Editorial | Articles about Cambodia | Khmer
April 20, 2011
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
My email box has been flooded with messages. Some made me smile. Two hard-hitting messages from Cambodia made me look for some spiritual balance. A friend from a different continent who used to discuss with me the value of education wrote, after reading my columns, about the necessary "critical mass" needed to catalyze change.
I combined all three messages to writing this column.
It's no revelation that if we want to look for something in a person or a regime, negative or positive, we can find it. And we can be sure that there are supporters and critics of any position: A thesis is followed by antithesis. Opposites are a fact of life -- the yin and the yang
I have written about alleged bribes demanded by instructors at Cambodia's universities, but an email from a reader in Cambodia, most likely from a teaching circle, reported also on corrupt practices among primary and secondary school teachers in his area. The writer reported that teachers extort money from students in return for one thing or another. The reader was livid, saying the "authorities concerned" know but do nothing: "I fear if these practices are ingrained in the culture of corruption, the young Cambodian generation will be severely affected in thoughts and behaviors."
Another email, under the rubric, "Cambodian people are living in starvation, except corrupt officials," reads: "Millions of times, millions of words from officials, millions of promises and of plans, but nothing has changed: The rich become richer, the poor become poorer. ... I saw people in my village ... including my parents, go hungry because they can't pay the loans from banks and financial institutions, and are forced to sell their lands and their homes. Some decided to go to Thailand for work. My parents and their neighbors used to live without worries, but now they are miserable. At each election, money was waved in their faces, they needed the money, they voted for the money."
On April 6, I quoted a Cambodian reader's email about the "visible hardware" -- the new buildings, bridges and roads which led 76 percent of respondents in a survey to cheer about progress and development under Premier Hun Sen, as opposed to the lack of much-needed "software" -- informed citizens and critical thinkers. The reader charged that Cambodia's "strong culture of suspicion and mistrust will cripple society even deeper into a passive coma." He lamented, "Even many of the young are now in this unfortunate trend."
Of course, I expected supporters of Premier Hun Sen to vociferously denounce the authors of the emails above. Yet, even Hun Sen agreed that 35 percent of Cambodia's populace live below the poverty line, and rights groups continue to accuse government officials of stealing the nation's resources for personal gain.
Critical mass
In physics, a "critical mass" refers to necessary amount of fissionable material to maintain a chain reaction at a constant rate.
Buddha's truth of the inevitability of change means that at a certain point or time or situation, change occurs, and that "something" must reach a certain level, amount or size, and then it will unleash an activity or event that will change the status quo. Thus, the water that is hot at 211 degrees boils at 212. It produces steam; steam yields energy. [KI-Media Note: water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius]
My friend reminded me: You need a "critical mass" to bring about change, sustain it and render it long-lasting. Amen.
As I examined statistics compiled by the United Nations Children's Fund, I saw vicious circles that should drive conscientious citizens to coalesce to create that critical mass. UNICEF reported Cambodia's net secondary school enrollment for 2005-2009 for males at 36 percent and females at 32 percent -- a net secondary school enrollment ratio of 34 percent.
This refers to students who are actually enrolled in school. How many of them actually attend (Cambodia's schools are open only a few hours per day) or how many actually graduate from secondary school are different problems.
Though unlikely, let's assume that 90 percent of young Cambodians who are enrolled in secondary school do graduate. That's only 90 percent of the total 34 percent enrolled.
To develop quality thinking to contribute to Cambodia's development and progress, we should want to know how many graduates go on to university. Let's assume that half of the graduates (which is, again, very unlikely) go to university. Statistically, half of the 90 percent of the total enrollees of 34 percent yields about 15 percent who may go to university. Of course, not everyone of those who go to university graduates, but let's say 70 percent do. This would yield about 10 percent of a certain age group who might be considered educated.
This is hardly a "critical mass" to bring change to Cambodia.
No room for despair
Even if the Hun Sen regime returned all the dollars from theft of national resources to the education pot, it would take a long, long time before young Cambodians' secondary school net enrollment would move from the current dismal 34 percent of eligible students to even 80 percent, which might be the percentage that would create the catalyst to foment meaningful change.
Until then, Cambodians will have to rely on the handful of educated individuals and independent non-governmental organizations -- a small "critical" group to swim against the current to inspire the young ones in the face of corruption, violations of rights and freedom, to want to go to school, to stay in school, to graduate.
They are the "critical mass" needed to effect the change!
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at
peangmeth@yahoo.com.
Labels: Education, Gaffar Peang-Meth, Prime Minister Hun Sen
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Dear colleagues,
By now, you must be aware of Kem Sokha's letter to me dated April 18. All the press has received it and has asked for my reply to Kem Sokha's question about the formula for uniting the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party: Creation of a new party with a new name, or merger with the SRP?
I've just replied to VOA and RFA that before choosing any FORMULA for a union, we must first show the required SPIRIT for a genuine and sincere union. Such a spirit requires mutual respect and mutual solidarity as real partners in a real union would show to each other.
Therefore, the HRP, if it is sincere, must stop publicly treating the SRP as an enemy by using the same language, the same propaganda tools and the same political tricks (such as displaying "defectors") as the ones used by the CPP in their continuous attempt to "break" the SRP.
If the HRP treats the SRP as an ENNEMY, as the CPP does, how could they hope to become our PARTNER? What ground does the HRP have to treat us as an enemy? We have never committed any crime against the Cambodian people compared to the multiple crimes we reproach the ruling CPP to have committed. On the contrary, we have done our best to defend our country and all the victims of injustices in Cambodia.
In fact, by adopting the CPP's attitude toward us, the HRP is -- willingly or not -- serving the CPP interest and they have become a CPP de facto ally, at a time when the SRP is the main target for the CPP in the face of very serious national problems. Everybody can see that the SRP bears the brunt of the CPP attack on the opposition and the civil society. And curiously the HRP now joins hands with the CPP in attacking the SRP.
This is not the first time that an "Alliance" of democratic forces is due to collapse: Remember the past "alliances" between the SRP and the royalist FUNCINPEC party. Eventually, only the SRP has proved to abide by principles whereas its short-term “allies” proved to be political opportunists manipulated and bought by the CPP.
All the best,
Sam Rainsy
Labels: HRP, Kem Sokha, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party
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Elizabeth Becker, Special to The Chronicle
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Cambodia's Curse
The Modern History of a Troubled Land
By Joel Brinkley
This year Arab leaders have been caught off balance by their citizens, who have shown unexpected courage and come out in force to demand democracy and an end to corruption and cruel inequities. Those protests are proof that the truism that Arabs needed "strongmen" to rule them was wrong. In just weeks, the nonviolent demonstrators overthrew the ruling tyrants in Tunisia and Egypt, inspiring other uprisings in Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria. Now, no matter how these revolts play out, Arabs have broken out of racial and cultural stereotypes that said they were unfit for democracy.
In his new book "Cambodia's Curse," the former New York Times journalist Joel Brinkley comes very close to offering a similar dead-end theory to explain why he thinks the people of Cambodia are "cursed" by history to live under abusive tyrants. In his telling, Cambodians are passive Buddhists who have accepted their stern overlords since the days of the Angkor Empire. "Far more than almost any other state, modern Cambodia is a product of customs and practices set in stone a millennium ago," he writes, blaming that history for the ability of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to squash meaningful dissent against his corrupt regime.
As a young reporter, Brinkley won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for his coverage of the Cambodian refugee crisis. Returning to the region 30 years later, Brinkley - now a professor of journalism at Stanford - chose his subject well. Hun Sen deserves a thorough examination. Along with his cronies, he has amassed extraordinary wealth selling off the country's assets to the highest bidder. Everything is up for grabs - land wrested from peasants to be sold to corporations and turned into plantations or tourist resorts, young girls and boys sold into prostitution, and dense forests cut down and the lumber sold abroad. Corruption is everywhere. Underpaid schoolteachers demand bribes from their students, judges issue rulings based on the amount of money paid on the side or the dictates of the government, businesses flourish by paying handsome bribes for licenses and to avoid unwelcome regulations.
Brinkley admirably highlights nearly all of these crimes and demonstrates that Hun Sen's administration has been a disaster for many Cambodians. His portrait of the businessman Mong Reththy is a gem, showing how businessmen enrich themselves through corrupt government concessions and then underwrite charities or schools in the areas impoverished by their corruption.
Yet there are only two types of Cambodians in these pages - either victims (passive, poverty-stricken Cambodians for whom Brinkley shows great sympathy) or villains (cruel, selfish politicians and businessmen). Missing are normal Cambodians who work day jobs and study at night to get ahead; Cambodians who return from abroad with dreams of a better life; Cambodians who promote human rights or flourish in the arts and sciences.
The few people painted in full, heroic strokes are American diplomats who served as ambassadors to Cambodia. Brinkley focuses on them and the foreign community of aid groups and governments who spend billions of dollars to improve the lives of Cambodia's poor. He correctly asks whether much of that money has gone to waste or into bank accounts of corrupt officials, and chastises foreign governments for not demanding real reforms for the aid.
Undermining his reporting is his thesis that thousand-year-old traditions are to blame for this state of affairs rather than 21st century realities. Brinkley fails to track the extraordinary sums of foreign investment fueling official corruption. Crooked signing bonuses and commissions, money laundering, selling off government land to foreign investors, human trafficking - these modern plagues are hardly confined to Cambodia. International businesses are pouring billions into Cambodia. China and South Korea are at the top of that list, giving them an outsize influence in Cambodia, yet they barely appear in Brinkley's book.
To retain control over all that money, Hun Sen has amassed a monopoly on power through the army and police, buying off or killing off dissidents. His path to power has been anything but democratic: Trained as a young Khmer Rouge officer, Hun Sen defected and was installed as prime minister by the Vietnamese occupiers; later he bullied the United Nations into appointing him a co-prime minister even though he lost the country's first election, then rigged subsequent elections.
Brinkley makes the blanket claim that Cambodians accept this because they are a people who "could not, would not, stand up and advocate for themselves," forgetting Cambodia's history of revolts or movements against French colonial rule, King Sihanouk's autocracy, the corrupt Lon Nol regime, the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam's occupation and Hun Sen himself. In more recent times, Chea Vichea led a free-trade union movement and became a serious challenger to Hun Sen's power until he was gunned down by thugs. Brink- ley mentions Vichea's murder in a short paragraph without fully describing his impact or the courage and skill he showed organizing Cambodia's textile workers.
And countless Cambodians have fought back when soldiers and police have thrown them off their lands. Cambodian activists like Dr. Pung Chhiv Kek have been so successful defending against human rights abuses that the government issued a draft law in December to effectively put them under government control. Brinkley might have also given greater weight to Cambodia's short experience with fully free elections and the legacy of the Khmer Rouge revolution, which could put a damper on anyone's desire to revolt again.
Further clouding his book are frequent errors. He describes the United Nations' 1993 peacekeeping operation as an "occupation," and then compares it unfavorably to the Allied occupation of Germany. He claims it is "rare to see Cambodians laugh." He confuses the Hindu faith with the Hindi language. He has China invading Vietnam in 1989, rather than in 1979. And why does he make the exaggerated claim that Cambodians are "the most abused people in the world"?
By arguing that Cambodians are passive and that the "Buddhist notion of individual helplessness" is a central factor holding them down, he dismisses the possibility that Cambodians could reform their own country. Instead he concludes that the country's best hope is in the hands of foreigners. He challenges the foreign governments to withhold aid money until Hun Sen lives up to his promises to enact reforms and respect human rights. "Maybe, just maybe, after 1,000 years, Cambodia's rulers might finally be forced to give the people their due," he writes.
Or maybe Hun Sen doesn't need that money so desperately and those donor governments are not such disinterested parties.
Brinkley may blame the legacy of Angkor kings for Hun Sen's ability to keep down Cambodians. But the Cambodian leader's recent actions suggest otherwise. When Egypt's Hosni Mu- barak started tottering under the demands of protesters, Hun Sen shut down the opposition websites in Cambodia.
Elizabeth Becker, a former correspondent for the New York Times and Washington Post, is the author of "When the War Was Over" (1986), a history of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. E-mail comments to books@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/17/RVTE1IKUA9.DTL
This article appeared on page GF - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Labels: Cambodia Democracy, Prime Minister Hun Sen
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By Joel Brinkley, Sunday, April 17, 7:45 PM
The Washington Post - Post Opinions
Representatives of more than 3,000 governments and donor organizations are meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Wednesday. If past experience is indicative, they will pledge to provide hundreds of millions in aid.
Year after year, smiling Cambodian government leaders attend these pledge conferences, holding out their hands. But first they have to listen as ambassadors and aid officers stand at the podium, look them in the eye, and lambast them for corruption and jaw-dropping human rights abuses. (Photo: Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer Service)
Most of these donors should simply stay home.
Year after year, smiling Cambodian government leaders attend these pledge conferences, holding out their hands. But first they have to listen as ambassadors and aid officers stand at the podium, look them in the eye, and lambast them for corruption and jaw-dropping human rights abuses.
Each year Prime Minister Hun Sen promises to reform. The donors nod and make their pledges — $1.1 billion last year. Then everyone goes home and nothing changes. In the following months, officials dip into the foreign aid accounts and build themselves mansions the size of small hotels, while 40 percent of Cambodia’s children grow up stunted for lack of nutrition during infancy.
This year should be different. Over the past two decades, the Cambodian government has grown ever more repressive. Now it is actually planning to bite the hand that feeds it: The legislature is enacting a law that would require nongovernmental organizations to register with the government, giving venal bureaucrats the ability to shut them down unless they become toadies of the state.
Eight major international human rights organizations are calling on Cambodia to back down, saying the bill is “the most significant threat to the country’s civil society in many years.” Donors, they say, should hold back their pledges. But they say that every year, and each year the donors ignore them. Meanwhile, the status of the Cambodian people the aid is supposed to help improves little if at all. Nearly 80 percent of Cambodians live in the countryside with no electricity, clean water, toilets, telephone service or other evidence of the modern world.
All of this might surprise most Americans. It has been decades since many people here have given Cambodia even a thought. Forty years ago, Cambodia was on the front pages almost every day as the United States bombed and briefly invaded the state during the Vietnam War. Then came the genocidal Khmer Rouge era, when 2 million people died.
How many know what has happened there since? Last month, the Nexis news-research service carried 6,335 stories with Thailand in the headline. Vietnam had 5,196. For Cambodia, 578.
Most people don’t know that Cambodians are ruled by a government that sells off the nation’s rice harvest each year and pockets the money, leaving its people without enough to eat. That it evicts thousands of people from their homes, burns down the houses, then dumps the victims into empty fields and sells their property to developers.
That it amasses vast personal fortunes while the nation’s average annual per capita income stands at $650. Or that it allows school teachers to demand daily bribes from 6-year-olds and doctors to extort money from dirt-poor patients, letting them die if they do not pay.
This is a government that stands by and watches as 75 percent of its citizens contract dysentery each year, and 10,000 die — largely because only 16 percent of Cambodians have access to a toilet. As Beat Richner, who runs children’s hospitals there, puts it, “the passive genocide continues.”
You wouldn’t know any of that from the donors’ behavior. You see, for foreigners Phnom Penh is a relatively pleasant place to live. Rents are cheap and household help is even cheaper. Espresso bars and stylish restaurants dot the river front — primarily for diplomats and aid workers.
Donors have largely been able to pursue whatever project they wanted without interference. They knew that the government would steal some of their money. But so what?
“Some money goes this way or that way,” said In Samrithy, an officer with a donor umbrella group. “But it’s useful if some of it reaches the poor. Not all of it does but some does. That’s better than nothing.”
Even with that, many donors feel the way Teruo Jinnai does. He’s the longtime head of the UNESCO office in Phnom Penh. “Here I have found my own passion,” he told me. “Here, I can set my own target. So that gives you more power, more energy, more passion.”
Well, Mr. Jinnai, the noose is tightening. If, as expected, the NGO bill becomes law, government repression will reach out for you, too. Isn’t it time, then, for all those donors to make a statement? On Wednesday stand up and tell the government: I am withholding my aid.
Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is the author of “Cambodia’s Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land.”
Labels: donors, Prime Minister Hun Sen
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April 11, 2011
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
In a surprise move, the Cambodian Prime Minister, Sandech Hun Sen, has cancelled a titanium strip mine project in one of Southeast Asia’s last great intact forest ecosystems, the Cardamom Mountains. According to a press release sent out by the Cambodian government the mine was canceled due to "concerns of the impact on the environment, biodiversity and local livelihoods" of villagers. The mine, which was planned to sit directly in the migration route for the largest population of Asian elephants in Cambodia, had been largely opposed by locals in the region who spent years developing eco-tourism in the region.
"We were under the impression the battle was lost. We are very pleased that the prime minister has weighed the environmental impact," Wildlife Alliance Communications Officer John Maloy told AFP.
Wildlife Alliance, a conservation NGO, has worked extensively in Cambodia for nearly a decade, including with the village of Chi Phat near the area slated to be strip-mined. Many local had residents given up logging and poaching to focus on tourism efforts; for its part, Wildlife Alliance invested over half a million US dollars to build infrastructure.
"We are elated by the decision of Prime Minister Hun Sen. It is incredibly encouraging to see that the prime minister has looked so deeply into this proposed titanium mine and taken the effort to weigh the consequences that this project would have on the rainforest and the local people," said Wildlife Alliance CEO Suwanna Gauntlett in a statement. "[Mining company] United Khmer Group had promised staggering revenues for the government, and we applaud the courageous decision of the prime minister to see the greater value of the forest as it currently stands."
United Khmer Group publically projected that the mine would bring in $1.3 billion dollars a year, but Wildlife Alliance and the Cambodian newspaper Phnom Penh Post questioned the company's projections. According to the Phnom Penh Post, the company was citing prices for titanium that were three times current market price and was projecting a big haul of titanium without ever conducting a comprehensive study of the ore deposit.
Incredibly rich in wildlife, the Cardamom Mountains is home to Indochinese tigers, Malayan sun bears, and pileated gibbons, in addition to 250 species of birds. According to Wildlife Alliance 70 threatened species live in the area, including the Siamese crocodile, which is listed as Critically Endangered.
- Endangered species found in the Cardamom Mountains according to the IUCN Red List:
- Asian elephant (Elephas maximums): Endangered
- Banteng (Bos javanicus): Endangered
- Burmese python (Python molurus): Near Threatened
- Clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa): Vulnerable
- Dhole (Cuon alpinus): Endangered
- Frog-faced softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii): Endangered
- Gaur (Bos gaurus): Vulnerable
- Green peafowl (Pavo muticus): Endangered
- Indochinese tiger ( Panthera tigris corbetti): Endangered
- Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus): Vulnerable
- Pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus): Endangered
- Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis): Critically Endangered
- Smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata): Vulnerable
- Southwest Chinese serow (Capricornis sumatraensis): Near Threatened
Labels: forest ecosystems, hun sen, Prime Minister Hun Sen, titanium
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10 December 2007
Bernama
PEKAN: The existence of seven pyramid-like hills near Tasik Chini has again sparked interest in the legend of a lost civilisation in the area that could date back to the 12th century.
While there is no proof that the hills are man-made, there is a possibility that it is part of a lost city or may at least shed some light on the mystery.
The pyramid-like hills near Tasik Chini have sparked interest in the legend of a lost civilisation.
It is long believed that the ancient city could only be found in the depths of the lake. This is based on a theory that the area was inundated with water after the fall of the Khmer empire, of which the city was a part of in the 15th century.
Although many people have made claims of a sunken city, little effort has been made to unravel the mystery. Based on pieces of porcelain found in the area, the city could have been built when the Khmer empire was at the height of its power.
The Khmer empire was ruled, between 802 and 1432, by a succession of "god kings" and had its capital in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where the famed Angkor Wat temple complex stands.
According to a villager, the "pyramid" was more evident when one of the unique hills in Padang Kerbau was cleared by a plantation company recently.
"Before this, all the hills looked normal. However, the way they were 'positioned' is not natural and that is quite interesting," said Ahmad Najib Mohd Don of Kampung Melayu, Chini.
Ahmad Najib, 57 and his wife, Pauziyah Abdullah, 49, later drove their pick-up truck to the hills and found that the formations stood in a swampy area.
Although she was born in Kampung Melayu, Pauziyah said she never realised the peculiar shape of the hills as they were covered by vegetation.
"The hills are also inaccessible because of the swampy land which surrounds them."
The new development has excited archaeologist, Professor Datuk Dr Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman, who was known for his leading role in the expedition to locate the lost city in 1998.
"There's a possibility as we cannot say for sure its exact location. It can be in the lake or on land," said the senior research fellow at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia when contacted.
He said there was no conclusion during the two-week exploration nine years ago as the team had lacked funds.
"We managed to drain a small part of the lake but the compartment walls collapsed when we were about to clear a layer of mud on top of a rocky base."
Labels: Khmer, Khmer Empire
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Monday, 11 April 2011
James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post
The United States has registered sharp criticism of the Cambodian government in its annual human rights report, raising long-standing concerns about land rights, corruption and judicial independence.
A protester speaks in October of the eviction of residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake. (Photo by: Uy Nousereimony)
Released on Friday in Washington, the US report covers 194 countries and spans more than 7,000 pages. The section on Cambodia stretches 42 pages and paints a grim picture of human rights in the Kingdom, calling rule of law weak and corruption “endemic”.
“Members of security forces committed arbitrary killings and acted with impunity. Detainees were abused, often to extract confessions, and prison conditions were harsh,” the report states.
“Human rights monitors reported arbitrary arrests and prolonged pretrial detention, underscoring a weak judiciary and denial of the right to a fair trial. Land disputes and forced evictions, sometimes violent, continued.”
The report depicts a two-tiered society in which the well-connected rarely face legal action and are able to strip state and private assets with impunity. The poor, meanwhile, have difficulty navigating the court system and have little recourse in the face of violations such as land-grabbing and unlawful detention.
With just 30 percent of the country’s 751 lawyers offering pro bono services, the US said, basic legal rights are inaccessible to most of the population.
Reports of beatings and forced confessions in police custody were common, with illiterate defendants sometimes forced to sign confessions they did not understand. Defamation cases against poor villagers and government critics continued, and more than half of all appeals cases took place without defendants present.
Forced relocations increased in 2010 compared to the previous year, the US said, amid “ineffective” work by the government’s Cadastral Commission and National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution.
There were no reports of politically motivated murders, though the Kingdom’s security forces were responsible for at least 12 extrajudicial killings last year, the US said, citing data from local rights group Adhoc.
The government did receive credit for its religious tolerance and its cooperation with development groups on prison and refugee issues. The report also noted the passage of the country’s long-awaited Anticorruption Law last year, though it said government officials “frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity”.
Past US rights reports have drawn criticism from Cambodian officials, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs calling the publication “a routine that has nothing to do with human rights reality in Cambodia” following the 2008 report. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday that he had not yet seen the latest report, though he nonetheless dismissed its findings as “out of date”.
“Some issues are out of date – we’ve solved the problem already – and some issues, we can’t work 24 hours,” he said. The government, he said, is working “to build a culture of human rights respect through the law”.
US assistant secretary of state Michael Posner told reporters in Washington on Friday that growing restrictions on civil society organisations, of the sort now being considered in Cambodia with the government’s controversial draft NGO Law, are among the global human rights trends about which the US is most concerned.
“This week, for example, we’re in a diplomatic negotiation with the government of Cambodia, which is now considering adopting a new law to this effect, which would make it much more difficult for Cambodian human rights and other organisations to operate,” Posner said.
Restrictions on internet freedom and “discrimination against vulnerable groups” are the US’s other key global rights concerns for this year, he said.
Labels: eviction, Human Rights, United States of America
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Source: monstersandcritics.com
Bangkok - The Thai-Cambodian border dispute has set a precedent for regional problem solving by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Indonesian foreign minister said Monday.
Indonesia, which now holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, has been active over the past two months in promoting a ceasefire and facilitating talks between Thailand and Cambodia over their joint claims to a plot of land adjacent to an 11th-century Hindu temple on their border and hosted talks Thursday and Friday between them in Bogor.
'I think we have the potential for this episode to have a silver lining, a positive long-term impact in the sense that we are setting a precedent,' Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said in Bangkok.
ASEAN has in the past maintained a stance of non-interference in it 10 member states' internal or bilateral affairs, raising questions about the group's effectiveness as a regional problem solver.
'I think it has had a potentially positive impact, for it shows ASEAN for the first time addressing an issue of this type directly and not simply producing documents,' Natalegawa said.
Both Cambodian and Thailand are members of ASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
Preah Vihear temple has been a bone of contention between Thailand and Cambodia for the past five decades, leading to a cessation of diplomatic ties in 1958.
The two countries agreed to have the sovereignty spat settled at the International Court, which in 1962 ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia.
Fighting broke out between Thai and Cambodian troops near the temple February 4-7, killing three Thais and five Cambodians and leaving dozens wounded on both sides.
The conflict raised questioned about solidarity within ASEAN, which is striving to be an economic community similar to the European Union by 2015.
Although Indonesia has played a role in bringing both sides to the negotiating table, Thailand and Cambodia remained at loggerheads over joint claims to a 4.6-square-kilometre plot of land adjacent to Preah Vihear that was not including in The Hague's 1962 ruling.
Nalalegawa was in Bangkok to lead an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting on the upcoming East Asia Summit, one of Asia's pivotal security forums, which Indonesia is to host in October or November.
Labels: Cambodia Thailand Border, Preah Vihear
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By SETH MYDANS - The New York Times - Asia Paciic
Published: April 7, 2011
BANGKOK — A proposed law to control nongovernmental groups in Cambodia threatens to silence some of the last independent voices in an increasingly repressed nation, a group of leading international human rights agencies said Thursday.
Calling the proposal “the most significant threat to the country’s civil society in many years,” the agencies urged foreign nations and aid groups to oppose the law, which they said would undermine much of the nation-building work the donors have supported at a cost of billions of dollars.
The measure, which is moving toward enactment by Parliament, would for the first time require nongovernmental organizations of all types and sizes to register and to follow complex reporting procedures. The law would give the government new leverage to shut down any group it considers to be opposed to it.
Human rights advocates said the law would cap a long process during which Prime Minister Hun Sen has imposed controls over his political opponents, the security forces and the judiciary, leaving the independent groups and civil society the country’s only independent voices.
“Should this law pass as it is currently formulated, the survival of each and every N.G.O. in Cambodia will be at the whim of the government,” said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, referring to nongovernmental agencies that monitor and act on areas like human rights, legal affairs, the environment, land issues, public health and the role and rights of women.
“Emboldened by the legitimacy that they believe a law gives to abusive behavior, the government is likely to use the N.G.O. law to silence its people and to tighten its control on their daily lives,” he said. “The international community needs to act now, or Cambodia will continue in its march away from democracy and toward autocracy.”
Simon Taylor, director of Global Witness, an independent rights monitoring group, said the proposed law was a test of the commitment of donor nations and international agencies to the future of the civil society they had worked for two decades to foster.
“If the donors stand by while the government adopts this law, they cannot in good conscience claim to be working in the interests of Cambodia’s development objectives,” he said.
Despite Cambodia’s continuing pressures on human rights and its failure to control corruption, illegal logging and an epidemic of sometimes violent land seizures by powerful interests, international financial support for Mr. Hun Sen’s government has continued to increase.
At their most recent annual conference last June, donor nations and international agencies pledged $1.1 billion in aid for this year, a record amount, up from $950 million last year, despite widespread criticism that much of the money was misspent or diverted.
The aid is equal to roughly half the country’s official budget. In principle, it gives the international community leverage to maintain or strengthen basic freedoms and democratic institutions.
The amount has risen even as Cambodia’s economy has steadied itself and begun to grow, and even as China has matched Western donors with its own financial support, which comes unencumbered by the human rights conditions imposed by the West.
In December 2009, China awarded Cambodia $1.2 billion in aid and soft loans. That pledge came immediately after Cambodia deported 20 ethnic Uighur refugees to China over the strong objections of the United States and the United Nations, which called the deportation a violation of human rights.
“It must be remembered that the freedoms of association, expression and assembly in Cambodia are already heavily restricted, particularly at the community level,” said one of Cambodia’s oldest human rights groups, Licadho, in a separate report last week on the proposed law.
In their statement on Thursday, the international human rights agencies said that the strict financial conditions of the proposed law would disproportionately affect small groups with limited resources operating at the local level, “making them vulnerable to prosecution for carrying out legitimate activities without the proper legal status.”
The agencies voiced concern over what they called a lack of safeguards and meaningful judicial review mechanisms and pointed to the vague wording regarding a right of appeal of government sanctions.
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Cambodia’s proposed law could too easily be used to refuse registration or close down organizations that serve the public interest.”
“Over the past 20 years, the development of civil society has been one of Cambodia’s few enduring achievements,” he said. “This law threatens to reverse that progress.”
In the early 1990s, Cambodia emerged from two decades of civil war and mass killings by the Khmer Rouge, which left the country brutalized, without an educated class or civic institutions.
As part of a $2 billion nation-building effort, the United Nations established democratic forms of government and introduced standards of human rights that soon became a part of political discourse.
The concept and practice of human rights and political freedoms grew hand in hand with the introduction of the nongovernmental organizations that are now under threat.
Labels: A proposed law to control nongovernmental groups, Human Rights
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By Guy De Launey, BBC News
Campaigners against cluster munitions say Thailand has admitted it used the weapons against Cambodia in February.
The Cluster Munition Coalition called the decision “appalling” and “unconscionable”.
The weapons were banned by an international convention three years ago, but neither Thailand nor Cambodia have signed the agreement.
Admitting the use of cluster munitions would represent a significant shift in Thailand’s position.
Cambodia was quick to accuse its larger neighbour of using the weapons during four days of border fighting in February.
Thailand denied the allegation – saying that if anyone had used cluster munitions, it was Cambodian forces.
But several humanitarian organisations have visited the border area around Preah Vihear temple, and they reported finding unexploded cluster bomblets.
This evidence appears to have caused the shift in Bangkok’s stance.
The Cluster Munition Coalition says that Thailand has confirmed that it fired the weapons, claiming that it was self defence against heavy artillery from Cambodia landing in civilian areas.
The coalition says that should not be a justification for using weapons which are banned by more than 100 countries.
According to the campaigners, thousands of villagers are now at risk of death or serious injury because of unexploded ordnance near their homes.
Part of the reason for the weapons notoriety is that children find the brightly-coloured bomblets attractive and get badly hurt if they pick them up.
Labels: Ban Cluster Bombs, Cambodia Thailand Border, Preah Vihear
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Angkor Wat Apsara & Devata: Khmer Women in Divine Context
Decoding the World's Greatest Archaeological Mystery: Who were the ancient Khmer women depicted on the Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat?
Xishuangbanna, “Twelve Thousand Rice Fields,” is the poetic name of this semi-tropical paradise, hidden in the mountains of Southern China. On a recent visit, Cambodian scholars discovered a living connection to their Khmer homeland: families descended from ancient elephant drivers who never returned to Angkor.
By Kent Davis
Xishuangbanna, China – Xishuangbanna — known in the Thai-Lao dialects as “Sipsongpanna” (สิบสองพันนา) — is an autonomous prefecture at the southern tip of China’s Yunnan province filled with an exotic diversity of people, plants and animals. There, the colorful culture points to strong connections between these Chinese people and their southern neighbors in Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and beyond.
Radio Free America (RFA) now reports that a group of researchers from the Royal Academy of Cambodia have found a group of more than 1,000 ethnic Khmers living in the area, evidently descended from 13th century exchanges between the Khmer Empire and the Chinese Emperors of that era. The team, led by H.E. Sum Chhum Bun, Secretary General of the academy, next plans to investigate the southern migrations of ethnic Tais into what is now Thailand.
According to the RFA report, “The Khmer king sent two families of mohouts (elephant drivers) to help care for the (Chinese emperor’s) elephants. Later, the Khmer king learned that the emperor enjoyed Khmer food so he sent two more families to cook for the emperor. Today, local ethnic Khmers here still say that the four families of their ancestors came to China from Cambodia. They also speak some of the ancient Khmer language that they remember”
The assimilation is not surprising and has been occurring in the region for thousands of years. Reports as early as the 6th century B.C. indicate that the Tai cultivated rice in lowland areas. During the first millennium A.D., Tai speaking tribes from the mountainous plateau near the Yangtze River had already begun moving southward. Meanwhile, to the south, the Khmer civilization grew in what is now Cambodia. Khmer influence then spread northward, sharing their religion, technology, architecture and system of government.
Tai and Khmer groups blended until 1,238 A.D. when the Tai (Thai) people organized a distinct nation based in Sukhothai, previously the northwestern capital of the Angkorean government. This divisive development weakened the Khmer empire north of the Dangrek Mountains however strong ties, often through intermarriage, continued to exist throughout the region.
The Lao kingdom of Lan Xang (A Million Elephants) that formed adjacent to Xishuangbanna also has strong connections to the Khmer empire based in Angkor.
Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan penned his Record of Cambodia in this era, which still remains the only eyewitness account of the Khmer capital at Angkor.
Simultaneously, Marco Polo was making his unforgettable journeys through China. While Marco ventured into the mountainous regions of Southern China he never visited Cambodia like Zhou Daguan.
With the discovery of Khmer people in China, Cambodian researchers are now interested in exploring the connection with modern descendents of both Tai and Khmer people in Xishuangbanna. H.E. Sum Chhum Bun says that the initial research would take between six months and a year to complete and would be compiled into a book and a documentary film.
Similarities to Khmer Culture in China
In researching this story, we found these interesting photos to share.
Xishuanbanna natives display a greeting instantly familiar to Cambodian and Thai visitors.
Nearby forests reminiscent to those of Angkor.
Colorfully dressed Pi-Nong Dai women at a festival.
Umbrellas, a sign of royalty throughout Southeast Asia and India, are featured in Xishuanbanna dances and festivals.
Of special significance is the Xishuanbanna water festival, coinciding with Khmer, Thai and Lao new year celebrations on April 13-15 each year.
Around a central square featuring an elephant fountain the Xishuanbanna water festival is as wet as in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.
Far from the Khmer empire, naga dragons still protect sacred places.
Labels: Angkor, Khmer, Khmer Women, Twelve Thousand Rice Fields, Xishuangbanna
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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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A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at
