Hem Heng, left, Cambodian US Ambassador to Washington alongside with Tea Banh, Minister of Defense, in a pagoda in Maryland.
The embassy in Washington will mark 60 years of diplomatic relations with the US on Friday, with celebrations scheduled in Cambodia in weeks ahead.
The Cambodian Embassy has invited 200 guests and dignitaries for a performance of traditional dance and a live concert Friday, the Ambassador Hem Heng told VOA Khmer.
In Cambodia, the US Embassy is hosting a week of activities starting from July 18. On that day, the Pacific Fleet Marine Band will play a concert at Chaktomuk Hall in Phnom Penh, followed by another performance in Battambang town on July 20.
The award-winning “New Year Baby,” produced by Socheata Poeuv, will play July 19 at Chenla Theater in Phnom Penh. On July 21 and July 22, the government and US embassy are co-sponsoring a discussion of former ambassadors and historians that will be open to the public on both days. And on July 24, the embassy will host a public dance recital of “Seasons of Migration,” by master dancer Sophiline Shapiro, at Chaktomuk Hall.
The celebrations are part of a continued program to mark diplomatic dealings that have not always been smooth. The US was behind a coup that ousted then prince Norodom Sihanouk and preceded the rise of the Khmer Rouge. It also undertook a secret bombing campaign during the Vietnam War.
Relations between the two countries have improved in recent years, with the resumption of direct aid and the lifting of Cambodia from a trade blacklist, following soured relations in the aftermath of the 1997 coup d’etat.
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Thursday, July 08, 2010
US, Cambodia Set To Mark 60 Years of Diplomacy
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
The Next National Security
By Jack d'Annibale and Richard Arthur
Last week, the USNS Mercy hospital ship completed its mission to Cambodia as part of the United States Navy's Pacific Partnership. Among the 29,000 patients treated by Navy doctors and Cambodian medical staff was a small boy who underwent a successful surgery. During pre-op, an attentive sailor spotted the boy's mother struggling to walk through a passageway on the ship. After a timely diagnosis and successful cataract surgery, mother joined son in post-op recovery with vision restored in both her eyes.
In spite of these stories, the Mercy's civic assistance mission did not generate prominent headlines. Granted, humanitarian work is far less sexy than, say, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan getting fired for mocking civilian officials in a magazine article. However, it's crucial to keep the Mercy in mind, as it illuminates what is sure to be a vital element of our national security posture for years to come. For centuries the U.S. Navy has practiced gunboat diplomacy; today it is adding a new skill set, "hospital ship diplomacy."
In the last days of 2004, the USS Lincoln Carrier Strike Group raced to tsunami-ravaged Indonesia. Round-the-clock relief missions saved tens of thousands of lives in the aftermath of the disaster. They also radically changed Indonesians' attitudes toward America. Polls revealed the people of Indonesia -- the world's largest Muslim country -- gave the United States a 90 percent approval rating -- a mighty step up from a traditional rating of 45 percent. Though it's hard to put a price tag on this sort of goodwill, it's surely a valuable possession in the fight against radicalized violent Islam.
Embracing the relief mission's impact, the Navy soon launched an ongoing program that would eventually fall under the umbrella of Pacific Partnership. In 2006, the Mercy steamed into the South China Sea -- the first proactive deployment of a U.S. Navy hospital ship in history. The vessel has been leading humanitarian missions in the Pacific sphere since, treating roughly 150,000 people in 10 partner nations. Similar training missions are now regularly conducted by the USNS Comfort in the Atlantic.
Last week, the passageways of the Mercy bustled with Sailors, Marines, Soldiers and Airmen, as well as personnel from the State Department and USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. Together, these Americans, working alongside Cambodian officials, foreign officers and NGO partners, fanned out across the countryside, treating and healing the sick, repairing and updating medical clinics, rebuilding local schools and drilling community water wells.
Each surgical procedure and engineering feat added to the expertise and skill of American and Cambodian doctors and community leaders. The surgeries on the Cambodian mother and son not only changed their lives for the better, but also prepared local doctors to restore and save other lives in the future. The impact of the Mercy's few days spent anchored in the coastal waters of Cambodia will be felt for a generation to come.
The successes of this diverse group of American emissaries speak to an underlying strategy championed by the Obama administration. In recent remarks at the Brookings Institution, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touted the administration's "whole of government approach" to foreign policy, that defense, diplomacy and development are part of an integrated mission to increase security and prosperity, both at home and abroad.
While the Pentagon and the State Department are usual suspects when it comes to advancing American interests, USAID is not so well known. Founded in 1961 by President Kennedy, USAID is the U.S. government's principal foreign aid agency. President Obama has put new emphasis on international development, calling it a "moral, strategic and economic imperative." In his recently released National Security Strategy, the President promises that USAID will promote security and economic growth by assaulting the conditions where criminal and terrorist activity thrive -- rampant poverty, hunger, illness, illiteracy and political unrest.
Building on this new, energized approach to development, USAID's administrator, Dr. Rajiv Shah, promises an entrepreneurial spirit and unprecedented level of transparency when it comes to agency spending. In short, Dr. Shah has promised the American people the biggest possible bang for their international aid buck.
However, there are some who believe that a dollar spent to improve conditions in a foreign land is mostly a dollar wasted, particularly in these times of financial constraint. Nothing could be further from the truth. International development amounts to less than 1 percent of the federal budget. Plus, when spent well, humanitarian dollars reap huge returns to the economic and security interests of the United States of America.
Consider South Korea. In 1953, postwar Korea was shell shocked and starving. Universal primary education was a dream, resources were scant, and the average income per person was a meager $890 per year. America's development dollars helped build that nation's infrastructure, school system and economy from the ground up. Today, primary education in Korea is at 100 percent, the average annual income is $17,000 and South Korea is one of America's strongest allies.
Consider the value of development aid for a U.S. soldier standing post in South Korea. How much more dangerous would his mission be today without a strong and free South Korea? Consider the electrical machinist in Minneapolis who is earning a good wage and providing for his family because his employer does business with South Korea's free market economy.
Yes, South Korea's success story has been decades in the making. Yes, development is a painstaking, long-term enterprise. But, as Secretary Clinton recently remarked, "It's the right thing to do and it's the smart thing to do."
In the coming weeks, the men and women of the Mercy will continue their mission, returning to Indonesia and Timor-Leste, doing their part to lay the groundwork for what could be a wave of 21st-century success stories like South Korea.
The risk and personal sacrifice of humanitarian and civil assistance missions are shared by our servicemen as well as USAID personnel and contractors. Their stories of service and sacrifice compose a larger vision of strong, principled, progressive American leadership writing a new chapter in world affairs -- a story of countless mothers and sons living in wellness not sickness, in prosperity not poverty, in triumph not tragedy.
Why do they believe in this vision? Why do we?
It's the smart thing to do. It's the right thing to do.
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Jack d'Annibale is the Founder of R.W.L. Public Strategies and a Truman National Security Fellow.
Richard Arthur is a naval officer, filmmaker, television writer and fellow for the Truman National Security Project. His views do not necessarily represent those of the United States Navy.
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Make Royals the Nation’s Ambassadors: Prince
Members of the royal family should be appointed to ambassadorial positions, where their political neutrality and high educations can serve Cambodia, an outspoken prince says.
The royalists have diminished rapidly as a political force in recent years. But members of the royal family still have “high knowledge” in the constitutional monarchy, said Sisowath Thomico, chief of cabinet for retired king Norodom Sihanouk.
The royal family currently has just one ambassador; Norodom Arunrasmy, the former king’s daughter, is ambassador to Malaysia.
Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment, but Cheam Yiep, a National Assembly lawmaker for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, said he personally supports the idea.
“These are the high officials of our Kingdom of Cambodia,” he said.
Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party, said in other countries, royal families work on social issues, charity or justice. Positioning royals as ambassadors would not be politically neutral, as those appointments would come through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The royal family has gradually lost political power. Sihanouk stepped down in 2004, ending a long career of statesmanship, and in subsequent years, the royalist parties have lost support.
Around 30 members within the royal bloodlines have ceased politics, Sisowath Thomico said. The royal family has sometimes feuded, or members have opposed each other in politics. But that’s in the past, he said.
“Royal family members almost all have stopped doing politics and have come to serve the king, serve the throne and serve the nation in a different way,” he said.
Ambassadorships could be one way they might contribute, he said.
Sisowath Seryroth, second vice president of the Funcinpec party, said royalists should not leave politics, not “until there is a law stipulated by the National Assembly and Senate that bans royal family members from doing politics.”
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Decades after genocide, is justice even possible?
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Sath Prum was just a boy when the Khmer Rouge came to take away his father. But he was old enough to know that he would never see his dad again.
“I knew that they would execute him,” Prum said. “They tied him up and put a blindfold on him. I didn’t know where they were going to take him. I didn’t know how it would be done. I just knew that he would be killed.”
Prum’s sister, two brothers and a brother-in-law were also killed during Pol Pot’s four-year reign of terror in Cambodia, when about 1.7 million people died of hunger, disease and execution.
On July 26, Cambodians scattered across the world will gather around computers, television sets and radios to hear the verdict in the case of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as “Comrade Duch,” who oversaw a Khmer Rouge prison system in which thousands of Cambodians were tortured and executed between 1975 and 1979.
Three decades have passed, but Duch is the only Khmer Rouge leader who has been tried for crimes against humanity. Pol Pot died in 1998. The trials of four additional defendants are expected to begin later this year. But it is uncertain if the U.N.-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia will indict many others — if anyone at all.
And that has left many Cambodians, like Prum, feeling as though the tribunal has failed to achieve anything resembling justice.
“It’s too late to save anyone,” said Prum, a 49-year-old assembly line worker who lives in West Valley City. “They cannot give me my father back.”
The handful of indicted leaders “are very old now,” Prum said. “They’re going to die soon anyway. So what is the point?”
Donor countries have poured more than $100 million into the tribunal, but on the eve of the Duch verdict, Japan sent an emergency payment of $2.26 million to keep the cash-strapped court solvent.
Prum doesn’t think that’s a good investment — particularly not given the small number of people the court has managed to indict. He believes the money could have been better spent in a nation that continues to suffer from the economic legacy of decades of war and political strife.
Markus Zimmer, who recently returned home to Utah after an assignment as a judicial systems consultant to the Cambodian court, understands the criticism. Zimmer noted that Duch was a cooperative and contrite defendant. The next trial will likely be more complicated, with the defendants mounting “vigorous defenses with international defense teams.”
Those cases could take years to complete.
“There’s kind of a race going on,” he said. “They’re trying to get these cases processed before people die or before they become mentally incompetent.”
But Zimmer, who has served as an advisor in 27 nations, also sees promise in tribunals like the one in Cambodia, which have the potential to leave the legacy of a better functioning justice system. After all, he said, a nation that can handle the complexities of decades-old war crimes cases should be better situated, in the future, for simpler criminal prosecutions.
What the courts can’t do is promise even justice for every offender and every victim. They also set a standard that some believe is unsustainable for nations with few legal resources and little experience.
The justice provided in U.N.-backed tribunals “is a standard of justice that would be justice in a really good world,” said University of Utah philosophy professor Leslie Francis, who lectures on the intersection of international law and ethics. “But that’s not the world we live in.”
“That’s not to say you should abandon due process and other types of guarantees,” Francis said, “but one of the things that needs to be thought about is how to institution build. If you don’t ever punish anybody, how do you build institutions of justice that work?”
She questioned whether building courts capable of handling “big fish” is the best way of creating institutions of justice that work for everyone else.
Among other failings, war crimes courts don’t generally address the individual perpetrators of war crimes — the soldiers who actually arrested and executed Phum’s father, for instance.
Utah lawyer David Schwendiman, the former head of the Special Department of War Crimes for the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, lamented the impossibility of achieving a standard of justice that satisfies everyone touched by crimes of war.
“Ask someone what justice is and you will get as many definitions as there are people,” he said.
During his time in Bosnia, Schwendiman helped develop an elaborate system to prioritize crimes for prosecution. “Our goal was to do as much as possible with the amount of time we were given and the amount of resources we had available,” he said.
The system rated the level of the atrocity, the number of victims, status of the perpetrator, geography of the event and time span in which the crime occurred.
Even still, he said, it was a largely subjective exercise and not everyone agreed with the results.
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Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Environmental, Social Concerns in ‘Triangle’ Talks
Development experts want to see a thorough discussion of the environment and social issues when officials from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam meet this week to discuss the remote “triangle area” among their shared borders.
In Cambodia’s northeastern provinces, expanded plantations and mining and plans for massive hydropower dams have given rise to concerns for villagers.
In two days of meetings that begin Wednesday in Kratie province, lawmakers from three countries are to discuss infrastructure, electricity and development in Cambodia’s Ratanakkiri, Mondolkiri and Stung Treng provinces; Laos’ Attapeu, Saravan and Se Kong provinces; and Vietnam’s Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces.
Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum, said it was important that lawmakers “conduct a thorough study on the environmental and social affects” of development in the region before moving forward.
Development groups want participation from stakeholders, transparency and a cease to negative impacts on “people who depend on the natural resources in that area,” he said.
Better development could increase the gains on investment and improve security in the tri-border area, he said.
Nov Seiha, an economist at the Economic Institute of Cambodia, said the border region between the three countries has the potential to reduce poverty, bolster trade and even see eco-tourism take root. But that all requires the right plan.
“If the development plan is really working, I’m optimistic that it will provide a positive result to our economy and trade,” he said.
Chheang Vun, head of the National Assembly’s committee on foreign affairs, said the three governments were planning for more infrastructure, including roads, communication and electricity.
Development policies for the area are hoped to “solve the poverty of people in the area,” he said.
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Border Marker Appeals Hearing Delayed
The Court of Appeals on Tuesday postponed a hearing for opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who is fighting criminal charges for allegedly uprooting markers along the Vietnam border.
Defense lawyers had requested that key witnesses currently in detention be brought to Phnom Penh from Svay Rieng province, where the charges were originally filed.
The two witnesses, Meas Srey and Prum Chea, were each convicted of destroying border markers in Chantrea district, where villagers say they are losing land to Vietnamese encroachment. Both were sentenced to one year in jail in Svay Rieng provincial prison.
After a 30-minute hearing Tuesday, Appeals Court judge Khun Leang Meng ordered the two be brought from Svay Rieng prison to Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh for the next hearing, which has not been scheduled.
Sam Rainsy remains in exile and is facing a two-year sentence if his conviction is upheld. He has also been charge with a separate offense of disinformation for publishing a map on his party’s website alleging border encroachment.
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Malaria Drug Resistance in Cambodia Not a Surprise
Health officials in Cambodia have found a strain of malaria that’s showing resistance to the main anti-malaria drug, known as artemisinin.
Resistance means patients can take longer to recover. Health officials and medical aid groups in Africa – home to most of the world’s malaria cases – are keeping a close eye on the situation in Cambodia.
One of the groups battling the disease is Africa Fighting Malaria. Director Richard Tren says news of the drug resistance in Cambodia did not come as a surprise.
“It’s not new news. This is something people have been concerned about for some time. In that part of Southeast Asia, the artemisinin-class of drugs has been used for a long time. They’ve been used as a mono-therapy. In other words, they haven’t been combined with other drugs,” he says.
Long-term use of a single drug to treat malaria leads to drug resistance, according to Tren.
“This has been the history of malaria treatment. The good part is that the authorities are trying to do something about it. This is not being ignored.”
What can be done?
One of the steps being taken is improving drug treatment policies.
“They’re making sure that malaria treatment is done with combination therapies so that you’re mixing the artemisinin drug with a different drug that has a different mode of action. What happens then if there is resistance to the artemisinin, the other drug will take that parasite out,” says Tren.
But drugs alone won’t solve the malaria problem, no matter how effective. Transmission of the malaria parasite must be sharply reduced.
“If there are fewer cases of malaria, Tren says, “reduced transmission means that the resistant gene of the malaria parasite can’t be drive through a population. Reducing malaria burden and improving treatment is the only way that we have to control this.”
He warns though, that the situation in Cambodia is very serious because “there’s no next class of drug of the artemisinin-based class of drugs. They’re our last, best hope of malaria treatment and it will be many years before we get a new class of drug available.”
Worse in Africa, but…
Most of the one million malaria deaths each year occur in Africa.
“The burden of malaria in Africa is much higher. There is a much more deadly strain of malaria. The falciparum malaria that you get in Africa is much more likely to kill. And unfortunately, you see the problems that you do in Southeast Asia, where you have ongoing use of these mono-therapy drugs,” he says.
Africa Fighting Malaria research found a high rate of “sub-standard” and fake medicines being sold on the continent in private markets.
“We have to be clear that no drug resistance has been found in Africa yet. These artemisinin drugs are still highly effective, but it is something we have to be very vigilant about,” he says.
While mono-therapy is found in Africa, official policies call for a different approach.
“Officially, all governments are supposed to be using the combination therapies. But the reality is in many African settings people buy their medicines from shops and kiosks and the mono-therapies are still being used far too much. African leaders, African governments have committed themselves to getting these mono-therapies off the market,” he says.
The more mono-therapy is used in Africa, the greater the risk of artemisinin resistance.
A vaccine
A malaria vaccine would help but not solve the epidemic.
“We’re closer now than ever before,” Tren says, “with a good candidate vaccine that is being supported by the Gates Foundation and by the drug company GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) and other partners.”
But he warns that a malaria vaccine would not be as effective as a smallpox vaccine, for example. “This will reduce the probability of dying by about half, I think. You know, this is not going to be a magic bullet,’ he says.
Effective medicines and malaria control will still be needed, including insecticide treated bed nets and indoor spraying of homes with insecticides to control mosquitoes.
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Film review: Th disappearance of McKinley Nolan
Although the Vietnam War has for some time been away -- away from the headlines, away from the public dialogue, away from our private thoughts -- the Vietnam War is not gone. I don't think it will ever be gone.
The two wars that have rocked the American psyche are the Civil War and the Vietnam War. The 19th century war said we were not a nation, our "exceptionalism" was an illusion, and the almighty's hand was not on our national shoulder. The Vietnam War demonstrated we were not God's earthly power, we were like other nations, and everything else was baloney.
While the Civil War attacked the existence of America, the Vietnam War finished off the American Century. America still exists -- although sometimes I wonder if that is true -- yet no one talks about the American Century. That big idea went puff in little Vietnam.
Of these two defining wars, Vietnam was the most perplexing -- not the most brutal, but the most mystifying. America won the Civil War and the nation was patched together and the illusion of unity took hold as we roared into a frenzy of industrialization followed by the new culture of consumerism. In Vietnam, however, we lost. Defeat defeats illusions. Losers lose their way. Shaken and unsure and insecure, we invaded defenseless Grenada and powerless Panama -- victories that made reasonable Americans cringe with embarrassment. And we also hightailed it out third-rate powers Lebanon and Somalia, fresh disappointments that smelled like Vietnam redux. So it was no forward march -- as our close call in Iraq and now our stalemate in Afghanistan are again demonstrating -- no roaring into a bright new future.
So today the Vietnam War lies just below our public surface, breathing a slow fire, gnawing on our national soul, polluting a nasty undercurrent of despair that refuses to disappear. Like American McKinley Nolan, who disappeared a long time ago in Vietnam and refuses to disappear in America. The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan taps into this slow burner and raises our submerged anxieties to a bewildering, disturbing surface. A riveting documentary, not a straight line, not always simple to follow, and don't expect a Hollywood ending. After all this is Vietnam.
Over four decades ago, Private McKinley Nolan suddenly vanished. What is know is he disappeared from his US Army unit, did propaganda work for the Viet Cong, married a Vietnamese woman, and lived in a village near Vietnam's border with Cambodia. Then McKinley Nolan's story turns murky. Actually, his story turns into rumors and speculations and hearsay and nasty greed and possibly neurotic confusion and -- well, all that that remains of his story are questions. Here are a few of those questions:
Was McKinley Nolan captured on the battlefield by the Viet Cong? Or was he a willful military deserter? Was he a radical Black activist? Was he a black marketer? Did he kill two fellow soldiers? Was he an undercover agent for the Central Intelligence Agency? Was he a hero? Was he a traitor? Did America abandon McKinley Nolan? Did McKinley Nolan abandon America? Did both abandon each other?
Strangely, the US Government appears uninterested in clearing up this murkiness. It's been 43 years since Private McKinley Nolan disappeared -- he is one of the last US foot soldiers from the Vietnam War still unaccounted for -- and still his US military records have not been released. Until this film, the US Government had not contacted his family since 1968. That's a long while. Why? Does the government have something to hide? Or is this just bureaucratic inertia? Or maybe -- oh, there are so many questions.
The answers to these questions could of course be anything, since everything America touched in Vietnam was fueled by superpower hubris and riddled with irrationality and incomprehension which formed a toxicity that decimated the truth. That, by the way, is how powerful countries lose wars to little countries. They kill not only locals, but also truth, which leaves their giant military machine confused and lost, leaves it without an ounce of smarts.
In 2005, retired US Army Lt. Colonel Dan Smith -- who had a leg amputated in the war -- was touring Vietnam and spotted what he believed to be an American standing on the street. He talked to him briefly. Villagers seemed to confirm that he was McKinley Nolan. Back in the States the retired Lt. Colonel photo-identified McKinley Nolan. In Texas he told Nolan's family his story of seeing who he believed was McKinley Nolan.
The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan chronicles McKinley Nolan's brother, Michael Nolan, return to Vietnam and his search for his missing brother. It's not an easy trip, nor one that gives answers easily. He learns that when the Communist government of Vietnam released the American POWs in 1973, McKinley, fearing he would be forced to return to the United States, with wife and young baby slipped across the border into Cambodia. So his search moves to Cambodia.
There Michael Nolan is told his brother was picked up by the Khmer Rouge. Then more interviews with Cambodians -- who survived the horrific holocaust of the Killing Field -- some are painful, others are quite moving, others leave the brother suspicious. One former Khmer Rouge becomes Michael's central focus. Was he a friend of McKinley Nolan? Was he the killer of McKinley Nolan? Was he both? Human remains are exhumed. But even old bones in the ground of South East Asia guard their truth. There is no forensic evidence of McKinley Nolan. Not yet, anyway.
Back in Texas, Michael says, although his heart doesn't seem to completely cooperate with his mind, that McKinley died in Cambodia. Wife Mary stands firm with her "until death do us part." A rock of gentleness and commitment, the wife refuses to believe her husband gone for 43 years is gone forever. Son Roger, whose father disappeared when he was only two, his eyes turn heavy, watery.
Like the Vietnam War, truth is elusive yet the mission continues. Like that turbulent time -- the film has archival footage from the civil rights era and the antiwar movement and the battlefield in Vietnam -- life is difficult and the heart is battered. Yet hope continues. There is still hope for at least some.
The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan is a difficult journey through an old maze in search of new facts buried in the past. The story inches forward, and suddenly falls back. What brother Michael Nolan believed today is gone tomorrow, but is still possible tomorrow.
Director Henry Corra has done a stupendous job in saving us from another quagmire, this time one that could have sucked us under with conflicting details and endless dead ends. In the grand tradition of documentary storytelling, The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan has us moving to the edge of our seats as our minds retreat into a dark past. It's a gripping tale about a ghost that has lived for 43 years. It's Vietnam.
Wars start and wars end, yet wars never end for the casualties of war. Regardless of what happened -- why Private McKinney Nolan disappeared from his Army unit, what he did when living in that Vietnamese village, what happened to him in Cambodia -- a family in Texas needs answers. Forty-three years is too long for a ghost to live. Forty-three years is too long for a grieving family to live without answers. The US Government needs to give or get these answers.
.
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Monday, July 05, 2010
Ruling Party Pushes Against Further Tribunal Indictments
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party once again reiterated its position against further indictments at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, with party president Chea Sim saying last week the CPP “totally” disapproves attempts to “use the court for ill-intent purpose.”
Speaking at an anniversary party for the ruling party on June 28, Chea Sim said further indictments now under consideration by investigating judges at the tribunal would “impact peace, stability and national reconciliation.”
Chea Sim’s message was an echo of earlier warnings by Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose comments have been picked up by Cambodian tribunal judges as well.
Cambodian prosecutor Chea Leng opposes the indictment of five more suspects above those already in detention. A decision that was split over national lines in the Pre-Trial Chamber moved the indictments further through the court process, despite the resignations of the CPP.
Observers say the tribunal risks losing its legitimacy if its objectivity is compromised by politics. But that has not stopped six senior ruling party officials—including Chea Sim—from denying summonses submitted by international investigating judge Marcel Lemond.
Other CPP officials who have refused to appear in the tribunal are Senate President Heng Samrin, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Finance Minister Keat Chhon and senators Sim Ka and Ouk Bunchhoeun.
Cheam Yiep, a CPP lawmaker and member of its permanent committee, told VOA Khmer the summonses were potentially harmful to the policies of the country.
Chea Sim’s statements, he said, “shows that, do not try others beyond the five leaders under custody. Do not touch others, because they were to respect the order of their respective leaders only.”
Nevertheless, such CPP statements could hurt the upcoming case against senior leaders in custody and would be of concern to the international community and victims, said Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc.
“We wish that this court would operate independently,” he said, “without any interference.”
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On Arrival, Mu Sochua Vows Jail Over Fine
“I’ll go to jail, but I won’t pay a fine,” the Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian told reporters as she arrived at Phnom Penh Municipal Airport.
She has been ordered to pay approximately $2,500 to the courts and $2,000 to Prime Minister Hun Sen following her conviction of defamation last year in a countersuit brought by the premier.
Mu Sochua, who was traveling abroad to attend the premiere of a film on sex trafficking, noted that the judicial system had been quick to condemn her but slow to find justice in other cases.
She pointed to the murders of actress Piseth Pilika and labor activist Chea Vichea and the acid attack of Tat Marina, all of which are cases where senior officials are accused or implicated and none of which has been solved.
Mu Sochua’s case, which came after she sued Hun Sen for defamation in April 2009, was an example of nepotism in courts that don’t represent the populace, she said
Phnom Penh judge Chea Sok Heang confirmed the courts were working on Mu Sochua’s case, but he declined further comment Monday.
Meanwhile, the city’s treasury department has already reported to the courts that it has not received payment from Mu Sochua, a department official said.
Authorities Expel Two Thai Bombing Suspects
Cambodia on Monday expelled two Thai nationals suspected in an attempted bombing in Bangkok, after arresting them in the tourist gateway of Siem Reap.
Boonplod Kobchai, 42, and Boonsom Varissareeya, 41, were flown out of Phnom Penh after their arrest in Siem Reap Saturday. They are suspected of aiding in an attempted bombing against a building of the Thai coalition party Bhumchaithai on June 22.
They were sent out on a plane to Bangkok Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kuoy Koung said. “This is because Cambodia is applying a policy of fighting terrorism and joining other countries around the world.”
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told the Nation he was grateful for the extradition and that both countries planned to cooperate further if more suspects were found in Cambodia.
The arrests come following two months of violent protest in Bangkok and strained diplomatic relations between the two neighbors.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Bringing the tastes of Cambodia to Fairfax
Annandale resident and author of the book " A taste of Cambodian Cuisine", Demaze Baker is teaching cooking classes each month on how to prepare traditional Cambodian meals.
Cooking teacher, author shares her passion for exotic cuisine
by Alexandra Greeley Special to the Times
Perhaps the least known of Asian cuisines, Cambodian food has been a rarity in the Washington, D.C., metro area. But cooking teacher Demaz Baker of Annandale hopes to change that.
According to Baker, no Cambodian restaurants exist in the District or its surrounding suburbs, making it a challenge for interested foodies to go out and taste the culture's traditional flavors. That doesn't make it impossible, though, says Baker, who is also an amateur chef and author of two Cambodian cookbooks -- such as "A Taste of Cambodian Cuisine," which is available on Amazon.com. With monthly classes at the Arlington County Adult Education Center and a little patience, anyone can learn how to master the culture's sweet and savory flavors.
Although it shares many similarities with Thai cuisine, Baker says Cambodian cooking is "lighter and less spicy in taste," with less reliance on coconut milk and chilis.
A U.S. resident since the mid-1970s, Baker has held daytime jobs with the Department of Defense. But in her spare time, she has indulged her passion for Cambodian food by learning the traditional recipes from her homeland and then cataloging them in her two self-published cookbooks. This has certainly been a labor of love, for Baker admits she never learned how to cook as a child in her parents' home.
"I have always liked cooking, but I never learned it in Cambodia," she said. "My aunts are really the experts in Cambodian food. I even registered in cooking school when I was a student in Australia, but I only studied there for two months."
As a newcomer to the area, Baker longed for the sweet and savory delicacies from her native country. Finding no restaurant that offered the food she craved, Baker set about learning the basics of the cuisine by calling friends and relatives all over the world.
"I gathered recipes from whomever had the expertise," she said.
Top on her phone list were two friends in Los Angeles and others in France and Canada, but because Cambodians usually never write down measurements, reconstructing the recipes required experimentation and tasting.
After gathering stacks of recipes, Baker turned to trying them all, tasting what worked and discarding the rejects.
"This was a labor of several years," she said. "But now I know how to cook properly."
As a result, Baker wrote her first cookbook, "Cambodian Cuisine," in 1999 and issued her second, "A Taste of Cambodian Cuisine," in 2009. A full-color volume, the book is available online at Amazon.com and also at Barnes & Noble.
As a complement to her culinary hobby, Baker started teaching Cambodian cooking at the Arlington County Adult Education Center, offering a month's worth of classes each semester.
"I would teach once a week for the month," she said. After eight years of offering adult education classes, Baker decided to simply teach cooking in her own home. This switch has worked out well, she says, noting that many of her former students signed up and have now formed an informal cooking club, though all newcomers are welcome to join in.
Held one night each month, the classes require student participation supervised by Baker. Afterward, all sit down to a feast.
"A typical menu includes a main-course soup and two side dishes, one with vegetables and often one with fish," she said, adding that the usual Cambodian meal includes fish, since the Mekong River running through the country is a rich source of freshwater fish. There may also be a chicken or beef curry, which is a norm here in the U.S. but is a luxurious meal back home in Cambodia, where chicken and beef are expensive for the average household.
Participants learn three dishes per class, and classes cost $55 each.
Her students are so enthusiastic about Baker's food that they have been urging her to open a restaurant. After all, she notes, all her siblings own a restaurant in Quebec. But Baker's response is simple: No way, she says.
"In my opinion, for a small restaurant to be successful, it has to be run by family members," she says. "Besides, you have no other life if you own one."
For more information, contact Demaz Baker at www.Cambodian
Cooking.webng.com.
Recipe: Saraman Chicken
Serves four
Demaz Baker explains that Cambodian cooking is very similar to Thai cooking, which is evident in this rich chicken curry. To simplify the long and arduous process of pounding ingredients for a curry paste, the basis of all Thai and Cambodian curries, Baker uses commercial curry paste, making the preparation of such dishes relatively fast. All ingredients are available in Asian markets.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons Masaman curry paste
one (13.5- ounce) can coconut milk
2 pounds boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar or palm sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups pearl onions, peeled
4 to 5 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and quartered
nHeat the oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Add the curry paste and blend well until it becomes oily. Scoop out the creamy part of the coconut milk (about ¼ cup), and stir into the curry. Add the chicken, and sear for about five minutes. Add ¾ cup water and the remaining coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, salt and pearl onions. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook 15 to 20 minutes more, or until the chicken is tender. Add the potatoes, cover and continue cooking until the potatoes are cooked.
Operation Smile Creates Smiles With USNS Mercy in Cambodia
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia — Doctors and volunteers from the non-governmental organization Operation Smile embarked aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy, June 17, for six days, to perform surgeries ranging from cleft lip and cleft palate repair to addressing facial and burn scars in support of Pacific Partnership 2010.
Pacific Partnership is a joint effort between host nations, partner nations, NGOs, and other U.S. government agencies that come together each year to foster the relationships in which they provide medical, dental, veterinary, and engineering civic action programs as well as subject matter expert exchanges with local medical professionals.
Before the Cambodian leg of the Pacific Partnership 2010 mission began, Operation Smile participants pre-screened more than 130 children and adults with cleft lips, cleft palates, and other facial deformities, to select patients for reconstructive surgeries.
“We have brought a full medical team of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses,” said Scott Snyder, Operation Smile program coordinator for the mission. “We will be performing around 20 to 25 surgeries a day and we are hoping to see about 80 patients during the next four days.”
The Operation Smile team aboard Mercy brings together people of many countries and backgrounds. For this effort, the team is made up of 47 members from Cambodia, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom, and United States, working as a whole to complete these surgeries and help the Cambodian patients in need.
“It’s great for us to be working aboard [Mercy],” said Snyder. “We usually work in government hospitals in developing countries and sometimes the facilities aren’t that great. We come aboard with the Navy, and it’s like working in one of the best hospitals in the U.S.” Operation Smile has conducted missions with the Navy since 2006 and joined Pacific Partnership by participating in the 2008 mission.
While most of its efforts concentrate on the delivery of surgical care, Operation Smile engages in subject matter expert exchanges – even within its own organization.
“I really wanted to go on this trip,” said Brenda O’Brien, an Operation Smile volunteer from Ireland, when she discovered Operation Smile would be participating in Pacific Partnership 2010. “I am looking forward to seeing the techniques from the different surgeons from all the different countries.”
According to O’ Brien, the part that means the most to her is getting the patients aboard, giving them a clean recovery room, and them knowing that they are getting the best treatment they can possibly get.
Operation Smile has provided free surgeries to children around the world since 1982. With a presence in over 50 countries, Operation Smile has helped children whose parents cannot afford to give them the surgeries they need. Today more than 145,000 children have been helped by the medical volunteers at Operation Smile.
The fifth in a series of annual U.S. Pacific Fleet humanitarian and civic assistance endeavors, Pacific Partnership 2010 is aimed at strengthening regional partnerships among U.S. government organizations, host nations, partner nations and international humanitarian and relief organizations.
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Viettel wins award for its Cambodian service
VietNamNet Bridge – Metfone Viettel, the Cambodia-based affiliate of Vietnamese military-owned mobile phone service provider Viettel, was named "the most promising service provider of the year" on June 10 by the global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, becoming the only representative of Indochina to be honoured in the category in the firm’s Asian Pacific ICT Awards this year.
Viettel inaugurates mobile phone network in Cambodia
VN sets its sights on dominating Cambodia’s telecom market
Telecom operators expand overseas
The award reflected international recognition of Viettel’s role in the growth of Cambodia’s telecommunications industry. The industry could now be ranked at the same level with other countries in the region and world due to the contribution of the Metfone brand.
Metfone Viettel director Nguyen Duy Tho said the award was earned by Cambodia’s telecommunications industry over the past few years, of which Metfone was just a representative.
"Metfone is honoured to bring pride to the country," Tho said. "I would like to express the sincerest thanks to the Government, ministries and agencies, people, customers and other operators for their support so far."
Metfone quickly became the leading mobile phone service provider in Cambodia after its introduction in the country last year.
In the past year alone, mobile phone density in Cambodia has increased from 15 to 40 per cent, with 120 base transceiver stations (BTS) and 1,000km of optic cable for every million people. Internet broadband use also rose from 0.5 to 2 per cent.
Cable infrastructure could now satisfy the requirements of 3G technology and provide free internet for 10 per cent of Cambodia’s schools.
"The award recipients have demonstrated their great success despite the difficulties of the economic downturn," said Frost&Sullivan partner and Asia-Pacific managing director Manoj Menon, adding that the recipients were the leaders of the industry in the region.
Frost & Sullivan’s ICT Awards were presented annually to companies that demonstrated the best practices in their industry. Past awards have often honoured firms from Japan, South Korea, South Asia and China, Frost & Sullivan said in a press release. This year, representatives from emerging markets were recognised, including Telkomsel (Indonesia) and Axiata (Bangladesh) as well as Metfone.
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Monday, June 21, 2010
World Notes: Palestine, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Angola, Honduras, Iceland
Amnesty International reacted to Israel's decision June 17 to allow more civilian goods into Gaza by condemning that nation's continuing siege of 1.4 million Gazans as collective punishment. Quoted by IMEMC News, Amnesty spokesperson Malcolm Smart called upon Israel to "comply with its obligations as the occupying power under international law." He criticized Israel also for destroying Gaza's economy through barriers placed on exports of goods and free movement of residents. Interference with Gazans seeking medical care outside the enclave was seen as particularly odious, a point reinforced by the World Health Organization's condemnation the next day of non-functioning medical equipment at Gaza City's Ash-Shifa Hospital. The blockade excludes spare parts and servicing engineers.
Cambodia: Garment workers plan big strike
Despite Labor Minister Vong Soth's plea two weeks earlier to delay strike action pending completion of negotiations, the Free Trade Union of Workers, representing 86,000 garment workers, on June 15 announced a three-day strike in mid-July. The union is demanding a monthly minimum wage increase from $50 to $70, according to phnompenhpost.com. Union head Chea Mony asserted, "All the workers should raise their voices in order to achieve a reasonable salary and better conditions for work." An Interior Ministry spokesperson warned of legal consequences if the strike leads to violence. The potential strike is also aimed at supporting 87 workers unable to work at the Tack Fat garment factory following their refusal to accept in-factory job transfers.
Uzbekistan: Summit promotes Russia-China cooperation
The June 11 summit meeting in Tashkent of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was the occasion for solidifying relations between Russia and China. In their third encounter this year, Presidents Hu Jintao and Dmitri Medvedev reaffirmed plans for humanitarian and cultural exchanges, widened commercial ties, and Medvedev's upcoming visit to China. SCO member nations China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to new internal administrative measures and to procedures for admitting new member states. The summit reaffirmed collective efforts aimed at dealing with the world economic crisis and promoting regional stability and economic development. Representatives of Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran attended as observers. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was an invited guest.
Angola: Oil riches fuel social gains
A recent nationwide survey, undertaken by the government and UNICEF and reported by Afrol News on June 15, showed progress toward five of eight Millennium Development Goals: malnutrition; education; gender balance; child survival and malaria; and HIV/AIDS. Since 2002, malnutrition is down 12 points to 23 percent, and 76 percent of age-appropriate children attend school, although primary school completion rates lag. Maternal mortality remains high, and only 42 percent of people have access to safe drinking water, a backward step. Angola, ranking 143rd out of 158 nations in the UN 2009 Human Development Report is criticized for corruption in oil income distribution. Some 30 percent of governmental spending, derived overwhelmingly from oil exports, is now dedicated to social programs.
Honduras: Violence mounts
Outside Tegucigalpa on June 14, gunmen killed television reporter Luis Arturo Mondragon, the ninth journalist killed this year. Attempts on her life forced television journalist Karol Cabrera to escape to Canada a week earlier. Amidst agitation by public sector workers for wage increases and a national minimum wage, two men gunned down Oscar Molina, a beverage union leader's brother-in-law, on June 10. In mid-June, gunfire spared labor leaders Carolina Pineda and José Luis Baquedano, the latter active with the National Resistance Front. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier in June had urged Latin American leaders to accept the present government, successor to that of coup-deposed Manuel Zaleya, a "left-leaning president," according to The New York Times.
Iceland: Fraud investigators have worldwide beat
Following collapse of the Icelandic Banks Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir in 2008, proprietors and directors have lived abroad. Parliament last month blamed them for extracting "inappropriate loans from the banks," reported estrategumtrading.com on June 14. Alleging theft of $2 billion, Glitner Bank liquidation overseers are suing former bank officers for fraud in a New York court. They are also targeting auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers for obscuring fraudulent transactions. The worldwide assets of former bank director Jon Asgeir Johannesson have been frozen, among them two top-end New York City condominiums worth $25 million. And former President Sigurdur Einarsson of Kaupthing Bank "does not intend to return to Iceland so they can arrest him," preferring instead to reply on rights afforded him in Great Britain.
Photo: Chinese President Hu Jintao, fifth left, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, third right, meet on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 10. (AP/RIA Novosti, Vladimir Rodionov, Presidential Press Service)
Ultimatum Issued in Mu Sochua Court Fine
Mu Sochua, who lost a Supreme Court appeal in a guilty verdict for defamation this month, is in the US. She has said she will not pay the fine and compensation, a total of around $4,500, in a countersuit brought by Hun Sen after she sued him for allegedly degrading remarks in public speeches.
If a warrant is issued for her arrest, she will be the second Sam Rainsy Party member to be abroad and facing a jail term.
Sam Rainsy himself remains in exile and faces a two-year sentence for destruction of border markers in Svay Rieng province. He is facing additional criminal charges for publishing a map on his website alleging improper border demarcation by the government.
Both lawmakers have been without their parliamentary immunity since 2009, and both have said the courts are being politically manipulated by the ruling party to damage the opposition.
In a letter last week to Mu Sochua, the municipal treasury department said she would have two weeks to pay her fine.
Mu Sochua is currently traveling in the US to promote a documentary film on human trafficking she helped produce. She was not immediately available for comment.
Municipal court prosecutor Sok Roeun told VOA Khmer Monday he will soon issue his own letter giving Mu Sochua 10 days to comply with the fines.
“If she still opposes, she will be arrested,” he said.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
China catches up
By Boston Herald Editorial Staff
China’s industrial workers have started striking again for higher wages, notably at Honda plants. Yes, you read that right.
Chinese factory owners long have been able to pay rock-bottom wages. Life in the countryside was so grinding that young people fled to industrial areas whenever they got the chance.
Often living in dormitories, their lives highly regimented by management down to the number and timing of bathroom breaks, the workers sent much of their wages to their parents back on the farm
That was then. Today factory workers know they can live in a real apartment. (China has a real estate bubble of its own.) Mom and dad are doing better; the worker has a little money to spend and believes he or she deserves more.
It’s exactly the sequence of events that started in Britain in the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and the United States in the 1870s.
Some factory owners may be able to move to Vietnam, Cambodia or Sri Lanka. But an automobile transmission plant is hard to move; stoppage of production is extremely costly and replacement workers may be unwilling to face strikers. The Honda strikers have been winning wage increases.
In any developing country, labor costs tend to rise. Forty years ago complaints about low-wage Japanese workers stealing American jobs were common; recently an hour’s labor in Japanese manufacturing has ranged from 80 percent to 100 percent of the cost of an hour in the United States. Down the road the Chinese may complain about low-wage Sri Lankans.
It’s all part of what we call progress
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Dance fest to help Cambodian kids
By Katheleen Conti
Lowell’s United Teen Equality Center will host a break-dance competition, or B-boy battle, from 3 to 8 p.m. today to help a Tyngsborough teen raise funds to assist children in Cambodia.
Rachel Field, 17, was invited by best friend, Andrew Sinuon, and his family to vacation with them June 27 in their homeland, but she said she “didn’t feel right’’ going to a poorer country on vacation “and not do something about it.’’ Field will bring funds raised to the Green Gecko Project, a school for poor children in Cambodia. Field said, she’ll partner with friends of the Sinuons to travel and donate food and goods to local villages.
Field will film her experiences for a possible documentary, as well as her blog, www.changeforcambodianchildren.blogspot.com. Through events including a yard sale and car wash, Field, a member of United Teen Equality Center, has raised about $1,000.
Tickets for the break-dance competition, featuring Lowell and Boston teens, are $8 at the door, 34 Hurd St., Lowell. Checks should be made out to UTEC, with the memo “Change for Cambodian Children.’’
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Friday, June 18, 2010
40 Years Later, Combing Cambodia for Missing Friends
Tim Page, a photographer, during the latest of many fruitless trips to find the remain of his friend Sean Flynn who disappeared during the vietnam war.
By Seth Mydans
“Like Flynn and Stone, three intrepid journalists left Phnom Penh on a hot morning headed for Kampong Cham,” he said, narrating his departure recently with two colleagues.
He settled back for the long ride, past the town of Skun, known for its fried spiders, past hypnotic rows of rubber trees, out to this dusty village near the Mekong River where he believed the bones of two missing war photographers, Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, were buried.
It was not an unusual journey for Mr. Page. Now 66, he has been on this hunt for years, determined to find answers and to come to terms with the war that has dominated his life.
Just 40 years ago, the missing men had headed down an empty road with their cameras in search of Khmer Rouge guerrillas. They were never heard from again.
Their fate has become one of the enduring mysteries of the war, two young journalists — like movie adventurers — riding their motorbikes into no-man’s-land and losing a bet against fate.
Mr. Flynn, the dashing and glamorous son of the film star Errol Flynn, had in fact briefly been an actor, and he brought an aura with him to Vietnam that gave his disappearance at the age of 28 a mythic quality.
“Sean Flynn could look more incredibly beautiful than even his father, Errol, had 30 years before as Captain Blood,” wrote Michael Herr in his classic book about the war, “Dispatches.”
“But sometimes he looked more like Artaud coming out of some heavy heart-of-darkness trip, overloaded on the information, the input!”
Mr. Page had shared some of those journeys into darkness, and his visit to Pkhar Doung was the latest of many forays in what he calls “a 25-year madness” in search of the bones of the man he calls his brother.
Weeks earlier two bounty hunters had made a false claim to have found them, reviving interest in the disappearance and spurring American investigators to step up the search for the missing journalists.
“I don’t like the idea of his spirit out there tormented,” Mr. Page said, a wandering ghost that could only find rest, as many in Asia believe, after proper funeral rites. “There’s something spooky about being M.I.A.”
Mr. Page is also seeking a measure of peace for his own soul, scarred like his body from the traumas of combat, from nearly fatal wounds and the loss of friends, trying to put together what he calls “an enormous jigsaw puzzle, bits of sky, bits of earth.”
“I don’t think anybody who goes through anything like war ever comes out intact,” he said. “I suppose the closure of Sean’s fate also has to do with closure of the whole war experience.”
Theirs was an intimacy forged by shared danger and by what Mr. Page calls the magnetic pull of two only sons searching for a bond.
“We could have been brothers, and felt as though we were,” Mr. Page wrote in a memoir, “Derailed in Uncle Ho’s Victory Garden.” “We would sit for hours in the same room, hardly speaking yet in total communication, a vibration as intimate as between lovers.”
For Mr. Page a lonely intimacy has continued, and he hears what seems to be the voice of his friend from time to time, the voice of a tormented spirit.
“We have conversations in strange moments, and often enough to remind me of the presence of his spirit,” Mr. Page said on his recent drive to Pkhar Doung. “It’s there but not there, and you’re aware that there’s something somehow lurking, just out of reach.”
He said that as he drives past the rubber trees, whose rapid regular repeated rows create the illusion of some ghostly shifting world in the distance, he often hears his friend’s voice, “What are you doing, man? What are you doing, boy? What are you doing, mate?”
Mr. Flynn’s lost bones and wandering soul are not alone in Cambodia, where as many as a quarter of the population died in the late 1970s during the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge. Many of their remains, like those of Mr. Flynn, are still unidentified in killing fields around the country.
Cambodia was a particularly dangerous place for foreign journalists during five years of war before the Khmer Rouge victory in 1975. At least 37 died or disappeared, including 15, along with Mr. Flynn, in a six-week period in April 1970.
After pursuing various theories and false trails, Mr. Page said he now believes that Mr. Flynn survived for a year after his disappearance and may have been killed by lethal injection at a field hospital here. On a visit last year, Mr. Page recovered some medical vials and turned them over for analysis to the American military office in Hawaii that seeks to recover the remains of missing soldiers.
This new visit to Pkhar Doung did little to solve the mystery. Since the bounty hunters had ravaged the site with a backhoe, the American military office, known by its acronym as JPAC, had sealed it off. Mr. Page was turned away by the local police.
In the future, he said, he planned to talk with nearby villagers who might have some memory of captive foreigners long ago and what became of them.
Even if he never does succeed, Mr. Page said his search had helped him honor both Mr. Flynn and other journalists who died or disappeared in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
His pursuit has inspired a documentary, a new memorial to dead and missing journalists in Phnom Penh, journalism courses for local reporters and most significantly a book called “Requiem,” which includes the work of 135 photographers from all sides who died covering Indochina’s decades of war.
Mr. Page, who grew up in Britain, taught himself photography and covered the war as a freelancer from 1965 to 1969, sending pictures to major American and French publications including Time and Life, Look and Paris-Match.
He became known for his vivid combat pictures and also for the risks he took and the wounds he survived. At the time Mr. Flynn disappeared Mr. Page had suffered his most severe injuries, from a mine explosion that sent shrapnel into his brain and body.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital, he said, but surgeons revived him for a long and painful recovery. The thin borderline between life and death still seems to draw him.
“At the end of the day, the mysticism of it — living, not living — becomes a mystery,” he said, “and I don’t think we are ever privileged except on death’s doorstep to actually understand it.”
He hovers close, though, pouring his energies into his search for the unmarked grave of his friend, then sometimes finding comfort in the quiet of a cemetery.
“It’s always peaceful in a cemetery,” he said. “Everyone there has found rest. All the tribulations of life are over, and you return to the peace of nothingness".
Advisor to Cambodia's PM apologizes for making statue
An advisor to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has apologized for making a statue without permission.
In a letter made available to the media on Friday, Om Yintieng, advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen said he had made a statue of the Prime Minister in a way to express his respect and gratitude, but without knowledge or consent from him.
He thus made a public apology and asked for forgiveness from the premier.
Om Yintien made the apology soon after the Cabinet of Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a statement on Thursday saying a number of places have been displayed with statues of the country's leaders or certain artists make sculpture or reproduction in objects of the leaders for decoration at homes or as souvenirs.
The statement said the gesture has affected the country's tradition and culture which does not allow any statue or sculpture of the leaders be displayed while they are still alive.
In the letter of apology, Om Yintieng did not mention the details of Hun Sen's statue that he had built and where exactly it will be displayed, but local media has reported Friday saying the premier's statue was designed for display inside the premise of government's anti-corruption unit, where is chaired by Om Yintieng.
The statue which was seen Thursday by reporters under the wraps was already removed from the site on Friday.
Source: Xinhua
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Exhibition Celebrates Khmer Bronze Casters, With Hope for Action
“All people who study Cambodia and all people who visit Cambodia know how important it is that monuments in Cambodia remain as intact as possible,” Hiram Woodward, a emeritus curator of Asian art, told VOA Khmer after his lecture and a tour of the “Gods of Angkor” exhibit Saturday.
“There are now treaties concerning bringing stone sculptures into the United States,” he said, “and one hopes that some of the objects that have been removed from Cambodia in past years will eventually make their way back to Cambodia.”
Both countries signed an agreement in 2003 banning the illegal import of Cambodian artifacts to the US.
Ork Sophon, director general of the Ministry of Culture, told VOA Khmer Monday that illegal smuggling has decreased as a result, while the US has confiscated and returned a number of antiquities.
However, some artifacts that were purchased before the 2003 agreement remain in the US, and Cambodia is trying to convince collectors to voluntarily return them, Ork Sophon said.
“We have so far directly contacted US private collectors who are now getting old and have no children to take care of the items [and asked them] to return them to us,” he said.
Cambodian officials hope the “Gods of Angkor” exhibit, which is currently on display at the Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington in collaboration with Cambodia’s National Museum, will raise artifact awareness and inspire more participation in the fight against smuggling.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
U.N. envoy warns of failing judiciary in Cambodia+
PHNOM PENH, June 17 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Concluding a 10-day working mission in Cambodia, the U.N. special envoy on human rights in Cambodia said Thursday the country's judiciary is facing tremendous challenges.
"The judiciary in Cambodia is facing tremendous challenges in delivering justice for the people of the country, especially the poor and marginalized," Professor Surya Subedi, the U.N. special rapporteur, said.
While considering the overall state of the judicial system in Cambodia, he raised specific concerns relating to the judiciary's role in protecting freedom of expression and in cases involving land- related rights.
"I am troubled by the impact of land disputes, land concessions and resettlements on the lives of ordinary people, both in rural and urban areas, miscarriages of justice and the narrowing of political space for critical debate in society due to the disproportionate use of defamation, disinformation and incitement lawsuits against journalists, human rights activists and political opponents," he said in a statement.
He called on the government "to introduce appropriate measures to enhance the independence and capacity of the judiciary to enable it to function as an institution capable of providing justice to all in Cambodia."
"If you are poor, weak and dispossessed of your land, you seem to have limited chance to obtain redress either through existing administrative land management systems, or through the courts," he said.
Subedi did, however, welcome the adoption of a series of new laws in recent years, including a new penal code, an anticorruption law and a criminal procedure code that are designed to strengthen the system of justice.
But, he warned, a combination of a lack of adequate resources, organizational and institutional shortcomings, a lack of full awareness of the relevant human rights standards and external interference, financial or otherwise, in the work of the judiciary, has resulted in an institution that "does not command the confidence of people from many walks of life."
Subedi was on his third mission to Cambodia since being appointed special envoy last year.
During his stay, he met with Cambodian leaders including King Sihamoni, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, President of the Cambodian Human Rights Committee Om Yentieng and President of the Supreme Court Dith Munthy.
But he failed to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen despite having a prior arrangement to do so.
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US returns stolen Angkorian sculptures to Cambodia
PHNOM PENH — The United States on Thursday returned seven sculptures created in the great Angkorian era that had been smuggled from Cambodia, a US embassy spokesman said.
John Johnson said the sandstone artefacts, dating from between 1000 and 1500 AD, arrived by ship and were blessed by Buddhist monks in a handover ceremony in the southwestern port of Sihanoukville.
The sculptures, which include a head of the Buddha, a large bas-relief and an engraved plinth, were recovered by US immigration and customs enforcement officials in Los Angeles in 2008, Johnson added.
The great Angkorian empire emerged as a powerful regional force beginning in the ninth century and built the stunning Angkor temple complex in northwestern Cambodia, which remains the country's main tourist attraction.
But the country's key temples suffered huge damage from looters during three decades of civil war, which ended in 1998.
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Travel: Cambodia, Myanmar photo workshop
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center and Rick Murai will host Cambodia/Myanmar: Through the Lens photography workshop, Jan. 2 through 17, 2011. This is a good opportunity to produce unique and personal photographs amidst exotic cultures, ancient temple architecture and stunning landscapes.
Noted Penn Valley fine art photographer Rick Murai will present his photographs from Southeast Asia and discuss the itinerary and highlights of this custom tailored workshop at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 23, at Viewpoint Gallery, 2015 J St., Sacramento. Admission is free and all are welcomed to attend.
The cost is $3765/person and includes intra Asia airfare, lodging, land travel, guides and most meals. The workshop is limited to 14 participants.
Participants of this travel workshop will photograph and experience remote cultures, ancient temple architecture and stunning landscapes. Designed for photographers of all proficiency levels and varied mediums, this custom crafted workshop will insure ample time to effectively photograph at each location. There will be early morning and evening photo sessions, guest speakers, group/individual formal and informal instruction and image sharing.
Photographers will visit Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital and Tuol Sleng prison and the Killing Fields. The tour will then journey to the villages and markets of Siem Reap and the sprawling temple complex of Angkor Wat. The next stop is Myanmar's capital, Yangon, for visits to the imposing Schwedigon Pagoda and then on to the revered ancient sacred center of Bagan to photograph its thousands of pagodas. The tour will end with the intriguing floating villages of Inle Lake.
Murai is widely exhibited and published and a recipient of the 2008 UK Travel Photographer of the Year award. His extensive global travel is sure to make this a fascinating and highly productive experience.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Fish stock in northeastern Cambodia to be sustainably managed by local people
On 11 June, 2010 Mondulkiri province's Fisheries Administration Cantonment officially transferred management rights of the Sen Kangha Community Fishery to local Indigenous people living along the Srepok river in Koh Myeul Leu and Koh Myeul Krom villages of Koh Nhek district. Representatives from both parties signed a three-year long agreement aiming at sustainable management and use of local fishery resource.
With support from WWF, the signing ceremony was organized by the Fisheries Administration Cantonment at their office in Sen Monorom town and was attended by 60 participants from the Provincial Governor's Office, Fisheries Administration, Sen Kangha Community Fishery, WWF and many other local authorities.
His Excellency Chan Yieun, Governor of Mondulkiri, who presided over the ceremony, encouraged effective implementation of the agreement and urged all members of the Sen Kangha Community Fishery to sustainably manage and conserve fish stocks for long term benefit.
"I would like to ask all relevant authorites, especially the Fisheries Administration Cantonment, to cooperate with and provide support to the Sen Kangha Community Fishery in effectively implementing the Fisheries Law, National Strategy on Fisheries Management and other fishery-related regulations," the Governor said as he was delivering the opening speech at the event.
Rapid population growth and illegal fishing practices have led to over-fishing and falling fish yields. Due to the high dependency on fisheries for local livelihoods and food security, the Forestry Administration in collaboration with WWF, have been supporting the establishment of the Sen Kangha Community Fishery since 2007.
"With decreased fish yields observed over the past years due to illegal fishing activities, local communities are worried about potential disappearance of some fish species," said Mr Moul Phath, WWF’s Provincial Conservation Planning Specialist.
The community fishery provides an opportunity for people in Koh Myeul Leu and Koh Myeul Krom villages to conserve fish resources for their long term benefit.
In his speech, the Governor also highlighted that many of Mondulkiri's important zones of natural fish stocks, especially in Koh Nhek district, could, if managed sustainably, supply enough fish to meet the provincial consumption, as well as support other people living at the border of Ratanakiri province.
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International Festival of Art & Ideas calendar for June 16
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ART & IDEAS
Tickets for all performances with admission price may be purchased online at www.artidea.org/tickets, at the Shubert Theater Box Office (247 College Street, New Haven) or by phone at 203-562-5666 or 888-736-2663. For a complete listing of events, visit www.artidea.org.
June 16
Noon-8 p.m., “Susurrus” (every 30 minutes, noon to 6 p.m.) Playwright David Leddy’s “Susurrus” is part radio play, part avant-garde sonic art, part stroll in the park reflecting themes of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and includes music from Benjamin Britten’s opera. Audience listens to “Susurrus” through an iPod while following charted path through Edgerton Park, starting at Sarah T. Crosby Conservatory, Edgerton Park, 75 Cliff St., New Haven, $30, sturdy shoes encouraged.
Noon, New Haven Ballet Performing “Sei por Quattro” by Artistic Director Noble Barker to music of Nino Rota and “River of Diversion,” inspired by the Quinnipiac River, Elm Street Stage, free.
Noon, Walking Tour: Ingalls Rink: Newly Restored Famous Yale Whale Wes Kavanagh, senior design associate, Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, and Wayne Dean, senior associate director of Athletics, lead a tour of Eero Saarinen’s masterpiece (all ages), space limited, reserve at 888-ART-IDEA, meet at Sachem Street entrance to rink, free.
12:20 p.m., Walking Tour: From Drips to Dots: Selections from the Collection of Richard Brown Baker With Jennifer Farrell, the Florence B. Selden assistant curator, Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs (teens and adults), meet at Yale University Art Gallery, free.
1:45 p.m., Nicki Mathis’ Afrikan Amerikan Jazz Reflects her ties to Africa as well as Mexico and Brazil, Elm Street Stage, free.
5:30 p.m., Ideas: Rebuilding Culture in Iraq & Cambodia - From Crisis to Recovery Joseph Roach, Sterling Professor of Theater and English Director , Yale University, U.S. Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, who led investigation into and recovery of artifacts from the looting of the Iraq Museum, moderated by Helen Ibbitson Jessup, specialist in the art and architecture of Southeast Asia and Cambodia,,founder of Friends of Khmer Culture Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., free, reservations recommended: www.artidea.org.
5:30-7:30 p.m., Bike Tour - Eye on New Haven: A Photographic Tour Bring your camera and join an experienced local photographer on ride to some of New Haven’s most picturesque places, several stops to shoot, all riders (10 miles), meet at Festival Info Booth, Church and Elm streets, free.
6:30 p.m., Thomas Bergeron Quintet Trumpeter presents impressionist interpretations of Claude Debussy piano preludes with his jazz quintet, Elm Street Stage, free.
7 p.m., Book Signing, Matthew Bogdanos, author of “Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine’s Passion to Recover the World’s Greatest Stolen Treasures,” proceeds from books donated to the Iraq Museum, Atticus Bookstore/Cafe, Chapel Street, free.
8 p.m., Courtyard Concerts: Joyce Moreno One of Brazil’s most influential artists, Grammy Award-nominated singer/songwriter and guitarist combines samba rhythms and jazz harmonies with intelligent lyrics, Yale Law School Courtyard, 127 Wall St., $30 general admission, must be reserved.
8 p.m., “Khmeropédies I & II” French-Cambodian choreographer Emmanuèle Phuon’s collision of classical Khmer court dance with contemporary Western movement techniques, Frederick Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel St., $25; call to reserve.
8 p.m., “Moby Dick” Conor Lovett in his one-man performance of his adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel, accompanied by original music by Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh, $15-$40, Long Wharf Theatre, Mainstage, 222 Sargent Drive, all seats reserved.
Tickets for all performances with admission price may be purchased online at www.artidea.org/tickets, at the Shubert Theater Box Office (247 College St., New Haven) or by phone at 203-562-5666 or 888-736-2663. Visit www.artidea.org.
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Check out these itineraries on Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises is offering adventurous passengers two opportunities in 2011 and 2012 to experience one of travel’s most grand voyages: The World Cruise.
Encompassing multiple continents and dozens of the globe’s treasured places, these fascinating itineraries will give travelers the unique opportunity to experience the world along with Princess’ style and service.
Let’s let the company explain its offerings:
The intimate Pacific Princess will sail on a 107-day journey from Ft. Lauderdale to Venice, departing January 13, 2012, offering the line’s popular small-ship cruising experience. For an Australian-style world cruise, Dawn Princess will sail roundtrip from Sydney on May 25, 2011.
Travelers on these voyages will be able to experience UNESCO World Heritage Sites – such as Fiordland National Park in New Zealand, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and historic Cairo. It also is possible to travel beyond the ports in some locations with overland excursions to such must-see destinations as the Great Wall of China and Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
Pacific Princess will also introduce three new ports for Princess – Santa Marta, Colombia; Puerto Quepos, Costa Rica; and Manama, Bahrain.
Pacific Princess – 107 days – January 13, 2012:
This Ft. Lauderdale to Venice itinerary will visit 38 destinations in 28 countries, including the mighty Panama Canal, the idyllic South Pacific, plus the “down under” experience of Australia and New Zealand.
Passengers will explore a variety of vibrant Asian cities such as Toyko, experience the bustle of India and Egypt’s legendary monuments, and see some unique European ports, such as Dubrovink, before finally arriving in Venice.
Three new ports debut on this voyage: Santa Marta, the oldest city in Colombia, is the site of the last days of Simon Bolivar, the liberator for whom Bolivia is named. From this port, passengers can visit a number of historical sites, including the oldest church in Spanish America, or can enjoy Tayrona National Park for ecological tours and time at the beach. Puerto Quepos offers an off-the-beaten-path experience in Costa Rica, near the ecotourism destination of Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. Manama, the main port for Bahrain, a small island country in the Persian Gulf, is home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Fort of Bahrain or Qal’at al-Bahrain (the Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun) plus other numerous archeological sites.
Pacific Princess passengers will also have the opportunity to experience a variety of other UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These remarkable places that make up the planet’s cultural and natural heritage include Fiordland National Park in New Zealand, Sydney Opera House, the Great Blue Mountains near Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef (from Cairns), the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the historic center of Macau (from Hong Kong), the Taj Mahal (from Mumbai), ancient Petra (from Aqaba), historic Cairo (from Alexandria) and the old city of Dubrovnik. Passengers may also take in UNESCO sites such as the Great Wall of China and Cambodia’s Angkor Wat with several overland adventures available during the voyage.
The full itinerary for the Pacific Princess world cruise adventure starts in Fort Lauderdale, followed by calls in Aruba and new port of Santa Marta (Colombia), before transiting the engineering marvel of the Panama Canal. The ship then heads up the coast to new port of Puerto Quepos (Costa Rica), and San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua), to San Diego.
Passengers will then enjoy crossing the Pacific with visits to Honolulu, Kauai (Nawiliwili), Pago Pago, Tonga (Nuku’Alofa), and then Auckland, and Fiordland National Park in New Zealand.
In Australia, the ship visits Burnie, Tasmania and spends two days in Sydney, plus visits Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef. Heading for Asia, the ship calls at Guam, then Tokyo, Hiroshima, Busan, Shanghai, and two days in Hong Kong. Next is Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Singapore and Phuket. In India, passengers will experience Chennai and Mumbai (for a full-day tour to the Taj Mahal), then the ship reaches Bahrain for the new port of Manama, followed by an overnight call in Dubai. Then it’s on to Salalah, Safaga (for Luxor/Karnak), Alexandria (for Cairo/Giza), and a transit of the Suez Canal. Once in the Mediterranean, the ship calls at Dubrovnik and Koper (for the capital of Slovenia, Lubljana), and then finally on to the final port of Venice.
Sailing roundtrip from Sydney, this world cruise features an Australian flavor. Dawn Princess will call at 43 intriguing ports on six continents and will introduce some new destinations not seen on her previous global voyages, including Costa Rica, Morocco, Jordan, Israel, Scotland and Norway. Popular destinations such as Singapore, Dubai, the Mediterranean, the Panama Canal and the Hawaiian Islands are also included.
The full cruise itinerary will take passengers from Sydney to Darwin, then across the Equator to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur (Port Kelang), and Langkawi, Malaysia. Then the ship sails to India with calls at Cochin, and Mumbai (for the Taj Mahal).
The cruise continues to Abu Dhabi, Dubai (overnight), Muscat (Mina Qaboos), and Aqaba in Jordan (for Petra). Dawn Princess will then sail through the Suez Canal to reach Port Said (for Cairo/Giza), followed by Jerusalem (Ashdod). Then it’s on to the Mediterranean with visits to Mykonos, and Istanbul, with a cruise by ANZAC Cove. The classic ports of Athens (Piraeus), Naples (for Capri & Pompeii), Rome (Civitavecchia), Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Monte Carlo, and Barcelona come up next, followed by Casablanca (for Rabat), Lisbon, Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), and then on to London (Dover). Northern Europe ports include Amsterdam and Bergen, Norway as the ship then sails to Britain and Ireland with calls at Edinburgh/Glasgow (Greenock), Dublin, and Cork (Cobh – for Blarney Castle).
Dawn Princess next crosses the Atlantic with a stop in Bermuda on the way to Ft. Lauderdale. Passengers will then visit Cartagena and transit the spectacular Panama Canal. Sailing up the Pacific Coast, the ship reaches Costa Rica (Puntarenas), Acapulco, Manzanillo, and then Los Angeles. Passengers will then enjoy sailing across the Pacific to Honolulu, Tahiti (Papeete), Bora Bora, and Apia (Western Samoa), as the ship heads for home with a final call in Auckland before reaching Sydney once again.
World cruises can also be booked in segments, ranging from 15 to 32 days. Full cruise fares begin at $21,995 per person and segment fares start at $2,495, based on double occupancy. The Pacific Princess sailing opens for sale June 17, 2010, the Dawn Princess world cruise is currently available for booking.
Additional information about Princess Cruises is available through a professional travel agent, by calling 1-800-PRINCESS, or by visiting the company’s website at www.princess.com.
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About Princess Cruises:
One of the best-known names in cruising, Princess Cruises is a global cruise and tour company operating a fleet of 17 modern ships renowned for their innovative design and wide array of choices in dining, entertainment and amenities, all provided in an environment of exceptional customer service. A recognized leader in worldwide cruising, Princess offers its passengers the opportunity to escape to the top destinations around the globe, ranging in length from seven to 107 days. The company is part of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE:CCL; NYSE:CUK).
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Drug-resistant bugs on rise globally: report
Many such drug distribution programs may be driving drug resistance and endangering the lives they are meant to save, according to the report from the Center for Global Development.
"Drug resistance is a natural occurrence, but careless practices in drug supply and use are hastening it unnecessarily," the Center's Rachel Nugent, who led the group writing the report, said in a statement.
Millions of children in the developing world die every year from drug-resistant strains of malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and other diseases, the report found.
Since 2006 donors have spent more than $1.5 billion on specialized drugs to treat resistant bacteria and viruses, and this could worsen, the report cautions.
So-called "superbugs" such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas, or MRSA, now cause more than 50 percent of staph infections in U.S. hospitals.
Bacteria and viruses begin to evolve resistance to drugs almost as soon as they first encounter them. If drug treatment leaves even one microbe alive, it will reproduce and whatever genetic attributes helped it survive will be multiplied in the next generation.
Last week, experts told a Congressional panel that U.S. regulators need to provide a clear path for drug companies to develop new antibiotics and should consider offering financial incentives.
The Center's report looks for even broader action, urging WHO to lead others, including pharmaceutical companies, governments, philanthropies that buy and distribute medicines, hospitals, healthcare providers, pharmacies and patients.
The report finds clear links between increased drug availability and resistance. For instance, in countries with the highest use of antibiotics, 75 to 90 percent of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains are drug-resistant, it found.
Poor quality drugs, counterfeit drugs, incomplete use of drugs and other factors all contribute to the problem, the report found. And this problem will worsen as drug access programs succeed, it cautions.
"The number of people being treated for HIV/AIDS, for example, increased 10-fold between 2002 and 2007; there was an 8-fold rise in deliveries of (drugs) for malaria treatment between 2005 and 2006, and the Stop TB Partnership's Global Drug Facility has expanded access to drugs for TB patients, offering nearly 14 million patient treatments in 93 countries since 2001," the report reads.
"While increased access to necessary drugs is clearly desirable, it brings challenges in preserving the efficacy of these drugs and ensuring they are used appropriately."
For instance, in 2008, an estimated 440,000 cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis emerged.
The Center for Global Development, an independent, nonprofit group, specializes in research on global poverty and inequality.
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Japanese ship, officers arrive in Cambodia on medical aid mission+
PHNOM PENH, Japanese medical officers arrived in the Cambodian port city of Sihanoukville on Tuesday aboard a Japanese maritime Self-Defense Force transport ship on the second leg of a two-nation mission to participate in a U.S. Navy-led medical aid program in Asia.
While in Cambodia, they will take part in medical aid activities for about two weeks under former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's "Fraternity Boat" initiative.
The 8,900-ton MSDF transport ship Kunisaki, with roughly 200 crew members on board, arrived together with the U.S. Navy hospital ship Mercy on Tuesday morning, an official of the Japanese Embassy in Cambodia said.
The embassy said doctors and Japanese Self-Defense Forces personnel will conduct medical and cultural activities with U.S. Navy personnel and nongovernmental groups as part of this year's Pacific Partnership program.
Prior to its mission in Cambodia, the Kunisaki took part in the Pacific Partnership program in Vietnam.
The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh said the Pacific Partnership 2010 is the fifth in a series of annual U.S. Pacific Fleet humanitarian and civic assistance endeavors aimed at strengthening regional partnerships and increasing navy-to-navy contact with host and partner nations, U.S. interagency groups, and international humanitarian and relief organizations.
Pacific Partnership 2010 brings together military medical and engineering professionals from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, and Britain, according to U.S. Embassy officials.
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60,000 protest against Cambodia land grab
The United Nations' human rights office in Cambodia has condemned a government ruling that banned a peaceful march by people at risk of losing their land.
Early on Tuesday, dozens of armed riot police blocked several hundred representatives from delivering a petition to the home of the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen.
Sixty thousand villagers whose land is under threat across the country signed the petition, which calls on Hun Sen to help them.
Instead, the villagers were forced to hand over the petition to officials from Hun Sen's cabinet at a nearby park.
Land-grabbing is arguably Cambodia's most pressing problem, but a weak judiciary has proven no match for powerful interests behind the scourge.
The municipality banned the planned march late on Monday, but did not give a reason for doing so.
The United Nations' local human rights office described the ban as "regrettable", adding that it was given without reason or justification - and therefore contrary to the new law regulating demonstrations.
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