Cambodia here on Wednesday convened a seminar named as "Avoid the Oil Curse," in efforts to prepare on legal and theoretical bases for the expected influx of oil revenues around 2010.
"We have to have the legal framework in order to avoid 'oil curse.' We have learned lessons from other countries bound with such a curse, especially Nigeria," Phan Sina, chairman of the Investment Committee of the Cambodian National Assembly, told the seminar.
Cambodia is trying to find legal assistance and technique from international institutions to help to prepare the law, he said.
"Except for the Cambodian Sea, we also have oil and gas in the Tonle Sap Lake, so we have to establish a clear legal framework to manage oil and gas benefits," he added.
Ian Gary, policy advisor for extractive industries from the Oxfam American, told reporters that Cambodia has to guard against the mentality that "let's just enjoy the party while it lasts," in case of its expectation for oil revenues.
The government has to think about how "to diversify and create new jobs, because oil by itself doesn't create jobs," he said.
NGOs like the Oxfam American will also "encourage the government to be more transparent about how money coming from the oil industry is being managed and spent," he added.
Meanwhile, other experts and technicians at the seminar warned that Cambodia needs to keep its expectation under control, as it still remains unclear exactly how much oil is under the sea and whether the kingdom can become a significant energy producer at last.
Oil revenues are also expected to give equal benefits and chances to all the Cambodians and not to cause rebellious movement on basis of inequality and injustice, they added.
Back to February, the United States Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli said that the Cambodian government should avoid the situation that "a small corrupt elite siphons off revenue that should go to improving the welfare of all the people."
Leaders of the countries should have the political will to demand that the revenues from these extractive industries be used solely for the improvement of the country, he told a national economic conference.
Addressing the same occasion, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that "the revenues from the recently confirmed discovery of oil reserves will provide additional money for financing development projects in Cambodia. These revenues will be directed to productive investment and poverty reduction."
"We will make sure that oil is a blessing but not a curse," he said, adding that the kingdom, with 35 percent of its people still living in poverty, will adopt a way of independence to develop the future industry rather than depending on other countries or partners.
"Oil curse" used to mean that countries rich in oil can't benefit from the resource but instead become trapped with corruption and injustice due to their poor management capability.
Oil buzz started in Cambodia in 2005, when U.S. energy giant Chevron Corp discovered petroleum off its coast, striking black in four of five test wells.
Since then, firms from France, South Korea and Japan have been reportedly seeking for exploration licenses from the Cambodian government.
Currently, Cheveron from the United States, LG from South Korea, and a Japanese company have invested and conducted exploration in the oil and gas fields in off-sea Cambodia.
The government declines to give exact figures about the oil reserves. The World Bank has put them at two billion barrels while the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) confirmed 700 million barrels.
A UNDP study implied that future oil revenues alone could provide over three times the kingdom's official development assistance received in 2005.
Source: Xinhua.
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Thursday, April 12, 2007
Roundup: Cambodia mobilized to ward off "oil curse"
Bay Area man who traveled to Cambodia for sex with minors sentenced
(04-11) 14:26 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A Bay Area man who pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage girl while in Cambodia was sentenced this week to 64 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
Michael Koklich, 49, who is also known as Michael Light, was indicted in 2006 on charges of violating a so-called sex tourism law, which makes it a crime to engage in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. Koklich, who lived part-time in Cambodia and in various Bay Area locations, was arrested in Phnom Penh in February 2006.
Koklich admitted to investigators that he had sexual relations with two girls, ages 11 and 13, according to court documents, and said he paid them $10 to $20 for each encounter. The claims were bolstered by interviews with the victims, prosecutors said in court documents.
He also told investigators that he had had sex with 40 to 50 underage girls in Cambodia over the course of three years, court records show.
Prosecutors also wrote in court documents that Koklich wrote letters to his adult Cambodian girlfriend after his arrest and asked her to pay off the victims and the families to discourage them from testifying against him.
Under an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office, Koklich pleaded guilty to one of two counts, and agreed to pay $5,000 to each victim.
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Cambodoia'sKangaroo Judge outraged International Views
Judge Saly Theara took minutes to uphold the August 2005 sentence against Born Samnang, 27, and Sok Sam Oeun, 40, for the January 2004 shooting death of opposition-aligned union leader Chea Vichea. The two men were not present in court.
After a hearing that featured a string of witnesses saying Samnang had been 60 kilometres away at the time of the shooting, that the two men had never met prior to being charged and that confessions were made by the men under duress, Theara said he was unmoved.
Without waiting for lawyers to arrive at the court, Theara also ignored the summations of the prosecutor in the case that there were huge gaps in the police case and he wanted further investigations. The judge instead said the defence had failed to prove Samnang and Oeun were not the ones who gunned down Vichea in broad daylight on a busy city street as he read the newspaper.
Theara also took the word of a guesthouse owner who did not appear but placed Samnang at his premises on the day of the shooting over the testimony of Samnang's wife, mother-in-law and friends who vouched he was in the provinces celebrating his wedding. The judge said the crime occurred in January, which was not a normal month for weddings.
The families and lawyers of the defendants condemned the decision as unfair and called it a crushing blow. Sam Oeun is known to be suffering serious health problems in prison.
The prosecution case against the pair was led by since disgraced former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Pov, currently serving 25 years in jail for the murder of a senior judge and false imprisonment, but Theara did not consider Pov's convictions.
Pov is expected to face further charges, including a number for murders and attempted murders.
A spokesman for prominent local human-rights group Licadho said a group of rights groups intended to release a joint statement later in the day, but at the moment 'everyone is in complete shock.'
'In the traditional Cambodian court system, people are innocent until proven guilty,' he said. 'In this case, even the prosecutor admitted that after three years, he still had gaps in his case and failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.'
'How the judge can still reach this verdict is a mystery to us here at Licadho,' the spokesman said.
Peter Leuprecht, the special representative of the UN secretary general for human rights in Cambodia, called the Vichea verdict into question as early as 2004, saying the evidence pointed to the men's innocence, and groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly demanded the men's release.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Vietnam will control all sensitive information in Cambodia
Vietnam telcom firms win deals with Laos, Cambodia
Two affiliates of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) have inked business contracts to supply telcom services in Laos and Cambodia, local newspaper Nguoi Lao Dong reported Wednesday.
The contracts were inked on the sidelines of the ICT Digital & Electronics World Expo 2007, the largest of its kind held annually in Cambodia, jointly held by Cambodia’s National ICT Development Authority (NIDA) and Vietnam’s IDG World Expo.
Vina LSC won a $356,000 contract to supply fiber optic cables for the Laos National Telecommunications Company.
VDC, a software services provider, signed a deal with Cambodian firm AngKor Net to help increase the Internet transmission cable line from 6Mb to 10Mb. The two sides would continue the business contract in the future to raise the capacity for the line to 60Mb-70Mb.
The April 6-8 expo in Phnom Penh attracted 40 local and foreign companies, from Singapore, China, Malaysia and the European Union, and Vietnam.
VNPT, the platinum sponsor for the event, showcased its latest IT products and solutions such as NGN (New Generation Network) and new value-added services for internet, fixed-line telephones and mobile phones.
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Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Cambodia reflected in Iran
BOSTON: When I saw pictures of the British sailors and marines, on the eve of their freedom from Iran, dressed in ill-fitting suits that Iranian tailors had run up for them, memory raced back nearly 40 years when a similar drama was being played out in another country of which the United States then disapproved.
It was Cambodia in the autumn of 1968, in that last twilight time before regime change, war, and the Khmer Rouge tore that country to pieces. Prince Norodom Sihanouk had managed to keep Cambodia out of the inferno that was raging in neighboring Laos and Vietnam, but the United States was cross at him for allowing the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese to use his territory - not that he really had any choice.
Some American soldiers, on a river boat, had wandered up the Mekong from Vietnam into Cambodian territory and been captured. Sihanouk played the incident with the same theatricality as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran did with his British prisoners.
"When we do something from Islamic compassion, we expect nothing in return," Ahmadinejad said, and so he freed his prisoners as a gift.
Sihanouk used the occasion of a national holiday to release his captives. He, too, had sent tailors around the jail to measure his prisoners for new suits - white linen suits in this case. Sihanouk threw in neckties as well - the tie of his political organization. Like the Iranians, he made a public spectacle of his country's generosity, and spoke, too, of religion.
"I love Buddha," he said in his high-pitched voice, "all Cambodians are small Buddhas" and they would be compassionate and let the prisoners go. But he refused to give back their boat. "It has no heart, it has no soul, it will do very well here with our little navy," he said.
I was amused when a Financial Times editorial used the word "mercurial" when referring to Ahamadinejad. That was the favorite adjective newspapers used for Sihanouk, although for my money Sihanouk had much more to recommend him than the Iranian president.
Scarcely 18 months later, Sihanouk was deposed. I have never believed that the Americans were directly involved in the coup, but they certainly encouraged it, and took advantage of it. An American invasion, and a no-quarter war followed for five years, until the long, genocidal night of the Khmer Rouge descended across the land.
It was the final spasm of a disastrous American foreign-policy mistake that had engulfed Indochina, and I thought, when it was finally over, that a painful lesson had been learned. I was wrong.
Some of the same characters in the American government who later brought us Iraq - Vice President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld high among them - took the wrong lesson away from the Indochina debacle. They thought: Just give us another chance and we'll get it right.
They didn't get it right, of course, and now Iran is in America's crosshairs. It is probably fortunate for Ahmadinejad that his captives were not Americans for it is unlikely that the Bush administration would have played the incident with the same skill as the British. A hostage crisis might have been just what Cheney needed to press for an attack upon Iran.
It is unlikely that Iran's dramatic release of the British servicemen, and one woman, will gain any good will with the Bush administration, any more than Sihanouk's gesture did with Nixon. In the end Congress closed down the Indochina war, and the last fighter bomber flying the last mission flew away with the pilot playing "Turkey in the Straw" on his harmonica over the radio.
Terrible things happened to Indochina after American power was withdrawn, and reasonable people worry that the same things will happen in Iraq. But the real betrayal was going in, not out, and the great mistake was to believe that the American public support would keep a losing war going on forever.
Iraq has passed beyond the ability of the United States to control in anything but the most temporary and superficial way. General David Petraeus undoubtedly spoke the truth when he said: "The Washington clock is moving faster than the Baghdad clock."
The Iraq drama will play out to its inevitable end, but if Congress really wants to do some good it should start putting up every possible legal barrier to a war with Iran.
Correction: My apologies to the ghost of Horatio Herbert Kitchener for misnaming him in last week's column.
H. D. S. Greenway's column appears regularly in The Boston Globe.
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Village tours offer glimpse of the "real" Cambodia
SIEM REAP, Cambodia (Reuters Life!) - The village where rickshaw driver Buntheoun lives is only 15 minutes away from Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples, yet it might as well be hundreds of miles away.
There are no tourists, no signboards depicting the 800-year-old ruins and the gaggle of kids playing among the modest wooden homes aren't pushing you to buy anything.
This is the side of Siem Reap that tourists rarely see, but hotels and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) helping the poverty-stricken villagers want that to change.
Hotels catering to all price ranges now offer travellers a chance to connect with the locals in one of Cambodia's poorest provinces at the same time as seeing the sights.
Earthwalkers, which runs a local guesthouse, organises tours of the area called "NGO trips", costing $12 and with most of the money going towards villagers, many of whom would otherwise be getting by on less than a dollar a day.
The full-day trip includes visits to local orphanages, a silk farm, a non-profit hospital and a landmine museum -- a grim reminder of Cambodia's recent past, from the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" to decades of civil war.
The tours can also include visits to the home of locals who have received aid from the NGO, such as 34-year-old Buntheoun.
Thomas Holdo Hansen, one of the Norwegian siblings who started Earthwalkers five years ago, says visitors to the temples should see the "real" Siem Reap.
"The average length of a tourist stay in Siem Reap is less than three days. Many people come in a group, see the temples and fly out. They don't leave much behind," he said.
"We believe our trips will enhance guests' experience. This is not 'instead of' but 'in addition' to the temples."
The 20-room, basic Earthwalkers hostel bustles with independent travellers and local staff who receive training through the non-profit Earthwalkers Fund.
But if you want to help the locals without sacrificing luxury, stay at the Hotel De La Paix, which offers packages starting from $639 that include a Khmer menu and visits to some of the neediest villages in the province.
SIGHT-SEEING AND SEWING MACHINES
"Our community focus is extended everywhere in the hotel, from the food to the Arts Lounge, which showcases traditional and contemporary Cambodian arts," said Noelene Henderson, the hotel's director of sales and marketing.
With the help of guest donations, the hotel is funding a small sewing centre for disadvantaged girls. Overseen by a monk, the centre will soon produce its first batch of graduates, and each with get her own sewing machine.
"We have 29 girls, mostly from outside Siem Reap, who used to work in brick factories or come from abusive families. They're usually illiterate so we teach them not only sewing skills but English and social skills," said director Hoeurn Somnieng.
Hotel De La Paix's sister property, Shinta Mani, also encourages guests to participate in community projects. The most popular initiative is building water wells, which costs $90, according to General Manager Chitra Vincent.
The hotel can also arrange a visit to the nearby village of Prie, where the parched land has been transformed into fertile fields for 250 families.
Here, kids ride bicycles donated by hotel guests to school, while their parents, including some widows, till the land.
Vincent said the hotel gave the villagers their first bag of rice. "If they can farm well, we give them two pigs," he said. "Then we buy the piglets to give to another family. This gives them $600-$700 -- money they've never had before."
With over 200 registered hotels and guesthouses, Siem Reap is fast becoming a tourist town and the community initiatives are helping make the hospitality here stand out.
Will U.S. abandon Iraq the same way it did Cambodia in 1975?
Extrication became a goal in and of itself, replacing the original rationale for the war to fight communist expansion.
Shawcross quoted President Nixon's national security advisor Henry Kissinger in "Sideshow": "Look, we're not interested in Cambodia ... only ... in it not being used as a base (by the Vietnamese Communists)."
Kissinger later confirmed in his own book, "White House Years" that "Cambodia was not a moral issue" for the United States in obtaining "our exit from Vietnam."
Plenty has been written on Cambodia's killing fields: Not a family has been spared injury or loss.
Shawcross pleaded that America should not abandon Iraq the way she did Cambodia in 1975.
Of e-mails I received after the Shawcross article, a reader commented, "History is not a favorite subject of Americans -- unfortunately."
If history is not a guide and its lessons are discarded for the present, on what basis do we move toward the future?
Reasonable arguments abound, from reasonable people, for and against America's involvement in the Iraq war. In my March 21 column, "When it comes to Iraq war, both supporters and critics show bias," I referenced a social psychologist who said, we "are really bad about putting ourselves in other people's shoes," and are so unaccepting of others who act "in good faith" but see things differently from us.
I studied arguments from both sides of the political spectrum. The March 16 Los Angeles Times editorial, "From the terrorist's mouth," reminds us however we disagree, "there is a movement that has declared war on the U.S. and the West . . . its existence is undeniable."
The March 18 Washington Post editorial, "Lessons of War," argues, "What matters most is finding the best policy now -- doing whatever can be done to help Iraq and safeguard U.S. interests in a vital region."
The Post posits we don't know how events in Iraq will evolve, and "We will never know what might have happened had Saddam Hussein and his sons been left in power." It notes the "easy way out" by blaming Bush, Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld, but argues, "Wars unleash unpredictable and ugly forces" and "the (Iraq) war might have spun out of control even under wiser leadership."
"It would almost be comfortable if Mr. Bush had 'lied the nation into war,' as is frequently charged," says the Post. But, "The best postwar journalism instead suggests" that Bush, his team, and the Central Intelligence Agency, "exaggerated, cherry-picked and simplified but fundamentally believed ... the catastrophically wrong case" the U.S. presented to the United Nations.
The March 31-April 6 London Economist's front page, titled cover, "Besieged," shows an armed President Bush, Secretary of State Rice, and Vice President Cheney in camouflaged uniforms behind sandbags on White House lawn. The accompanying article, editorializes, "Many people" may rejoice seeing Bush and Cheney "ducking for cover."
"But regardless of what you think about this most inept of presidencies," the editorial continues, "the current civil war in Washington has the marking of a tragedy -- both for America and for millions of people around the globe."
The Economist encourages Congress to "Carry on overseeing" and advises, "But hands off Iraq."
"Sooner or later, America will leave Iraq," says the Economist, "But it is essential that it leaves in the right way."
Last September, America's 16 spy agencies presented in a National Intelligence Estimate two bad choices for America: "perceived jihadist success (in Iraq) would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere"; and "should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, (America's spy agencies) judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight."
Perhaps it should be recalled that when Americans left former French Indochina in 1975, the North Vietnamese victors were happy to see Americans scramble to take off in helicopters from Saigon's building rooftops. The war was "over" for them.
Will the movement -- "Whatever you call it," says the Times, "militant Islam, Islamic fascism or a clash of civilizations" -- "that has declared war on the U.S. and the West" cease its warring activities as American and "coalition" troops withdraw from Iraq?
The soul of Islam is being wrested from the majority of traditional Muslims by a small but growing influential minority of radical Muslims who quoted the Koran to justify about "slaying the infidels" -- another topic that Americans must be concerned about while Bush and the Democratic Congress are entrenched in Washington's own "civil war."
How will the war in Iraq "end?"
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
Mekong River Commission launches First 24-hour Navigational Aid System In Cambodia
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
5th April 2007
The Mekong River Commission today laid the inaugural navigational buoy in Chaktomouk area in the access channel to Phnom Penh Port as the start of what will be the first 24-hour navigational aid system on the Mekong in Cambodia.
The navigational aids project is part of the MRC’s Navigation Programme which is funded by the Government of Belgium.
The buoy was released in an onboard ceremony by H.E. Mr. Sun Chanthol, Minister of Public Works and Transport, H.E. Mr. Sin Niny, Vice Chairman of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee and Chairman of the MRC Joint Committee for 2006-2007, H.E. Mr Jan Matthysen, Ambassador of Belgium to Thailand and Dr Olivier Cogels, Chief Executive Officer of the Mekong River Commission Secretariat.
Over the next six months, the Aids to Navigation on the Mekong River Project, will install 56 buoys of three types and 12 leading markers over a 100km stretch of the Mekong River. These buoys will mark a safe channel from Phnom Penh Port to the Cambodia-Viet Nam border, the busiest stretch of the Mekong in Cambodia.
The installation of this internationally recognised system of aids to navigation such as buoys, beacons and shore marks, aims to improve safety and efficiency of navigation so that sea-going vessels and inland barges can safely navigate for 24 hours a day in safety.
Shipping is being hindered by numerous shoals, sand banks, ship wrecks and other obstacles. A lack of aids to navigation is the main cause for various accidents from collisions, ships running aground, and risks for pollution, threatening the ecosystem of the river. This also results in a loss of opportunities as investors see navigation as an adventure rather than a transport mode which can provide a reliable schedule for cargo forwarders.
Pollution from spills is particularly important in this region as millions of the people in the Mekong Basin, particularly in Cambodia depend largely on the resources of the Mekong for their daily living and pollution accident could be a serious threat to their livelihoods. Proper channel marking will reduce these risks significantly.
This system will be of enormous assistance to Cambodia in increasing its export potential, as the river will become a reliable and more economic form of transport. The quality of waterborne transport will be improved, waiting times will be shortened, night navigation will be possible, and river transportation will be more cost-effective and efficient. A cost benefit study has shown that up to US$45 million can be saved per year in transport costs is the Mekong River can be used to transport containers between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City, but also directly to ports such as Singapore and Hong Kong.”
This stretch of the river is part of the international shipping route that connects Phnom Penh Port with the sea whilst passing through the delta in Viet Nam. Although international shipping from countries outside the Basin to and from Cambodia and Viet Nam on the Mekong River System exists, there is great potential for increased maritime shipping.
This initiative should assist in supporting the overall development of navigation on the Mekong.
The CEO of the Mekong River commission Secretariat Dr Olivier Cogels said this initial installation project was part of the MRC’s bigger plans to open up the Mekong and reduce physical and non-physical barriers to free navigation. As part of its mandate, the Navigation Programme is in the process of facilitating a Navigation Agreement between Cambodia and Viet Nam and establishing a legal framework between those two countries Nam which will facilitate passage of vessels and cargo, and boost confidence among investors.
This new navigational aids system will also form a basis for new commitments and closer cooperation between Cambodia and Viet Nam as well as opening up more trade opportunities between the two countries.
The Mekong River Commission, through the Navigation Programme is the Executing Agency of the Installation of Aids to Navigation Project. The 12-month project started in November 2006 and is being implemented by Australian Maritime Systems Ltd in cooperation with Phnom Penh Autonomous Port and the Waterways Department of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport. The equipment is manufactured by Mobilis Co Ltd (France) and distributed by Tempest Co Ltd. (Belgium).
The project will use Jet 2500, BC 1242 and Trackless buoys.
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German arrested in Cambodia for child sex abuse
PHNOM PENH - A German man has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of a 13-year-old Cambodian street girl, an anti-trafficking official said on Monday.
Walter Munz, a 62-year-old tourist from Stuttgart, was detained on Sunday after police raided his guesthouse room in the capital Phnom Penh, said Keo Thea, deputy chief of the municipal anti-trafficking police.
When officers burst into the room, they found the German man in his underwear with the girl, Keo Thea said.
Munz was arrested on charges of debauchery -- a statute covering a broad range of sex offences that carry possible jail time of between 10 and 20 years.
“He met with the girl some days ago along the riverside and convinced the girl and her parents that he would help the girl study English,” Keo Thea said.
He said Munz had paid the girl’s family 20 US dollars a week for two weeks, notionally to pay for daily expenses, and had taken the 13-year-old to and from school each day.
The girl told police that Munz forced her to have sex with him many times.She said that she reported the abuse to her mother, who did not believe her.
Keo Thea said Munz, who entered Cambodia in 2006, had also committed sexual abuse against children in his home country.
He will be sent to court to face formal charges on Monday or Tuesday.
Last month, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced two German men to 28 and 12 years in prison on charges of human trafficking and abusing several Vietnamese girls as young as 10.
Around two dozen foreigners have been jailed or deported to face trial in their home countries for child sex crimes since 2003.
But officials, including foreign diplomats, have begun urging authorities to target Cambodian sex offenders as well as Westerners.
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Record high production fuels Cambodia's dream of rice exporters' coalition
As its rice production in 2006 hit record high in a decade, Cambodia's dream to build a rice exporters' coalition aimed at sharing more profits and procuring economic power has been fueled.
Cambodia, a traditional agricultural country with rice as its major crop and staple food, harvested more than 6,264,000 tons of rice in 2006, which is about 4 percent up compared with the previous year, a senior government official said on Monday.
"The rice production in 2006 broke the record of Cambodia in a decade," Chan Sarun, minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told reporters in an annual meeting of ministry.
The rice production increased because of good weather and irrigation system, he said, adding that Cambodian farmers understood better about farming and chose correct seeds for planting.
Meanwhile, market also responded positively in 2006 as rice price jumped to a range between 120 U.S. dollars and 135 U.S. dollars per ton, while seeds of top-quality fragrant rice were sold at 180 U.S. dollars per ton, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Cambodia.
However, Pu Kea, chairman of the Rice Hulling Mills' Association in Battambang province, said that huge profits went to the exporters from Malaysia, Singapore and African countries, while the farmers and the mill owners could only make limited incomes from simple processing procedures.
Pu Kea found echo with Prime Minister Hun Sen, in his perception of the kingdom's awkward situation of giving profits to foreigners instead of its own planters and processors.
Back to Dec. 20, 2006, as part of his efforts to turn the table, Hun Sen called on Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to join hands with Cambodia to form an association of rice exporting countries to stabilize rice price and share more profits from rice sales.
An association of the rice exporting countries along the Mekong River could be important for the world market, he said, adding that the association was somewhat like the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The association could have say in rice price adjustment and play a role in balancing OPEC's influence, he said.
"If they want cheaper rice, then they should decrease oil prices," he added.
Annual rice exports in the region of the Mekong River stand at over 10 million tons, almost half of the world's annual rice exports.
Source: Xinhua.
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Cambodia trains 4,700 vets for preventing bird flu
The Cambodian Agriculture Ministry and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have been cooperating to train about 4,700 vets and villagers for reeducating people to prevent bird flu, FAO officials said on Monday.
They were chosen to give the messages about preventing bird flu to villagers in rural areas, said Yon Fernandez, coordinator of bird flu project from FAO to Cambodia.
Meanwhile, the FAO, in cooperation with the relevant Cambodian ministries, will hold marches to raise public awareness of bird flu in districts throughout eight provinces from April 9 to 12.
"We chose all these provinces to raise the awareness of people for the danger of bird flu," Yon told Xinhua by phone.
Bird flu initially broke out in Cambodia in January 2004 and affected its eight provinces, including Kompong Cham, Prey Veng, Kandal and Phnom Penh.
The disease has killed seven Cambodians, and the latest toll occurred on Thursday.
Source: Xinhua.
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Sunday, April 08, 2007
Vietnam and Cambodia will resume landmark in May
The agreement was reached at a chairman-level meeting of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee for Land Border Demarcation and Landmark Planting in Phnom Penh this week.
The two sides unanimously confirmed to complete the border demarcation before the end of 2008.
The Vietnamese side was represented by the committee's chairman Vu Dung, Deputy Foreign Minister and Head of the Border Department. The Cambodian side was led by chairman Var Kimhong, Senior Minister in charge of border affairs.
The two countries also agreed to discuss with Laos the possibility of marking the T-junction border line where the three countries meet. This is the chilling moment for Lao and Cambodia will lose more land to the Communist Vietnam.
Deputy FM Dung was received on April 5 by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, who appreciated the joint committees' efforts. The two Deputy PMs discussed the landmark cooperation.
Mekong Delta Provinces open business fair in Cambodia
Cambodia: More than 30 businesses from the Mekong Delta provinces of both sides of the borders Vietnam and Cambodia are displaying their products at a trade fair opened in Cambodia's Prey Veng neighbouring province on April 7.
All products were displaying from medical equipment and medicines to farming facilities and consumption goods. Tourism services and five-day tours of Dong Thap are also being introduced to Cambodia.
Vietnamese and Cambodian businesses are looking for their suitable business partners. All importers and exporters on both sides are looking to expand their sale to new and old customers.
Present at the opening, State Secretary of Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce Kuok Ky said the fair concreted the willingness of the two sister provinces to boost cooperation in social, economic and cultural fields.
He also said that the development of the two provinces' multifaceted cooperation is in line with a plan for the development of border areas designed by the two governments. The development was aimed to ease livelihood in both sides of the borders.
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Local church helps build orphanage in Cambodia
ByJoyell Nevins
staff writer
Even though Community Grace Brethren Church is nestled in West Milton, it's heart and hands reach out to the other end of the world. Most recently those hands have become an integral part in the recovery of the revolution-devastated Cambodia.
The Asian country Cambodia has been referred to by historians as a "beautiful woman who was raped". In 1975, a group called the Khmer Rouge, led by dictator Pol Pot, took power and although were officially pushed out by the Vietnamese in 1979, didn't leave the political picture until the late '90s. In their five year regime, approximately 2 million Cambodians were killed through the combined result of political executions, starvation, and forced labor, about 25% to 30% of the entire population. The goal was to get rid of education and original thought and start at 'ground zero'. As was often said by the Khmer Rouge, 2000 years of Cambodian history had now come to an end; April 17 (the day they took power) was the beginning of Year Zero for the new Cambodia: Democratic Kampuchea.
In order to create the ideal communist society, all people would have to live and work in the countryside as peasants. Urban areas - the 'roots of capitalism' - were evacuated by force, as people in cities were driven into the country. The Khmer Rouge created a faction between what they called the "new people," those driven out of the towns, and the "old people", the poor and lower middle-class peasants who had remained in the countryside.
The Khmer Rouge felt that new people had made an active choice to live in the cities and thus declared their allegiance to capitalism. All city dwellers became enemies of the new communist state. They were treated as slave laborers, constantly moved, were forced to do the hardest physical labor, and worked in the most inhospitable, fever-ridden parts of the country. New people were segregated from old people, enjoyed little or no privacy, and received the smallest rice rations. The medical care available to them was primitive or nonexistent. Families often were separated because people were divided into work brigades according to age and sex and sent to different parts of the country. New people were also subjected to unending political indoctrination and could be executed without trial (in one interrogation center, over 17000 people were questioned - 6 survived).
The Khmer Rouge regarded traditional education as an opponent to their communist regime. They executed thousands of teachers. Those who had been educators prior to 1975 survived by hiding their identities. Soldiers would feel people's hands, to determine if they worked with physical labor (if your hands were soft, you were likely to be killed). Like with Al Quaida, children were taught political allegiance and hatred. A special secret organization, called the Alliance of Communist Youth of Kampuchea, was considered by Pol Pot as his most loyal and reliable supporters, and was used to flush out any who were against him.
Like education, religion was not allowed either. The country's 40,000 to 60,000 Buddhist monks were defrocked and forced into labor brigades. Many monks were executed; temples and pagodas were destroyed or turned into storehouses or jails. Images of the Buddha were defaced and dumped into rivers and lakes. People who were discovered praying or expressing religious sentiments were often killed. The Christian and Muslim communities were even more persecuted, as they were labeled as part of a pro-Western cosmopolitan sphere, hindering Cambodian culture and society. The Roman Catholic cathedral of the capital was completely razed. Christian clergy and Muslim imams were executed. Even the Jews and Hindus were persecuted. A common torture tactic for Jews was to brand them with the star of David, using a white-hot metal rod, in the way used to brand cattle.
Vekhoun Tang was one of the persecuted Christian pastors. Out of his group of colleagues, Tang was the only one that survived. He and his family traveled the country - the distance of Cinncinati to Cleveland - on foot to escape, eventually ending up in Long Beach, California. That is where he met Pastor Steve Peters of Community Grace in 1991.
Tang had been praying about going back to Cambodia to build churches. Peters invited him to come to Community Grace's annual missions conference, and at the end of the conference, Tang said he would specifically like to start Grace Brethren churches in Cambodia. Their partnership has been extremely helpful in the movement of Christianity and the physical rebuilding in that country.
"He's the Billy Graham of Cambodia," describes Peters, "He is a mover and shaker and directs things very well."
1992 marked the first trip from West Milton to Cambodia, one of six Missions Director Woody Curtis and five Peters would make. Peters, Curtis and company met Ben Noun, a pastor discipled by Tang and who with Community Grace's help would found many house churches.
Another ground-breaking trip came in 1998. With the assistance of former pastor Scott Distler and the foundation Asia Hope (started by a pastor from Wooster, Ohio), Community Grace sent six guys with six suitcases of electronics. Miraculously the luggage was not searched or opened, and the equipment was used to start a radio station that reaches a large portion of Cambodia and down into Vietnam.
However, any time there are people involved, personal issues can come up. In November of 2005, it became 'increasingly obvious' that Community Grace would have to make another trip. A few weeks ago, Peters and Curtis traveled to Asia once again to smooth out situations.
Their other goal was to start an orphanage - institutions that are desperately needed in that country. The pair ran across a house that a wealthy man had built for his daughter, but had sat empty for years because she didn't want it.
The house has five bathrooms, four of which are Western toilets, which is absolutely unheard of, and even a 2 ½ feet deep pool. The man decided to lease it to the church for $150 a month - an extremely good deal. He even delivered paint for them.
Before Peters and Curtis left, the house had been prayed for, removed of spirit houses (places for Buddhist idols), and was starting to be fixed up. Since Community Grace as an American church cannot officially own property, they go through a foundation of four men. No changes can be made to the house or deed without the agreement of all four.
Peters and Curtis also found a staff. Both an administrator and a certified school teacher that they had worked with in the past suddenly became available while they were there. Then the pair found a widow to be the cook, fulfilling the Bible verse about caring for the fatherless and the widowed.
"God worked this out - it's just incredible," enthuses Peters.
Asia Hope will run the orphanage, and Community Grace will pay the bill. They left $2500 to start, for desks, mats, and other school supplies. The budget calls for $2000 a month, to cover everything from salaries to rent to medical needs.
"We're believing God that we can get the first year in the bank so we can expand as God brings the kids," Peters declares.
They already have at least 10 children who will come, hope to start with 20, and have room for 50 (in Thailand, an orphanage Community Grace helps with has a waiting list of 150). The kids lose their parents to crippling diseases like AIDS, are abandoned because of lack of resources, or simply tossed aside because their mom remarries and the new husband will have nothing to do with them.
Those children will all be screened by the staff to make sure they are actually without a mom or dad. With the rampant poverty, many parents endeavor to scam places they think can give their kids a better life.
"Money is so tough - it's a rough life," describes Peters, "It's just terrible."
The name of the orphanage will be Community Grace's Seeds of Hope. At the church in West Milton, Peters talks about an "army of kids" that have grown up in the church and have a heart for reaching people. Their goal is to make the same thing in Cambodia.
"That's our dream," Peters declares, "Each kid becomes a seed as they come to Christ and bring hope to their nation."
For more information, to sponsor the orphanage, or adopt a child, contact the church at 698-4048.
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Cambodia's Red-king Sihanouk returns home from China
He and his wife, former Queen Monineath, were received by their son King Norodom Sihamoni, as well as Cambodian leaders including Prime Minister Hun Sen and Senate President Chea Sim on their arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport.
Several foreign diplomats, Government Ministers and Sam Rainsy, Cambodia's main opposition leader, were also there to greet the 84-year-old former monarch, who spent the last seven months in Beijing for medical examinations.
He travels regularly for health checkups to China, which granted him exile after he was ousted from power in a 1970 coup. He has suffered from a number of ailments, including colon cancer, diabetes, hypertension and two strokes.
Sihanouk abdicated in October 2004, citing poor health. He was succeeded by Norodom Sihamoni, one of his two sons.
In November, he said he wanted his body cremated after he passes away, and his ashes should be put in a marble urn, blessed by Cambodian Buddhist monks, and placed in a stupa he built for his "most-loved daughter Kantha Bopha,'' who died at age 4 from leukemia in 1952.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Chinese companies launch two power projects in Cambodia
Chinese companies here on Saturday launched two power projects in Cambodia, the Stung Atay hydropower plant and a set of electricity transmission network.
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and Governor of China's Yunnan Province Qin Guangrong, who is leading a delegation to visit Cambodia, unveiled the foundation stones of the two projects during a ceremony hold in Phnom Penh.
The hydropower plant costs 190 million U.S. dollars and can generate 465 million kilowatt-hour of electricity per year, according to a press release from the Chinese companies.
The power transmission network is constructed at the cost of 113 million U.S. dollars to connect Phnom Penh, Kampong Chhnang, Pursat and Battambang, it added. .
China Yunnan Corporation for International Techno-Economic Cooperation and Yunnan Southeast-Asia Economy and Technology Investment Industrial Co., LTD. undertake the construction and development of both projects, the press release said, adding that the Cambodian government adopts BOT pattern (build, operate and transfer) for the projects.
Currently, Cambodia does not have the infrastructure to generate enough electricity to fuel the galloping demand, which has been rising 15 to 20 percent per year, according to Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy.
Source: Xinhua .
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Mass organisations of Vietnam and Cambodia foster
Vietnam like to play the same game and pushing so hard to get a head of the game. It is a so-called friendship cooperation between Yuon communist Hanoi and the dog head Phnom Penh. It is the cooperation that communist Yuon Hanoi and the German shepherd Hun Sen are always barking and biting Millions Cambodian People.
The more cooperation is the more suffering Cambodians are facing and Khmer Krom Monks are the target for Vietnamese authorities to attack.
Khmer Krom and Cambodian people are loosing their land, rice fields and the Rights of religious freedom. Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodians' land.
Leaders of the two mass organisations of Vietnam and Cambodia have vowed to boost co-operative activities in the coming years, on the basis of mutual benefit and respect for sovereignty with the intention of intensifying the friendship between the people of the two countries.
At their working session held in Phnom Penh on April 6, President of the Vietnamese Vietnamese Fatherland Front (VFF) Pham The Duyet and President of the Solidarity Front for the Development of the Cambodian Motherland (SFDCM) Samdech Heng Samrin expressed their hope that through co-operative programmes and experience sharing, the two mass organsiations will further develop, thus helping raise their political roles to a new height.
President Duyet is leading a VFF delegation for an official visit to Cambodia, beginning April 5, at the invitation of Samdech Heng Samrin, who is also Chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly and honorary President of the Cambodian People's Party.
Both Duyet and Samrin agreed to propose to the governments of the two countries to organise "Days of Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship and Solidarity" as part of a programme to be launched to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the two countries. Vietnam will send 40 representatives to visit Cambodia and attend a grand meeting held on this occasion.
While in Cambodia, the Vietnamese delegation met with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and paid courtesy visits to President of the Cambodian People's Party and President of the Cambodian Senate Samdech Chea Sim, and Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen.
The King and government leaders of Cambodia extended their thanks to the Party, government and people of Vietnam for helping the people of Cambodia escape from genocide.
They also addressed their thanks to the VFF for supporting the SFDCM to fulfill its role during the past struggle for national independence as well as the current national construction of Cambodia.
For his part, President Duyet extended his thanks to the King and government leaders of Cambodia for the assistance given by the people of Cambodia during the past struggle for national independence and the current national construction and defense of Vietnam.
He asserted that the VFF and the people of Vietnam always attach great importance to the friendly relationship with the people of Cambodia and expressed hope that this traditional relationship will be further developed in the future. (VNA)
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Khmer Rouge Tribunal being waited
Foot-dragging by the Cambodian government and legal wrangling pushed back the start of the UN-sponsored trials, which were agreed in 2003 but are now not expected to start until later this year. They are expected to last years, raising fears that many witnesses will not live long enough to give evidence.
Only three survivors of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh are still alive and they are all too aware that time is running out.
At 76, Chum Mei has already outlived the average Cambodian man by 25 years, despite the malnutrition and torture he endured in the prison, codenamed S-21 and now a genocide museum.
"During my interrogation I was electrically shocked and beaten and they pulled out my toenails," he said. "Now, I still sometimes dream that I am being beaten. Sometimes I scream until I wake my wife up."
Almost three decades after Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime wiped out a quarter of Cambodia's eight million population, he and fellow S-21 survivor Bou Meng, 65, have recorded their testimonies on film. Another to do so is former guard Him Huy, 50, who described how he was required to help execute prisoners at the extermination camp at Choeung Ek, one of the sites known collectively as the Killing Fields.
"They were blindfolded and handcuffed. One by one, each was taken out of the room to be executed," said Huy. "The henchmen were already waiting by the pits. The prisoners were clubbed to death with metal bars at first and then their throats were cut with machetes. They took the handcuffs and other stuff off the prisoners and pushed them into the pits. After everything was done, they filled the pit with earth."
As many as 14,000 perceived enemies of the Khmer Rouge who had been detained at S-21, met the same fate at Choeung Ek.
Huy claims that he too was a victim, brainwashed by the Maoist regime and haunted by what he had done.
"The prisoner was put on his knees and I clubbed him with a metal bar. After the hit, I threw down the metal bar and left the spot. I was very upset at being taken to work there. I am not the one to be blamed," he said.
Huy claims that he too was a victim, brainwashed by the Maoist regime and haunted by what he had done.
"The prisoner was put on his knees and I clubbed him with a metal bar. After the hit, I threw down the metal bar and left the spot. I was very upset at being taken to work there. I am not the one to be blamed," he said.
Huy said his former boss, Pol Pot's chief interrogator Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was "sometimes there" to witness the mass murders.
That could prove important evidence, as Duch is the only senior Khmer Rouge leader currently in detention awaiting trial following the death in custody last July of Pol Pot's most ferocious commander, Ta Mok, known as "The Butcher". Pot himself died under house arrest in 1998.
Mr Meng was also able to recall an encounter with Duch. He said he was saved from death only when his artistic talents were called on to draw portraits of Pol Pot. He was warned by Duch that if he did not paint flattering likenesses of the tyrant, he would be executed,
For two years he was kept barely alive with one daily ladle of gruel and forced to sleep on a concrete floor with 50 other men.
He said: "I thought to myself, it looks just like hell. After about a year of imprisonment I became so emaciated I was not sure I would live because an inmate sleeping next to me had already died.
"The young guards of about 13, 14, 15 stepped on him so many times that blood came out of his mouth. The smell became so bad before they took his body away. I couldn't sleep before midnight. I was waiting to see if my name was called. Those whose names were called were to be executed at Choeung Ek."
The men's evidence has been recorded by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which has spent 10 years collecting witness statements.
Campaigners fear that the delays to the start of the hearings mean that those facing trial will evade justice by outliving the witnesses. Last month, the tribunal was mired in petty squabbles over the height of the judges' chairs. Now it is prohibitive fees being levied upon lawyers who wish to appear at the trial, which the UN warns could lead to its collapse.
While the scarred nation waits for justice, the Cambodian government appears determined to ward it off until key players - who might implicate many people in power today - are silenced by death.
Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's spokesman on Cambodia, said: "Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen does not want this trial to go ahead and he has played a game of brinkmanship with the UN, forcing them to bow to his unreasonable demands again and again.
"The tribunal has not even started to gather testimonies and key witnesses are dying. It is now or never."
Chinese company invests to build fiber communication network for Cambodia
Shenzhen Jindun Investment Developing Co., Ltd. will invest in Cambodian Fiber Optic Communication Network Co., Ltd. (CFOCN) to construct optical fiber cable backbone system and related infrastructure for Cambodia, according to the agreements signed in Phnom Penh on Friday.
Jindun Chairman Huang Xinglong, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, and Cambodian Minister of Post and Telecommunications So Khun signed the agreements on behalf of the companies and the Cambodian government at the Cambodian Development Council.
According to the agreements, CFOCN will lay over 8,000 kilometers of fiber to establish a communication network all over Cambodia in three to five years, thus making the kingdom capable of communicating with the latest technology.
The volume of the investment was not disclosed.
The agreements came in line with the Cambodian government's priority policy to develop the industry of communications with wide acceptance of investments from foreign countries, said a press release from CFOCN.
Cambodia currently relies on macro-wave and satellite for tele- communications, which brings about high costs and various impediments to its social and economic development.
Meanwhile, most of its rural territories don't have functional communication means and only 7.8 percent of its 15 million population possess mobile phones.
Source: Xinhua .
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Chinese enterprise to develop real estate projects in Cambodia
An enterprise from China's Yunnan province in Phnom Penh on Friday signed two agreements with its Cambodian partner to co-develop two real estate projects in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville.
Yin Tengyun and Lau Ming Kan, respectively on behalf of Yunnan Southeast-Asia Economy and Technology Investment Industrials and Cambodia's Shukaku Company, signed these agreements in presence of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, Governor of China's Yunnan Province Qin Guangrong, and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Zhang Jinfeng.
The signing ceremony was held on the sidelines of the one-day China (Yunnan) - Cambodia Investment and Trade Fair, which attracted some 400 participants from both governments and business arenas to seek cooperation.
Under the agreements, the two sides will cooperate to develop the Boeng Kak Lake area in Phnom Penh into a multi-purpose living and recreation center called the New City of East, and establish an eco-garden in Sihanoukville for tourism and other commercial uses. .
Details of these agreements were not disclosed.
The above projects will be implemented as Yunnan plans to intensify its cooperation with Cambodian partners in the fields of agriculture, transport, hydropower, investment, trade, forestry, tourism and mining, said Qin Guangrong while addressing the fair.
A press release said that the bilateral trade between Yunnan and Cambodia stood at 3.51 million U.S. dollars in 2006.
By the end of 2006, the two sides have signed over 20 economic and trade agreements worth of 40.39 million U.S. dollars, it added.
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Cambodia's SRP calls for alliance to compete with CPP
The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) has called for the opposition parties to form an alliance to vie with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) ahead of the 2008 national election, local media said on Friday.
SRP will serve as a key element of the proposed movement as it ranked second after CPP in terms of the number of votes cast during Sunday's commune councils election, English newspaper the Cambodia Daily quoted SRP President Sam Rainsy as saying.
"SRP will be the core of the movement. (It) will be a big movement that will win against the CPP. We want to reorganize the country to be better than it is under (the rule of) CPP," he said.
SRP Secretary-General Mu Sochua has met with Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) leaders and officials from other political parties to discuss and compromise on the formation of the movement, Cambodian newspaper the Sralanh Khmer quoted him as saying.
NRP Acting President Prince Norodom Chakrapong said that he welcomed Sam Rainsy's proposal and "it is a very good step to have a democratic foundation to develop the country."
Prince Sisowath Thomico, general delegate of the Sangkum Jatiniyum Front Party, said that SRP's appeal was in line with his policies, another Cambodian newspaper the Koh Santepheap reported. .
The co-ruling Funcinpec Party's spokesperson Nouv Sovathero said that his party didn't care about the other parties' proposal as the party is now implementing reforms to strengthen localities.
CPP spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that SRP's proposal to set up the so-called Democratic Movement didn't surprise the CPP.
"It is not the first time that SRP has formed a group of democratic parties," he said.
Sam Rainsy and Prince Ranariddh, then president of Funcinpec, established the Alliance of Democrats following the 2003 national elections in an attempt to coerce Prime Minister Hun Sen to resign.
After a political stalemate that dragged on for almost a year, the alliance ended as Funcinpec chose to create a collation government with the CPP.
Source: Xinhua .
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Bird flu kills teenagers in Indonesia and Cambodia
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The bird flu virus racing through Asia killed a teenager in hardest-hit Indonesia and a young girl from Cambodia, both after being admitted to hospitals in serious condition, health officials said.
The 15-year-old girl from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta died late Thursday after experiencing multi-organ failure, said Sardikin Giriputro, a doctor at the facility.
“By the time she arrived, it was too late,” he said Friday.
The Cambodian child was initially suffering from high fever and diarrhea before being transferred from an eastern province to the capital Phnom Penh but she quickly got worse, the World Health Organization and health ministry officials said.
The 13-year-old developed a cough and was struggling to breathe before dying Thursday.
Bird flu has killed at least 170 people since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003, WHO said. It remains hard for people to catch and most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds — including the two latest deaths.
But experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.
Indonesia, the hardest hit country with 73 human deaths, is seen as a potential hotspot for that to happen because of its high density of poultry and people.
Health Ministry official Muhammad Nadirin said local lab tests confirmed the girl who died Thursday — apparently after coming into contact with the family’s sick pet bird — had the H5N1 virus.
Cambodia’s death was that country’s seventh — and the first in a year.
Some chickens in the girl’s village died before she became ill and she may have been exposed to the virus after preparing and eating tainted chickens, said WHO and the health ministry.
Officials have been sent to the area to see if any other villagers were displaying flu-like symptoms or had come in contact with sick or dead poultry, they said in their statement.
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Cambodian judges in Khmer Rouge tribunal say ultimatum uncalled for
Phnom Penh- The Cambodian judges appointed to the joint
UN-Cambodian trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders issued a statement
Friday accusing a proposed boycott by their international
counterparts unnecessary and aimed at delaying the process.
The Cambodian judges reiterated earlier assertions that a row over
fees the Cambodian bar wants to impose on foreign lawyers was not
part of the internal rules and therefore should not delay their
implementation.
They were replying to Tuesday's announcement by international
judges that they would boycott a scheduled April 30 plenary to adopt
the internal rules if the Cambodian Bar Association did not back down
on its demands for 5,000-dollar registration fees for overseas
lawyers wishing to represent clients at the hearings.
Tuesday's international judges' statement further threatened to
exclude the Cambodian bar from the process if it continued to refuse
to drop the fees. The defence says that would severely limit the
number of foreign lawyers defendants can choose from, potentially
compromising the international standards' caveat of the hearings.
The 56-million dollar joint UN-Cambodian tribunal, which began
work last year and is budgeted to take just three years to complete,
cannot proceed without adopting internal rules governing every aspect
of the work of the special tribunals.
"The national judges appointed to the ECCC (tribunals) consider
that the international judges' decision not to participate in the
plenary session planned at the end this month would further delay the
process of the court," the 15 national judges wrote.
"In response to the proposal to exclude the Bar Association of the
Kingdom of Cambodia from the process, the national judges consider
the such a move is not consistent with the substance and spirit of
the Agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the United
Nations.
The national judges also rejected claims by the international
judges that the Defence Support Section of the tribunals was actively
discussing solutions to the dilemma.
Bar Association president Ky Tech has said he will not back down
on the fees, claiming foreign lawyers are far better paid than their
Cambodian counterparts and that it was his duty to his members to
impose what he believes are reasonable fees on foreigners wishing to
practice law in Cambodia.
The latest impasse is just another in a long line of delays to try
a handful of aging former leaders of the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge
regime, during which up to 2 million Cambodians died.
Donors have expressed increasing frustration at the lack of
progress, fuelling speculation they may walk away altogether if
issues are not resolved soon and the hearings begin to progress.
The Cambodian government has reacted angrily to allegations by
some human rights groups that it is deliberately stalling the
process, strongly denying the claims and in turn accusing lobby
groups of trying to hijack the trials for their own political ends.
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Thursday, April 05, 2007
Cambodian anti-corruption law no magic bullet, says World Bank
Phnom Penh - Long-awaited Cambodian anti-corruption legislation was just part of a package of necessary reforms and not a 'magic bullet' to ensure revenues such as from oil and gas were harnessed effectively, a senior World Bank official said Thursday.
Speaking at the launch of the bank's East Asia and Pacific update for April entitled 10 Years After the Crisis, Cambodian World Bank country manager Nisha Agrawal said the way expected new revenues such as oil and gas were used by the government 'were very important for Cambodia's future.'
But she added that focusing on anti-corruption legislation alone was a mistake and oversimplified the situation in developing nations such as Cambodia.
'All an independent anti-corruption body can do is receive allegations. You need an independent judiciary to make an anti-corruption law work. You can't just pass a law and have an independent judiciary overnight,' she said.
'Public financial management reform is as important, or perhaps more so, than the anti-corruption law,' she said, adding that the World Bank viewed the progress made by the Cambodian government on that aspect as positive.
Cambodia expects to begin oil and gas production from potentially rich offshore deposits by 2010 and economists say how those revenues are used could make or break the Cambodian economy.
One stumbling block to development critics have pointed out is endemic corruption, and the government promised donors that anti-corruption legislation would go before parliament by the end of last year, but failed to meet the deadline, causing some donors to threaten to withold funding if delays continued.
'We would like to see people think about the whole package of good governance. There is no magic bullet,' Agrawal said.
She said in regards to oil, there were positive examples such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Botswana and negative examples such as Nigeria.
'It is really for the Cambodian people themselves to decide what model they will follow. Obviously, we hope they choose a good model,' she said.
The World Bank said in a country specific press release that Cambodia's economic performance had continued to be robust, with real gross domestic product (GDP) growth projected at about 10.5 per cent - the third consecutive year of double digit growth.
It added that the four economic growth pillars of garments, tourism, construction and agriculture were expected to continue to thrive in 2007, with growth in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) expected to be sustained and oil and gas 'likely to bring about even higher growth.'
Per capita GDP stood at 480 dollars in 2006 - a figure Agrawal said Cambodia could hope to boost significantly as oil and gas revenues began to enter the economy.
Continued urbanisation, if properly planned, could also benefit the country, according to the report. Cambodia's projected rates of urbanisation were for a 291 per cent increase by 2030, but 72 per cent of those living in urban areas are currently classed as slum dwellers by the bank.
Agrawal said besides as yet untapped industries such as oil and gas, established industries such as tourism also had the potential to be more efficient contributors to the economy by taking on a more pro-poor focus.
'For instance, it's not just about how we can get more tourists ... but how they can benefit Cambodia more,' she said.
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His Majesty arrives in Cambodia
His Majesty is greeted on arrival at the Phnom Penh International Airport. - Infofoto
HRH the Crown Prince, HRH Prince Mohamed, HRH Prince 'Abdul Azim, HRH Prince 'Abdul Malik and HRH Prince 'Abdul Mateen at the Brunei International Airport to bid farewell to His Majesty. - Jason Leong
Peace Corps sends first ever mission to Cambodia
Over the next two years, 28 U.S. volunteers will be stationed across seven Cambodian provinces teaching English to rural schoolchildren.
"I believe that the Peace Corps' program in Cambodia will open new opportunities for future generations of Cambodians," Ron Tschetter, the volunteer group's Washington-based director, said in a speech before swearing in the 15 female and 13 male volunteers.
The volunteers have spent the past eight weeks living with families in Kampong Cham province, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Phnom Penh, so they could learn to speak Khmer and adjust to the local culture.
The ceremony Wednesday highlighted how well the volunteers mastered the language in just two months.
All 400 attendees stood as Sam and Kara Snyder, a couple from Buffalo, New York, and Autumn West, from Greenback, Tennessee, opened the event by singing the national anthem in Khmer.
They then sang the U.S. national anthem while their fellow volunteers and American officials stood to attention with their hands on their chests.
Conor Cronin, from Scarsdale, New York, delighted the audience by delivering a speech in Cambodian, with Felicidad Garcia, from Miami, Florida, acting as his translator for the American guests.
The crowd laughed when Cronin joked that he was chosen to give the speech because he was "the most handsome volunteer."
"We, the volunteers, have come to Cambodia from different parts of America, each with a different history. But we are all here ... with the same commitment to serve as best as possible in every way," Cronin said.
Cambodia is the 139th country to receive a mission from the Peace Corps in its 46-year history. The group has about 7,500 volunteers in 73 nations.
Clarke native will travel to Cambodia for human rights
By Rebecca Maynard
Kerry Desjardins, a lifelong Clarke County resident, is dedicated to promoting human rights, and this summer will have the opportunity to participate in a human rights delegation in Cambodia.
Desjardins, who graduated from Clarke County High School in 2005, is a sophomore at George Mason University, double majoring in Peace and Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and Global Affairs.
Desjardins said she was first attracted to human rights issues when she was a high school freshman, when she discovered and studied the Cambodian Genocide."I've always been interested in social justice issues, like civil rights, but I didn't realize it was such a global issue," Desjardins said.
She said that more than 2 million people were killed in the Cambodian Genocide from 1975 to 1979, and that today more than half of the Cambodian population is under age 25."We learn about the Holocaust, but we don't hear about this," Desjardins said, adding that the government kept some of the details from the American people.
She listed human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, poverty and government instability as major human rights concerns in Cambodia today.
Desjardins will be taking part in the 2007 Cambodia Human Rights Delegation, when a tribunal is expected to take place. While she will not take part in the tribunal directly, she will be working with Cambodian youth to try to discover ways to make change in the country.
"My research on the Cambodian Genocide led me into information about other genocides," Desjardins said, listing Armenia and Rwanda as two examples.
She finds autobiographies particularly helpful in her research, as they allow the reader a first-hand account from those who have experienced the events. She recommended "Stay Alive My Son" by Pin Yathay.
Desjardins said she is very excited to have the opportunity to travel to Cambodia..
"I consider this to be the opportunity of a lifetime, which holds a great deal of personal meaning," she said.The trip, which is coordinated through a non-profit organization called Youth Connect, will last a month and will include about nine students from all over the United States.
Desjardins said she applied as soon as she heard about it.She will travel to Phnom Penh for training, field work and visits to the Documentation Center of Cambodia and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum."I'm kind of nervous about the museum," Desjardins said, because of the horrible and emotional events it will no doubt portray.
She will also do field work in Batambang.
Desjardins is also a dedicated volunteer here in the United States, where she is involved with Amnesty International and the Tahirih Justice Center, a pro-bono immigration law firm and social services provider that helps women seeking gender-based asylum in the United States.
After graduating, she hopes to attend Peace University in Costa Rica to work on a master's degree in a human rights-related field, and then to be a human rights lawyer, possibly working in Latin America."The gap between the rich and the poor is the widest in the world there," Desjardins said.
Right now, she is busily fund-raising for her trip, which will cost between $4,120 and $4,530. Donations are tax-deductible and are very much appreciated.
Citizens who would like to support Desjardin's human rights efforts with a money donation may send checks directly to Global Youth Connect, 15 Gage St., Kingston, NY 12401, made out to Global Youth Connect with "Kerry Desjardins" written in the subject line.
For more information about the program, call 845-338-2220 or visit www.globalyouthconnect.org/cambodia2007.doc .
"I never dreamed I would get to visit Cambodia so early in life, if ever," Desjardins said. "Learning about the history of Cambodia and the strength of its people changed my life, and I feel so lucky to be given this opportunity."
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HM Leaves on Cambodia Visit
By Asri Razak
Bandar Seri Begawan - His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, left for a four-day official visit to Cambodia yesterday evening.
Upon His Majesty's arrival at the Royal Pavilion in Brunei International Airport a doa selamat was read by the State Mufti.
Present at the airport to bid farewell were His Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Minister of Foreign. Affairs and Trade, His Royal Highness Prince Haji Abdul Azim, His Royal Highness Prince Abdul Malik and His Royal Highness Prince Abdul Mateen.
Also present to bid farewell to His Majesty were PengiranPengiran Cheterias, cabinet ministers, members of councils, deputy ministers and senior government officials.
Today at the Throne Hall, Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, His Majesty will be attending an audience with King Norodom Sihamoni, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
His Majesty will also receive courtesy calls from Prime Minister Hun Sen, Senate President Chea Sim and National Assembly President Heng Samrin, and also attend a State Banquet.
The topic of oil and gas is expected to be discussed following separate engagements between Nan Sy, the Cambodian ambassador to Brunei and Minister of Energy at the Prime Minister's Office, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Paduka Hj Yahya Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Bakar and Fred Smeenk, the Director of Brunei Natural Liquified Gas (BLNG) earlier this February.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said the same month that Cambodia expects production from potentially rich offshore oil and gas deposits by 2010. Cambodia has said it welcomes advice from other countries on strategies to manage its new resource.
His Majesty is also scheduled to visit a demining project at the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) in Phnom Penh. Since its establishment in 1992 up to 2006, the CMAC has discovered and destroyed 1,494,480 landmines and unexploded ordinances (UXOs - anything explosive that has failed to detonate, and may detonate anytime). The CMAC said 600 people were maimed or killed every month before the centre's establishment.
On the last day of the official visit, His Majesty will be visiting the Bayon Temple and the Angkor Wat temple complex.
Bordered to the North by Thailand and Laos, Cambodia's capital city Phnom Penh with approximately a population of two million, is the centre of commerce, industry, tourism, administration, and industry. Diplomatic relations between Brunei Darussalam and Cambodia were established on June 9, 1992.
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Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Cambodia's SRP can't be partner for CPP in government: Hun Sen
The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) can' t become a partner for the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in the government for its performance at the local election was not good enough, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday.
The CPP won about 3.1 million votes out of 5.1 million that were cast during Sunday's balloting to choose leaders for the kingdom's commune councils, and the next winner, namely SRP, only won about 1.3 million, the national TV quoted him as saying.
"Therefore SRP can't share power in the central government," he told the 3rd Asia Economic Forum held in Phnom Penh.
"CPP still needs the Funcinpec Party in the present co-ruling government to have political and macro-economic stability," he said.
"We were also happy to work with other parties to have prosperity for our country. I am very proud of the people who still support CPP and we believe in the general election in 2008, we will still have the majority of votes," he added. .
According to the preliminary results of Sunday's local election polling, the CPP continued to control 98 percent of the kingdom's 1,621 communes and urban sub-districts known as sangkats, while the SRP surpassed Funcinpec for the first time to become the kingdom's second largest party in terms of its control of communes and sangkats.
Official results of the polling will be declared on April 24.
Altogether 102,266 candidates from 12 political parties competed for 11,353 seats in 1,621 councils in the second ever commune councils election since the Kingdom of Cambodia was established in 1993. Its results lay the groundwork for the general election in 2008, which will elect the fourth ever government of the country.
Source: Xinhua .
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Australia helps clear landmines in Cambodia
The Australian government will provide 12 million Australian dollars (9.7 million U.S. dollars) to help clear landmines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia.
Announcing the major funding to mark International Mine Action Day, Australia's Special Representative on Mine Action and Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Greg Hunt said Wednesday the funding would help to clear explosives from millions of square km of land across affected areas in Cambodia.
"Cambodia is one of the world's most heavily mined countries with up to 6 million landmines estimated to be scattered throughout the country," Hunt said in a statement.
According to the United Nations, close to 6 million of Cambodia's rural poor are affected by mines.
Australia's funding to be disbursed over four years will help to continue the already good work of the landmine clearance program in Cambodia and allow de-mining teams to continue their clearance work, Hunt said. .
Australia has committed around 50 million dollars (40 million U. S. dollars) to mine action-related activities in Cambodia since 1996, according to Hunt.
Meanwhile, Australia has pledged 75 million dollars (60 million U.S. dollars) over five years to 2010 for global mine action activities, he said.
Source: Xinhua .
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Amsterdam High School student goes to Cambodia
At just 17-years-old, Catena is trying to change the world one smile at a time. Michela is one of three students in the country to be chosen to participate on a mission with Operation Smile. They returned from a two week trip to Cambodia just last week, helping young children born with cleft lips and palates with corrective surgery.
"A lot of the times the kids are so withdrawn, they don't like to leave the home a lot because they are embarrassed about their face," said Catena.
But thanks to the help of Catena and others, these kids will smile proudly. While trained professionals performed the surgeries, Catena concentrated more on education.
"We did presentation for kids on dental hygiene, gurn care prevention, good nutrition," said Catena.
In order to go to Cambodia, Catena had to be sponsored by an Operation Smile club right here at home. The high school didn't have one. So she took the initiative and started the club herself, having more than 100 students attend the first meeting.
"I thought it would be amazing to be able to help people out that are in this situation and other countries," said Heather Graff, Amsterdam High School student.
Now other students are following Catena's lead, training to also attend missions with Operation Smile. Catena said she's proud and hopes that they each learn the same valuable lesson that she did.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
18 arrested in Cambodia's biggest drug bust
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian police confiscated more than three tons of chemicals used to produce amphetamine-type stimulants and arrested 18 people in the country's largest seizure of drug-making materials, officials said Monday.
The chemicals were seized in a raid Sunday on a farm located in a remote area about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the capital Phnom Penh, said police Lt. Gen. Luor Ramin, secretary-general of the Cambodian National Authority for Combating Drugs.
He said the farm was used for storing, mixing and distributing the chemical to other points in the country to be turned into a form of amphetamine, often referred to locally as "crazy pills."
He did not identify the chemical involved except to say it was imported, though he did not yet know the source.
"In terms of quantity, this is the biggest case we have ever dealt with," he said, adding that the raid and arrests on Sunday followed a long investigation.
The most important ingredient in amphetamine-type drugs is ephedrine — also used in cold medicines — whose trade is supposed to be strictly controlled by international law and by the domestic laws of many nations.
The 18 arrested suspects, all men, included 14 Cambodians, three Chinese and one Thai national, he said. It is not clear yet what charges they will face.
He said the country has recently become a production point for illegal synthesized drugs such as amphetamines.
Southeast Asia has long been a major producer and exporter of heroin, and in recent years has also become a major source of stimulant-type drugs such as methamphetamine.
Myanmar is a leading exporter of both heroin and methamphetamine, which are smuggled into and through nearby countries. Cambodia has increasingly become a transit route for drug smugglers.
Luor Ramin said anti-drug officials are continuing their joint investigation with a government prosecutor's office.
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Sunday, April 01, 2007
FGCU students hope to change the world by funding a school in Cambodia
By Elizabeth Wright
Sunday, April 1, 2007
If Ana Herrera ever makes it to Cambodia, the first place she would visit would likely be a small, concrete school building that doesn’t exist.
Not yet.
The school would be in a rural village, and it would be the place several hundred children could come for classes each day. The building would be stocked with school supplies; maybe it would even have a garden next to it.
When this school is built, Herrera, 21, a Naples resident and a senior at Florida Gulf Coast University, will be proud to know she was one of the people who helped bring it about. So will the about 20 other seniors at the university who are working this spring to raise $13,000 to build the school.
Not one of the students has ever set foot in Cambodia, and few knew much about the country’s history before the semester began.
This project is simply their response to a class assignment their professor gave them back in January: change the world.
At first, that assignment seemed too big and too vague.
The students each had different interests outside the required-for-graduation service learning class, and they had very different ideas about what in the world needed to be changed, and how.
But they could agree children, and education, were important.
So when Herrera happened on a clip from a newscast about another group in the United States that built a school in Cambodia, she thought this might be something college students in Florida could take on in three months.
She also was inspired to do something to help provide schools after learning more about a country that is still recovering from devastation during the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s and subsequent invasion and civil war. One result of that political turmoil is that school facilities in rural areas of Cambodia are scarce.
Miranda Westphal, 31, one of the students in the FGCU class, said it might seem like an idealistic project, but it’s worth trying.
“I can’t even imagine not having a place to go to school,” she said.
The students are working with a charity called American Assistance for Cambodia. Over a little more than a decade, the charity has helped build 350 schools in rural parts of Cambodia and has an arrangement with the Asian Development Bank in which the bank matches donations.
So if these students raise $13,000 this spring, that means $26,000 will go toward building a
village school. Construction can start once the students raise about $5,000.
Still, it is a large amount of money for a group of busy college seniors to come up with in a few short months before they go their separate ways.
That caused some to worry at first about whether they’d be able to pull it off.
“Everyone was like, ‘I don’t know. Isn’t that too much?’ “Herrera said.
But excitement for the project grew, and the students agreed to spend much of their spring break planning fundraisers — from bake sales to garage sales — and asking local businesses for support. Now, it’s more than just a class assignment to many.
And as for meeting their goal of $13,000, they have raised about $2,000 so far. But the students still have time on their side — there’s another month left before the semester ends.
“I’m hopeful,” Herrera said.
For more information on the Rural School Project or the need for schools in Cambodia, see http://cambodiaschools.com, or contact the students directly at
changetheworldproject@hotmail.com. The students also plan an information session at 7 p.m. April 5, in Reed Hall on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University.
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