Editorial | Articles about Cambodia | Khmer
Wednesday, 09 March 2011 15:00
Dara Saoyuth
Phnom Penh Post
People are sitting in a room looking at a large TV screen. They are watching a person on the screen and if they want to speak, they have to get out of their seats and go to a desk and talk in a microphone so that the person on the screen can hear and respond. This is the method employed by Sam Rainsy Party members to communicate with their leader, Sam Rainsy, who is now living in self-exile in France.
Sam Rainsy was convicted in January 2010 of destroying public property and racial incitement with Vietnam by pulling up border posts along the Vietnamese border in Svay Rieng province in 2009. On March 1, 2011, Cambodia’s Supreme Court rejected his appeal and his sentence of two years in jail still stands.
“The court is used as a political tool to shut Sam Rainsy’s mouth or eliminate him from the political arena since he is the leader of the opposition party,” said Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party.
On the other hand, Cheam Yeap, a senior Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker, said the ruling party did not order Sam Rainsy to remove the border posts. “Our country has law, so Sam Rainsy has to face court because of his wrongdoing, and if one day in the future I do something wrong, of course, I will face the court as well,” said Cheam Yeap.
A press release issued on February 22 by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights stated “the convictions against Sam Rainsy may leave the country’s largest opposition party without a leader at the next general election”.
Sam Rainsy fled the country in early 2009 and will serve 12 years in jail if he returns to Cambodia because in a separate case, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced him to an additional 10 years in jail on charges of forging public documents and disinformation after convicting him of disinformation and falsifying public documents.
The executive director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy (KID) in Cambodia, Hang Chhaya, said what has concerned him is that Cambodia is a democratic country, so Sam Rainsy’s case should not have reached the level of removing his parliamentary immunity and sentencing him since he had rights as a politician. “What the ruling party want is to make a good leader who people see, love and support, have to stay abroad as long as possible,” said Hang Chhaya.
While Prime Minister Hun Sen can stand and talk to CPP members and his supporters directly, Sam Rainsy needs support from technology to be able to communicate with SRP members and supporters.
However, Yim Sovann said the fact that Sam Rainsy is not in Cambodia is not a problem for the party. “If you want to meet the party leader, we can make a phone call or video conference that you can see the picture and there is no difference in communication by having or not having him present,” said Yim Sovann, adding that Sam Rainsy is still the party leader who leads meetings and keeps communicating between all levels of leaders and members.
While the frog tries harder, the snake also tries harder
To gain more support in the upcoming election, the HRP and SRP have been working on merging their parties. After the 2008 national election, on January 15, 2009, Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha signed on a joint declaration officially establishing the Democratic Movement for Change. Since then the alliance has not reached 100 percent agreement and recently each party created a working group of five people to discuss the merger.
Mu Sochua, a SRP lawmaker and one of the five people in a merger group on the SRP side, said some conflict of ideas and misunderstandings from the past were the reasons for slowing the merger.
However, she said she believed it would be successful soon. “We are democratic people and we have the same goal,” Mu Sochua said.
Mu Sochua said she was sure of success in the next election when the alliance reaches full agreement. She gave as an example Kampot province, where the SRP needs about 10,000 votes more to get one more parliament seat, however the HRU gets more than 14,000 votes. “Because we were not united at that time, about 14,000 votes were useless because none of us got any seats in parliament,” she said.
“Previously, we didn’t work well on the merger, but now we have a clear objective and we have clear steps to take,” Keat Sukun, a coordinator in merger group on the HRP side, said. He added that both sides had recently found common ground for a lasting unification of the parties.
Keat Sukun said that in Cambodia, each party cannot do everything alone and unification is very important in terms of exchanging human resources.
“It is the right decision to join as an alliance,” said Phnom Penh-based political analyst Chea Vannath, who explained that the seat allocation formula in Cambodia makes small political parties waste a lot of votes if they are not united.
However, she said she’s unsure if this unification can last much longer because, based on her observations, it seems easy to break up.
“To unite successfully, it’s very important to have trust building between the two parties, as wife and husband do,” said Chea Vannath. “We have to think that there will be a lot of obstacles with each step we take, and if we can trust each other, this unification will last forever.”
“While the frog tries harder, the snake also tries harder,” said Cheam Yeap, explaining that the ruling party was also working harder. Cheam Yeap said the ruling party did not fear the union of opposition parties.
However, he added: “All CPP members are not advised to ride a horse with a free hand.” He added that they are not just sitting there happy with their victory, but they are working to keep it.
Labels: Cambodia's Court, Cheam Yeap, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party
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February/March 2011
Staff | WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT
USAID FRONTLINE
The exchange of sex for money remains a major driver of the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout Southeast Asia, but the karaoke bars, massage parlors, beer gardens, and other settings where these transactions are brokered remain some of the most viable employment venues for vulnerable women.
In Cambodia—where more than 10 percent of female entertainment workers are infected with HIV, and more than 25 percent of these women and girls report having no education—USAID programming supported by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is implementing a new approach to reducing HIV risk by focusing on the central principle of the Global Health Initiative: that the health and well-being of women is key to the health of all.
Instead of exclusively focusing on distributing condoms and conducting risk-reduction education for high-risk women, the SmartGirl program aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health of its beneficiaries more broadly through linkages to personal counseling, voluntary family planning services, clinical care, savings schemes, and legal services.
Late last year, the program received a PEPFAR Heroes award from the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator for its efforts to reduce the risks associated with entertainment work, while also supporting women in the pursuit of other employment.
"We're committed to having women in the driver's seat," said Michael Cassell, the coordinator of the PEPFAR initiative in Cambodia. "SmartGirl is largely designed and run by entertainment workers to address their own felt needs. And the skills they acquire in the process help many of them to consider and pursue other careers, including ones in HIV and reproductive health service delivery."
Avoiding "Message Fatigue"
Previous HIV/AIDS programs have focused on raising awareness of HIV, and educating people about how to avoid getting infected. But by demonstrating that staying healthy is key to the pursuit of education, wealth, happiness, and other personal objectives, SmartGirl strives to engage beneficiaries while sidestepping some of the "message fatigue" and monotony associated with more didactic approaches. Education sessions are run by peers, cover a broad range of topics that are updated regularly, and offer referrals to free HIV testing, family planning, and other services.
During a recent visit to a SmartGirl club in Phnom Penh, U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) was inspired to join program beneficiaries in a rousing karaoke rendition of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," noting her appreciation for the leadership of club members in providing health education and referrals to health care, vocational training, and legal services to other entertainment workers.
"I am so proud of you," Richardson told the club members.
The SmartGirl program, which is implemented by USAID-partner Family Health International, currently provides services to 12,600 of the estimated 35,000 women working in clubs and night spots in Cambodia. The program is funded by PEPFAR but is consistent with the overarching objectives of the Global Health Initiative, the U.S. government's six-year, $63 billion commitment to help partner countries strengthen their health systems, with a particular focus on improving the health of women, newborns, and children.
"Almost 30 percent of entertainment workers in Cambodia report having an abortion in the past year, suggesting inconsistent condom use and unmet needs for family planning," said Cassell. "By linking these women to sexual and reproductive health services, we stand to prevent new HIV infections while also reducing maternal mortality—the latter arguably being Cambodia's biggest public health challenge."
A Model Approach
Cambodia is home to one of the most renowned national success stories in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Late last year, the country received international recognition in the form of a Millennium Development Goals country award for cutting adult HIV prevalence in half, from 2 percent to 0.9 percent between 1998 and 2006, while extending HIV-related care to more than 70 percent of HIV-infected adults, and HIV treatment to more than 90 percent of eligible individuals.
The estimated proportion of sex workers infected with HIV is down to around 10 percent from over 21 percent in 2003, according to the 2006 HIV Sentinel Surveillance (HSS). However, the maternal mortality ratio in Cambodia remains the second highest in East Asia.
"We're particularly excited about the potential of this program to serve as a model for the scale up of higher quality and more holistic approaches to address the needs of populations at high risk for HIV infection," said Cassell. "Many of the service delivery and referral protocols pioneered through SmartGirl are now being implemented as part of Cambodia's national program with support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria."
In the past decade, the U.S. government has invested more than $150 million in HIV/AIDS programs in the Southeast Asian nation, providing almost 40 percent of the resources available to the national response.
Labels: AIDS, HIV, Women
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Published: Wednesday, Mar 9, 2011, 14:27 IST
Place: PHNOM PENH | Agency: Reuters
The World Bank called on the Cambodian government on Wednesday to halt the eviction of another 10,000 people at a controversial real estate development and offered to help those who had lost their homes.
The dispute centres on land around Boeung Kak Lake in the capital, Phnom Penh. Activists say around 2,000 families have already been evicted and forced to accept minimal compensation after the government leased the land to a private developer.
"We are deeply troubled and frustrated about the people who are being forced from their homes," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a statement.
He said the World Bank would help those facing eviction and that it had offered the government financing and technical advice.
"We are open to other ways to help these people. We have repeatedly called on the government to end the evictions. We are seeking a positive government response," he added.
Land ownership is a big problem in the Southeast Asian country, where legal documents were destroyed and state institutions collapsed under the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s and the civil war that followed.
The World Bank had been helping the authorities with land management and administration but the government pulled out of the project in September 2009 because of rows over evictions.
"We call on the government to stop the evictions and to find a way to help the people. Over the last decade Cambodia has experienced high levels of economic growth, leading to increased pressure on land," said Annette Dixon, the World Bank's country director in Cambodia.
The World Bank statement acknowledged that people evicted from around Boeung Kak Lake had been "displaced in violation of the policies the Bank agreed with the government for handling resettlement" and that the Bank had been slow to respond.
A Cambodian government spokesperson declined to comment. An official working on the case said those who had already left the lake area had gone voluntarily and he denied activists' claims that the remaining families had been given a deadline to leave.
"We have accepted residents' request for talks on this on Friday," said Keut Chhe, deputy cabinet chief of Phnom Penh City Hall.
He said he could not comment on whether the government would renew its work on land management with the World Bank.
Labels: Boeung Kak Lake, eviction, landgrabbing, World Bank
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By John Boudreau
jboudreau@mercurynews.com
Posted: 02/26/2011 09:27:41 PM PST
Many Cambodians have lived the lives of ghosts in Silicon Valley, not seen or heard from much, quietly tormented every day and every night with unbearable memories of the genocide that wiped out entire families -- parents, spouses, children, extended relatives.
Now, finally, some of them will have their day in international court. When the second trial of alleged perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge genocide begins in a few months, members of the Cambodian community in the United States will be represented by attorneys at the proceedings.
On Saturday, about 50 members of Silicon Valley's 10,000 strong Cambodian community gathered at the Wat Khemara Rangsey Buddhist temple in East San Jose to hear about the upcoming trial of four senior Khmer Rouge leaders charged in connection with the deaths of 1.7 million people from execution, torture, starvation and disease from 1975 to 1979.
"For our clients, who have waited so long for this, it can be overwhelming to revisit the past," said Andrea Evans, legal director at the Center for Justice and Accountability, a San Francisco human rights legal group that will represent scores of Cambodians living in the U.S. before the United Nations-backed tribunal.
Sophany Bay, a 65-year-old San Jose counselor, is providing written testimony.
"For more than three decades, I waited to see justice," she said in a statement to the international court. "We are getting old. We want to see justice before we die."
The reason, Bay said Saturday, is that the nightmares never stop.
"I lost all my family," said Bay, whose three children died. One of them, a baby girl named Pom, died after a Khmer Rouge soldier injected something into her head.
"I don't have any siblings," she said. "I don't have any nephews. They killed my whole family."
Bay said she hasn't dreamed in the present ever since. All her dreams, she said, are of the past horrors in her homeland.
The once-powerful Khmer Rouge leaders who will stand before the tribunal as early as June are now in their late 70s and mid-80s. The complex trial could last as long as two to three years.
The defendants are Ieng Sary, who was foreign minister; his wife, Ieng Thirith, minister of social welfare; Khieu Samphan, head of state; and Nuon Chea, known as Brother No 2. The top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. In the earlier trial, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the torture and death of at least 14,000 people in the Tuol Sleng prison in the capital of Phnom Penh.
The regime took control in 1975 after the war in next-door Vietnam spread to Cambodia. Khmer Rouge leaders believed they could create a utopian communist society by purging the country of intellectuals, business leaders, government officials and anyone else considered a threat to their revolution.
Approximately 157,500 Cambodians resettled in the U.S. from 1975 to 1994, the vast majority as refugees. Many still suffer serious mental health problems as a result of experiencing torture and witnessing killings of their family members.
In 2009, researcher Leakhena Nou, a medical sociologist at Cal State Long Beach, began documenting the stories of genocide survivors in the United States. She discovered that Cambodian-Americans, like their countrymen, could offer testimony and have legal representation at the tribunal proceedings.
During her research, she discovered that many Cambodians in America experienced the same symptoms of young people living in Cambodia.
"I found the same hopelessness, helplessness and lack of trust in themselves, family and government leaders," Nou said.
Nou's research is deeply personal. Her family escaped the reign of terror because her father, a Cambodian military officer who had been living in Thailand with his family when the Khmer Rouge took over, sensed grave danger when he and others were asked to return. Those who answered the call were executed immediately upon their return or taken to prison and tortured to death.
"The instinct my dad had saved our lives," she said.
The process of retelling stories can, at least in the short run, cause substantial emotional trauma for survivors, said Dr. Daryn Reicherter, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine who treats many Cambodian emigres in San Jose.
"They had this rough patch," he said. But, Reicherter added, "Not one of them had a regret" about their decision to retell their experiences in excruciating detail.
Labels: Khmer Rouge Tribunal, San Jose
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AFP
PHNOM PENH — The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia on Thursday voiced disquiet about a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country and the growing problem of land rights violations.
"I am concerned about the narrowing of space for the people to express their views peacefully and without fear, including those belongings to different political parties," Surya Subedi said at the end of his fourth 10-day fact-finding mission to the country.
The Cambodian government has come under fire from rights groups in recent years for launching a number of defamation and disinformation lawsuits against critics and opposition members.
A controversial new penal code launched in December introduced a string of laws that could see a person jailed or fined for expressing dissenting views.
"Peaceful expression of opinion should not be dealt with under the penal code," Surya said during a press conference in the capital, adding that it was one of the main issues he had discussed with Prime Minister Hun Sen.
"Those holding public positions should be willing to accept criticism for their decisions. Criticism is not a crime but an exercise of freedom of conscience, an act of intelligence," he said.
The UN representative also urged the government to apply the land law properly, saying he was "deeply concerned about plight of the people who are facing the threat of eviction or have been evicted from their land."
He said he had visited several disputed sites, including a lake area in Phnom Penh where thousands of people have been forcibly evicted to make way for a private development project.
Land disputes are a major problem in Cambodia. In 2009 alone, at least 26 cases of mass evictions displaced approximately 27,000 people across the country, according to a UN report issued last year.
During his last visit to the kingdom in June, Surya suggested a host of reforms to improve Cambodia's judicial system, which he said lacked independence.
He told reporters the progress in that area "hasn't been as speedy as it should have been".
Labels: Surya Subedi, UN Human Rights Report
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Friday, 25 February 2011
Robert Carmichael, VOA Phnom Penh
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights wrapped up his fourth visit to Cambodia on Thursday saying significant issues remained unresolved.
Surya Subedi said his fourth visit to Cambodia had produced a mixed bag of results, with limited government cooperation on measures for judicial reform that he had recommended after his last trip here in June.
On Thursday Subedi highlighted freedom of expression and land rights as key ongoing issues.
Phnom Penh has for several years pursued its perceived critics through the courts, with some people jailed or forced overseas to avoid prison sentences handed down by a compliant judiciary.
Subedi said there were still significant problems with freedom of expression, and spoke of his concerns that the space to express criticism was narrowing.
He said the peaceful expression of opinion should not be dealt with under the criminal code.
“Those holding public positions should be willing to accept criticism for their decisions. Criticism is not a crime, but an exercise of freedom of conscience, and an act of intelligence,” said Subedi.
Subedi was in Cambodia on a 10-day visit to assess how effectively parliament upholds human rights. He will report on that aspect later this year.
During his stay he met senior government officials, including Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The UN special rapporteur for human rights also spoke with donors, representatives from civil society, members of the political opposition and ordinary Cambodians.
On the subject of land rights, Subedi said the government needed to ensure improvements were made.
Tens of thousands of mainly poor Cambodians have been thrown off their land in recent years as the rich and powerful have exploited their position to grab the increasingly valuable resource.
Subedi did praise an ongoing effort by the government to improve the framework around which land is dealt with, but said the problem in Cambodia was typically not a lack of laws.
“The challenge in Cambodia as far as I’m concerned is more a matter of the implementation of the existing laws than not having some laws in place in the first place,” he added.
After Subedi completed his third visit in June, he drafted a series of recommendations to reform the judiciary. He had found that it faced what he called “tremendous challenges” in delivering justice for ordinary Cambodians.
He said Thursday that he was encouraged by the government’s acknowledgment of problems with the judiciary, and its agreement that those needed to be addressed.
But Subedi implied Phnom Penh had largely failed to do much to improve the judicial system, telling the media he would have preferred better cooperation from the government in implementing his recommendations.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan told VOA that Phnom Penh acknowledged the judiciary was inadequate, but said improvements took time.
Among the changes already underway, Phay Siphan said, are moves to improve the skills of existing prosecutors and efforts to boost training for new judicial staff.
Subedi is scheduled to leave Cambodia on Friday.
Labels: Surya Subedi, UN Human Rights Report
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James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post
AN international press freedom group has registered concern over the government’s apparent attempts to block opposition blog KI-Media and other anti-government websites.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the United States-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the move was part of a worrying trend of online censorship in the Kingdom.
“We are troubled by reports that Cambodia is increasingly curbing online freedom,” Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s Senior Southeast Asia Representative, said in the statement.
“We urge Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government to immediately reverse course. The Internet is one of the few spaces left for free expression in Cambodia and that is how it should remain.”
Earlier this month, users of local Internet Service Providers including WiCam, Ezecom and Metfone reported that they were unable to access Ki-Media. WiCam users briefly received a message stating that the site had been “blocked as ordered by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Cambodia”.
MPTC officials initially denied ordering that KI-Media be blocked, though in an email to local ISPs that was leaked earlier this month, Sieng Sithy, deputy director of the Directorate of Telecommunications Policy Regulation at the MPTC, chided several firms that had yet to block KI-Media and other opposition sites and urged them to do so.
KI-Media made the news in December when Seng Kunnaka, a security guard employed by the United Nations World Food Programme, received a six-month jail term for incitement just days after he was arrested for printing out an article from the website and sharing it with co-workers.
Labels: Cambodia, KI-Media, Prime Minister Hun Sen
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“Toum Peang Snong Reusey” [The Bamboo shoot grows up to be bamboo] is a most popular for Cambodian people referred to children reflected their older in the future. When you “children and young people grow up, what will you want to be in future?
In the years 80s and 90s, the many of children responded variety to their parents and other old people that they want to become teachers, medical doctors, soldiers, polices, engineers and agriculturists. But at moment, this trend is more likely to change the perspective’s children want to be a star “DARA” which refer to a singer, film actor, Karaoke actor or TV commentator when they grow up rather than preferring these job options above during one or two decades in the past. While, some parents are so happy and show off their neighbors as a smart guy, and saying that they sing and dance very well as the stats “DARA” on televisions. I think that it is good that every child has ambitious different goals and change all the time. But if majority of them expected to be a star, the question would be ask why the children’s attitudes change like that? Due to influence of media, their parents or their family?
In general, Cambodian parents or family’s concept are happy if their children are upper classification in the class or won a scholarship and these parents or neighbors argued that this or that child is following their parents or uncle/aunt who are higher education or higher position in an establishment. But if these parents or children’s family always excuses to the teachers when their children study low score in the class or dropped class. This perception reflects to the children’s environment today expected to be a star when they grow up. Base on the Indochina Marketing Research surveyed on media in Cambodia found recently that almost Cambodians prefer to watch TV rather than radio or newspaper; especially CTN channel and its bench MYTV are the most and for the old men prefer kick-boxing and football but for women and young people prefer movie, concert, Karaoke, sing and dance contest and freshie.
With the same situation, there are very a low number of young people who are applying for jobs, but vast CV and application forms that young people submitted their documents to TV song, dance or freshie contests. The question would be ask, what TVs teach and direct Cambodian children and youths? And they always want to be a start “DARA”? These due to Cambodian youth are hoping less to find a job fit their education as The Ministry of Education Youth and Sports estimated that only one in nine students are able to find a career which is suitable to their background.
In my observation, TVs today are more likely to show political argument, entertainment, joking [that young people learned and imitated with using very rough words and physical abuse from the comedies] and rather than education, it is a different TV in more than 10 years ago that Mathematics and English language were taught on TVs and also a lot of Khmer culture and explore the temple in the forest. I think that TV teaching support the poor student who cannot go to private courses and remind or learn new thing or method for students after school and it was a fundamental for students who will study higher education or study abroad.
What is the government hope “Toum Peang Snong Reusey” to build the Kingdom in the future if the majority of children and young people are enjoy with TV and to be a star “DARA” than other job options. Therefore government should improve Cambodian TV channels for youths and TV programmers should learn any success of education program rather than imitate from neighbor countries.
Tong Soprach, MPH
Public Health Freelance Consultant
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Labels: Cambodian Youths, Tong Soprach
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By Michael Hayes
When I was publisher and editor-in-chief of the Phnom Penh Post I was sued once by then-Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, accused of spreading disinformation and trying to create political instability. Over the years, several Cambodian government officials even accused me and my newspaper of attempting to “destroy the nation”.
At the very least I’ve never been called a spin doctor for the Cambodian government. But on the issue of the current border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand surrounding Wat Preah Vihear I’m as angry as all Cambodians are at what we perceive as a Thai-initiated conflict of grossly unjust proportions.
We are not alone. Since this issue flared up two years ago, I have not met one Asian or Western diplomat, one foreign aid worker or one expatriate businessman in Phnom Penh who disagrees. Even a few Thai friends have sheepishly expressed support for the Cambodian side on this spat.
The nagging question that perplexes us all is why Thailand is trying to export its domestic political problems and dump them on poor Cambodia? The sentiment here is that if the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts want to fight it out, do so somewhere in Thailand, but don’t use Cambodia as a scapegoat.
The view from Cambodia is simple: the issue of sovereignty over the temple was decided back in 1962 when the case was submitted to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
If Thailand didn’t want to abide by the court’s ruling then why did it agree to submit the case in the first place? And why are they groaning now and firing artillery shells at the temple almost 50 years later?
Moreover, when Thailand says: Well, we controlled the temple in the 1800s and before, the Khmers have a simpler reply: Yeah, but WE BUILT IT! We started construction in the early 9th century, modified and improved it for 250 years and then continued to pray there and celebrate our Gods for another three centuries until you guys stole it after you sacked and looted our capital at Angkor Wat three times between 1352 and 1431. Thank you very much. End of story.
Cambodia has no interest whatsoever in another protracted violent conflict with anybody. The Kingdom is still trying to recover from 30 years of civil war, Pol Pot madness and the ensuing guerilla conflict in the 80’s and 90’s that in total cost the lives of over 2.5 million Cambodians and left the country in ruins. Every dollar spent on the military conflict there is a dollar lost for building desperately needed roads, schools and hospitals.
The Thai accusation that Cambodia has had some secret plot to steal Thai land along the border is also seen as ludicrous.
Everybody knows that since 1970 Cambodia has been too consumed with domestic strife to take even one meter of land from any of its neighbors. In fact, foreign aid officials who worked on the Thai border in the 80s will readily admit that border creep worked in reverse. It was Thai farmers living in peace—and I’m not accusing the Thai government of some orchestrated campaign here—who took the opportunity to plant a few extra hectares in disputed border areas while internally Cambodia was in complete disarray.
If there is one thing that is clear, it is that the entire border needs to be systematically surveyed and demarcated, step by step, once and for all.
As for the disputed 4.5 square kms just north of temple, why not consider this: Turn the area into the Cambodian-Thai International Friendship Park and set it up as a jointly managed enterprise by both countries’ Ministries of Tourism. Invite in hawkers, entrepreneurs, whatever from both sides of the border to set up businesses to cater to the millions of tourists who will want to visit the site in the coming decades and beyond. Tax revenues could be shared by both nations equally. Everybody wins.
It could also be a model for other border disputes around the globe.
If the Thais want a protracted, bloody fight on their hands over the temple, they’ve got one. In the 20 years I’ve been in Cambodia the Preah Vihear issue is without question the only one I’ve seen that has united the entire nation. Cambodian TV stations have been running fundraisers off and on with donations large and small pouring in from all quarters for two years. Even the normally truculent Sam Rainsy Party and others in the opposition are fully on board.
It’s clear from a visit to the temple last week that the Cambodian military has dug in for the long haul. New heavy tanks, armored personnel carriers and ammunition “donated by friendly countries” are evident all over the base of the escarpment. Battle-scarred veterans, no doubt from all of Cambodia’s four previously warring factions and including ex-Khmer Rouge who controlled the temple from 1975 to 1998, are now all operating under one flag. And yes, of course there are Cambodian soldiers with weapons bunkered around the temple. If they weren’t there the Thai military could literally walk in and take control of it in five minutes. What government in Phnom Penh could allow that?
If this dispute goes real hot, relations between Cambodia and Thailand will be ruined for years, hundreds on both sides will die needlessly and the economic costs to the two countries will be astronomical.
Cooler heads need to prevail but rest assured the Cambodians will never, no matter what the price, give up control of Wat Preah Vihear.
Why should they? It’s theirs.
Michael Hayes co-founded the Phnom Penh Post in 1992 and was Publisher & Editor-in-Chief from 1992 to 2008.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com
Labels: Cambodia Thailand Border, Preah Vihear, Thailand
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As so often the disputed 11th century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia, long a source of anger for Thai nationalists who believe it rightly belongs to Bangkok, has become the focus of the renewed spat between the countries.
By Ian MacKinnon, Bangkok 2:09PM GMT 07 Feb 2011
But it was the arrest of seven Thai nationalists – including an MP from the ruling Democrat Party - who deliberately strayed over the disputed border into Cambodia, that ratcheted up anger in Bangkok. The jailing of two for long terms on spying charges probably started the ball rolling.
Yellow Shirt demonstrators – who once supported the Democrat-led coalition but have since turned against it – have again taken to the streets of Bangkok to protest the jailing of the pair as well as a host of other issues, including the government's impotence over the border dispute.
Some analysts believe that hawkish elements within the government and military are whipping up the nationalist fervour by provoking the fighting to show a strong hand to curry favour with hard-line voters in the upcoming poll.
With elections due this year the government led by Abhisit Vejjajiva needs to keep both elements on board, some say he is declining to rein in the extreme elements. His noisy demands that the Cambodians remove their national flag flying over the temple site and Thai army anger over a plaque on the site proclaiming "This is Cambodia" lend weight to the theory.
But some commentators go further. They suggest the fighting is the result of a secret pact between nationalist elements and hawkish generals in an effort to unseat the government, or even provoke a coup in a country where army takeovers are common-place.
Labels: Preah Vihear
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By STEVEN ERLANGER (The New York Times)
Published: January 7, 2011
IT was just a single day in Phnom Penh, one of many, but even now I can’t get it out of my head. The genocide was over — Vietnam, the traditional enemy, had ended it by driving out the Khmer Rouge and setting up a collaborationist government. But in 1988, Cambodia was still mourning. So many people had died, and thousands of refugees, including those who had suffered from the Khmer Rouge and those loyal to it, lived in politicized border camps inside Thailand, waiting for a diplomatic settlement that never quite seemed to arrive.
“All the intelligent Cambodians either fled the Khmer Rouge or were killed by them,” my Cambodian friend and fixer, Phin Chanda, once said to me, lightly, as if joking. “We’re the residue.”
I was the bureau chief for Southeast Asia at the time, and I tried to go to Vietnam and Cambodia whenever I could from my base in Bangkok. That winter day 23 years ago was a warm one, and long, because you could not enter Cambodia except through Vietnam. Getting a visa into Vietnam was hard enough, and then you had to get permission to enter Cambodia, which was still a place full of ghosts. There were few residents from capitalist countries, except a handful of Australian aid workers. There was no air service, so I hired a taxi in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, to drive me to Phnom Penh, through a landscape of rice fields and palms and scrawny villages to the stunning expanse of the Mekong, where it joins the Bassac and Tonle Sap Rivers.
The Vietnamese were trying to justify their occupation by memorializing the horrors of the Khmer Rouge. They had established a museum at Tuol Sleng, the Phnom Penh high school where the Khmer Rouge had interrogated and executed so many, first taking their haunting portraits, which hung on the walls. In a classroom, I stared at a now famous metal bed, with electrodes attached, where victims were tortured. The museum remains there, grandly titled the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
The Vietnamese were also building an ossuary, a memorial to the murdered. Cambodia was full of bones and shallow graves; I remember the empty gasoline storage tanks of a looted Shell station, used for the massed bodies of the dead. Finger bones were scattered in the grass.
Near the construction site of the new memorial, at Choeung Ek, south of the city, were heaps of bones, and a skinny Cambodian worker, with a kramar, the traditional plaid cotton scarf, around his waist, sitting at a picnic table under a thatched roof. He smoked a cigarette with one hand, while the other rested on a pile of skulls.
I then went to the Central Market, a massive and beautiful Art Deco structure left by the French. The people were scraping by; the vegetables were fresh and cheap; there was a bit of expensive buffalo meat hanging in strips, coated with flies. There were small shops to have Cambodian café au lait — with cloying condensed milk, the way my grandfather liked it; and a tiny massage clinic where young men and women exercised the old medical magic of cupping.
A young woman, carefully supervised by an older woman — her mother? — heated small drinking glasses and applied them to my back; my skin was sucked up into the glasses as they cooled. I must have looked like a sort of insect, an arthropod with glass scales. It hurt, but the pain helped me, in a way, suffer a little myself.
The day finally turned cool, with a stunning sunset and dinner at a little restaurant over the Boeng Kak lake in the city. I dined on stuffed crab and amok, a curried fish steamed in a banana leaf. Mostly I remember the short cyclo ride back to my tattered hotel in central Phnom Penh, staring up at the apartments faintly illuminated by stolen electricity and weak bulbs, thinking of how the Khmer Rouge had emptied the city entirely and murdered so many of its inhabitants, and how the people living here now, however meagerly, had won an extraordinary victory over ideology and evil.
I know the city is tarted up now, with too much Thai, Chinese and Singaporean money. But I want to see it again, to feel that quiet sense of relief that madness has an end.
Labels: Phnom Penh
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Michelle Jana Chan reports on how to see the Cambodian temples at Angkor at their best, in spite of the crowds.
Source: The Telegraph
Angkor Archaeological Park is home to hundreds of temples as well as villages, schools and farmland. Just as a millennium ago, Angkor is a vast area where people live and work. Glimpses of rural Cambodian life – immaculately uniformed children walking to school and their parents working the fields – offer humble interludes between temple visits.
Its centrepiece is Angkor Wat, Cambodia's best-preserved and beloved temple. Originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, it has remained a place of worship since its foundation. Thought to be a miniature replica of the universe, its towers, moats and concentric walls reveal an architectural sophistication, and the bas-relief with their plump figures and triumphal battle scenes reflect a healthy, wealthy period of history.
Elsewhere, in the park, some of the most elegant carvings can be found at Banteay Srei temple, decorated with sensuous celestial dancers. Ta Phrom is one of the most photographed temples, deliberately left mostly unrestored, and tangled and strangled by undergrowth, branches and roots.
The perennial favourite is the Bayon temple at Angkor Thom whose towers – like at Banteay Chhmar – are etched with enlightened bodhisattva faces. The Bayon is also decorated with enchanting bas-relief depicting ordinary Khmer life rather than the Hindu mythology seen at most other temples.
Aside from these landmark temples, there are smaller but equally moving sites like Ta Nei (resembling a diminutive Ta Phrom), Ta Som (with a four-faced tower like at the Bayon) and Banteay Samre (like a petite Angkor Wat). Built on a more human scale, they can offer some respite from their grander cousins.
Here are 10 tips on how to visit Angkor well:
- High season runs from November to March, when the weather is usually fair. Late October and November, the country is still lush after the rains and there are fewer tourists.
- Wear comfortable shoes with good soles; the paving at the temples is uneven and slippery when wet. Take an umbrella against the rain/sun. A torch is useful for windowless rooms.
- Have a basic understanding of Hinduism and Theravada Buddhism. Most guidebooks have a section on this subject. A good map is available at local bookshops in Siem Reap (they do not have one at the ticket office).
- Most tourists follow a well-trodden route: sunrise at the west gate of Angkor Wat before returning to the hotel for breakfast; late morning, Angkor Thom, Ta Phrom and Banteay Srei; after lunch, exploring more fully Angkor Wat; sunset atop Phnom Bakheng hill. Avoid this itinerary to beat the crowds.
- This is the way I would do it. Early to bed, early to rise. Angkor opens at 5.30am and this is the best time to start exploring. After sunrise, most tourists head swiftly back to their hotels for breakfast. Instead, stay out until 9am when the temples are remarkably peaceful. Plan on a late lunch, or ask the hotel to pack a picnic. Between noon and 2.30pm, many temples are empty. The afternoons are best spent at the smaller temples. I love sunset at the fiery-red Pre Rup or East Mebon temples.
- Ask your tour operator to assign you their best private guide. Touring temples can be wearying unless you have someone bringing the history to life.
- At some temples children sell souvenirs and employ emotive language about how they need money for school. Buying from them will encourage them to work in this way. Most tour operators and hotels have links to NGOs, and visits can often be arranged to schools and orphanages; donating to these organisations might be a wiser way to support the local community.
- Try to visit the National Palace Museum in Phnom Penh. This stopover works best after visiting the temples. The newly opened Angkor National Museum in Siem Reap is poorly curated but is worth an hour with a good guide.
- A visit to the British Museum is worthwhile; it is currently hosting Images and Sacred Texts: Buddhism Across Asia, which includes artefacts from Cambodia (until April). The world's most comprehensive collection of Khmer artefacts is in Paris's Musée Guimet.
- It is not uncommon to hear tourists say they are "templed out". Pace yourself, take breaks and visit smaller, less busy temples.
Labels: Angkor
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By Khmerization
It is a big surprise that Khmerization, Ki-Media and Sacravatoons might have been sued by Foreign Minister Hor Namhong (pictured) in secret, yet the parties have not been informed of the lawsuit.The possible defamation lawsuit against these three blogs was revealed by
Khmer Intelligence, an opposition-affiliated news syndicate, recently that Mr. Hor Namhong had took the defamation case to the French court, but his
complaints have been thrown out of court.
"The French court in Paris has recently dismissed legal complaints for defamation lodged by Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong against three Web sites particularly critical of the Hun Sen government: KI-media, Khmerisation and Sacrava", reported the Khmer Intelligence.
This is not the first time Mr. Hor Namhong had used legal lawsuit to intimidate Khmerization and the other two blogs. In May 2008, through his lawyer, David Meas, Mr. Hor Namhong had sent a very strong message to Khmerization and
threatened to sue, unless Khmerization deleted all articles critical of his roles in the Khmer Rouge genocide when he was once a senior official. However, the threat failed to materialise, but Khmerization had received a number of strange emails with the aim of trying to identify and to obtain my address.
Khmerization is no stranger to controversy. In June of this year, it has been
blocked by ICT of Thailand after it published a number of articles critical of the Thai royal family.
But in this case, justice and truth have prevailed.
Labels: Hor Nam Hong, Hor Namhong
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Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
November 1, 2010
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER HOR: (In Cambodian.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you very much Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to spend this time with you discussing these matters of great importance to both of our countries. This is my sixth trip to Asia as Secretary of State but my first to Cambodia, and it represents the commitment that President Obama and I have made to restoring America to a high level of engagement in the Asia-Pacific region and in particular to work with the government and the peoples of countries such as Cambodia.
Our two countries recently marked the 60th anniversary of our diplomatic ties, so even as we celebrate old milestones we are firmly fixed on the future to broaden and deepen our partnership. And we had very productive talks this afternoon and I look forward to meeting with the prime minister shortly, and I greatly appreciated the honor of meeting with His Majesty the King earlier today. And then finally, I will meet with leaders of the political opposition.
My discussions have left me convinced that we can work even more closely together to help meet the challenges facing Cambodia and all of Southeast Asia. With help from the United States Government, Cambodia is doing more than ever before to improve its health systems. And in – particularly, we applaud the Government of Cambodia for its commitment to prevent the spread of HIV and deliver life-saving treatment to people living with AIDS.
Our Peace Corps volunteers are now teaching English. And from what I saw earlier in my town hall with these very impressive young people, they are certainly connected to the global economy, and English is one of the keys for doing that.
Through our whole-of-government Feed the Future Initiative, we will be helping the people of Cambodia mount a comprehensive fight against hunger by raising agricultural productivity and making nutritious foods more widely available.
I especially appreciate the commitment of the Cambodian Government to the Lower Mekong Initiative. The deputy prime minister and foreign minister have been deeply involved in this work. It’s a promising new mechanism for the United States, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand to address the challenges in education, health, and the environment that affects all of the people of the Lower Mekong Basin, most especially to address the impact of climate change.
We had our third ministerial in Hanoi two days ago and we look forward to following up on the excellent ideas that Cambodia presented. I also want to acknowledge, as His Excellency did, that Cambodia is making progress in countering corruption. With strong implementation, the new anticorruption law can be a powerful tool to prevent, detect, and punish corruption. This will reassure foreign investors. But more importantly, it will serve the needs of the Cambodian people. It is inspiring to see this country creating such a promising future after a generation of conflict and suffering.
I had a very emotional tour of the Tuol Sleng Museum and I looked at the faces of the young Cambodians, both those who were killed at that terrible place of suffering and those who did the killing. And what is most important is that Cambodians themselves are educating the young generation about a painful chapter in this country’s past and honoring the memory of those who died by working hard to bring accountability and justice while seeking to stabilize and reconcile as well.
Today Cambodia is not only preserving its own peace, it is sending Cambodians overseas to serve as UN peacekeepers in Chad and the Central African Republic and assisting in demining missions in Lebanon and Sudan. So Cambodia is actually using the lessons of its own painful past to help save lives and help other countries who are grappling with conflict and war.
We recently contributed $5 million to Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Tribunal. And as I told His Excellency, we are committed to helping Cambodia hold accountable those senior Khmer Rouge leaders most responsible for atrocities. I salute the tribunal’s ongoing efforts to bring justice to the victims that promote the rule of law. And I will do what I can to work with the Cambodian Government, with the United Nations, and the international community to ensure that we have the resources needed to proceed with Case 002.
I am very optimistic about Cambodia’s future. The last years have been transformative for this country. And I hope that the United States can be a good partner and a friend as the Government and people of Cambodia make the necessary steps to improve your democratic institutions, to improve the economy, to provide the kind of opportunities that the young people I met with earlier today deserve to have. This visit, Your Excellency, has left me encouraged that our partnership can deepen and grow to serve both our peoples in the years to come. Thank you.
MODERATOR: Thanks, Excellency. Due to the time constraint, the floor is open for only four questions – two questions from Cambodian press and the other two questions from American press. Please raise your hands to get the floor.
QUESTION: (In Cambodian.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: I discussed the debt issue with the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, and if any of you were at the town hall earlier, you know that two of the young questioners, they also asked me about the debt issue. We have agreed that the United States will send a team of experts as soon as possible to resume discussions over ways to settle this debt. The discussions, as you know, ended in 2006. We very much want to see this matter resolved, and as His Excellency said, in accordance with Paris Club principles and in service of Cambodia’s development.
MODERATOR: Second question, please. Gentleman, have the floor. (Inaudible) mike. (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: Hello. This is a question for both Madam Secretary and the foreign minister. Madam Secretary, you said that the U.S., of course, (inaudible) tribunal. Are you looking to see the Cambodian Government do what the foreign minister said that they did not want to do, which is to expand the scope of the trials? Is there enough support? Is the government giving the tribunal enough support? And then secondly on human rights, last week and again today, the foreign minister seemed to indicate that there were already too many groups here promoting human rights. Last week, there was a suggestion that the UN human rights office here should be closed down. I’m wondering what you think about that idea.
And Mr. Minister, I’m wondering if that is indeed what the government’s position is, is that there are already enough human rights groups here that you don’t need the UN office. Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Matt, as to your first question, we are in full agreement with the Government of Cambodia that Case 002 should be brought to trial as soon as possible. That is our first and most pressing piece of business. There is not yet the funding available to do that trial. The estimate is somewhere between $46 and $50 million that will be needed to conduct that trial, funding that would go to the United Nations for the international aspects of the trial and funding that would go to the Cambodian Government. So my highest priority right now is to make sure that we have that money in place so that trial can begin. It is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2011; the sooner the better is my view.
Now there is, as I think you heard His Excellency, concern on the part of the Cambodian Government about going beyond that. That is something that we in the international community should consult closely with the Cambodian Government on. But the first piece of business is getting 002 to trial, and I want to see that happen as soon as possible. So I will be personally reaching out to help raise the money that is needed to get that done.
Secondly, I did not hear the deputy prime minister and the foreign minister say that there were too many NGOs. I think he was making the point, as he did with me in my private meeting with him that there are more than a thousand NGOs in Cambodia, more than a hundred that are committed to human rights. I personally believe that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is a valuable resource. It provides technical assistance to the government. It also works with these NGOs that are in Cambodia – both Cambodian NGOs and international NGOs on a variety of concerns, including human rights, trafficking in persons, and the rule of law. So the High Commissioner’s Office is active in ways that we think are very complementary to what the Cambodian Government is committed to doing, and we think the work is important and we would like to see it continue.
MODERATOR: Second question, please. Gentleman, have the floor.
QUESTION: Thanks for question. I’m (inaudible) from Cambodia Daily Newspaper. Madam Secretary (inaudible). I would like to hear about the U.S. position on the Cambodian Government, which has announced (inaudible) want to close the UN Human Rights Office in Cambodia and (inaudible) be chief of the human rights office in government. And also the second question, if I may –
MODERATOR: Only one question.
QUESTION: Sorry. Please.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I believe that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is a valuable resource and I would hope that it would continue its work, which is important. It works with NGOs; it works with the Government of Cambodia. I think the Government of Cambodia is making significant progress on human rights, and I would like to see that progress continue. I would like to see the cooperation between the United Nations and the Cambodian Government be such that it assists in promoting human rights, ending the trafficking in persons and upholding the rule of law. So from our perspective, we would like to see the work by the UN here on human rights continue.
MODERATOR: Thank you. The last question goes to American –
SECRETARY CLINTON: I think His Excellency might wish to say something.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER HOR: (In Cambodian.)
MODERATOR: The last question, please, to American press. Lady, you have the floor.
QUESTION: Hi, Madam Secretary. I wanted to pick up with a question about what you said earlier, that you’d be willing to send a team of experts to explore new approaches. Can you give us a little detail about what those approaches might entail?
And Mr. Foreign Minister, the Secretary earlier today was saying that Cambodia should pursue alliances beyond – broad alliances beyond those with China.
MODERATOR: Speak louder, please.
QUESTION: The Secretary was suggesting earlier today that Cambodia should pursue alliances broadly, regionally, beyond just China. Could you give us your response to that, please?
SECRETARY CLINTON: We are very, very interested in pursuing a settlement on the debt that was incurred by Cambodia during the Lon Nol regime. There have been no discussions since 2006 at all, and we think it’s time for our experts to meet and explore a broad range of potential areas for settling of this debt.
At this point, I don’t have any preconceived notion of how that will happen because there are a number of different approaches that can be pursued. And we have learned a lot about how to do this during the last decade, so I think the first thing we should start with is a very open discussion between our respective expert teams about options that would be available. But it is my intention to move this up the ladder of priorities, because I think it is something that needs to be given immediate attention. It is a concern that it has not been even addressed, and I would like to see us make it a priority. And His Excellency has agreed, so we will begin to work on that together.
MODERATOR: Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the joint press availability is now concluded. Thank you very much for your participation.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/11/150237.htm
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Labels: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hor Namhong
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Ireland's Senator Alex White intervenes in favour of Sam Rainsy
Micheál Martin TD
Minister for Foreign Affairs
80 St Stephen’s Green
Dublin 2
21 October 2010
Dear Minister,
I write to you in relation to Mr Sam Rainsy, leader of the second-largest political party in Cambodia.
Mr Rainsy has denounced corruption and human rights abuses in his homeland but has been prosecuted by the ruling party and government of Cambodia. Mr Rainsy established a political party in 1995, but has been subject to assassination attempts, threats, intimidation, criminal cases, and civil court cases. In 1997, a grenade attack on a political rally he was addressing killed at least 16 people and wounded 150.
Mr Rainsy has been deprived of his parliamentary immunity and has received prison sentences twice. I enclose an article from Human Rights Watch dated 28 January 2010 entitled ‘Cambodia: Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy’s Trial a Farce’ which deals with these issues.
I would appreciate if you could inform me whether the department has been in touch with the Cambodian authorities in recent times and whether you have raised the case of Mr Rainsy. If you have not had such an opportunity, I would ask you to do so as a matter of urgency.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Senator Alex White
Senator Alex White,
Seanad Eireann, Leinster House, Dublin 2. 618 3972
Constituency: 1 Main Street, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14
Home: 30 Fortfield Road, Terenure, Dublin 6w. 490 3889
http://www.alexwhite.ie
http://senatoralexwhite.wordpress.com
Labels: Ireland, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party, Senator Alex White
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HOW WILL HUN SEN RESPOND TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE UNITED NATIONS' RECOMMENDATIONS?
Today, 17 opposition National Assembly members including Sam Rainsy wrote to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking the Government to elaborate on its position and action plan following last week’s Resolution from the European Parliament strongly condemning human rights violations in Cambodia and calling for corrective measures.
Referring to Article 96 of the Constitution which requires the Government to answer any question from any National Assembly member within seven days, the 17 Parliamentarians, who enclosed in their letter to Hun Sen the original text in English of the European Parliament October 21, 2010 “Resolution on Cambodia, in particular the case of Cambodia”, asked the Prime Minister the following question:
« What measures and what decisions will the Government take to respond to proposals and recommendations from the European Parliament, which wants to see the resolution of a number of political problems in Cambodia in accordance with the principles of true liberal democracy based on pluralism? »
In their letter the 17 Parliamentarians reminded Hun Sen of the following points:
- « In its “Resolution on Cambodia, in particular the case of Sam Rainsy,” the European Parliament specifically calls on the Cambodian government to “engage in political and institutional reforms to build a democratic state governed by the rule of law and founded on respect for fundamental freedoms.” »
- « The European Parliament also calls on the Cambodian government to “draw up an action programme and timetable for implementing the recommendations made in the June 17, 2010 report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia”. This UN report notably “deplores external interference in the work of the judiciary.” »
- « All the political groups representing the 736 Members of the European Parliament representing 27 countries in all over Europe unanimously adopted the above-mentioned October 21, 2010 “Resolution on Cambodia, in particular the case of Sam Rainsy.” »
SRP Members of Parliament
Labels: European Parliament, Prime Minister Hun Sen, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party
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HE Mrs. Carol Rodley
US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia
No. 1, Street 96
Sangkat Wat Phnom
Phnom Penh.
October 25, 2010
Ref: SC4-014/10
Dear HE Mrs. Carol Rodley,
I am writing on behalf of parliamentarians from the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), regarding the upcoming visit of United States Secretary of State, Mrs Hillary Clinton, to the Kingdom of Cambodia. We very much look forward to the visit of such a high-ranking American political visit to our country. We do hope it will in particular allow for issues concerning the advancement of human rights, democracy and justice to be primordially discussed and tackled. Further, it is with this in mind that we would like to ask you to help in arranging for a meeting between Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Parliamentarians of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).
The current situation has deteriorated immensely in terms of implementing, the Democratic Principles and the respect of basic human rights in Cambodia, particularly targeting the poor, women, and all those individuals who might be suspect of political opposition. This has been expressed through the centralizing of power by the ruling party to solely control of all national institutions and the widespread land grabbing affecting essentially the poor, daily physical and psychological discrimination, the use of the judicial power for political ends, and brutal suppression of any form of protest and criticism. Several members of our party, including our leader, Mr. Sam Rainsy, have repeatedly faced life threats, forced exile, court trial and/or imprisonment. In the last annual report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last month, the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Professor Surya Subedi, deplored that victims of all sorts of abuses in Cambodia seem to be “desperate for justice,” and is “concerned about the narrowing of political space in the country for people belonging to the opposition political parties and other political activists.”
Our party has been working relentlessly to push for all citizens, including women, to be able to speak out and to protect all Cambodian citizens’ freedom of speech and all other fundamental rights. We aim to bring an end to the culture of fear predominating in our country and with this Cambodian citizens’ silence.
For this, we are very thankful for the international community’s committed support, including that of the United States. We have been continuously encouraged and fully support the United States’ ever-strong commitment to the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, worldwide and including in Cambodia. We have been particularly touched by your Excellency Carol Roldey past interventions, your statement in supporting the need to fight persisting corruption in our country. We have also been truly inspired by Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, a woman, who leads a very strong political career for the US democratic party, committed to battle for the improvement of her own country as well as for stability in the world, including especially with regards to human rights.
As one of the 48 Least Developed Countries, Cambodia stands to further gain from the international community’s support and as national parliamentarians we have the duty to ensure that our country’s most discriminated against benefit. It is also our duty to protect our citizens and make their grievances heard. We believe that meeting with Mrs. Hillary Clinton, would be an immense honor for our people as it will help to encourage the respect for the role of opposition in a fading Democracy in Cambodia as well as opportunity to discuss and further such matters.
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration, and my personal respect.
Sincerely yours,
SON Chhay, AM
Member of Parliament
Party Whip of SRP
Labels: Carol Rodley, Sam Rainsy Party, Son Chhay
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Thursday, 21 October 2010 - Strasbourg
European Parliament resolution of 21 October 2010 on Cambodia, in particular the case of Sam Rainsy
The European Parliament,
– having regard to its resolutions of 13 January 2005 on trafficking of women and children in Cambodia(1) , 10 March 2005 on Cambodia(2) , 1 December 2005 on the human rights situation in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam(3) , 19 January 2006 on political repression in Cambodia(4) and its resolution of 15 March 2007 on Cambodia(5) ,
– having regard to the Cooperation Agreement concluded in 1997 between the European Community and the Kingdom of Cambodia(6) , in particular Article 1 (respect for human rights) and Article 19 (suspension of agreement if one party violates Article 1) thereof and Annex I (regarding Article 19) thereto,
– having regard to the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,
– having regard to the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders approved by the Council on 14 June 2004 and updated in 2008,
– having regard to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
– having regard to the 17 June 2010 report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, which deplores external interference in the work of the judiciary(7) ,
– having regard to the decision taken by the Inter-Parliamentary Union's Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians at its meeting of 12 to15 July 2010,
– having regard to the resolution of 6 October 2010 of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's Governing Council,
– having regard to Rule 122(5) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas a worrying authoritarian trend has been noticeable in Cambodia over the last few years; whereas this is reflected in a deterioration in the human rights situation, the stifling of fundamental freedoms, a brutal policy of land-grabbing that affects essentially the poor, the suppression of all forms of criticism and protest, the persecution of the parliamentary opposition and civil society activists, the use of the courts for political ends and a drift toward a one-party system,
B. whereas Sam Rainsy, a member of the Cambodian parliament and the leader of his country's second largest political party, has been persecuted by the authoritarian ruling party and government of Cambodia,
C. whereas on 23 September 2010 the opposition leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison on charges of disinformation and falsifying public documents by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court; whereas his conviction was based on an act of civil disobedience involving the uprooting of six wooden temporary border posts at the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, which is still disputed between the two countries; whereas the action took place in support of villagers who claimed to be victims of land-grabbing, saying that the Vietnamese had illegally shifted the posts onto Cambodian soil, in their rice fields, and that their complaints to the local authorities had remained unanswered,
D. whereas on 13 October 2010 the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh decided to uphold a two-year handed down on 27 January 2010 by the Svay Rieng provincial court, in absentia , against Sam Rainsy in connection with a protest against alleged Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodian territory, but decided to release two villagers convicted along with Sam Rainsy, after nine months and 20 days in prison,
E. whereas the strategy of Cambodia's ruling party is to use a politically subservient judiciary to crack down on all government critics,
F. whereas an alarmingly high number of people are being held in detention in Cambodia owing to various shortcomings in the criminal justice system, and whereas there is still no guarantee of the independence and impartiality of the judiciary,
G. whereas, according to human rights NGOs, the government has used the courts to silence criticism of its responses to land-grabbing, corruption and border disputes,
H. whereas on 30 August 2010 a staffer of the NGO Licadho, Leang Sokchoeun, was sentenced to two years‘ imprisonment by the Takeo provincial court for allegedly distributing anti-government leaflets in January 2010; whereas, however, the trial was tainted by severe procedural irregularities,
I. whereas Mu Sochua, an opposition member of parliament, has been convicted on a charge of defaming the Prime Minister,
J. whereas the journalist Hang Chakra was detained for nine months after having denounced corruption in the entourage of Vice-President Sok An,
K. whereas in 1995 Sam Rainsy was unconstitutionally expelled from the National Assembly, but managed to recover his parliamentary seat at subsequent elections; whereas he has escaped several assassination attempts, including a deadly grenade attack in 1997, but some 80 of his supporters have been murdered,
L. whereas the ruling party has stripped him of his parliamentary immunity three times on questionable bases in order to have him sentenced to prison terms,
M. whereas the EU is Cambodia's single largest donor,
1. Condemns all politically motivated sentences against representatives of the opposition and NGOs, in particular the sentences of 23 September 2010, 13 October and 27 January 2010 against Sam Rainsy, as well as that of 30 August 2010 against Leang Sokchoeun and those against Mu Sochua and the journalist Hang Chakra;
2. Reminds the Cambodian Government that it must fulfil its obligations and commitments regarding the democratic principles and fundamental human rights which are an essential element of the above-mentioned Cooperation Agreement, as stipulated in Article 1 of that Agreement;
3. Calls on the Cambodian authorities to ensure that the NGO law which is currently in preparation will not restrict the activities of Cambodian civil society organisations on grounds of discretionary interpretation and will not be applied in such a way as to disadvantage civil society as well as the opposition;
4. Calls on all political players to foster good neighbourhood policies within the region and a policy of reconciliation among ethnic and cultural groups in Cambodia;
5. Notes that the UN Special Rapporteur has drawn attention to progress and efforts being made by the Cambodian Government, and wishes to see practical steps taken to bring about a noticeable and lasting improvement in the situation as regards human rights and the independence of the courts;
6. Calls on the Cambodian authorities to:
– engage in political and institutional reforms to build a democratic state governed by the rule of law and founded on respect for fundamental freedoms;
– demonstrate their will to combat effectively the endemic scourges of corruption, massive deforestation resulting in the displacement of people, and the sex tourism industry, to reject the current culture of impunity and to bring to justice all those involved in such activities;
– guarantee free and fair political expression without intimidation and harassment;
– draw up an action programme and timetable for implementing the recommendations made in the Special Rapporteur's report;
7. Is alarmed at the prosecution and sentencing to a 12-year prison term of the opposition leader Sam Rainsy, on account of a gesture which it considers to be of a symbolic and clearly political nature;
8. Is particularly alarmed that, should it be upheld, this verdict would bar Sam Rainsy from standing in the 2013 parliamentary elections and would have consequences far beyond Sam Rainsy's case, as it is bound to affect the opposition as a whole, all the more so because the recent prosecutions of a number of outspoken opposition members have already narrowed down the political space, and would hence be detrimental to the democratic process in Cambodia;
9. Calls therefore on the authorities to explore ways and means of resolving the issues at hand through political dialogue and to enable Sam Rainsy to resume his parliamentary activities as rapidly as possible;
10. Calls on the Cambodian authorities to heed the recommendations made by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia; invites the Parliament of Cambodia to debate his report in parliament and to take the necessary measures to ensure implementation of his recommendations;
11. Calls on the European Union to take steps to ensure that fundamental freedoms, as enshrined in Article 1 of the above-mentioned Cooperation Agreement, are respected and that attacks on civil liberties have consequences; calls furthermore on the European Union to make continuation of its financial aid conditional upon an improvement in Cambodia's human rights record;
12. Calls for an emergency humanitarian plan to be put in place, with EU involvement and UN coordination, to assist the Cambodians who have been hardest hit by the crisis, in particular those working in the textile and construction industries who have lost their jobs;
13. Instructs its Delegation for relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its Committee on Foreign Affairs to monitor developments;
14. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the governments of the ASEAN and ASEM member states, the ASEM secretariat, the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the government and National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Labels: European Parliament, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party
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By WILL BAXTER (The Wall Street Journal)
As Cambodia's economy booms after years of war and instability, its residents are struggling to cope with a new problem: Land grabs and forced evictions that have affected more than 250,000 Cambodians over the past five years, according to Cambodia-based rights group Licadho, which began recording data on land disputes in 2005.
The roots of the problem can be traced back to the rule of the Khmer Rouge, a radical Communist rebel group that abolished Cambodia's land titling system in 1975 when they outlawed ownership of private property.
Although the Khmer Rouge lost power in 1979, even today few Cambodians possess official land titles, making it easier for private businesses to force people off their land for urban development projects and large-scale agro-business plantations.
Often, residents are relocated -- sometimes without compensation -- to areas far from their jobs, health care and adequate water and sanitation, activists say. In many cases, the companies benefiting from land acquisitions are owned or controlled by government ministers, ruling party senators, military officials and their family members, activists add.
"Over the last 15 years, Cambodia's ruling elite have enriched themselves by selling off the country's forests, fisheries, land and most recently mineral resources," said David Pred, executive director of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia.
The government dismisses charges of excessive and inappropriate land deals and says some development projects are necessary to promote the country's economy.
"Land and cultural resources are the two major potentials Cambodia possesses (which) can be used to develop the country," says Im Chhun Lim, Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, in Cambodia. So "there should not be a question to why Cambodia" uses its large tracts of land "for attracting investors for developing (the) country."
He adds that while some relocations create challenges for residents, over time living conditions improve as basic infrastructure is installed and relocated residents are integrated into their new areas.
Either way, advocates say, the disputes are likely to continue -- Cambodia's growing economy is expected to generate even more demand for land in the years ahead.
Labels: eviction, landgrabbing, LICADHO
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People are sitting in a room looking at a large TV screen. They are watching a person on the screen and if they want to speak, they have to get out of their seats and go to a desk and talk in a microphone so that the person on the screen can hear and respond. This is the method employed by Sam Rainsy Party members to communicate with their leader, Sam Rainsy, who is now living in self-exile in France.
