A Second Chance in Cambodia

Deported to a Cambodia he never knew, a former gang member uses breakdancing to offer hope to others.

On the top floor of a city center shopping mall, youngsters in baggy jeans breakdance to loud hip-hop music while an energetic emcee raps over the top.

It could be a scene from any North American or European city, but this is Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh. And the dancers on stage are among the most underprivileged children and youths in the poverty-stricken country, which is still scarred by years of war and oppression. Their teachers are discards from American society, which kicked them out because of the accident of their birth.

They are members of the Tiny Toones breakdancing club, which aims to give children from Phnom Penh's poorest slum communities a constructive way to channel their energies and build confidence.

Some are orphans, many are HIV-positive, and others are former drug users – children who are all too often discarded and left on the margins of society. Now, says Tiny Toones' Khmer-American founder, Tuy Sopil, they are "the most popular dancers in Cambodia" and an inspiration to others.

With his tattoo-covered arms, baggy jeans and baseball cap, 29-year-old Tuy – also known as KK looks every inch the California gang member he once was. But since he was deported from the US to Cambodia, a country he hardly knew, he has devoted himself to helping his young charges avoid the life of gangs, drugs and crime that he fell into.

Tuy was just a baby when his family fled Cambodia and the murderous misrule of the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime. They settled in Arizona, and then Long Beach, California – home to a thriving community of Cambodian refugees. Although he became an accomplished breakdancer, Tuy got involved with gangs and was taking crack cocaine in his early teens.

At around 18 he was sent to jail for the first time, for robbery. He received two more sentences for the same crime, and says he spent a total of about nine-and-a-half years in jail or the custody of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. Then, in 2002, he got trouble of another kind that he never expected. The Bush administration pushed the Cambodia government into signing a repatriation agreement that made possible the deportation of about 1,600 Cambodian Americans, most of whom had dim memories if any at all of Cambodia. Tuy was one of them. He left his family – including a young son – behind. There are around 140 Khmer-American deportees like him in Cambodia. Hundreds more are waiting to be sent back when they finish their sentences.

On his return to Phnom Penh, Tuy turned his life around. "When I got here I started all over again, and now everyone loves me," he said. "It feels like I fit into the community. In the States, it didn't feel like that."

Tuy also works for an NGO set up by a group of deportees that works with drug users. But he seems most enthusiastic when talking about Tiny Toones, which he started around two years ago with just nine members. Now it has many times that number, aged from three to 24, and they practice at five different locations in Phnom Penh. The dancers get paid to perform at shows and promotional events, so they can make a little money for their parents through their hobby.

"I want to help them because I used to be a kid on drugs," he said. "I spent most of my life in gangs, trying to be cool. These kids need a role model and they don't have that, so I'm trying to be that."

Tuy teaches breakdancing and hires three other teachers to give lessons in Khmer, English and HIV-Aids prevention. He regularly checks the youngsters' school reports and suspends them from dancing if they get low grades.

Similarly, membership in Tiny Toones is used as a carrot to persuade youngsters to give up substance abuse such as sniffing glue or taking yama, which means “crazy medicine,” and is the local name for highly-addictive crystal methamphetamine.

"If they don't quit drugs, they can't join us," Tuy said. "If they are on drugs, I don't want them. I want them to quit before they join."

Cambodia has a high prevalence of HIV/Aids, and a lot of the dancers are HIV-positive. "I want them to know that it's not the end of the world," said Tuy.

He talks affectionately about one of his dancers, a 10-year-old boy who is HIV-positive: "He's the best breakdancing guy in my crew. He's very smart in English and Khmer. He's very talented."

Tuy clearly inspires respect among the young dancers, and this is reciprocated. He has even "adopted" five children and taken them into his home. He is proud of the youngsters, but says but the group needs more financial help. His ambition is to create a park in Phnom Penh, "where kids can be free to play".

Recently, 20 dancers announced that they wanted to form a gang. Tuy told them they must leave the group if they did. They chose to stay. He said: "They just want to be cool, and I say 'You guys are cool. You are popular in Cambodia. Everybody wants to be like you guys, and you want to be gang members? That's not cool'." Read more!

STANLEY FOUNDATION IN CAMBODIA DISCUSSES AID, TRADE AND NEW POWER DYNAMICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA:

UNITED NATIONS - 10 July 2007
The Stanley Foundation and two other institutions concluded a weeklong dialogue series with participants from leading universities, think tanks, NGOs, as well as the Cambodian and foreign governments, to examine complex and important economic issues facing the Asia-Pacific region.

The first phase of this process was a three-day conference held in Siem Reap in collaboration with the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace titled “Aid, Trade, and Infrastructure: Economic Dimensions of New Power Dynamics in Southeast Asia.”

The second phase, a morning seminar held in Phnom Penh and cosponsored with The Asia Foundation, considered the implications of the trends identified in Siem Reap for Cambodia and its foreign relations.
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The discussions in Siem Reap produced a number of recommendations for policymakers on both sides of the Pacific in the three key areas—aid, trade, and infrastructure—including:

Aid

Strive for greater coordination among and between donors in an effort to better leverage aid efforts.

Place greater emphasis on long-term institutional capabilities through a variety of capacity-building measures.

Recognize and appreciate that the region’s diversity means aid programs should be tailored to meet the needs of individual countries. In Cambodia , for example, it might be appropriate to create a counterpart to the Vietnam Education Fund.

Trade

The United States should be open to and supportive of regional economic integration.

The president should nominate, and the US Congress should approve, an ambassador for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) affairs.

The United States should consider trade preferences for Asian-Pacific Least Developed Countries similar to measures already in place in Africa and the Caribbean .

The Support for Trade Adjustment and Reform (STAR) Program implemented in Vietnam to help that country meet the obligations of and benefit from its bilateral trade agreement with the US should be extended to Cambodia and Laos .

Infrastructure

ASEAN and its trade partners should work toward a uniform code of standards in trade in order to encourage effective regional infrastructure development.

Smaller scale infrastructure should not be neglected, especially where it stimulates economic development in individual countries.

The United States should take greater interest in projects related to the Mekong River Delta and should encourage adherence to environmental standards in these projects.

The US and China should look for ways to cooperate with Southeast Asian countries on regional infrastructure development, including greater transparency, and in such areas as health and education.

The dialogue series is part of a multiyear Stanley Foundation project, New Power Dynamics in Southeast Asia : Issues for US Policy.

The project examines the impact of changing power relations in the Asia-Pacific region on Southeast Asian politics, security, and economics and the implication of these trends for US policy.

The Stanley Foundation project will culminate with recommendations for a new US administration following the 2008 elections.

The Stanley Foundation

The Stanley Foundation seeks a secure peace with freedom and justice, built on world citizenship and effective global governance. It brings fresh voices, original ideas, and lasting solutions to debates on global and regional problems.

The foundation is a nonpartisan, private operating foundation, located in Muscatine , Iowa , that focuses on peace and security issues and advocates principled multilateralism. The foundation frequently collaborates with other organizations. It does not make grants. Online at http://www.stanleyfoundation.org.

The Asia Foundation in Cambodia

The Asia Foundation first opened its office in Cambodia in 1955. Through grants of technical assistance; facilitating programs in areas such as local governance, economic growth and reform, and counter-trafficking; as well as its efforts to build the capacity of Cambodian NGOs, the Foundation has supported programs in every province in Cambodia . Online at http://www.asiafoundation.org.

Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace

The Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) is an independent, neutral, and nonpartisan research institute based in Phnom Penh , Cambodia . CICP promotes both domestic and regional dialogue between government officials, national and international organizations, scholars, and the private sector on issues of peace, democracy, civil society, security, foreign policy, conflict resolution, economics and national development. Online at http://www.cicp.org .

For further information, contact: Contact: Keith Porter, +1-563-299-4669; Michael Schiffer, +1-319-400-2520; Kristin McHugh, +1-563-264-1500 Read more!

VN-Cambodia border landmark planting begins in Kon Tum

VietNamNet Bridge – Work started for the planting of the 21st landmark on the Vietnam-Cambodia borderline in the area between Vietnam’s Kon Tum province and Cambodia’s Ranatakiri province on July 9.

The landmark, built by the Steering Board for Demarcation and Landmark Planting and the technical teams for demarcation and landmark planting of the two provinces, is the first erected in the border area between the two provinces.

The two provinces plan to finish the planting of five landmarks on their common borderline in July.

According to Dang Xuong Hung, deputy head of the Department for Western Border of the Border Committee, the Foreign Ministry, said that as many as 374 landmarks will be planted on the 1,137-km borderline between Vietnam and Cambodia.

They include 22 landmarks to be planted on the nearly 100-km borderline between Kon Tum and Ranatakiri provinces. Technical teams of the two sides have defined positions for the planting of 22 designated landmarks from now until 2008.

Representatives of Ranatakiri and Kon Tum provinces' authorities and relevant agencies of the two sides said that the landmark planting would help tighten friendship and cooperation between the two neighbouring countries and provinces as well. Read more!

Dengue death toll surpasses all in 2006 in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from dengue fever for the first half of this year has already surpassed the total number of 2006, for more household-level breeding occurred, local media said on Tuesday.

All 182 people died from the virus in this period, compared to the 158 death in the whole year of 2006, the Cambodian Daily quoted Ngan Chantha, dengue program manager of the Health Ministry, as saying.

Government figures show 14,986 reported cases of dengue fever so far this year and the virus has yet to reach its annual peak of infections at the end of July.

Last year, there were 16,649 reported cases in all, said Chantha.

Beat Richner, whose four Kantha Bopha hospitals reportedly care for 90 percent of Cambodia's dengue patients free of charge, said that some 90 percent of the fatalities happened as result of receiving wrong combination of drugs or too many drugs at other hospitals prior to being admitted to Kantha Bopha.

Varun Kumar, medical adviser and senior pediatrician at the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap province, told reporters that the warning signs for the current dengue outbreak were present late last year and health officials should have done more to prepare for it as they knew it was looming.

However, Ngan Chantha said that the government has already distributed 200 tons of abate over the specific areas to help curb the outbreak, but the virus just spread beyond those areas.

"It is not so easy to control because breeding is at the household level," he added.

Currently, the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional office is leading the efforts to spray insecticide and train provincial teams how to use the anti-mosquito spray in Phnom Penh and other hard-hit provinces. Read more!

Cambodian court gave New Zealander a taste of Cambodia hell for raping girls

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a guilty verdict against a New Zealand man convicted of raping five Cambodian girls who worked as maids at his house.

Prosecutors had provided enough evidence to prove that Graham Cleghorn, 60, had sexually abused the girls, said Thou Muny, the head of the three-judge Cambodian Appeals Court.

Cleghorn was not present Tuesday at the court in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, but his defense attorney, Ouk Ry, called the verdict unfair and said his client would appeal to the Supreme Court.

As the process was in accordance with Cambodian law and proper judicial process, New Zealand accepted the outcome, said Grant Traill, second secretary with the New Zealand Embassy in Bangkok, who was in Phnom Penh to follow the case, told reporters.

The verdict handed down Tuesday was for an appeal case heard last Wednesday in a close-door session in which Cleghorn pleaded his innocence and sought to overturn a 20-year prison sentence handed down against him by a provincial court in 2004.

Cleghorn, from Wellington, was sentenced for raping five girls at his home in Siem Reap province, 230 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh. The girls' ages have not been disclosed.

Cleghorn moved to Cambodia in the late 1980s and worked in Siem Reap as a tourist guide. His Cambodian wife, Bout Toeur, was convicted of conspiring to collude in the rapes. She received a three-year suspended sentence.

The girls worked as maids at Cleghorn's house.

Cleghorn maintained in an earlier statement that he was framed by the Cambodian Women Crisis Center, a nonprofit group, which has provided shelters and legal counseling to the girls.

. Read more!

Cambodia: PM Cuts Short India Visit After Death Of Former Indian Prime Minister

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, right, shakes hands with Nhek Bun Chhay, left, Deputy Prime Minister, as Minister of Council Ministry Sok An, center,looks on, on Hun Sen's arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, July 9, 2007. (Photo courtesy: AP

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Prime Minister Hun Sen cut short a scheduled four-day visit to India and returned to Cambodia Monday (July 9th) following the death of a former Indian prime minister, a top official said.

Hun Sen's delegation had flown to India on Sunday (July 8th), but decided to return after just one night so the Indian government could attend to funeral arrangements for Chandra Shekhar, said Cambodia Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.

Shekhar, a former Indian premier and socialist legislator, died of cancer in a New Delhi hospital Sunday (July 8th) aged 80. He headed a coalition government for a brief period in 1990-91.

Hun Sen had been scheduled to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Hor Namhong said.

The signing of a memorandum of understanding on petroleum cooperation and several agreements _ covering defense cooperation, the transfer of prisoners, and agriculture and water resource management _ has been postponed, Hor Namhong said.

The trip will be rescheduled for a more appropriate time, he added. (AP) Read more!