Cambodian Prison: A place of torture and death for innocent

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — From a distance, the former Chao Ponhea Yat High School provided no outward evidence of the horrors that awaited me once inside when I arrived aboard a “tuk-tuk” taxicab, a small, two-wheeled canopied trailer pulled by a motorcycle.

Set on a narrow side street in this chaotic and poverty-stricken capital city of Cambodia, the complex of five three-story concrete buildings surrounded by a playground, palm trees, small shops and food stalls appeared commonplace and ordinary as my driver, 35-year-old Kosal, let me off at the front gate.

But first impressions can be deceiving.

The former school that once accommodated 1,000 students had been converted into the notorious Security 21 or Tuol Sleng Prison by the Communist Khmer Rouge regime when it won the Cambodian Civil War in the mid-1970s, and it soon became the nation's largest penal center where thousands of innocent men, women and children were interrogated, beaten, tortured and killed until it was shuttered four years later.

Now a genocide museum, the prison serves as the testament to the irrationality and cruelty of the radical Khmer Rouge movement led by the infamous “Brother Number One” Pol Pot from 1975 until 1979, when the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia during a border dispute between the two nations that ultimately led to the defeat and flight of the Communists, the closing of the prison and the re-establishment of comparative peace and order.

During their four-year reign, the Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh and other cities, forcing their inhabitants to move to the countryside and work as slave laborers in an effort to create a fundamentalist, agrarian utopia in which money, machinery, automobiles, modern medicine, religion, private property, education and all semblances of modern civilization were abolished.

Government officials, Buddhist monks, teachers, professors, students, doctors, scientists and all those in the middle and upper classes were murdered outright by the Khmer Rouge or taken to Tuol Sleng Prison and other facilities where they were interrogated and forced to write false confessions that implicated family members, friends and neighbors before being tortured and put to death.

As I entered the prison, I was joined by a middle-aged German couple and two young Swedish backpackers.

“I hope all five of us can stay together in here. It is too terrible just for the two of us,” said the German woman as she clutched her husband's arm.

I, too, needed the company of sympathetic others. What lay before me in the museum was unspeakable. I will never be able to erase from my mind what I saw.

The former classrooms had been converted into tiny brick cells where prisoners were chained to the walls and floors before being photographed and interrogated. The windows, doors and outer corridors were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent escapes or prisoners jumping to their deaths from the upper levels.

Prisoners were ordered to stand at attention in their cells during daylight hours, and when night came they were shackled together with bars and chains, instructed not to speak with their fellow inmates and forced to sleep in their underwear jammed head-to-toe against one another on the bare floors.

Following days of interrogation, the prisoners were led to windowless chambers where they underwent medieval tortures too gruesome to describe, taken to a courtyard and beaten to death with shovels, pickaxes or clubs and buried on the school grounds.

When the graves could hold no more bodies, prisoners were bound with wire, blindfolded and trucked 10 miles to the famous killing fields at Choeug Ek where they were beaten to death and thrown into mass graves.

Of the estimated 14,000 to 20,000 prisoners incarcerated at Tuol Sleng, all met death except for seven who managed to escape. More than 1.8 million Cambodians, approximately one-fourth of the nation's population, died during the four-year Khmer Rouge terror from torture, murder, starvation, overwork or disease.

Walking the halls of the prison, I arrived in a room where photographs of the prisoners taken by their captors were displayed on large panels. Several were of women holding infants in their arms. I also came upon a case holding several of the prisoners' skulls that were unearthed in the schoolyard.

The German woman in my small group burst into tears at this sight. “This is like Nazi Germany,” she cried, running outside.

More than 35 years after the depredations began, justice has finally commenced. The prison chief known as “Duch,” who has already served 11 years in prison, was convicted four months ago by a UN-backed tribunal for genocide and crimes against humanity and will serve an additional 19 years behind bars. Trials for other Khmer Rouge officials are to begin in early 2011.

Kosal, my taxi driver, told me when I left the prison, “Duch's sentence was too lenient. He should have been executed. Both my parents, two brothers and 20 of my aunts and uncles were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. There is no real justice here.”

Perhaps John Hall, associate professor of international law at Chapman University who has carried out extensive human rights field work and research in Cambodia, best articulates the reactions of those such as myself who have visited Tuol Sleng.

“I have been to the prison many times,” he told me, “and each time I am more shocked by its depravity and inhumanity. Tuol Sleng was a center of bestiality, barbarism and hopelessness.”

• David C. Henley is publisher emeritus of the Lahontan Valley News.
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Authorities demolished 78 homes

Nearly 80 homes in Preah Sihanouk province’s Stung Hav district were demolished by authorities over the weekend after a Supreme Court verdict on Friday awarded the land to a development company.

Lou Vannaret, who lives in Lek Muoy commune, said residents had been banned from returning to their dwellings since Friday when the verdict was announced, declaring the land the property of the Ly Hong Sin Company.

“Residents dared not come out and complain against them because they have military forces guarding them,” he said.

Village representative Mon Sina said 149 families had been living in the area since 1999.

But Kim Eng, deputy chief of the provincial court, said the demolitions were in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict.

“They are not homes,” he said.

“They just built them up in the wild and no one lives there. We have dismantled 78 cottages so far and we will leave the villagers to dismantle the remaining 43 huts by themselves.”

Representatives of the Ly Hong Sin Company could not be reached for comment.
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'America's Most Wanted' investigates children sold as sex slaves in Cambodia

By Alicia Rancillio

NEW YORK, N.Y. — John Walsh has been hunting "America's Most Wanted" fugitives since 1988. On Saturday he goes undercover in Southeast Asia to investigate the sex trafficking of Cambodian children.

Accompanied by British police officer Jim Gamble, Walsh says he was shocked by what he saw.

He and Gamble went into a bar where there were 50 to 60 girls, Walsh said.

"Within two minutes a madam came up to us and said, 'What are you looking for?' and Jim said, 'We're looking for young girls.' She brought over three or four girls that were (about) 12 or 13 years old — very, very young."

Gamble told her they wanted younger girls, Walsh said. He said the woman replied, " 'What do you want? We have 6- and 7-year-old boys and girls. I can arrange that off premises.' It was disgusting and heartbreaking."

Walsh said Western pedophiles, from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany travel east to Cambodia as international sex tourists, looking to have sex with children.

He says the show choose Cambodia because it's cheap to buy a sex slave there.

"I saw many Western men that had come there not to go to the Buddhist temples, not to come there to look at the beaches, not to do anything at all but to molest and have sex with children. It's wrong, it's illegal and it has to change," he said.

Walsh said the episode will be a "tough show to watch" but said it's important to expose the reality that children are sexually assaulted by predators — many of whom are from the United States.

So far, the show has captured 1,135 criminals in its 24 seasons.

"America's Most Wanted" airs Saturdays at 9pm ET/PT on Fox.
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Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia Red Cross Societies promote cooperation

Cooperation between the Red Cross Societies of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia will help improve living conditions for people in the border regions.

Chairman of the Vietnam Red Cross Society, Tran Ngoc Tang, said this at a conference of the Vietnam-Lao-Cambodia Red Cross Societies in Hanoi on November 13.

He said leaders of the three societies agreed with the proposal for cooperation in the 2011-2015 period.

Under the proposal, border provinces in the three countries will work closely together to share information about natural disasters and epidemics and help each other improve healthcare service.

The Vietnam Red Cross Association will help Laos and Cambodia with Red Cross staff training and provide free medical examination and treatment for Lao and Cambodian people living on the border with Vietnam.

Since the cooperation agreement between the three societies was signed four years ago, Vietnam has assisted Laos and Cambodia with healthcare services and charitable activities valued at more than VND8 billion.

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Vann Molyvann: Cambodia's forgotten architect

Cambodian Architecture Vann Molyvann, 78 sketches a project in Phnom Penh, in 2005. Vann Molyvann was a key creative force behind many landmarks, ranging from the National Sports Complex to the Independence Monument and experimental low-cost apartments. (Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP / Getty Images)

In the 1960s, he redefined the look of his homeland architecturally. Now his works are being lost to redevelopment. Admirers are working to highlight his importance.

By Dustin Roasa, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Sihanoukville, Cambodia — — Architect Bill Greaves stood on a bluff outside the city and admired an elegant white and peach building perched high above the beaches and guesthouses that have made this seaside spot into a tourist boomtown. Inspired by the dong raik, a pole used by rural Cambodians to carry loads on their shoulders, the building seemed to float in the air, its concrete and brick second floor held aloft by a complex web of hidden beams.

"It's a gem, but it's not very well known," Greaves said of the SKD Brewery offices, built in 1968 by Cambodia's most gifted and visionary architect, Vann Molyvann.

In the 1960s, under the iron-fisted patronage of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Vann Molyvann helped transform Cambodia from a sleepy former French colony into one of the most architecturally arresting countries in Asia. But after surviving decades of civil war and the terror of Khmer Rouge rule, the architect's buildings are being demolished as Cambodia seeks to rebuild.

Although Vann Molyvann, 83, is back in Phnom Penh after years of living overseas, there is little he can do to prevent his work from disappearing. In 2008, two of his greatest works, the National Theater and the Council of Ministers building, were demolished. In 2001, the government sold his Olympic Stadium to a Taiwanese developer, who altered the complex's drainage system to the point that it floods frequently.

In response, admirers such as Greaves, art historian Darryl Collins, who cowrote the only book in English about 1950s and 1960s Cambodian architecture, and architect Geoff Pyle, who founded an organization that offers guided tours of Phnom Penh's notable buildings, are working to highlight Vann Molyvann's importance. He remains virtually unknown in Cambodia, where he is not taught in the country's high schools and universities, and his international profile is low.

Greaves had traveled from his base in Phnom Penh to the brewery in Sihanoukville with a team of volunteers working with the Vann Molyvann Project, an organization he established in 2009 to document the architect's buildings. Nearly all of Vann Molyvann's blueprints were lost during Cambodia's years of turmoil, so Greaves and his volunteers are re-creating them from scratch to leave a record for future generations.

As the sun burned off the morning mist and lipstick-red trucks roared by full of Angkor beer — the SKD complex remains a functioning brewery — Cambodian and American volunteers in their 20s moved methodically through the space, hand measuring doorways, columns and anything else they could get their tape measurers on. They would spend the better part of three days sizing up the building before heading back to Phnom Penh, where they were creating scale models and drawings for the first major exhibition of Vann Molyvann's work, which opened in Phnom Penh in late September.

Greaves first encountered Vann Molyvann's buildings when he was visiting as a tourist in 2004. "I was astonished. I didn't know anything about architecture in Cambodia in the 1960s," he said. He was struck by the architect's daring use of concrete to create massive, expressive forms, "the kinds of things you could never convince a structural engineer to do nowadays," he said.

The buildings ingeniously used what might now be called green technology, including ventilation, natural lighting and drainage systems, to mitigate Cambodia's harsh climate, which alternates between periods of torrential rain and extreme heat. The buildings also referenced objects from Cambodian culture, such as mystical Buddhist serpents called nagas and the straw hats worn by peasants working in the fields.

After returning to Cambodia several times, Greaves quit his job at Steven Harris Architects in New York and moved to Phnom Penh to found the Vann Molyvann Project, which has consulted extensively with the Cambodian architect in its work. "I am extremely grateful for what they are doing," Vann Molyvann said of his foreign admirers.

Vann Molyvann's life has been shaped by the twists and turns of his country's tumultuous history. Born in 1926, he attended Cambodia's only high school during World War II. However, his studies were interrupted by Japan's takeover of the country during the war, but he managed to graduate and in 1945 won one of two scholarships that year for Cambodians to study in France.

At the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he received architectural training from disciples of Le Corbusier, who taught him the influential French architect's "Le Modulor," a system of proportion that Vann Molyvann later used as the basis for his designs. He thought little about his home country and "drowned in French culture completely," he said. Meanwhile, his compatriots in Paris at the time, including a young Pol Pot, soaked up the Marxism and Stalinism that would form the ideological basis of the Khmer Rouge.

Vann Molyvann returned to Phnom Penh in 1956, and he was one of a few architects in Cambodia with formal training. Cambodia had gained independence from France in 1953, but it remained a poor, rural country with no recent history of cities or urban planning. "Architecture was a strange concept in Cambodia. They did not know what it was," he said. He opened a firm but found little private work.

His fortunes changed when Norodom Sihanouk appointed him chief architect for state buildings and director for urban planning and habitat. With access to government commissions, he could begin designing civic buildings that combined the Modernist and Brutalist sensibilities he had learned in Paris with Cambodia's traditions and way of life.

Over the next decade and a half, Vann Molyvann built dozens of buildings in Phnom Penh and elsewhere in Cambodia. His crowning achievement was the Olympic Stadium, a sprawling sports complex that was built in advance of the Southeast Asian Games of 1963, which were never held. With a water-management system inspired by the moats and channels of ancient Angkor and soaring concrete overhangs, the design helped usher in a period of architectural and cultural creativity. He was in his early 30s at the time. "Imagine having the possibility to build such a thing when you are that age," Vann Molyvann said, his eyes twinkling.

Norodom Sihanouk viewed architecture as a way of expressing the aspirations for progress and modernity of the newly independent Cambodian people. He poured significant portions of the national budget into construction projects, and he deftly exploited Cambodia's Cold War neutrality to land aid from both the Americans and the Soviets.

"Sihanouk was extremely open to the outside world," Vann Molyvann said. "Cambodians had enormous enthusiasm to build the country, and fortunately for us, Prince Sihanouk shared this feeling."

Norodom Sihanouk's showpiece was the Russian Boulevard, which connected central Phnom Penh to its international airport. Lined with many of Vann Molyvann's most significant buildings, including the Teachers' Training College and the Council of Ministers building, the road was designed to impress visiting dignitaries.

But Norodom Sihanouk could not keep his country neutral forever. With the Vietnam War spilling over into Cambodia, Vann Molyvann left with his family in 1972, and the prince's cosmopolitanism eventually gave way to the savage xenophobia of the Khmer Rouge. Vann Molyvann spent the next two decades as a consultant with the United Nations at various posts around the world.

He moved back to Cambodia in 1993, but his second return has proved more difficult than the first. Although he was appointed head of the organization that managed the site of the Angkor temples, the current government of Prime Minister Hun Sen removed him from that post after he publicly complained about government corruption. "I felt that entrance fees for Angkor should go to the people, not to civil servants in Phnom Penh. They said, 'Get out, Molyvann,'" he said.

Out of favor with the government, Vann Molyvann has watched the urban landscape in Phnom Penh transform. Norodom Sihanouk's Russian Boulevard, that bellwether of Cambodia's aspirations, now swarms with trucks and motorbikes carrying goods and migrants into the city, and it is lined with the glass-and-steel office buildings and cookie-cutter housing developments of Cambodia's recent economic boom. The new Chinese-designed and funded Council of Ministers building, which replaced Vann Molyvann's, features a pyramid framed by what resembles an enormous drawbridge. It would not look out of place in a Chinese provincial capital.
"There's a very strong notion in Cambodia that a modern city should be like Shanghai or Bangkok, where the emphasis is on verticality," said Greaves of the Vann Molyvann Project. "Late Modern architecture is a little harder for the general public to love."

While the efforts of Greaves and others have raised Vann Molyvann's profile among Cambodians, the fate of his buildings ultimately rests with the current government, which came to power in 1979 after defeating the Khmer Rouge. "The government doesn't want to leave anything from before 1979, because it wasn't their achievement. History is completely manipulated," Vann Molyvann said.

Today, he has an official government title, but it is essentially an honorific. He is working on translating his PhD dissertation, about urbanization in Southeast Asia, into Khmer, the Cambodian language.

Beng Khemro, deputy director general of the country's Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said the government is doing everything it can to preserve Cambodia's architectural heritage. "But economic development and modernization inevitably bring about changes in every country, and Cambodia is no exception," he said.

Young Cambodians like Yin Sotheara, a 21-year-old architecture student and volunteer with the Vann Molyvann Project, hope to play a role in that development. Back at the SKD Brewery offices, he took a break from measuring a rear-facing balcony to discuss his future after graduation.

"There are not many opportunities for Cambodian architects. Most of the new buildings are being built by Chinese and Koreans," he said. But learning about Vann Molyvann had for the first time provided him with a Cambodian architectural role model. "Vann Molyvann showed that you can take foreign concepts and mix them with Cambodian traditions to make new buildings," he said. "I want to make buildings that are suited to the Cambodian way of life."

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The US loses out to China in Cambodia

Beijing offer of no-strings aid to a corrupt administration pays off, writes Asia Sentinel's Sam Campbell

Hillary Clinton's two-day visit to Cambodia Oct 30-Nov 1 could be seen as touching base with an old ally and building links with a future partner. But under the surface a battle for influence is being waged between the US and China in Cambodia, a fight Uncle Sam is unlikely to win.

Cambodia is unique in its dependency on aid, something that countries wanting to influence the kingdom have capitalized on. Since the 1992-3 era of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, literally billions of aid dollars have flowed into Cambodia. Donors in June pledged US$1.1 billion for the coming year, up from last year's pledge of US$950 million.

Cambodia has been happy to receive aid, for the most part–basic services like health care and education are still reliant on donor funds, yet schools and hospitals routinely bear the name of high-ranking Cambodians who are happy to take the credit for Cambodia's rapid development (the head of the Cambodian Red Cross, Hun Sen's formidable wife Bun Rany, is a good example)

The US has been one of the main players in the aid game, both through small NGOs and the US Agency for International Development, which funds a wide range of democracy and governance activities.

Yet rights issues, governance, and in particular corruption, remain pressing problems, and some question how much improvement has been made. Attempts to chastise Cambodia over the snail's pace of reforms have ended badly – US ambassador Carol Rodley was blasted last year for remarking that corruption costs Cambodia US$500 million annually, just one of many Western critics slapped down by the Cambodian government.

As regards aid, the contrast between Washington's (and the West's) blustering moralizing and Beijing's circumspect mercantilism is striking. Read more!

'America's Most Wanted' Airing Special Exposing American Pedophiles in Cambodia

By Hollie McKay


In a special episode of “America’s Most Wanted” airing on FOX this Saturday, host John Walsh will take viewers to the front lines of the international battle against child predators in Cambodia, a nation frequented by pedophiles.

“We’re profiling American pedophiles who have fled to other countries. Westerners go over there primarily to have sex with small children, 6-8 year old boys and girls,” Walsh told Pop Tarts. “I took a small crew with me and went undercover with a British cop and infiltrated brothel nightclubs. It was really heartbreaking to see it.”

Walsh said that within two minutes of being in a Cambodian bar, they were approached by a madam offering them very young children, and believes audiences will be shocked at how easy and how prevalent it is that Westerners involve themselves in such acts.

“It is our garbage that goes to Cambodia and preys on these young children. It is our garbage from America, England, the West that goes to the East and preys upon their poverty,” he said. “People are going to be surprised about how easy it is to do, and how many Westerners fly there just to solicit and have sex with children.”

The episode also provides a rare exploration of a Cambodian prison, and an interview with two British men arrested for their illicit involvement with young children.

“They [the British prisoners] were very arrogant and blaming society for getting caught. There is also this concept that people can pay off the police or even the judges if they get caught,” Walsh explained.

But among the devastation, the veteran TV host was overcome by the strength of one woman in particular, Somaly Mam, a tireless advocate who has dedicated her life to rescuing Cambodia’s children from the sex trade. A sex-crime victim as a child, Mam operates a center for other victimized children, offering them hope for the future.

“Somaly Mam herself had been kidnapped and forced into sex trade when she was 14; now she goes and rescues the poor children one at a time, at great risk to herself. In fact her own 14-year-old daughter was kidnapped by pimps and brutally sexually assaulted, but this didn’t deter her,” Walsh continued. “She is still going in and trying to save these boys and girls from a life of prostitution.”

Walsh also believes it is in our nation’s best interest to assist in tracking down the American pedophiles profiled on the broadcast.

“The number one thing is awareness. These guys will go over there and come back and function as pediatricians, scout masters, school teachers. We need to tell our officials,” he added. “People may ask ‘why should what’s happening in Cambodia affect me?’ Well, the guys that go over there and molest Cambodian kids come back and molest American kids. I’ve been to Haiti, Katrina, Ground Zero and seen some rough things… but the trip to Cambodia was really, really life-changing.” Read more!

America's Most Wanted Goes Undercover In Cambodia

In what sounds like a relatively horrifying episode, this Saturday America’s Most Wanted will feature host John Walsh as he goes undercover in Cambodia to expose international sex trafficking.

It's an unfortunate reality that sex-related crimes are a global epidemic and this Saturday, America's Most Wanted will be visiting Cambodia to investigate pedophilia crimes taking place at a notorious bar. Fox released some information on the special today, revealing that in addition to Walsh’s undercover venture in Southeast Asia, the episode will also include information on American sex predators that are still at large. The episode will air on Saturday, Nov. 13 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Below is the full description for the episode as provided by Fox.

AMERICA’S MOST WANTED cameras go undercover in Cambodia, a nation targeted by pedophiles because the abject poverty there has made it distressingly easy to “buy” underage children. Working with international law enforcement agencies, Walsh investigates a notorious Phnom Penh bar to see firsthand how young girls are offered to foreign visitors and visits a Cambodian prison to confront jailed Westerners accused of preying upon children.

Walsh also talks to Somaly Mam, a tireless advocate who has dedicated her life to rescuing Cambodia’s children from the sex trade. A sex-crime victim as a child, Mam operates a center for other victimized children, offering them hope for the future.

In the episode, Walsh will ask viewers to get involved in the fight against predators by helping him track down several Read more!

Cambodian Deminers Headed to Lebanon

It is estimated that about 670 square kilometers of the country's land are still cover by landmine and would take several years to be removed

Cambodia will send more than 200 deminers as UN peacekeepers to Lebanon next week, Defense Minister Tea Banh said.

The 219 soldiers will be sent off after a ceremony Nov. 17, the defense minister said.

The Lebanon mission will add to Cambodia's record of demining. The country was riddled with mines and ordinance after decades of civil war, and now its experts have served tours in Sudan and other countries.

One team is continuing demining in Sudan, said Chhum Socheat, a defense spokesman.

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GE Commissions Two New Hospitals in Cambodia Under Developing Health Globally™ Program

Fairfield, CT, United States, 11/11/2010 - GE, in partnership with the Cambodian Ministry of Health, this week announces the official commissioning of medical equipment at two public hospitals in Cambodia, as part of its Developing Health Globally™ program (NYSE: GE).

Aligned with GE’s healthymagination initiative, this GE corporate citizenship program aims to improve access to quality healthcare in the developing world by addressing critical gaps in existing government healthcare facilities.

GE will sponsor commissioning events at Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital on Wednesday, October 27, at 9:30 a.m. and National Pediatric Hospital on Wednesday, October 27, at 2:30 p.m. Ceremonies will take place at both hospitals at the respective times. Each commissioning marks the completion of the product installation and training, and provides each hospital the opportunity to share the news of the upgraded facility with the community. GE’s donation is comprised of equipment to better many areas of the hospital including Radiology, Operating theaters, Labor and Delivery, and the Maternity and Infant care wards.

National Pediatric Hospital Commissioning_2
“As the Developing Health Globally program expands to two more hospitals in Cambodia, new equipment and training will better help clinicians care for members in the community,” said Bob Corcoran, vice president of corporate citizenship at GE Corporation. “GE strives to build the capacities of these hospitals to improve access to quality care, enabling these hospitals to save lives.”

GE leaders attending the commissioning include Bob Corcoran, vice president of GE corporate citizenship; Stuart Dean, president of GE ASEAN; Mylan Nguyen, national executive of Vietnam & Cambodia; David Utama, president and CEO of GEHC ASEAN; Krista Bauer, director of global programs at GE; Ivan Cayabyab and Vasanthe Sekhar, the GE ambassadors to the newly commissioned hospitals. In addition to attendees from GE, H.E. Carol Rodley, the US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, and H.E. Mam Bunheng, the Cambodian Minister of Health; will be in attendance.

“The Government of Cambodia, through the Ministry of Health, thanks GE for its continued support of our hospitals,” said H.E. Mam Bunheng, the Cambodian Minister of Health. “The investment in two additional hospitals will broaden care and access in Cambodia.”

Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hsopital Commissioning
In 2009, Phnom Penh Municipal Referral Hospital, Kossamak National Hospital, Kampong Speu Referral Hospital, Sihanoukville Referral Hospital, Kampot Referral Hospital and Takeo Referral Hospital were commissioned. The additional two hospitals mark the completion of eight Cambodian sites.

About Developing Health Globally
Launched in 2004 targeting sub-Saharan Africa , Developing Health Globally now extends across the developing world to 13 countries in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. The program aims to improve access to quality healthcare for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Developing Health Globally uses GE core competencies including technology, process expertise and employee engagement to offer sustainable “enterprise solutions” to address some of the critical gaps that exist in developing-world healthcare facilities.

About GE
GE (ge.com) is a diversified infrastructure, finance and media company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, and television programming, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide.

Contacts
Frank Mantero, Director, Corporate Citizenship Programs, GE Corporation
P: +12033733534 / E: frank.mantero[.]ge.com.

Dararith Lim, Market Development Manager/ Cambodia Country Representative, GE Corporation
P: + 855 23 217 226 / E: dararith.lim[.]ge.com.

Press Contact
Frank Mantero, GE
P: +1 203 373 3534 / E: frank.mantero[.]ge.com.. Read more!

Khmer Rouge Tribunal risks "legacy of impunity"

Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal should press on with new cases against former Khmer Rouge leaders or risk a "legacy of impunity," says a trial-monitoring group.

"High-level war crimes cases should be tried by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), rather than transferred to local courts." The report by the US based Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), released on Wednesday, says that ordinary Cambodian courts cannot guarantee international fair trial standards, given intense political interference of Cambodian leaders.

"If any of these cases are dismissed, transferred, or otherwise handled in a manner that does not evince independent decision making consistent with international standards, the court will be left with a legacy of impunity rather than justice in spite of its accomplishments in other cases," the report reads.

The ECCC - staffed by a mixture of Cambodian and international staff and judges - prosecutes senior Khmer Rouge leaders responsible for the deaths of up to 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. Ever since the UN-backed court was set up in 2003, it has been dogged by allegations of political interference while Cambodian and international prosecutors openly disagree on whether the court should pursue more suspects.

Last month, Cambodian Prime Minister - himself once a mid-level Khmer Rouge member - told visiting United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon that a third case was "not allowed" because it could plunge the country back into civil war.

Following Hun Sen's statement, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon said it would be up to the ECCC to decide whether or not to start a third trial.

In its statement Wednesday, the OSJI warns that the court "risks the appearance that it is dumping the cases because it is unwilling or unable to deal with the political interference that has come to haunt the ECCC."

"Cambodia's government has made clear its determination to abort any cases it finds politically inconvenient," said James A. Goldston, executive director of the OSJI. "The United Nations and international donors must ensure that any completion plan for the court guarantees fair trials and appeals in all remaining cases on its docket." Goldston added that the best way to achieve this is through the existing hybrid tribunal.

Four cases, involving a total of ten accused persons, are currently pending before the tribunal in Phnom Penh. The court completed its first case in July, sentencing former Toul Sleng prison chief 'Duch' to 35 years in jail for overseeing the deaths of more than 12,000 people. The case, dubbed "case 001", is now under appeal.

In September, the ECCC indicted four top regime leaders genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity for their role in the deaths of up to two million people in Cambodia's "Killing Fields". Ieng Sery, Ieng Thirith, Nuon Chea, and Khieu Samphan are set to go to trial together in mid-2011.

Cases 003/004, involving five senior Khmer Rouge leaders whose names remain, are currently under investigation, but Cambodian leaders have repeatedly sought to block their progress.

"Such blatant political interference in the court's work is of course contrary to basic fair trial standards," said the report. But Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan called the document "an insult to the government."

Cambodia and the UN had not yet reached "an agreement" on cases three and four, he said, adding that funding was a key concern. "We are worried about the budget," Phay Siphan said.
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Exiled for Years, Cambodian Activist Hopes for Justice

Mu Sochua lost her parents to the Khmer Rouge, but hasn't lost her will. She will tell her story after a documentary screening on Saturday at the Seabury Center.


The Cambodia of Mu Sochua's childhood was a nation of peace. The rice paddies in the north were a verdant green. The lakes were full of fish. The beaches were unspoiled. For the first time in a century, the country was independent and free.

"I look back at that childhood as a place that was heaven," she said.

But as Sochua grew older, turmoil took over. The United States backed a coup that overthrew the head of state, who was believed to be sympathetic to the Communists despite remaining neutral. The country was bombed during the Vietnam War, and a man educated in Paris began to gain power. Soon, Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot, became the new leader.

He instituted genocide in a country that had known peace just a decade earlier.

In 1972, Sochua had just completed high school and her wealthy parents sent her to safety in France as Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge strengthened. The parents stayed behind.

"My parents didn't want to leave. They did not think that there would be genocide," she said. "My father always said he would live in Cambodia and he would die in Cambodia."

Like so many others, her mother and father disappeared. They were never heard from again.

Sochua bears the scars of a country that has forgotten about justice. She has dedicated her life to bringing economic, social and criminal justice to a country that barely knows the meaning of the word.

"It's a scar as if you were attacked by acid and, very sadly, some of the victims will not get out because the system is not forgiving and there are no opportunities," she said.

Bringing the Fight to Westport

In a house not far from Staples High School, Sochua wrapped herself in a shawl to keep warm. She arrived from Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital that rarely sees the temperature dip below 70 degrees, the day before. She spoke of a country with a modern airport, an infrastructure of roads and two million annual tourists.

"That is what you see on the surface from the outside," the 56-year-old said. "Underneath it, for a society to be called stable, you have to look at freedom, human rights, the justice system, the role of the media and then you have to look at the government at all levels."

In those areas, she said, Cambodia has not developed.

For example, if a woman is raped, she is expected to pay an exorbitant amount of money for the case to be heard by a judge. Evidence can disappear and witness intimidation is common. Property is unlawfully seized by corrupt officials, and men often have to leave the country to find degrading work since mostly women are employed in nearby garment factories.

Sochua was a guest in the home of Roberta Cooper, of the Connecticut branch of the nationwide nonprofit Vital Voices. The organization is dedicated to helping women in developing countries.

When Sochua was elected to parliament in 1998, she was a rising political star despite the inequality women face throughout the country. She galvanized other women in the country to run for office and even landed a spot in the cabinet, one of only two women to do so. While serving in office, she saw corruption firsthand and resigned in 2004, switching to the opposition party.

All of this corruption happens even though Cambodia calls itself a democracy.

"This type of democracy – there's no shape. There's no form. There's only a name," she said.

Several times a year, Sochua leaves Cambodia to raise awareness and funds for local charities. Westport is one of her stops as she heads to a forum in New York City, to the west coast for Thanksgiving with some family members and a visit to the European Union Parliament in Brussels with former President Bill Clinton.

Last week, she met with Hillary Clinton when the secretary of state visited Cambodia. Clinton urged human rights progress and justice for the Khmer Rouge officials standing trial for their genocidal crimes.

"Countries that are held prisoner to their past can never break those chains and build the kind of future that their children deserve," Clinton said from Cambodia. "Although I am well aware the work of the tribunal is painful, it is necessary to ensure a lasting peace."

Exile

After a year in a Paris, Sochua relocated to the United States. She was able to obtain scholarships and received a psychology degree from San Francisco State University and a master's degree in social work from Berkeley.

She looked for her parents on the list of prisoners held in the notorious S-21 prison, where thousands of Cambodians were tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge. She also talked to any refugees she could find to see if they knew what happened to her parents. All of this was to no avail.

As a refugee, she spent 18 years in exile. She married and started a family while dreaming of returning the country she left behind.

"I had to survive on my own," she said. "Because of a good education I was able to put my life together."

Finally, after several unsuccessful attempts due to passport complications, she returned home in 1989.

"I left as an innocent young woman. Hardly a woman, yet still a young child," she said. "I came back a mother of two."

Event Info

The Connecticut Council of Vital Voices Global Partnership will be screening Redlight, a documentary exposing the global issue of human trafficking on Saturday, Nov. 13 at the Seabury Center, 45 Church Lane, in Westport. A dessert reception will be held at 7:30 p.m. Guests will have an opportunity to meet Mu Sochua and director Guy Jacobson, and purchase the work of Cambodian artisans. The film will be shown at 8 p.m., followed by a question and answer period with Sochua. Tickets for the event are $100 for VIP seating and the screening; $30 for all other seats at the screening; and $15 for students. Tickets are tax-deductible.

On Nov. 14 Redlight will be shown at 4 p.m. at the Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Rd., Ridgefield, followed by a question and answer period with Mu Sochua. There will be an opportunity to meet Mu Sochua and filmmaker Guy Jacobson at a VIP reception beginning at 2:30 p.m. at Lounsbury House, 316 Main Street, in Ridgefield. Tax-deductible tickets for the Ridgefield event are $100 for the VIP reception and the screening; $30 for the screening only; and $15 for students.
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Cambodian monks told to behave during festival

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's monks have been warned not to mingle with the crowds at a major water festival this year, with any caught looking at girls in short skirts facing a reprimand.

More than two million visitors are expected to flock to the capital for the three-day festival from November 20-22 to enjoy boat races on the Tonle Sap lake, fireworks and parades.

But for the city's monks, this year's event will be a muted affair in light of the new restrictions.

"As we are monks, it is not good to walk among the crowd because we could touch other people," Phnom Penh's chief monk Non Ngeth told AFP.

Buddhist monks are highly revered in Cambodia, and they are not supposed to touch, or even look at, women.

It would "not be suitable" for monks to be seen mingling with festivalgoers along the riverfront, Non Ngeth added, especially with high-ranking officials looking on.

And if any of the monks dared to sneak a peek at girls wearing short skirts or shorts, "they will be corrected", he said.

But the monks won't have to miss out on the festivities altogether.

They will still be allowed to perform ceremonies blessing the wooden boats taking part in the races, Non Ngeth said.

The annual festival, one of Cambodia's largest, marks the reversal of the flow between the Tonle Sap and the Mekong river.
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Cambodia Awaits Fallout of US Midterm Elections

Cambodian political observers say the recent midterm elections in the US that gave control of the House of Representatives to Republicans could have a ripple effect in Cambodia—through foreign policy, human rights and even the economy.

“I want the Republicans to continue the foreign policy they have been doing, which was tough on dictators, no matter where they are, including Cambodia,” said Kem Sokha, president of the minority opposition Human Rights Party. “Once dictators do something wrong, there must be objection, not leniency. In my view, being lenient towards dictators cannot be successful. The Republicans' consistent warnings to dictators are good for the benefit of democratic fighters.”

However, Mu Sochua, a lawmaker for the main opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said the election is not likely to shift US policy, especially following last week's visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Still, she said, “the Republicans' position toward the promotion of democracy is sharper than that of the Democrats.”

Under the former administration of George W. Bush, “if they wanted to help change a country, they provided direct support there,” Mu Sochua said. “Whereas Democrats would take an issue into long consideration before sending troops into a country. However, this doesn't affect Cambodia very much because we don't have armed disputes.”

Last week's elections saw Republicans take 239 of 435 House seats, followed by 187 for Democrats, with nine seats still up for grabs as votes are counted. Democrats, the party of President Barrack Obama, retained control of the Senate.

Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said such elections made little difference.

“This is totally internal US politics,” he said.

Cambodia-US relations have warmed in recent years. Cambodia has proven a willing ally in the US campaign against terrorism, and with Clinton's visit signaling renewed US interest in the region.

However, a changed political landscape in the US could impact development and aid here, said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.

“If there is a reduction in international assistance, this means that some health or education programs worldwide, or in Cambodia, can be affected, which could be a problem,” he said.

Rong Chhun, head of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said he was concerned there may now be less focus on human rights. However, a push for US jobs could be a good thing here, he said.

“If the winning party can create as many jobs as their voters want, Cambodia will benefit from it accordingly, because our big markets for garments and shoes are in the US,” he said.
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Cambodia celebrates 57th anniversary of Independence Day

Cambodia on Tuesday kicked off its three-day celebration of the 57th anniversary of Independence Day in capital Phnom Penh with about 20,000 people from all walks of life attended the ceremony.

King Norodom Sihamoni laid a wreath and ignited the torch inside the Independence Monument to symbolize the country's independence from colonial rule. The torch lit by the King will burn for the duration of three days and be distinguished Thursday afternoon.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, National Assembly President Heng Samrin, First Vice President of Senate Prince Sisowath Chivanmonirak and other government senior officials, as well as diplomatic corps, students, police and military also attended the ceremony held at the Independence Monument.

Nov. 9 marks the special date that all Cambodians celebrate with passion and pride. In 1953, Cambodia gained complete independence from France after it was under the French protectorate for 90 years.

Source: Xinhua
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Sugar Plantation Protesters Gather at Kampong Speu Court

More than 200 villagers engaged in a land dispute with a ruling party senator traveled to the provincial capital of Kampong Speu province on Tuesday, prepared to protest charges being brought against three of their representatives.

The villagers of Om Lieng commune, Thpong district, say they are being pushed from their land by the sugar plantation of Cambodian People's Party Senator Ly Yong Phat. The ongoing dispute has led to a number of violent protests.

Kampong Speu provincial court has summoned three villagers for questioning on Wednesday, as the courts investigate charges that protesters burned down company buildings in March. Villagers who gathered in the town Tuesday say they do not want to see arrests come as a result of the questioning.

The three village representatives—Chin Sarum, 35; Dul Leang, 41; and Sar Than, 36—face charges of incitement, arson and conspiracy for the fire. They spent Tuesday in the office of the rights group Adhoc, as 200 protesters encamped in front of the court. All three said they would go in for questioning on Wednesday.

“I cannot accept the charges against me,” Chin Sarum told VOA Khmer Tuesday. “I will come to the court following with the court’s order. I do not escape the court. [But] I did not incite the villagers to damage. I did not burn down the company’s property. The charges against me are not fair and are completely slanderous.”

Protesters say they will demand the charges be dropped and will demand a thorough investigation of the land dispute, which has pitted the villagers against the Phnom Penh Sugar Industrial Co., Ltd.

“The villagers have gathered to unite their forces to pressure the court not to arrest the three accused,” aid Ouch Leng, a land project officer for Adhoc. “They are not illegal in expressing their demands that the court provide justice to them, because the land dispute has not been resolved, but the courts are charging the villagers one by one.”

Keo Pisey, provincial police chief, said police are watching the protesters and will allow will allow them to gather on Wednesday.
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Houses destroyed in mud bath

Representatives of about 100 residents staged a protest in the Boeung Kak Lake area after a development company resumed sand pumping that submerged dozens of homes last week.

Development company Shukaku Inc, which is owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Lao Meng Khin, temporarily halted pumping on Friday and villagers said they were told that they would have three days to collect their belongings before pumping resumed.

According to the rights group Adhoc, roughly 40 homes were submerged last week during three days of pumping by the company, which started filling in the lake with sand in 2008 to make way for a 133-hectare housing and commercial development.

Be Tharom, a representative of the lakeside’s Village 24, said police and military police had helped the company’s security guards disperse residents who gathered yesterday to protest against the resumption of pumping.

“The owner of the Shukaku company has used excavators to destroy our crops and mushroom farms and has pumped the sand in to fill up villagers’ houses illegally, and the authorities did not stop them but threatened to arrest me, a victim,” she said.

Company representatives who visited the protest site yesterday and Duan Penh district deputy governor Sok Penh Vuth, who was also there, declined to comment.

On Sunday, Sok Penh Vuth said the company had “the right to invest” and that he had no authority to intervene in the matter.

He noted that it was “normal” for development projects to affect people and said residents should “take the compensation” offered by the company.
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Hacker hits state Website

A page on the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy shows an image with a message that it had been hacked yesterday

The website of the General Department of Mineral Resources has been periodically defaced by hackers, the latest in a number of similar attacks conducted against government websites since early this year.

A picture claiming “Hacked by Ashiyane” overlaying an image of Iran appeared on the department’s website on Sunday, before the website returned to normal by early afternoon.

Bernard Alphonso, director of ASC Information Security Consulting and Training, said a more aggressive stance by the public and private sectors towards information security would send more “reassuring signals”.

Cambodia is presently conducting consultations on a cyber-crime law, but it would be difficult to prosecute hacking in the Kingdom until a law was in place, National ICT Development Authority secretary general Leewood Phu said.

“Not much can be done yet,” he said. “No law, no crime.”

The latest vandalism follows a number of similar attacks staged against Cambodian government websites earlier this year.

On May 25, the Ministry of Commerce website was hit with a message stating “Panic system take over – one Turk against the world”, while the “Iran Black Hats Team” defaced the Ministry of Environment website earlier this year.

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Torture 'widespread' in Cambodian custody

AFP

Torture remains "widespread" in Cambodian police stations and prisons, local rights groups said on Monday ahead of a major United Nations review of the country's progress on the issue.

Shackling, intimidation, beatings and electric shocks are among the most common complaints, a group of 16 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said in a joint report.

Most abuses occur in police custody, often with the aim of extracting confessions, the report said.
Cambodian police stations are characterised by "an environment in which torture and other forms of ill-treatment are widespread," said the report by NGOs including ADHOC, Licadho and the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee.

Torture is also frequently used to punish transgressions in the country's overcrowded prisons, it added.

The report also accused authorities of denying detainees access to a lawyer during their first 24 hours in custody.

"In Cambodia today, there are still no measures available to effectively prevent acts of torture," said the report.

The strong criticism comes a day before the UN Committee Against Torture is scheduled to hold its second review of the situation in Cambodia, 18 years after the country ratified the Convention Against Torture.

For the first 10 months of this year, human rights group Licadho recorded 101 cases of torture in police stations and prisons.

In 2009, it recorded a total of 108 incidents, most of which took place in police stations. In the same year, rights group ADHOC said nine people died in police detention "apparently as a result of torture".

The abuse goes largely unpunished, the NGOs said.

"We are not aware of any prosecutions of law enforcement officials for torture-related crimes in the past five years," they said.

Their report urged authorities to clarify the definition of torture under Cambodian law and to set up an independent body to investigate complaints.

The report comes less than two weeks after Cambodia threatened to close the UN's human rights office in the capital.

Prime Minister Hun Sen told visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the office should have worked "to help the Cambodian government in human rights issues, not criticise", a government spokesman said.

© 2010 AFP

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Cambodia to host a series of regional summit meetings

Cambodia will host a series of summit meetings next week for regional leaders, according to a statement released Monday by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The statement said Cambodia will host the 6th Cambodia-Laos- Vietnam (CLV) Summit, the 5th Cambodia-Laos, Myanmar-Vietnam ( CLMV) Summit and the 4th Ayeyawady-Chao Praya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) Summit on November 16-17, 2010 in Phnom Penh.

The summits will be attended by Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of CLMV and ACMECS countries which include Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.

Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will also participate in the event.

According to the statement, the prime ministers and ASEAN Secretary General will be received in a Royal Audience by His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni in the Royal Palace.

All the summits will be chaired by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen who is also the host of the event.

The summits will review the progress and set out the future direction for CLV, CLMV and ACMECS in all priority areas of cooperation, with a view to further advance these frameworks of cooperation for sustainable development and prosperity in this sub-region.

Source: Xinhua
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National Day of Cambodia

MANILA, Philippines – The Kingdom of Cambodia celebrates its National Day today (Tuesday). On this day in 1953, King Norodom Sihanouk declared the country’s independence from French colonial rule.

Diplomatic relations between the Republic of the Philippines and the Kingdom of Cambodia were formally established in 1957. The Philippines and Cambodia have maintained cordial ties since the resumption of diplomatic relations in 1995 and the reopening of the Cambodian Embassy in Manila in 1999. The two countries have forged agreements on economic and trade relations, agricultural and agribusiness collaboration, and tourism cooperation.

On July 9-10, 2010, the First Philippine Trade and Investment Mission to Cambodia was held in Phnom Penh. The event was jointly organized by the Philippine Embassy in Cambodia, the Department of Trade and Industry-Bureau of Export Trade Promotion (BETP), the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Philippines-Cambodia Business Council (PCBC), and the RFM Corporation-Corporate Export Division

The opening ceremony included the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the PCBC and the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce (CCC). The Philippine mission had two components – a trade mission with 21 participating Filipino companies and business establishments and an investment mission with three participating Filipino companies.

We congratulate the people and government of the Kingdom of Cambodia headed by His Majesty, King Norodom Sihamoni, and H.E., Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen, and its Embassy in the Philippine led by Ambassador Hos Sereythonh, on the occasion of their National Day. We wish them all the best and success in all their endeavors.
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Cambodian PM meets with Chinese bank presidents

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday welcomed Chinese banks to open branches in Cambodia and encouraged more Chinese banks to operate in Cambodia and support the country's agriculture development.

Hun Sen said that his country has a great potential in agricultural resources, and which is the priority to development by the government. He added that Cambodia has already signed agreement with China on supplying rice, corn, and cassava. Therefore, he hoped that China's banks to help and support Cambodia's agriculture, in order to accelerate the pace of economic development.

The premier made the remarks during his meeting with two Chinese banks' leaders -- Li Lihui, president of the Bank of China and Jiang Jianqing, president of the ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), respectively.

Eang Sophaleth, spokesman of the Prime Minister told reporters after the meeting that Jiang Jianqing said his bank is considering to open a branch in Cambodia after it is now presence in several countries in Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

According to Eang Sophaleth, ICBC has their branch in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The loans provided by the Bank are covering mainly on energy, construction, and hydro-power.

Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed the Bank and urged Jiang Jianqing to open a branch in Cambodia as soon as he can so as to provide loans for Cambodia's agricultural purposes.

Also, on Friday, the prime minister welcomed Li Lihui, president of the Bank of China which has already set up its branch here and ready to open its business.

According to Eang Sophaleth, Li and Jiang expressed their confidence and optimistic with the current Cambodia which is joyful with complete peace and stability while is in a good process of development.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Volcanic eruptions affect rainfall over Asian region

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Washington, Nov 5 (IANS) Large volcanic eruptions affect rainfall over the Asian monsoon region where seasonal storms water crops for nearly half the population of the earth.

The eruptions are also believed to affect the weather by spewing particles that block solar energy and cool the air.

Tree-ring researchers from the Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory showed that big eruptions tend to dry up much of Central Asia, but bring more rain to southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar - the opposite of what many climate models predict.

Some suspect that extended 'volcanic winters' from gigantic eruptions helped kill off dinosaurs and Neanderthals, the journal Geophysical Research Letters reported.

The growth rings of some tree species can be correlated with rainfall. Tree Ring Lab used tree rings from some 300 sites across Asia to measure the effects of 54 volcanic eruptions going back about 800 years.

The data came from the observatory's new 1,000-year tree-ring atlas of Asian weather which has produced evidence of long, devastating droughts, according to a Columbia University statement.

'We might think of the solid earth and the atmosphere as two different things, but everything in the system is interconnected,' said Kevin Anchukaitis, the paper's lead author. 'Volcanoes can be important players in climate over time.'

Large explosive eruptions send up sulphur compounds that turn into tiny sulphate particles high in the atmosphere, where they deflect solar radiation. The resulting cooling on the earth's surface can last for months or years.

Not all eruptions have that effect, however. For instance, the continuing eruption of Indonesia's Merapi this fall has killed dozens, but this latest episode is probably not big enough by itself to effect large-scale weather changes, scientists believe. Read more!

Logger Trio detained in Thailand

THREE Cambodian men have been arrested in Thailand on charges of illegal logging after crossing into Thai territory with logging equipment and guns.

Dy Phen, chief of the Thai-Cambodian Border Relations Office in Banteay Meanchey province, said the men were arrested on Wednesday in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, adjacent to Thmar Pouk district in Banteay Meanchey. Four men travelling with the trio subsequently escaped back to Cambodian territory, he added.

“Thai authorities found them with about 50 AK-47 bullets, no passports and equipment for cutting wood in Thailand,” Dy Phen said.

Dy Phen said Cambodian officials had attempted to negotiate the release of the three men yesterday, but without success.

“It is because of their poverty that they are forced to go to Thailand to cut wood without thinking about their security,” he said.

More than 20 Cambodians have been injured or killed by Thai troops since 2008 while logging across the border, according to local rights group Adhoc.

Meanwhile, five Cambodian men from Stung Treng province’s Siem Pang district were arrested by Laotian authorities for illegally crossing the border, Siem Pang district governor Sy Soun said yesterday.

“They did not do any illegal logging in Laos, but they walked past the Cambodian border to Laos while they were looking for fish and taking care of their buffaloes,” Sy Soun said.

The men have been detained at a prison in Laos’s Champasak province so that Laotian authorities can “reeducate them and wait for a resolution between Laotian and Cambodian authorities to release them”, he added Read more!

Court charges a woman with fraud and forgery

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court yesterday heard the case against a 39-year-old businesswoman charged with fraud and forging private documents, after being accused of cheating the daughter of a CPP official out of more than US$1 million.

Oeung Rithea, was detained in April following a complaint filed to the Ministry of Interior by Chea Chamroeun, a Cambodian People’s Party representative in Kandal province and the dean of the Chamroeun University of Poly-Technology.

The complaint accuses Oeung Rithea of not repaying the $1,090,500 they lent to her to invest in six markets in Takeo, Kampong Chhnang, Kampot and Kratie provinces.

It also accuses her of spending an unspecified amount of the funds on purchasing a house and other items for herself.

The accused told the court that she had borrowed money from Chea Chamroeun’s wife, daughter and relatives to make investments, but claimed the amount was closer to $450,000.

“I didn’t receive all of the money, and it was not the $1,090,500 as it is claimed,” she told the court.

But Chea Chamroeun’s lawyer Touch Chhay told the court that a contract thumbprinted by the defendant proved that she borrowed the entire amount.

“The sum dates back to 2007 and is hard evidence that has already been copied for court officials,” he said.

Oeung Rithea later acknowledged the contract, but claimed that she falsified the amount to fool her husband during divorce proceedings.

She also acknowledged forging the thumbprint of Chap Bun Ravy, Chea Chamroeun’s daughter and co-director of a new market in Kratie, in a letter which stated that Chap Bun Ravy would attend a meeting regarding the market and which she submitted to the director of the provincial financial department.

“I forged the document out of fear that the [Kratie] market would face closure,” she said.

The complaint letter requests repayment of the amount in full and $3 million in compensation “for repairing our reputation, dignity and for wasting our time”.

Oeung Rithea faces between one and five years in prison for each charge and a fine of between 1 million riels (US$237) and 10 million riels if found guilty of forging private documents.
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NEC dismisses vote-list deciet case

THE National Election Committee ruled yesterday that three people accused of being illegal Vietnamese immigrants have the right to vote, rejecting a complaint from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party their names were fraudulently placed on voter lists.

In a two-hour hearing at NEC headquarters, Tep Chan Sokheya, an SRP councilor in Prampi Makara district, said the three – named as Phang Mifan, Kang Tong and Kang Seng – were placed on voter lists despite being illegal migrants.

She alleged the trio had rented a house from her for around 10 years, during which time they spoke Vietnamese among themselves.

“At that time, I knew that their family was Vietnamese,” Tep Chan Sokheya told the NEC. “I then told the commune chief not to allow them to register to vote.” Their names were registered on the electoral roll in 2006, she added.

After her attempt to have their names removed was ignored by O’Russey III commune authorities in 2007, she filed a complaint to the NEC last month seeking further action.

However, NEC president Im Suosdey threw the complaint out, arguing that the three had enough documents to prove they were Cambodian citizens.

“The argument of Phang Mifan, Kang Seng and Kang Tong, who said that they have the right to register to vote, conforms to the argument of the [district] council president, so the NEC must consider it,” he said.

“In fact, the three individuals have enough documentation, especially birth certificates showing that the three individuals are Khmer.”

O’Russey III commune chief Buoy Kosal testified that the authorities allowed the three individuals to register to vote based on their nationality documents. “When they have birth certificates, the clerk must register their names. We can’t sleep and consider it,” he said.

Koul Panha, executive director of local election monitor Comfrel, said the authorities had mistakenly issued Cambodian birth certificates to Vietnamese immigrants in order to give them the right to vote.

“The NEC and the authorities should control this properly,” he said. He recognised, however, that a significant number of ethnic Vietnamese had a legitimate right to vote, though Comfrel did not have a specific number. Read more!

China, Cambodia reaffirm to cement all-round partnership

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- China and Cambodia on Thursday underscored their commitment to developing their all-round cooperative partnership.

The pledge came out of the hour-long talks between top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo and President of Cambodian National Assembly Heng Samrin in Phnom Penh Thursday morning.

Heng Samrin first extended a warm welcome to Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, the country's top legislature.

Heng Samrin hailed Wu's four-day visit to Cambodia as important and far-reaching for bilateral all-round cooperative partnership.

Wu said China-Cambodia relationship had withstood the test of changes in international arena and taken on vigor and vitality since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in 1958.

We characterized China-Cambodia relationship as a paradigm of how countries can sincerely work together, citing strong political trust, rapidly-growing economic cooperation, increasing exchanges in all fields and close coordination on international issues.

Looking to the future, Wu proposed the two countries maintain exchanges between high-ranking officials, deepen political trust and consolidate traditional friendship.

He called for the two countries to step up trade and economic cooperation and seek joint development on the principle of equality and mutual benefit.

Wu said China encouraged its businesses to work more closely with Cambodian companies, play their part in Cambodian infrastructure construction, agricultural development and economic development zones.

He appealed for both sides to explore new ways of cooperation and provide quality services in a bid to bring trade and economic ties to a new high.

On the international front, Wu urged the two countries to step up coordination and cooperation on international and regional issues, promote the relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), work more closely in combating cross-border crimes and terrorism.

Wu and Heng highlighted the stronger cooperation between the NPC and Cambodian National Assembly.

Wu proposed more exchanges among legislative leaders, specialized commissions and working bodies of both legislatures on state administration, legislation and supervision.

Heng Samrin agreed with Wu's proposal, saying Cambodian National Assembly would keep close exchanges with the NPC at all levels and make positive contribution to bilateral relations.

Heng said Cambodia would adhere to the one-China policy and support China's peaceful reunification.

Later Thursday morning, Wu also met with Cambodian Senate President Chea Sim on bilateral relations.

During his stay in Cambodia, Wu will also call on Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen. A package of deals on China-Cambodia economic cooperation will be signed during Wu's visit.

Cambodia is the first leg of Wu's three-nation visit to Southeast Asia, which will also take him to Indonesia and Thailand.
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Cambodia, China announce 1.6billion dollar deal: officials

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - – China will inject 1.6 billion dollars into Cambodian infrastructure over five years, officials said Thursday, just days after the US urged the country not to become too dependent on the Asian giant.

"Within the next five years, Cambodia and China will have 23 co-operation projects," government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told reporters after a meeting between China's top legislator Wu Bangguo and the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen.

Hydropower dams, mining projects, bridges and railway links would be among the initiatives funded by China between 2010 and 2015, he added.

At their meeting in Phnom Pehn, Wu and Hun Sen witnessed the signing of 16 deals, including a loan agreement arranged by the Bank of China that will see Cambodia's largest mobile operator CamGSM borrow over 590 million dollars.

China also plans to help Cambodia build a new railway to neighbouring Vietnam, providing one of the last missing links for a pan-Asian network that would connect Singapore with China's Kunming by train, according to the spokesman.

He said Wu also promised to boost Chinese direct investment in the kingdom, which so far this year stands at 610 million dollars.

Wu's visit to Cambodia comes just days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a high-profile appearance in the country and urged Cambodians not to become "too dependent" on China.

Khieu Kanharith said Wu hailed the "fast growing ties" between the two countries and told Hun Sen that "China does not want to seek power and become the owner of the region".

China -- a former patron of the Khmer Rouge regime, which oversaw the deaths of up to two million people in the 1970s -- is the country's top donor, according to Cambodia.

Nearly 400 Chinese companies have invested billions of dollars in Cambodia, including key infrastructure projects such as hydropower dams and coal power plants.

But China's involvement in the country has not been without controversy.

A December 2009 decision by Cambodia to deport 20 Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority group in western China -- despite their application for UN refugee status -- came ahead of a 1.2 billion dollar aid and loan package from Beijing.

China has rejected accusations that the generous package was linked to the move.

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Cambodia maintains distance on Myanma poll

The Cambodian government has adopted a wait-and-see approach to the upcoming elections in Myanmar, amid mounting criticism of a process many observers see as a charade to legitimise military rule.

Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the government hoped the elections, scheduled for Sunday, would be carried out in a “democratic and transparent” manner.
“We don’t know about the other reactions, the comments from other countries, but the Cambodian government hopes that the elections will be democratic,” he said.

Critics have dismissed the vote as a sham process designed to entrench military rule, and say it cannot be credible while it excludes opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.

According to electoral rules passed in March, a quarter of the seats in the country’s proposed parliament will be reserved for hand-picked military candidates, while opposition parties toil under a wide range of restrictions, including bans on ex-political prisoners running as candidates.
Koy Kuong said he could not comment on the plight of Suu Kyi, adding that the issue was Myanmar’s “internal affair”.

Cambodia’s hands-off attitude reflects that of ASEAN’s member states, most of whom have been reluctant to criticise the junta over its preparations for the poll.

Only the Philippines has come out in open opposition to the process, describing it at the 17th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi last month as a “farce to democratic values of transparency”.

Opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua said despite ASEAN’s much-mooted policy of mutual non-interference, ASEAN nations should take a firm stance against polls she said had been gutted by the “elimination” of the political opposition in Myanmar.

“If Cambodia wants to be recognised as a democratic country, we must ask the government of Cambodia to point out the shortfalls of the preparations for the elections in Myanmar,” she said.
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Cambodia hosts road safety seminar to highlight Asian road safety innovation

By Meng Bill


More than 150 leading road safety experts, practitioners, business representatives and government officials from around the world are gathering in Siem Reap, Cambodia's Northern Province on Wednesday for a particular topic on the Global Road Safety Partnership's (GRSP) Asia Road Safety Seminar.

In a statement released by Handicap International Belgium, it says it is a three-day key regional event in which participants will share strategies for reducing road-crash related injury and discuss the implementation of the United Nations' Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.

This year's event is being run with the support of the Government of Cambodia through its National Road Safety Committee (NRSC).

"Asia has a critical role to play in addressing the road safety crisis," said Andrew Pearce, CEO of GRSP. "A region with diverse cultures, growing economies and rapid motorization, Asia is at the front-line of the road safety crisis, suffers heavily from a crisis that claims 1.3 million lives worldwide annually."

"Fortunately, Asia has also become a hotbed for road safety innovation, where best practices have proven to make a difference in changing behaviour and reducing road crash related death and injury," he said.

And he added that "those attending the seminar will hear about numerous cases in which multi-sector road safety interventions in Asia have provided proven, life-saving results and inspired other efforts around the world."

Some of the road safety interventions to be featured include: Programs to promote helmet use in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam that have led to quantifiable increases in helmet wearing, and in the case of Cambodia and Vietnam, they resulted in clear reductions in motorcycle related death and injury.

The speeches will cover road infrastructure projects in Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea and Bangladesh using the latest technology to identify safety issues and design road improvements, as well as the updates on projects in China that have improved safety pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

The GRSP Asia Road Safety Seminar has become a key platform for developing effective responses to this global, man-made humanitarian crisis.

Each year, 1.3 million people are killed on the world's roads and 90 per cent of these fatalities are in developing countries.

Sharing speech at the opening of the seminar, Sou Phriin, governor of Siem Reap Province said "I would like to inform that death resulting from road accidents has worryingly increased day to day. Road accident has become a main subject of serious concern to the Royal Government of Cambodia, which has considered it as 2nd biggest catastrophe after AIDS.

He recalled the report filed by Road Crash Victim Data System ( RCVIS) which showed that over the last five years, the number of crashes and fatalities has increased by almost doubled.

"Almost 90 percent of road crash casualties are motorbike riders, pedestrians and bicyclists. As a result, road crashes in 2009 caused 1717 people died and had an enormous impact on the social and economic welfare of Cambodia with an estimated annual cost of 248 million U.S dollars," he was quoted as saying.

The seminar has been supported over the years by GRSP through its corporately funded Global Road Safety Initiative (GRSI) program, with funds provided by Ford, General Motors, Honda, Michelin, Renault, Shell and Toyota.

This year's event is also supported by the International Road Assessment Program (IRAP), FIA Foundation, Asian Development Bank, and Western Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

GRSP is a global partnership between business, civil society and governmental organizations collaborating to improve road safety conditions around the world.

It was initiated by the World Bank Group in 1999, and is a hosted program of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). GRSP undertakes a range of activities in low and middle income countries worldwide, ranging from program delivery and demonstration projects to capacity building and advocacy.

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Trade Agreement Expected With Chinese Visit

China’s National Assembly president, Wu Bangguo, arrived in Phnom Penh Wednesday, ready for official talks with Cambodia’s leaders in the wake of a visit for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Wu, whose first official goodwill visit lasts through Saturday, will meet Prime Minister Hun Sen and other government leaders, as well as King Norodom Sihamoni, to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries, a government statement said.

Last week, China agreed to donate $700 million to Cambodia for the construction of a railway between Phnom Penh and the Vietnamese border to improve regional trade links.

Wu is expected to sign an additional trade agreement this week. Through 2010, Cambodia exported $37 million in goods to China—more than double for all of 2009—while importing more than $775 million, according to government figures.

China is also a significant investor in Cambodia in garments, textiles, hydropower, agriculture and mining.

China’s fixed asset investment in Cambodia was $930 million in 2009 and $234 million in the first quarter of 2010.

Wu’s visit follows an official stopover by Clinton on Monday, he told a group of students at a meeting the US encouraged Cambodia to grow increased ties with many countries, including China. The US contributes about $70 million per year to Cambodia in aid.
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Opinion: Cambodia leader tries to end Khmer Rouge trials

Will the UN-backed court be able to stand up to Hun Sen?

By Joel Brinkley Globle post

PALO ALTO — Hun Sen, Cambodia’s prime minister, told the United Nations Secretary General while he was visiting Phnom Penh the other day that he would not allow any more Khmer Rouge war-crimes trials after the second one that’s now underway.

“The prime minister clearly affirmed that case three is not allowed,” his foreign minister reported.

What’s so strange about that? All of the remaining defendants, four surviving leaders of the genocidal regime, are on trial right now. One of the most notorious Khmer Rouge jailers has already been convicted and was sent to prison in July.

Well, Hun Sen’s declaration to Ban Ki-moon runs afoul of two serious problems. First, the Khmer Rouge trial, administered by a joint U.N.-Cambodian court, is supposed to be completely independent of government or U.N. interference.

As Ban put it, Hun Sen needs to “provide full cooperation and fully respect the independence of the court.”

But then this is Cambodia, and Hun Sen is essentially an elected dictator who wields full control of everything that happens in his country — except the Khmer Rouge trial. He has been interfering in the court since the day it opened its doors. In fact, it’s a miracle that the court has managed to carry out a trial and issue a conviction, given Hun Sen’s public animus toward the proceedings.

Hun Sen is worried. He is a former Khmer Rouge commander, and while no one has pinned any particular atrocity on him, numerous members of his government and military were Khmer Rouge officers, too. Hun Sen fought the U.N. over the trial for many years but, under pressure, finally agreed after the U.N. allowed his courts to share jurisdiction.

Right now, down in the basement of the court’s international side, criminal investigators are at work looking for even more villains to put on trial for the deaths of 2 million people killed during the Khmer Rouge reign from 1975 to 1979. It’s like finding trees in the forest because these people live openly in Cambodian society, with little to worry them — until now.

Many of the possible future defendants are Hun Sen’s friends and compatriots. And while there is absolutely no evidence of this now, I wonder whether he worries that one or another of them, to save his own skin, might tell damning stories of the prime minister’s past once he is put on the stand.

The other problem is Hun Sen’s fatuous explanation for trying to forbid more trials.

“We have to think about peace in Cambodia,” Hun Sen told Ban. Last year, when the court said it was opening new investigations. Hun Sen warned: "If you want a tribunal, but you don't want to consider peace and reconciliation and war breaks out again, killing 200,000 or 300,000 people, who will be responsible? Finally, I have got peace in this country, so I will not let someone destroy it.”

More than a decade ago, before the Khmer Rouge insurgency finally collapsed in 1999, some Cambodians officials openly worried that aging Khmer Rouge soldiers living in the jungle might come out and cause trouble if their colleagues were put on trial. But that was a long time ago, and the politics of today are entirely different.

I spent much of the last two years reporting in Cambodia, and most Cambodians told me they aren’t even watching the trial. It’s televised, but 75 percent of Cambodians have no electricity and have to power their TVs with car batteries. Reception is not very good. Interest is even less. During the day, while the trial is on, Cambodians have to work. They are generally more concerned about survival than justice for a regime that left power before most of them were even born.

So where’s all this trouble Hun Sen worries about going to come from? The first trial, against the jailer Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, provoked not a single recorded incident of civil unrest. Hun Sen’s is a totally baseless claim. But he doesn’t care. He is a living definition of the word “impunity.” That enabled him also to order the secretary general to close the U.N.’s human rights office in Cambodia. Inconveniently, that office has been pointing out that Hun Sen’s government is depriving its citizens of one human right after another as the prime minister consolidates his dictatorship.

The trial has been a most interesting exercise for Cambodia. It exposed the state’s way of doing business — incompetent, rapacious, corrupt — to everyone in the world. Since half of the court is staffed by United Nations employees, mostly from Western nations, Cambodian business as usual, generally practiced behind locked doors, is now exposed for the world to see — like a doll house with no back wall. The scene inside isn’t pretty, but I have confidence the court will find a way to stand up to Hun Sen once again.
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Bogus official faces fraud charges

Kandal provincial court has charged a 41-year-old man with public-letter fraud after he was arrested on suspicion of distributing business cards and documents claiming he was an official in Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet.

Sdoeung Saroeun, a Kandal native, was arrested October 30 in Prek Chiek village, in Ponhea Leu district’s Koh Chin commune, after villagers suspected his credentials were fraudulent and tipped off police.

“He was arrested because he pretended that he had a role within the Prime Minister’s cabinet and used that title to further his business in cities and provinces throughout Cambodia,” said Kandal province police chief Eav Chamroeun.

He said the accused used his fake title to buy land from villagers, though he could not confirm how much was purchased, or in what provinces.

Ouk Kimseth, prosecutor of Kandal provincial court, said the accused was being detained at the provincial prison and would be held until investigations were completed.

“We are now investigating the case and we think that if the accused is found guilty, he will be jailed for a period of between five and 15 years,” he said.

Earlier this year, Hun Sen urged authorities to arrest and punish any fraudsters trying to use his name to further their business prospects.

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Thai 'Yellow Shirts' rally against Cambodian border agreement

BANGKOK: About 2,000 Thai royalist "Yellow Shirts" rallied on Tuesday in front of parliament to protest against an agreement that they say will recognise an unfounded Cambodian land claim.

A 750-strong police presence was on hand in Bangkok as the Yellows, known as the People's Alliance for Democracy, shouted "Traitors!" as lawmakers and senators inside debated memorandums of understanding with Cambodia.

Ties between the neighbouring countries have been strained since July 2008 by a series of deadly border clashes over land surrounding an 11th century Cambodian temple after it was granted UN World Heritage status.

"We today come to show our stand against the MOUs which will make the country lose 4.6 kilometres to Cambodia," Sondhi Limthongkul, the Yellow Shirt leader, told reporters during the seven-hour demonstration.

The group would like to see Thailand regain control of the ancient Preah Vihear temple, which the World Court ruled in 1962 belonged to Cambodia, although the main entrance lies in Thailand.

Parliamentarians set up a joint committee on Tuesday to further discuss the pacts over the border, which has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

The Yellow Shirts are a force to be reckoned with in Thailand's colour-coded political landscape, backed by the Bangkok-based elite and pledging allegiance to the monarchy.

Their 2006 rallies helped trigger a coup that unseated the now-fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra, hero of the mostly poor, working class "Red Shirts", whose Bangkok protests this year culminated in deadly clashes with troops.

The Yellows also held a crippling airport siege in 2008 against the then pro-Thaksin government that left thousands stranded.

- AFP/de
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Mixed Munitions Messages

Officials have denied that the government scrapped plans to send a delegation to a meeting of nations that has ratified a convention banning cluster munitions, insisting that a Cambodian delegation will attend.

The meeting, set to begin next Tuesday, will bring together governments, United Nations officials, civil society representatives and cluster-bomb victims to discuss the merits of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The convention came into effect in August but Cambodia is yet to sign it.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said a Cambodian delegation had been planning to attend the meeting all along.

“It will be someone from CMAC,” he said, referring to the Cambodian Mines Action Centre. When asked whether the government had originally declined to attend, he said: “No, what I heard is that Cambodia has committed to sending a delegation to the meeting.”

Last week, Leng Sochea, the Cambodian Mines Action Authority deputy secretary general, said Cambodia would not be sending a delegation to the meeting following orders from “high-level” authorities.

Cambodia was instrumental in the drafting of the Cluster Munitions Convention..
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Cambodia to record history of all pagodas

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian government has advised all provincial authorizes across the country to record the history of all pagodas to better oversee and know their backgrounds.

Dauk Narin, secretary of state of Ministry of Religion and Cult said Tuesday that his ministry has already advised all provincial and municipal authorities to record the backgrounds of all pagodas such as when they are established, how many monks are staying in those pagodas, and how many clergy men and clergy women.

The move was taken at the order of Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen who is eager to get a clear and accurate data.

According to the statistics provided by Ministry of Religion and Cult, by April 2010, there were 4,392 pagodas and more than 50, 000 monks in all the country's 24 provinces and cities.

About 90 percent of 14 million Cambodian populations are Buddhists and the rest shared by Christians, Muslims as well as other ethnic believers.

According to Cambodian constitution, Buddhism is the state religion.

However, Cambodian government has told its people not to discriminate or insult other religions.
Earlier this year, the government ordered all televisions and radios to not broadcast or air any comments that insult religious beliefs of other religion.

In an advisory sent out all televisions and radio stations across the country, the Ministry of Information said there was one radio station airing comment saying only Christians who always distribute relief stuff to prisoners, the victims by typhoon and flood or earthquakes.

The advisory which was signed by Khieu Kanharith, minister of information said Buddhists are in great help of others when they are in need.

The advisory, however, said it was fine any televisions and radio to broadcast and air anything relating to all kinds of religions, but not to insult others.

It noted with appreciation that many programs that touch on religious affairs that help the society through the respect of morality, culture and tradition.
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Infrastructure Developments Prepares for Major Military Exercise in Thailand

HERNDON, VA, Nov 02, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Infrastructure Developments Corp. announced today that its Thailand based subsidiary, Intelspec, LLC (Thailand), is pursuing several logistics related Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA) to service the large scale "Cobra Gold" joint US-Thai military exercises scheduled for the first quarter of 2011 in Thailand.

Intelspec participated in the Cobra Gold 2011 Vendor Conference held in Bangkok on October 26, 2010 and is targeting the capture of contracts in transport, logistics, and supply of pre-fabricated buildings for the 2011 exercise. Final proposals are due in December 2010.

Intelspec has successfully performed BPA contracts for the US Army in Cambodia in 2010, and was awarded the design build contract for the Close-Quarters Battle training facility in Lop Buri, Thailand that was opened during Cobra Gold 2010. The facility is reputed to be one of the finest training facilities of its kind in Southeast Asia.

Infrastructure CEO Thomas R. Morgan said, "Our performance record and experience in 2010, building for the US Military in Thailand and Cambodia as well as completing the BPAs in Cambodia for the US Army, makes us very competitive in our pursuit of the contracts for the 2011 Cobra Gold exercises."

About Cobra Gold: Cobra Gold is a regularly scheduled joint/combined exercise in the continuing series of US-Thai military exercises designed to ensure regional peace and strengthen the ability of the Royal Thai Armed Forces to defend Thailand or respond to regional contingencies. The 2011 program marks the 30th year of the Cobra Gold exercise series, and it remains the largest multilateral joint military exercise in the Pacific region.

About Infrastructure Developments Corp.: Infrastructure is an engineering and construction services company that services an underserved niche in the global project management spectrum, targeting specialized projects and subcontracts that are too small to attract giant multinational firms, but which still require world class engineering expertise. Staffed by key personnel with decades of experience in performing work for the US Department of Defense and the US Department of State, Infrastructure is familiar with the complex requirements of government contracts and the unusual challenges of performing high standard work in challenging environments. The company is also expanding its project management services into the oil and gas industry.

Forward-Looking Statements: A number of statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties including Infrastructure's ability to procure design and management projects, competitive market conditions, and Infrastructure's prospects for securing additional sources of financing as required. The actual results that Infrastructure may achieve could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties. Infrastructure encourages the public to read the information provided here in conjunction with its most recent filings on Form 8-K, Form 10-Q and Form 10-K. Infrastructure's public filings may be viewed at www.sec.gov. Read more!

Cambodia closer to exchange launch

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA moved a step closer to setting up a national stock exchange on Tuesday after 15 securities firms were granted licences to operate on the twice-delayed bourse, officials said.

'This clearly reflects the strong willingness of the government in putting the securities market into operation,' Finance Minister Keat Chhon said at a ceremony in Phnom Penh.

The licences were awarded to seven underwriters, four brokers, two investment advisers and two dealers.

Officials were working hard to ensure the stock exchange would open by July 2011, said Keat Chhon, who is also the chairman of Cambodia's securities and exchange commission.

Cambodia signed an agreement in 2008 with representatives from South Korea's stock exchange, the Korea Exchange, Asia's fourth-largest bourse operator, to establish a stock market in 2009.

But the southeast Asian nation delayed the launch when the global financial crisis struck. The government said at the time it would aim for a 2010 start, but recently pushed that back to next year. -- AFP
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