Australian Senate president promises more cooperation with Cambodia

Australian Senate President Paul Calvert has promised to carry out more cooperation with and extending more aid to Cambodia during his recent visit here, reported official news agency AKP on Wednesday.

While meeting with Calvert here on Monday, King Norodom Sihamoni said his visit will further strengthen and consolidate the bonds of relationship and cooperation in all fields between the two countries.

He also thanked Australia for playing an active role in helping Cambodia seek for peace and granting aids for country's development in all sectors, particularly agriculture, health care, human resources and legal affairs.

While separately meeting with Senate President Chea Sim and National Assembly President Heng Samrin here on Monday, Calvert said that the Australian Senate will further support and provide more assistance, especially human resources training, for Cambodian Senate officials.
He also highly valued the government's and the legislative bodies' achievements in the rehabilitation and economic development of the kingdom.

While meeting with Calvert here on Monday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that Cambodia and Australia should further push forward their cooperation.

"At this moment, our cooperation is better (than before), especially in fighting terrorism, drug and human trafficking, and intelligence information exchanges, but we should further promote it," he said.

Calvert was here on an official visit. Detailed schedule of his visit has not been disclosed.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Nuclear Master is worrying about its own mess

United State Nuclear plant in storage crisis

The Associated Press
FRENCHTOWN TOWNSHIP, MICH.

DTE Energy Co. faces a deadline for the amounting problem of storing spent nuclear fuel from its Fermi 2 reactor in Southeastern Michigan. In about three years, the detroit-based utility will run out of room in fuel storage pool next to the reactor vessel and expects it will have to store the fuel bundles on the Fermi plant's ground in heavy concrete and steel casks designed to contain the radiation.

" we have received some bids from a number vendors and those are under evaluation," DTE spokesman John Austerberry told The Monroe Evening News. " we are also looking at the option of forming alliances with other plants to obtain the storage containers."

Storage of spent nuclear fuel has bee a controversial issue at plants across the country due to environmental and security concerns. DTE will begin a $9 million "re-racking" of Fermi's fuel pool this month, allowing a tighter pack of the spent fuel assemblies to extend the pool's capacity to 2010. It will be the second times the plant has re-racked the pool.

The federal government initially vowed to take used fuel off the hands of utilities with nuclear plant and store in deep underground in Nuvada's Yuca Mountain. But that plan is years behind schedule, due to planning, political and safety concerns.

DTE officials have said that because of buildup of waste at other nuclear plants, the chances of any Fermi's waste ever being transported to Yuca Mountain are slim. Spent fuel already is stored in casks at Consumers Energy's Big Rock Plant near Charlevoix, the Palisates plant near South Haven and more than two dozen other locations around the country.

CUT IN EMISSIONS DTE Energy Co. is spending more than US$1 billion on its Monroe power plant as part of a five-year effort to comply with federal rules to reduce emissions. The Detroit- based utility, which own Detroit Edison and Michigan Consolidated Gas will install two flue gas desulfurization units, or scrubbers, and a selective catalytic reduction unit.

The new equipment will be able to control up to 97 per cent of sulfur dioxide emissions and 80 per cent of mercury emissions at facility. The coal-fired plant, the utility's largest, has already seen 63 percent drop in emissions of sulfur dioxide, an irritant to human respiratory system.

Emissions of nitrogen oxide, which contributes to acid rain, smog and global warming, have fallen 56 percent. " we have been doing a lot in this area, and it is really getting much better," Skiles Boyd, DTE's vice president of environmental management and resources, told the Detroit Free Press for a Monday story.

The project will put the facility ahead of federal mandates under the Clean Air Interstate Rule and the Clean Air Mercury Rule that start in 2015. Read more!

Southern Gold steps up role

SOUTHERN Gold has expanded its footprint in Cambodia via a joint venture with local company Greystoke. The Adelaide gold and base metals explorer said yesterday it had signed a letter of agreement to form a joint venture over two of Greystoke's exploration areas.

This brings to five the number of tenements Southern Gold is exploring across Cambodia, with a total area of 1155sq km.

"Exceptionally encouraging exploration results are being recorded from all these tenements as a better understanding of the mineralisation models are achieved," the company said in a statement yesterday.

"Southern Gold also notes Oxiana's reporting of several high-grade gold drilling results from Oxiana's Shin-Ha joint-venture project, which is adjacent to Southern Gold's O'Kthong project in eastern Cambodia."

Oxiana's results included 33m of 9.9 grams per tonne of gold and 4m of 10.4g/t.

Southern Gold's new tenements cover 375sq km and the company will earn an 80 per cent interest in each by funding exploration up to the bankable feasibility stage, managing director Stephen Biggins said.

The company said geochemical sampling and geological mapping would occur across the tenements during the first quarter of 2007, with drilling scheduled for several targets mid-year.
It has told the Cambodian Ministry of Industry Mining and Energy that it intends to apply for exploration licences for all of its tenements in Cambodia. Southern Gold shares added 1.5c to 54.5c yesterday. Read more!

As economy fizzles, job prospects dim

A drop in both economic growth and the employment intensity of that growth has dimmed job prospects in Thailand, says a report by the United Nations Development Programme and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Indonesia shares a similar plight, said the report which studied the situation in Cambodia, China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Except for Malaysia, ''all the Asian countries studied experienced inadequate employment growth, and the problem has got worse in recent years'', said the ILO statement.

''This has been major factor in weakening the impact of economic growth on the earnings of the poor and in making growth less poverty-alleviating than it might have been.''

The causes of inadequate employment growth vary, the report says.

''In China and India, the two largest developing countries, the sharp fall in the employment intensity of growth has been the problem,'' said the ILO.

''In Indonesia and Thailand, the cause was both a reduction in employment intensity and a reduction in the rate of growth. In Cambodia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka the poor employment performance was, by and large, due to inadequate growth or growth bypassing the large sectors where poor workers are concentrated,'' the ILO said.

The study, titled ''Asian Experience on Growth, Employment and Poverty'', focuses on the employment intensity of economic growth as a means of poverty reduction and provides insights into why job growth is declining in some fast-growing Asian economies. Read more!

Cambodia's deputy prime minister due in Seoul on enhancing cooperation

SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) -- Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Keo Puth Rasmey was due in Seoul Tuesday on ways to increase bilateral cooperation, the Foreign Ministry said.

"Deputy Prime Minister Rasmey, who also heads Cambodia's (co-ruling) Funcinpec Party, will visit Seoul until Thursday," Lee Youn-soo, a ministry spokesman, told reporters.

He was scheduled to attend a dinner hosted by South Korea's Foreign Minister Song Min-soon later Tuesday. Read more!

Rush for Cambodia's Oil begins

CAMBODIA

Cambodia has huge offshore oil fields whose expected worth far exceeds its current GDP. Experts fear that only the government, one of the most corrupt in the world, might benefit. An agreement with Thailand must still be worked out to develop fields in the Gulf of Thailand.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Oil companies have begun lining up for licenses to tap Cambodia’s vast oil and gas fields, but experts are wondering whether this new wealth will be a blessing for the country. Firms from China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Kuwait, Australia, and France have come knocking on officials’ doors to get permits to explore and develop the country’s energy riches. US giant Chevron Corp. has already drilled in the Gulf of Thailand in the last two years and found oil in five oil wells.

According to several studies conducted by the United Nations, World Bank, Harvard University, and other reliable institutions, Cambodian reserves could contain as many as 2 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of gas. Based on the current world price of oil and gas, this may provide Cambodia with annual revenues of US$ 6 billion a year over the next two decades, an amount more than the country’s gross domestic product which is only about US$5 billion a year.

Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest countries. Some 40 per cent of its population of 14 million live below the national poverty line of 50 cents a day, 50 per cent of children never complete their primary education, 30,000 children die every year from preventable diseases, and only half of the countryside has access to electricity.

Many experts fear a repeat of what has happened in many other developing countries where massive influx of oil money enriched elites without improving the standards of living of the population.

The best example is Nigeria. Since the discovery of oil in the 1970s, the African country has exported more than US$ 400 billion in oil, but that has not benefited its people, 70 per cent of whom continue to live on less than $1 a day. Moreover, the country is carrying a US$30 billion debt.

Cambodia is still viewed as one of the most corrupt countries in the world with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party using violence in maintaining its power. But in recent years, Prime Minister Hun Sen's government has had to accept some reforms and show some more respect for human rights in order to get foreign aid which represents about 60 per cent of its working budget. However, soon it will no longer need Western aid and could disregard human rights groups altogether.

In fact, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s regime has already created a Cambodian National Petroleum Authority under his full direct control over the oil wealth.

Sokimex, Cambodia's leading conglomerate, is expected to play a key role in the energy sector. It is majority-owned by Sok Kong, a long-time friend of Hun Sen.

Cambodia’s main opposition party led by Sam Rainsy publicly accused the two companies of tax and customs-duty evasion on imported petroleum products and complained last year that domestic retail oil prices failed to fall in line with declining global oil prices, which fell by about 25 per cent between mid-July and November last year.

Cambodian oil fields are very important for China because they would allow its fuel shipments to bypass the congested Malacca Strait, through which nearly 80 per cent of its oil imports now flow.

Chinese leaders have also openly expressed concerns that in a potential conflict, US naval vessels could block China's fuel imports from the Middle East at the narrow channel that separates peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesia island of Sumatra.

Beijing has recently showered Cambodia with aid worth hundreds for millions of dollars. On January 18, a "goodwill" delegation from the Chinese Communist Party met and held undisclosed discussions with senior members of Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

Full-scale production of oil is not expected earlier than 2009 and Cambodia must still reach an agreement with Thailand on an overlapping area claimed by the two neighbouring countries in the Gulf of Thailand. Negotiations between the two have been going on for years but have not produced any result. (PB) Read more!

Meanwhile: The spirit world of the Elephant Mountains

James Pringle
Sunday, February 18, 2007
BOKOR, Cambodia

This once-opulent but long- abandoned hill town, located high above the sea on a spur of Cambodia's Elephant Mountains, is as evocative of French colonial days in Indochina as it is possible to get, down to the bottles of Bordeaux for sale at the forest ranger station.

When the stars blaze from the clear night sky and one sees the ghostly shadow of the deserted Bokor Palace Hotel at the edge of a 3,500 foot-escarpment, it is easy to imagine the orchestra playing prewar French favorites like "Valentine" by Maurice Chevalier, and numbers by his onetime lover, Mistinguett.

Colonial officials, rubber planters and their well-coiffed wives or mistresses would step out on the dance floor for the tango, rumba and Charleston.

Chips would click down on roulette tables in the nearby casino, now a deserted shell, as bow- tied attendants called "Faites vos jeux, mesdames et messieurs."

But the screams of small apes calling to their mates in the cool night are the only nocturnal cries one hears today.

And at dusk Bokor resembles nothing so much as the setting of a Marguerite Duras novel like "The Lover" — or a spooky Hollywood movie. Nowadays, the population of the town is only 20.
Two girls come in to the ranger station for a dinner of rice, fish and winter melon soup, glad to escape the solitude, and easily imagined dangers.

Unfortunate, even terrible, events have really happened here. In the 1970s and '80s, the Khmer Rouge threw their victims over the nearby cliff, dead or alive, often tossing live grenades to finish them off. Skulls and human remains littered the jungle for years, until nature played its part.

The Cambodians, great believers in the spirit world, say Bokor is haunted.

Thai Vong, 29, my driver, who zig- zagged uphill for two hours over broken rubble on the once-tarred jungle track from Kampot, a town far below, suddenly dragged himself from the clifftop.
"Something was tugging my leg toward the edge," he nervously explained, insisting he was not, in turn, pulling my leg.

The first Western explorers reached the plateau in 1917, and in 1922 the hill station was founded, similar to the now tourist-clogged Vietnamese hill resort of Dalat, where the Emperor Bao Dai hunted tigers.

In the 1940s, in a microcosm of major conflict elsewhere, there was battling between Communist Viet Minh and French forces, then, in the 70s, fighting raged between the pro-Western Cambodian government and nascent Khmer Rouge.

The 1980s brought pitched battles between Khmer Rouge, holed up in the deserted Roman Catholic church, and invading Vietnamese forces holding the bullet-pocked hotel 500 yards away. Somehow the church's cross survived. Inside, a Khmer Rouge artist left a self-portrait on the wall.

Nowadays, there are still uniformed men armed with AK-47 rifles. But these are forest rangers employed to discourage illegal logging and to protect wildlife, which includes tigers, boar, bear, deer, python, deadly kraits and, in the more remote jungle, elephants.

Before arriving, I doubted that animals could have survived decades of fighting and bombing. But my doubts vanished as a large, black boar suddenly raced across our tracks.

The ranger, Vi Rang, 21, said he would not have shot the boar, even if it charged us.

"I'd have fired in the air, as I do to scare poachers and illegal loggers," he said.

All this is encouraging news to those who thought Cambodia's wildlife had disappeared. There is currently a debate on whether to devote all efforts to protecting what is now a national park or to encouraging more tourism, besides the iPod-toting backpackers now venturing to this unspoiled, magical time-warp.

Supporters say the largely mine-free Bokor would surely benefit from tourism. After all, as a senior ranger said, "Despite everything, the animals survived, and are even claiming back their land." Read more!

Thailand is the big threat to the Land and Sea Demarcations of Cambodia.

For haft century, Cambodia had been hit several times by revolutionaries and political conspiracies. The Khmer Rouge ( Democratic Kampuchea )revolution was the fallen down dead of Cambodia. It was a political ring that Democratic Kampuchea being knocked down and stamping to dead by the so-called lovely neighbouring friends Thai and Viet.

While Cambodia was down lying dead, Thailand and Vietnam were trying to build themselves to get bigger and taller, smiling and laughing. While Cambodia was dead down, Thailand and Vietnam were on the Wheel of fortune winning prizes. It was the time that both countries did all the looting and Stealing properties that belong to Cambodia ( from music, culture, …….to relic statues belong to Ankor Temple being seen in Thailand today).

But that is not all Cambodia worried about, it is Cambodia border demarcations of the Land and Sea. Right now Cambodia had never seen their border demarcations at the Westside of the country because their border demarcations were seized by the encroachment of Thais and Thai soldiers. They had moved their post closer and closer to villagers’ homes. And causing the villagers felt frightening and scared of being shot to dead and nobody find justice for them. Cambodian government is weak, there is no sovereignty. And everyone of them is worrying about how to steal money from donors.

Cambodia had lost thousand and thousand square kilometres to Thailand, and in the past several years, Thailand had cut trees and logging Companies had transported thousand timbers nights and days. And some areas Thais have been living in and paving roads. What will happen next?

Cambodia is getting up from political knocked down and it was a very long coma for haft century. And it started to build itself with struggling under the Vietnamese authorities who are always obstructing the mechanism of progress. Many government officers in parliament are Vietnamese who controlling the steering wheel of political direction to benefit the Communist Hanoi. It didn’t want Cambodia to rise, right now Vietnameses are living all over Cambodia. While Cambodia is trying to get up, Vietnam is trying to press it down.

The mountain issues are the Sea borders that Cambodia is going to deal with Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodia is trying to develop its country by opening to international investments with all kind of businesses, especially drilling oil in the sea water.

Many companies are lining up for license to drill Oil in Cambodia Sea Water. And there is company like US Chevron had accomplished their oil exploration in the Coast of Thailand already. The estimated of oil underground is 2 billion barrels and 10 trillion cubic feet of gas. And the areas of oil exploration is close to Thailand Sea border which is Thailand had claimed it is belong them, in the past year 2006, Thai prime minister Takshin Sinawatra had asked prime minister Hun Sen to share Oil Wealth with Thailand because oil wells are in the deep sea water close to Thailand’s sea border. There was a lot of intense and we don’t know what will be happened if the two countries starting to talk about borders issues. Will Cambodia map be shrunk? Or oil war?

Read more!

Cambodia provides 2,000 tons of rice for WFP

The Cambodian government has decided to provide 2,000 tons of rice to the World Food Program ( WFP), which has helped Cambodia support children in hunger and HIV- infected people, a statement from the spokesman office of the Cambodian government said here on Saturday.

The WFP received a "critical and timely" contribution of 500, 000 euros (648,000 U.S. dollars) on Feb. 8 from the Spanish government, which allows the WFP to resume its vital food assistance to over one million poor and vulnerable Cambodians, the statement said.

Spain's contribution is crucial as thousands of Cambodians suffered from malnutrition and not having enough food, said Thomas Keusters, WFP Country Director in Cambodia.

WFP appealed in January that it needed at least 10 million U.S. dollars to assist 1.1 million hungry and poor Cambodians until July 2007, Thomas Keusters said.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Cambodia releases 2,205 mln USD capital for public investment program

The Council of Ministers of Cambodia approved the draft of public investment program from 2007 to 2009 with 2,205 million U.S. dollars capital on Friday, a statement from spokesman office of the Cambodian government said here on Saturday.

The money will be spent on 605 projects, including 274 top priority projects and other 331 projects, the statement said, adding the projects in 2007 is worth about 695 million U.S. dollars, in 2008 about 740 million U.S. dollars and in 2009 about 770 million U.S. dollars.

The projects are all in the plans of the national development strategy, it said.

So far, the Cambodian government and development partners have pledged 1,143 million U.S. dollars for the projects, while Cambodia still needs 1,061 million U.S. dollars, the statement added.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Chinese State Councilor visits former Cambodian King

Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan visited former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk on Saturday, a day before the Chinese lunar new year.

Tang conveyed Chinese President Hu Jintao's new year greetings and praised Sihanouk's outstanding contributions to promoting China-Cambodia relations.

"China and Cambodia are good neighbors and will hold various events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations next year," Tang said.

Tang said that the two peoples, especially the young generations of the two countries, should understand the value of the China-Cambodia friendship and make efforts to pass on the traditional friendship from generation to generation.

Sihanouk thanked Tang and asked him to convey his new year greetings to Hu and the Chinese people.

He said Cambodia had forged a special and profound friendship with China and Cambodian people deeply appreciate China's long-lasting support and help.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

A Man Who Knew How Precious Life and Liberty Are

A television audience estimated in the millions will feast on the glitz and glamour of Hollywood when the 79th Annual Academy Awards are bestowed on Feb. 25, 2007. To an awful lot of people, it matters whether "Babel" beats "The Queen" or Helen noses out Meryl, but it makes no difference to me. My thoughts will be elsewhere that Sunday night — on a friend who won an Oscar 22 years ago.

• Dr. Haing S. Ngor is shown holding a box of medical supplies he and Mackinac Center President Lawrence W. Reed delivered on a trip to Cambodia in 1989.
  

Feb. 25 happens to be the anniversary of the very day he was killed.

On the night of the 57th Oscars in 1985, "Amadeus" claimed Best Picture; F. Murray Abraham won for best actor; Sally Field, for best actress. Then came the announcement of the winner of the award for best supporting actor. To the stage bearing the widest grin of his life bounced a man few Americans had ever heard of. He had acted in only one motion picture. He had been trained as a physician in his native Cambodia, where he had witnessed unspeakable cruelty and endured torture before escaping and finding his way to America barely five years earlier. He was Dr. Haing S. Ngor.

Ngor’s Oscar-winning performance in "The Killing Fields" gave him the platform to tell the world about the mass murder that occurred between 1975 and 1979 in Cambodia at the hands of the Khmer Rouge communists. When I met Ngor at a conference in Dallas a few months after Oscar night, I was struck by the intensity of his passion. Perhaps no one loves liberty more than one who has been denied it at the point of a gun. We became instant friends and stayed in frequent contact. When he decided to visit Cambodia in August 1989 for the first time since his escape 10 years before, he asked me to go with him. Dith Pran, the photographer Ngor portrayed in the movie, was among the small number in our entourage. So were Diane Sawyer and a crew from ABC’s "Prime Time Live." Experiencing Cambodia with Ngor and Pran so soon after the genocide left me with vivid impressions and lasting memories.

But Cambodia in 1989 was still a universe away from the Cambodia of 1979. In spite of the country’s continued suffering on a grand scale, I knew it was a playground compared to the three and a half years that Ngor and Pran lived through and miraculously survived.

During that time, crazed but battle-hardened and jungle-toughened revolutionaries who had seized power in 1975 set about to remake Cambodian society. Their leader, Pol Pot, embraced the most radical versions of class warfare, egalitarianism and state control. His model was the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Mao and Stalin were his heroes. In the warped minds of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge hierarchy, the "evils" they aspired to destroy included all vestiges of the former governments of Cambodia, city life, private enterprise, the family unit, religion, money, modern medicine and industry, private property and anything that smacked of foreign influence. They savaged an essentially defenseless population already weary of war. The Khmer Rouge killing machine produced the killing fields for which the film was later named.

Indicative of the ultraradicalism of the Pol Pot regime, 1975 was no longer 1975 in Cambodia. It was declared to be "Year Zero," and the numbering of succeeding years would follow accordingly. The name of the country was changed to Kampuchea. Racial pogroms, political executions and random homicides were instituted as public policy in order to discipline, frighten and reorganize society. Any one individual’s life meant nothing in the grand scheme of the new order.

One day after taking power, the Khmer Rouge forcibly evacuated the populations of all urban areas, including the capital, Phnom Penh, a city swollen by refugees to at least 2 million inhabitants. Many thousands of men, women, the sick, the elderly and the handicapped died on the way to their "political rehabilitation" in the countryside. Survivors found themselves slaving away at the most grueling toil in the rice fields, often separated from their families, routinely beaten and tortured for trifling offenses or for no reason at all, kept hungry by meager rations and facing certain death for the slightest challenge to authority.

Thon Hin, a top official in the Cambodian foreign ministry at the time of our 1989 visit, told me of the propaganda blasted daily from speakers as citizens labored in the fields: "They said that everything belonged to the State, that we had no duty to anything but the State, that the State would always make the right decisions for the good of everyone. I remember so many times they would say, ‘It is always better to kill by mistake than to not kill at all.’"

Churches and pagodas were demolished and thousands of Buddhist monks and worshippers were murdered. Schools were closed down and modern medicine forbidden in favor of quack remedies and sinister experimentation. By 1979, only 45 doctors remained alive in the whole country; more than 4,000 had perished or had fled the country. Eating in private and scavenging for food were considered crimes against the State. So was wearing eyeglasses, which was seen as evidence that one had read too much.

With total control of information and communication, Pol Pot’s killers kept the Cambodian people unaware of the full extent of the state’s atrocities. Most had little idea that the horror they were witnessing was a nationwide event. The rest of the world knew even less. Mass graves unearthed in later years provided belated and grisly evidence of the violence.

During our 1989 tour, Ngor and I visited Tuol Sleng. It was a former high school in Phnom Penh, converted by the Khmer Rouge into a torture center. Of 20,000 men, women and children taken there, only seven survived. Hideous devices and copious amounts of dried blood on the floors were still present for visitors to see. The walls were lined with snapshots of the hapless victims — pictures taken by their very captors.

Fifteen kilometers away we visited a place called Choeung Ek, where a memorial now houses more than 8,000 human skulls, all of which were found in an adjacent field. Cambodians say that nearby streams once ran so red with blood that cattle would not drink from the water.

Early estimates of the death toll from starvation, disease and execution during Pol Pot’s tyranny range as high as 3 million — in a nation of only 8 million inhabitants when he took power. Most now put the figure in the neighborhood of 2 million deaths. Whatever the actual number, it is certain that Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge was responsible for far more deaths than even the 1.2 million who perished on both the American and Vietnamese sides during the last decade of the Vietnam War.

Haing Ngor didn’t just see these things; he endured them. He had to get rid of his eyeglasses and disappear as a doctor. He reappeared as a cab driver, hoping he and his wife would not draw the attention of the Khmer Rouge. Nonetheless, on more than one occasion, he fell prey to their brutality. In one torturous episode, one of his fingers was sliced off. In another, his wife died in his arms from complications during childbirth. Ngor’s skills as a physician might have saved her, but he knew if he revealed he was a doctor they both would have been executed on the spot.

In his riveting 1987 autobiography, "Survival in the Killing Fields," he sketched his anguish in print: "The wind brought me her last words again and again: ‘Take care of yourself, sweet.’ She had taken care of me when I was sick. She had saved my life. But when it was my turn to save her, I failed." He eventually escaped Cambodia through Thailand, landing in America in 1980, a year and a half after a Vietnamese invasion ended the Khmer Rouge regime.

Haing Ngor believed the world must know these things, fully and graphically. When fate led to a chance to act in a movie about the period, he grabbed it and performed brilliantly. He deserved the Oscar it earned him, even though he often said that he really didn’t have to "act." He had personally suffered through calamities much worse than those depicted in the film. He was driven to do well so that the rest of us would remember what happened and those to whom it happened.

After "The Killing Fields," Haing earned a little money here and there in film from cameo appearances and bit parts. He lived in a modest apartment on Beaudry Avenue in Los Angeles. He was too busy helping others and educating audiences about the catastrophe in his homeland to make a career in Hollywood. He frequently volunteered for weeks at a time to provide free medical assistance to refugees along the Thai border. I remained in touch with him in the years after our 1989 visit to Cambodia. He always had time for his friends, and I brought him to my town of Midland, Mich., in 1991 to speak to a local assembly.

Then one cold morning in February 1996, Stu Frohm of the Midland Daily News called my office. He had just seen a wire report and wanted my comment. Dr. Haing S. Ngor had been shot and killed the day before — not somewhere in southeast Asia, but in downtown Los Angeles. The perpetrators, it turned out, were ordinary gang thugs trying to rob him as he got out of his car. They took a locket which held the only picture he still had of his deceased wife.

It’s impossible to make sense out of a senseless tragedy. I do know this, however: For Haing Ngor, rediscovering his freedom after experiencing hell on Earth wasn’t enough. He couldn’t relax, breathe sighs of relief or resume living a quiet or anonymous life. He felt compelled to tell his story so others would know what awful things total government can do. He forced us to ponder and appreciate life more fundamentally than ever before.

Enjoy the Oscars on Feb. 25. We should be grateful we live in a country where we can celebrate our creative achievements in film. But we should be even more thankful for people like Haing Ngor, who did more to educate for liberty in a few short years than most people who take their liberty for granted will ever do in their lifetimes.

Read more!

2 smart schoolds teachers, Mindanaoan off to Cambodia

A teacher from Iligan City and two others from the cities of Baguio and Lapu-Lapu will fly to Cambodia on February 28 to represent the country in the annual Asian Regional Innovative Teachers' Conference. Evelyn Waperi of Iligan City National High School, Warren Ambat of the Baguio City National High School (NHS), and Donald Dungog of the Science and Technology Education Center (Stec) were named "Most Innovative" Smart Schools teachers during a Microsoft tilt.

The trio won as Most Innovative Teachers during the 3rd Innovative Teachers Leadership Awards (ITLA). Both Ambat and Dungog belong to school partners of Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) under the Smart Schools Program.

They emerged winners in the annual search conducted by Microsoft Philippines' Partners in Learning (PiL) for public high school teachers who have successfully integrated Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into their classroom teaching and learning.

Dungog, an ICT and Math teacher at Stec, was quick to cite the importance of adequate computer facilities and training as well as Internet access and connectivity, which the school enjoys under the Smart Schools Program. Stec served as the pilot school in the Visayas for Smart's flagship education program.

Through the Smart Schools Program, Smart equips deserving public high schools with networked computers and peripherals connected to the Internet, which is given free for one year. Of the 10 finalists for Most Innovative Teachers, four are from Smart Schools Program partners.

Aside from Stec, these are New Ormoc NHS, Loakan NHS and Ramon Avanceña NHS. "Certainly, Smart Schools helped us win this award since we had the means to upload and download resources from the Internet.

Our Smart Teachers Learning Resource Center allows us to do research over the information highway," he said. Ambat, who used to teach at the Loakan NHS, an annex of the Baguio City NHS and a Smart Schools Program partner, agrees that the "access" provided by Smart proved vital in the integration of ICT into classroom learning. "Because of Smart and Microsoft and Potensyal, we qualified for this award," he said.

Only public high school teachers from the top 30 Potensyal Divisions can join ITLA. Potensyal is also a Microsoft program under PiL, which seeks to empower students, teachers and schools to realize their full potential with technology. Launched last year, Potensyal is a yearlong hunt for outstanding Department of Education (Deped) divisions that have successfully integrated ICT in student teaching and learning curriculum.

Ambat, Dungog, and Amperil bested 10 finalists from a total of 32 nominees nationwide. The other finalists were Leah Paton-og of Ipil NHS in Ormoc City; Eleth Thea Eamiguel of New Ormoc City NHS; Jennifer Sumalinog Mirasol of Babag NHS in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu; Salvador Besares of Ramon Avanceña NHS in Iloilo City; Zosimo Gomez of Maria Cristina HS in Iligan City; Rico Bantiles of Muntinlupa Science HS in Muntinlupa City and Marijo Calderon of San Isidro NHS in Makati City.

They were chosen after presenting their digital portfolio of lessons before a board of judges. An English teacher, Ambat submitted three lessons that revolved around the use of ICT in aiding the learning, appreciation and understanding of literary works. Among these were "Localization & Digitization: An Approach to Appreciating Shakespearean Plays," a lesson which uses the World Wide Web to aid students in understanding a play of William Shakespeare.

Ambat asked students to incorporate Cordillera customs and tradition in a Shakespearean play, using a digital video camera to shoot the images and Windows Movie Maker to edit video footage and add titles and credits. Students added local and cultural touch to the play by changing the setting and minor events but retaining the names of characters and the general plot. In contrast, Dungog submitted five Math-based lessons.

These included "Mathlogics," where fourth year high school students were asked to use the Internet to help them develop their own logic in coming up with an automated computer program using Borland C++. The programs were then shared among out-of-school youths within their community, with the objective of making the group appreciate how they could manipulate the computer to do mathematical computations. (Press release) Read more!

Cambodia charges two Germans with child abuse

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia charged two German men today with sexually abusing girls aged between 13 and 15, the latest prosecutions in a long push to rid the country of its reputation as a haven for foreign paedophiles.

Phnom Penh Judge Ke Sakhan named the men as Henning Karl Opitz, 60, and Thomas Von Engelhardt, 42, and said both were arrested in August on suspicion of abusing four girls in the capital.

After the pair appeared in the witness box to hear the charges, the judge cleared reporters from the court to protect the identity of the victims, some of whom were in tears as they sat outside the court waiting to be called as witnesses.

German diplomats and child rights activists also attended the hearing.

Opitz was also charged with human trafficking in conjunction with two Vietnamese women, the judge said without giving details.

Under Cambodia's "debauchery" law, sexual abuse of minors carries between 10 and 20 years in jail. Read more!

Chinese companies to build power projects in Cambodia

Updated: 2007-02-17 09:26
(xinhua)

Chinese companies on Friday signed several agreements with Cambodian government officials on building a hydropower plant and an electricity transmission network for the kingdom.

The plant in Battambang province will cost 190 million US dollars and can generate 465 million kilowatt-hour of electricity per year, said Deputy Prime Minister Sok An while addressing the ceremony.

The power transmission network will be constructed at the cost 113 million US dollars to connect Phnom Penh, Kampong Chhnang, Pursat and Battambang, he said.

The Cambodian government adopts BOT pattern (build, operate and transfer) for both projects, he said.

They are expected to benefit the kingdom in the fields of energy production, flood prevention, employment expansion, and tax enhancement, he added.

China Yunnan Corporation for International Techno-Economic Cooperation and Yunnan Southeast-Asia Economy and Technology Investment Industrial Co Ltd undertake the construction and development of both projects.

Representatives from the two companies, the Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Electricity Authority of Cambodia signed the agreements in the presence of Sok An, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jinfeng and other senior Cambodian government officials.

Currently, Cambodia does not have the infrastructure to generate enough electricity to meet the growing demand, which has been rising 15 percent to 20 percent per year, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Read more!

Ambitious Vietnam woos investors

Published: Friday, 16 February, 2007, 10:43 AM Doha Time
By Grant McCool

HANOI: Vietnam is thinking big. After a transformational year for the economy in 2006, investors have barely paused for breath in early 2007 to cash in on one of the world’s most-exciting emerging markets. From Haiphong and Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south, the government and foreign investors have ambitious plans to help develop the Southeast Asian country’s poor infrastructure and fledgling financial services.

The new money is welcomed by the communist-run government and the markets, but there are also concerns that a rapid flow of indirect investment has overheated the immature stock market and could lead to capital or currency controls.“The government is considering various options but the last thing they want to see is discouraging investment,” said Il Huong Lee, representative of the International Monetary Fund in Hanoi.

“The market is still small and they don’t want it to be swamped with short-term investors.”Vietnam’s six year-old Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center rose 144% in 2006 and is up 43% this year, partly driven by foreign funds chasing profits in an economy growing at a rate of more than 8%. The VN Index lists 107 companies for a total market capitalisation of $15.6bn.

The investment rush has sparked speculation authorities might impose controls to limit the cash flowing into the economy, possibly after the Lunar New Year holiday that falls next week. Strong flows can fuel inflation and put pressure on the local currency to rise, but some representatives of firms who encourage foreign investment say they do not expect any controls to be drastic.

Others doubted Hanoi would copy Thailand, whose military appointed government imposed penalties in December on foreign investors withdrawing assets within a year. The Thai experience prompted a 15% sell off on the Bangkok stock exchange in one day.

Fast economic growth, an 84mn population where half are under 35 years old, low labour costs and political stability are all part of the mantra recited by economists and foreign investors as reasons for taking business to Vietnam. Its attraction is no longer a secret, especially since Hanoi signed a new trade deal with former enemy the US, won entry to the World Trade Organisation and hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last year.

Commitments of foreign direct investment (FDI) reached a record of more than $10bn in 2006, the government says, but overall the trend of actual disbursements has been slow. In 2004, FDI was $1.6bn and rose to $2.02bn in 2005, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

Businesses also say there are risks in a still-basic economy with annual per capita income of just $720, a financial system lacking transparency and legislation that is opaque to many outsiders. “The work so far must not be seen as an end in itself, but the first steps on a long road leading to Vietnam’s emergence as a true Asian Tiger,” said Nicholas Greenfield, director of the Hanoi office of the European Chamber of Commerce. – Reuters Read more!

US legal group urges full probe into corruption allegations against judges of Khmer Rouge tribunal

15.02.2007

A New-York based legal group has urged a full probe into corruption allegations against judges of the long-awaited Khmer Rouge tribunal, prompting a quick dismissal Thursday by the tribunal's office.

The Open Society Justice Initiative, or OSJI, cited allegations "that Cambodian court personnel, including judges, must kick back a significant percentage of their wages to Cambodian government officials in exchange for their positions on the court."

In a statement received Thursday, the OSJI called for the allegations to be investigated "thoroughly, fairly and quickly." It did not cite the source of the accusations.

Helen Jarvis, a spokeswoman of the tribunal, which is scheduled to begin hearings later this year, called the allegations "unsubstantiated."

Jarvis, an Australian who helped the Cambodian government set up the U.N.-backed tribunal, said she didn't know where the accusations stemmed from. She said a routine financial audit of the tribunal was underway but it has "absolutely nothing to do with any allegations."

The corruption accusations could, however, deal another blow to the already troubled tribunal.
"If these allegations of corruption are confirmed, it would strip the (tribunal) of its integrity and undermine its ability to provide accountability for mass crimes," James A. Goldston, OSJI executive director, was quoted saying in the statement.

The tribunal was created by a 2003 agreement between Cambodia and the United Nations after years of difficult negotiations to bring those behind the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime to justice, the AP report.

The radical policies of the now-defunct communist group, which held power from 1975-79, led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition.

After long delays, the tribunal is set to convene later this year. But trials could face further delay because of continued disagreement between Cambodian and foreign judges on draft rules for governing the proceedings. Read more!

EU donates 187 mln USD for Cambodian 2007 development

The European Union is expected to give Cambodia about 187 million U.S. dollars to help the country to improve social sectors which are critical for its development cooperation in 2007, an EU statement said on Thursday.

The aid will be used in economic cooperation, health, education and rural development, but the big focus is on the reduction of poverty, private sector development, administrative reform, decentralization and human rights, Winston Mc Colgan, the charge d 'affairs of EU to Cambodia, said in the statement.

"We are confident that the EU funding will contribute substantially to the Royal Government of Cambodia's efforts to develop the country," he said.

The plans of fund are detailed in the annual report about EU's development cooperation activities in Cambodia, known as the Blue Book, which was presented to Mr. Keat Chhon, Cambodian Minister of Economics and Finance, by German Ambassador H.E. Mr. Puis Fisher and Mr. Winston Mc Colgan, the statement said.

Keat Chhon was also presented with the EU road map for increasing aid effectiveness, it said, adding that the Blue Book and EU road map are part of the EU's efforts to increase aid harmonization and alignment through better coordination.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

KSKW secures Cambodian project

By SUSAN TAM

SEPANG: KSKW (Cambodia) Ltd, a majority Malaysian-owned company, has won the rights to develop a US$2bil to US$3bil integrated tourism project in Cambodia.

KSKW will carry out the construction within two years on Ta Kiev Island, a 1,600ha island located off Cambodia’s southern coastline in the Gulf of Thailand.

This private company is keen to find local partners for the project, which requires estimated investments of US$100mil in the next one to two years.

KSKW spokesman Eddy Chew said the project, which would have two phases, included the development of beach hotels, gaming resorts, an 18-hole golf course, and residential and high-end properties.

“We are currently doing a feasibility study to designate areas for development.

“We plan to develop 400ha, or about 30% to 40% of the island, in the first phase,” he told reporters after the signing of an agreement with Cambodian government officials on Wednesday.

The Cambodian delegation was led by Deputy Prime Minister and National Defence Minister adviser Major General Ouk Kosa.

KSKW, set up by several low profile investors, is led by Penang-based businessmen Ang Tong Nam and Thor Soon Lye, both of whom have investments in Cambodia, China and Indonesia.

Ang Tong Nam (second from left) exchanging documents with Major General Ouk Kosa. The ceremony was witnessed by Cambodian officials and People’s Progressive Party vice-president Datuk Maglin D’Cruz (third from left)Ang, who is KSKW chairman, is involved in an automotive parts business, and managing director Thor, in trading of household and electronic items.

Chew said KSKW was granted a 99-year-old lease for the development of this project, with an undisclosed stake held by the Cambodian government.

Among its strategic partners was China’s Zhong Rong Group, he said, adding that this was KSKW’s first venture in the construction sector.

He said the development of the first phase would span 10 years, but he expected to complete and open the island’s first resort within the next three to five years.

“This project has huge growth potential due to its strategic location and the opportunity for us to tap the Chinese and Thai markets,” he said.

Ta Kiev is an hour’s flight away from Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s second largest port and home to its new international airport.

Read more!

Cambodia holds ground breaking ceremony for construction of new road

Cambodian government held ground breaking ceremony here on Wednesday for the construction of national road No. 76, which is under preferential loan from China.

The ceremony, attended by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jinfeng, was held at the start point of the road in Snoul, Kratie province.

The ground breaking ceremony marks the start of four projects under the preferential buyer's credit loan from the Import-Export Bank of China (China Eximbank), Zhang said, adding that the Chinese government hopes the construction of those projects can help improve Cambodia's transportation environment and promote the economical development.

Hun Sen expressed his appreciation to the Chinese embassy, the China Road and Bridge Corporation as the contractor of the project and the concerned departments of the Cambodian government, saying that their efforts have made the project start shortly after it was initiated less than a year ago.

According to plan, the national road No. 76 from the junction of national road No. 7 in Snoul, Kratie province to Sen Monorom, Mondulkiri province, has a length of 127 km.

The China Eximbank signed an agreement with Cambodian government on Jan. 22 to offer 207 million U.S. dollars of loans to develop Cambodian infrastructure construction, including the construction of National Road No. 8 from Khsach Kandal to the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, the National Road No.76 and two bridges.

Source: Xinhua Read more!