Dam Sith (in blue shirt), Moneaksekar Khmer Editor, seen escorted by military police officers at the Phnom Penh municipal court

Dam Sith brought to the Phnom Penh municipal court by plainclothed and unirformed military police officers

Large contingent of military police presence in front of the Phnom Penh municipal court

Scene in front of the Phnom Penh municipal court

Several SRP MPs (Saumura Tioulong, Eng Chhay Eang) were also seen in front of the Phnom Penh municipal court

Labels: Journalism, journalist, SRP

CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama inched closer to the Democratic nomination Tuesday as endorsements from superdelegates trickled in.

Thirty one delegates are at stake in the final contests under way in South Dakota and Montana. Obama is now six delegates short of the 2,118 needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, according to CNN's count.

Obama would become the first African-American to lead a U.S. major-party ticket.

His remaining rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, does not plan to concede the race Tuesday night, campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told CNN -- but one of her leading supporters said "a moment of truth" was at hand.

"I think a decision has to be made about whether keeping this nomination wide open is in the best interest of winning in November," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California.

"I do not believe that it is, and I'm a very strong supporter of Hillary being placed on ticket as a vice presidential candidate."

Two New York lawmakers told CNN on Tuesday that Clinton expressed willingness during a conference call to serve as Obama's running mate in November.

One of the lawmakers said Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, has been pushing the idea privately for several weeks. And earlier, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, told CNN, "I have reason to believe she is open to the V.P. slot."

But in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, her campaign said there was nothing new in her remarks.

"Today on a conference call with New York legislators, Sen. Clinton was asked whether she was open to the idea of running as vice president and repeated what she has said before: She would do whatever she could to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain," the former first lady's campaign said in a written statement Tuesday afternoon.

Even though she discussed being Obama's running mate, McAuliffe earlier in the day said Clinton was "absolutely not" prepared to concede the race after the polls close tonight in Montana and South Dakota, the final two contests on the primary calendar.

McAuliffe rejected as "100 percent" incorrect an Associated Press report that Clinton is preparing to acknowledge Obama has the delegates to win the nomination Tuesday night as the five-month Democratic primary process comes to a close.

Obama "doesn't have the numbers today, and until someone has the numbers the race goes on," McAuliffe told CNN.

Superdelegates are the approximately 800 Democratic party leaders and officials who vote in the delegate nominating process. Around 200 of them have yet to endorse either Obama or Clinton.

Former President Jimmy Carter and Rep. James Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House and the highest ranking African-American in Congress, were two of the most prominent superdelegate endorsements that Obama picked up. Watch Clyburn endorse Obama »

"I came to that decision because I do believe that he has elevated this campaign," Clyburn said. "He has energized our constituents. He is redrawing an electoral map for Democrats."

Obama is holding a rally at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the same arena which will house the 2008 Republican National Convention in September. Clinton will spend the evening at a campaign event in New York City. iReport.com: See what cartoonists think of the interminable race

Obama is looking more and more toward a likely general election matchup with John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. And while not taking anything for granted, it appears he's starting to look at Clinton as less of a rival and more as an important ally who can help him win in November.

"We're getting very close to the number that will, that will give us the nomination and if we've hit that number on Tuesday night, then we will. We will announce that and I think even if we don't, this is the end of the primary season, and I think it's very important for us to focus on the clear contrast that's going to exist between Democrats and Republicans in this election," Obama said this weekend while campaigning in South Dakota.

"Sen. Clinton is an outstanding public servant, she has worked tirelessly on this campaign, she has been a great senator for the state of New York and she is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we defeat the Republicans," Obama said on the campaign trail Sunday in South Dakota, adding Monday in Michigan that "she and I will be working together."

Labels: American Politics

Real Estate Boom in Cambodia's Capital

A decade ago, Phnom Penh didn't even have a traffic light. Now, high-rise condos and offices are in development and land speculators are raking in profits

by Susan Postlewaite
Source: BusinessWeek
June 2, 2008, 7:39AM EST

At a construction site in the middle of the city, a yellow backhoe levels rubble left from the previous building, an old hospital, while dozens of workmen in hard hats and rubber boots scrape away at the dirt. Nothing that noteworthy about this scene—until you consider the location: the intersection of Monivong and Sihanouk Boulevards, in downtown Phnom Penh.

After spending most of the past three decades struggling to recover from the legacy of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal rule, Cambodia is in the midst of a real estate boom. If all goes as planned, the dirt at Monivong and Sihanouk will soon sprout the country's first skyscraper, a 42-story residential building funded by money from South Korea. A few kilometers away, near the river, workers are clearing a lot for another skyscraper, also Korean and even bigger, with 52 stories.

A decade ago, Phnom Penh lacked even a single traffic light. Today, as land speculators rake in profits and new developments lure tenants, the dilapidated capital, which until recently was dotted with dangling electric wires and garbage-strewn lots, is getting a makeover. All over the city, shanty towns and old villas are being sold for land value and razed to make way for high-rise apartments, office buildings, shopping malls, and new villas.

Other parts of the country are seeing development, too. Developers are targeting Siem Reap (BusinessWeek.com, 4/21/08), near the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, for new hotels.

Does Cambodia Need Skyscrapers?

The Phnom Penh skyscrapers, which will be more than three times higher than the tallest existing building in Cambodia, are the most dazzling projects. And the most controversial. The developer of the $240 million Gold Tower 42, Yonwoo Co., expects construction to take three and a half years to complete. Already, says Teng Rithy, sales manager for Gold Tower 42, "high-ranking Cambodians and some foreigners from other Asian countries" are plunking down deposits. "We are 80% sold out," he boasts.

Not everyone is convinced the skyscrapers make sense. Many lawyers, bankers, and real estate brokers in the Cambodian capital are wondering whether the skyscrapers will really go up and whether there is demand for new construction. So far, new buildings are not having trouble leasing, since the city suffers from a shortage of modern office space. Tenants like the World Bank lease space in rabbit-warren-like villas with odd hallways leading in all directions.

But residential skyscrapers are a new concept in a country that not too long ago was still giving away property, not trying to market a 40th-floor condo for $1.6 million. "I feel it's a little bit early for that," says Sung Bonna, head of Bonna Realty, one of the leading real estate firms in Cambodia. "They said it's going to be a success. But I don't know. If it doesn't happen, it is not good for us."

Bonna says the whole idea of a real estate market in Cambodia is so new that no one can predict how it will turn. "We used to share property, not sell it. After the Pol Pot regime, however many properties you want, you can take all of them." He says there is a need for more modern restaurants, office buildings, and commercial centers, but the supply and demand for residential properties is in balance.

Korean Connection

For now, though, there are promising signs. Prime Minister Hun Sen—whose government at one point or another signs off on the big development deals—likes the skyscrapers and he wants more of them, according to his aide, Sry Thamarong. And land prices are hot. A traditional shop house—4 meters wide by 18 meters deep and going up four to five floors—along the river that sold in 2006 for $300,000 is now going for $600,000 to $700,000. But this is still much cheaper than Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, the real estate agents say.

Since Cambodia is still a very poor country that has never seen so much investment capital flying around, the trend is unnerving some observers. "Where is the money coming from? Cash coming out from under the mattresses, cash coming from overseas," says John Brisden, vice-chairman of Acleda Bank, the largest bank in Cambodia. He calls the real estate boom "very unusual" because much of it is not being financed by bank loans. Are there signs that the boom may be running its course? Brisden doesn't see a sudden popping of the bubble. Instead, he says, "people envision a slowdown. The scenario is a lot of empty high-rise properties but no forced sales."

Most of the big new projects are coming from Korea. Financing the Gold Tower 42 skyscraper is Korea's DaeHan Real Estate Investment Trust. Yonwoo is the developer. A director at Yonwoo in Seoul, who asked not to be named, says his company began exploring real estate development opportunities in emerging economies three years ago, when Korea's domestic construction market began cooling. "In view of a number of wealthy Cambodians and a growing number of foreign investors arriving in Cambodia, we are confident Gold Tower 42 will be a success," the director says. Phnom Penh-based salesman Rithy says there are "high-ranking Cambodians" involved in the project, but he won't say who.

Investors Face Legal Hurdles

The 52-story skyscraper announced in January is a project of Korea's GS Engineering & Construction. The Seoul company plans to start construction in June and finish in 2012. A 34-story project near the Russian embassy will have serviced residences for 280 households and several floors of apartment blocks on top, as well as shopping and an international school, according to GS spokesman Choi Byoung Geun. "Cambodia really needs this kind of Class A facility," says the business development chief in Cambodia, Mu-Hion Woo, who figures by the time the $1.2 billion project is built, the demand will be there.

A Korean developer is also behind Camko City, a new suburb northwest of Phnom Penh with a $2 billion price tag that is in the early stages of development. World City, the property developer, began construction last June and is scheduled to complete the first phase by November, 2009, according to Korean contractor Hanil Engineering & Construction, the Seoul-based company that is also the contractor for Gold Tower 42.

There are some legal hurdles for potential investors to overcome. For instance, foreigners are not allowed to own real estate outright in Cambodia. But there are plenty of ways to get around the law. Foreign investors can set up a joint venture with Cambodian partners, use long-term leases, or put the land in the name of Cambodian partners. There's even the possibility of becoming Cambodian. "With an investment of a certain size, you can get citizenship. It's a contribution to the country," says Matthew Rendall, a lawyer with Sciaroni & Associates, a law firm in Phnom Penh.

Evictions in the Name of Development

National Assembly lawmaker Sam Rainsy, a former Finance Minister and leader of the largest opposition party, calls many of the real estate deals "shady." He argues that Cambodia is awash in illegal cash plundered from the sale of national assets, including illegal logging and the sale of public lands, where land titles are easily changed and the sales revenues never get accounted for in the state budget.

And there has been a social cost to all the new development. The scramble for prime land has led to widespread evictions of people without clear land titles to the properties. A report by human-rights group Adhoc in Phnom Penh says in 2006 and 2007 more than 50,000 people were evicted for development. Chan Soveth, program officer at Adhoc, says he expects 4,252 families in Phnom Penh to be evicted from villages surrounding Boeng Kak, a lake in the city where a developer wants to build a new township that will have condos, a hotel, and shopping. "It is very bad and getting worse," says Soveth. Adds human-rights lawyer Am Sam Ath of the nongovernmental organization Licadho: "There is no balance between the big development and the rights of the people."

But with land prices continuing to skyrocket, regardless of what happens with the skyscrapers, there is no indication that the land speculation boom will stop. "No one can predict," says Bonna, but he thinks it could run "maybe five years more."

With Moon Ihlwan in Seoul.

Postlewaite is a reporter for BusinessWeek in Phnom Penh.

Labels: Economic, Economic Success, Phnom Penh, Real Estate

(AP Photo by Heng Sinith)

Hun Sen eyes extension of long-running rule in Cambodia with opposition divided

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Although 11 parties are geared to fight it out in Cambodia's upcoming national elections, the contest is all but certain to be a one-horse race.

No one seems to have any doubt that Prime Minister Hun Sen, who at age 57 is Asia's longest-serving head of government, will retain his stranglehold over the country's politics. Least of all himself.

"I wish to state it very clearly this way: No one can defeat Hun Sen. Only Hun Sen alone can defeat Hun Sen," he said in a speech earlier this year.

Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party began almost three decades ago as a communist party that headed a single-party state. But as Cambodia changed into a multiparty democracy, so did the party evolve, and proved itself the master of the field.

Today Hun Sen — once a member of the ultra-leftist Khmer Rouge — is crowing that he will bring the country boundless riches thanks to offshore oil discovered by an ultra-capitalist American oil company, Chevron.

In an hour-long speech at a recent development conference, he unequivocally told the audience he'll remain in power long enough to manage the expected windfall from the black gold, sometime in the next decade.

He spoke as if he had already won a new five-year term in office, though balloting won't be held until July 27. More than 8 million out of Cambodia's 14 million people are eligible to vote, according the elections committee.

An oil bonanza would further bolster Hun Sen's already unchallenged stature at the expense of the country's democratic freedoms, analysts say.

Once oil production starts, Hun Sen will find it easier to ignore the pressures to liberalize from foreign aid donors — on which the country is now still heavily reliant — and will instead curb freedom of expression, assembly and the press, said Lao Mong Hay, a senior researcher at the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.

Elections have become a "veneer of democracy," he said, adding that Hun Sen's expected victory would further empower "the present oligarchy composed of people in power and tycoons."

Through guile and threat, Hun Sen has run Cambodia since 1985, when he became prime minister of a Vietnamese-installed communist government.

A peasant's son, he has intimidated, outsmarted and co-opted his rivals, including those who have spent decades being versed in Western education and democracy.

For years, Cambodia was wracked by civil war between the government and the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, whose 1975-79 "killing fields" regime left some 1.7 million Cambodians dead.

A U.N.-sponsored peace process led to 1993 elections that Hun Sen's party lost — but he managed to muscle his way into the government anyway as co-prime minister.

Less than four years later, he ousted his coalition partner when their rivalry turned violent and his forces emerged victorious after a few days of bloody fighting in and around the capital. His party easily won elections in 1998 over a divided opposition and hasn't lost a poll since. It now holds 73 of the 123 seats in the lower house of parliament.

Hun Sen has also presided over the fast growth of the economy, which remains small by international standards.

Having run the country for three decades, his party has built a firm grass-roots apparatus and can draw on financial wealth unmatched by its opponents. Supporters include some of the country's wealthiest tycoons, who regularly dole out cash to finance rural projects such as schools and roads, often named after Hun Sen.

The party has just three credible rivals, one named after and led by opposition leader Sam Rainsy.

The two other main parties are led by Kem Sokha, a former human rights activist, and Prince Norodom Ranariddh, whose former party booted him out for alleged incompetence — in part because of some political shenanigans orchestrated by Hun Sen's side.

But because the three parties lack a united strategy and instead pursue their own separate agendas for votes, they are unlikely to loosen the grip of Hun Sen's party, said Kuol Panha, director of Comfrel, an independent Cambodian election monitoring group.

"The imbalance will weigh heavier toward the ruling party. It can prevail at whim with its great strength due to the divided voices among the non-ruling parties," he said.

He said Cambodia's electoral environment is still far from free and fair, with the ruling party enjoying unfettered access to state resources and the tightly controlled broadcast media.

During the past few months, TV and radio stations have flooded the airwaves with coverage of Hun Sen and party colleagues inaugurating rural roads, schools and Buddhist pagodas — financed by cronies — and welcoming deserters from the Sam Rainsy Party.

Sam Rainsy acknowledges that Hun Sen's advantage of controlling the levers of state power make it "very difficult" for opposition parties.

"There's no strong kid on the block," to challenge Hun Sen's grip, said Chea Vannath, an independent analyst and former director of the Center for Social Development, a nonprofit social study group.

"I'm sure the ruling party will stay in power for quite awhile — with or without the oil money," she said.

Labels: Election, hun sen

Burma's ruling generals - including Than Shwe, Maung Aye and Thura Shwe Mann [Reuters]

JOEL BRINKLEY
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Source: San Francisco Chronicle

This article appeared on page G - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Labels: Burmese Leaders, Genocide, Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Phymean Noun is helping give Cambodian children a chance at a better life

Noun stopped to talk with them. After hearing their stories of hardship, she knew she couldn't ignore their plight.

"I must do something to help these children get an education," she recalls thinking. "Even though they don't have money and live on the sidewalk, they deserve to go to school."

Six years after that incident, Noun is helping many of Phnom Penh's poorest children do just that.

Within weeks, she quit her job and started an organization to give underprivileged children an education. Noun spent $30,000 of her own money to get her first school off the ground.

In 2004, her organization -- the People Improvement Organization (PIO) -- opened a school at Phnom Penh's largest municipal trash dump, where children are a large source of labor.

Today, Noun provides 240 kids from the trash dump a free education, food, health services and an opportunity to be a child in a safe environment.

It is no easy task. Hundreds of them risk their lives every day working to support themselves and their families.

"I have seen a lot of kids killed by the garbage trucks," she recalls. Children as young as 7 scavenge hours at a time for recyclable materials. They make cents a day selling cans, metals and plastic bags.

Growing up during the Pol Pot regime, Noun faced unimaginable challenges.

"There were no schools during Pol Pot's regime," she recalls. "Everyone had to work in the fields. My mother was very smart. She told them that she didn't have an education. That was how she survived. If they knew she was educated, they would have killed her."

Noun's mother died of cancer when Phymean was 15. Phymean's sister fled to a refugee camp, leaving her young daughter in Phymean's care.

"When my mom passed away, my life was horrible, " says Noun. "It was very sad because there was only my niece who was 3 years old at that time." Yet Noun was determined to finish high school. Watch Noun decscibe the hardships of life during the Pol Pot regime »

That dedication paid off, and after graduating she spent the next decade working with various aid organizations.

"I tell the children my story and about the importance of education," she said. "I'm their role model."

Some of the children who attend her school continue to work in the dump to support themselves and their families. Without an education, she said, these children would be vulnerable to traffickers or continue to be caught in the cycle of poverty.

"We are trying to provide them skills that they can use in the future," Noun said. "Even though we are poor and struggling and don't have money, we can go to school. I tell them not to give up hope."

Labels: Heroes

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Hun Sen’s Broken Promises And His Government of National Disunity

Labels: Election

Delivery of Anti-corruption petition (Photo: AP)

Hong Kong, China — On May 16, 2006, a petition with over 1 million signatures and thumbprints was presented to the National Assembly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, calling on the assembly to urgently enact an anti-corruption law. The sheer number of people –one out of every 14 Cambodians – who supported the petition campaign with their signature or thumbprint in a period of just over five months, revealed the gravity of corruption in the country and the urgent need for government leaders and lawmakers to take action.

Corruption in Cambodia was already rife, affecting every walk of life, toward the end of the communist regime in the late 1980s. It was and still is prevalent in every public institution everywhere and at every level: in schools, hospitals, fire services, the police, the army, the civil service, the judiciary, the government and the Parliament. It has also ravaged foreign aid given to the country.

In the early 1990s when the communist regime ended, the public called on the government to tackle the problem. In the mid-1990s, civil society began to organize seminars to highlight the issue and urge the government to enact an anti-corruption law. Many national seminars were held, at times presided over by prime ministers or their colleagues, not to mention many smaller meetings.

There were study tours for concerned senior government officials and lawmakers to countries in the region, including Singapore and Hong Kong, both of which are renowned for their effective anti-corruption laws and agencies. In 1998, the newly elected government promised to fight corruption and enact a law against it.

For their part, international donors began to feel the gravity of corruption and its negative impact on the aid they had given to Cambodia, to the tune of some US$500 million a year since the early 1990s. In 2002, together with the Cambodian government, they made the fight against corruption and the enactment of an anti-corruption law one of the benchmarks for the flow of aid.

Under such pressure the government finally submitted to the National Assembly an anti-corruption bill – which had been drafted and redrafted many times, well before the adoption of the U.N. Convention against Corruption in 2003.

Shortly after, this bill was withdrawn, to be redrafted again to bring it up to the convention’s standards. Meanwhile, deadlines set for the enactment of that law have repeatedly passed and the final draft has not yet seen the light of day.

In parallel with the pressure on the government to enact an anti-corruption law, successive studies were undertaken to look into corruption in Cambodia. A 2004 study conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Cambodia showed that corruption cost the government between US$300 million and $500 million in revenue every year, an enormous sum for a poor country.

Another survey conducted two years later by the Economic Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh showed that in 2005 the private sector paid “unofficial fees”—that is, bribes – to public officials amounting to US$330 million, an amount it said was “2.5 times higher than that of official payment” and “represented also about 50 percent of the total government budget revenue in 2005.”

A more recent survey conducted by Transparency International showed that 72 percent of Cambodians reported paying a bribe to receive a public service in 2007, a percentage which was then the highest in the Asia-Pacific region and second only to Cameroon (79 percent) internationally. The same survey also showed that the judiciary and the police were viewed as the most corrupt institutions in the country. It should be added that in 2007 Cambodia ranked 162 out 179 countries in the TI Corruption Perceptions Index.

Corruption has affected not only the Cambodian people but also foreign donors on whom Cambodia very much depends. In 1999 there was a corruption scandal at the Cambodian Mine Action Center, an internationally funded government landmine clearance organization. That scandal led to the suspension of foreign aid to CMAC for some time.

In 2003, the World Bank discovered the misuse of funds in a project to demobilize 30,000 soldiers, and forced the Cambodian government to repay the missing money. In 2004, the World Food Program found that US$1.2 million of its aid had gone missing, and forced the Cambodian government to make up for it. In 2006, the World Bank discovered fraud and corruption in three of the projects it was funding. It suspended its funding for these three projects and requested the Cambodian government to make prompt repayment of the missing funds.

In early 2007, within six months after its creation, the internationally funded Khmer Rouge Tribunal encountered allegations of corruption in its human resource management. These allegations led to the introduction of corrective measures for better management.

These are a few of the cases known to the public and acknowledged by the government. Yet in all corruption cases very few, if any, suspected government officials have been brought to justice and made accountable for their corruption. Generally, they have simply been disciplined and removed from office and then, when their cases are no longer in the public mind, they have been reappointed to other, sometimes higher, positions.

Enacting an anti-corruption law and setting up an anti-corruption body may not end what is a common practice in Cambodia. It is nevertheless a significant step toward that end. The Cambodian government must not let its officials indulge in corruption with impunity. It must not continue to break its promises to its people and its foreign donors. It must heed the petition presented to the National Assembly and submit the long promised anti-corruption bill for adoption without further delay.
--
(Lao Mong Hay is a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)

Labels: Anti-corruption law, LAO MONG HAY

Labels: Election

Mr. Soy Sophea & H. E. Chum Kosal - CTN-Reporters (pictured by Kong Siev)

Labels: Chum Kosal, Media bias towards the CPP, Soy Sophea

Receiving surrendering weapons from Dap Chhuon Khmer Issarak group

Crowning in 1941

Crowning 1941

In French army uniform

Inspecting local villagers armed with wooden weapons

Labels: Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk

Labels: Election

Labels: Antonio Graceffo, Buddhist

Labels: Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni, Cambodian Riel Currency

Labels: Khmer Art

It is widely known that courts in Cambodia are politically controlled and almost all judges and prosecutors belong to the CPP, the ruling party. The president of the Supreme Court, or chief justice, is a member of the party's standing and central committees.

Labels: Election, LAO MONG HAY