I, a lover of ethnic food, even sat down. The destination for this meal? That would be The Elephant Walk, a Cambodian-French restaurant on Main Street in Waltham that would be a welcome change for students who are bold, bored or both and are looking to deviate from the usual Moody Street eateries. The warmly lit restaurant is cozy and casually elegant, with a simple decor that is more Western than Cambodian. But although the restaurant is not fancy, the food is; while the eclectic pairing of Asian and European food under one roof might seem surprising or odd without prior knowledge of Cambodia's French colonial past, it makes for a very interesting meal.

The Elephant Walk's menu is divided into sections, with separate areas devoted to original French (dishes prepared according to their chef's interpretation of French cuisine), traditional Cambodian (authentic recipes) and original Cambodian food (dishes inspired by Cambodian traditions)-the restaurant strives for authenticity in its recipes. I sampled both cuisines, first starting with the Crêpe de Canard aux Poires appetizer, a French dish consisting of a savory crêpe filled with braised duck, diced pears and scallions, with crème fraiche and a balsamic vinegar reduction as sauces. The presentation was so good it made my dinner dates jealous. Then, I ordered an original Cambodian dish called crevettes amrita for my entrée, which was a dish of sautéed shrimp with a colorful array of vegetables in a Cambodian satay sauce, served with white rice.

Although the dishes were skillfully prepared, some subtleties in flavor were lost in the shuffle. For instance, the pear in the crepe dish was diced very finely and did not really add much to the dish, as its flavor was masked by the sauces. Also, the shrimp entrée claimed to contain up to eight spices, including cumin, cardamom, galangal and star anise. However, the sugary satay sauce took center stage over the exotic spices I had looked forward to tasting. Moreover, while I like to think my dishes were such outstanding choices to have won my friends' attention, it could also just have been that their choice of saucisse grillée et ragout d'edamame was underwhelming, being a drab, brown dish of pork, rice and edamame that left them the small satisfaction of tasting better than it looked. Another friend ordered a calamari dish that she enjoyed, though, so in general, I think the dishes scored well.

Overall, my experience at The Elephant Walk was very pleasant. I enjoyed the food, the warm atmosphere and the full and lively crowd of Saturday night diners (I recommend booking a reservation to avoid the wait). Our waiter was friendly and polite, leaving my table eager to tip him well. I recommend The Elephant Walk highly-it makes an excellent choice for when you want to feel a little high-class. On the other hand, the prices encourage the high-class feeling, because although items generally don't cost more than $20 each, cheap, delicious food is available close by. Whatever the cost, the food is good, and the menu offers gluten-free and vegetarian options as well. I wish there were more actual Cambodian-French fusion dishes on the menu, though; the proprietors try to keep the two culinary genres separate so as to preserve traditional recipes. For this reason, they don't make food concessions for customers outside of changing the cut of your poultry and meat.

So, if you've never been to this locale, then consider The Elephant Walk for your next restaurant venture. Given a chance, this once-unexplored Waltham eatery could make your list of go-to, familiar favorites, and the food heaven you've been searching for could be waiting in the form of a tasty, East-meets-West meal.

First Khmer Rouge trial to start mid-February

Former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav -- better known as Duch -- listens to evidence in December 2008. Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal has set February 17 as the start date for the long-awaited first trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of atrocities in the 1970s.(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief S-21, Kaing Guek Eav better known as "Duch" (C) stands in a dock in the court room at the Extraodinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh in December. Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal on Monday officially set February 17 as the start date for the long-awaited first trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of atrocities in the 1970s.(AFP/File/Mak Remissa)

The Cambodian national flag is reflected on a memorial stupa filled with the skulls of more than 8,000 Khmer Rouge victims at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, January 20, 2009. A U.N.-backed court in Cambodia will start its first trial next month of a former interrogator of the Khmer Rouge regime, blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people in the "Killing Fields" over 30 years ago.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

A Buddhist monk looks at a memorial stupa filled with the skulls of more than 8,000 Khmer Rouge victims at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, January 20, 2009. A U.N.-backed court in Cambodia will start its first trial next month of a former interrogator of the Khmer Rouge regime, blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people in the "Killing Fields" over 30 years ago.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

A Buddhist monk takes a photo of a memorial stupa filled with the skulls of more than 8,000 Khmer Rouge victims at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, January 20, 2009. A U.N.-backed court in Cambodia will start its first trial next month of a former interrogator of the Khmer Rouge regime, blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people in the "Killing Fields" over 30 years ago.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

A panel of judges attends a hearing at the Extraodinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh in December. Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal on Monday officially set February 17 as the start date for the long-awaited first trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of atrocities in the 1970s.(AFP/File/Mak Remissa)

CAMBODIA DRAFTS LAW TO REGULATE INTERNET

Future GOV
By Alice Kok 20 January 2009

The Ministry of Information is currently drafting a law that will extend current print media rules to other media platform, including the internet.

“This law will be used to formalise content management rules so that they can be easily applied by future information ministers,” says Khieu Kanharith Information Minister. “We are drafting the legislation in order to have a proper law to manage radio, television and other platforms,” he said.

The minister says the recent explosion of media outlets has made the law necessary.

The number of internet users in Cambodia has increased from 6000 in 2000 to more than 70,000 regular Internet users today. The country also has 9 aerial television channels, 60 cable channels and dozens of print media.

The Ministry of Information said that the major intent of this law is to control the publishing of audio-visual data, of games, and of entertainment programmes and advertisements through the Internet, to ensure moral respect. Electronic news portals will not be affected.

After completion, the draft law will be sent to the Council of Ministers for approval.

Cambodian mobile phone operators to expand services

www.chinaview.cn

2009-01-20

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Despite the economic downturn and concerns over corporate investment, Cambodian mobile phone operators say their expansion plans are on schedule for 2009 as the industry continues to grow, national media reported Tuesday.

"Our expansion plans are on track," Adam Cabot, CEO of Star-Cell, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

The company has announced it was going to expand services to all of Cambodia's provinces for its 100,000 subscribers.

"Yes, (the crisis) will have an effect, but it is hard to say how much. We are still maintaining our position and doing well," he said.

Cambodia's mobile market has grown rapidly in the past five years, and companies are scrambling to gain a foothold as phones and the internet gain popularity.

Domestic mobile-phone usage surged 49 percent in 2007 but the national penetration rate remains a low 17 percent.

In contrast, neighboring Vietnam saw 75 percent growth with a 33 percent penetration rate in the same year, according to Budde Comm, an independent telecoms analyst.

Cambodia's low mobile penetration rate is a draw for many companies such as Vietnam-based mobile operator Viettel, which is launching a major drive to tap Cambodia's rural market and bring schools online.

Editor: Zhang Mingyu

Opinion Research Shows Result That the Khmer Rouge Tribunal Is Corrupt - Monday, 19.1.2009

Posted on 20 January 2009
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 596

“As Khmer judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal threaten, in January 2009, to sue co-defense lawyers of Nuon Chea, the former head of the People’s Assembly of the Democratic Kampuchea regime [the Khmer Rouge], they are destroying justice at the mixed court.

“In a statement released on 9 January 2009, the 15 Khmer judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia threatened to sue three foreign defense lawyers, defending ‘Brother Number 2,’ Nuon Chea, by taking legal action. Nuon Chea’s defense lawyers lodged a criminal complaint at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to investigate corruption allegations at this tribunal, which had been reported for a long time. Because the allegations says that Khmer judges and other officials paid kickbacks to high-ranking Khmer officials to get employed at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, earning thousands of dollars salaries every month.

“The complaint by Nuon Chea’s lawyers was lodged at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, to investigate Mister Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Council of Ministers, who is in charge of Khmer Rouge Tribunal affairs, Mister Sean Visoth, the director of the Office of Administration of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, and Mister Keo Thyvuth, the former chief of the personnel section of the tribunal.

“The defense lawyers of Nuon Chea had not mentioned the names of Khmer judges in their complaint, nor in their statement for the journalists, who had gathered at the Municipal Court last week to report about the process of that complaint. However, the judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal seem to know by themselves that Nuon Chea’s defense lawyers’ complaint will really lead the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to investigate them, because Khmer judges may have also agreed to let high-ranking Khmer officials to cut part of their salaries as kickback in exchange for the agreement to let them work as judges in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

“The deputy prosecutor of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court started to summon some Khmer officials from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal for questionings about corruption, in order to find evidence and witnesses of corruption related crimes, because the Khmer Rouge Tribunal was created in an attempt to seek justice for around 1.7 million Khmer victims who died during the Black Pajamas regime, lasting 3 years, 8 months, and 20 days. But now, this tribunal committed corruption and is making international groups to loose trust in it.

“Besides the role to seek justice for victims under the Pol Pot brutal genocidal regime, it is hoped that the Khmer Rouge Tribunal will play a model role for the court system in Cambodia to perform just and independent hearings and judgments, and to eliminate corruption and impunity (a state of no punishment for the powerful and the rich who commit different crimes, but who are not brought to be prosecuted). But such hope almost dissolved when allegations about a corruption scandal at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal emerged recently in public.

“The acting director of the lawyers section of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Mr. Richard Rogers, said that the reaction by the Khmer judges against the complaint of Nuon Chea’s defense lawyers can be perceived as if this mixed tribunal were reluctant to deal with the allegations of corruption by kickbacks, and this can frighten witnesses of Nuon Chea’s defense lawyers.
“Mr. Richard Rogers added, ‘Now the public sees that the judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, that is expected to be a neutral defender of justice, is threatening to take legal action against Nuon Chea’s defense lawyers. The judges should have thought thoroughly before making such a threat, as it seems that they are afraid that Nuon Chea’s defense lawyers’ complaint is also a complaint against themselves.’

“According to a new research by the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley, Mr. Richard Rogers said that a survey conducted in Cambodia among 1,000 young people shows that 23% of them considered the present Khmer Rouge Tribunal to be corrupt, and one third of them think that the judges of the Khmer Rouge tribunal are not just.

Note:

So We Will Never Forget - Results of a Cambodian survey on attitudes about social reconstruction and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. - Presentation in English with translation to Khmer, Friday, 23 January 2009, auditorium, Paññasastra University, Phnom Penh, at 14:00.

“Mr. Richard Rogers went on to say that this research again supports the perception of many people that the corruption allegations at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal have to be settled with transparency, if the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is to maintain justice under the eyes of the Khmer general public. Mr. Richard Rogers added, ‘Nuon Chea’s defense lawyers must know well the extent of this corruption, if corruption really occurred, in order to decide whether that corruption affects the rights for just hearings of their defendants or not’

“The Khmer Rouge Tribunal’s co-investing judge You Bunleng said that Nuon Chea’s defense lawyers’ complaint affects the reputation of the judges and of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as a whole. Mr. You Bunleng continued to say that Nuon Chea’s lawyers linked those judges in their statement given to the press. Nuon Chea’s lawyers should make efforts to work hard to find evidence to defend their case, otherwise they will be sued for defamation by the Khmer judges.”

Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.16, #3669, 19.1.2009
Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Monday, 19 January 2009

Cambodia's KRouge court urges victims to join trial

Tourists take photographs of skulls at the Choeung Ek memorial in September. Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal is mounting a media blitz to urge more Khmer Rouge victims to participate in the upcoming trial of the regime's prison chief, a court spokeswoman said Tuesday.(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Tue Jan 20

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal is mounting a media blitz to urge more Khmer Rouge victims to participate in the upcoming trial of the regime's prison chief, a court spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The court on Monday set February 17 as the start date for the long-awaited trial of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, the first leader of the regime to face trial for atrocities committed in the 1970s.

It gave victims until February 2 to come forward and will use the media to "inform victims all over the country if they wish to participate as civil parties that they have two more weeks," spokeswoman Helen Jarvis told AFP.

"We will be making arrangements to put notices in the newspapers, radio spots and we hope also to make announcements on TV. We want to give them (victims) every chance to participate," she said.

Duch is accused of overseeing the torture and extermination of more than 12,000 men, women and children when he headed Tuol Sleng prison, known as S-21, during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule.
But so far only 28 people have been officially recognised as civil parties to Duch's trial, and about 70 more applications are still being processed, Jarvis said.

The inclusion of Khmer Rouge victims who can tell their stories in proceedings is intended to make for inclusive trials that bring a measure of healing to Cambodia.

So far less than 3,000 people have filed complaints against the former regime leaders.

Duch is one of five Khmer Rouge chiefs who have been detained by the court for their alleged roles in the regime.

A mathematics teacher who became the Khmer Rouge's torturer-in-chief, Duch has been in prison since 1999 for his role at Tuol Sleng. He was formally transferred to the tribunal and indicted in July 2007.

Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork as the Khmer Rouge dismantled modern Cambodian society during its rule in a bid to forge a communist utopia.

Riverfront pavement cleared

Photo by: Tracey Shelton
Police and municipal officials move a potted plant off the riverside pavement on Monday.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Tracey Shelton And sam rith
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Municipal officials remove furniture, clothing racks in attempt to beautify capital.

EARLY Sunday morning, as tourists dined at the Tonle Sap riverfront cafes and street-sellers pedalled their goods, a team of police began clearing the footpath of all chairs, tables, dining tourists, signs, motorbikes and ornaments.

The move came three days after a warning notice was issued telling businesses to clear the street area in front of their properties.

A police officer who did not wish to be named said the area was being cleared because it was a place tourists liked to walk.

"We have told [business owners] several times via letter and loudspeaker, but they have never listened, so we are now acting on our warnings," he said.

The reaction from business owners and tourists was mixed, with some welcoming the clearing of the sidewalks and others grumbling over the loss of shopfront seating areas.

"It's more beautiful for the tourists but not so good for my shop," said Siv Kheng, who runs a clothing store on the corner of Street 130.

"I'm not sure there is even room for my staff to fit inside now," she said.

For Australian tourist Matthew Bolton, who witnessed the upheaval from the (former) outdoor seating of Garden Bar in the Shade, the move was not necessarily a good thing.

"We came to Cambodia with an idea of embracing Khmer culture and to us the bustling, active streets are part of its character," he said.

But Bolton's 10-year-old son Bleys disagreed, saying the new look not only provides more space to walk but there are "less people to hassle you".

Phsar Kandal commune Chief Kong Rith said no fines had yet been issued for noncompliance, but he warned that failure to obey the directive would result in items being confiscated.

PM opens golf course in Siem Reap

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by kay Kimsong
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Cambodia links

Prime Minister Hun Sen opened Cambodia's third international-standard golf course, the Siem Reap Lake Golf Resort, Monday, Siem Reap Governor Sou Phirin told the Post Monday.

"[Golf] is a modern sport popular with the rich. It attracts rich tourists and keeps them in Cambodia longer," said Sou Phirin.

The 27-hole course, located on 200 hectares of land in Bakorng District, was built by South Korea-based KTC Company, whose investment is said to be US$450 million.

KTC plans to build a 300-room hotel and a 160 single-room motel that could employ around 4,000 staff.

Siem Reap continues to welcome golf course businesses with the Siem Reap Lake Golf Resort currently the biggest golfing facility in Cambodia.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Siem Reap's main attraction is the Angkor Wat temple complex but by adding entertainment facilites he hopes Asean heads of state, government officials, rich foreigners and Cambodian businessmen will consider Siem Reap as a relaxing holiday destination.

Sou Phirin said the prime minister has spent the last three days practising his golf at the course and plans to play another couple of sessions over the next two days.

Hun Sen's playing partners are said to include the older brother of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, as well as KTC chief Kim Myung-il, Ouk Rabun, secretary of state at the Finance Ministry, and customs director Pen Siman.

French jazzman combines cultures through music

Photo by: © nicolas perrier Louis Sclavis.

A diverse career
Passersby at Wat Botum tonight might be surprised to hear the sounds of European jazz and traditional Cambodian music emanating from the temple gardens. Inside, renowned French jazz musician Louis Sclavis and a band of 10 young Cambodian instrumentalists from Phare Ponleu Selpak will be joining forces to produce a score to silent French films. Having played music for close to half a century, Louis Sclavis's diverse career has seen him create works ranging from solo projects to soundtracks for visual art. Last week, an exhibition of photographs taken with his mobile phone opened at the French Cultural Centre, and on Saturday he and Phare Ponleu Selpak performed an improvised concert with a traditional Cambodian dancer. This is the first time Louis Sclavis has been to Cambodia - he says he is looking forward to combining two unique cultures through music.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Brett Worthington
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

King of improvisation Louis Sclavis and Battambang's Phare Ponleu Selpak create music to accompany silent films at Wat Botum this evening.

How did your trip to Phnom Penh come about?

I have a blog with my photographs, I am not a photographer, I am a musician, but I just take photos with my mobile phone. The French Cultural Centre saw my blog and photos and [they] wanted to do something with [my photos] mixed with my music. But I did not want to show my photos and play in front of them. [The French Cultural Centre] wanted me to meet local people, artists or photographers. So we decided to just make an exhibition of the photos and to do a concert with musicians from here. We [are doing] two concerts, the main concert is to a French silent film and [the other is] with musicians and a traditional Cambodian dancer.

Do you think people in Cambodia will be able to relate to your music?

For this special project I don't play only my music, I start mainly from Cambodian music because the musicians I work with play traditional music. We start from Cambodian songs and I try to do something different, to put in improvisation. I do not bring composition. I try to bring something different, to use the sound of instruments in different ways. I take a traditional [Cambodian] instrument and make it more European. What I try to do is make a bridge between France and Cambodia.

How do you rehearse for an improvised performance?

For the concert we can really improvise, for the movie you need to be more strict because [they are] very short movies so we have to decide exactly what [music] we will play for each movie. Because there is little chance to improvise, this is quite prepared.

You started playing the clarinet age nine, how did you choose this instrument?

When I was a child I wanted to play an instrument, it could have been anything. I went to a little music school in my town and there was only a clarinet teacher. I think it was a good choice because I still play the clarinet, but mainly bass clarinet.

Is your family very musical?

They like music very much. They always helped me to continue to play. When I decided to become a professional, I was quite young, like 18, and they always pushed me this way.

Is it true you believe musicians should not be restricted to one style of music?

Yes, yes. All the young musicians - especially jazz musicians - usually are very open to every kind of music and culture. Since the beginning, jazz is a mixture between cultures. For me, what is most important is the relationship between the people; I don't care if you play with fantastic musicians if you don't share anything. It's why I chose the young Khmer musicians [from Phare Ponleu Selpak] because they are very dynamic, they want to play and this is more important to me, more important than just the music.

Who do you expect will come and watch you play at Wat Botum this Tuesday?

I don't know, I think when you play at the French Cultural Centre, it is more French people, European people, but the silent movie and the concert [will take place] in the centre of town [Wat Botum], so it is for everybody. I think that when the French people come it is nice, but this is more for Cambodian people. Everything is for Cambodian people, but it is easier for them to go into town than it is for them to go to the French Cultural Centre.

Louis Sclavis and Phare Ponleu Selpak will perform at Wat Botum this evening at 6:30pm.Louis Sclavis' exhibition of images taken with a cell phone camera will run at the French Cultural Centre until the middle of February.

INTERVIEW BY BRETT WORTHINGTON

Mobile growth stays strong

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

A satellite dish in Phnom Penh. Mobile operators hope to expand service into Cambodia's largely untapped rural areas.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Kay Kimsong
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Phone companies say the Cambodian market is bullish.

Despite the economic downturn and concerns over corporate investment, local mobile phone operators say their expansion plans are on schedule for 2009 as the industry continues to grow.

"Our expansion plans are on track," said Adam Cabot, CEO of Star-Cell. The company announced last year it was going to expand services to all of Cambodia's provinces for its 100,000 subscribers.

"Yes, [the crisis] will have an effect, but it is hard to say how much. We are still maintaining our position and doing well," he said.The company would not comment on its earnings for 2008, but said it plans "a very aggressive program for 2009".

Rural market

Cambodia's low mobile penetration rate is a draw for many companies such as Vietnam-based mobile operator Viettel, which is launching a major drive to tap Cambodia's rural market and bring schools online. Hong Anh Xua, president of Viettel, could not be reached for comment on Monday, but Prime Minister Hun Sen's spokesman Eang Sophalleth said Viettel's rural expansion is part of the government's own plans to increase phone usage outside the capital.

The Cambodian government says private operators like Viettel are therefore providing an important service for rural areas.

"Samdech [Hun Sen] supports the investment because it has contributed to the development of our country," said Eang Sophalleth.

Cambodia's mobile market has grown rapidly in the past five years, and companies are scrambling to gain a foothold as phones and the internet gain popularity.

Domestic mobile-phone usage surged 49 percent in 2007 but the national penetration rate remains a low 17 percent. In contrast, neighbouring Vietnam saw 75 percent growth with a 33 percent penetration rate in the same year, said Budde Comm, an independent telecoms analyst.

" SERVICES HAVE IMPROVED IN CAMBODIA WHILE PRICES HAVE DROPPED. "

Internet access is available in all provinces, but the lack of a national fiber-optic cable network means that service is slow and unreliable. One major cable line runs through the Thai border to Vietnam from Kampong Cham province to Sihanouk province. A second cable links Cambodia to Vietnam and Laos. The ministry is working with the Lao government to connect the fibre-optic cable from across border to Cambodian provinces, which it hopes to compete by April.

"This is a free-market policy that will benefit the people and will attract more investors. Telecommunications services have improved in Cambodia while prices have dropped," said Eang Sophalleth.

So Khun, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, told the Post last Tuesday that the ministry welcomes new competitors in the phone market and that more companies will lead to cheaper services.

"I think the telecom business still has a lot of room to grow. There are still many Cambodians who do not have phone services, which is a big opportunity for new companies."

He said internet and phone service prices will drop once more competitors enter the marketplace.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY GEORGE MCLEOD

Cambodian casinos out of luck as revenues take a hit

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

A casino building at the Poipet border crossing. Gambling is down at both the Vietnamese and Thai border casinos.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Kay Kimsong
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Local casino operators report fewer gamblers on both the Thai and Vietnamese borders, with across-the-board cost cuts planned for this year.

THE global economic crisis has hit Cambodia's gaming industry, with casinos on the Vietnamese and Thai borders announcing hefty cost cuts.

The local downturn comes amidst a global gambling slowdown affecting casinos worldwide - Macau's gaming industry posted a US$300 million drop in revenues in the last three months of 2008, while US gambling hotspot Nevada reported a 65 percent plunge in takings last year.

Cambodia is particularly susceptible: With about 30 casinos, it has more gambling venues than any country in Southeast Asia. Traffic at the Thai border is down sharply with casinos taking a triple hit from the global economic crisis, recent border tensions and a falling Thai baht.

At the Kings Crown Casino and Hotel - with locations in Cambodia on both the Thai and Vietnamese borders - the number of visitors has dropped sharply, leading to losses of $620,000 in the last quarter of 2008, the company said.

The company says it is cutting the work week for its more than 2,000 employees, a move designed to trim costs, said Cambodian Peoples' Party Senator and casino owner Phu Kok An.

He told the Post that his company was negotiating with employees to reduce their working month from 30 to 15 days.

"We are not laying off workers but they will get 15 days' salary. If your salary is $200 per month, you will get $100."

The company currently spends $300,000 a month on salaries, he added.

The casino has outlets in Poipet on the Thai border and Chrey Thom district, Kandal province, close to Vietnam.

"We are not earning enough income to spend on staffing, water and electricity. When people earn less money, they gamble less," Phu Kok An said.

He said that the number of gamblers fell sharply but that the business would remain open.

" we are not earning enough income to spend on staffing, water and electricity. "

"We earned some profit in early 2008 but made losses over three months [in September, November and December 2008], we employ a lot of workers - we are overstaffed - and we're overspending," he said. But Vann Sitha, vice president of New World Casino-Hotel in Bavet on the Vietnam border, said his company does not plan to lay off any of its 700 employees or reduce working hours. Although some staff had resigned, it would continue to recruit, he added.

"Our casino management has never laid off staff, but some like to move from job to job seeking a better salary offer," he said, adding his business had been less affected by recent events given its location on the Vietnamese border as opposed to the troubled Thai side.

Phat Bun Hour, assistant to Koh Kong Casino owner Ly Yong Phat, also a CPP Senator, declined to comment.

Chea Peng Chheang, secretary of state at the Ministry of Finance, is calculating the casino industry's total revenue for 2008, which he said will be completed this week. Revenues are expected to be lower than the $10 million generated in 2007.

Blind slum residents call for more compensation

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

Two young Dey Krahorm residents at their house in the central Phnom Penh community last week.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Chhay Channyda
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

The beneficiaries of a special compensation package say they want their benefits extended to every family at Dey Krahorm.

THE blind musicians and former Dey Krahorm residents who have received new houses under a municipal relocation program with local developer 7NG have called on the government to offer more compensation to people still embroiled in the dispute.

Kong Nai, 62, a traditional chapei musician and singer, said that the company had finally agreed to pay $52,000 for his beloved home in Boeung Tumpun commune in Meanchey district.

He said he had moved into the new house on Monday, adding that only he and another blind musician, Neth Pe, have so far been prioritised to receive the house of their choice.

Kong Nai said an additional sum of $5,000 was also given to his family following the move.

"We are happy with what we have now because the house we will move into is acceptable," he said, but expressed regrets for the remaining residents, who have not agreed to the $20,000 offered by 7NG and City Hall as compensation for leaving their land.

"We pity them because $20,000 is a small amount to buy a new home," he said.

"I want the governor of Phnom Penh and 7NG to consider an increase in compensation for them, even if it is not as high as my family's."

Dey Krahorm representative Chan Vichet said he was happy that the blind musicians had received fair compensation from 7NG, but added that the amounts offered to the rest of Dey Krahorm's residents had led them to submit a new letter to City Hall again requesting negotiations over the compensation figures - the second such request made by the community.

"The municipality promised to negotiate with us on Friday, but they cancelled - that is why we submitted another letter," Chan Vichet said.

He said that until now, nine families had agreed to accept the government's offer of $20,000, plus a supplementary sum of 777,700 riels.

Srey Sothea, an adviser for 7NG, said the company and the municipality always found ways to avoid violence and accommodate residents' demands.

"We always increase the price, but when we offer them $20,000, they start wanting $30,000 or $40,000. If we offer them $40,000, they will want up to $100,000," he said.

"We cannot follow the demands. We have limited finances."

Sihanouk court hears more cases against Russian paedophile

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Cheang Sokha
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

One case against twice-convicted paedophile being reheard while another court case's verdict set to be delivered for first time.

A PREAH Sihanouk provincial court has announced it will deliver rulings today in two retrial cases against Russian businessman Alexander Trofimov.

Trofimov's defence lawyer, Saing Vannak, told the Post that the court heard closing statements from both sides Monday.

Chan Chamroeun, an official from local rights group Adhoc who has followed the case, said the defendant as well as most of the alleged victims and witnesses were present during the hearing.

The 41-year-old former chairman of Koh Puos Investment Group was arrested in 2007 and was handed a 13-year sentence in his first trial in March last year for charges involving a 13-year-old girl - a term that was reduced to seven years by an appeals court last October.

But Trofimov's lawyers demanded a retrial, arguing that the failure of authorities to deliver the defendant to the court during proceedings comprised the trial's legitimacy.

After three failed attempts to get the businessman and an attorney into court last year, the Sihanoukville provincial court on November 27 sentenced Trofimov to eight years imprisonment on one of two counts of purchasing sex from a minor, brought by a single victim.

Two Cambodian women, Tit Srey Mom and So Sina, were also each given eight-year prison terms.

The second count at the trial involved 17 victims but was suspended pending investigation.

The March 2007 verdict is being reheard and a verdict on the second count from the November 2008 trial is being delivered for the first time.

The verdict was rejected by Trofimov's lawyers, saying he was absent during the trial and demanded a retrial.

The presiding judges on the cases, Taing Sunlay and Kim Eng, could not be reached for comment Monday.

After years of being seen as a haven for sexual predators, Cambodia in 2003 began a campaign to clean up its image by targeting paedophiles and other sex offenders, arresting dozens of foreigners.

Guarding Cambodia's giant turtles

Photo by: Brendan Brady

A Kratie resident Ken Vy excavates a Cantor's giant turtle nest for wildlife officials as part of a program that pays local villagers to preserve nesting sites of the endangered species.

The Giant turtles' chomping ground
The Cantor's habitat lies mostly within a 55-kilometre stretch of the Mekong in northeastern Cambodia between the cities of Kratie and Stung Treng, where scientists have noted the richness of the natural environment. In a report released Thursday, the WWF said the "near-pristine region of tall riverine forests, waterways and island archipelagos" is a sanctuary for the critically engandered Irrawady dolphin and other vulnerable fauna populations, a total of 36 of which are listed as threatened under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The area used to be one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge until as late as 1998. Now, it is rapidly shrinking as peace is leading to migration of communities to areas previously off limits due to security concerns, the group said. The two dams proposed for just outside the unique strip would "massively disrupt the delicately balanced ecosystems in the area", it said. WWF has petitioned the government to designate the area as protected.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Brendan Brady
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Sambor district, kratieWildlife officials use cash to entice Mekong residents in northeastern Cambodia to protect nesting grounds of Cantor's soft-shell turtles, believed extinct just two years ago.

LAST year, Mekong resident Su Pie sold the delicate eggs he unearthed to Chinese miners working in the area, banking around US$20. This year, he stands to make exponentially more by not laying a hand on any nests he discovers, as well as ensuring no one else does either.

The 59-year-old fisherman and farmer, whose home lies along the Mekong in a district called Sambor, about an hour from the city of Kratie, stands along the banks of the river with his wife and three children as he explains to Conservation International (CI) officials his mixed success this year in contributing to their project.

The good news was he found two nests. The bad news was he ate the eggs from one after he suspected it would be discovered by other local fishermen, given its visible location.

The conservation officials cringe as they hear this. They can count the number of meals that could push Cambodia's population of the endangered Cantor's giant soft-shell turtle to extinction. But the program employing locals to protect nests is in its first year, and they expected it to develop with hitches.

Cantor's can grow up to two metres in length and reach weights of more than 50 kilograms. The turtle's flat, soft shell is covered with rubbery skin and has been valued for use in post-natal traditional Khmer cures.

In 2007, wildlife experts found the super-sized freshwater turtle species, which was previously believed to have vanished from Cambodia. Until the discovery in May that year of an 11-kilogram female by a scientist working for the government and the global conservation group WWF - including her nesting grounds and hatchlings - the Cantor's turtle was believed by officials to exist only in very small numbers in Laos, and many feared the animal's extinction was imminent.

Since then, the wildlife groups planned to employ local villagers to protect the species' breeding grounds.

"I like helping protect them, but if I didn't get money, I would always take half of them and leave the other half," the fisherman said. "Other fishermen come around looking for eggs, also, so it can be difficult to do what I'm asked."

After verifying the location of the preserved nest, the conservation officials pay Su Pie $30 on the spot. The fisherman receives a net, which he is instructed to place over the nest to protect it from natural predators, such as monitor lizards, so the baby turtles can be caught and studied before they are released by the CI team, which will base itself in the area as the hatching period nears.

"Thirty dollars for finding the nest, plus $2 a day from the time we see the nest until it hatches, plus $2 per hatched egg," explained the program's head monitor, Kim Chamnan. Nests typically hold 20 to 50 eggs, which take more than 60 days to hatch.

"He can make a lot more by cooperating with us. He'll get more than $200 for this nest if they hatch," said Kim Chamnan.

Last year, CI officials were able to preserve four nests and held onto twelve hatchlings for a "Head-Start" program in which they allow them to mature in captivity before they are released at a size large enough to overwhelm any would-be natural predators.

A fragile youth

Sightings of adult Cantor's are rare, as they hug the muddy river bottom. Sonar is required to track the turtles, given the depths of as much as 40 metres they tend to inhabit.

"It buries itself in the sand and spends 95 percent of its time completely hidden out of sight with just its eyes and nose showing," said David Emmett, a wildlife biologist for CI based in Cambodia. "It feeds from this position, striking at fish and crabs."

But the creatures are especially vulnerable at birth as the mother, while armed with a bone-crunching bite, does not hang around the nest.

Kea Ratha, a graduate student at the Royal University of Phnom Penh whose research has centred on the feeding behaviour of hatchling Cantor's, says their high-mortality rate during pre-natal stages and as newborns places a premium on efforts to protect their nesting sites.

But "besides the Conservation International project, nothing is being done to protect this species, which faces many threats", she said.

Emmett says officials have not yet been able to survey the Cantor's population in Cambodia, but estimated it was on the decline, with only around a hundred breeding adults.

"Adults are being caught and sold, and nests are plundered by fisherman for eggs. The population is surely declining, but because they are capable of laying so many eggs - up to 50 in one nest - the population could recover very fast if the nests are protected."

Locals search for nests by looking for tracks from the mother. They poke a stick into the sand, and if it gives easily, it is a sign eggs may lie below.

Cambodian palettes are not especially drawn to turtle eggs, says Kim Chamnan, unlike the Chinese, for whom turtle holds a potent combined culinary and medicinal allure.

At rural markets in the area, an egg goes for around 1,500 riels (US$0.37 cents), so a nest's bounty is not likely to land much more than ten dollars. But that cash is still very attractive to local fishermen who are not aware of the conservation officials' much larger offer.

Trawling along the river in a thin, wooden vessel, the two-man Conservation International team approaches residents they see on or along the river, giving them a graphic laminated handout with a picture of a turtle nesting site and a number to call should they spot one. The hefty cash rewards get the attention of local residents, but it will take time for the campaign to spread awareness. In the meantime, officials will continue to find dug-up nests, like the handful spotted along the river's banks during the day's patrol.

Money talks

Like most of the riverine inhabitants, 31-year-old Ken Vy fishes and farms for a living. But he has stood out to Conservation International officials for his ability to sniff out nests.

Last year, he was informed of the project towards the end of the hatching season, so he got a late start, spotting one nest for which he was rewarded with a total of $200.

"I had already eaten or sold the eggs from two nests. I just came here to walk my cattle, and while I was here, I would look for nests," he said.

But with hundreds of dollars hanging in the balance, he now dedicates part of his time to searching for nests.

"Last night, I came at four in the morning with a headlamp to go searching. If I waited until later in the morning, I was afraid other fisherman would see me and search here, too."

He has staked out two nests on a small sand bank near his home. "I come here a few times every day to protect the nests, to make sure no one else is stealing the eggs."

In the presence of officials from the capital soliciting his help, Ken Vy becomes animated as he talks about his laborious routine to keep would-be egg snatchers at bay.

But he was clear it was the handsome cash reward that motivated him to rise in the dark hours of morning to hunt for nests he can protect - and the pragmatism of the wildlife team in understanding this could be the thrust behind the program's success if the endangered species is to be protected.

$50,000 gold heist leaves one wounded, many scared: Police

SELLER STAYS ON
Yet Phalla, the robbed money exchanger, said business would continue. "But I'm concerned about being robbed again. I will request that the market chief strengthens security."

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Chrann Chamroeun
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Armed robbers in Pailin made off with gold and currency; now market vendors are saying they need beefed-up security to keep working.

POLICE said they are looking for three armed robbers who stole US$50,000 worth of merchandise from a gold shop and 20,000 Thai baht ($573) from a currency exchange stand in a Pailin province market Sunday afternoon, shooting the niece of the gold seller in the process.

Ourn Rin, police chief for Pailin district, said the robbers entered Samaki Market at noon on Sunday and fired three warning shots in the air in an attempt to get the gold seller to flee. When he did not do so, a struggle ensued and the owner's niece was shot in the back.

" we are not prepared to go back to start business at the market. "

"She was not seriously wounded and is being treated at a hospital," Ourn Rin said.

The robbers fled with the gold and money on a motorbike, he said.

Leng Chantha, the gold seller who was robbed, claimed the police had underestimated the value of the gold stolen from his stand, saying the real value was $100,000.

Ourn Rin said police saw the robbers in a nearby forest and were attempting to surround and arrest them. As of Monday afternoon they had not been caught.

Chan Chhay, provincial police chief, said Monday that more than 100 military police officers, and soldiers had been deployed to look for the robbers with some being stationed on main roads in the province and others surveying local residents to determine the robbers' identities.

Leng Chantha did not open his stand Monday, citing his fear of the attackers. "My wife and I are panicked," he said. "We have lost a large amount of gold and we are not prepared to go back to start business at the market."

Improve market security

Yet Phalla, the money exchanger who was robbed, returned to the market, though she expressed concern for the vendors' security.

Ourn Rin said there was only a handful of market police who worked at Samaki Market and noted that they are not allowed to carry guns.

"That's why the robbers are not afraid to rob the place," he said. "The robbery on Sunday showed us that we need to strengthen security at the market. I might request to have rifles for the market police to secure the safety of the vendors."

He said the robbery was the first of the year to happen in the province.

Duch trial a 'test case' for tribunal

Photo by: PHOTO SUPPLIED
Former Tuol Sleng prison chief Duch at a preliminary meeting at the court last week.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Georgia Wilkins and Neth Pheaktra
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Proceedings will mark the first time the defence and prosecution will meet in the trial chambers, and one observer says both sides will have to 'feel their way' through the unproven legal tangle.

THE first of what is likely to be five trials conducted by the Khmer Rouge tribunal, that of former Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, is largely seen as a test case for the UN-backed court, one legal observer said Monday as officials announced the opening date for the proceedings.

An initial public hearing for the 66-year-old - the first step in the trial phase of proceedings against him - scheduled to open February 17.

The trial marks a milestone for the tribunal and is the end result of more than a decade of legal wrangling by the United Nations and government over how best to prosecute crimes committed during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime.

While setting a trial is tangible progress, the process has been fraught with obstacles, and the tribunal today remains unproven, Michelle Staggs Kelsall, deputy director of the Asian International Justice Initiative at the monitoring group the East-West Centre, told the Post Monday.

"This is very much a test case in how proceedings will be run, which will establish how the trial chamber is going to function and the dynamics between the parties," she said, adding that trial will likely set a precedent for future proceedings.

Kaing Guek Eav, who is more commonly known by his revolutionary name Duch, in one of five former regime leaders detained by the tribunal and is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Staggs Kelsall said as the first trial of the experimental hybrid court, Duch's could still face further delays as both the prosecution and defence find their stride.

"It's going to be the first time the trial chamber has convened for a full trial. Lots of things are going to be novel about the proceedings, such as the involvement of victims as participants, so they will very much be feeling their way through it and expecting the unexpected," Staggs Kelsall said.

"As with every initial hearing, there may be judicial challenges by the prosecutor or defence that may delay actual testimonies .... In that sense, the trial proper might be delayed."

‘I could not pardon him'

For one the few remaining Tuol Sleng survivors, Duch's trial is hoped to bring closure to years of agony spent struggling with the memories of his time in Tuol Sleng.

Bou Meng is one of only 14 inmates thought to have survived the prison and, like fellow inmate Vann Nath, was kept alive for his artistic abilities.

During a court-ordered tour of Tuol Sleng and the Choeung Ek killing fields last year, he came face-to-face with his former jailer.

"Duch and I talked face to face. He prayed and apologised to me, but I did not pray back. I told to him that I could not pardon him yet," Bou Meng said told the Post.

"Let the tribunal sentence him if he has bad karma," he said. "I have waited for this hearing day for a long time and am satisfied to hear that it will start," he added.

Parade to mark slain unionist

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Meas Sokchea
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Organisers still waiting for municipal approval.

THE Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) on Monday issued a press release calling for public participation in a commemorative parade scheduled for January 22, marking the day in 2004 that union leader Chea Vichea was killed in Phnom Penh.

"Chea Vichea did so much work for our nation, particularly by demanding more freedom and better conditions for the Kingdom's workers," Rong Chhun, president of the CCU, said in the press release.

He said Chea Vichea remains a potent symbol for many Cambodians, who honour his memory each year for sacrificing his life for the nation.

"We informed municipal authorities a week ago of our intention to hold this ceremony, but they have not yet responded. But we plan to go ahead with the event," said Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and the brother of Chea Vichea.

Chea Mony said he expected about 300 people, including civil society groups and some politicians, to participate in the parade.

The event will start at the headquarters of the trade union in Phnom Penh's Boeung Keng Kang 3 district and end at the site of Chea Vichea's assassination near Langka pagoda, the press release stated.

Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema could not be reached for comment on Monday, but Deputy Governor Pa Socheatevong said he could not provide details about whether the event would be approved by authorities.

The two men convicted of Chea Vichea's murder have been released pending a retrial.

Obama spurs reform hopes

Photo by: Eleanor Ainge Roy

An American Obama supporter cheers news of his election at Phnom Penh's FCC during last November's presidential election.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Sebastian Strangio And Neth Pheaktra
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Barack Obama's impending inauguration has stoked expectations of change in Cambodia, but analysts say familiar aims are likely to head the US agenda.

AS America's first black president-elect prepares to take office in Washington, DC, embassy sources and local analysts say US policy towards Cambodia will remain constant, despite local hopes that it will take on a more activist orientation.

In a January 12 speech, US Charge d'Affairs Piper Campbell said the inauguration of Barack Obama would likely have little effect on US-Cambodia relations, saying that many of the issues that Cambodia faces - such as poverty and the weak rule of law - required stable, long-term solutions.

She said Washington's aims were to see Cambodia become a country that is "domestically stable", where government is "democratic and just", and where "a healthy economy raises more people out of poverty and provides an opportunity for business".

But like the American electorate, many of whom have projected their hopes of political change on Obama, some Cambodians hope the US will help push Cambodia's government in a more accountable direction.

"Cambodian people believe that the United States of America will become a guarantor of security, peace and democratic development throughout the world," said Sourn Sereyratha of the US-based Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity, in a Saturday letter to the president-elect.

"We urge [you] to take all means to... defend Cambodian people against the extreme human rights abuses by its own leaders."

Sam Rainsy Party Deputy Secretary General Mu Sochua was more sanguine, saying that US-Cambodia relations were unlikely to change radically, but that Obama's foreign policy team, headed by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, would usher in positive changes.

"We don't want to have unrealistic expectations about the Obama team," she said, but added that a hoped-for increase in US aid and foreign investment would contribute to the development of the country's democracy and human rights.

"If Obama understands that change starts with the promotion of human rights, I am confident [he] will realise this properly in Cambodia.

"Wayne Weightman of Democrats Abroad Cambodia, the local wing of the Democratic Party, said he could not comment on Obama's likely policy towards Cambodia, but said that the new president's investiture likely would lead to positive changes across the globe.

" Cambodia is not on the list of countries for which the US has any special attention. "

"We think that the incoming administration's foreign policy will be a significant improvement on [the Bush administration]," he said.

Political constraints

There are limits, however, to how far the new administration will be able pressure Phnom Penh on human rights issues, given that it requires the Royal Government's cooperation on high-profile American initiatives in areas such as counter-terrorism and human trafficking.

China's increasingly prominent investments in the Kingdom may also discourage Washington from taking a harder line on human rights, given Beijing rarely - if ever - attaches human rights clauses to its own aid and loan packages.

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said that he looked forward to a fruitful relationship with the new US administration, saying that "the US-Cambodian relationship had been improving a lot, and we hope that the trend will continue for the benefit of both countries".

He added that the government hoped the US administration would "restore its image as a peacemaker and [establish] good relationships with the outside world".

Chea Vannath, an independent analyst, said that Cambodia's stability - in contrast to the upheavals of the past - would continue to promote a cautious US policy towards Cambodia.

"It doesn't matter who is in the White House," said Chea Vannath. "Cambodia is not Zimbabwe. Cambodia is not on the list of countries for which the US has any special attention.

"She added that American agencies such as USAID, which were not directly funded through the executive branch, would not come under the personal attention of the new president, whatever his intentions.

"The world has so many troubles, and Cambodia looks quiet and stable from the White House's point of view. I don't see any change," she said.

Obama will be sworn in as president tonight at midnight, Cambodian time.

Legal officials set to rotate

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Thomas Gam Nielsen and Chrann Chamroeun
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

TWENTY judges and prosecutors will be moved as part of the annual rotation of court jurists, Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vathana said Monday, adding that the cost of re-housing judges was a concern.

While government officials and rights advocates agree the rotation system can fight corruption by preventing people from building entrenched networks, they also accept that it is expensive for the jurists to move every fourth year, since some will have to maintain households in two places without extra pay.

"It is positive that they are moving," said Thun Saray, director of local rights group Adhoc, adding that the rotation "could lead to corruption, since they may have double expenses while their salary remains the same".

Ang Vong Vathana agreed that maintaining second households was a problem of the system but said that benefits outweighed the drawbacks. "We are always trying to improve the judicial system," he told the Post.

Thun Saray said the solution could be to provide them with extra income or new houses.

The justice minister and Hanrot Raken, a member of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy, declined to reveal the names of any judges or prosecutors undergoing rotation.

Cambodia all set for stock exchange

The International Monetary Fund said Cambodia’s economy may grow 4.75 percent this year, which would be the slowest since 1998

THANHNIEN
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Cambodia, the second-poorest country in Southeast Asia, plans to complete the listing requirements for its first stock exchange by April in preparation for a December opening, a top exchange official said Monday.

“Everything is on schedule so far,” said Ming Bankosal, director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC), by phone from Phnom Penh. “We will finalize the issuing requirements by the end of the first quarter, and after that we will accept applications from companies.”

Cambodia, which abolished money under the Khmer Rouge three decades ago, is seeking to lure foreign funds as the global economic recession has led to drops in tourism, garment exports and commodity prices. The International Monetary Fund said the economy may grow 4.75 percent this year, which would be the slowest since 1998.

The government has targeted 20 companies to sell shares during the exchange’s first year of operation. They include Sokimex Group, the country’s biggest petroleum company, and Acleda Bank Plc., its largest bank, according to Kao Thach, head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s financial market division, last year.

Regulations

“The starting date is not really the key issue,” said Douglas Clayton, chief executive officer of Leopard Capital, one of several private equity firms that plan to invest in companies and cash out through share sales in the local market. “I will not mind if it is delayed for another year because it might give them more time to get the regulations in order.”

Leopard Capital has raised about a quarter of the US$100 million it is targeting for a fund that closes at the end of March. Opportunities are rife for those with cash on hand who can benefit from falling prices, Clayton said.

The global financial crisis, which cut the value of stock markets in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam by at least half last year, has not deterred Cambodia from pressing forward with a stock exchange, Ming said. The SECC is in the process of developing tax breaks and other incentives for companies to list, he added.

“Now the US is in the process of recovery and this recovery can spread to the world,” Ming said. “We hope that in late 2009, everything will be okay.”

The listing requirements in Cambodia will likely be modeled on the Kosdaq, South Korea’s second stock market that was set up 12 years ago for small- and medium-sized firms as well as venture start-ups, according to Kao Thach. Companies seeking a Kosdaq listing need to be in business for at least three years with minimum paid-in capital of 500 million won (US$495,417) and debt-to-equity ratio of less than 150 percent of the industry mean.

More Groups Ready for Inauguration

By Taing Sarada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
19 January 2009

Cambodian embassy officials in Washington say they won’t hold a special event for the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama, but they have been invited to Tuesday’s event.

“The Cambodian Embassy, like the representatives all of the countries’ embassies based in the US, has been invited by the US State Department to join president Obama’s inauguration,” said Nay Meng Eang, deputy chief of mission at the Cambodian Embassy.

Cambodia is currently without an ambassador in Washington, following the exit of Ek Sereywath in late 2008. Hem Heng, the incoming ambassador, has yet to be recognized.

“We haven’t seen any confirmation yet,” Nay Meng Eang said.

Cambodian Embassy officials have also requested the establishment of a military attaché with the US, as well as a consulate office in Lowell, Mass., where many Cambodians live, but they have not received responses, he said.

Meanwhile, the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation, an advocacy group based in New Jersey, said it had sent a letter of congratulations to the incoming president.

Attached to the letter was an eight-page report on restrictions by the Vietnamese government against members of the Khmer Krom minority there, including the persecution of liberty, human rights and religion, said Thach Ngoc Thach, president of the group, who met with State Department officials last week.

“I think the new government will be able to continue the cooperation from [George W. Bush] administration’s work,” he said. “We strongly hope that the relationship between the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation and Obama’s administration will comprehensively continue.”

Villagers Say Military Police Halt Protest

By VOA Khmer Stringers
Original reports from Phnom Penh
19 January 2009

Cambodian military police prevented a protest of villagers near the Kandal provincial home of Prime Minister Hun Sen early Monday, following a shooting incident Friday.

Nearly 40 representatives of villagers from Kandal Stung district, Kandal province, who are embroiled in a land dispute with the Heng Akphiwath Company, amassed near Hun Sen’s home, but military police dispersed them and ordered them to return home, human rights officials said.

“In the morning, a lot of villagers representing 292 families tried to hold a protest against Heng Akphiwath, but military policed armed [with weapons] and electric batons tried to block them and push them away,” said one protester, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The military police ordered villagers to stay in their homes or register with police if they planned to leave, the protester said.

Kandal Governor Chhun Sirun denied Monday that military police had blocked a protest.

“I went there this morning, but I did not see any protesters,” he said.

The attempted protest follows a shooting Friday in Kandal Stung, where villagers say military police are aiding Heng Akphiwath in a land grab.

Two men were injured by shots fired by the military police and remain in Meanchey hospital, in Takmao district, while another eight people were injured in ensuing violence.

One man was knocked unconscious, but was recovering at home Monday. Another man was arrested Friday, but was released on Sunday, after he gave $30 to military police, said Am Samath, an investigator for the rights group Licadho.

Officials from Heng Akphiwath Company declined to comment Monday.

Chhun Sirun said the military had fired in self defense, as villagers threatened them with knives and axes. The military police had not fired directly at villagers, but had fired at the ground, the wounded hurt by shrapnel, he said.

He said the incident was “small,” and military police had received reprimands from their commanders, he said.

Monday’s protest was only one among several this week: villagers in the provinces of Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampot also protesting land disputes.

Initial Hearing Set for Start of Duch Trial

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
19 January 2009

An initial hearing for jailed Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch will be scheduled for Feb. 17, leading to the first-ever trial of the ongoing tribunal, officials announced Monday.

On that date, the tribunal will hold a hearing on witnesses and other participants of the trial, as well as evidence, but the full trial is not likely to begin until March, tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said.

“The initial hearing is the beginning of the official trial, and it will respond to the awaiting families and victims of Democratic Kampuchea,” Reach Sambath said, referring to the Khmer Rouge by its political moniker.

The Trial Chamber of the courts will decide the schedule for the full trial of Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, following the February hearing, Reach Sambath said.

“We think it’s a welcome development, and people in general in Cambodia have been waiting a long time for justice to be served,” US Embassy spokesman John Johnson said. “We hope that from this point on the process will move fairly quickly.”

For Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the announcement did not yet signal the justice sought by victims of regime.

“This news does not demonstrate that justice has arrived,” Youk Chhang said. “It is a small step in the enormous investment of time and budget, but at least it has started and it demonstrates that the court works.”

The shoemaker of kings and the disabled

Trinh Ngoc in his shop at Ho Chi Minh City’s 151/1 Tran Dinh Xu Street.

THANH NIEN
January 20, 2009

Trinh Ngoc remembers making shoes for King Norodom Sihanouk and almost every other member of the Cambodian Norodom and Sisowath royal families.

“The King cares a lot about fashion and buys French and Italian shoes every time he goes overseas,” Ngoc said. “If he can’t find a pair that fit him, the King brings me the design and asks me to make them.”

The mild-mannered shoemaker, now in his 70s, is considered one of the best in Ho Chi Minh City, where he started anew in 1970 after leaving Cambodia because of the political changes there.

At age 13, Ngoc moved to Phnom Penh with his family. He began to learn cobbling at 15 at the family factory and when he was 21, he opened his own shoe shop.

The shop received even more customers than the French shop on the opposite street.

Sometimes, he had to study the traditional footwear at Cambodian museums to make the King and Queen’s shoes for national festivals or greeting foreign guests. He also studied a four year remote course in shoemaking through a French school, where he learnt about foot structure to make more comfortable shoes.

When he returned to HCMC, Ngoc began consigning his shoes at some of the city’s top outlets such as the Tax Shopping Center and the Crystal Palace Center in District 1.

But those centers charged three times more than he did at his own shop on Phat Diem Street, now Tran Dinh Xu, and customers followed him there.

He became known by leading officials, celebrities, the disabled and foreign diplomats.

Ngoc said a good shoemaker has to master every stage of the shoemaking process because they are all closely related to each other.

He considers his shoes not as a product but a piece of art. According to Ngoc, “a creative mind, a passion for the job, the ability to observe and skillful hands” make a successful shoemaker.

One needs “to know what fashion comes next,” including the design, color and type of leather, to be successful in the market, he added.

He cooperates with local leather suppliers including Junly factory in Phnom Penh and Vinada factory in Vietnam, which produces the leather that Ngoc recommends and allows him to use it six months before marketing it.

Ngoc also makes shoes for people with deformed legs.

Le Nam, who has one leg 10 centimeters shorter than the other, said he’s very grateful to Ngoc.

“When I met him, it was like a drowning person catching a lifebuoy,” said Nam, who had tried many other shoemakers before discovering Ngoc.

He said Ngoc’s shoes not only helped him find a job but also strengthened his legs.

Ngoc has turned down several offers by foreign shoes enterprises, including one by a Taiwanese company that offered him a high salary and more than US$80,000 worth of shares just to train workers.

“I would have become very rich but I wouldn’t have been able to interact with customers,” he said. “Money can hardly buy you the feelings you have when you see customers pleased with your own shoes.”

Cambodia's first Khmer Rouge trial to start mid-February

Duch has been in custody since 1999 for his role at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison

Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation during the Khmer Rouge's brutal regime in 1975-1979

Chart showing the mental health statistics for Cambodia

'Duch' the former chief of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison during the Khmer Rouge regime

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal on Monday officially set February 17 as the start date for the long-awaited first trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of atrocities in the 1970s.

Court documents said the hearing for former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav -- better known as Duch -- will be for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention as well as premeditated murder and torture.

Duch, 66, will be the first leader of Cambodia's brutal 1975-1979 communist regime to stand trial at the tribunal, an initial step towards justice for the up to two million people who died under Khmer Rouge rule.

He will be tried for "his acts or omissions in Phnom Penh and within the territory of Cambodia between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979," said the court documents, released to the media on Monday.

Duch was indicted last year for allegedly overseeing the torture and extermination of more than 12,000 men, women and children when he headed Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng prison, known as S-21.

"This is what we have been waiting for for so long," said Tuol Sleng survivor Vann Nath, who made it through years in the prison because he was put to work painting pictures that celebrated the regime.

"Now we know the clear date for the trial. And we hope that we will know the truth that we have been waiting 30 years for," added Vann Nath.

A mathematics teacher who became the Khmer Rouge's torturer-in-chief, Duch has been in prison since 1999 for his role at Tuol Sleng. He was formally transferred to the tribunal in July 2007.

Thousands of inmates were taken from the centre he ran for execution at Choeung Ek, now infamously known as the Killing Fields.

The indictment last August gave a detailed breakdown of the horrific conditions at Tuol Sleng and Duch's alleged role in the atrocities, saying that every prisoner who arrived there was destined for execution.

"Duch personally tortured or mistreated detainees at S-21 on a number of separate occasions and through a variety of means," the indictment said.

Chum Mey, another survivor of Tuol Sleng who was spared because he was put to use repairing car engines, called Monday's announcement "another step toward justice."

"I want Duch to speak about the truth of the regime and where he got the order to kill the people," Chum Mey said.

Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork as the regime emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge a communist utopia.

Duch is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders who have been detained by the court for their alleged roles in the regime.

Also in detention awaiting trial are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was the minister of social affairs.

Established in 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the UN, the long-stalled tribunal has met controversy as it seeks to prosecute crimes committed 30 years ago by senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

At least two of the top Cambodian tribunal officials have been accused of corruption by some defence lawyers in connection with an alleged scheme where local staff were forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia which chronicles Khmer Rouge crimes, said the court needed to do better.

"Many have feelings of reservation. It's been three years and over 50 million dollars, and now we have a small case coming up," Youk Chhang said.

"It's just a beginning -- a little tiny light in the tunnel," he added.

The tribunal received a boost earlier this month when Japan's foreign minister pledged funding of 21 million dollars during a visit to Cambodia.

New species hotspot in remote Cambodian Mekong

Lepidopterology 19 January 2009

Cantor's Giant softshell turtle, thought to be extinct in Cambodia since 2003 has been rediscovered in a section of the Mekong River almost untouched by humans.

The discovery was one of a raft of species new to the region, 24 in all, and a previously unknown 'corpse plant' notable for emitting an odour of decaying flesh.

The study area is home to a near-pristine region of tall riverine forests, waterways and island archipelagos, and is described by scientists as including one of the last suitable freshwater habitat for the critically endangered Irrawaddy Dolphin.

The findings are the result of a series of surveys jointly conducted by WWF Cambodia, the Fisheries Administration (FiA) and Forestry Administration (FA) of the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in 2006/7.

The most exciting area surveyed was a 55 kilometre stretch of river located in north-eastern Cambodia, referred to as the 'Central Section,' which is a sanctuary for many vulnerable fauna populations, 36 of which are listed as threatened under the IUCN Red List.

'Unlike many other mainstream sections of the Mekong in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam, this particular part of the river remains relatively untouched by human activities,' said Richard Zanre, WWF Freshwater Program Manager. This region, he added, used to be one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge and was off-limits to local and foreign agencies until as late as 1998.

However, the 'Central Section' is rapidly shrinking. Cambodia's new era of peace is leading to migration of communities to areas previously off-limits due to security concerns.

Unregulated hunting, fishing and logging are the greatest threats to the area as the number of settlers to the region has increased rapidly in the previous decade. Local communities are already reporting that catches of fish, turtles, large mammals and lizards are already declining.

Future threats may arise from further infrastructural development of the region, such as dam and road construction. Two dams have been proposed in the study area, just outside the Central Section, and would massively disrupt the delicately balanced ecosystems in the area.

Like many developing countries, Cambodia must balance the needs of a growing population with conservation. Fortunately, the government is sympathetic to these concerns;

'The Royal Government of Cambodia recognises the importance of maintaining the Mekong's resources for biodiversity, national food security and development, and reflect this need in the targets of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan of 2002 and Cambodia's Millennium Development Goals,' said Seng Teak, WWF Country Director.

'Documenting Mekong's biodiversity and natural resources is a critical first step is to preserving them.'

Having worked with the government closely on these surveys, WWF Cambodia has sought to get the 'Central Section' designated as a special management site, ensuring that the region's plant and animal life are integrated into the governments national biodiversity strategy and afforded adequate protection.

WWF would like to see all lands in the central section divided into two zones - one a protective zone, and the other a multiple use zone that would help to support livelihoods of local communities.

Coming so shortly after the discovery of over one thousand new species in the Mekong River basin from 1997 to 2007, this study has proved the value of protecting the region, while also serving as an important contribution to the mapping of Cambodia's biological diversity, key to the formulating of effective management programs in the area.

Source: WWF