Cambodian parties make final push for votes

Cambodian Parties Make Final Push for Votes

KAMPONG CHAM, Cambodia (AFP) — Cambodian politicians made a final push for votes on the last day of campaigning Friday for an election Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party is expected to dominate.

Soaring nationalist sentiments have powered the campaigns, fuelled by a 10-day military standoff with neighbouring Thailand over a small patch of disputed land near the ruins of the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.

The most frenetic campaigning took place in Kampong Cham province, home to one million of the eight million people registered to cast ballots Sunday.

Just after dawn Friday, thousands of opposition supporters waved flags and rode through the town of Kampong Cham on the backs of trucks and motorcycles, blaring party policies from speakers.

The day wound down with a candlelight vigil in Phnom Penh, with Sam Rainsy supporters wearing white shirts and caps bearing the party's candle logo.

But few expect voters to oust the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which has ruled since the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge nearly three decades ago.

Hun Sen has held the top job for 23 years, and voters are widely expected to hand him another five-year term.

His party loudly touts recent economic growth in Cambodia, one of the world's poorest countries, which has averaged 11 percent over the last three years.

Tensions over Preah Vihear only enhanced Hun Sen's standing, helping the CPP portray itself as the defender of the nation.

"The voters realise we did a lot -- building roads, schools, health care, and especially the economy. Preah Vihear is the latest thing," Phnom Penh mayor Kep Chuktema told an early CPP rally in the capital.

"We saved the lives of Cambodian people from the genocide. We gave people lives. From zero in 1979, Phnom Penh now has everything. From ghost city, now Phnom is a very good city," he said, with music blaring as 10,000 CPP supporters filled a riverside boulevard with a carnival atmosphere.

Although the CPP is tipped to win a large majority, the party mounted a massive campaign, parading in shiny new vehicles while covering the country with posters and the airwaves with promises of further development.

"The CPP campaigns are much fancier than those of other parties... The CPP outsmarts other political parties because those parties haven't achieved much at all," said Neang Sovath of the election monitoring group Comfrel.

More than 13,000 domestic and international observers are set to monitor the 15,000 polling stations.

The campaign has seen fewer irregularities and less violence than in the past, monitors say, partly because the nation is more stable, with garment exports and tourism helping pull Cambodia from the ashes of civil war.

Hun Sen's CPP expects to expand its control over the 123-seat parliament, hoping to add eight seats to the 73 it already holds, which would cement his ruthless drive to secure his grip on power.

He lost Cambodia's first elections, backed by the United Nations in 1993, but bargained his way into a power-sharing deal and then reasserted total control in a 1997 coup.

Hundreds of people were killed in the run-up to elections the following year. Protests against the CPP victory were put down violently.

The last national election in 2003 was less violent but plunged the kingdom into a year of political stalemate that resulted in a coalition with the royalist Funcinpec.

The royalists have since imploded over internal scandals, while Sam Rainsy is expected to win few votes outside the capital.

Labels: CPP, Election, hun sen, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party

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Fears multiply after murder

Fears Multiply After Murder

Journalist’s Family Urge Govt to Work with FBI

Written by Cheang Sokha and Porter Barron
Friday, 25 July 2008 (The Phnom Penh Post)

The relatives and friends of slain opposition journalist Khim Sambo and his son Khat Sarinpheata say the investigation into their murders has stalled and are urging Cambodian authorities to cooperate with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Khim Sambo, a journalist with the Sam Rainsy Party newspaper Moneaksekar Khmer, was gunned down on July 11 while riding a motorbike with his son outside Olympic Stadium.

The deaths stunned the community and outraged rights groups and journalist’s organizations, who claimed the killers were trying to stifle press freedoms ahead of the July 27 general elections.

“If the killing was related to powerful, high-ranking officials, the investigation would progress quickly and the perpetrators would be arrested immediately. But for normal families the killer is never found,” said Khim Laurent, Khim Sambo’s brother.

“The government should cooperate with the [US Federal Bureau of Investigation] to find the killers. I think the FBI does not believe the Cambodian authorities can arrest them, because they offered their help.”

Three days after the assassination, the US embassy volunteered the FBI’s assistance to the Cambodian authorities, but an embassy spokesman said this week the Cambodians had not taken up the offer.

A senior Cambodian police official, who asked not to be named, explained: “The Cambodians do not need any assistance from the FBI. We have enough ability to handle this on our own.”

Meanwhile, Moneaksekar Khmer has shuttered its offices although it continues to publish. The shooting followed last month’s week-long arrest of the paper’s editor-in-chief Dam Sith on defamation charges filed by foreign minister Hor Namhong.

Dam Sith is also a Sam Rainsy Party election candidate, and his detention was roundly criticized by rights group as an effort to intimidate the press before the polls.

“Since Dam Sith was arrested and Sambo was murdered, the office has been closed,” said a reporter who also did not want to be named.

“The editor-in-chief has instructed all of the staff not to meet anyone in person for security reasons. We can only talk by phone. The office will reopen when the situation is better.”

A second Moneaksekar Khmer reporter appealed for authorities to catch Khim Sambo’s killers, saying, “We are worried for our safety.”

People are scared to talk. This is the same as the Chea Vichea case.

“Arrest the real killers, not the fake killers like the case of Chea Vichea,” referring to the 2004 daylight shooting of Cambodia’s top labor leader.

The two men convicted in his death are largely thought to have had nothing to do with the murder of the popular opposition-aligned unionist.

As with Chea Vichea’s killing, Khim Sambo’s death has cast a pall of fear over those who knew him, with frightened witnesses hesitant to come forward.

Several have disappeared and are thought by the victims’s family and rights workers to be in hiding.

“People are scared to talk. This is the same as the Chea Vichea case,” said Chan Soveth, a human rights worker with the Cambodian group Adhoc.

Deputy Military Police Chief Pol Davy on July 24 dismissed the notion of a political killing, saying: “After the shooter fired, his son screamed out to the witnesses, ‘Please help! Please help! It’s a revenge issue!’”

Municipal Police Chief Touch Naruth also attributed the killing to a personal dispute, and he claimed progress in the investigation. “We have a sketch of the shooter, based on information from the witnesses.”

But rights groups are skeptical.

“The Cambodian authorities should surprise everyone for once and hold accountable those responsible for Khim Sambo’s murder, no matter their political allegiance,” said Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch.

Labels: Election, Journalism, journalist, Sam Rainsy Party

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Immigration & Elction in Cambodia

COMMUNIQUE

July 14th, 2008 (khmer mchas srok )

THE STRANGE IMMIGRATION AND THE ELECTION IN CAMBODIA

The upcoming election in Cambodia is just a pretext for the Cambodian People Party-CPP (which has been installed by Vietnam) to deceive the international community with its sham democratic regime.

1. The first term election in 1993 (1993-1998)- UNTAC : the coup d'état on July 5th and 6th 1997

Only the election organized and governed by UNTAC in 1993 had a reasonable democratic system acceptable to the Cambodian people. This election clearly demonstrated the desire of the Cambodian people to reject the CPP and choose the FUNCINPEC. But the CPP did not concede the official result and used military force to segregate the country into two parts. To keep the peace, there was a compromise for Cambodia to have two Prime Ministers to share the power and to lead a government with an elective term from 1993 to 1998.

To avoid the loss of any more elections, the CPP has been taking the measures in using all means to control the electoral system through the National Electoral Committee (NEC) where the majority of its members are from the CPP. The NEC is responsible for:

Ascertaining rules for the national election,
Taking care of the electoral rolls,
Organizing the election,
Declaring the election result.

To manage the electoral rolls, the CPP has to stay alone in power. To achieve this, the CPP plotted and executed a coup on July 5th and 6th 1997 to topple the legitimately elected Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh from the FUNCINPEC, one year before the second election had scheduled. At the same time they also eliminated many opposition parties and Khmer patriots.

2. The second term election in 1998 (1998-2003): the great demonstration in October 1998 had ended with a tragic bloodshed

When the second term election was due in 1998, the CPP had rearranged the electoral rolls by deleting opposition's names from the list because most of them had to hide in the country and some of them had to seek asylum in Thailand to escape from all sorts of brutality and all sorts of threats after the coup d'état of 1997. In addition, the irregularity of the electoral rolls had suddenly jumped up enormously over the normal increase in the growth rate of population. The increased numbers in the electoral rolls during the second term election in 1998 was invented by the CPP leaders to allow Vietnamese immigrants to enter into Cambodia, assimilate with the Cambodia population in order to vote for them.

According to the population's statistic in Asia published by UNESCAP, the figures show:

In 1996, Cambodia had a population of 10,968,000 people
In 1997, Cambodia population had risen to 11,237,000 people, it had increased to 260,000 people per year with the growth rate of 2.4 %
In 1998, Cambodia population had suddenly risen to 12,186,000 people; it had increased to 949,000 people per year with the growth rate of 8.44 %. Four times the normal rate. These figures substantiate around 680,000 Vietnamese immigrants had settled in Cambodia in 1998, for the sole purpose of enabling the CPP to win the election that year. The CPP take over the rights of the Khmer people who are already aware of their deception.
In 1999, Khmer population had risen to 12,450,000 people it had increased to 264,000 people per year with the growth rate of 2.16 % as it was back to the normal rate.

The arrival of Vietnamese immigrants in Cambodia until present time has been supported by the illegal treaty signed in 1983 which has been endorsed by the government.

The treaty was designed to give a lawful access to the Vietnamese living at the Cambodia-Vietnam border to bring their relatives to come and live with them in Cambodia.

The second election in 1998, the national and international community was entirely manipulated by the CPP who operated with absolute power to abuse every section of the Cambodia's constitution for returning to their ruling power. The opposition was eliminated by using tactics of killing, intimidating and threatening all political activists. Many of them were killed, tortured, imprisoned and suffered a great deal beyond imagination as we the Khmer people have witnessed so far.
Their running campaign, the counting of paper ballots, declaring of victory and their abusive actions to the opposition groups, these acts are unlawful, against justice and democratic principles. Consequently, during the second term election in 1998, there was a demonstration in October against the falsehood of paper ballots which ended with tragic bloodshed.

3. The third term election in 2003 (2003-2008) : "the packaged election" is the constitutional coup in 2004, signatory of the complementary of the 1985 treaty to be enforceable, in October 2005:
At every election, the CPP has always made difficult for the opposition groups and for the poor and disadvantaged people to enroll.

Normally, at the election 2003, this term, Cambodia should have been able to implement a democratic election process because the CPP had already run a full term government (1998-2003). In the contrary, the CPP, the former Communist Party, did not at all perform the democratic way.

In 2003, although the CPP had won the majority of the votes in the National Assembly, Mr. Hun Sen was not sure that he would be the Prime Minister elected. So, they did not abide by the Constitution of the country and they prevented the formation of new government. As a result, there was a constitutional coup in 2004 to force the amendment of the constitution, without a referendum. This amendment permitted the CPP to stay in the power by using the "Packaged Election" system to elect, at the same time, the Prime Minister and the President of the Parliament which is incompatible with the principle of the separation of the legislative, executive and judicial powers.

While the CPP continued to lead the government, he signed in October 2005 the Supplementary Treaty to the Treaty on the Delimitation of State Border of 1985, which had automatically converted the 1979, 1982, 1983 and 1985 treaties to become the legitimate treaties. The CPP was seriously condemned by the students, civil servants and all Khmers who opposed this signature which gave up Khmer lands and seas to Vietnam. This prompted the arrest and imprisonment of civil activists who dared to oppose them.

The signature on the Supplementary Treaty to the Treaty on the Delimitation of State Border of 1985 has given legitimate rights to the Vietnamese immigrants who have settled in provinces along the borders allowing them to bring their families to come and live in Cambodia.

In addition, the CPP had approved in 2003, the establishment of 19 Vietnamese Associations (there are 57 Vietnamese Associations to date) in Cambodia. The Bylaws of these associations have clearly stated "every member of the Vietnamese Associations is granted the right to live and bring their family members to Cambodia".

In the third term election (2003-2008), the constitutional coup of 2004 was the explicit actions to enhance the Vietnamese immigrants to have been legitimately settled in Cambodia and convert the 5 million settlers to become Khmer citizens, some of them to be as in high profile and prominent persons, e.g. lords, ladies, senators, Yeay Phoo and Sok Kong etc.

From 2003 to 2008, the CPP has reinforced the expansion and strengthened the Vietnamese presence in Cambodia.
4. The fourth term election 2008 (2008-2013), do Khmer have sovereignty?

Looking into the collaboration between the Vietnamese settlers and the CPP, and their movement for the past 15 years, we can draw the conclusion that in this election term, the CPP will be salvaged by the 5 million Vietnamese settlers who are their saviors and the CPP doesn't need to make any effort to win this election.

It is estimated about 1,906,888 Vietnamese immigrants who are registered among the 8,125,529 people with the legal right to vote in 2008. This calculates on UNTAC 1993's figures, the NEC's figures and the figures of Cambodia's National Institute of Statistic:

1. -There are 23 % of Vietnamese immigrants who are registered to vote among people with the legal rights to vote, according to the NEC figures (1,906.000/8.125.641)
2. -There are 30 % of Vietnamese immigrants who are registered to vote among people with the legal rights to vote, according to the UNTAC figures (1,906,888/6,318,641)

NOTE: the above estimated figures do not include the 2 million Vietnamese who came to Cambodia before UNTAC and have been granted Cambodian citizenship in 1993.

Rate	1993	1998	2003	2008
0.019	NEC's figures	Figure estimated 5 years later	Figure estimates 10 years later	Figure estimates 15 years later
Cambodia	4,764,430	5,234,580	5,751,125	6,318,641

The UNTAC figures in 1993 had 4,764,430 15 years later (2008), based on the growth rate of 1.9 %, the number of the people who have the legal rights to vote is: 6,318,641.

1998			2003			2008
NEC	Increased figure	%	NEC	Increased figure	%	NEC	Increased figure	%
5,395,595	161,015	2.984	6,341,834	590,709	10.271	8,125,529	1,906,888	23.47

The calculation of the population in 2008:

With the growth rate 1.9 % of the Cambodian population base on the substantial sources:

From UNTAC, 15 years later (1993-2008) Cambodia's population was 11,698,201 = 2,000,000 + 9,698,201 (Khmer people)
From the NEC figure, Cambodia's population is 14,500,000, so the new immigrants figure is 4,801,799 = (14,500,000 – 9,698,201)
The new immigrants figure represents 33 % of the Cambodia's population (Khmer, Vietnamese and others)
The new immigrants figure represents 49 % of the Khmer's population (only Khmer e.g excluding the Vietnamese settlers, and others)

CONCLUSION:

The democracy in Cambodia has been implicated by the close relationship and strong collaboration between the CPP and the Vietnamese settlers over the rights of Khmer people living on their homeland.

The election system implemented by the CPP would totally prevent any opportunity to the other political parties with a genuine intention to serve the Khmer people's interest. The CPP has 83 million Vietnamese people to back them up. The CPP would do anything to get their support and assistance at every election in the framework of the Indochina Federation under Vietnamese supervision.

In the term of 2008, the future of the Members of Parliament of the Cambodian National Assembly will be under the pressure from the Vietnamese Associations in Cambodia (because the CPP won the election thanks to the Vietnamese immigrants and in turn, the CPP must legitimize the status of these immigrants to have the right to establish in Cambodia). The close collaboration between the CPP and the Vietnamese immigrants via the sham democratic election game is the strategy to manipulate the international community to achieve their goal of establishing the Indochina Federation which is controlled by Vietnam. Once Cambodia becomes a part of the Indochina Federation, the Vietnamese immigrants will no longer need the protection of the CPP. In the opposite, the CPP will be a hindrance to the Indochina Federation because they are originated from Khmer people who would like to preserve their identity, culture and tradition, so they cannot be trusted and can be rebellious to them. But, Vietnam would not take risk to let the CPP reverse the situation (as Pham Van Dong's world statement in 1979 of his vision on Cambodia: "La situation au Cambodge est irreversible ....").

The election serving the Cambodian people's interest should be conducted in a free and fair system. But if the Vietnamese immigrants have the right to vote in inflated numbers figure, this election is only a game to fool the international community.

The only solution for the Khmer people now is to unite and claim our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity through the international laws and exercise our right of being sovereign Khmer people in our homeland.

Paris, 14th July 2008
Dr Sakhonn CHAK
General Representative of
Khmer Mchas Srok

Labels: Election

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Taking the high ground at Preah Vihear

Taking the High Ground at Preah Vihear

By Craig Guthrie

PHNOM PENH (Asia Times Online) - This month, thousands of Cambodians poured into in the streets of Phnom Penh waving flags and pounding drums to celebrate the listing of Preah Vihear temple as a UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) World Heritage site.

With such revelry, a people with much darkness and bloody civil conflict in their recent past seemed to be dancing towards a brighter future on the back of their modest triumph.

It was only weeks away from the nation's fourth post-war general election to be held this Sunday, and an elusive sense of political and economic stability was in the air. At the time Prime Minister Hun Sen called the decision "a new source of pride for the people of Cambodia".

But days after the celebration, hundreds of heavily armed troops from Thailand and Cambodia had dug in around the contentious temple site with artillery pieces and rocket launchers trained on the area.

And today, the armed standoff now taking place over ownership of the ancient Hindu temple has become the latest chapter in the neighboring countries' troubled relationship.

Moreover, the row is gathering international attention. United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon on July 21 called for both sides to peacefully resolve the issue and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has offered to mediate between the two countries.

Tempest at a temple

Thailand successfully blocked Cambodia's efforts to list Preah Vihear in 2006 and 2007 on the grounds that a 4.6 square kilometer stretch of land around the temple compound is still subject to dispute. It is this piece of land, not covered by the recent ruling, where the nations' forces are facing off.

"You need to look at the history. Vietnam and Thailand both grew while Cambodia shrank since the 14th century, swallowed up bit by bit by those large neighbors," Cambodian political commentator Chea Vannath told Inter Press Service (IPS). "This is not a recent thing; it is long-running."

Legally, the temple has belonged to Cambodia since a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1962. The ICJ's 1962 ruling provoked violent protests in Thailand, which has never accepted the verdict and questioned the validity of the map used by Cambodia to claim ownership of the temple, the same map used by UNESCO as the basis for its recent decision.

As of Thursday, according to a Cambodian official, Cambodia had 800 soldiers along the border, compared with 3,000 Thai troops. The Thai Foreign Ministry said Bangkok had only 400 men facing as many as 1,700 Cambodian soldiers. Both sides have moved artillery near a small Buddhist pagoda leading to the ruins of the temple, according to Reuters news agency.

The build-up began on July 15, when Cambodian guards briefly detained three Thais who crossed into the area and refused to leave. Cambodia claims the Thais sent in troops to retrieve their nationals and have been building up their forces since. Thailand denied the charges, saying its soldiers are deployed on Thai territory.

Preah Vihear is again at the center of a complex relationship between Thailand and Cambodia, the result of fluid historical borders that did not begin to coalesce until as recently as the 1950s.

For much of the 19th century, northern Cambodia, including the largest religious complex in the world, Angkor Wat, was ruled by Thailand. France forced Thailand to cede the area to its rule in the 1930s. Thailand took advantage of World War II to take back much of the territory, which was not handed back to Cambodia until after the war.

Cambodia's independence saw numerous disputes between the two countries. Problems persisted during the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime and grew after the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 to overthrow the ultra-Maoist group.

Despite tensions over Phnom Penh's claim, elements of the Thai military continued to support Khmer Rouge guerrillas. Ties began improving in the 1980s but took a significant turn for the worse in 2003, when mobs burned the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh and a number of Thai-owned businesses. That angry response came after a Cambodian newspaper article alleged that a prominent Thai actress had said that Cambodia had stolen Angkor Wat.

Calling for Calm

Sovereignty over the sprawling shrine to Shiva has raised the ire of Thais for decades - but not Cambodians.

"Its Khmer and on Khmer land," everyday Cambodians will tell you with bemusement over Thai claims to the jungle-clad temple, even if they have never heard of the ICJ. Many believe Cambodia's consistent stance over the dispute, as opposed to the tenuous political situation in Thailand, will score Cambodia a sound diplomatic victory in the dispute.

In fact, Cambodia's leadership has approached the military stand-off with a hitherto unheard of maturity, first appealing to ASEAN and then the UN Security Council to take note of the issue.

Rather than allowing the displays of frenzied nationalism that marred the nation's last duel with Thailand over national heritage in 2003, Cambodia's politicians have urged for national calm.

"Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen can control the situation. We would like to appeal to the Cambodian people, NGOs, and politicians to keep calm at this time and to not serve as hero. Everyone loves the country, but if we are extremists, a war would break out," said Information Minister and government spokesperson Khieu Kanharith.

Most Cambodians believe that the crisis has been exacerbated by anti-government forces in Bangkok which have been holding demonstrations since May. Some Cambodian observers believe that the temple issue has stirred a wave of bitterness against Cambodia and the international community over the UNESCO decision in Thailand

"It doesn't matter if the Thais just fight each other, but they should not take Cambodia as a scapegoat for political purposes," said Chea Ratha, a young Cambodian student from Phnom Penh on July 20. "The Thai opposition and military should have used a better excuse to make another coup against [former prime minister] Thaksin's [Shinawatra's] ally. Groundlessly and unfairly accusing a small and poor nation of taking your land is already ridiculous. [They're] bullies."

The Preah Vihear issue has been overexploited by both sides of the border, Dr Lao Mong Hay, a senior researcher for the Asian Human Rights Organization, told Asia Times Online, "The Cambodian government has used it to boost its popular support in this month's election with the organization of overzealous celebrations of its 'victory' over the listing of the temple as a world heritage site, without any consideration of the Thai people's attachment to the temple and their feelings of humiliation."

Cambodian Stability

In historically tumultuous Cambodia the political situation is more stable than it has ever been. Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) looks assured of an easy victory which has only been facilitated by the UNESCO decision.

With this in mind, the CPP leadership has alternately taken credit for the UNESCO ruling and called for calm. "Please politicians, do not take this occasion for political gain because Cambodia could be pushed into an unpredictable situation. Please keep calm," said Kanharith.

Those in Cambodia's opposition, however, see more dubious and business-minded motivations. "They [the CPP] have tried to take credit for it and have used the state budget to promote themselves as heroes," Son Chhay, a parliamentarian with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) told IPS.

Just as Thai opposition groups have accused their government of backing the UNESCO application in exchange for business contracts, so too have Cambodia opposition politicians been quick to talk of secret deals.

"A deal has been done, no doubt about it, to jointly manage the Preah Vihear temple," said Son Chhay. "The Cambodians will get ownership and the Thais will get casinos and hotels. I have no proof in terms of black and white evidence on paper. But we have evidence of meetings between Thai and senior members of the Cambodian government pointing to a deal."

In Thailand, embattled Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej cannot be seen to be losing political ground to opposition or literal ground to Cambodia. The issue has already caused the resignation of Noppadon Pattama as foreign minister, and he said on July 20 that there is a "systematic attempt to destroy his government".

According to Mong Hay, the Thai government seems to have overreacted to its people's burst of nationalism by sending troops to the temple's area, which only provoked the Cambodian government to send troops up there as well.

"Both sides will only lose if they cannot defuse the tension. It is unlikely the Thais can get back the temple, though they could well turn this highland into their own Golan Heights," Mong Hay told Asia Times Online.

Tragic Past
The Preah Vihear temple had a grim significance during Cambodia's years of civil conflict. In 1979, it was where Thailand forcibly repatriated thousands of Cambodian refugees who had fled across the mountain border to escape the Khmer Rouge, ordering them to march down the steep slopes back to their country.

As British journalist William Shawcross wrote of the scene in his book The Quality of Mercy: The path down the mountains became steeper, the jungle thicker. Dozens, scores of people fell onto mines. Those with possessions had to abandon them to carry their children down. One group of refugees desperately pooled whatever valuables they had left, filled two buckets with them, and walked back up toward the Thai soldiers, carrying a white flag. The soldiers took the buckets and then shot the refugees."

The temple, which has been described as an "oasis of peace" was only regained by Cambodian government troops from the Khmer Rouge in 1998. If the situation worsens it could again become the site of conflict among ethnic Khmers.

Many of the Thai troops now camped outside the holy site are from Thailand's Isan and Surin areas which have been home to generations of ethnic Khmer. Accounts from the stalemate zone have reported that Khmer speakers have jokingly promised to shoot in the air rather than at their Khmer brothers.

Craig Guthrie is a reporter for the Mekong Times newspaper in Phnom Penh. He has covered Cambodian affairs since 2004.

(Additional reporting by Inter Press Service.)

(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Labels: Election, Preah Vihear

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Thai, Cambodian envoys set temple talks

Thai, Cambodian Envoys Set Temple Talks

SISAKET PROVINCE, Thailand (CNN) -- The foreign ministers of Thailand and Cambodia will meet Monday in an effort to resolve a weeklong military standoff over an ancient border temple that sits on disputed land, Thailand's prime minister said Thursday.

The meeting will take place in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Monday -- a day after Cambodia's general election on Sunday, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej told CNN.

An eight-hour meeting between Thai and Cambodian officials ended earlier this week with both sides agreeing on only one point: that troops each country has amassed at the site of the Preah Vihear temple will not fire on each other, the Thai News Agency reported.

For now, the countries are seeking regional intervention from their Southeast Asian neighbors.

Foreign ministers of the 10 countries that comprise the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in Singapore this week.

Sundaravej spoke to his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Sen, on Thursday to arrange next week's high-level meeting. He said Hun agreed to stop pursuing the issue at the U.N. Security Council. Cambodia had sent a letter to the council to call attention to the standoff.

The dispute is over an 11th-century temple to which Cambodia and Thailand both lay claim. It sits atop a cliff on Cambodian soil but has its most accessible entrance on the Thai side.

The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962. Thailand claims, however, that the 1.8-square-mile (4.6-square-kilometer) area around it was never fully demarcated.

Thailand says the dispute arose from the fact that the Cambodian government used a map drawn during the French occupation of Cambodia -- a map that places the temple and surrounding area in Cambodian territory.

This month, the United Nations approved Cambodia's application to have the temple listed as a World Heritage Site -- places that the U.N. says have outstanding universal value.

The decision reignited tensions, with some in Thailand fearing it will make it difficult for their country to lay claim to disputed land around the temple.

Opposition parties in Thailand used the issue to attack the government, which initially backed the heritage listing.

Cambodian leader Hun Sen, who has been in power since the mid-1980s, has portrayed the U.N. recognition as a national triumph in the run-up to the general elections.

The current flare-up began July 15, when Cambodian guards briefly detained three Thais who crossed into the area. Once they were let go, the three refused to leave the territory.

Cambodia claims Thailand sent troops to retrieve the trio and gradually built up their numbers. Thailand denies that, saying its troops are deployed in Thai territory

Labels: Preah Vihear

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The Rule of Murderers and Thieves

’’The Rule of Murderers and Thieves’’

A Cambodian opposition leader has little hope that his country's upcoming election will be free or fair. Why he's fighting hard anyway.

Eric Pape

Newsweek Web Exclusive

Updated: 11:46 AM ET Jul 23, 2008

Cambodia was once the grand international project. Before the upheavals of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, the global community launched an ambitious plan to heal a ruined country through diplomacy, development and democracy. It's been an uneven road--littered with hundreds of bodies, questionable elections and billions of aid dollars.

The next milestone comes on July 27, the day Cambodians will take part in national polls to choose a prime minister for the third time since 1993, when the United Nations oversaw one of the biggest electoral projects in its history. Outside Cambodia, the world may be focusing on whether a war-crimes tribunal will finally bring some hint of justice for the 1.8 million victims of the Khmer Rouge nearly three decades after the regime fell, but inside the country voters have more pressing concerns: rising inflation, glaring corruption (including government-backed land seizures) and an ever-larger gap between the wealthy and the dirt-poor.

A dozen parties qualified to run parliamentary candidates, but two main contenders for the premiership stand out. The People's Party of incumbent Prime Minister Hun Sen--a former communist and one-time low-level Khmer Rouge commander who remains an intimidating presence after more than two decades in power--holds 73 seats. The other is Sam Rainsy, a former finance minister who has long railed against corruption and was almost killed during a hit-squad attack during a 1997 protest. (A quick-moving bodyguard sacrificed his life by jumping in front of Rainsy; he was among the 13 confirmed dead.) Rainsy's party, which currently holds 24 parliamentary seats, appears likely to benefit from internal divisions in the royalist FUNCINPEC party, which currently holds 26 seats and is the junior partner in the current coalition government. But given Hun Sen's near absolute control of Cambodian television, radio, the courts and the electoral structures that validate elections, any meaningful decline in his power would amount to a stunning blow.

NEWSWEEK's Eric Pape spoke by cell phone with Cambodia's opposition leader about his third run against archrival Hun Sen, the "curse" of oil discoveries and the rise of Chinese influence. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: As with the last three elections, rights groups are reporting political murders of government opponents during this campaign…
Sam Rainsy: [Last week] a journalist from the Khmer Conscience newspaper, Khim Sambo, and his 21-year-old son, were killed near the Olympic Market in Phnom Penh by a motorcycle hit squad. These are the sixth and seventh murders linked to politics in this campaign.

But [Hun Sen allies] also threaten villagers. "And if you vote for the opposition," they are told, "there could be civil war; your homes could be destroyed." They can lose their livelihoods, even their cows.

How is this campaign different from the last three?
There is less killing, less violence and more subtle tricks to disenfranchise. Many people's names are not on the voter rolls. All of the government's supporters will have the right to vote--and they have "ghost voters" to inflate those numbers--but many others will not be able to vote.

What do you expect to happen on Election Day?
The [ruling People's Party] will organize something very exceptional; otherwise their result will be very bad. So they threaten and buy off party agents [party appointees who help monitor the election], so that they turn a blind eye to cheating. This leads to another problem: there are a few hundred international observers for 15,000 polling and ballot-counting stations; how can they guarantee a fair election?

The final results depend on the degree of manipulation. If we can prevent, resist or overcome this, we will have more votes than last time. But in the end, if they use violence, manipulation and money to buy party agents and neutralize observers, they can proclaim any result that they want.

Is your campaigning causing you trouble in Cambodian courts?
There are lawsuits accusing me of insulting the country's leaders. I publicized a report by [environmental watchdog] Global Witness that was banned in Cambodia because it describes some leaders as "thieves." So I said: "Our leaders are thieves, according to Global Witness." I mentioned it, so I may be liable to five fines of up to 10 million riels [$2,410 each]. But people who steal from the country are thieves.

Hun Sen recently said that he had stopped talking to the opposition because they only insult him.
If Hun Sen doesn't talk to the opposition, I don't mind. As long as he doesn't kill the opposition.

Why is Hun Sen still prime minister after a quarter century?
He is clever and very gifted. He is a survivor, but survival means there is no vision. You eliminate or weaken opponents, but he is leading the country nowhere. This can't last forever. There is growing unemployment, accelerating inflation, ongoing land grabs, continuing poverty, the using-up of natural resources. There are economic crimes and impunity for violent crimes and assassinations. It is the rule of murderers and thieves.

How will the discovery of oil deposits affect Cambodia?
If things stay as they are, it will mean more problems and instability, more corruption and poverty. It will be a curse--unless there is more pressure for Cambodia to become a real democracy. Then these new resources could be used to develop the country and its human resources, to strengthen democracy. But if Hun Sen remains in power, we will go the way of Nigeria.

How has the international role in Cambodia evolved?
Hun Sen needs the recognition of the West, but he no longer needs its money. China brings money to Cambodia without taking an interest in human rights or democratic conditions. And it is lucrative for China here; they enjoy the natural resources. In different forms, China is probably the largest investor in Cambodia. You can see it even in education now. There are hundreds of Chinese schools, recently built, with funds from Chinese authorities. And more and more Chinese companies come in "under the table."

The West is losing its power here. And when we get oil revenues, Western countries' leverage will be even smaller. There are just a few more years now when Western countries can still press for change. After that, it will be impossible. So the will of the Cambodian people must be expressed properly now. If the West allows it to be distorted again, it is the worst service they could render to Cambodians.

Is it possible to have a free election in Cambodia?
No. You have to measure the degree of unfairness. The question is: how unfair and how unfree?

Can you campaign?
We don't have access to broadcast media, and we have to rely on word of mouth, and there are dangers, but we still try.

You accuse the government of cheating in each election; why do you keep running for office?
If we persevere we will reach our goal in time. Despite the problems, our vote increases in each election. And even the most powerful dictators make mistakes. Who predicted the fall of the Soviet Union and its disintegration? They were much more powerful than Cambodia's leaders.

There is a wave of change, in mentalities and expectations. People say: We've had nearly 30 years of Hun Sen. They say, "K'plo," "change, change, change." Hun Sen thinks he is a giant who can sit on a volcano and keep it down, but it could blow at any moment.

Labels: CPP, Election, hun sen, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party

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Preah Vihear Dominates Pre-Election as Cambodia Seeks UNSC Resolution

Graphic fact file on the temple dispute. The UN Security Council is expected to discuss a tense military standoff between Cambodia and Thailand this week as more troops amassed along the border, officials said. (AFP Graphic)

Preah Vihear Dominates Pre-Election as Cambodia Seeks UNSC Resolution

By Luke Hunt
23 Jul 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (World Politics Review) -- Cambodian authorities have called for a special U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at resolving a border dispute with Thailand as a wave of nationalism sweeps the country ahead of national elections on Sunday.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Tuesday Cambodia's ambassador in New York had sought the request, as a troop build-up around a 900-year-old temple in this country's remote northwest continues. Reports Wednesday indicated that the Security Council would discuss the issue at a Thursday meeting.

"Thai troops with artilleries and tanks are building up along the border, constituting a very serious threat not only to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia but also to peace and stability in our region," Hor Namhong told a diplomatic and press briefing July 22.

Flanked by ambassadors and delegates from at least 15 countries, including the U.S., Britain, Australia and France, Hor Namhong warned Thai soldiers had positioned themselves among Khmers living on the Cambodian side of the border "thereby causing a volatile and tense situation" and security council intervention was necessary "to avoid armed confrontation."

He has also asked the 10-member regional bloc, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Cambodia and Thailand are both members, to help resolve the crisis, which has dominated the lead-up to the national poll.

Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) are widely expected to win Sunday's election outright on the back of a booming local economy and the rising tide of nationalism that followed UNESCO's July 7 decision to grant Preah Vihear temple on the disputed border with Thailand, a world heritage listing.

Bangkok had opposed the move and dispatched troops into the area on July 15. Phnom Penh countered, enlisting the help of retired Khmer Rouge soldiers, and a tense stand-off has ensued as politicians tried this week to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal.

But as far as Phnom Penh is concerned, international courts have long recognized Cambodian sovereignty over Preah Vihear.

Hor Namhong said Thailand had violated the international boundary between the two countries, which was established in 1908 between then Siam and France, the colonial rulers of Cambodia. This placed Preah Vihear 700 meters inside Cambodia.

That agreement was later challenged, with the International Court of Justice ruling in Cambodia's favor in 1962.

The U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli said while the U.N. Security Council would consider Phnom Penh's request, it would be preferable to see a bilateral resolution to the dispute negotiated between Cambodia and Thailand.

UNESCO's heritage recognition was successfully portrayed here as a government victory in international diplomacy. Thousands have turned out at rallies, marched, prayed and descended upon the ruins at Preah Vihear and this is expected to translate into extra votes for the CPP when the ballots are cast.

A constitutional amendment that allows a party to rule outright with 51 percent of the seats in parliament was also expected to provide the CPP with a lift.

Previously an unattainable two-thirds majority was required to effectively rule, and this often resulted in messy coalitions, political horse trading and bickering.

It took Hun Sen 12 months to forge a government after the 2003 poll.

Meanwhile, allegations of corruption and a sex scandal involving royalist party Funcinpec's former leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh have further damaged any chance the royalists had of improving on their miserable showing in the last election.

The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) is expected to do well in the cities and could improve its position among rural voters after heavy campaigning in the countryside.

But the SRP is up against the CPP's well-oiled logistics and organizational structure, which blankets this country and is riding high on the Preah Vihear issue, and an economic boom not seen since the Vietnam War tipped Cambodia into decades of civil conflict in the early 1970s.

The current economic good times are being attributed mainly to 10 years of relative peace and stability under the CPP, and many observers and opposition politicians fear Hun Sen could completely obliterate their ranks at the weekend poll.

The standoff over Preah Vihear has also distracted attention from an election campaign that has shown some familiar and violent patterns from the past.

"Unfortunately, Preah Vihear has all Cambodians worried and all the media's attention is focused on Preah Vihear," said Kek Galabru, president of the human rights group Licadho. "People aren't receiving all the information they need to make an informed decision because of Preah Vihear."

She said suspected electoral-related killings, vote buying, and politically inspired arrests had been reported, adding: "How can you have free and fair elections when a journalist is killed, one who wrote articles that were against the government."

Khim Sambo, a journalist who wrote for a pro-SRP newspaper, and his son were shot dead while riding their motorbike home on a busy Phnom Penh street on July 11.

However, determining what constitutes electoral-related violence is difficult in a country where guns are common amid a notorious culture of impunity and some observers fear elections have even become a time to settle old political scores with violence.

Despite this, election monitors mostly agreed this year's campaign was a vast improvement on previous efforts, the first of which was in 1993, when a U.N.-sponsored poll designed to restore Cambodian democracy after decades of war was plagued by violence.

The suspected electoral-related death toll stands at 13, almost half the reported killings in 2003.

"The numbers have decreased but there should not be one killing," Galabru told World Politics Review. "Only when there is not one killing can an election be seen as free."

Luke Hunt is a Hong Kong-based correspondent and a frequent World Politics Review contributor.

Labels: Election, Preah Vihear, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party

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Two Cambodian Journalists Win Hellman/Hammett Writer’s Award

Rights Group Honors Defenders of Independent Media in Cambodia

(New York, July 22, 2008 - ) – Two young Cambodian journalists, Chheang Bopha and Duong Sokha, are among a diverse group of 34 writers from 19 countries to receive the prestigious Hellman/Hammett writer’s award, which recognizes courage in the face of political persecution, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Hellman/Hammett grants, administered by Human Rights Watch, are given annually to writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution or human rights abuses. The grant program began in 1989 when the American playwright Lillian Hellman willed that her estate be used to assist writers in financial need as a result of expressing their views.

“Chheang Bopha and Duong Sokha represent a small minority among Cambodia’s press corps who dare to challenge corrupt and politically biased institutions through their writings and their actions,” said Sara Colm, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Bopha, 28, and Sokha, 27, worked as reporters at Cambodge Soir, Cambodia’s leading French language daily newspaper. They quit in 2007 to protest the dismissal of a colleague who was fired for writing about a report by Global Witness, an international environmental organization, that documented the alleged complicity of top government officials in illegal logging.

Striking Cambodian staff elected Sokha as their spokesperson to demand that Cambodge Soir reinstate the fired journalist and guarantee editorial independence. The newspaper’s owners responded by closing the paper and reopening it several months later under new editorial management. Most of the former employees eventually returned to work without reassurances of editorial independence, but Sokha and Bopha refused despite intense pressure to do so.

They both pursued far less lucrative work in journalism teaching before eventually joining forces with other journalists to start an independent internet publication in Cambodian and French, Ka-Set (http://www.ka-set.info). Bopha will soon be leaving to pursue a master’s degree in journalism at the Training Center for Professional Journalists in Paris.

“In a climate of increased suppression of free expression and attacks against independent media – including from the highest levels of the government – few journalists dare challenge the system,” said Colm. “Sokha and Bopha aim to uphold professional media standards in a country with few truly independent media outlets.”

Ka-set was the brainchild of a group of four former Cambodge Soir journalists and a Magnum photojournalist. Originally launched in March 2008 with the journalists’ own money, the internet publication uses a multimedia approach to cover a wide range of issues – politics, justice, human rights, economics, Khmer Rouge, environment, culture and society. Access is free, and income comes from advertising, although the team, now numbering 10, is currently seeking additional support.

“The rare professional skills, ethics and courage exhibited by Duong Sokha and Chheang Bopha should be applauded and encouraged, especially at a time when independent journalism in Cambodia is increasingly at risk,” said Colm.

The Cambodian government controls all broadcast media and regularly suspends, threatens, or takes legal action against journalists or news outlets that criticize the government. In addition, reporters risk dismissal, physical attack, or even death for coverage of controversial issues. Earlier this month, for example, gunmen shot and killed Khim Sambo, a journalist for Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), a newspaper affiliated with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).

“As political power is increasingly consolidated in Cambodia in the run-up to the July 27 national elections, so is control over the media,” said Colm.

In June, military police arrested Moneaksekar Khmer editor, Dam Sith, who is also running as a SRP candidate in the elections, after the paper reported on allegations about the current foreign minister’s role during the Khmer Rouge regime.

In 2007, a reporter in Pursat Province was the victim of two attempted arson attacks on his home, which the local police chief attributed to the reporter’s coverage of illegal logging. In June 2007, the government banned Global Witness’s report on illegal logging. Journalists who covered the report and people who helped prepare it received anonymous death threats.

Bopha holds bachelor’s degrees in French literature from Phnom Penh University and in management from the National University of Management. At Cambodge Soir she covered the human rights beat, vividly documenting the plight of Khmer Rouge victims, garment workers, women, ethnic minorities and children. She has also worked as a correspondent for Radio France International, Radio Free Asia, and International Press Service. In 2003, she assisted with the production of a documentary film, “Les Artistes du Theatre Brulé”, by Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh. Bopha has also taught print journalism at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Sokha studied French at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. During his four years at Cambodge Soir, Sokha was known for his reporting on justice, human rights and politics. In addition, he has worked as a French lecturer at the Royal University of Law and Economics, an event promoter for the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center, and a television reporter for “Cambodian Voices,” broadcast on TV-9 in Cambodia.

“Though young, both Bopha and Sokha are respected for their leadership and integrity during and after the newspaper strike, as well as their hard-hitting coverage of social issues and human rights,” said Colm.

Since 1989, Human Rights Watch has administered the Hellman/Hammett awards, which have been given to nearly 700 writers – including 10 Cambodians – over the 19 years of the program. The Hellman/Hammett program also makes small emergency grants to writers who have an urgent need to leave their country or who need immediate medical treatment after serving prison terms or enduring torture

Labels: Election, Journalism, journalist

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Scribe's Murder, Temple Dispute Muddy Cambodian Polls

By ANDREW NETTE / IPS WRITER
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

PHNOM PENH (irrawaddy.org) — Cambodia has entered the final week of its national election campaign shocked by the murder of a well-known journalist and facing an increasingly tense standoff with Thailand over a disputed 11th century Hindu temple.

The July 11 slaying of Khim Sambo in a drive-by-shooting in Phnom Penh has cast a cloud over the poll, which until then had been largely free of serious violence, and sent shock waves through the journalist community.

"For Cambodian people it is scary," said Kek Galabru, president of Licadho, a prominent local human rights organization that is investigating the incident. "The killing will have a negative impact on the election. In journalists it will increase self-censorship. There is a chilling effect. Everyone is wondering who will be next."

Although some have claimed that the Sambo killing was an election-related political assassination, no evidence has been produced to back this.

"We estimate at 70 percent (probability) that this is a revenge case," Phnom Penh police commissioner Touch Naroth told the media last week. "The journalist could have had personal conflicts."

The most feasible explanation, according to local and international human rights groups, is that Sambo was killed because of his articles.

A veteran reporter for the newspaper ‘Monseaseka,’ or Khmer Conscience, which is affiliated to the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), the country’s main opposition political party, Sambo reported on issues relating to corruption, land grabbing and other controversial topics.

Monseaseka’s editor, Dam Sith, an SRP election candidate, was last month charged with defamation against a senior government minister and jailed for a week.

In a statement the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was "concerned that Sambo may have been targeted in reprisal for his reporting on government corruption."

"My feeling is that it is certainly related to what he wrote," said Galabru. "Whatever the case, there was a crime and we want the authorities to mount a serious investigation to being the perpetrators to justice."

No one has yet been arrested for the killing and opposition parties and human rights investigators are pessimistic that any one will be.

According to the United Nations Office of High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia, Sambo’s killing is one of eight similar murders and attempted murders of journalists since 1994.

In all the cases cited by OHCHR no one was arrested and the perpetrators remain at large.

The uncertainty relating to Sambo’s death says much about the difficulties facing journalists in Cambodia. Almost all Cambodia’s media is politically aligned, either through the direct ownership by parties or by wealthy individuals who have strong political connections.

According to a May 2008 Licadho study on the state of the country’s media, journalists are typically poorly paid and many live in fear of physical or legal attack because of their work. "Fear is a fact of life for many of Cambodia’s journalists," it said.

The study cited a 2007 survey of 150 journalists which showed that 65 percent of them were afraid of being physically attacked, and 62 percent feared legal action. "More tellingly, 54 percent said they had been threatened with physical harm or legal action,’’ the survey said.

The report also stated that problems also arise from endemic corruption in the media, with many journalists regularly taking bribes for favorable coverage or for not reporting stories.

"Even if it (the Sambo killing) is not politically related the environment of fear it creates is a serious issue", said Mar Sophal, monitoring coordinator with the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia.

It is difficult to get accurate figures on the number of killings and acts of violence related to the election.

According to Sophal, by the end of last week there had been at least four politics-related deaths during the official four-week campaign period. Three of the victims were CPP-affiliated activists. The fourth was an opposition party supporter.

Another issue creating uncertainty in the closing stages of the Sunday election is the escalating dispute between Phnom Penh and Bangkok over the ownership of the Preah Vihear temple that stands on the border between the two neighboring countries.

The standoff has placed Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) in a difficult position.

They must prevent a broader conflict while placating public anger over the presence of Thai soldiers in the temple, which many in the Khmer media are calling "an invasion".

The United Nations’ recognition of the temple as Cambodian produced a massive public outpouring of national fervor across the country, with mass rallies, cultural celebrations and fireworks displays. CPP officials were quick to credit the World Heritage committee’s decision to Hun Sen’s leadership and placed advertisements in all the Khmer newspapers stating this.

"They have tried to take credit for it and have used the state budget to promote themselves as heroes," said Son Chhay, an SRP parliamentarian. "Now they have backed off given their desire not to antagonize the Thais."

In a letter sent Saturday to the Thai Prime Minister, Hun Sen maintained the temple is Cambodian, but pressed for a negotiated end to the stalemate.

Indeed, it is the opposition parties that are now trying to take advantage of the situation.

In a statement released last week the SRP called the presence of Thai soldiers at the temple "an invasion" and said the government should refuse to negotiate "as long as the Thai government remains on Cambodian territory".

It demanded the withdrawal of the Thai ambassador and steps to "strengthen the armed forces into a national army that is capable and well-equipped with adequate weapons to withstand the invasion of neighboring countries."

Labels: Election, Journalism, journalist

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Towards Hun Sen's Cambodia

Towards Hun Sen's Cambodia

By Craig Guthrie

PHNOM PENH - Even though Cambodia goes to the polls Sunday for the country's fourth general election since Vietnamese occupation ended in 1989, Prime Minister Hun Sen can comfortably escape the chaotic campaign noise in his heavily guarded, villa-studded compound in suburban Phnom Penh and light up a well-earned 555 cigarette - his smoke of choice since his soldiering days.

The one-eyed, chain-smoking "Strongman of Cambodia" could play a casual round of golf at the private course kept groomed at the complex known to locals as the "Tiger's Lair", or maybe take a helicopter trip from the adjacent military airfield used to whisk him up and down his impoverished nation. In fact, as his foes rally and march around the capital, it probably doesn't matter much what Hun Sen does.

Outside in the streets, colorful campaign convoys are clogging Phnom Penh's frangipani-lined boulevards, with truck-mounted bullhorns and the frenetic clashing of cymbals and drums promoting their respective candidates. The scenes are colorful and vibrant, the atmosphere intense, but many say the underlying political picture is actually black and white.

By all accounts, 57-year-old Hun Sen, in power since 1985, has little to worry from the oncoming polls; in recent months he has increasingly consolidated his hold over the electorate through a masterful opera of jibes, scaremongering and gold-toothed charm.

By outfoxing an already fractured opposition, wooing billions in foreign investment and artfully placating the once-powerful labor movement and previously hostile superpowers, the master manipulator has again outmaneuvered his rivals.

Hun Sen - riding a booming economy, hard-won social stability and a vast network of patronage and blood relations [One big happy family in Cambodia, Asia Times Online, March 20, 2007] - has all but ensured that he and his formerly communist Cambodian People's Party (CPP) will head the country when the potentially boundless riches from oil deposits, found by Chevron off the southwestern coast, begin to flow.

Hun Sen is in full grip of the nation's institutions and tightly aligned with its wealthiest tycoons. He has predicted that his CPP machine will win 81of the National Assembly's 123 seats and 73% of the vote. The margin of victory is probably immaterial, since the country, as proposed by opposition party leader Sam Rainsy, adopted a 50-plus-one seat requirement in 2004 to form a government, replacing the previous two-thirds of the vote rule. The proposal was passed to avoid a repeat of the political stalemates which destabilized the country following the 1998 and 2003 elections, and resulted in fractious coalition governments.

Even so, Hun Sen has been openly deriding his opponent's chances for months. In recent weeks he has told them they can "stay at home" on election day, and has announced that he himself will sit out the last few weeks of the campaign in order to avoid "verbal confrontations".

In another speech, the prime minister pre-picked his cabinet while comparing his management style to Manchester United's football manager Alex Ferguson. This is classic Hun Sen: a powerful orator who mixes paddy-field populism, personal potshots and home-spun humor to embolden his allies and intimidate his foes. In 2006, he laughed at a foiled government attack, saying in a speech reported by the Phnom Penh Post: "I know all. Even if you farted, I would still know. You cannot hide from me."

In the past he has said he has no intention of standing down as prime minister until he is at least 90 years old. This would be a remarkable run: he became the Vietnamese-backed premier of Cambodia in 1985, when he was 33.

As the country some call Asia's "best kept secret" heads into its Fourth Mandate - what the new government will be called - Cambodia is more than ever Hun Sen's nation. This sits poorly with his legion of critics, some of whom have labeled the CPP regime a corrupt "kleptocratic elite" with little regard for the millions of rural rice farmers living in abject poverty. Others, including diplomats, say worse.

In 2006, UN high commissioner for human rights Louis Arbour called the problems within the Cambodian judiciary "profound". Dr Lao Mong Hay, senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission, wrote in a June 18 editorial,

...institutions remain subject to the control inherited from pre-1993 communist days, and are utilized to serve the interests of the ruling class rather than those of the people. Although Cambodia has held periodic elections, and preparations for the forthcoming election are underway, its multi-party, liberal democracy has little substance

The National Election Committee is regularly accused by the opposition of a lack of independence, and many independent election monitoring groups have alleged that state resources and media have been deployed to the ruling party's electoral advantage.

"Never assume that Cambodia is a democracy," said Chea Vannath, a political commentator. "If a democracy is when a nation is ruled by a government chosen by its people, yes, Cambodia is democratic. But in terms of governance, Cambodia is a different story. There is no check and balance on the executive branch, the judiciary or the monarchy."

In recent weeks he has also even veered away from an earlier commitment to adopt a long-awaited draft anti-corruption law, which foreign donors and civil society groups have long clamored for. And he's deployed old-fashioned scaremongering to justify the controversial move.

"Will corrupt officials agree to any confiscation of their riches? No. Then war will erupt," said Hun Sen in a speech broadcast on national radio at the end of May. "After confiscating for a while, all the rich people will all become poor - as in Khmer Rouge times - more than 3 million people will be destroyed. Don't play with that," he said.

A temple revisited

The country's millions of impoverished farmers and fishermen, for years saturated with state-controlled media looping four-hour-long Hun Sen speeches interspersed with reels of CPP officials handing over packs of instant noodles to needy villagers, are likely headed towards five more years of inequality, drudgery, and bad TV.

The premier's media-influenced popularity was recently pushed to greater heights by the listing last week of the Preah Vihear temple complex as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) national heritage site. When the decision was announced live on national channel CTN, Hun Sen's image was shown with revolving stars around it. A televised concert held to celebrate the listing was attended by hosts regularly shouting words of support for Hun Sen among other cheers of national glory.

The ensuing border tension with Thailand over the controversial listing will be a strong test of his government's ability to stand up to stronger neighbors before a watchful Cambodian public in the heat of an election season. Aside from the temple tiff, a closer look at the less-monitored countryside has revealed that the level of political killings, threats and intimidation that have marred previous elections has substantially diminished in the run-up to this weekend's polls.

But the lack of violence is probably more a testament to the CPP's successful vanquishing of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party's (SRP) grassroots machinery. The opposition's hardship has been brewing for months, due in part to some deft political maneuvers by Hun Sen and the CPP political machine. But their spectacular collapse in the lead-up to the July 27 election has still surprised many political observers. The SRP has been deflated by the defection of more than 20 high profile lawmakers and tens of thousand of grassroots members party executives claims the CPP has bought to switch sides.

"We have seen a people buying campaign ... Prime minister Hun Sen actively seeks out SRP members by using money as bait Each member receives at least US$2,000, and those with high positions in the SRP receive US$200,000," said Rainsy in a recent letter. "I am worried and feel pity for those [defectors] who get cheated. After the election they will be kicked out," he said. Hun Sen responded by saying that SRP defectors "are not goods or animals to be bought and sold".

The SRP has been left meek, and hoping for a highly unlikely post-election "people power" movement to challenge a CPP-dominated government. The SRP campaign has revolved mostly around the now globally recognized opposition stratagem of pointing to high oil and food prices as the incumbent government's failure to serve its people. But both strategies seem doomed to failure: a planned "mass rally" of SRP supporters against inflation saw a mere 300 supporters turn out, leading Hun Sen to quip that a local midget comedian usually has more people in his audience.

The punch-drunk party has also lost one of its more meaningful friends in the trade unions movement, which has the power to mobilize hundreds of thousands of garment and factory workers in a mass protest. The leader of the largest union, Chea Mony - whose brother popular SRP-affiliated union leader Chea Vichea was gunned down in 2004 - announced earlier this year the bloc was withdrawing from politics. The decision almost immediately followed Hun Sen's announcement of a $6 monthly increase to garment workers monthly salaries - bringing them to $56.

The loss of the trade unions - the largest organized sector in Cambodia - is a double blow to Rainsy, who, along with Chea Vichea and Ou Mary, founded the labor movement in 1996.

Opposition off the rails

Rainsy, a former minister of finance who was sacked for complaining about corruption, has tried another political tack. In several well-publicized broadsides, he has attacked the personal backgrounds of what he claims to be former Khmer Rouge members in Hun Sen's government. He recently alleged to supporters at a Buddhist ceremony at the Choeung Ek "killing fields" that CPP stalwart and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong was once chief of the Khmer Rouge-run Boeung Trabek "re-education" center, where thousands of diplomats and intellectuals were interred before execution.

Hor Namhong rebuked the accusation, claiming he was instead a liaison between the prisoners and the wardens at the camp and insisting that several of his close family members were executed there. He filed a defamation lawsuit against Rainsy, but the salvo provided little political capital for the SRP. The arrest of an opposition-aligned newspaper editor who reprinted Rainsy's allegations drew international condemnation, but hardly enough to improve the SRP's electoral chances. Nor has international outcry over the assassination of SRP-aligned journalist Khim Sambor and his son, who were shot and killed in a drive-by shooting on July 11.

The other main opposition party, the royalist Funcinpec, has also disintegrated in the run-up to the polls. Crafty, almost choreographed, moves saw the party's past leader and erstwhile Hun Sen rival, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, ousted in an inter-party coup. The move was orchestrated by Nhiek Bun Chhay, secretary general of the party and a former defense minister. Funcinpec is still the coalition partner of the CPP, but since the ouster of Ranariddh, has been widely seen as a puppet of the ruling party.

Ranariddh was subsequently convicted for pocketing $3.6 million from the sale of Funcinpec's former headquarters and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, a move some have attributed to Hun Sen's alleged influence over the courts. He fled the country in December 2005, and has since resorted to giving telephone speeches to embattled supporters of his new Norodom Ranariddh Party from self-exile in Malaysia.

In June, Ranariddh reportedly sent Hun Sen a humbling private note asking for the return of his private jet. Meanwhile, his magnificent $2 million colonial-era villa in the center of Phnom Penh has already been sold off by the government to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia, which plans to turn it into a carbon-friendly boutique hotel. Hun Sen has said Ranariddh will be "handcuffed and taken to jail", if he returns to Cambodia and has blocked any chance or a royal pardon.

The fledgling Human Rights Party, led by self-styled people's champion Kem Sokha and backed by controversial former head of state Pen Sovann, is assured of winning at least a handful of seats. The party may have carved a small nationalist niche among the electorate, and like the SRP is known to have had US backers. Sokha left his previous organization, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, under a cloud of scandal as 16 former employees accused him of corruption and embezzlement from the US-financed group.

Despite Sokha's grassroots popularity, his HRP is not seen as a major threat to the CPP juggernaut. Nor is the US seen as overtly supporting any particular opposition party, as it has been perceived of in the past. Washington, which in 2004 threatened Cambodia with sanctions for lack of progress on trafficking issues, has since given the nation a glowing report its latest human trafficking report.

The US Embassy in Phnom Penh has commended the lack of violence in this year's election build-up, though it reacted strongly and offered Federal Bureau of Investigation assistance following the murder of Sambor. Washington has taken a softer line towards Cambodia in the past year as China moves to increase its local influence. After Chevron's apparent discovery of oil and gas, the US this year lifted a 10-year ban on direct aid to Cambodia in February and re-started direct military aid in May.

Assuming that the oil and gas deposits are actually there, an energy bonanza would profoundly change the Cambodian economy and its terms of trade. Drilling by a Singaporean firm began in mid-July and state and private companies from China, South Korea, Japan and France are currently negotiating contracts related to the find. Although the government is still awaiting a key assessment from Chevron, estimates range from anywhere between $200 million to $2 billion a year in potential revenues.

That should provide plenty of resources for Hun Sen to further consolidate his political dominance, and if this weekend's elections produce the landslide win for his CPP many analysts project, could signal the beginning of a new era of one-party rule in Cambodia.

Craig Guthrie is a reporter for the Mekong Times newspaper in Phnom Penh. He has covered Cambodian affairs since 2004.

(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Labels: Chea Vichea, CPP, Election, hun sen, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party, SRP

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Cambodia informs compatriots about Thai encroachment of its territory

Cambodian military police patrol Preah Vihear temple, 245 km (152 miles) north of Phnom Penh, July 21, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Cambodia Informs Compatriots About Thai Encroachment of Its Territory

PHNOM PENH, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has spoken more seriously about its border dispute with Thailand, as its foreign ministry issued a letter Tuesday to its compatriots to tell about the Thai occupation of its territory and the ensuing Thai military threat.

"On July 15 2008, the armed forces of Thailand encroached on Cambodian territory in the vicinity of the Preah Vihear Temple," said the letter dated Monday and made public Tuesday morning.

"Thailand has violated the international boundary of the two countries which had been delineated since 1908 by the Mixed Commission composed of representatives from Siam (now called Thailand) and a delegation of the Protectorate Power (namely France) representing Cambodia at that time," said the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the letter addressed to all the kingdom's compatriots.

"To date, the diplomatic efforts of the Royal Government of Cambodia to persuade Thailand to withdraw its troops and return to the status quo prior to July 15 2008 have been to no avail," it said.

"The negotiations were not successful because Thailand insisted on using a map drawn unilaterally, thus violating Cambodia's territory," it said.

Therefore, the ministry decided to "request for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to find a solution to the problem in accordance with international law," it added.

Hor Namhong, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is currently meeting with the ambassadors from the five permanent member countries of the UN Security Council and will hold a press conference before Tuesday noon to make clear Cambodia's latest reaction to the dispute.

Earlier Monday, he asked Singapore, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to rally the foreign ministers of Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos, to find a way to help ease the tension at the Cambodian-Thai border.

"Thai troops with artillery and tanks are building up along the border, constituting a very serious threat not only to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia, but also to peace and stability in the region," he told ASEAN in a letter.

Also Monday in Thailand, bilateral top-level talks failed to produce any consensus in regard with the military standoff near their border.

Last Tuesday, three Thai protesters trespassed the border to reclaim the temple, but were immediately arrested. Thai troops then came in to fetch them, thus triggering face-off with Cambodian soldiers there. Bilateral military build-up occurred dayby day. Currently, the troops there are widely estimated at thousands.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the 11th century classic Khmer-style Preah Vihear Temple, together with the land it occupies, to Cambodia. The decision has rankled the Thais ever since.

The temple straddles the Thai-Cambodian border atop the DangrekMountain and was listed as a World Heritage Site on July 7 by the UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.

Labels: Preah Vihear

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