By Robert Carmichael for Radio Australia
Australia is mixed up in a controversy surrounding the credibility of the Cambodian tribunal hearing the trials of former Khmer Rouge officials.
Allegations that Cambodian court employees paid kickbacks to senior staff of the hearings in return for their jobs have simmered for some time.
Most international donors have declined to release more funds to the tribunal until the Cambodian government resolves the issue.
But Australia has bucked the trend, announcing earlier in April that it would release funds.
Heather Ryan, a trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program it was "inexplicable" that the Australian Government would take such a step.
She said the move undermined the negotiating position of the United Nations and others committed to trying to eliminate or reduce corruption in the court and in Cambodia in general.
The Australian embassy in Phnom Penh refused to comment, saying the matter was too sensitive.
But a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra said the decision was based on what he called "broad progress" in the Cambodian government's efforts to address corruption concerns, and to ensure the court could continue its work.
At present, the court is hearing the case of Comrade Duch (Kaing Guek Eav), the former commander of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, who is charged with crimes against humanity.
The Foreign Affairs Department says Australia consulted with other donors and the UN before making its decision.
Funds blocked
But the UN Development Program (UNDP) - which holds the money in trust - has refused Australia's request to release the funds.
"We are the ones accountable for the proper use of what at the end of the day is taxpayers' money," UNDP country manager Jo Scheuer said.
"We have said for the last nine months that we need to see allegations resolved and mechanisms put up before we can resume our role, and that today is still the same position."
Lawyers for some of the defendants have used the corruption issue to argue their clients will not get a fair trial.
There have been some media allegations that Cambodian judges paid kickbacks to get their positions - a potentially fatal flaw for the tribunal.
Mr Scheuer says the UNDP has seen no evidence that happened.
"From the work we have done with the court we have no information whatsoever that anything happened on the judicial side of the national side of the court," he said.
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Monday, April 27, 2009
Australia in controversy over Khmer Rouge trials
Cambodian foreign minister recovering after almost collapsing in US
Phnom Penh - Cambodia's foreign minister was recovering in hospital after almost collapsing Sunday during an opening ceremony for a new consulate in the United States
, a government spokesman said Monday.
Hor Namhong was rushed to hospital after he almost fainted while giving a speech at the new Cambodian consulate in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said.
'The doctors in the emergency department said he was suffering from fatigue and was recovering well,' Koy Kuong said.
Lowell is home to about 30,000 Cambodians, many of whom fled the South-East Asian country during the 1975-1979 rule of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime and the subsequent two decades of civil war.
Cambodia has an embassy in Washington DC and consulates in Seattle, New York and Los Angeles.
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Cambodia Trenching and Drilling
Cambodia Exploration Update : Trenching and Drilling JOGMEC JV Projects
Current Exploration Highlights ·Multiple veins sets up to +900m long in trenching over gold soil anomaly,
Big Toe Prospect (Kratie South JV)
·Gold mineralisation is consistent over 1.3km of trenching and open at both
ends, Preak Khlong Prospect (Kratie South JV)
·Trenching and RC drilling completed over 3km x 1km gold/silver/lead soil anomaly, Oh Tron Prospect (Kratie North JV) .
Currently awaiting results from:
·660 metre Phase 1 RC drilling on Kratie North JV with JOGMEC ·15 trenches on Kratie North for 2,600m ·28 trenched in Kratie South for 4,700m Southern Gold Limited (ASX code "SAU") has completed its first exploration programme of the 2009 field season in Cambodia.
A substantial program of drilling and trenching exploration work has been completed with a large number of assay results expected to be received in respect of this work during May.
Exploration on three of Southern Gold's seven tenements in Cambodia, is being fully funded by the Japanese Governmentbacked JOGMEC pursuant to a Joint Venture agreement whereby JOGMEC can fully fund exploration activity to a total of US$4.5 (~A$7) million over 3 years to earn a 51% interest in these tenements Phnum Khtong (Kratie North Project), and two adjoining blocks, Preak Khlong and O'Kthung (Kratie South Project), all to the northeast of Phnom Penh.
All three tenements are to the northeast of Phnom Penh (Figure 4).
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Sunday, April 26, 2009
Khmer Rouge survivors speak out
Um Sath (left), 89, of Long Beach, Calif., a Khmer Rouge survivor who lost her husband, three sons, and other relatives, at a Cambodian New Year celebration this month. She is one of many submitting testimony for a tribunal in Cambodia. (Barbara Davidson/ Los Angeles Times)
Um Sath is 89, and three decades have passed since the Khmer Rouge laid waste to Cambodia. But she shuts her eyes and taps her temples to show where the genocidal regime still rules with impunity.
"We miss you, Mama," the voices cry.
Sath spends much of her day sitting in silence. For years, she rarely left her house in Long Beach. Although she now finds peace chatting with the other haunted figures at a senior center, she has kept the echoes of the "killing fields" sealed tightly inside her head.
In March, she let them out - joining dozens of survivors at a recreation center in Long Beach to face their memories. They longed to see a reckoning for perpetrators of one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
Since February, a UN-backed tribunal in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh has put on trial the first of five Khmer Rouge leaders charged with crimes against humanity, for the brutal experiment in communism that took at least 1.7 million lives between 1975 and 1979.
Activists in the United States want refugees outside Cambodia to submit testimony in an effort to spur a judicial process beset by delays, limited funds, and allegations of corruption. They hope, along the way, to relieve the emotional torture of survivors.
"I'm hoping it will allow them to tell the world what happened," said Leakhena Nou, an assistant professor of sociology at California State University, Long Beach who is leading the outreach effort in southern California, home of the world's largest Cambodian refugee community.
In the recreation center at a park, Nou explains to Sath and other victims the importance of submitting written testimony.
Nou understands this tribunal has problems. She knows it won't touch even a fraction of the era's killers. She knows political forces in Cambodia want to limit the tribunal's reach. She knows survivors' memories are fragmented and muddled. Asking them to condense incomprehensible horrors of that time into a few lines on a government form borders on cruel farce. And Nou hasn't even been assured that prosecutors will read the forms. But she still hopes this could be a starting point for Cambodians around the world to rally for justice.
She asks the survivors if they want to tell their stories to the group first. Sath stands up.
Sath and her husband were farmers and merchants along the Mekong River, south of Phnom Penh. In the middle class, with enough money to own a modest brick house, they were targets when the Khmer Rouge swept into power in 1975, brutally turning the country into a collective society of farm peasants. Intellectuals, teachers, doctors, bureaucrats, and soldiers were executed.
Khmer Rouge soldiers showed up at Sath's home with rifles, took her husband and told her to walk with her eight children. They had nothing but their clothes. Sath held her 6-year-old boy's hand. For days they wandered, following orders. Anyone who complained was dismissed by a bullet to the head.
One day, soldiers locked Sath in chains and took her husband. Days later, she overheard soldiers mention his execution.
Other stories poured out. One woman gets paper towels to hand around to wipe the tears.
When they get to the government forms, 21 people fill them out. No one remembers dates. Only one victim names a perpetrator. The rest do not remember their tormentors' names, never knew them, or are still scared.
Pakistan in danger of falling to Taliban
Joel Brinkley
As everyone knows, President Obama inherited a multitude of domestic and international problems. But of all the foreign dilemmas right now, none rivals Pakistan. It is in serious danger of falling to the Taliban.
Can you imagine - a large, nuclear-armed state in Central Asia, ruled by cousins of the people who governed Afghanistan when it served as a congenial home for Osama bin Laden and all his murderous minions?
But the warnings are coming fast and thick from the highest officials, including Gen. David Petraeus, commander of American forces in that part of the world. The Taliban and allied extremists, he told the Senate this month, "could literally take down their state." Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president, reflecting on American proposals for saving his nation, told a group of reporters: "It's a long walk. And in that long walk, I am losing the people of Pakistan."
In February, Taliban extremists fought the Pakistani army to a draw and won agreement to establish a safe haven in the Swat Valley, just 100 miles from Islamabad, the capital. At that time, I.A. Rehman, head of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, said the Taliban and their militant allies were poised to take over the Punjab province, home to 60 percent of the population. That has begun. Militants are taking control, one by one, of poor villages in northwest Punjab - beginning the spread of an insidious fungus that could eat the state.
On Wednesday, Taliban militia took control of the Bunar district, just 70 miles from Islamabad, prompting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to warn: "I think that we cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances" of the Taliban.
The Pakistani police and military seem powerless to stop it. They lack the will to take on this fight, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has been arguing in recent days.
"They're in denial," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department intelligence analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan. "There's no sense of urgency," even though Pakistan is staring down the barrel "of a full blown, indigenous insurgency."
Even now, with the state's very existence at stake, military leaders continue their feckless debate over whether their central mission should be to prepare for a war with India - or take on these domestic threats. At the same time, American officials have begun urgently warning (what everyone already knew) that Inter-Services Intelligence agency officers are actually aiding the militants.
Meantime, Zardari provided a powerful symbol of his government's impotence. Earlier this month, a cell-phone video showed a Taliban enforcer flogging a 17-year-old girl lying face down in the dirt. Her crime: refusing a marriage proposal. The video made its way onto the Web and spawned outrage across the nation and the world; Pakistan's Supreme Court opened an investigation.
Well, amid all of this, Zardari signed an order codifying the Taliban's right to extend Islamic law across the Swat Valley. A Taliban spokesman said that if the order had been signed earlier, the Taliban would not have merely whipped that unfortunate girl. They would have shot her.
Haven't we seen this play before - in Cuba, Cambodia, Nicaragua? In all three states, richly corrupt governments that were ill-serving the people still received unqualified support from Washington. American patronage of corrupt leaders fed enthusiasm for Fidel Castro's guerrilla army in Cuba, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua.
Certainly each of these previous revolutions had its own unique dynamics, but in each case Washington and the threatened foreign leaders remained in denial until it was too late.
This time, Washington is waking up. But there's not much the United States can do. As Weinbaum put it, "if we put our hands on it, it's not helpful." He also told me that he used to discount the doomsayers who prophesied Pakistan's downfall. "This is not Afghanistan," he would say. "Pakistan has institutions and people advantaged by them who won't let Pakistan fall apart."
But he has changed his mind. "It's a feudal conflict now, class warfare. We weren't thinking of it in the terms that we are today."
At a conference in Tokyo this month, a dozen nations pledged $5 billion in aid to Pakistan. At the same time, a prominent radical leader in Islamabad made a loud public call demanding imposition of Islamic law nationwide. Which, I wonder, had the greatest impact inside Pakistan?
Pakistan's oligarchy is beginning to realize it cannot rely on the military for protection; the generals now know that they cannot assume all of their men are on their side. Soon, as the situation deteriorates, we could begin to see wealthy political and business leaders pack up and move out of the country. The Pentagon may have to pull up its contingency plans for safeguarding Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
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Saturday, April 25, 2009
Cambodian break-dancers to visit Philadelphia
By Robert Moran
Inquirer Staff Writer
They are being called the first generation of hip-hop stars in Cambodia. Some were street kids from homeless families. Others were abandoned or orphaned.
They are Tiny Toones, a troupe of break-dancers - B-Boys and B-Girls in street lingo - and seven representatives are to arrive in Philadelphia today as part of their first tour of the United States.
How they got to Philly is a story with roots in Phnom Penh and in Long Beach, Calif., and involves a notorious street gang, YouTube, and the Cambodia Association of Greater Philadelphia.
Tiny Toones was founded by Tuy "KK" Sobil, 30, a Cambodian who was born in a Thai refugee camp and grew up in Long Beach, where, as a teen, he became a popular break-dancer.
He also became a member of the Crips gang, and eventually was incarcerated on an armed-robbery conviction.
Afterward, he was deported to Cambodia. He found himself living in a poor country he had never been in before.
As he tried to find his way in Phnom Penh, his western apparel and many tattoos captivated local youths.
"The word got out with the kids that KK knew how to break dance and that he was a famous break-dancer," said Mia-lia Kiernan, 25, youth advocacy program coordinator for the Cambodia Association of Greater Philadelphia.
KK told them he wasn't interested.
"He was already pretty depressed about being in Cambodia in the first place, as he had to leave his family and everything, but eventually gave in," she said.
"The Cambodian kids are finding hip-hop as a voice to express their feelings and their stories," said Vyreak Sovann, 28, a Cambodian American who helped organize the Philadelphia part of the tour.
Sovann, who like Sobil was born in a Thai refugee camp and came to United States as a toddler, discovered Tiny Toones on YouTube while doing Internet research about his Cambodian heritage.
"I was so moved by it, because I saw these kids break dance in Cambodia without shoes, and I was like, 'Wow!' " said Sovann, a former break-dancer.
At first, Sobil taught a handful of children in his apartment. As Tiny Toones gained recognition, it got funding from an international aid organization called Bridges Across Borders to open a multi-service center.
"We have helped Tiny Toones develop a child-protection and education program that has benefited thousands of vulnerable children and youth in Phnom Penh," said David Pred, director of Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, in an e-mail from Cambodia.
"It is a shame and somewhat ironic that KK was unable to obtain a U.S. visa to be there with the kids," Pred wrote.
The Tiny Toones multi-service center offers classes in English and Khmer, HIV/AIDS awareness, and job and computer skills.
And, of course, lessons in break dancing.
Kiernan has been following KK and Tiny Toones for four years, and she got to meet Sobil on one of her annual trips to visit her mother in Cambodia.
In fall, she saw an article in the New York Times about KK and Tiny Toones. It mentioned simply that the club had been invited to the United States.
"I e-mailed KK right away and said, well, if you're going to be in the U.S., why don't you come to Philly?" Kiernan recalled.
Kiernan was paired with Sovann, and they have helped to organize a series of performances, fund-raisers and workshops with local break-dancers.
Tiny Toones' first appearance will be at a fund-raiser at noon today at the Khmer Art Gallery at 319 N. 11th St.
The troupe of teenagers includes (using their B-Boy names) Fresh, Homey, T-boy, Khay, Suicide, and K'dep, a rapper. The lone B-Girl is Diamond.
Kiernan yesterday planned to pick up the Tiny Toones in New York and bring them to Philadelphia today on a Chinatown bus.
During their visit here, which will last until Wednesday morning, the dancers will be staying at Kiernan's South Philadelphia home.
"My whole living room is going to be one big air mattress," she said, laughing.
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Friday, April 24, 2009
Canada to close embassies in Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Diplomatic relations with countries maintained
The Canadian government said Thursday it will be closing its embassies in Cambodia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, citing changing international priorities.
Both decisions come after a "serious examination of Canada's current diplomatic representation abroad," said a news release posted on the websites of both embassies.
"The Government of Canada continually monitors its representation abroad and periodically shifts resources to meet Canada's needs in an ever-changing world," said the statements.
Neither of the releases provided further details as to why the offices are being closed.
The office in Cambodia will be closed in May, the embassy statement said. Canada will continue to provide development aid to Cambodia, which is still battling serious crime, drugs and human rights violations.
A UN-backed war crimes commission is grilling members of the Khmer Rouge regime for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.
Sambo Chhom, executive director of the Canadian Cambodian Association of Ontario, said closing the embassy will have an adverse affect on the lives of Cambodians.
"The Cambodian government feels it's being watched by the Canadian government," Chhom said. "They wouldn't do anything harsh while they're there because they fear an international outcry."
Canada says it will keep a humanitarian aid office operated by Canadian International Development Agency open in Pnomh Penh, Cambodia's capital.
The Australian embassy will now provide consular services for Canadians in Cambodia, the government says. Those seeking passport services, however, will be directed to the embassy in Thailand.
Sarajevo Embassy to close in August
The embassy in Bosnia-Herzegovina, located in the capital city of Sarajevo, will be closed in August.
Canadians seeking emergency assistance in the country will be directed to the embassy in Budapest, an embassy release said.
A consular official, "whom we intend to hire as soon as possible following the embassy’s closure," will help Canadians living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the statement said.
Canada will continue maintain diplomatic relations in Cambodia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. For both countries, a Canadian ambassador in a nearby country will take over diplomatic duties, the statements said. It is not immediately clear which ambassadors will be recruited.
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Thursday, April 23, 2009
Cambodian, Thai defense ministers to meet for easing border tension
Tea Banh, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense, said here on Thursday that he and his Thai counterpart will hold a meeting to find a solution to the border tension between the two countries.
"I and my Thai counterpart will meet with each other in Siem Reap province on April 27 and 28 in order to find ways to ease the border tension, and avoid new armed clash near the Preah Vihear temple and other places along our border," he said.
The meeting has been delayed twice since February, and "we are waiting for the Thai side to deal with the issue peacefully and without military confrontation," he added.
Tea Banh was unsure whether the next meeting will be conducted as scheduled, as Thailand is still obsessed with internal instability.
On April 3, Thai and Cambodian troops exchanged fire near the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, killing two Thai soldiers.
Since July 2008, troops from both sides have stationed near the temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and two armed confrontations last year sparked brief concerns of war.
The two neighboring countries have never fully demarcated their disputed 800-km-long border, mainly due to their different interpretation of historical maps and the landmines left over from decades of civil war in Cambodia.
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The Mekong, Vietnam and Cambodia
Pandaw Cruises
The trip: Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap over seven nights
The fare: $5,137 for two in a main-deck room during peak (high-water) season, from October to March. The shorter trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh in peak season costs $2,640 for a couple. The fare covers meals, bus transportation, excursions and some alcoholic drinks such as local beer and basic cocktails.
From the barren Tibetan highlands, the Mekong river rumbles south through China's Yunnan province and winds its way along the Myanmar, Laos and Thai borders. Then it powers through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying in the South China Sea. At 4,350 kilometers, it is the seventh longest river in Asia and, arguably, Southeast Asia's most important natural resource.
Dams built along the upper parts of the river by China in recent decades have wreaked havoc on the river's flow, lowering water levels and damaging its ecology. Still, the river's fertile delta region -- called cuu long or nine dragons in Vietnamese -- is one of the world's largest producers of rice.
Though steep descents and swift rapids make the upper reaches of the Mekong difficult to navigate, its lower part in Cambodia and Vietnam is a gentle ride. It is this section of the river that I travel on the Orient Pandaw, a Pandaw Cruises boat.
Pandaw operates six boats in Asia with a seventh under construction. They ply the Mekong and the Irrawaddy as well as rivers on Borneo, and from later this year, in India. All the boats are built from a late-19th-century design of a paddle steamer operated by the Irrawaddy Flotilla Co. that was once a common sight in Burma. The boats carried everything from tamarind to rice to elephants -- and people.
In the mid-1990s, Paul Strachan found a 1947 version of the steamer called the Pandaw, originally part of the Flotilla fleet, in Mandalay. It was ferrying locals and goods, but badly in need of restoration. He had it repaired and launched Pandaw Cruises on the Irrawaddy. Mr. Strachan's company has gone on to make six replicas, each one hand-finished. Two of those boats, the Tonle Pandaw and the Mekong Pandaw, now ply the Mekong. (The Orient Pandaw has just been moved to Borneo.)
On a Pandaw "steamer" -- the four deck-high boats are actually engine-powered -- there is no mistaking it: You are on a river boat. There are the knob-end metal light switches, an old-fashioned horn that blows before departures and the polished brass and teak throughout. Each of the 30-odd state rooms -- Pandaw boats can carry about 60 passengers -- has a ship-like efficiency that displays more river-boat charisma than five-star hotel lavishness. Still, the navy blue bedding and wood walls and floors make it cozy.
On the Orient Pandaw, the sun deck on top -- shaded by a cheerful yellow awning -- is so inviting that it's tempting to skip some of the land excursions, which some passengers did on my trip. Lounge chairs with navy blue cushions face the shore, so you can enjoy a drink and watch the banks as you coast by. Comfortable rattan sofas take up the deck's middle space, a perfect spot for reading.
Next time, though, I'll make sure the boat I'm on has plenty of indoor common space, as the Mekong Pandaw and Tonle Pandaw do. Unlike the Orient Pandaw, both have a saloon bar, a large indoor area with comfortable sofas where you can read or socialize in air-conditioned comfort yet still see outside.
I boarded at My Tho, a trading hub west of Ho Chi Minh City. As we headed toward Cambodia, one of our first stops was the town of Cai Be, where we visited floating markets, local rice-paper makers, an elegant historic residence known as the An Kiet house and An Binh, an incongruous French-Gothic church.
The next day, we stopped at Chau Doc, a pleasant Vietnamese delta town where we walked through a bustling market and were pedaled around on rickshaws. We also visited a Muslim neighborhood inhabited by the Cham, a group that traces back to the Champa kingdom that ruled the area centuries ago.
During the early part of the trip, the Mekong delta was so vast I couldn't see land. But as we neared Cambodia, the river narrowed and the shores drew nearer, affording glimpses of local life, like kids playing in the water and cattle cooling off in the mud.
Unfortunately I had to disembark in Phnom Penh and missed the rest of the cruise up to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. I now regret not clearing my schedule -- three days on the Mekong is not enough.
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Judges grill Khmer Rouge prison chief
PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Judges at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court grilled the former prison chief of the Khmer Rouge regime Thursday about his notorious jail, where thousands of people were tortured and killed.
Sitting in the dock, Duch -- whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav -- politely answered questions from judges about the organisation and structure of Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21.
He told the court his duty was to train his young staff to torture confessions from prisoners, which would then be used to implicate and arrest more suspected enemies of the paranoid regime.
"I had to indoctrinate them (staff) to make them absolute, to make them dare to interrogate and this was not a good thing. This was the duty that I performed," Duch said.
The court showed a chart illustrated by Duch which outlined the chain of command at S-21 and he recounted the daily duties of those who worked under him to interrogate and inspect prisoners.
He added that he would annotate confessions from tortured prisoners and then send the documents on to his superiors.
"S-21 was under the supervision of (Khmer Rouge defence minister) Professor Son Sen," Duch said.
"All security offices, including the S-21 office, had the duty to detain and interrogate and finally to smash -- that is to kill," he added.
Former military commander Son Sen was murdered by his comrades in 1997, and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died of old age a year later.
Although there were some 195 Khmer Rouge torture centres around the country, Duch said he had known of only two other such Khmer Rouge security offices, including one supervised by his brother-in-law.
Duch, 66, is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder over the extermination of around 15,000 people between 1975 and 1979 at Tuol Sleng.
The former maths teacher said that, when he was given the job as the chief of Tuol Sleng in March 1976, he brought along some staff from the secret jungle prison M-13, which he ran 1971-75.
Most cadres brought from M-13 were assigned to interrogate prisoners, Duch said, adding that he kept two staff close to him to interrogate Vietnamese prisoners of war and high-level detainees.
Duch apologised last month when his trial started, accepting blame for overseeing the extermination of 15,000 people who passed through Tuol Sleng.
However he has denied prosecutors' claims that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule, and maintains he never personally executed anyone.
He faces life in jail but the court does not have the power to impose the death penalty.
Many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people through starvation, overwork, torture and execution.
The tribunal was formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and Cambodian government, and is scheduled to try four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders.
The tribunal was formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and Cambodian government, and is scheduled to try four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders.
But the court has been marred by corruption claims and talks between UN and Cambodian officials ended earlier this month without agreement on anti-graft measures.
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Cambodian hotel is a poster child for responsible tourism
By Michael Wuitchuk, For the Calgary Herald
Think of Egypt, and the great pyramids come to mind. With France it is wine and the odd surly waiter, while London and Big Ben go together like a pint and fish and chips.
OK, now think of Thailand and Cambodia; do you think of beaches and the Angkor temples? Perhaps, especially if you stay within the tourist bubble. Look a little closer and it's not difficult to get the impression that Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam have an apparently endless supply (and demand) for massage parlours and poorly disguised brothels.
The Calgary-based NGO, Future Group, has reported that the most conservative number of prostitutes and sex slaves in Cambodia alone is between 40,000 and 50,000, and higher estimates range between 80,000 and 100,000.
Many of the children are from communities so poor that girls and boys as young as six are actually sold to brothels by their own families.
The dark underbelly of southeast Asia is all the more reason to take responsible tourism seriously. If you go, consider taking a proactive approach.
On a recent trip to Cambodia, my son Daniel and I discovered that you can be an active witness to the magnificence of the region and still leave a positive footprint. Amazingly, we accomplished this not by joining an aid organization, but by staying at a hotel.
The Shinta Mani Hotel and Hospitality Institute is a lovely 18-room boutique hotel in Siem Reap. Facilities include spacious and well-appointed rooms, an atmospheric outdoor restaurant and air-conditioned indoor dining room, and a spa with the elegance and serenity one would expect of a five-star property.
Although the Shinta Mani is loaded with class and charm, there is a heart and soul to this place that was apparent from the moment we were greeted by the smiling young staff.
As responsible tourism goes, this hotel is a poster child.
Owner Sokhoun Chanpreda founded the Hospitality Training Institute in 2004 -- the first class of 21 young people selected from the poorest of families graduated in 2005.
Students, all of whom were considered "at risk" due to extreme poverty, can choose between cooking, serving, housekeeping, reception and spa services -- each are taught in nine-month modules.
The school is funded entirely with hotel funds and donations from guests and others from overseas.
We were so impressed with the Hospitality Training Institute that we extended our stay to accompany Theany, the hotel's "community liason officer," on one of her forays into the many poor villages around Siem Reap.
We drove in the hotel pickup truck loaded with treadle sewing machines, backpacks filled with school supplies, bags of rice, vegetable seeds and a bicycle -- and watched Theany and her staff do aid work, Shinta Mani style.
The model is simple -- use the labours of salaried hotel staff (who are dedicated to giving their time -- the communities are, after all, their own communities), donate $5 from every guest night to the community program, and provide an opportunity for guests to both see the program in action and donate to specific projects. Among the range of options, guests can contribute a mechanical water well ($100), a pair of pigs ($80) or even a small concrete house ($1,250).
We visited villages that had been working with the Shinta Mani staff for some time, and some that were new to the community program.
The villages that had received water wells had well maintained vegetable plots and a few small concrete houses -- in these communities the women and children turned out in numbers, their hands extended in prayerful thanks.
In a village new to the Shinta Mani program, we met a family that had been recently chosen to receive a well -- their entire worldly possessions were the clothes on their backs and a tired set of cooking pans.
These people and their neighbours seemed both desperate and skeptical -- they were clearly not used to receiving aid or good news of any kind.
Later, while sitting in the hotel's lovely outdoor restaurant, general manager and Sri Lankan ex-pat Chitra Vincent told us that Shinta Mani means "the gem that provides for all" in Sanskrit -- the place could not be better named.
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Cambodia’s Coastal Revival
In Cambodia, where a decade-long tourism boom has been driven almost entirely by safe and easy access to the ancient Angkor Wat temples, the rebirth of a seaside resort town is helping to lure visitors to the country’s long-neglected coastline.
The sleepy town of Kep on the south-east coast has been earmarked as Cambodia’s first boutique tourism destination, but for now, it bares few of the characteristics of the countless backpacker meccas and resorts scattered throughout Southeast Asia.
Tourist numbers have surged in recent years, but this town of just a few thousand people has maintained its unhurried, pastoral character.
Unlike Sihanoukville, a lively huddle of guest houses, bars and nightclubs on the central coast, Kep seems to be taking a relaxed path toward developing its tourism sector.
But with its alluringly lush rainforests, crystalline waters and bountiful seafood, Kep is finding that the tourists don’t need much encouragement.
A three-hour drive from the capital Phnom Penh, Kep has become a favorite weekend retreat for expatriates and Cambodia’s burgeoning middle class.
The town is only 20 minutes from a recently opened Vietnamese border crossing, making it a perfect place to say hello or goodbye to Cambodia.
“They told us to expect fewer tourists in Cambodia this year,” a local taxi driver says. “But more and more come here every week, to see the mountains and the caves, and of course, to eat.”
Kep’s famous crabs were among the many treasures that helped the town become a playground for Cambodia’s French rulers in the early 20th century. Along with former king and independence leader Norodom Sihanouk, the French elite built dozens of mansions in the hills along the coastline and sailed their yachts in the calm, protected waters in the Gulf of Thailand.
But like many regions in Cambodia, Kep was ravaged by the United States’ secret bombing campaign during the Indo-Chinese War and was forcibly evacuated during the Khmer Rouge’s rule.
The ultra-communist group considered the town a symbol of bourgeois hedonism and colonial oppression, and destroyed most of its infrastructure.
Kep lay dormant for more than a decade, and the scars of its troubled past are still visible among the poor local population and neglected amenities.
The seaside villas left standing have become overgrown with vines and tree trunks and now only the smallest of fishing boats can dock in the once-bustling port.
But Kep’s striking beauty has not paled despite years of conflict, neglect and civil war. Guesthouses and hotels catering to all budgets have been built along the coast, including the exclusive Knai Banh Chatt hotel, which boasts views of the imposing Bokor Mountain from its infinity pool.
While the town has no beach and is separated from the sea by a strip of coarse red stones, a cheap 30 minute boat ride to Koh Thonsay, known as Rabbit Island, reveals one of Cambodia’s unspoilt, pristine beaches.
Budget accommodation is compulsory, as the island’s only available beds are housed in palm-wood bungalows, which can be rented for between $7 and $10 per night. The bungalows’ power generators are switched off at 10 p.m. and as the fluorescent lights along the beach fade, a spectacular night sky is revealed.
But Kep’s greatest attraction may well be the variety of seafood on offer in the restaurants and stalls downtown. Crabs cooked with local pepper sell for between $3 and $10, and grilled fish on skewers cost less than $5. For the more adventurous, or rather less eco-conscious, grilled sea horse is also available.
Driving past the various building sites, road workers and bulldozers on the road out of town, one gets the impression that the place is on the verge of a tourism storm.
A good road now runs straight to the nearby riverside town of Kampot, which is enjoying its own tourism rebirth, and there are signs of a coastal tourism trail emerging.
So as travellers look for cheaper tropical escapes in Southeast Asia, now might be the time to experience Kep and beat the rush.
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Cambodia, Vietnam re-affirm their vows
By Stephen Kurczy
PHNOM PENH - In 1977, a low-level Khmer Rouge cadre entered Vietnam from Cambodia
during a cross-border raid. He was captured, detained and interrogated by Vietnamese military intelligence. With information gleaned from the skinny, young communist, Vietnam began planning a major counterattack on Cambodia after a series of Khmer Rouge massacres on its territory.
His name was Hun Sen, and he was soon joined in Vietnam by other Khmer Rouge cadres fleeing the internal purges led by Pol Pot, then the radical Maoist group's leader. Heng Samrin, who headed the Khmer Rouge's Eastern Zone Fourth Division, defected and brought with him some 2,000 to 3,000 troops, while Chea Sim, an Eastern Zone district chief, is known to have escorted some 300 people across the Vietnamese border.
All three men assumed control of Cambodia on January 7, 1979, after Vietnamese forces sacked Phnom Penh, ousted the Khmer Rouge and installed them as the leaders of a puppet government. They ruled during a subsequent decade-long Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia that heightened the traditional animosity between the nations.
Thirty years later, Chea Sim is president of the Senate and number one in the ruling and dominant Cambodian People's Party (CPP). Hun Sen, the country's long-running prime minister, is the party's second highest-ranking member. Heng Samrin is president of the National Assembly and number three in the CPP.
Despite Cambodia's transition from a single-party Leninist state to multi-party constitutional monarchy, members of the CPP currently assume every ministerial position and control three-fourths of the National Assembly's seats. The CPP maintains close ties with Vietnam, bonds that have strengthened as Cambodia looks east for a political ally and trade partner while links to Thailand come under strain from a border conflict and political protests that have targeted Hun Sen's government.
"Politically speaking, it is a very unique, special relationship," said Cambodian political observer Chea Vannath. "Vietnam still plays big brother whenever the CPP needs it."
In recent months there has been a flurry of bilateral exchanges. Vietnam announced its intention to strengthen ties during a January visit by Heng Samrin to Hanoi, where he met with Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and President Nguyen Minh Triet. Both Vietnamese leaders said that they prioritized relations with their smaller neighbor.
"Vietnam and Cambodia were side-by-side with each other in the past struggle for national independence, therefore it is necessary for today's generation to continue this solidarity to ensure further development," Triet said, according to the government-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
In February, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung highlighted recent collaboration between the two countries across many disciplines, including politics, diplomacy, economics, trade, culture, arts, technology, security and defense. That same month, Vietnamese military-owned mobile phone company Viettel inaugurated its cell phone service in Cambodia after giving away some one million free SIM cards to Cambodia's students and armed forces.
According to VietNamNet, Viettel has already signed up 500,000 subscribers, making it Cambodia's third largest mobile phone provider. On February 21, Vietnam's defense minister paid a visit to Hun Sen and pledged to continue to provide training for Cambodian soldiers in Vietnam, including over 100 in residence at Vietnam's infantry academy.
Hun Sen on Sunday applauded 21 high-ranking officers of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, including Commander-in-Chief Pol Saroeun and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Kun Kim, for earning degrees in military science from Vietnamese military institutes. According to VietNamNet, Hun Sen also thanked Vietnam for helping to protect Cambodia's national defense and economic development.
Hun Sen in February also met twice with a Thai military delegation, but their meetings focused on the heated border dispute and Thailand's supposedly accidental firing of artillery into Cambodia earlier that month, rather than collaborative opportunities.
In early March, Cambodia and Vietnam quietly planted the 281st border marker at the edge of Cambodia's Takeo province, reflecting Hun Sen's ongoing policy to quickly demarcate the two countries' contentious eastern border. That marks a difference from the political opposition, which has frequently criticized Hun Sen as being Hanoi's puppet. In 1996, bilateral tensions flared when then-first prime minister Norodom Ranariddh said a military solution "may be found" to Vietnam's alleged annexing of Cambodia's eastern lands.
Shifting borders
Hun Sen has insisted that border problems with Vietnam would be solved through peaceful means. Controversy erupted in 2005 when under a veil of secrecy the CPP-controlled National Assembly ratified a supplement to Cambodia's 1985 border treaty with Vietnam. At the time, Hun Sen threatened to sue anyone who accused him of ceding land to Vietnam. Criticism of the treaty earned several persons, including a prominent opposition radio host, jail time on charges of defamation and incitement.
Soon after the recent border agreement, Vietnam's parliamentary vice president met in mid-March with Hun Sen, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin to call for stronger economic ties. In that vein, on March 16, Hun Sen met with Vietnam's Minister of Industry and Commerce and Cambodia announced that its citizens no longer need visas to enter Vietnam and vice-versa. The next day, Vietnamese Minister of Public Security Le Hong Anh and Cambodian Minister of Interior Sar Kheng signed a 2009 cooperation accord.
Anh also visited Hun Sen and laid a wreath at the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Monument, a prominent structure in the center of Phnom Penh that abuts Hun Sen Park. No similar Thai-Cambodia friendship monument exists in Phnom Penh. On March 30, Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith visited Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi, where the two pledged to "promote the dissemination of information, helping to boost bilateral cooperation and refute hostile forces' slanderous allegations".
"We are trying to strengthen the bilateral cooperation that we've had since long ago," said Koy Kuong, an undersecretary of state at the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Between Cambodia and Vietnam, we have a long [history of] friendship and cooperation." Koy Kuong dismisses suggestions that Cambodia's current border dispute with Thailand over land surrounding the ancient Preah Vihear temple has prompted Cambodia to replace declining trade and diplomatic relations to Thailand with more robust ties to Vietnam.
A skirmish between Thai and Cambodian troops last October at Preah Vihear temple left two Cambodian troops dead. Another flare-up in early April this year resulted in the death of one Thai soldier. Fanning those flames, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya in March referred to Hun Sen as a "gangster" in the local media. When Hun Sen demanded an apology, Kasit re-phrased his insult by calling Hun Sen "a gentleman who has the heart of a gangster", but he later issued a written formal apology.
Relations have been strained due to Hun Sen's perceived close friendship with deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is in self-imposed exile and was instrumental in stirring the recent street chaos caused by his anti-government supporters. Asia Times Online broke the news last week that pro-Thaksin groups had for the past two years funneled arms through Cambodia to Thaksin-aligned supporters in Thailand's northeastern provinces.
Democracy at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, said recently by e-mail. As a result, he added, Cambodian businessmen are reluctant to invest in and trade with Thailand.
Trade between Vietnam and Cambodia jumped 31% compared to the previous year in 2008, to nearly $1.7 billion. Bilateral trade with Thailand is still larger, but only increased 17% to $2 billion in 2008. Vietnamese goods dominate Cambodian markets, and in 2007 and 2008 Cambodians bought more Vietnamese consumer goods than they did products from any other country, VNA reported in early April. Sales of Vietnamese products to Cambodian consumers totaled $988 million in 2008, compared to $674 million of Thai goods.
"All the local investors here want to do business with Vietnam, and all the Vietnamese businesses want to do business here," said Cambodia Chamber of Commerce President Nguon Meng-Tech. "If relations are good from one government to another, that's better than with another government with problems at the border ... I don't think [Cambodian] businesses will do much business with Thailand."
Opportunistic diplomacy
Vietnam is bidding to take competitive advantage of Thailand's internal political upheaval and simmering border conflict to replace it as Cambodia's primary trade partner, said parliamentarian Sam Rainsy, the leader of Cambodia's largest opposition party and a frequent critic of Hun Sen's ties to Hanoi.
"This is part of a larger geopolitical play in this region - the current tension with Thailand benefits Vietnam, as Vietnam can increase its influence over Cambodia," said Rainsy, who likens the situation to 2003 when Hun Sen's comments alleging that a Thai actress had claimed the Angkor Wat temple belonged to Thailand prompted anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh.
Cambodians burned the Thai Embassy and vandalized Thai businesses, causing millions of dollars in damage. "Trade from Thailand declined [in 2003] and Vietnam got a stronger political influence over Cambodia ... The armed conflict at the border is having the same effect, but more prolonged," said Rainsy. He believes pro-Vietnam elements within the CPP inflamed anti-Thai sentiment to "weaken relations with Thailand, including commercial relations, and boost relations with Vietnam".
Cambodian government officials aligned with the CPP downplay those criticisms. The recent flurry of diplomatic and commercial agreements is "nothing special", said Cambodia's Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan. Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith also disputes this is an unusual trend. "If there was increased cooperation with Vietnam, it would bring suspicion from China and the United States," Kanharith said.
Scholar Kheang Un counters that neither the US nor China, nor even Thailand, are particularly concerned by stronger Cambodia-Vietnam relations. "None of these three countries see Vietnam as a threat to their national security as they did during the Cold War era, during which they viewed Vietnam as Moscow's agent in Southeast Asia," he said. "[A]s soon as Thai politicians put their house in order, Thai-Khmer relations will normalize."
Some human rights groups remain apprehensive about Cambodia's shift east, as the country's alleged mistreatment of ethnic Montagnard and Khmer Krom minorities has shown that Cambodia is willing to take instruction from its larger, wealthier neighbor. The Montagnards, ethnic hilltribe people living in the highlands of central Vietnam, have for years entered Cambodia seeking asylum with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees only to be forced back into Vietnam by Cambodian authorities.
In addition, the six million ethnic Cambodians living in Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta area, known as the Khmer Krom, have been targeted and in some cases imprisoned by Vietnamese authorities for practicing Buddhism. They have also faced oppression from the Cambodian government for protesting their treatment in Vietnam. Human Rights Watch, a US-based rights advocacy group, said Hanoi has an active agenda to monitor, infiltrate, and silence Khmer Krom activists.
"Our government would like so much to please the Vietnamese government," said Kek Galabru, the founder of local human rights advocacy group LICADHO. She first met Hun Sen in 1983 in Angola, where her late husband was serving as the French ambassador. She invited Hun Sen to her home, and the then young foreign minister convinced her he "was not a Vietnamese puppet", she told journalist Elizabeth Becker in the book When the War was Over.
"Now, my opinion is different," Galabru recently told Asia Times Online. "Since I came to Cambodia in 1992, I can see that things are run differently."
Rights groups point to the case of Tim Sakhorn, a Khmer Krom monk who distributed bulletins and organized protests demanding Vietnamese authorities compensate Khmer Krom for allegedly stealing their farmland. He was defrocked by Cambodian authorities in 2007 and deported to Vietnam, where he was jailed on charges of "undermining solidarity" between the two countries. He has since sought asylum in Buddhist-majority Thailand.
"Who gave the order to disrobe Tim Sakhorn? What wrong did he do but to shout when there were violations of the Khmer Krom?" said Son Soubert, a member of Cambodia's Constitutional Council and the son of former Cambodian premier Son Sann. The gag on public demonstrations against Vietnam, he said, is one clear marker of Hanoi's 30-year supervision of the CPP. "You don't see [Vietnam's] presence, but they're present ... You can accuse me of being biased or paranoid, but in the eyes of Cambodians, that's the reality."
While the Cambodian army defends against Thai soldiers crossing into territory near Preah Vihear temple, Son Soubert said in comparison that 89,000 square kilometers of Mekong Delta land is occupied by Vietnam that arguably belonged to Cambodia until 1949, when the colonial French National Assembly formally ceded it to Vietnam. He said the current border skirmish with Thailand distracts from Vietnam's more serious border infringements, which as a matter of policy are overlooked by Hun Sen's allegedly Vietnam-aligned government.
Real or imagined, Soubert contends that sentiment is spreading, evident in a joke now making the rounds in Phnom Penh. Spoken in the voice of a Vietnamese, the nationalistic jab goes: "The Thais are stupid because they try to steal a stone," referring to the Preah Vihear temple. "We are smarter, we just steal the land."
Stephen Kurczy is an Asia Times Online contributor based in Cambodia. He may be reached at kurczy@gmail.com.
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Khmer Rouge defendant: Pol Pot feigned ignorance
By SOPHENG CHEANG
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was lying when he said he was unaware that his 1970s communist regime operated a torture center, the man accused of running it testified Wednesday.
Kaing Guek Eav told Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal, which is trying him for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture, that he knew of no document authorizing the notorious prison, but that "whatever Pol Pot decided everybody had to implement."
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.
Kaing Guek Eav, 66, better known by his alias Duch, commanded Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 people are believed to have been tortured before being sent to their deaths.
Pol Pot said in a 1997 interview he knew nothing of the prison.
According to the interview by U.S. journalist Nate Thayer for the magazine Far Eastern Economic Review, Pol Pot claimed that S-21 was set up for propaganda purposes by the Vietnamese, who invaded the country and toppled his regime in 1979. Pol Pot died in 1998.
Duch said that he decided to talk about S-21 to journalists who found him in hiding in 1999 because he could not bear Pol Pot's false account.
"Pol Pot claimed that S-21 was a fabrication of the Vietnamese. I rejected Pol Pot's statement on this topic," he said.
According to Duch, even though there was no written order establishing the prison, "Pol Pot was the one who initiated the idea, Son Sen implemented it and Nuon Chea is the one who did the follow up. This is from my observation and from the surviving documents."
Son Sen was the Khmer Rouge military commander, killed under murky circumstance by his comrades as the group fell apart in 1997. Nuon Chea, the group's ideologist, is one of the four other senior Khmer Rouge being held for trial by the tribunal.
In other testimony Wednesday, Duch said that "Christ" led British journalist Nic Dunlop to discover him after he had disappeared and went underground in 1979.
Duch became a teacher and a born-again Christian after leaving the Khmer Rouge and gave lengthy accounts of his work to Dunlop and a U.N. human rights investigator before turning himself in to Cambodian authorities.
Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. The other four in custody are likely to be tried in the next year or two.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A helping hand in Cambodian slums
AnneMarie Tangney
In September last year I took a month off from my normal routine of playing doctor, mother and wife and went to live in the slums of Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. I stayed with a family in a slum situated in the southeast of the city. Of course, I paid for my keep so as not to be a financial burden to them.
The idea behind going to Cambodia was for me to get out of my comfort zone, to experience real poverty firsthand and see what impact a group called Task (a local Christian organisation, funded by charities such as TEAR Fund) was doing through their various aid projects.
My host family did not speak any English and so out of sheer necessity I managed to learn more Khmer language than I would ever have dreamed possible. I started by learning to count, name everyday foods, say please, thank you and basic greetings. Then I added some adjectives and more nouns to my vocabulary.
I was surprised my ageing brain was still elastic enough to cope with language acquisition at such speed and marvelled at the value of total immersion for learning a new language. By the end of the month, in fairly basic Khmer I was able to chat and joke with my host family, teach them some card games such as Last Card, which they loved, and felt I had a meaningful relationship with them.
It was an unforgettable month. Each day started with me rising at 5.30am to the sound of the neighbourhood getting into full swing of the morning routine, which consisted of television or pop music at full volume, people washing clothes in large metal bowls and breakfast preparation. The coolness of the early morning made it definitely the most pleasant time of the day, as generally after 8am the temperatures would start to climb to levels such that I would start perspiring from then until night time. I had no real way of knowing for sure but guessed the temperatures to be about 35 to 45°C between 8am and 8pm.
After breakfast, which was rice every day, I would usually get a motorbike ride into town. It was a challenge both haggling in Khmer with the motorbike driver as to what the fare for each ride would be and holding on for dear life as we negotiated some of the most incredibly dense and chaotic traffic I have ever seen.
After surviving the ride to the city, I would meet up with someone from the Task medical team. The medical team consisted of a doctor, a nurse, a medical student (a man putting himself through medical school on the weekends) and a midwife. I would tag along with one of them as they visited various aid projects. The three projects I most frequently attended were AIDS home care which involved regular supportive home visits to people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, a clinic for prostitutes and a women’s general clinic.
September was still the rainy season and the unbelievable rainfall along with non-existent drainage meant we were often wading through flooded alleyways of warm, blackish water to access many homes. Upon arriving at a patient’s home, I sometimes had a bit of difficulty getting up the thin wooden ladders to the rickety houses on stilts. I was sometimes worried I would break the flimsy floors made of split bamboo with my weight but luckily they seemed to be sturdy enough to cope, despite the fact I was roughly double the weight of an average Cambodian woman.
The most common medical problems I encountered when visiting people with HIV/AIDS in their homes were activated TB, dysentery, thrush and skin sepsis. A lot of emphasis went on encouraging patients to keep going with their TB treatment, to start or continue with their anti-retroviral therapy and sorting out everyday issues such as access to food and basic items such as cooking pots, blankets and mosquito nets. There was a real sense of satisfaction felt by myself and the Task team for their work. Without such work the majority of people they help would have no hope of access to medical care and basic items. It’s a pity there is so much work to be done among the very poor of Cambodia and a finite amount of time, money and man power to do it. Nevertheless, to be part of this was terribly satisfying indeed.
It was lovely getting back to my family in Dunedin and going back to my usual routine has not been as weird as I thought. I realise I tend to live in the present and try to make the most of the opportunities of the moment. Still I hope my month in Cambodia gets to have some impact on my present and future, but I am still trying to figure out how.
AnneMarie Tangney is a Dunedin GP
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Khmer Rouge defendant says guards taught to hate
By SOPHENG CHEANG
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The former Khmer Rouge prison commander accused of overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children said Tuesday that his underlings were taught class hatred that allowed them to kill their enemies.
Kaing Guek Eav, 66, spoke at Cambodia's U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal, which is trying him for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture related to the Khmer Rouge's 1970s "killing fields" regime.
Better known by his alias, Duch, he is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Four more are in custody and are scheduled to be tried sometime over the next year or two.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.
During that time, Duch commanded Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 people are believed to have been tortured before being sent off for execution.
But the court has first been hearing testimony concerning a jungle prison known as M13 that Duch ran during the 1970-75 civil war that brought the Khmer Rouge to power.
Witnesses have alleged that Duch personally took part in torture and executions — an accusation he denies. But on Tuesday, he explained how he compelled his guards to carry out such acts.
"We educated people to have a firm class stand and then we taught them to be strict about how they could interrogate the prisoners and also taught them how to smash people and to keep them from escaping," he said.
"Smash" was the common euphemism used by the Khmer Rouge for kill or execute.
Duch, who had been a schoolteacher before joining the Khmer Rouge guerrilla movement, explained that the communist theory of education was different from traditional Cambodian teachings. Buddhism opposed killing, he said, but communism justified such actions to aid the working class.
If people did not follow the Khmer Rouge's orders, he added, they feared they "would be beheaded."
The significance of the testimony appeared to be that even before they came to power, the Khmer Rouge encouraged a culture of deadly violence toward their enemies that disregarded conventional notions of justice and allowed decisions to kill people to be left in local hands.
Soon after they came to power, the group began executing its enemies from the former regime. Later, the cadre started using executions as almost ordinary punishment for anyone who disobeyed them. As the regime became paranoid, it began purges of its own followers throughout the country, leading to many massacres.
Earlier Tuesday, a guard who worked under Duch at M13 described him as someone whose life was devoted to his work, which he never took lightly.
Chan Khorn, 53, said Duch had a strict character and no one dared disobey him because they were scared of him.
"I myself was so afraid of him I could not even look him in the face," he said.
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Cambodian feast serves up tolerance
In an effort to give students an insightful look into Cambodian (Kampuchea) and Southern Cambodian (Khmer Krom) culture, nearly 120-strong gathered in the Rutgers Student Center Multipurpose Room Thursday evening for the first-ever Cambodian Food Festival.
Sponsored by the Rutgers Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Cultural Association, the club and festival were meant to raise awareness at the University of the cultural, social and political issues related to the Khmer and Khmer Krom peoples, said Daniel Yi, a club board member and a School Of Environmental And Biological Sciences sophomore.
“Although Cambodian food is often quite spicy, several of the dishes were toned down in piquancy to accommodate for all in attendance,” said Rutgers College junior Hien Tran, the club’s social outreach chair.
As one of the school’s newest organizations, the association has put on events of a smaller scale, such as movie nights. The club’s leaders worked all semester to ensure the success of this event, meant to mark the end of the club’s first year as well as to act as the commencement for a bright future.
“I just wanted the club to make a splash in the Rutgers community,” said Club President Sambo Thach. “Cambodian culture is so vast and diverse that I felt it was important [to] afford as many people as possible the chance to experience it.”
The festival featured a smorgasbord of nearly 10 traditional Cambodian dishes, including tilapia fried in chili sauce, fruit salad, chicken lollipops, fried rice, spicy prawns, spring rolls and Cambodian crepes, as well as bean cakes for dessert.
“The fruit salad is for the particularly adventuresome palate, since it includes copious ingredients not readily found in most Western cuisine, such as jack fruit and leches,” said Thach, a School of Engineering junior.
But food was not the only thing on the menu for the night. The event included a coconut dance by Tran and a performance by a Cambodian percussion ensemble. The Philadelphia-based ensemble included six drummers, a cymbalist and a gong player. Finally, students participated in a durian eating contest.
Many individuals in attendance were experiencing Cambodian culture for the first time, and other organizations such as the Vietnamese Student Association came out to show their support.
George Kotzias, one of the students new to Khmer culture, had nothing but good things to say about the club.
“As a member of other Asian cultural clubs, I found this to be a culturally and culinary enlightening experience,” said Kotzias, a Rutgers College senior. “The food was of a sweet-tangy nature that I found thoroughly delectable.”
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One in jail, one at large after Cambodian festival shootings
One man remained jailed Monday and another was sought by Dakota County sheriff's deputies after shots were fired at a Cambodian festival attended by about 2,000 people in Hampton on Saturday, the Sheriff's Office said. Nobody was hit.
The incident happened shortly after 3:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Watt Munisotaram Temple, just off Hwy. 50, in the 2900 block of E. 220th Street. Several cars were struck, said Dave Bellows, chief deputy.
He said a 29-year-old man was arrested shortly after the incident, and deputies continued looking Monday for at least one other man. Authorities suspect that gang activity might be involved, Bellows said. The arrested man's name was not released Monday because of an ongoing investigation, and he had not been charged Monday afternoon.
Handguns used in the shooting were not recovered, Bellows said.
While most of the festival-goers were at the temple nearby, rather than in the parking lot, it was "very fortunate that no one was struck," Bellows said.
"We estimate that eight to 10 shots were fired between these two," he said.
The festival celebrated the Cambodian New Year. Such gatherings at the large temple, which opened in 2005, have been peaceful in the past, he said.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Dakota County Sheriff's Office at 651-438-4720 or the TIPS line at 651-438-8477.
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Monday, April 20, 2009
Cambodia faces alien threat
Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN Cambodia’s alien invader - the mimosa pigra, or giant mimosa, a thorny plant originally from the Amazon jungle - growing by a roadside in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district.
AN alien has invaded Cambodia and taken over large swaths of land, threatening the Kingdom's ecosystem, and it appears the uninvited guest is here to stay.
The alien threat is the mimosa pigra, or giant mimosa, a thorny plant originally from the Amazon jungle that is out-competing Cambodia's indigenous plants and putting the country's biodiversity at risk. It is also costing Cambodian farmers and fishermen time and money.
"It's a very strong, hardy plant. It can tolerate flooding, and it can tolerate dry [conditions]," Robert van Zalinge at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said.
Taking over flooded plains that have been cleared of natural vegetation, the giant mimosa forms dense, homogenous stands, says Chai-Aing Sopharith, the ecotourist manager at Osmose, an NGO that operates around the Tonle Sap.
Neou Bonheur, the deputy secretary general at the Tonle Sap Basin Authority, said that though studies have tended to be small, it's clear the giant mimosa problem has spread across the entire Kingdom.
Despite the threat, Long Kheng, the core area director of the Tonle Sap Conservation Project, said that at the moment, "we don't have any program to control the invasive species".
The alien plant has made only small incursions into the most biologically diverse areas around the lake, but according to Long Kheng, it still poses a serious ecological threat.
"If we don't take action, the mimosa pigra will destroy the ecosystem of the area," he said.
The rapacious plant threatens 20 percent of the Tonle Sap flood area - a "huge area", said Zalinge.
The plant has already become the bane of Cambodian farmers, who spend money and labour clearing their plots of the plant.
Srey Kong Bunna, 37, a farmer from Phsa Krom in Kampong Chhnang, said that he regularly chopped down the plant and even tried burning the plants down, but nothing has stopped it from reappearing.
"I pay at least 100,000 riels (US$25) every year to clear the giant mimosa from my small rice crop," Srey Kong Bunna said.
The giant mimosa can survive floods and fires, and can grow back from its root system, said Neou Bonheur.
It's not just the farmers who worry about the giant mimosa infestation. Fishermen fear the plant as well.
"We worry that we won't be able to catch fish in the future because the giant mimosa grows in our lake," Srey Kong Bunna said, adding that fish refuse to spawn in areas with a giant mimosa infestation.
There have been no comprehensive studies on the economic effects of the plant on Cambodia's fish stock, but fishermen, conservation groups and scientists agree the plant has a serious negative impact.
"You can imagine that vast homogenous stands - especially of a thorny species that doesn't provide much food - will be avoided by fish," said Zalinge.
There are a few ways to combat an invasive species, but they all take money and political will - both things the Kingdom is lacking at the moment, Zalinge said.
In Australia, biocontrol - the introduction of a predator of the invasive species - has been used against the giant mimosa with some success, but the initial costs required to ensure that the new alien pest will not also damage the ecosystem are very high. But as Zalinge points out, "It's a lot of work initially but once it's released, it works for free."
Manual removal has also been used effectively in Vietnam in small areas, and the WCS recommends this technique for the Tonle Sap core area where the infestation is still scattered.
There is also a Minnesota-based chemical company, MSK International Chemical, started by a Cambodian refugee, that claims to have a comprehensive plan to deal with the giant mimosa in Cambodia.
The active ingredient of the company's chemical, triclopyr - approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency for use in aquatic areas - "does not affect human health", according to Darith Sokchan, the deputy director of Mincam Cambodia, the company that imports the chemical from the US.
By using aerial photography and mapping software to prioritise treatment combined with proper training of sprayers, MSK Chemical thinks it can control the plant.
But Zalinge at WCS stressed that the most effective way of slowing the plant's spread was to protect the natural vegetation in sensitive areas and says that if native species are replanted after the giant mimosa has been removed, then perhaps they could better compete with the invasive mimosa.
With a combination of techniques to battle the invader, Preap Visarto, the deputy director of plant protection at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said Cambodia could become a more productive nation, liberating its farms and fisheries from the menace. But, he said, the Kingdom simply does not have the funds.
And if the money does not arrive, Zalinge predicted that "the worst is still to come".
Telecoms market in Cambodia overcrowded
Cambodia has just 15 million people, and is one of the poorest countries in the region.
And yet it has nine mobile phone operators.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Last year the number of mobile phones in use worldwide passed the 3.3 billion mark. That means that more than half the world's population has a mobile phone, making it the fastest-spreading technology in human history. Cambodia is not what you would call a major player in global telecoms. Its population is relatively small and relatively poor - 15 million people of whom around one-third live below the poverty line. Many millions live just above that line.
And yet Cambodia has nine mobile phone companies, with two more still to launch. So Khun is the Minister for Posts and Telecommunications and has been in his job since 1992. Asked what he thinks is the most important change in telecoms in his time, he answered: Liberalisation - allowing private companies to enter the mobile telecoms market. The government created the chance, and the participants came. And they've kept coming - five mobile phone companies have launched in the last 15 months.
THOMAS HUNDT: Well doubtless the market is competitive.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Thomas Hundt is the CEO of Smart, the latest entrant.
I asked him why Smart has started up. He says one reason is that market penetration is low - 25 percent. In other words, just one person in four owns a mobile phone. In fact, Hundt believes the real penetration rate is probably far lower since many people have more than one SIM card.
HUNDT: There are a couple of factors that are supporting the market. First of all the population growth. Secondly we have here in Cambodia 24-25 percent penetration. So looking at other countries in Asia we have a long way to go to penetrate the entire market.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Cambodia's telecoms market is hyper-competitive, but if the competitors agree on anything, it is that the market cannot sustain so many players.
Syed Azmeer is the chief marketing officer of Hello, which has been here in various guises since 1992.
SYED AZMEER: Basically it is a war of attrition. People are giving away free minutes and free SIM cards and there comes a certain point where they can't do that any more. Some of the not-so-serious players - once they amass a certain number of subscribers - will be up for sale. That's classic in any telco scenario.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Evidence of this war of attrition is widespread, with huge billboards across Phnom Penh, and advertising campaigns in most media - and even plastered on the tuk-tuk taxis that ferry people around the capital.
Azmeer says Hello doubled its subscriber base to 700,000 last year through an aggressive marketing campaign. Good though that is, it means Hello has just a third the number of subscribers of the country's dominant player, MobiTel.
MobiTel claims 60 percent of the market, and says it grew by one-third last year.
And where MobiTel leads, the others have to follow. The low-hanging fruit has been taken in the relatively well-off cities and large towns, so the next stage is for telecoms companies to expand their operations in rural areas, where more than 80 percent of the population live.
But that requires substantial investment. Despite operating in financially-straitened times, MobiTel's parent company last month signed a loan for USD$100 million.
The money will be used to expand its coverage in rural areas, says MobiTel's chief operating officer Kay Lot.
KAY LOT: Well I think the urban growth is still there, but it won't last. There are only so many target markets that are still out there in the urban. So the longer-term strategy is to go out more into the rural areas.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: To that end, says Kay Lot, MobiTel is erecting hundreds of new base stations in the countryside each year. Its more established competitors are also focusing their efforts outside the cities as the push to capture subscribers moves away from urban Cambodia.
The dominant player, MobiTel, will doubtless continue to do well. And several of its competitors will certainly be around in two or three years time too. But the multi-million dollar question is which of the nine operators will by then have hung up on Cambodia's tough and overcrowded mobile telecoms market.
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