Cambodian girl adjusts to Hawaii

Leam's leg injury poses dilemma for her doctor

By Craig Gima

In a world that is still completely new to her, Sithan Leam prefers what is familiar. But there is one exception: a growing habit of watching Korean soap operas.

Leam, 14, arrived in Honolulu last month from Anglong Thor, a small rural village in Cambodia, for surgery that could help her walk for the first time.

Yesterday, a potluck lunch was held in Leam's honor at the University Avenue Baptist Church with members of the local Cambodian community and some of the people who helped raise more than $10,000 to bring her to Honolulu.

The food included sushi, muffins and tossed salad, but Leam made a simple plate of rice and roasted chicken.

Anthony Deth, whose family is hosting Leam, said they bought her new clothes at Kmart. But Leam prefers to wear the same clothes she brought from Cambodia. Most things "are just too strange for her," Deth said.

Even calling home was a new experience, and Leam and her family did not really know how to use a phone, Deth said.

In the last couple of weeks, Leam has been adjusting and smiling more, he said. She especially likes playing with Deth's two children. Leam took care of her younger brothers and sisters in Cambodia..

Her village consists of five families with no running water, electricity or paved roads.

Her family uses an oxcart for transportation, so even cars are new to Leam.

There are no doctors in the village, and when she was an infant, Leam suffered a severe burn on her left leg. When the wound healed, the scar tissue fused her ankle to her thigh.

Dr. Gunther Hintz, founder and president of the charity Medicorps, brought Leam to the attention of Shriners Hospital, which agreed to treat her.

Next month, Leam and Hintz, who is now her legal guardian, will meet with Dr. Ellen Raney at Shriners to decide Leam's treatment.

Hintz said there are two main options. Doctors could amputate -- most likely above the knee -- and fit her with a prosthesis. Or she can undergo a series of surgeries, skin grafts and physical therapy to try and save the leg.

There are potential complications, Hintz said. Leam's joints and muscles are functional but not fully developed and have not supported any weight.

Still, Hintz said he favors trying to save the leg.

"If she goes back to Cambodia on her own legs, it's going to be a tremendous inspiration," Hintz said.

Leam will also be able to learn some English while she is here, a valuable skill back in Cambodia, Hintz said.

Deth said they are starting to teach Leam her ABCs. During yesterday's potluck a retired teacher volunteered to help tutor her after the surgery.

In an interview through a translator, Leam said she is still homesick. She prefers Cambodian food and has not yet been to a McDonald's or the beach.

Leam is shy around strangers and gave mostly one-word answers, but smiled and laughed occasionally as translator Patrick Keo spoke with her in the Khmer language.

Deth said she has not really wanted to venture out much from the apartment near Shriners where she is staying.

But Leam can watch Korean dramas for hours, even if she does not understand Korean and cannot read the English subtitles, Deth said.

Asked what she likes about them, Leam said she doesn't know. Sometimes it's funny, she said.

She is learning more Korean than English, Deth joked. "It may not be a bad idea because there are a lot of Korean tourists now in Cambodia." Read more!

A fishy pleasure

THE CURIOUS COOK Ed Charles
March 24, 2007

I AM at the new central market in Siem Reap, Cambodia, enduring the smell that pervades every market here, from Battambang and Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville on the coast. The odour comes from a red washing-up bowl filled with grey sludge in which float pieces of silver fish. The smell is outdone only by an equally pungent pile of grey paste with bits of rotting fish poking out.
The wet grey stuff is fish sauce, while the other is fish paste, although both seem to be called prahoc; they smell and look awful to the unaccustomed nose and eye.

Prahoc is a vital flavouring in almost everything savoury in Cambodia. So common is it that the national flag, which features the ubiquitous emblem of Angkor Wat, should be soaked in the stuff.

Despite the appalling smell, the sauce doesn't put me off my food. At a market cafe, I find Angkor beer perfectly complements a green mango salad. Inevitably, the salad is made with prahoc, sugar and tomatoes, plus crispy caramelised chips of, yes, dried fish. Not since kipper have I thought dried fish could be this good.

After this entree, I order a main course of amoc, the soup that is Cambodia's national dish. Every local chef has a twist on the traditional recipe but there are only two ways of serving it: in a coconut shell or in a container fashioned from banana leaves. Today we are eating it from the former.

Helpfully, the menu lists the ingredients in picture-book form. It seems we are trying snakehead fish with green vegetables, something referred to as "a kind of gourd", lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves and whole piles of other stuff. Most important, the dish contains palm sugar and krachai (or kachai), a sort of rhizome. Oh, and piles of sticky rice. It's absolutely delicious.

The next day at dawn I travel to the village of Chong Kneas. As we arrive, the rising sun peeks through stilt houses and reflects off the surface of Tonle Sap (literally: the freshwater lake). Sprawling across a shallow 3000sqkm in the middle of the country, the lake feeds the river of the same name that joins the Mekong at Phnom Penh. Long narrowboats are weighed down with large catches of tiny fish that are shovelled into wicker baskets numbered in red. We cross the lake to the river, where we see the floating and stilt villages of the fishermen at Prek Tuol.

Everybody is fishing. Teenage boys crouch on the bows of ancient canoes, throwing nets. Fish traps bubble with frenzied occupants. Fishermen operate large traps that look like stick-thin trebuchets. There's no sign of the rare, 3m, 300kg Mekong giant catfish today, one of the hundreds of species that live in this lake. But I can't escape the fact that fish, together with rice, is the national dish.

Indeed, fish represents 80 per cent of the protein eaten here. If a family doesn't have an earthenware jar of teuk trei -- a small anchovy-like freshwater fish -- fermenting away somewhere, the chances are they are out fishing, farming or selling the 400,000 tonnes of it caught annually.

Come September each year, the Mekong bursts its banks here, reverses its flow and sprawls across up to 18,000sqkm. For the Khmer fishing is an ancient practice and the result is those never-ending piles of prahoc. Read more!

Dancing out of the shadows of death

Cambodia’s rich dance heritage was almost destroyed in Pol Pot’s killing fields, but the survivors have staged a remarkable recovery, as audiences at the Barbican can see this weekend, reports Jane Wheatley

Pok Saran was 23 and a talented young dance student at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh when, on April 17, 1975, revolutionary soldiers of the Khmer Rouge marched into the streets of Cambodia’s capital and changed his life for ever. Along with millions of his fellow citizens, Saran was taken to a prison camp in the Cambodian countryside and put to work in the forests and rice fields. The interns were cruelly treated, given very little to eat and many were taken out to be shot. Large numbers died from disease and malnutrition.

The murderous Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, had little regard for life — “To keep you is no gain; to kill you no loss,” he famously said — and in keeping with his so-called Communist ideals ordered that all professional and educated people — particularly those with royal connections — should be eliminated. The Cambodian Royal Family had been enthusiastic patrons of the arts and 80 per cent of performing artists died during Pol Pot’s reign of terror.

Saran knew that at any moment he could become one of them: he lied about his past, claiming that he was a humble amateur, but it was his skill as a flute player that probably saved his life.

“The commander of our camp was a Buddhist and had been the head man of a pagoda,” Saran says. “He was brainwashed by the Khmer and forced to be in charge of the killing fields. When he came back from supervising a killing expedition, he would ask me to play the flute to ease the stress he felt. I think this definitely gave me some protection.” Saran never dared to dance. “I danced only in my head,” he says.

This week he will travel to London as a choreographer for a season of Cambodian dance drama at the Barbican. This is something of a miracle: before 1975, heads of state from all over the world came to watch the famous national dancers of Cambodia, but Pol Pot destroyed his country’s vibrant culture and it has taken a quarter of a century to recover.

In 1997 Fred Frumberg quit his job as an opera director in California and travelled to Cambodia as a UN volunteer to help to rebuild the devastated arts scene in Phnom Penh. Three years ago he formed a production company to put on revivals of traditional dance repertory. “Classical court dance is performed by women,” he explains. “The male form of classical masked dance — Lakhaon Kaol — was not considered sacred in the same way and was not receiving so much attention, so some of the dancers came to me and asked me to find a way they could perform too.”

Frumberg managed to get a grant from the American Embassy — only $15,000 (£7,600), but in Cambodia a dollar goes a long way. “There was nothing documented,” he says. “So many people were dead. We had to go to the provinces and find the elder dance masters, bring them to Phnom Penh to help us with their memories.”

The grant money subsidised the building of the troupe and paid for costumes and sets. Two years ago they gave their first performance and were immediately invited to Bangkok to perform there. It caused a sensation.

A tour to the Melbourne Arts Festival followed and then the invitation to the Barbican. The presenters in each country pay for the dancers to come because there is no government funding. “The Government won’t even pay for passports,” Frumberg says. “A passport costs $100 — a lot of money for a dancer who earns $22 a month.”

Lakhoun Kaol is a dance drama based on tales from the Indian epic of Ramayana , in which gods and monkeys battle demons and ogres. Saran is responsible for the choreography of the giants: “The dancers do not have any extra height,” he explains. “They must represent their superhuman power, strength and arrogance just with their movements.”

His colleague Proeng Chhieng is the artistic director and a monkey specialist. “When I was a small boy I loved the monkey’s crazy antics,” he smiles. “It was all I wanted to do, so I became an expert in the role.”

Chhieng’s grandmother had been a celebrated dancer at the royal palace. “My sister and I lived with her and she would take us to the palace to watch while she trained the young dancers,” Chhieng says. By then the Queen had decreed that the monkey roles should be played by men as they required special acrobatic strengths. The boy Chhieng was entranced. “When I was eight years old I donated myself to the palace to be trained as a classical dancer.”

From the age of 9 he was travelling abroad to perform with the company, and in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge marched on Phnom Penh, Chhieng was studying new dance techniques in Korea. When he returned to his native country, he found that his family had fled the city and soldiers were in charge. “I stayed in Phnom Penh with other students,” he says. “We grew vegetables to stay alive and kept our heads down.”

When the Cambodian Army came to liberate the city in early 1979, Chhieng and his fellow students were taken by the Khmer soldiers to hide out in the forests; by the summer he had managed to escape and trekked to Kampong Thom province, where he had heard that there was a small community of dancers, survivors of the killing fields. They were led by the

charismatic Chhang Phon, an elder master and respected dance teacher who was determined to rescue the traditional repertory that had once been his country’s pride and joy. By the mid1980s Saran, Chhieng and others had returned to Phnom Penh to the revived Royal University of Fine Arts to form a fledgeling dance company. There was no money for culture from a crippled national economy — the dancers were paid in kind — but they were back in business.

Twenty years on they have built up a company of 47 and a stunning repertory that is placing Cambodia firmly back on the international stage. The full piece lasts eight hours but Barbican audiences will be treated to an 80-minute episode called Weyreap’s Battle, in which the monkey king Hanuman and his forces rescue King Rama from the evil tyrant Ravena. “It is powerful, action-packed stuff,” says Frumberg, “full of acrobatic flair, often comic with translated narration.”

Frumberg was speaking from Greece, where he is directing the opera Nixon in China. He is gradually weaning himself away from his role as a fundraiser and impresario for Cambodian dance. “They’re on the international radar,” he says. “It was all about capacity building; they can fly by themselves now.”

Weyreap’s Battle is at the Barbican, EC2 ( 020-7638 8891; http://www.barbican.org.uk/), from Friday to Sunday.

Artists who fought the system

Maya Plisetskaya Her father was killed in Stalinist purges and her mother imprisoned, but that didn’t stop the Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina from defying the Soviet authorities, particularly when she refused to let them ban her sensuous performance in Carmen Suite.

Bertolt Brecht Fled Nazi Germany for the USA, only to find himself up before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities after the Second World War. He ridiculed his interrogators and left for Communist East Germany.

Arturo Toscanini The conductor resisted Mussolini and refused to let Il Duce’s portrait hang in La Scala. He absconded from the Wagner festival at Bayreuth after Hitler had come to power and eventually left for the USA in 1937.

The Plastic People of the Universe Jailed for the combined sins of having long hair, liking the music of Frank Zappa and using an English name, the Czech rock band became a symbol of freedom.

Yungchen Lhamo The “Tibetan Madonna” fled her native country from Chinese repression and crossed the Himalayas barefoot. Blessed by the Dalai Lama, she has now performed with Sheryl Crow, Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox.

Read more!

Cambodia mulls over restricting access to Angkor Wat Temple

By Yusof Sulaiman l eTN Asia

Cambodian officials are reportedly mulling over measures to restrict tourist access to Angkor Wat Temple, in an effort to prevent its further deterioration. The ravages of nature over time and the water table have taken a toll on the UNESCO listed World Heritage site, putting some at risk and further weakening their “structural integrity,” said experts from UNESCO.

Once a sleepy village, Siem Reap, where the site is located, is now a town booming with hotels, restaurants and continues to attract new investments in tourism.

Officials estimate that up to a million tourists visited the Angkor Wat temple complex in 2006, an increase of about 40 percent over the previous year.Every day up to 5,000 people climb the steps, putting the site under the strain of wear and tear. Tourist numbers to the ancient Khmer ruins have grown faster than the town can keep pace, according to published reports. "Large tour groups often do a quick stop to see the temples, but do little else," remarked a tourism official. "They hope to see everything within the one and a half day in their itinerary."

"The large number of people wandering around by themselves has caused a lot of problems," said Khin Po-Thai, spokesperson for the World Monuments Fund in Siem Reap.

According to UNESCO’s Dr. Sheldon Schaeffer, building and construction works have added to the risk of damage to the actual monuments. “Water supply to the golf courses and hotels may affect the water table at the temple sites, further weakening the structural integrity,” he said.

Temple officials are thinking about limiting access to the temple compound on a daily basis using a reservation system. "If the tourist numbers go unchecked, Angkor Wat will be gone just because we want to please the tourists," added Po-Thai.. Read more!

Running for their lives - talking about Khmer Rouge

By JILL WING, The Saratogian
03/24/2007

BALLSTON SPA - We do not know terrorism. We think we do. Not to diminish the tragedy of terror at the World Trade Center, but most of us were only peripherally impacted. Now, we are implored to "never forget." We are reminded every year on the anniversary of that day - Sept. 11, 2001. We are in fear of terrorism, but we don't live it. Sien and Sopphan Sam of Ballston Spa did. And they will never forget. They are survivors of the Cambodian Holocaust perpetuated by the Khmer Rouge and the communist regime in the 1970s that resulted in the mass murder of more than 2 million of their countrymen.

They lived in fear, in refugee camps, in work camps in the mosquito and leech-infested jungles and marshes of Cambodia for years, not knowing from day to day if they'd live to see another.

Tuesday, March 27, marks the 25th anniversary of Sien's and Sopphan's escape from the horror, the death, the brutality of their tormentors and the overwhelming sadness of what was lost. At the hands of the maniacal communist dictator Pol Pot, their middle class families were torn apart - mothers, daughters, brothers and sisters sent away to different labor camps.

Sien, a law student in Cambodia at the time of the communist takeover, survived by acting dumb. In the beginning, all the young men and women, some still children like Sopphan, were grouped by age. Sien said that if you wore glasses, or even had indentations across the bridge of your nose or on the side of your head indicating that you did, you would be executed by the new regime. The goal of Khmer Rouge was to evacuate all citizens from Cambodia's major cities and from villages and put them in labor camps, where they toiled in inhumane, squalid conditions for the good of the regime.

They were left with only the clothes on their backs and what little money wasn't stolen from them when they were forced from their homes. Sien's clothes literally rotted from his body in the stifling heat and humidity of the jungle. He said he wore the same pair of pants for three years, washing them nightly after spending a long, hot day working in the fields or building infrastructure for the communists. He was shot twice and suffered unspeakable torture as he fought to survive.

The humiliation he suffered, having to cow-tow to the communists for his survival, forced a formerly peaceful, academic young man to become a hardened, arrogant leader of a rebel militia. Sopphan, a shy and quiet woman, finds it hard to talk about her experiences. She lived through years of unimaginable terror with her mother and three sisters. Women had little value.

The strong ones were worked to the bone; the young ones were at the mercy of Khmer Rouge. Many were killed or suffered such severe injuries or sickness in their attempts to escape or even to survive oppression that they died unknown and unnamed in the thick jungles or marshes - the killing fields of Cambodia.

Sopphan recalls happy days of working the rice fields with the family's oxen and enjoying the refreshing pond and lilies at her ancestral home. It was a bucolic, peaceful existence until the day the soldiers came. There was no hope of the cavalry coming to save them. The United States had broken all ties with Cambodia. The communists, supported by China, had no boundaries. Even the Cambodians' beloved king became complicit in the slaughter and oppression.

Sien and Sopphan, and millions of their countrymen, were on there own to survive and to reach their goal to escape a refugee camp on the Thai/Cambodian border. It was a trek that cost money, which few had. Many more died before reaching what they thought was safe shelter. And even when they reached the so-called refugee camp of nearly 50,000 on the border, they weren't safe. The Thai army took advantage of the refugees' vulnerability, robbing them of what few values they still possessed, and often killing them in the process. Things got so violent in the camp, called 007, that the Red Cross and U.N. support diminished, leaving the Cambodians to fend for themselves. Many trying to escape the teeming, criminal camp were killed.

Sien and Sopphan and their families swapped one horror for another.Both were single when they arrived at 007, though they had met very briefly before. While on the run in Cambodia, Sien was sheltered by Sopphan's family. It was a favor for which the family would have been killed if caught. Having risen to a high rank as leader of a rebel militia in camp 007, protecting his people from brutal Thai soldiers, a formerly gentle Sien became a hardened soldier, willing to kill to protect his own. Marriage was far from his mind, until one of his militia men suggested he wedd. Surprisingly, given his stature as a soldier, Sien thought seriously of his friend's suggestion.

He recalled the family who sheltered him - there were four sisters. Sopphan stood out in his mind."She was the prettiest," he said, smiling. "I didn't even like him," Sopphan responded. "He was arrogant."Cambodian marriages are traditionally arranged. But life in the refugee camp was hardly traditional. So, they married, more out of convenience at the time, Sien said. But their marriage and bond has survived unfathomable tragedy and horror and, finally, love and happiness. It was not easy going, even after they married. Right up to the day they boarded a plane for freedom to the Philippines, the couple was fearful they'd be caught and killed.

Sien had earned a reputation as a strong combatant against the communists. He wouldn't stand next to his wife as they waited on the tarmac for the plane. He feared for Sopphan's life and wouldn't jeopardize his wife and their baby son, Dara, by making them a target. Even when seated on the plane, their fears did not go away until they were in the air.

After living nearly a decade of horror, they could breathe without repercussion. Sien still cannot travel freely in Cambodia. He has paid for protection the few times he's returned. He documented his ordeal in a book, "The land of the Red Prince." It is the story of his life, in sometimes gruesome detail, from 1972 to 1982, when he and Sopphan came to the United States. Sopphan, who has had difficulty telling her story, is working through her experiences at Literacy Volunteers at the Saratoga Springs Public Library. Her goal is to write a narrative, like her husband's, but more about what life in a peaceful Cambodia was like before Pol Pot's obscene genocide. She wants her children, both raised and schooled in the United States, to understand their ancestral country.

So far, Sopphan, has penned a beautifully descriptive and painfully sad memoir. Literacy volunteer Martha Wilson helped Sopphan write a draft of her story; now volunteer Nancy Holzman is helping Sopphan fill in the blanks.

"I am very proud of my wife," Sien said, understanding how hard it is for Sopphan to tell her story in her own language, much less one that is foreign to her."I'm her teacher, she's my teacher," Holzman said of her relationship with Sopphan. Sien is a retired engineer. Their children, and an orphan taken in at the refugee camp, are successful businessmen. Their daughter attends college.

Tuesday marks a 25-year milestone in their lives - escape and freedom. They will never return permanently to their homeland, where they each still have family. It is not safe. For more information about Literacy Volunteers, or to become a tutor, call Director Sue Hensley-Cushing, 583-1232. Read more!

Band Aid heiress bemoans failed Jolie-like Cambodian adoption attempt

New York, Mar 24: It seems that everyone is not as lucky as Hollywood beauty Angelina Jolie, whether it is about being the sexiest woman in Hollywood or having Brad Pitt as a lover, or even adopting kids.

Band-Aid heiress Casey Johnson, who claims to be in the process of adopting a baby girl from Kazakhstan, is still sad she wasn't able to adopt a baby from Cambodia, as Angelina Jolie did. "I went to Cambodia almost two years ago [and] fell in love with this little girl, a 21/2-year-old named Lavissa," Johnson, was quoted by the New York Post, as saying.

But then she got the bad news that an adoption wasn't possible because of tight new adoption laws."I was devastated because I had bonded for three weeks with this child. I was buying her clothes in Cambodia. I was videoing her. I was doing everything," she added .

In 2001, Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox, from Cambodia with then-husband Billy Bob Thornton, but the Third World nation later cut off adoptions by foreigners amid accusations by child-welfare advocates of corrupt, babies-for-cash scams.

Johnson says she finally cheered up when her godmother, Diandra Douglas, the ex-wife of Michael Douglas, adopted a baby girl from Kazakhstan. "She's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. She's blond-haired, blue-eyed, looks just like Diandra, and I thought, 'Oh, my gosh! This is what I'm going to do.' " Johnson says that when her own adoption goes through, she plans to name her baby Ava Monroe after her idol Marilyn Monroe.
Read more!

Japan to help Cambodia develop power project with 22 mln USD loan

PHNOM PENH, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Japan will provide some 22 million U.S. dollars of low-interest loan for Cambodia to implement the Greater Mekong Power Network Development Project, local media said on Saturday.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong and Japanese Ambassador Fumiaki Takahashi signed the exchange of notes here on Friday in presence of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

According to the notes, the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) will offer the loan at an annual interest rate of 0.01 percent with a payment period of 40 years.

The loan will serve the construction of two power transmission cables between Sihanoukville and Kampot, improvement of the kingdom's electricity equipment, construction of power transmission network among Phnom Penh and its neighboring provinces and some other projects. .

So far, the Japanese government has provided some 132,519,000 U.S. dollars of loans for the Cambodian government, according to a press release from the Japanese Embassy. .

Read more!

Pope's Representative To Cambodia Meets With Hun Sen

The Pope's representative to the region has met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen ahead of the opening of a new children's hospital set up by US-based Catholic mission movement group Maryknoll, local media reported Thursday.

Apolistic Nuncio Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio visited Hun Sen at his home in a low-key visit and thanked him for the spirit of religious tolerance that Cambodia showed, reported Khmer-language daily, Kampuchea Thmey.

Hun Sen in turn promised continued cooperation with Maryknoll and other missionary organizations dedicated to improving standards of health and education in the country, the paper said.

An apostolic nuncio is a Vatican ambassador or representative of the pope in different countries. Countries with large Catholic populations are awarded their own nuncio but Cambodia, with only 5,000 Khmer Catholics, shares a nuncio with Thailand, Laos, Burma, Brunei, and Singapore.

The meeting was held last week ahead of the scheduled opening of the new hospital in south-western Takeo province next week, the paper said. Maryknoll oversees a number of health-orientated programmes in Cambodia, including providing palliative care for AIDS patients.

© 2007 DPA.
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Roundup: Japan asked to invest in agriculture, industry, tourism in Cambodia

Cambodian government officials have told a senior 28-member Japanese delegation to explore business opportunities in agriculture, industry and tourism in the kingdom, local media said on Thursday.

While meeting the delegation on Tuesday, Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce President Kith Meng suggested that the investors prioritize projects in the sectors of agriculture, industry and tourism.

Investment in steel production will be particularly beneficial as Cambodia currently imports steel, which is in growing demand, Cambodian daily newspaper the Rasmei Kampuchea quoted him as telling the delegation headed by ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) -Japan Center Director Vong Sam Ang.

Meanwhile, Cambodia has vast areas of land free for growing industrial crops, the government has land with a 96-year concession for investors interested in crop cultivation, and the country can also construct factories to produce electronic appliances for export, Kith Meng told the delegation, which arrived here on Monday for a week-long mission to explore Cambodia 's business potential.

Japanese firms should also engage in commercial activities in the growing tourism sector in Cambodia, which benefits from the world famous Angkor temple complex, he said.

During another meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An assured the Japanese delegates that the Cambodian government is paying particular attention to the fight against corruption and land disputes.

In addition, the country's current high electricity prices will go down, another Cambodian daily newspaper the Kampuchea Thmey quoted him as saying.

"In the future we hope that the price of electricity will decrease because at the present time we are also building power and hydroelectricity plants in many locations in Cambodia," said Sok An.

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen, who plans to officially visit Japan in June, met with the Japanese delegates, emphasizing that his planned visit is designed partly to attract Japanese investors and tourists.

The prime minister also plans to propose that Japan provide Cambodia with more soft loans, accelerate the implementation of Japanese grant already approved for the construction of the Neak Leoung Bridge, according to Cambodian daily newspaper the Koh Santepheap.

In recent months, Japan and Cambodia have been holding meetings to discuss a bilateral investment agreement, which aims to enhance Japan to be a major investor in Cambodia.

Japan has been the kingdom's largest aid donors for years, but lags behind other countries in the sector of investment.

Source: Xinhua .

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WATER DAY-CAMBODIA: Asian Developement Bank Project Fails Fishermen

BANGKOK, Mar 22 (IPS) - A planned survey to check the economic pulse of fishing communities living on the banks of South-east Asia's largest freshwater lake -- the Tonle Sap in Cambodia -- threatens to expose serious shortcomings in an Asian Development Bank (AsDB) anti-poverty initiative.

The survey, to commence late April, stems out of the critical view a Cambodian non-governmental organisation (NGO), Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), has of a ‘development' project that the Manila-based AsDB launched in October 2002. The five-year-long Tonle Sap Initiative (TSI), set out, among other things, to improve the lives of the communities that depend on the lake's fish for their livelihood.

But four years later, the AsDB's flagship ‘pro-poor development initiative' in one of the region's poorest countries is still stuck in the mud of basic details. ‘'Most of the people living around the Tonle Sap still don't know what this project is really about. Some only have heard of it by name,'' says Raingsey Pen, project leader of ‘Tonle Sap Watch' at the Phnom Penh-based FACT.

This ignorance is due to a lack of participation by the people from the beginning of this project, he said in telephone interview from the Cambodian capital. ‘'NGOs who have been monitoring this initiative have complained to the AsDB that most of the documents have not been translated into the local language and are only available in English.''

The information gulf between the bank and the Tonle Sap's poor has been noted by Oxfam, the international development agency. ‘'There is a general lack of awareness about the TSI,'' says Jessica Rosien, who authored a study last year for Oxfam's Australia office on this body of water. ‘‘Can the AsDB save the Tonle Sap from poverty? There has been too little involvement of the people who were supposed to benefit,'' she told IPS.

The AsDB concedes that some of the criticisms by NGOs are relevant. ‘'We have heard some of the concerns by NGOs and they are valid,'' Mahfuz Ahmed, senior agriculture economist at the bank, said in an interview from Manila. ‘'Running this project from Phnom Penh is not easy. People's participation is a core feature of this project. We have got to be more aggressive.''

Even at a formal meeting this month in Phnom Penh between the regional bank and Cambodian government officials, the AsDB let slip the difficulty it was facing in being more inclusive just as the TSI enters its final year. ‘'There is a risk that some of the poor and marginalised could be increasingly left behind,'' Urooj Malik, director of the agriculture, environment and natural resources division at the Bank, said during the mid-March forum. ‘'It is vital to involve them more in the process of formulating policies designed to improve their conditions.''

The Tonle Sap, which receives water from the Mekong river, plays a central part in feeding Cambodia with its rich supply of fresh-water fish. Fishing on this lake, which expands from 2,500 sq km to 13,000 sq km during the May - October flood season, provides food and incomes to about one million Cambodians. .

The poor living along the banks of the Tonle Sap are part of the nearly 40 percent of Cambodia's 13.8 million population living below the poverty line.

These were the communities that the bank hoped to aid as part of the TSI. This initiative aimed to be ‘'a partnership of organisations and people working to meet the poverty and environment challenges of the Tonle Sap,'' states the AsDB on its website.

In July 2003, the bank added the ‘Tonle Sap Basin Strategy' to the TSI as part of its broader Cambodia country programme to meet a 2007 deadline. This was deemed ‘'consistent with AsDB's water policy and worldwide trend towards managing land, water and biotic resources within a framework of basin units,'' adds the bank.

In fact, the second pillar of the TSI was singled out as the ‘Tonle Sap Sustainable Livelihoods Project,' which was estimated to cost 19.7 million US dollars, with 15 million dollars coming from the Asian Development Fund and 4.7 million dollars from the Finnish government. The project aimed to improve the economy of the fishing communities by assuring the locals a role in choosing, planning and managing small programmes for their benefit.

Yet, as the Oxfam report revealed, public participation is ‘'low in proportion to the number of projects of the AsDB's Tonle Sap Basin portfolio.'' Further, it is also ‘'difficult to trace whether and how the recommendations from community members were or were not incorporated into the final project design.''

And for AsDB watchdogs like FACT, nothing conveys the bank's distance from its intended beneficiaries more than the departure from its original promise of creating new fishing communities in addition to strengthening existing ones. ‘'The project sought to improve the fishing communities by establishing 500 more around the Tonle Sap,'' says Pen. ‘'But until now we have not seen a new fishing community that was promised.'' (END/2007) .
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Cambodia Winning the Fight Against AIDS

By Rory Byrne
Phnom Penh, March 22, 2007

On the face of it, Cambodia should be devastated by AIDS. Brothels are commonplace in the impoverished country, illegal drugs are widely available, and government spending on health care is only about two dollars a person each year. But the rate of new AIDS infections has dropped during the past decade. Rory Byrne reports for VOA from Phnom Penh on how Cambodia is turning the tide against AIDS.

In 1997, 3.2 of Cambodians were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The United Nations office dealing with AIDS, UNAIDS, says that among sex workers the figure was almost 40 percent.

Today, UNAIDS says only about 1.6 percent of the general population is infected, with about 20 percent of sex workers believed to be infected.

Dr. Mean Chhi Vun is the director of Cambodia's National Center for HIV, AIDS, Dermatology and Sexually Transmitted Infections. He says the key to Cambodia's success has been a multi-faceted plan in which government and aid groups work together at all levels to fight the disease.
"As you may know, Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world," he said. "So we work together with all partners - including bilateral, multilateral, the international finance agencies like World Bank, ADB, the academic institutions, and the civil society including NGOs and community-based organizations."

Cambodia is still recovering from decades of conflict. Thousands of women see no choice but to become sex workers, and the country has a young, migrant population. All of these factors can contribute to rising HIV infection rates.

The U.N. AIDS co-coordinator in Cambodia, Tony Lisle, says the government deserves great credit for having the political will to tackle the disease.

"The Cambodian government basically has opened the space for all the key players to play their role," he said. "The government has essentially, for example, in terms of the sex work and client environment, the government approved and the prime minister basically established a policy for the 100 percent condom use program in brothels, so it opened the door for a scaled response."

Encouraging the use of condoms has been an important part of the strategy. The government sponsors safe-sex ads on billboards, television and radio. Activist groups distribute condoms and make sure that people how to use them.

"We try to normalize the condom use in Cambodia by educating them through the CUP (100 percent Condom Use Program) campaign," said Dan Borapich, a spokesman for Population Services International, the largest distributor of subsidized condoms in Cambodia. "You know, use a condom, and also increase the visibility of condoms through our distribution channel, like we try to make sure that condoms available at even supermarket, mini-market, stall, you know, pharmacy, everywhere."

Another important part of the strategy is treating those infected with cheap or free anti-retroviral drugs.

Tony Lisle of UNAIDS says that about 25,000 patients are receiving treatment in Cambodia - nearly 80 percent of all those who need treatment. The bulk of the life-saving drugs are
provided by the Global Fund for Tuberculosis, AIDS and Malaria.

"I think Cambodia, of all countries in the region, is a major success story in terms of getting all of those who need to be on treatment, on treatment," said Lisle.

Despite the progress, experts warn there remains a chance the infection rate could still rise, particularly among those groups engaging in high- risk behavior. Studies show, for example, that new infections among men who have sex with men and those who use illegal injected drugs are still increasing in Cambodia.

The infection rate also is increasing among so-called indirect sex workers - women working in beer gardens, karaoke clubs and hostess bars.

AIDS experts say these women often have a steady partner and do not use a condom with that man, although neither the woman nor the man may be faithful.

HIV infection rates also are high among men who have moved to Phnom Penh from the countryside to work. These men often become infected at brothels and then take the virus home to their wives.

For many of those infected with HIV, life is difficult. Cambodia's health-care system is basic at best. Conditions are unhygienic. Modern medical equipment is almost non-existent.

And discrimination against AIDS sufferers is commonplace, despite efforts being made to stamp it out.

Mony is HIV positive and works for the Cambodian Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS.

"In the community, stigma and discrimination is still happening. Nobody wants to talk to the PLHA - people living with HIV and AIDS - nobody wants to buy their products," said Mony.

"So, it is still very hard ... even the stigma and discrimination in the health center and also at the national level ... it is still happening, yeah."

Despite these problems, Cambodia has become an example of how to fight the disease. AIDS experts say the lesson from Cambodia is that if the political will is there from the top, the disease can be contained, even in the poorest nations.
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Cambodian police chief cleared in kidnapping

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian court Wednesday acquitted disgraced former police chief Heng Pov on a charge of kidnapping four South Korean businessmen. Phnom Penh Municipal Court took just a few hours to throw out the charge against the former chief of the capital's police, who is already serving 18 years in prison for the murder of former senior judge Sok Sethamony in April 2003.

Pov, 47, was sentenced for that murder in absentia in September and jailed on his return to Cambodia after being deported from Malaysia last December. Police had alleged that Pov was responsible for the four Koreans being abducted and locked up in an extortion attempt gone wrong dating back more than two years.

Pov appeared in a blue prison uniform but looked jovial and relaxed throughout the hearing, telling the court in his final address to feel free to jail him for the maximum term if it felt the evidence warranted it. The court decided it did not, and found Pov and co-defendant, former anti-trafficking police chief Meng Say, not guilty. The charge carried up to 20 years imprisonment if they were convicted. However Pov and a scree of high ranking police alleged to have been in his employ still face a number of other charges and are being investigated for a series of serious crimes including extortion, murder and kidnappings.

Pov and his co-defendant were returned to Phnom Penh's Prey Sar prison after the hearing, which was marked by tight security. The fall from grace of Pov and his cohorts last year shocked Cambodia and undermined public faith in a police and judicial system already viewed as corrupt and tainted by many Khmers. - Sapa-dpa.
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Asian rivers top WWF risk list from pollution, climate change

GENEVA (AFP) - Five rivers in Asia serving over 870 million people are among the most threatened in the world, as dams, water extraction and climate change all take their toll, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday.

The Yangtze, Salween-Nu, Indus, Ganges and Mekong-Lancang rivers make up half of the WWF's "top ten" most threatened river basins, which "either already suffer most grievously under the weight of these threats or are bracing for the heaviest impacts," the organisation said.
Also on the list are the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo and La Plata in Latin America, the Danube in central Europe, the Nile-Lake Victoria in Africa and the Murray-Darling in Australia.

"Nearly everybody in the world lives in a river basin and everybody has a contribution to make" to prevent further environmental damage, the director of WWF's Global Freshwater Programme Jamie Pittock told AFP.

The threats facing river basins are varied and interlinked, and require holistic policies rather than efforts that target just one aspect but can end up being counterproductive, he said.
For example, "as governments become concerned about climate change reducing water run-off, they build more dams to store more water, which then results in more water being extracted from the rivers and so builds up more ecological problems," Pittock said.

Many governments are also focusing on hydro-electric power plants as a "clean" source of energy, but this means more dams which stem water flows and kill off fish populations, he added.

The WWF report highlighted water extraction, dams, and climate change as the most wide-ranging threats that will have the most impact on people, though invasive species and pollution also pose serious problems.

This is particularly the case for China's Yangtze river basin, where decades of heavy industrialisation, damming, and huge influxes of sediment from land conversion have made it one of the world's most polluted rivers, the WWF said.

Over-fishing is the main threat facing the Mekong, while dams and infrastructure projects imperil freshwater habitats in the Salween, La Plata and Danube basins, the report added.

Pittock said it is imperative that countries and corporations address these issues, but praised work already, particularly in China.

"China certainly has big challenges, they also have the resources to provide big solutions.
"The Chinese government has been very active globally consulting with a range of experts.

They haven't turned the corner on the ground yet. The policies they're putting in place have the potential to do so very soon," he said.

The WWF official warned of "dire consequences" if the situation is left unchecked, with increasing risk of conflict over access to water, as well as the spread of disease and a fall in nutrition standards.

"In many places people are not familiar with the scale of the problem ... it is critical that people are involved," he urged.

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Workshop set for Khmer Rouge trials in Cambodia

The Asian International Justice Initiative (‘AIJI’), a collaboration between the East-West Center, Hawaii and the War Crimes Studies Center at the University of California, Berkeley will hold a week-long workshop in international criminal law for Cambodian lawyers. The workshop will be held March 26 through 30 in Phnom Penh.

Working with the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Defense Support Section of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (‘ECCC’), the AIJI workshop will primarily provide Cambodian defense counsel with the opportunity to focus on the key legal issues likely to play a central role in the upcoming trials. This will include an intensive overview of the international crimes contained in the ECCC Law, including crimes against humanity (such as murder, extermination, forced labor and deportation, and sexual violence) as well as genocide. The format, developed by the AIJI in close collaboration with the Principal Defender of the ECCC, Rupert Skilbeck, will be interactive and conducted in seminar style, in order to ensure participation from all parties and to foster a close working relationship between the faculty and participants.

David Cohen, director of the War Crimes Studies Center and the AIJI and EWC adjunct senior fellow, will chair the workshop. He will be joined by a distinguished international faculty of individuals with significant experience at other ‘hybrid’ national/international tribunals. Among those joining Cohen are Alan Gutman, former defense counsel at the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor; and Chief Justice of the Massachusetts State Court of Appeals and former Coordinating Judge at the Special Panels, Phillip Rapoza.

A workshop for the Khmer Rouge trials’ prosecution teams will be conducted by the AIJI in August.

Funding for the workshop comes from a grant to the East-West Center from the British Embassy in Phnom Penh.

The EAST-WEST CENTER is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and the governments of the region.
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CAMBODIA: Khmer Rouge genocide trial back on track

The Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal looks like it might finally be on track. International and Cambodian judges have now agreed on a draft for the internal rules of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Presenter/Interviewer: Barbara Gruber

Speakers: Vann Nath, survivor of Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng prison; Sara Colm, Human Rights Watch Cambodia; Son Chhay, opposition parliamentarian.

GRUBER: Vann Nath is one of only three survivors of Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng prison. It's where more than 14,000 people were tortured and executed during the Khmer Rouge regime. Today the 62 year old runs a small restaurant to support himself and his family.

VANN NATH: I was very fortunate to survive. I was an experienced painter. And when I was in prison they needed me as a painter.

GRUBER: Vann Nath's experience as an artist saw him paint official portraits of brother number one, Pol Pot - the head of the Khmer Rouge. Since then, Vann Nath has been waiting for justice.

VANN NATH: Everyday I look to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, this is my biggest hope because I want to know if there will be justice for those who've already died and for those who are still alive.

GRUBER: The tribunal has suffered many delays and one of the causes has bee dispute over the court's internal rules, including the issue of foreign defence counsels. It's now been agreed that they should take part. But they could face a registration fee. The Cambodian Bar Association plans to charge international lawyers US$2,000 to work in Cambodia. Sara Colm of Human Rights Watch in Cambodia says the move could make international lawyers stay away, so it needs to be resolved.

COLM: In order for these trials to be credible the defendants need credible defence, so if the defendants want international defence they should get that right.

GRUBER: There'll be a plenary meeting in April to formally approval the internal rules. But four international judges have already threatened to boycott the meeting if the fee dispute is not resolved. Sara Colm says the agreement on Internal rules gives the illusion of progress when in fact there is no clear political will for fair and independent trials. She is concerned that the tribunal is not a true international tribunal, but an extension of the Cambodian judicial system.

COLM: The Cambodian judiciary is notorious for being very susceptible to political interference and corruption and there are many, many examples we can point to over the years and the fact that sitting on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal are judges and prosecutors that have been involved in some of the most famous show trials is cause for great concern.

GRUBER: Son Chhay, an opposition parliamentarian, says he believes the Cambodian government has interfered in the work of the tribunal at every stage. He says the majority of the Cambodian judges have no experience in international law and are not independent..

SON CHHAY: We want to have a proper trial of the Khmer Rouge, I am a person who suffered under the Khmer Rouge myself. We have suffered too much under the Khmer Rouge, now this tribunal will not bring us justice, only bring another suffering. I doubt that anything will happen, and if it happens it will only be a showcase, it's not going to be real.

GRUBER: Back in Vann Nath's restaurant, the 62 year old says he is determined to testify.

VANN NATH: I still dream of my effort to survive every night. I believe in the future, not just the past. We can't forget the past, but we have to think of how to avoid brutal regimes in the future. That's why I must live on.

GRUBER: The wrangling over the internal rules of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has consumed almost a third of the tribunal's three-year life span, and time is running out. Close to two million people died of overwork, starvation and execution under the Khmer Rouge. Any more delays will mean that the victims and perpetrators might never see justice before it's too late.
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One big happy family in Cambodia

By Bertil Lintner

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia's rough-and-tumble politics have long been bloody, marred by frequent political assassinations and violence. But never before have they been quite so blood-linked.

The English-language fortnightly Phnom Penh Post published without comment in late February a family tree it had compiled, revealing how the top leaders of the ruling Cambodia People's Party (CPP) have become more intimate through an old-fashioned Cambodian custom: arranged marriage. And the growing family ties run all the way to the top of Cambodia's political pyramid, Prime Minister Hun Sen, Southeast Asia's longest-serving leader.

For instance, there is Hun Sen's brother, Hun Neng, currently serving as governor of Kompong Cham, whose daughter, Hun Kimleng, is married to the deputy commissioner of Cambodia's National Police, Neth Savoeun. Meanwhile, Hun Neng's son, Hun Seang Heng, is married to Sok Sopheak, the daughter of Sok Phal, another deputy commissioner of the National Police.

Hun Sen's 25-year-old son, Hun Manith, is married to Hok Chendavy, the daughter of Hok Lundy, the National Police commissioner. Another of the premier's sons, Hun Many, 24, is married to Yim Chay Lin, the daughter of Yim Chay Li, secretary of state for rural development. One of Hun Sen's daughters, Hun Mali, 23, meanwhile, is married to Sok Puthyvuth, the son of Sok An, Hun Sen's right-hand man and minister of the Council of Ministers.

The friendship between Hun Sen and Sok An dates back to the early 1980s, when Hun Sen was foreign minister and Sok An director of the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Now those personal ties run blood deep as in-laws. And that's just a sampling of the connections at the highest echelons. Heng Samrin, who was Cambodia's head of state from the Vietnamese invasion in January 1979 to the United Nations intervention in 1991, and now serves as president of the National Assembly and honorary CPP president, has a daughter named Heng Sam An, who is married to Pen Kosal, an adviser to Sar Kheng, deputy prime minister and minister of the interior - as well as brother-in-law of Senate and CPP president Chea Sim. Heng Samrin's adviser, Cham Nimol, is the daughter of Cham Prasidh, minister of commerce. Another of Cham Pradish's daughters, Cham Krasna, is engaged to Sok Sokann, another of minister Sok An's sons.
Sar Kheng's son, Sar Sokha, meanwhile, is married to Ke Sunsophy, daughter of Ke Kim Yan, commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. And Hun Sen's wife, Bun Ramy, currently serves as president of the Cambodian Red Cross, while its second vice president, Theng Ay Anny, aka Sok An Anny, is Sok An's wife.

Family traditionsThere has been no official reaction to the Phnom Penh Post's revealing study. Intermarriage among members of the ruling political and business elites is not uncommon in Asia. In neighboring Thailand, Field Marshal Phin Choonhavan's son, Chatichai Choonhavan, became prime minister of Thailand, while his daughter, Khun Ying Udomlak married Phao Sriyanond, director general of the Thai police.

Another high-ranking Thai army officer, Thanom Kittikachorn, was the brother-in-law of fellow military dictator Praphas Charusathien, while his son, Narong Kittikachorn, also became a military strongman, while his sister Songsuda married Suvit Yodmani, who has served with several Thai governments. Sino-Thai tycoons are known to have arranged their children's marriages to members of other top business families to progress their commercial interests. But in Cambodia's case, where many of the political elite were wiped out during Khmer Rouge-led purges between 1975 and 1979, the number of political marriages is extraordinary. And these new family ties between the children of ministers and top officials potentially set the stage for the CPP's grip on power to continue for generations.

Significantly, the CPP's family connection is emerging simultaneously with a waning of the royal family's influence over national politics. Ever since Hun Sen and his inner circle of friends and advisers ousted former prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh in a 1997 coup, the royalist Funcinpec party's political fortunes have waned. Ranariddh was forced into exile after the bloody putsch that killed many of his party members, but later returned to Cambodia to become president of the National Assembly after inconclusive general elections in 2003, when the CPP was unable to garner enough votes to form a one-party government and after much squabbling joined with Funcinpec in a wobbly coalition.

One of the sons of former king Norodom Sihanouk and half-brother of the present monarch, Sihamoni, Ranariddh resigned that post last March and subsequently left the country again. While he was away, he was dismissed as co-chairman of the Council for the Development of Cambodia as well as the National Olympic Committee. He later returned to Cambodia - and was ousted as president of Funcinpec, the main opposition party, amid an internal power struggle in October that many political analysts believe Hun Sen had a hand in. Not surprisingly, perhaps, several of Funcinpec's original leaders were also related.

Ranariddh's uncle and former king Norodom Sihanouk's younger half-brother, Norodom Sirivudh, served as foreign minister in a Funcinpec-led government in 1993. Ranariddh's half-brother, Norodom Chakrapong, meanwhile, helped found Funcinpec but later defected to the CPP. Their half-sister and Sihanouk's eldest child, Norodom Bopha Devi, has served as minister of information and culture, while her latest consort, Khek Vandy, was elected to the National Assembly on a Funcinpec list in 1998. But Funcinpec's family pride has waned considerably since it emerged as the biggest party in the UN-supervised elections in May 1993, when it captured 45% of the popular vote and outpaced the CPP, which came in a close second with 38%. Many political observers think Ranariddh's recent ouster from Funcinpec may represent his last political gasp. His former Funcinpec colleagues recently sued him on allegations that he embezzled US$3.6 million from the sale of the party's headquarters last August.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court found the prince guilty and sentenced him - in absentia - to 18 years in prison. Ranariddh had recently set up a new party, aptly named the Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP). Funcinpec, the NRP and the opposition Sam Rainsy Party will be among 10 different political parties standing against the CPP juggernaut in upcoming commune council elections, which are scheduled for April 1 and widely viewed as a bellwether indicator for next year's general elections. It may well be an April Fool's election, with the opposition fractured and vulnerable and the CPP allegedly pursuing a campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition candidates and their supporters in rural areas.

Khieu Kanharith, CPP minister of information, predicted on February 22 that his party would win about 97% or 98% of the positions in the commune councils, and 95% of the vote in the general elections next year. That may well be the case, as Cambodia is fast morphing into a one-party state dominated by the CPP.

The Phnom Penh Post in its February 9 edition quoted a foreign diplomat as saying: "The CPP controls the government, the National Assembly, the Senate, 99% of the village chiefs, the provincial governments. Their influence goes through the judiciary, through the police ... Practically everything is controlled by one party." That assessment would appear to jibe with 55-year-old Hun Sen's January 9 pronouncement that he does not intend to stand down from the premiership until he is at least 90 years old. By then, a third generation of CPP family-tied politicians and officials, if everything goes according to the apparent plan, will just be coming of political age. Read more!

New Digs for ‘Queen of the Fish’

BATTAMBANG II, a grocery near Fordham University in the Bronx, could easily be considered a video and magazine store that also sells groceries. A wall is dedicated to contemporary Cambodian movies and karaoke videos, and the shelves are laden with Cambodian fashion magazines and Khmer-language newspapers. The small back room bulges with thousands of VHS tapes of serialized Cambodian soap operas and folk tales.

The store, which is owned by a Cambodian named Tek Vandy and is named for the city that is the birthplace of many of the 2,000 Cambodians living in Fordham and University Heights, has now raised its profile even further as a clearinghouse for Cambodian popular culture. An actual Cambodian movie star is in residence, one who despite her stardom can be found bundling vegetables and making change.

Mr. Vandy, a sharp dresser who favors Polo shirts and sports a watch bearing the image of the Cambodian prime minister, was married last April to Ratana Veth, a popular Cambodian actress and karaoke singer whom he met during a trip home in 2005. In September, the 43-year-old Mr. Vandy brought his 24-year-old bride to New York, and since then the two have spent weekends barnstorming the country’s other Cambodian neighborhoods, where Ms. Veth sings on the Khmer heritage festival circuit.

These days, all the free wall space in Mr. Vandy’s store is devoted to posters advertising events that give top billing to a heavily made-up Ms. Veth, dressed in the brightly colored silk gowns that constitute traditional Khmer formalwear. “Dance Party With Cambodian Movie Star,” proclaims one poster promoting a New Year’s Eve affair in Long Beach, Calif.; others describe similar gatherings in Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Philadelphia and Lowell, Mass.

Cambodian actresses and karaoke singers — the country’s equivalent of pop stars — have immigrated to those cities, Mr. Vandy said, but Ms. Veth is the first to settle in New York, which has a relatively small Cambodian community.

One recent day in the store, at 229 East Kingsbridge Road, Ms. Veth was less formally dressed but looked no less elegant in tight black slacks, open-toed black high heels and a pink-and-white-striped Tommy Hilfiger blouse as she helped her husband tie rubber bands around bundles of potato leaves in the store’s back room.

“I still miss Cambodia very much, but I’m happy that my movies help people who also miss Cambodia,” said Ms. Veth, who says she prefers traditional roles based on Khmer folk tales to the racier material that appears in Cambodian cinema.

Whatever her preferences, she is a decided draw in this corner of the Bronx.

“Customers come in all the time and ask to see her,” said Mr. Vandy, who interprets for his wife. “They say, ‘I’ve seen you on TV, and now I am seeing the real thing.’ ” The fans tend to be older, because, as he explained, “the young people all watch American movies.”

Like Mr. Vandy, most of the local Cambodians arrived in the 1980s, refugees from the repressive Pol Pot regime. Many of their children either were very young when their families emigrated or were born in refugee camps, and have no memories of their home country. While their parents, many traumatized from the war years, struggled to assimilate, the younger generation drifted away from Khmer culture and language.

But for older Cambodians, Ms. Veth’s arrival has been big news. Moreover, because she had a backlog of unreleased films when she left Cambodia, DVDs of her new movies are still arriving at the grocery.

In one popular new release, whose title is loosely translated as “Queen of the Fish,” Ms. Veth plays a mermaid; in another, she portrays a ghost who seeks vengeance against the thief who robbed her grave of her wedding ring, along with the finger it encircled. Particularly popular among Cambodian traditionalists is the DVD of her wedding to Mr. Vandy, an hourlong, 12-act opus with no shortage of traditional songs and dances, banquets and monks’ blessings.

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ADB, Cambodia cooperate in conserving resources of Tonle Sap Great Lake

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Cambodia are working together to conserve the resources of Tonle Sap Great Lake while pursuing pro-poor development initiatives in the area, said ADB in a news release Friday.

ADB and the Cambodian government jointly held a forum in Phnom Penh this month to address the issue, said ADB.

"The forum helped build a stronger sense of ownership of the Initiative among a wide cross section of people involved in this important effort," said Arjun Goswami, ADB country director for Cambodia. "This is a vital step in the effort to restore the environment and improve the livelihood of communities in the Tonle Sap Great Lake."

The Tonle Sap, located north of Cambodia's capital, is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. The ecosystem around the lake is a direct and irreplaceable source of livelihood for more than 1 million people, and an area of environmental biodiversity of global significance, said ADB.

The forum on the Tonle Sap Initiative, which ended on March 6, brought together more than 200 people from ADB, Cambodia, development partners and members of communities living on and around the lake.

Forum participants examined the challenges ahead to achieve equitable development of the Tonle Sap basin and discussed the policies and legal framework that will be needed.

"There is a risk that some of the poor and marginalized could be increasingly left behind," said Urooj Malik, director of the Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Division of ADB's Southeast Asia Department. "It is vital to involve them more in the process of formulating policies designed to improve their conditions."

A major need identified at the forum was for closer coordination of government policies, laws and regulations related to the Tonle Sap Basin, including "harmonization of those concerning natural resources management, zonation of land and water use, and infrastructure development such as roads, water and sanitation and irrigation," said ADB.

Source: Xinhua .
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Chief defense lawyer vows to prevent collapse of Khmer Rouge tribunal

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: The chief defense lawyer for the long-delayed Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal said Saturday he will try to resolve a key sticking point over fees for foreign lawyers that threatens to derail the trials.

Rupert Skilbeck, the head of the defense support section for the U.N.-backed tribunal, said he wants to meet with the Cambodian Bar Association in the coming days to "see if we can find the way to resolve the problem." He said he was confident an agreement could be reached.

The impasse involves a recent decision by the Cambodian Bar Association to charge foreign lawyers hundreds of dollars (euros) to represent defendants or victims in the long-awaited tribunal, which was scheduled to begin later this year.

The issue became public Friday after Cambodian and international judges finished a 10-day meeting to thrash out differences over draft internal rules for the genocide trials, but said the legal fee dispute had prevented their adoption.

Ky Tech, president of the Cambodian Bar Association, declined comment Saturday. He also refused to discuss details of the legal fees.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper reported Saturday that the bar has decided that foreign lawyers wishing to participate in the tribunal must pay a US$500 (€375) membership application fee to the bar.

If chosen to work with a client, they must pay an additional US$2,000 (€1,500) and a US$200 (€150) monthly fee, the newspaper said..

The international judges may boycott a plenary meeting next month if the fee issue is not resolved, the tribunal office said in a statement Friday.

It said the judges discussed, during their meetings, "in exhaustive detail many points and resolved all remaining disagreements, although some fine tuning remains to be done."

But it indicated that the international judges believed that the proposed fee was an obstacle to adopting the agreed rules, while the Cambodia judges believed the fee was irrelevant to the package of rules.

"It is unacceptable to the international judges, who consider that it severely limits the rights of accused and victims to select counsel of their choice," the statement said.

The radical policies of the now-defunct Khmer Rouge, who held power in 1975-79, led to the deaths of about 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition. But none of the communist group's leaders has been brought to trial.

Squabbling over details about the rules to govern the trials has eaten up nearly a third of the tribunal's three-year planned life span. Further delay could mean that former Khmer Rouge leaders — now old and ailing — will never be brought to trial.

Prosecutors are expected to indict about 10 defendants, including the few surviving top Khmer Rouge leaders.

The tribunal was created by a 2003 agreement between Cambodia and the United Nations after years of difficult negotiations.
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Vietnam eyes more overland trade with Cambodia

A directive signed by Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem calls for the checkpoints in the central highlands province of Gia Lai and southern provinces of Dong Thap and Kien Giang to be upgraded from national to international level.

Three others in Dak Lak, Long An, and Kien Giang provinces will be elevated to national-level checkpoints.

Two new local facilities are to be opened, one in Tay Ninh province and the other in Binh Phuoc province.

Last year Vietnam’s exports to Cambodia were worth $780 million, mainly of clothes, electrical cables, domestic plastic products, noodles, and electronic spare parts.

It imported rubber, forest, and agricultural products worth around $170 million from Cambodia.
Vietnam-Cambodia trade is expected to grow by 27 percent annually to reach US$2.45 billion by 2010.

Meanwhile, at a conference in Vung Tau city Thursday, Vietnamese and Cambodian health officials agreed to cooperate on border quarantine control to check the spread of contagious diseases like bird flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

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Campaigning in Cambodia's local elections begins

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Election campaigning began Friday for new local governing councils across Cambodia, an apparent effort to transfer more political power from the central government to the countryside.

But some observers said the polls are more likely to consolidate the power of Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party.

The election, scheduled for April 1, will choose councils to administer 1,621 communes and sangkats, which are clusters of villages and urban neighborhoods.

Twelve political parties fielding a total of 102,266 candidates are competing in the elections, which are held every five years. Trucks carrying party supporters and draped with political banners wound their way through the streets of the capital Phnom Penh. Supporters chanted their campaign messages through bullhorns to woo voters.

The first local election was held Feb. 2002. Until then, the communes were ruled by chiefs appointed by the Interior Ministry..

Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party, which has maintained a firm grip on power during the last three decades, won overwhelmingly in the last local election and is expected to emerge victorious again.

The countryside has traditionally been dominated by Hun Sen's party followers.

Although the election is meant to decentralize power, Hang Puthea, executive director of Cambodian nonprofit election monitoring group Nicfec, said that it will not lead to any fundamental changes.

"This election is merely going to strengthen the current ruling party. And as already expected, the Cambodian People's Party will (again) lead in the number of local governing councils," he said.

Citing the proportional Cambodian electoral system, where candidates are appointed by their parties, Hang Puthea said elected candidates usually carry out their duties with political loyalty rather than public interest, in mind.

"I do not know how many more generations (it will take before) decentralization can fully function" in Cambodia, he said.

On Thursday, Hun Sen called for peaceful campaigning and ordered security forces to ensure safety and security until the election is over.
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Maha Ghosananda, Called Cambodia’s Gandhi, Dies

The Venerable Maha Ghosananda, a Buddhist monk who led the rebuilding of his religion in Cambodia, calling for peace and reconciliation after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, died Monday in Northampton, Mass. He was in his late 70s and lived in Providence, R.I., and Leverett, Mass.

The death was confirmed by Christina Trinchero, a spokeswoman for Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.

Cambodian monks elected Maha Ghosananda (his monastic name) as a supreme Buddhist patriarch in 1988. By then, his efforts to bring solace to a nation in which more than 1.5 million people were starved, worked to death or executed under the Communist dictatorship of Pol Pot had inspired many to call him “the Cambodian Gandhi.”

In his 2002 book “The Future of Peace: On the Front Lines With the World’s Great Peacemakers,” Scott A. Hunt, a professor of Buddhism at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote that Maha Ghosananda’s ability to forgive those “responsible for the murder of his entire family is incomprehensible,” until one heard his explanation of Buddhism.

Maha Ghosananda said he “does not question that loving one’s oppressors — Cambodians loving the Khmer Rouge — may be the most difficult attitude to achieve,” then added, “But it is the law of the universe that retaliation, hatred and revenge only continue the cycle.”

Reconciliation, he continued, “means that we see ourselves as the opponent; for what is the opponent but a being in ignorance, and we ourselves are also ignorant of many things.”

Somdet Phra Maha Ghosananda was born in Takeo, Cambodia, in 1929. He was initiated into the Cambodian Buddhist Order in 1943. In 1969, he received a doctorate from Nalanda University in Bihar State, India.

He was living in a monastery in southern Thailand when a five-year civil war ended in Cambodia in 1976, with Pol Pot establishing what he called Democratic Kampuchea. Within days, almost the entire population of Phnom Penh, the capital, had been marched into the countryside to do forced labor. The Khmer Rouge closed about 3,600 Buddhist temples throughout the country.

By the time Vietnamese forces overthrew the regime 44 months later, only about 3,000 of Cambodia’s 60,000 Buddhist priests were still alive.

By then, Maha Ghosananda had already trekked from one refugee camp to another along the border with Thailand, establishing Buddhist temples and training new monks. He continued that work throughout the country after the ouster of Pol Pot.

Maha Ghosananda moved to Massachusetts in the late 1980s at the invitation of a Buddhist order in Leverett. But in 1991 he returned to Cambodia to lead a 16-day pilgrimage across the country — gathering followers from village after village — in the first of what became known as the Dhammayietra Walks for Peace and Reconciliation.

In 1998, the Niwano Peace Foundation of Japan awarded Maha Ghosananda its peace prize, saying in its citation that “through these walks, Maha Ghosananda became a bridge of peace — bringing together people who had been separated by war — and wiped away their fears with his call for peace.”

Pointing out that Maha Ghosananda had promoted nonviolence as a remedy for other causes, including deforestation and the use of land mines, the foundation also said, “In both spirit and deed, he has shown the way to a fundamental resolution of regional and ethnic strife around the world.”

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CAMBODIA: Ousted Prince Ranariddh condemns conviction

Cambodia's Prince Norodom Ranariddh has condemned his fraud conviction in a Phnom Penh court this week, describing it as a grave injustice and politically motivated. And he's accused his long time nemesis Prime Minister Hun Sen of playing a direct role in ensuring the guilty verdict.

Presenter/Interviewer: Linda LoPresti
Speakers: Cambodia's ousted leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh

RANARIDDH: I feel personally a great sense of injustice against myself and it is clearly politically motivated. I think that what Hun Sen, the Prime Minister of Cambodia did against me is to put pressure on me and to prevent me in particular from having political activity, and in particular, during the upcoming elections.

LOPRESTI: Indeed, this conviction keeps you out of the country. It means you can't take part in both next month's local elections or national elections to be held in 2008. So what of your political career in Cambodia?

RANARIDDH: Oh, I think madam, I can have a party which bears my own name. There is no doubt about it and so I will continue to have my party, my canidates, who very, very eager now to compete in the elections. As for my political career, I think that the national community will realise once again that we cannot talk about democracy, about liberalism, about pluralism if Norodom Ranariddh and his party are not allowed to participate in the next general elections.

LOPRESTI: Your own political organisation, the Norodom Ranariddh Party which you formed after being ousted from Funcinpec. Your party though, how can it make any headway in these elections without you at the helm?

RANARIDDH: I think that on the contrary, the injustice that let's say the tribunal against me, on the contrary instead of discouraging my followers, it has provided to them a sense of great courage, determination, to fight in render justice to me.

LOPRESTI: So, you're saying that because of this trial which you've described as politically motivated, it will make people, it will gather more support for your party, for the NRP?

RANARIDDH: Absolutely, absolutely madam, you are right.

LOPRESTI: Prince Ranariddh, what are your plans now? There are reports that you will write to your brother, King Norodom Sihamoni in a letter detailing the trial's irregularities. Is that something you will do?.

RANARIDDH: Absolutely, absolutely. I will write to him, not in his capacity as my younger brother, but in his capacity of president of the Supreme Council. I like to show to him that the justice in Cambodia is that everything else but not justice at all. Why Hun Sen said that he would not ask my brother, he must be the king to give me amnesty. He has no right to say that. Because on the one hand, the king has the full right without consulting anyone to grant any amnesty to anyone.

LOPRESTI: Well, in 1998, after you were sentenced to 35 years in prison for allegedly plotting a coup with the Khmer Rouge a year earlier, you were saved by a royal parden from your father, former King Norodom Sihanouk. Will you be seeking a royal pardon this time round?

RANARIDDH: I think that I will wait for one or two more days to have a clearer picture. I think that the first thing is to mobilise my people and on the otherhand to send as I mentioned earlier, a letter to his Majesty the King.

LOPRESTI: Just finally Prince Ranariddh, you live in Paris these days. Do you think you're ever going to return to Phnom Penh and have a successful political career?

RANARIDDH: I hope that like in 1998 I will be allowed to go back and to continue my political career. Read more!

B.C. man charged under sex tourist laws

VANCOUVER - A British Columbia man has been charged under Canada's sex-tourism legislation, the RCMP said Tuesday.

Kenneth Robert Klassen, 56, of Burnaby was arrested Friday and is charged with 35 sex offences allegedly involving 17 victims in Colombia, Cambodia and the Philippines.

The international art dealer remains in custody and is scheduled to appear Monday in Vancouver provincial court.

It's only the third time in Canada that a man has been charged under the sex tourism law, which aims to protect children in foreign countries from sexual exploitation by Canadians.

The law was introduced a decade ago, but was recently amended to make such crimes easier for police to investigate by eliminating the need for them to seek consent of the foreign country where the crimes allegedly occurred.

The first prosecution was Donald Michel Bakker of Penticton, B.C., who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 after police discovered videotapes showing him sexually assaulting Vancouver prostitutes and young girls in Cambodia.

The 2.5-year investigation began at Vancouver's International Airport on Aug. 27, 2004, when officers with Canada Border Service Agency identified a suspicious parcel found to contain undeclared DVDs, which contained child pornography images.

The parcel, destined for a home in Burnaby, was turned over to the RCMP for investigation. The parcel was monitored and was allegedly picked up by Klassen, who was arrested at the time.

Search warrants were executed on his home and a storage locker, where police seized a video camera and 21 DVDs that allegedly containing video clips of Klassen having sex with 92 girls in three countries.

Police allege the DVDs contained images of the accused allegedly having illegal sex with girls ranging in age from nine- to 18-years-old.

The 35 charges involve 17 alleged victims - six Colombians, eight Cambodians and three in the Philippines.

RCMP Cpl. Pierre Lemaitre credited Foreign Affairs and international police agencies for co-operation, including help from the FBI and police in Colombia and the Philippines.
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Cambodian tribunal mired by dispu

PHNOM PENH (AP) -- Bickering between Cambodian and international judges has all but paralyzed the effort to bring members of the Khmer Rouge regime to justice for their murderous rule in the late 1970s.

The first trials had been expected this year, but the special tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia, has been bogged down by infighting that many say could cripple the proceedings entirely.

Cambodian and UN-appointed judges wrap up a 10-day meeting Friday aimed at thrashing out their differences on how to integrate Cambodian and international law. The tribunal was set up to operate with the Cambodian judicial system, but with protections against corruption and political manipulation. Squabbling over details about the rules to govern the trials has eaten up nearly a third of the tribunal's three-year plan. Further delay could mean that former Khmer Rouge leaders will never be brought to trial for turning Cambodia into the bloody land of "the Killing Fields."

"It's a race against time," said Theo Kidess, charge d'affaires of the German Embassy, whose country has contributed more than $3 million to the tribunal's $56.3 million budget.
"There's a growing impatience and definitely a sense of urgency that we need to get this done with," he said.

The radical policies of the now-defunct Khmer Rouge, who held power in 1975-79, led to the deaths of about 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition. But not one of the communist group's leaders has ever been brought to trial.

Pol Pot, the movement's leader, died in 1998. Ta Mok, its military chief, was imprisoned pending court charges, but died last July. Kaing Khek Iev, who headed the infamous Khmer Rouge S-21 torture center — also known as Tuol Sleng, and now a genocide museum — is the only leader now in custody awaiting trial.

Pol Pot's top lieutenants Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan are alive but aging, with serious medical problems. There's a fair chance that death will put a claim on them ahead of any judge.

The tribunal was created by a 2003 agreement between the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the United Nations after six years of difficult negotiations and would-be withdrawals by both sides.

Vann Nath, one of the handful of survivors among the more than 14,000 prisoners who passed through S-21, said he is losing hope.

"Frankly speaking, the hope I have nurtured all along is rotting away now," said the 62-year-old artist, who is battling chronic kidney disease. He said he desires "only partial justice, not an ultimate one, and if we cannot even get that, our lives seem worthless."

Patching up the differences "is not 'mission impossible,'" said David Scheffer, a former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues.

But there "is certainly a possibility that the international judges, or some of them, might quit if the negotiations collapse on the internal rules," said Scheffer, who helped negotiate the creation of the tribunal in the early stages.

"Hun Sen wants to keep control, and that's the bottom line," said Brad Adams, director of the Asia division of New York-based Human Rights Watch, referring to Cambodia's prime minister.

The prime minister's critics have long speculated that he would not like to see too extensive a list of defendants, which could include former middle-ranking Khmer Rouge members who later became his allies. Hun Sen himself was a junior Khmer Rouge cadre who defected from the group before it was overthrown in 1979.

Muddying the waters further has been an allegation that Cambodian court personnel, including judges, had to kick back a significant percentage of their wages to Cambodian government officials in exchange for their jobs. Cambodian judges have dismissed the accusation.

The United Nations Development Program, which is managing some of the tribunal's funds, also has raised concerns about the transparency of the tribunal's hiring process. Scheffer warns that without the trials and their official record, Cambodian society "will never fully recognize the significance of what occurred and of the nation's responsibility to prevent such crimes in the future."

On the Net: Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: http://www.eccc.gov.kh United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials: http://www.unakrt-online.org
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