Khmer Krom: Nonviolent Demonstrations OK?

Cambodia's constitutional commitment to allow freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful demonstrations is finally being put into implementation by law, signifying a positive prospect for human rights activists and especially the Khmer Krom community.

Below is an article published by UNPO:

Cambodia’s Council of Ministers issued a communiqué indicating that the plenary session of the Council of Ministers, held on 05 October 2007 had agreed and approved the nonviolent demonstration right draft law which was prepared by the Ministry of Interior.

The draft law includes 6 Sections divided into 30 Articles. The communiqué stated that the draft law on the nonviolent demonstration right was prepared on the basis of Articles 37 and 41 of the 1993 Cambodian Constitution which provide the right of citizens to strike or to stage nonviolent demonstrations, and guarantee the freedom of expression and assembly. Pursuant to these articles, the aforementioned rights are to be implemented in the framework of a law. Such a law has so far never been passed. The fact that it has been drafted and could soon be passed is an encouraging sign after so many peaceful demonstrations were disrupted by the police in the past years.

A Member of UNPO, the Khmer Krom (from Kampuchea Krom, South Vietnam) constitute a large community in Cambodia. Their natural refuge when fleeing suppression in Vietnam, Cambodia has not always been a safe haven for them. Despite their nonviolent approach, the Khmer Krom have repeatedly been prevented from staging peaceful demonstrations in Cambodia by the police (some of their demonstrations have even been violently repressed). The passing of the nonviolent demonstration right law will be a major step towards the democratisation of Cambodia and might, by ricochet, have impact on the politics of the region, allowing oppressed minorities from Vietnam and Laos to voice their concerns in Phnom Penh.

Note: Articles 37 and 41 from the Cambodian Constitution:

Article 37 - The right to strike and to non-violent demonstration shall be implemented in the framework of a law.

Article 41 - Khmer citizens shall have freedom of expression, press, publication and assembly. No one shall exercise this right to infringe upon the rights of others, to affect the good traditions of the society, to violate public law and order and national security. The regime of the media shall be determined by law.
Read more!

Cambodian cow in police custody for killing motorists

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian cow was taken into police custody for causing traffic accidents that resulted in the deaths of at least six people this year, a police official said Tuesday.

The cow's owner could also face a six-month prison term under a new traffic law that holds people responsible for accidents caused by their animals, said Pin Doman, a police chief on the outskirts of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

The white, 1.5-meter (5-foot) tall cow was standing in the middle of a main road Monday night when a 66-year-old motorcyclist crashed into the animal and died. Most Cambodian roads are dark at night.

Earlier this year, the same cow was responsible for another traffic accident that resulted in the death of five people and several injuries, when a truck veered off the road and crashed as its driver tried to avoid the animal.

Pin Doman said he was holding the cow at his police station.

He said the cow's owner had been warned four times in the past to keep his cattle leashed and could face prison time if relatives of those who died initiate legal proceedings. Read more!

SOCCER: In Chelsea or Cambodia, putting some kick back into the game

To some people, competitive soccer is all about kicking backsides. What wouldn't Cambodia's players give to beat Turkmenistan on World Cup qualifying duty in Phnom Penh on Thursday? And what greater pleasure might Chelsea's paymaster, Roman Abramovich, derive than hiring Henk Ten Cate, the coach who reputedly once booted José Mourinho in the bum long before Abramovich got rid of him?

The ball is round, the rules are the same. But the world is a very different place to a soldier or a traffic policeman or a laborer who pays for his own boots to play for Cambodia - compared with the pampered Chelsea players who earn more in boot money than a Cambodian expects in a lifetime.

A sensitive, humane article by Ek Madra, the Reuters man in Phnom Penn, this week set the scene for the Cambodia versus Turkmenistan home and away contests. He describes Thol Sothearith, a Cambodian defender, traveling to the optimistically named Olympic Stadium on an aged Honda motorbike - crossing potholed roads and wearing old boots that cost him a third of his $25 a month army pay.

"They're cheap, but they work well," Sothearith, 22, tells the reporter. "We lack support, morally and materially. We don't have enough nutrition, our pay is low. But win or lose, its great to be in the World Cup."

Turkmenistan will not lightly surrender rank to the Cambodians. The visiting team rates 174th among FIFA's 208 nations, lording it, by four places, over Cambodia.

In this first-round knockout phase, 43 Asian countries will start the elimination process down to just four teams for the 2010 final tournament.

"Teams like us reaching the World Cup, its not going to happen," says Scott O'Donell, the one time Australian A-league player who augments his Cambodia coaching work with television soccer punditry. "My players know this is the biggest game of their lives. All we can ask for is their best."

From Palestine to Afghanistan to Macao, we wish them good sport in this win-or-bust week that will also kick off qualifiers for gods like Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi down in South America. Those are names to conjure with, and their style is in part the reason why Abramovich is having a staff makeover at Chelsea.

Mourinho was a match winner for the Russian, but Abramovich tired of the coach's making himself the star while the team gave pragmatic performances.

Pragmatic, that is, compared with Barcelona. Recently, Abramovich tried to tempt Ronaldinho from Barça to his club in London. He failed, for now, but with the signing of Ten Cate comes a little bit of what made Barcelona hum.

Ten Cate was the No. 2 to Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona. With Rijkaard in charge and Ten Cate a kind of sergeant major on the training field, Barça was supreme in Spain, in the Champions League, and in most people's ideal of how soccer should be played.

Ten Cate, like Rijkaard of Dutch-Suriname origin, eventually went his own way as the head coach of Ajax Amsterdam. Why would he now accept a role as assistant to the new coach of Chelsea, the Israeli Avram Grant?

A £2 million, or $4 million, salary, double what Ajax paid Ten Cate, helps. A mutual understanding between Grant and Ten Cate, forged when the Israeli studied the way things worked in Barcelona, suggests the Dutchman will get a fair amount of command on the training pitch, while Grant decides selection and tactics.

There might be - and we might never hear - verbal agreements of an eventual hand-over of responsibilities. Some even speculate that, after this current season is over, Rijkaard will depart Camp Nou and renew his double act with Ten Cate, while Grant reverts to the overview post of director of football.

Such multiple managerial and coaching roles are familiar staffing arrangements at Europe's big clubs.O'Donell might, at best, have an interpreter at his elbow, but Mourinho, who came into soccer as a translator, surrounded himself with enough Portuguese aides to attend to every player's needs bar visits to the toilet.

When Mourinho's £5 million-a-year contract was paid off, the assistants also went. Grant, well aware of the Abramovich requirement to entertain - and sharing the ethos - had first to win over the players' support. Slowly, that is happening. The Israeli's sincerity is winning over some of the dissident players who had joined Chelsea for Mourinho.

They are in for more surprises, as Grant shapes his backroom staff. After Ten Cate will come, if Grant gets his way, Colonel Avi Moyal. He was the fitness trainer to the Israeli national squad when Grant was in charge and is currently the head of Israel's combat fitness training development.

So maybe there is a link between the Cambodians, some of whom are soldiers by day and soccer players by night or weekend, and the Chelsea Set?

The curious thing about soccer millionaires is that they might pout about team tactics, especially those that leave some of them like Andriy Shevchenko on the bench, but rarely do they complain about the toughest of commando-like fitness routines.

It was Rui Faria who tuned up the players' bodies under Mourinho's tenure, and often Faria who acted as their confidant while reporting back to the coach on what was being said in the camp.

The Israeli colonel will know all about the body and mind games. Even Israelis say his regimen is tough, but he allowed wives and families to run on the beach with his men at weekends.

The new order is marching in on Chelsea, and no doubt Ten Cate will think twice before chasing men like Avi Moyal down the tunnel and applying his boot to the backside.

Chelsea always denied that Ten Cate actually did boot Mourinho during a fracas in the tunnel on that infamous night in 2005 when Mourinho accused Rijkaard of visiting the referee's room at halftime during a Champions League match between Barcelona and Chelsea.

It was agreed that Ten Cate had a go at somebody, but the contact hit either the fitness man Faria, or the tactician Baltemar Brito.

Whatever, there is no mistaking where Abramovich made his mark. Read more!

Cambodia Hip Hop Artist Tells Story through Rap

Prach Ly came to the United States as a child with his family to escape Cambodia's killing fields. He grew up in Long Beach, California where he started rapping in English and Khmer about Cambodia's genocide, his community and life as an immigrant. Then he became a star in Cambodia nearly overnight after he released a homemade CD. The press dubbed him the first Khmer rap star and credited him with bringing hip-hop to Cambodia.

Prach Ly recently took a break from working on his latest album to perform at Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where he spoke to VOA's Robin Chen Delos. Here he tells his own story.
"I am a musician. I'm from Cambodia. My name is Prach. And I was born in a concentration camp during the killing field.

Toward the end of the killing field our family escaped the war and went to the border of Thailand. And we stayed there at the border and we got sponsored to America,” Ly explains.

“And when I got to California in Long Beach everything wasn't all great or anything like that. It was poverty-stricken. There was gang activities. The back of our head was, you know, if you grow up past 18 years old you probably did pretty good because of all the activities there. We were ducking drive-by shootings and stuff like that.

But then that's when the whole poetry, that's when the whole hip-hop, that's when the whole rap music came. I was surrounded by that.

I used the karaoke equipment to record my music, my lyrics. I would go buy instrumental songs, and put my word over it. And I got a CD made.

The CD was like an autobiography, coming from the whole killing field process, all the way to America and the struggle in America. And for New Year I just passed it out. And a DJ from Cambodia, DJ Sop, he was there at the New Year. He took the CD back to Cambodia, he played it over the radio and everyone was calling in to ask who's the artist.

And then the government, they censored and they banned my music. And then some of the people who heard the music they argued, they said, 'Wait a minute, why are you banning his music? It's nothing in reference to the government -- it's just talking about history.' So now the people are going to the markets and starting asking [to ask] for it and buying the CDs.

And then Newsweek and Time magazine and Asia Week, they located me and they contacted me and they like, 'We just want to ask you a question: how do you feel about having the number one album in Cambodia?' I go, "What?!' You know, I never sent it there.

The important thing was the kids was asking the parents, it was more like an educational tool. They were asking the parents and asking the elders what had really happened during the killing fields,” he says proudly. Read more!

Cambodia welcomes Chinese investment surge

For Cambodia, struggling to regain its economic footing after 30 years of civil war and keen to shrug off its dependence on aid, Chinese investment has been welcomed with open arms and few questions asked, at least publicly.

The Chinese government is pouring money into bridges and roads (it donated 6 million dollars of steel bridges to Cambodia in 2001) and pledging military assistance in the form of new vessels for the country's dilapidated navy.

But China's emphasis is increasingly looking beyond aid towards desperately needed investment. Chinese, and now Cambodian investors, are planting hectares of bio-fuel crops like jatropha, which the Chinese industry devours insatiably.

Just last month yet another Chinese company inked a deal to grow mulberries over a tract of land in the country's south to supply raw silk to its factories and offering to build a factory to process the silk worm cocoons in Cambodia.

In May, China's fifth largest steel mill, Wuhan Steel, announced it had joined Shanghai-based Baosteel Group, Anshan Iron and Steel Group and Beijing's Shougang Iron and Steel Group to explore for iron ore in Cambodia's remote northern Preah Vihear province on the Thai border.

The relationship has not been built overnight. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website boasts diplomatic ties with Cambodia since 1958 and notes China's agreement to wipe outstanding loans to Cambodia five years ago - something the US, amongst others, still steadfastly refuses to do.

Cambodia's revered former king Norodom Sihanouk spends months at a time in Beijing and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao showed the value he placed on the relationship in April 2006 when he included Cambodia in a tour of New Zealand and Australia.

"Chinese companies come to Cambodia because we have a long relationship and Cambodia is openly courting Chinese investment," Chhin Cheadara, deputy director of the Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce explained.

"Most of these investments are in the garments and construction industries, as well as mining and electricity production," said Chhin Cheadara. "This creates infrastructure and employment opportunities here, but more importantly, it is long term investment. In the future, we envisage more and more Chinese companies coming to Cambodia."

But this Chinese investment boom has worried some environmental and human rights groups. For instance, Australian mining giants such as BHP Billiton Ltd, currently exploring in the north-east for bauxite, have vast corporate responsibility programmes and are accountable to the scrutiny of media and shareholders at home.

Activists claim that Chinese companies may not feel these restraints and the Cambodian government has refused to rule out mining in environmentally sensitive areas if it deems the benefits outweigh the risks.

Chinese investors are not confined to mining either. In January one group was given the go-ahead for a hydroelectric plant in the coastal province of Koh Kong worth up to 215 million dollars.

Critics point out other potential drawbacks. The International Monetary Fund warned last month that soaring property prices constituted a risk to the country's nascent banking sector, going as far as to call the situation "a bubble" and cautioning that 90 per cent of loans were currently secured against property.

Analysts say the sudden rise in land values is due at least in part to the long Chinese tradition of property investment and speculation. Huot Pongan, undersecretary of state for the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy said the benefits outweigh the risks.

"We don't have enough electricity. China is developing that for us. We don't have the resources to build mines and harvest our resources. China does. And China has been here for a long time and will stay here for a long time," said the energy minister.

By 2004, the World Bank listed China as one of Cambodia's key sources of FDI as countries like the US and Japan continue to drag their feet, preferring instead to fund aid and soft loans.

Council for the Development of Cambodia figures show domestic and foreign investment approvals more than doubled to 2.6 billion dollars in 2006 from 2005, fed by key areas which China has shown vast interest in, including mining, energy and construction.

And of foreign investment approvals, China was dominant, with 763 million dollars in approvals in 2006 - nearly double its 2005 total. In comparison, Russia was a distant second, with approvals totaling 278 million dollars for 2006.

"There are a number of reasons why Cambodia is receptive to China. One is the way it does business. China understands Cambodia. It doesn't throw us scraps of aid and then scold us in front of the world like a naughty child. That is not the Asian way - that is the colonial way," one Cambodian analyst said on condition of anonymity.


Read more!

Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister denies responsibility for crimes during his rule

BANGKOK, Thailand: The Khmer Rouge's former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, said Sunday he believes he is next to face charges by a U.N.-backed genocide tribunal, but denied responsibility for the deaths of some 1.7 million people during the group's rule of Cambodia in the late 1970s.

After arriving at Bangkok's international airport, he said he heard about the speculation on the radio earlier Sunday as he headed to the airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital.

"I have done nothing wrong," Ieng Sary, believed to be 77, said of his years with the Khmer Rouge regime.

"I am a gentle person. I believe in good deeds. I even made good deeds to save several people's lives (during the regime). But let them (the tribunal) find what the truth is," he said without elaborating.

He was in Thailand to receive a checkup for a heart condition, he said.

Surviving Khmer Rouge leaders have typically claimed innocence in the crimes committed when their communist group held power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

The group's radical policies caused the death of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, illness, overwork and execution.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998, and his former military chief, Ta Mok, died in 2006 in government custody.

The tribunal's prosecutors have recommended five former Khmer Rouge leaders for trial. So far, only two of them — Nuon Chea, the former Khmer Rouge ideologist, and Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch who headed the former Khmer Rouge S-21 torture center — have been detained on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The other three suspects have not been publicly named. But Ieng Sary, who lives freely in Cambodia but in declining health, is widely believed to be on the prosecutors' list.

Ieng Sary, dressed in khaki pants, shirt and hat, flew on a Bangkok Airways flight with a Cambodian aide.

When he arrived in the Thai capital, he had to be pushed in a wheel chair, while his aide carried a walker.

Ieng Sary said he was visiting a Bangkok hospital for a regular heart checkup and would return to Cambodia in a few days.

"My heart is not functioning well following previous surgeries. My health is my big concern now," Ieng Sary said. Read more!

Cambodia issues decree to facilitate loans for investors

The Cambodian government has issued a sub-decree allowing investors to use long-term leases and rights to economic land concessions on state properties as collateral when applying for bank loans, local media reported Saturday.

According to a copy of the sub-decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, investors and companies are also able to transfer these concessions or long-term leases to other interested parties, the Cambodia Daily newspaper said.

"Investors have the right to pawn or transfer long-term leases or economic land concessions including buildings and other properties that they have invested in on the land," the sub-decree stated.

The sub-decree acts as a safety net for land concession holders by allowing them to sell the rights to concessions that they can no longer afford to operate, Chan Tong Yves, secretary of state for the Ministry of Agriculture, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

In Channy, president of Acleda Bank, said that although the new sub-decree could help investors in applying for loans, other documents proving the investors' capital are required.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Cambodia’s Spirits Stir, Toe to Spine

THE spirits came in February — teachers, giants and angels. The first arrived on a windy Thursday, and they stayed, roiling on in succession through the small, supple body of Chao Socheata until her distraught mother dragged her to the local pagoda, where a monk pressed three broken sticks of incense to her head, beat her with the stems of a banana tree and wrapped a magical string around her waist. Protection enough, as it turned out, against the darker aspects of the spirit world.

Ms. Chao Socheata — a 21-year-old dancer in “Pamina Devi,” the choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro’s retelling of Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” which opens a six-day run on Tuesday at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan — spent much of February weeping, part of it yelling and part of it in a kind of transfixed ecstasy in which she would teach things that she did not know.

When the spirit teachers came upon her, munificent and full of good, old ideas, the honor and the revelations were almost too great for her to bear. On Feb. 18, she passed out. That’s when the monks were called in. But the lesson had been well taught: in Cambodian dance, as in Cambodian life, the spirits are always watching.

So, to some extent, is the government.

In Cambodia, dance has long been a function of the state — an emanation of power, first the king’s, now that of the strongman government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. The state-run Royal University of Fine Arts here in the capital has a virtual monopoly on arts training, and many graduates go on to work in the ministry of culture or teach at the university.

In recent years, however, an avant garde of Cambodian artists, Ms. Shapiro among them, has been creating an alternative to the state’s model. To make new art, they are finding, they have to change the way art is made.

“Pamina Devi,” which the director Peter Sellars commissioned for the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna last year, is a case in point.

Last year, Ms. Shapiro, who had moved to the United States in 1991, returned to Cambodia with her American husband, John. They set up shop on a five-acre estate just outside Phnom Penh, and early this year they founded the 31-member Khmer Arts Ensemble, Cambodia’s first full-time independent dance company since the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975.

Dancers at the ensemble make $100 a month for full-time work. The ministry of culture is Cambodia’s largest employer of dancers, paying them $30 to $50 a month, plus performance fees. (In comparison, jobs in local garment factories pay a minimum of $50 a month.)

“Our goal over the next few years is to get up to a more livable wage, $300 to $500” a month, said Mr. Shapiro, executive director of the Khmer Arts Academy, an umbrella group that includes the performance ensemble as well as a dance school in Long Beach, Calif.

The academy’s total budget has grown to more than $500,000 this year, from $80,000 when they founded it in 2002. The Shapiros have grand plans. Mr. Shapiro says they’d like to start a dance research and publishing arm, an international exchange program and a costume shop. One can have such dreams in Cambodia, largely because costs in the country are so low.

“We thought about doing this in the United States,” Mr. Shapiro said. “The economics didn’t work out. An ensemble of 31 members — that’s a ballet company. It’s really expensive.” In Cambodia, $100 a month is a decent wage.

Ms. Shapiro has deep roots within the government system. She was in the first class to graduate from the Royal University of Fine Arts after it reopened following the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, and taught there for several years. Her uncle was the country’s minister of culture in the 1980s.

Mr. Shapiro says the couple tried at first to work within the system, but it wasn’t a good fit. “The university, like other systems in Cambodia, is a hierarchical system of patronage,” he said. “Sophiline doesn’t have a high position in government. She’s an individual artist. She says: ‘I’m going to make a dance. I’m going to pay for it.’ She’s cutting off a lot of levels above her.”

“We want to take classical dance and give it more emotion and drama, to make dances that are critical of society,” he continued. Old-guard government officials “scratch their heads and say, ‘Critical? That’s not what dance is for,’ ” he said. “We have an entirely different concept of what art can be used for.”

The Khmer Rouge, radical Communists who oversaw the deaths of about a quarter of the population in the late 1970s, devastated classical Cambodian arts. In the uneasy years since their overthrow by the Vietnamese, most artistic energies — and money — went into cultural preservation. Only now has attention begun to shift toward creation.

That shift has not gone down altogether smoothly. “Pamina Devi” is, in part, a story about the clash between men and women. But Mr. Shapiro said the ministry of culture would not let the ensemble use male dancers — too radical a departure from the female-dominated canon. Instead, the women playing male characters wear pants.

Khim Sarith and Him Chhem, secretaries of state at the culture ministry, said they were unaware of the decision by a previous minister to bar the company from using men. Through a translator, Mr. Him Chhem explained that classical court dance was traditionally dominated by women. He said he had yet to see “Pamina Devi” but hoped Ms. Shapiro would ground her work in a clear understanding of the form.

The government can exert subtle control in many ways short of outright censorship. Some of Ms. Shapiro’s dancers still work for the ministry and thus are especially vulnerable.

“We are glad to have more dance companies if they can apply all the ministry’s requirements to preserve our Cambodian dance,” Mr. Khim Sarith said.

Innovation is fine, he said, as long as it does not damage the integrity of the form. “We need preservation and innovation,” he said, “but the innovation must apply the basic foundation and style of the dance.”

Cambodian dance began as a form of religious devotion, and those spiritual roots are very much on Ms. Shapiro’s mind. The week before leaving for the five-city United States tour, Ms. Shapiro and her company held a lavish “teacher spirit” ceremony (“Sampeah Kru”) at their studios. On silver trays, they laid out offerings of pigs’ heads, chickens, ducks and tropical fruits. There were thick banana stalks garlanded with fresh jasmine and topped with hard-boiled eggs.

“It’s a way of showing respect for our teachers and asking the teachers to guide us,” Ms. Shapiro said. “We believe our teachers’ spirits are watching us, to make sure we respect the dance and aren’t fooling around.”

Classical Cambodian court dance, of which “Pamina Devi” is an example, consists of a slow unfolding of fixed gestures. Hands open into flowers; fingers fold into thorns or trace the path of a tear. Everything curves. Toes curl up, fingers bend backward, the spine takes on a dangerous sway. It’s best, really, to give up all modern notions of time and accept that this dance can be no more rushed than the sea.

“Dances were a form of prayer: they connect earth to heaven,” Ms. Shapiro said. “The slowness is to maintain a sense of spirituality. It is a way of praying.”

She has turned Mozart’s “Magic Flute” into a kind of modern Cambodian morality tale. Depending on one’s perspective, it’s about responsibility shirked, the dangers of ideology, the children of conflict and one young woman who grows up to find strength in herself.

“There’s a new energy coming up,” Ms. Shapiro said. “There’s a desire to catch up with the rest of the world. We’ve been falling behind for so many years; we want to catch up. The nation is in a process of transforming.”

Her distinctive blend of old and new is an inspiration, said Hang Borin, 27, a teacher at the Royal University of Fine Arts, who started an experimental dance ensemble called Trei Visay (Compass) with his friends last year. “She brings foreign stories and makes classical dances,” he said. “She has good ideas.”

Pumtheara Chenda, 21, who dances the role of Pamina Devi and used to perform with the Ministry of Culture’s classical dance troupe, said she liked working with Ms. Shapiro because she learned about the depths of a dance, not merely its steps.

“When I performed with the ministry, I just know how to perform, but I don’t know what it means,” she said. “They don’t explain about the story. They just say, ‘Do this, do that.’ I knew nothing. With Sophiline, I know the story.”

Ms. Chao Socheata, who has recovered from the spirits that ailed her earlier this year, plays Preah Arun Tipadey, the Sarastro role. She likes the story of Pamina Devi, who is caught in a battle between her mother and a father figure, “because it’s about parents who don’t understand their children and don’t pay attention to their children,” she said through a translator. “It relates to my personal life.”

She said that the spirits still visit sometimes when she dances. “My body knows the spirits come,” she said. “But it’s just to watch, not to possess.”

Read more!

3,016 Chinese companies registered in Cambodia

A total of 3,016 Chinese companies have registered in Cambodia, far more than those from other investing countries like South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, local media said on Saturday.

South Korea has 1,162 companies registered in the kingdom, while Singapore has 1,036, Malaysia 918 and Thailand around 800, Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial News quoted the statistics from the National Assembly as saying.

Since 1998, there have been 15,254 domestic and foreign companies registered in Cambodia, said the statistics unveiled here on Friday when the assembly debated the draft bankruptcy law.

Meanwhile, official figures showed that China has been Cambodia 's largest investing country from 2003 to 2005, but went down to the second largest after South Korea in 2006.

According to the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia, the bilateral trade volume between China and Cambodia stood at US$730 million in 2006, a 30 percent increase over 2005, and is expected to reach US$1 billion in 2010.

Read more!

Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam agree on tourism cooperation

VietNamNet Bridge - Tourism ministers of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam issued a joint declaration on trilateral cooperation at their meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on October 5.

The three countries agreed to encourage their national tourism agencies to boost exchange of information and experiences in tourism development and promotion. They agreed to jointly hold and attend tourism events and tours and cooperate in personnel training.

The three countries will take measures to facilitate tourists’ travel, boost tourism and cultural activities among their sister cities and heritage sites, as well as encourage public-private partnerships with regard to tourism development.

Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that the meeting of tourism ministers of the three countries, the first of its kind, was an important milestone in boosting trilateral cooperation to a new height matching their potential.

He expressed his belief that the scheme “three countries – one destination” would help build the three countries into a single tourist destination with diverse, unique and sustainable tourism products and high competitiveness in the region.

Sharing the host’s view, Cambodia Tourism Minister Thong Khon and Lao Minister and Chairman of the Lao National Tourism Administration Somphong Mongkhonvilay said their meeting laid a foundation for stronger tourism cooperation among the three countries, which will contribute to fortifying sustainable tourism development in the Greater Mekong Sub-region and the ASEAN.

Read more!

Qur’an copies a rarity in Cambodia

Cambodian Muslims can hardly find a copy of the holy Muslim book in the Buddhist country.

"Copies of the Qur'an are hard to get in Cambodia," Mufti Karmaruddin Yusof said in statements carried September 29 by Malaysia's Bernama news agency.

He said copies of the holy book are usually stolen from mosques in the Southeastern Asian country.

This makes it difficult to explain and spread the Islamic teachings in the Buddhist country, he said.

Ahmad Zahid, the chairman of the Dewan Amal Islam Hadhari (Damai), said at least 200,000 copies are needed by the Muslim minority. He urged Malaysia, the chairman of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference, to meet this serious shortage.

Zahid added that his organisation has collected so far RM200, 000 for its Wakaf Al-Quran programme.

There are estimated 700,000 Muslims in Cambodia, making up 5 per cent of the country's 13 million population.

Read more!

Cambodia's National Animal Is "Real," Study Says

Anne Casselman
for National Geographic News

October 5, 2007
A recent genetic analysis of a Cambodian ox called a kouprey matches fossil evidence that proves Cambodia's national animal is indeed its own species.

The latest study joins a growing body of evidence showing that the kouprey (pronounced "ko-prah") is not a hybrid between two related species of ox, the banteng and zebu, as was previously suggested.

French evolutionary biologists Alexandre Hassanin and Anne Ropiquet at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, sequenced kouprey DNA and compared it to that of related wild and domestic oxen species.

There are two types of DNA in a cell: nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Nuclear DNA is a combination of maternally and paternally inherited genes, and mtDNA is inherited exclusively from the mother. Hassanin analyzed both types of DNA in the new study.

"These molecular data allow us to study the evolutionary history of both paternal and mitochondrial lineages," he wrote by email from Vietnam.

If the kouprey is a hybrid of its close oxen relatives, its nuclear genes would have been a combination of the two hypothetical parent species. Instead Hassanin found that the kouprey's nuclear sequences differed from those of banteng and zebu.

"Our interpretations are therefore that the kouprey is a real wild species, different from all other wild oxen," wrote Hassanin.

The study will appear in the November issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Disappearing National Icon

The kouprey, which resembles a dark-coated ox with massive, curling horns, was first recognized as a species in 1937. In 1960 Cambodia made it the national symbol.

But habitat destruction and hunting took its toll, and many experts believe the last scientific observation of the animal in the wild was in 1957.

"I cannot imagine that if there were any kouprey left today we wouldn't be aware of them," said Gary J. Galbreath, an evolutionary biologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who was not involved in the study.

In 1961 German zoologist Herwart Bohlken suggested that the kouprey might be a hybrid population of the banteng and zebu because of similarities between the animals' skulls.

Galbreath and his colleagues tested that hypothesis in a 2006 Journal of Zoology study by comparing kouprey and banteng mtDNA. If the hybridization hypothesis was correct, the mtDNA of both animals would be similar.

"We ran the DNA, and lo and behold, our prediction was correct," Galbreath said. "We now know that this [new study] is Murphy's law in action, but at the time it seemed very convincing."

But that December a fossil kouprey skull, described by Thai scientists Chavalit Vithayanon and Naris Bhumpakphan in 2004, came to Galbreath's attention. The skull possibly dated back to the late Pleistocene or early Holocene epoch, about 125,000 to 5,000 years ago.

"You can't have a fossil kouprey skull if the kouprey is a recent hybrid," he said.

Galbreath and his colleagues formally rescinded their previous view that the kouprey was a hybrid in the March 2007 Journal of Zoology.

Given that the kouprey was its own species after all, the question remained, how did it come to share mtDNA with the banteng?

The genetic data published by Hassanin and Ropiqet suggest that at some point in the Pleistocene, a female kouprey and a male ancestor of today's banteng mated, and that this coupling occurred at least once.

Somehow their offspring spread its maternally inherited kouprey mitochondrial DNA throughout the banteng population.

The artifact of this ancient hybridization event is that banteng carry kouprey mtDNA. Read more!

Pretty in pink

By Cassie Phillips for CNN

BATTAMBANG, Cambodia (CNN) -- From my table at work, I have a partial view of the courtyard through the window and the double doors to the right. This allows me to gaze out and watch the kids playing during the day when I tire from work.

Despite finding the weather to be incredibly hot, I still observe office dress code and wear longer pants and skirts everyday.

In my first week of work I learned all of the kids at Homeland have their own clothes and are responsible for washing them. The kids run around in any assortment of pants, shorts, jeans and T-shirts. One boy in particular always catches my eye when he wears his pink bubble gum colored shirt and soccer shorts. I often find myself envious of his soccer shorts and irritated by his pink shirt.

The type of clothing worn by Khmer sometimes surprises me. Pajamas are commonly worn as daytime apparel, be it silky flowered pink pajamas for boys at play or patterned cotton matching sets for women. Men at work often sport traditional komars (short wraparound skirts) and bare chests.

The more I learn about social customs, I see how gender dictates both the actions and dress of men and women. Generally, women show the least amount of skin while men can show quite a bit without fear of scorn.

Children are free to roam the streets naked until late toddlerhood and beyond in some places.

I've recently learned colors do not have the same meaning as they do in the United States. Nonetheless, pink shirts on men remain the most striking and interesting to me as an American woman living in Cambodia.

As I've come to understand the color pink in the American context, it hasn't been until fairly recently that the color pink was liberated from its gender assigned designation to women.

I understand that a man wearing pink in Cambodia does not carry the same social meaning as it does in the United States. However, every time I see a man in pink, it brings into focus the tension I feel my gender creates as I negotiate the prescribed role of women in Cambodia.

Despite foreign women having a larger degree of acceptable social behaviors, I try to stay attuned to the roles Cambodian women fill. As such, I am acutely aware that I am a woman in Cambodia. This awareness comes from my consciousness of needing to go home when it starts to get dark if I am alone, to finding very few outlets for women to have fun, especially when considering their male counterparts.

I see men playing football or doing other team sports everywhere. However, I have never seen a woman playing. When I ask about it, I'm told, "girls don't play sports because it's too hard to teach them". Nevertheless, when I ask to join in games, men are very responsive and welcoming.

As a woman, I never feel discouraged from playing sports or going out for drinks on the weekend. This is in large part because I am a foreigner. At the same time, I note that local women never partake in these activities.

It seems that Khmer women understand very well that they are to stick to what women always do and not try new things.

Not wanting to believe that women do not feel restricted by these narrow roles, I continue to ask women if they are interested in learning to play sports or try something new over the weekend. It seems the women I meet know that they are to go to school, take care of siblings and stay inside when it gets dark. While some may express some interest in trying something out of the ordinary, they would never act upon it.

To their credit, all of the women I know are very busy all the time. It's as if free time does not exist for many women in Cambodia. However, even when women do have free time, they seem content not exploring new and different social activities.

I do not expect women in Cambodia to behave the same as men, however I'm shocked by their compliance with traditionally determined acceptable social behavior.

Still, I can't help but think if these women had role models or examples of women who dared not to conform they might try new things.

Not wanting to completely cast social order aside, I feel I have the opportunity to communicate a different story about women through my actions. For example, I still want to respect Cambodian culture, but also challenge myself and others to better understand this culture.

Perhaps I will never wear shorts to work, but I might join in a game of football and show how a woman can still be a woman and be athletic. In time, I would like to earn social approval as a woman but also suggest to those around me that women can still be respectable and do something different.

Read more!

UN Reports Call for Changes in Structure of Khmer Rouge Tribunal

By Rory Byrne

A United Nations agency says the U.N. should pull out of the special tribunal set up to try leaders of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge government unless reforms are made. Separately, two United Nations experts have reported serious problems with the administration and hybrid structure of the tribunal. Rory Byrne reports for VOA from Phnom Penh.

The United Nations Development Program was commissioned last year to report on hiring practices at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. The assignment followed allegations that Cambodian employees had paid court officials to obtain their positions with the tribunal.

A UNDP report published this week says no evidence of salary kickbacks was discovered. But the report says investigators did find that the Tribunal is employing unqualified Cambodian staff, at inflated salaries, and without proper hiring procedures.

The report says that if the Cambodian side of the tribunal does not agree to reforms in procedures and structure, "serious consideration should be given to withdrawing from participation in the project altogether."

A second U.N. report this week pointed out numerous administrative shortcomings, and recommended shifting control of crucial court functions to the United Nations.

The tribunal is a joint U.N.-Cambodian court, with Cambodian judges holding three of the five slots. The other two are held by international jurists selected by the U.N. The second report says that because Cambodia's judiciary is weak, the tribunal may be subject to political interference.

Peter Foster, the official spokesman for the U.N. side of the hybrid court, says the reports are being studied for possible action.

However, experts say that fully implementing the recommendations would require re-negotiating the agreements that established the tribunal - a move Foster says would endanger the whole process.

"Renegotiation would take some time," he said. "We have to remember that it took 13 years to get to the agreement that we have in place now, and we certainly don't want to reopen that and spend another 13 years."

Foster says it is possible the U.N. can take more of a "leadership role" without making major changes to the existing agreements.

"A 'leadership role' is a term that can be defined in many ways, it doesn't necessarily means that we have to renegotiate part of the contract or part of the agreement or change the basic fundamentals of how we're structured," he said. "We can certainly make adjustments within the current system to provide greater assistance and greater advice to our Cambodian colleagues…"

Foster says some remedial measures have already been taken, and that experts are being recruited to improve the functions of the tribunal and ensure fairness.

The court is currently investigating five people for crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule over Cambodia, during which up to two million people died. So far, two suspects have been detained: former prison chief Kaing Kek Eav, alias Duch, and Khmer Rouge ideologue Noun Chea. Cases against the other three are being prepared.

Read more!

Cambodia trip the 'ultimate' work experience for journalism student

By HoldtheFrontPage staff

A journalism student from the University of Sheffield has spent a week in Cambodia on the ultimate work experience trip.

Kirstie Kinrade won the trip after entering a writing contest run by the charity World Vision and Bliss magazine.

During the week there she spent time investigating the country's child sex trafficking problem.

She interviewed girls who had been rescued after being sold to brothels, and went out at night to meet street children who are part of a scheme run by World Vision to teach them life skills.

She also travelled to a school where the older children volunteered to teach the younger pupils how to avoid being tricked into the sex trade.

She was accompanied on the trip by officials from World Vision and a journalist from Bliss, and Kirstie's diary from the trip has now been published in the current edition of the magazine.

A futher real-life feature is also due to be published in next month's issue.

Kirstie, (21), told holdthefrontpage: "The trip was shocking and upsetting at times, but it was a really good experience - the best work experience I could ask for.

"Seeing my work in Bliss is a bit strange.

"I've had stuff published in local papers but it is strange to see it in a national magazine. But it is good for my CV."

She added: "I learned how to interview vulnerable people, and how to conduct interviews through a translator.

"I was glad because the team I was with allowed me to do my own thing and to interview people by myself, which has really boosted both my confidence and my shorthand speed!

"As well as doing a diary and a feature article for Bliss magazine I also kept an audio diary for BBC radio and a video diary for Sky TV."

Kirstie, who is a final-year student on the BA Journalism course, won the trip after entering a contest to write 150 words about a 'world issue that concerns you'. She wrote about the media, and how it fails to report on things that don't affect the western world.

Read more!

Sucked into a Black Hole

By JOSHUA KURLANTZICK

At night, the streets of Phnom Penh reveal the country's vast wealth gap. In front of shopping centers selling luxury cosmetics, whole families sleep on patches of sidewalk; beggars missing limbs, a legacy of civil war, crowd outside upscale restaurants where a tiny élite downs French entrées and chic cocktails. But many average Cambodians hope this poverty will vanish, thanks to an apparent miracle: the country has discovered oil. Off Cambodia's southern coast, explorers have found as much as 500 million barrels, potentially providing over $1 billion annually to the country.

Cambodia is hardly unique. As oil prices hit record levels, multinationals are hunting for black gold in ever more unlikely places, and many Southeast Asian nations now are eagerly exploring new fields. Yet few seem to realize that rather than miracles, oil often brings misery, including the massive graft witnessed in some petroleum-rich African and Middle Eastern states.

Ten years ago, with a barrel of oil dipping to about $10, there was little interest in Southeast Asian petroleum, other than established deposits in Indonesia and Brunei. But now, global instability and rising demand from India and China have spiked oil prices to over $80 per barrel, and governments are nationalizing major fields from Russia to Venezuela. At the same time, as offshore technology improves, oil firms can hunt in deeper, tougher waters, like the Timor Gap between Australia and East Timor. So the region has exploded with oil fever. Vietnam plans to explore in seven offshore blocks, Malaysia this summer launched the deepwater Kikeh field, and Indonesia expects production from its vast Cepu oil field to start next year. East Timor could earn at least $10 billion from the Gap, and Burma has discovered offshore fields that could contain 2.5 trillion cubic feet (70.8 billion cubic meters) of gas.

But oil can lead to the "resource curse" — a government-connected élite profits, most people still suffer, and the economy winds up dependent on petroleum and facing inflation from rising oil revenues. Nigeria, for example, ranks in the top 10 of world oil exporters, yet 60% of Nigerians live below the poverty line, and the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said that the government has stolen or wasted some $400 billion, a fair share of which presumably came from oil.

Many Asian countries could go Nigeria's way so far as oil is concerned. Cambodia, which is still recovering from the Khmer Rouge era, ranks near the bottom of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, and does not possess the institutions to monitor how the government uses its new oil riches. East Timor's economy will have almost no other foundations — studies estimate over 90% of government revenues eventually will come from oil. Before its latest brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors, Burma's military regime already demonstrated such little concern for its people that it reportedly spent among the lowest on health care per person of any government on the planet. Hiding out in its new jungle capital Naypyidaw, the junta has not even suggested that oil money will benefit its people. While many oil companies support the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which pushes countries to explain how they spend petroleum money, Chinese oil giants, dominant in Burma, refuse to sign up. Even Brunei, a country that at least used decades of petroleum wealth to provide free health care, is not immune. Suckled on oil, Bruneians demonstrate minimal entrepreneurship, leaving the country with almost no industry when oil runs out, possibly within 20 years.

Some Southeast Asian governments seem to want to learn from the mistakes committed by other countries. East Timor has created a national petroleum fund to save revenues for future generations. Dili has also enlisted advisers from Norway, one of the best examples of putting black gold to good use, to manage its oil money. But noble intentions are not enough. East Timor NGOs worry that their country's oil laws are so vague that they open the door to mismanagement and skimming. A damning World Bank–Indonesia joint study earlier this year showed Indonesia was struggling to spend state funds on decent development projects.

Cambodia could be the biggest worry. Prime Minister Hun Sen has pledged to steer oil revenues toward poverty reduction, but his government has offered no clear plans of how it will ensure riches are spent wisely. The promise of wealth has already sparked a property boom in Phnom Penh, a possible early sign of inflation. In the future, no doubt, Cambodia's capital will boast even more classy French bistros. But it just might have more beggars, too.

With reporting by Joshua Kurlantzick is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World

Read more!

Vietnam-Cambodia trade fair in Phnom Penh to open in November

Nhan Dan - The Vietnam-Cambodia International Trade Fair will be opened in Phnom Penh on November 3.

The fair is jointly organised by the Defence Ministry and Ministry of Trade and Industry of Vietnam and the Defence Ministry and Ministry of Trade of Cambodia.

The event is part of the national trade promotion programme in 2007. The fair is aimed to create opportunities for enterprises of the two countries, including military-owned businesses, to promote trade, introduce their products, boost economic co-operation and investment.

The fair will also help strengthen the solidarity and traditional friendship between the people of Vietnam and Cambodia.

The fair closes on November 6.

At the press briefing on October 2 in Hanoi, the Defense Ministry also announced its participation in another international trade fair “Socio-economic development in the Central Highlands – International Economic Integration” to be held in Buon Ma Thuot city in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, from December 14-18.

The fair is jointly organised by the Defence Ministry, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the People’s Committee of Dak Lak province.
Read more!

Cambodian official visits Troy

By Matt Clower, The Messenger

The Senior Minister of Education for Cambodia met on Wednesday with leaders at Troy University to lay the groundwork for a possible educational partnership.

Dr. Kol Pheng, who also serves as chairman of the board of trustees for Pannasastra University of Cambodia, is the highest- ranking foreign official to visit the Troy campus. Kol said the main purpose of his visit was to find ways to improve the quality of education offered in Cambodia.

“We want to continue to improve our educational system and ensure we are keeping up with international standards,” Kol said.

To that end, Kol said he wants to see the formation of a 1-2-1 study program that will allow Cambodian students to come to Troy - the student would study for one year in Cambodia, two years in Troy, and then a final year at home.

The same program has been implemented successfully with several Chinese universities, said Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr., chancellor of Troy University.

He said 1-2-1 is also soon to be implemented in Malaysia, as well.

“The model has been almost perfected in China, and we feel like we can replicate it almost anywhere there is an interested partner,” Hawkins said.

Kol said the training of teachers is of particular interest to Cambodia as the country looks to expand free public education for first through ninth grades.

There's hope that the partnership will work both ways, and Troy University education students will one day spend time in Camboida.

That goal is one Hawkins said he feels strongly about.

“Think about the view those students would have of the world and how much better they will be as teachers,” Hawkins said.

Pol said U.S. students studying in Cambodia would be able do research on issues unique to developing countries.

“We have a lot of emerging issues relating to economic development and different trends in our society,” Kol said.

Emerging from decades of violence under the Khmer Rouge, Kol said Cambodia is still trying to heal old wounds and move forward as a nation.

“For me, education and teaching about the past has been the way to promote healing and forgiveness and replace hate with love,” Kol said.

Following the meeting in Troy, Kol traveled to the Montgomery campus, where he was scheduled to meet with several other leaders from aross the state.

The meeting with Kol was arranged through the university's relationship with former U.N. Ambassador and Cambodian native Sichan Siv.

Siv spoke at the university's spring commencement in May 2007.

Read more!

Ethical Traveler begins campaign to stop child sex slavery in Cambodia

Four non-profit groups have come together this year to launch a campaign to help stop and bring about awareness of Cambodia’s child sex trade. Driven by Berkeley-based Ethical Traveler, the campaign will feature a letter-writing drive in the hopes to pressure the government to pass and enforce laws to protect minors. Global Exchange, Not For Sale Campaign and ECPAT-Cambodia will join Ethical Traveler in its cause. The letters will all be sent from travellers straight to Cambodia’s Minister of Tourism, urging him to use his name and influence to help abolish the now thriving sex slave industry.

"Cambodia relies on tourist dollars for much-needed foreign exchange," said Jeff Greenwald, Ethical Traveler's Executive Director. "Child sex tourism is a threat to the future of this developing nation, and to its appeal as a legitimate travel destination."

Victims of sex slavery are often treated as illegal immigrants in Cambodia and are sent to prison, whilst their traffickers go unpunished. The letter writing campaign aims to disrupt the attitudes and laws surrounding victims.

"We have created a simple, easy, and direct way for concerned people from around the world to write the government of Cambodia, urging it to take action to stop child prostitution," said Greenwald. "Tourism is a major economic force in Cambodia. By joining together, travelers can influence Cambodia to protect vulnerable children even as it protects its reputation as a world-class tourist destination."

For more information on this campaign, or to send a letter to the Cambodian Minister of Tourism, please visit http://www.ethicaltraveler.org/cambodia. Read more!

Cambodia Asks ASEAN To Act In Myanmar Crisis

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday urged the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to find ways to solve the erupting crisis in Myanmar.

Sen in an interview with the China View, said that Singapore, who stands as the rotating Chair of ASEAN, should be uniting with the countries Malaysia and Thailand in order to form a group of three that will find a solution to Myanmar problem.

The Prime Minister described the problem in Myanmar as it reached the new level of seriousness.

"ASEAN should be playing a more active role," he said in an interview with the China view noting that he would like to see the government of Myanmar exercise the maximum tolerance to clear out the protesters.

Read more!

Japan may cut aid to Myanmar; Cambodia calls for regional role

TOKYO: Japan said Wednesday it is preparing to cut aid to Myanmar, while Cambodia's prime minister urged Myanmar's neighbors to work as a group to help find a democratic solution to the country's political crisis.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen called for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to play a role resolving the tensions in Myanmar and urged the junta to refrain from further violence.

Hun Sen said the involvement of Myanmar's Buddhist monks in recent pro-democracy protests showed problems had reached a new level of seriousness.

"ASEAN should be playing a more active role," he told reporters, proposing the bloc form a group, led by ASEAN chair Singapore, that can "assist in finding solution to the problems in Myanmar."

Myanmar's junta broadcast warnings from trucks Wednesday that soldiers were searching for protesters.

Myanmar's military crushed pro-democracy protests on Sept. 26 and 27 with live ammunition, tear gas and by beating up demonstrators. Hundreds of monks and civilians were carted off to detention camps. The government says 10 people were killed in the violence, but dissident groups put the toll as high as 200. They say 6,000 people were detained.

U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was in transit in Singapore on Wednesday after a four-day mission in Myanmar, where he met junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe and his deputies to convey the international community's outrage at the junta's actions. He also talked to detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi twice.

In Singapore, Gambari met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Myanmar is an ASEAN member.

A Singapore government statement said Lee told Gambari that ASEAN "is fully behind his mission" to bring about a political solution for national reconciliation and a peaceful transition to democracy.

In Indonesia, dozens of Buddhist monks rallied outside the Myanmar Embassy, demanding Jakarta and the U.N. to take immediate action and waving banners denouncing the military junta.

"Stop all forms of violence and start looking for a solution with cool heads," said monk Matra Maitri.

In Geneva on Tuesday, the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the military's crackdown and urged an immediate investigation of the situation.

In Tokyo, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Japan was preparing to suspend aid to Myanmar over the death of Kenji Nagai during last week's military crackdown on street protests in Yangon despite repeated international calls to end repression.

"There have been calls to freeze aid entirely, but ordinary people in that country are already suffering. So we've decided to narrow down humanitarian aid for now," Komura told a group of reporters.

Japan has not formally announced details of the aid cut, though Komura said Tokyo would keep up assistance to humanitarian projects like polio eradication.

Japan is Myanmar's largest aid donor. It suspended yen-denominated loans for major projects after another violent crackdown in 1988, but has since given aid under a program focused mainly on health, education and humanitarian projects.

In 2005, Japan provided grants totaling 1.3 billion yen (US$11.2 million; €7.9 million) and 1.7 billion yen (US$14.7 million; €10.3 million) in technology assistance, according to the latest ministry figures.

Japan has limited its economic aid to Myanmar to humanitarian assistance, and is now "considering cutting it back further," Komura said. Read more!

Cambodia's co-ruling Funcinpec Party to elect PM candidate

As the 2008 national election approaches, the co-ruling Funcinpec Party has announced that it will hold a two-day national congress from Oct. 18-19 to prepare its leadership structure and political programs and elect its candidate for prime minister, local media reported Wednesday.

"We will organize the party's national council congress on Oct. 18, which is the first anniversary of the party reform," said Funcinpec Secretary General Nhiek Bun Chhay, reported Cambodian- language newspaper the Rasmei Kampuchea.

Chhay also claimed that, during the October 18 event, which will be held at Olympic stadium, the party will also announce reform of the party national council, consisting of between 2,600 and 2,700 members from all levels of the royalist party, and will decide whether to extend the membership of the party's steering committee from 53 to 70, reported another Cambodian-language newspaper the Khmer Mekong News.

The party will also declare its candidate for prime minister for the 2008 national election. All three candidates, Princess Norodom Arun Rasmy, Princess Norodom Vichara and Prince Norodom Sirivudh, are from the blue-blooded Norodom branch of the royal family, reported another Cambodian-language newspaper the Khmer Machas Srok News.

Funcinpec spokesman Nov Savathero said that only princes and princesses who are popular and have good relations with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) would be nominated as premiership candidates for the royalist party.

Princess Arun Rasmy, wife of Funcinpec president Keo Puth Rasmey, is in a strong position as she has never had any disputes with the CPP, reported the Khmer Machas Srok News.

Read more!

Creative Holidays launches Vietnam and Cambodia

Creative Holidays has launched its 2008 Vietnam & Cambodia program offering the trade an expanded product range, as well as new, more flexible travel options that can be tailored to suit specific clients’ time and budget requests.

The new program boasts a full page feature on Halong Bay boat options, including the introduction of the Halong Ginger, a five-star high-end junk for travellers looking for a more luxurious experience. The program also has more hotel options in the popular cities of Saigon, Hanoi and Hoi An, a full page outlining Sapa train and rail options as well as the introduction of product in the beach areas of Phu Quoc Island, Phan Thiet and Quy Nhon, and new group tours in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Andrew Yell, general manager, product, sales and marketing, Creative Holidays said “This year we have a really diverse range of products designed to suit all markets, including families, couples, singles, those on a budget, the more adventurous, people looking for a hands-on experience and those after romance, luxury and indulgence.

“The popularity of both Vietnam and Cambodia has grown significantly over the last 12 months with Australian travellers. In fact, we have seen sales to the region double, which is testament to a destination that really does offer something for everyone.

“We have been able to increase our range to offer more five-star resorts, like the Evason and Ana Mandara in Nha Trang, more options to the booming family market and, option of independent flexible itineraries and group trips for solo travellers.

“Truly flexible independent touring is always a popular choice and consultants now have more options than ever with Creative Holidays. Agents can tailor an itinerary exclusively for their clients with us, right down to the standard of accommodation, duration, budget and sightseeing options.

“Tailoring a trip for clients is simple in Vietnam because geographically the country runs over 3000km from north to south, so the most practical itineraries traverse the country from top to bottom or vise versa, with as many, or as few, stops in between as travellers would like. However, with the boom in interest to the region demand can sometimes out number supply, so book your clients early to ensure they don’t miss out during peak seasons.

“Moving forward into 2008, we expect to see unprecedented growth continue for Vietnam, particularly as the region is so accessible, easy to travel though and appeals to such a broad cross-section of the market.”

Creative Holidays’ entire program is a comprehensive information source and research tool to help consultants and their clients plan their holiday and features impartial destination information supplied by Lonely Planet including temperature charts, country and area maps, event details, currency and dining information, travel facts, country highlights and much more throughout.

As a SPECIAL BONUS, Lonely Planet is offering significant discounts on their range of travel guides to Creative Holidays’ customers, so if your clients wish to learn more about Vietnam and Cambodia be sure to direct them to www.creativeholidays.com where they can save 20 per cent on all full priced Lonely Planet guides.

Creative Holidays is Australia’s leading independent holiday company with a range of holidays to suit everyone – especially those who enjoy the independence and flexibility of planning their own holiday. Creative Holidays great deals are available exclusively through travel agents. Read more!

Cambodia facing tropical storm Lekima

Continual rain over the past few days is an indication Cambodia is likely to face tropical storm Lekima, which may bring serious flooding across the nation, local media said on Tuesday.

Lekima has moved from Vietnam to China's coastal area, provoking the Cambodian Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology to announce on Sept. 30 that it may soon need to issue flood warnings, should river depth at target points rise above danger levels, Cambodian-language newspaper the Rasmei Kampuchea quoted officials as saying.

The depth of the Mekong River at Stung Treng province has risen to 7.15 meters, in Kratie province 17.79 meters, in Kampong Cham province 12.64 meters and in Phnom Penh 8.73 meters, according to a bulletin issued on Oct. 1 by the ministry's hydrology department.

The warning will be announced if the depth at the target areas rises to 10.70 meters in Stung Treng, 22 meters in Kratie, 15.20 meters in Kampong Cham or 10.5 meters in Phnom Penh.

The storm would bring incessant torrential rains to Cambodia for days, possibly from Oct. 2 to 5, said the September 30 announcement, making an impact on not only Mekong River Basin but also northeastern provinces such as Ratanakiri, Modulkiri and Preah Vihear, and in the northwest provinces of Kompong Chhnang, Pursat and Battambang.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Cambodia working on establishing geographical rights of goods

Cambodia is conducting studies on the creation of geographical rights for the nation's key products to promote exports, local media said on Tuesday.

The process is being discussed at a two-day workshop here organized by the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), which ends on Tuesday. The conference is being attended by officials from the ministries of commerce and agriculture and private producers, Cambodian-language newspaper the Kampuchea Thmey reported.

The study aims to identify the geography of goods to streamline the trade, said Rafael Dochao Moreno, EU charge d'ffaires to Cambodia.

"We have to collect goods in areas to be registered and disseminated and also protect those goods in the country and abroad," said Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Commerce Mao Thora. The project will run in conjunction with the government 's One Village One Product initiative.

Rice from Battambang, silk from Banteay Meanchey, palm sugar from Kompong Speu, pepper from Kampot, fish paste from Siem Reap, and Cardamom spices from Pursat are on a shortlist of products that are to be examined to see if they hold the criteria to meet geographical indication (GI) standards, said Mao Thora.

"Geographical indication is not a certificate," said Stephane Passeri, administrator for the EU-funded EC-ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Cooperation Program, or ECAP II.

"It is an intellectual property concept. Such rights have to follow national legislation, without which there is no recognition that can be claimed outside Cambodia," Stephane Passeri added.

With aid from EU, the geographical registration of goods is to urge for the adoption of Law on Intellectual Property Rights according to the demands of World Trade Organization (WTO), said Mao Thora.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Cambodia facing tropical storm Lekima

Continual rain over the past few days is an indication Cambodia is likely to face tropical storm Lekima, which may bring serious flooding across the nation, local media said on Tuesday.

Lekima has moved from Vietnam to China's coastal area, provoking the Cambodian Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology to announce on Sept. 30 that it may soon need to issue flood warnings, should river depth at target points rise above danger levels, Cambodian-language newspaper the Rasmei Kampuchea quoted officials as saying.

The depth of the Mekong River at Stung Treng province has risen to 7.15 meters, in Kratie province 17.79 meters, in Kampong Cham province 12.64 meters and in Phnom Penh 8.73 meters, according to a bulletin issued on Oct. 1 by the ministry's hydrology department.

The warning will be announced if the depth at the target areas rises to 10.70 meters in Stung Treng, 22 meters in Kratie, 15.20 meters in Kampong Cham or 10.5 meters in Phnom Penh.

The storm would bring incessant torrential rains to Cambodia for days, possibly from Oct. 2 to 5, said the September 30 announcement, making an impact on not only Mekong River Basin but also northeastern provinces such as Ratanakiri, Modulkiri and Preah Vihear, and in the northwest provinces of Kompong Chhnang, Pursat and Battambang.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Experts: Cambodia Fertile Ground for Tamil Tigers

Cambodian authorities recently broke up a human smuggling network run in part by the Tamil Tigers. The involvement of the Sri Lankan separatist group in illegal activities in Cambodia came as no surprise to experts, who have watched the sophisticated insurgency transform in Phnom Penh since it began buying Cambodian weapons in the 1990s.

"The operations in Cambodia still exist to a great extent. However, it may not be focused in the same areas that it was focused in the late '90s," said Shanaka Jayasekara, a terrorism researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, no longer need Cambodia as a place to "mop up" old weapons, Jayasekara told VOA Khmer, echoing other interviews with analysts and government officials over several weeks.

Their weapons purchases are more sophisticated now, but the criminal infrastructure put in place in the early 1990s, when Cambodia was its primary arms bazaar, is still there, enabling drugs and human smuggling, credit card fraud and money laundering.

"The LTTE has been involved in the narcotics trade for quite some time. They have also facilitated human smuggling of the Tamil diaspora through some of the Southeast Asian countries," Jayasekara said.

Cambodia authorities say in August they broke up an operation run in part by Tamil Tigers intent on smuggling up to 250 Pakistanis and Sri Lankans to Western nations and Australia.

The bust was an indicator that efforts from Sri Lankan and Cambodian officials to unseat Tamil Tiger operations in the county had not been successful.

The Tamil Tigers earn hundreds of millions of dollars each year by collecting money from Tamil immigrant communities. The Tamil people belong to a minority group in northern Sri Lanka and southern India, but Tamil expatriates live in many Western countries, including Canada, Norway and Australia. A lot of money comes from these groups, either by choice or through coercion, experts said.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Tigers also earn money by running guns to groups like the Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group in the Philippines. And they smuggle Tamil people into Western countries.

This helps the Tamil Tigers fill their war chest and continue their separatist fight against the Sri Lankan government, Jayasekara says.

"It's a kind of a business opportunity for the LTTE. They make money out of it. They also do it to take their key operatives to certain locations and place them in vital destinations so that their international network can be run more efficiently," Jayasekara said.

At least two Tamil operatives escaped Cambodia's August dragnet: Ranni Lerin and his brother, Lipton Lerin, who operated their human smuggling ring out of a cafe in Phnom Penh, authorities said in September.

The Cambodian government made a public call to Interpol to help them capture the men.

Jayasekara said the flight of the two brothers likely has not halted the group's activities, which are now being run by a man who officials know little about.

Officials say more needs to be done to rein in the Tamil Tigers, who have invented devices—including the suicide vest—and innovated techniques that reach Islamic terrorists.

"The LTTE has growing links with other terrorist organizations like the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah," said Dr. Palitha Kohona, the Sri Lankan Secretary of Foreign Affairs in Colombo and an expert on the Tamil Tigers.

The innovative Tamil Tigers, who have been fighting for a separate Tamil state since 1975, has its own navy, merchant vessels and a small air force. The insurgency has led to the deaths of more than 60,000 people.

Countries like Cambodia and Sri Lanka need help in pursuing the group, Kohona said. "We need expertise," he said.

"We need intelligence gathering assistance."

The US, meanwhile, has listed the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization.

Earlier this year, US agencies disrupted a Tamil Tiger plot to smuggle high-tech weapons, missiles, ammunition and night-vision goggles out of the US.

Undercover officers acting as State Department officials also caught operatives attempting to bribe them to have the Tamil Tigers taken off the US terrorist list.

The problems Sri Lanka is facing with the Tamil Tigers will become the problems of wealthier countries if more isn't done to stop the group, in undeveloped countries like Cambodia and in developed nations of the West," Kohona said.

"Terrorism is not an issue for one country. It is an issue for the entire sea of humanity," he said. "Terrorism is a scourge that has to be eliminated wherever it might be found."
Read more!

Audit finds flaws in KRouge tribunal hiring

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — An audit of Cambodia's genocide tribunal has highlighted serious hiring flaws and suggests that the UN's development agency UNDP, which oversees millions in donor funding, should quit the court.

The audit was commissioned by the UNDP last year following allegations that some Cambodian staff had paid for their positions on the UN-backed court, which was established to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

But it was only made public late Monday amid growing pressure for its release.

The audit details a tangled bureaucracy inside the Cambodian side of the joint-court, rife with unqualified staff, bloated salaries and the creation of dozens of unnecessary jobs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"If the Cambodian side does not agree to the essential measures that are, from UNDP perspective, necessary to ensure the integrity and success of the project, then serious considerations should be given to withdrawing from participation in the project altogether," the audit said.

It goes on to recommend that all Cambodian contracts be nullified, and new employees hired under closer UNDP supervision.

The UNDP says the audit is a private document and would not comment, but tribunal staff maintain that they have nothing to hide and have responded to most of the findings.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the court, which posted the audit on its website, had always wanted the findings to be made public.

But the official also dismissed the audit's recommendation that the UNDP withdraw from the court.

"Imagine if they were to leave this late in the game, 18 months on. It would be disastrous," the official said.

The court is currently investigating five people for crimes committed during the communist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule over Cambodia, during which up to two million people died.

So far two suspects, former prison chief Duch and regime ideologue Nuon Chea, have been detained.

The tribunal's decision to post the audit comes as the cash-strapped court prepares to launch a major fund-raising campaign.

Tribunal spokesperson Helen Jarvis said earlier that the court has enough money to continue operating through early next year, but that budget shortfalls could threaten to delay the process after that.

Some 56.3 million dollars have been budgeted for the long-stalled trials, but the Cambodian government has so far only pledged a fraction of its 13 million-dollar share.

The rest, officials say, must come from additional donor funding, although there are fears that the international community might be unlikely to pay for what it perceives as a flawed process.

Read more!

Cambodia urges comprehensive UN reforms

Hor Namhong was teaching the UN how to reform their administration? we didn't know that you can talk, which school did you go to ? we knew you graduate from Yuon Hanoi's slave. And you are Yuon Hanoi, You should be reforming your pockets first so that you don't steal so much from Cambodia for Yuon Communist.

Cambodia called for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations on Monday to make the world body responsive to 21st century problems.

"We are more than ever convinced of the urgent need for a comprehensive reform and not just the Security Council (UNSC), because we need to mobilize our collective efforts and wisdom to address the problems we are facing in this 21st century in a responsive and comprehensive way," Hor Namhong, Cambodia's deputy prime minister, said in a speech at the general debate of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly.

He stressed Phnom Penh's stance that reform of the UN must be comprehensive.

"Instead of focusing primarily on the reform of the Security Council, maybe we can first start with the reform which can lead to a consensus," Namhong, who also serve as Cambodia's foreign minister, said.

"We may commence with the ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) on how to make it more effective and more relevant to deal with the problems of development in the context of the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals).

"Afterward, for the General Assembly (UNGA), too, we certainly need to empower this institution more so that it could play a prominent role in addressing today's global problems, as a democratic, deliberative policy-making and representative organ of the United Nations," Namhong said.

"With the momentum and consensus building of the reform of both ECOSOC and UNGA, we could then move to the UNSC reform to ensure that it reflects today's realities with an equitable representation of developed and developing countries," he added.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Myanmar unrest has little effect on tour agency businesses

SINGAPORE: Tour agencies in Singapore say the unrest in Myanmar has not affected their businesses much.

But a few, like Asia-Euro Holidays, say there have been some cancellations.

"Recently, we actually have a group of volunteers - 27 of them - intending to go to Myanmar for some community services. Apparently, they have decided to cancel the trip. Instead, they are planning for Cambodia and it's some time in December," said Sam How, a general manager at Asia-Euro Holidays.

However, most agencies tell Channel NewsAsia that Myanmar is not a sought-after tourist destination, to begin with.

Lee Cheun Kiat, manager for marketing and PR at Commonwealth Travel Service Corporation, said: "The recent situation has not affected business as a whole.....(due to) the fact that Myanmar has had a long-standing issue of political unrest and the fact that Myanmar is not a popular destination...We offered tour packages to Myanmar recently and the take-up rate was about 10-20 passengers per month.....We actually encounter more business travellers than leisure travellers to Myanmar."

The tour packages to Myanmar offered by Commonwealth Travel from May to September this year attracted only about 100 people. But over the same five-month period, other destinations like Thailand and Cambodia attracted some 1,000 people.

Besides the current violence, the poor response to Myanmar is also due to other factors.

Asia-Euro Holidays' Sam How said: "First thing, of course, is its political situation and currently it's still military-controlled. On the other hand, there are a lot of restrictions....you can't use mobile phones there, credit cards are not recognised due to the international sanctions. All these are creating a lot of inconvenience for the tourists going there."

But many travel agencies are confident that Myanmar has the potential to become a popular tourist destination in the future, so long as political stability prevails. - CNA/ir


Read more!

DNA Solutions quest to preserve the Asian Elephant

(openPR) - DNA Solutions based in London, UK, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to work together with Fauna & Flora International, the world's oldest conservation organisation, in using DNA fingerprinting to monitor elephant populations in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains with the help of our scientists.

Elephant dung is being collected by field biologists and trackers, and transported to DNA Solutions, an accreditated DNA testing laboratory, where the DNA will be extracted and analysed. Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains are blanketed by virtually undisturbed forest stretching over 10,000 square kilometres. Field biologists can spend weeks searching for elephants to record the vital data needed to properly monitor elephant populations. DNA analysis can yield this vital information much more quickly and efficiently. Estimating the size of elephant populations in Cambodia is extremely difficult, due to their habits and the size of their habitat. They are also extremely secretive animals.

Joe Heffernan, an elephant biologist with Fauna & Flora International, has been playing hide and seek with the largest of all land mammals for years. "This is the first time a closed population has been surveyed, so the results stand to be the most sophisticated ever recorded. "In addition to the difficulties of observing elephants in the wild, their tracks and feeding signs can only reveal so much. DNA from their dung, however, can reveal the age, sex and health of the individual that produced it. Because each fingerprint is unique, the size of the population can be accurately estimated."

Vern Muir, director of DNA Solutions, said: "DNA Solutions is essentially a big team of biologists, so I can speak for everyone when I say we are all feeling proud to be able to help the cause of elephant conservation.

"It is extremely rewarding to be able to use genetic techniques that for so many years have been used to solve other people's paternity issues, for something that instead gives all of us greater personal satisfaction." The information will be used to refine long-term elephant management strategies and identify future protected areas. The Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) also plans to use the data to monitor illegal elephant killing and forecast trends.

Cambodia is critical to Asian elephant conservation, but work is hampered by the scarcity of field data. Fauna & Flora International is leading surveys of remote forest areas and working with the Cambodian Wildlife Protection Office and Ministry of the Environment to ensure that these elephant strongholds are protected. Fauna & Flora International is also working with communities within the Cardamoms to understand their needs so that they do not harm elephants that stray close to their villages.

The first batch of samples will arrive with DNA Solutions next month, with initial data projected to be processed by November.

DNA SOLUTIONS
145-157 ST JOHN STREET
LONDON
EC1V 4PY
T: 0845 4500004
F: 0871 661 5505
W: www.dnasolutions.co.uk
E: d.leigh@dnasolutions.com
PRESS CONTACT: DAN LEIGH

DNA Solutions was established in January 1997. It is focused on providing reliable and confidential global DNA products, including ‘peace of mind’ testing for consumers and legal testing for courts and legal disputes. Services include paternity/maternity testing; sibling verification; DNA storage & preservation, ancestry, and profiling. As the first pioneering company to offer home testing kits it has established itself with over 30 offices worldwide, DNA Solutions is synonymous with advanced accuracy DNA analysis.
Read more!

Prosecutors let court decide on Ang’s gig as casino adviser

By Jocelyn Uy

MANILA, Philippines -- Government prosecutors have no objection to Charlie "Atong" Ang's petition to the Sandiganbayan seeking the reversal of the court’s earlier ruling that barred him from flying to Cambodia for a possible consulting job in a gaming company.

"The people submit the instant motion to the wise discretion of the court," said Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio in a one-page comment submitted to the anti-graft court’s Special Division.

Ang, a well-known former casino habitué and a gambling buddy of ousted president Joseph Estrada, received a job offer in August from 888 Corporation, which operates a lottery in Cambodia.

Citing his "expertise" as a former consultant to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. in the Estrada administration, 888 executives wrote Ang asking him to advise their company.

In his request to be allowed to fly to Cambodia, Ang told the Sandiganbayan the job could be his ticket to settling his debts, incurred when he had to pay the P25-million penalty the court imposed on him after he pleaded guilty to a lesser offense in the plunder case against Estrada in which he was a co-accused.

Estrada was convicted of two counts of plunder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. His conviction is under appeal. Having availed of the plea bargain, Ang was sentenced to six years in prison and was freed due to time served during his trial.

The Sandiganbayan Special Division junked Ang’s petition for a weeklong travel pass to Cambodia citing the possibility he would leave the jurisdiction of the court.

In placing Ang under two year’s probation four months ago, the court ordered him not to participate in any form of gambling and to get the court's permission every time he wanted to leave Quezon City.

In his motion for reconsideration, Ang through his lawyers said he could not "simply escape and trifle with the generosity of this court."

He also said he would abide by the terms and conditions for travel that the court may impose -- like putting up a travel bond -- to guarantee his return.

"I really need that job to settle my arrears. I have no job offers here in the country," Ang had told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an earlier interview.
Read more!

Buddhist forces in the crucible

Myanmar's protesting monks and the junta follow very different forms of the same faith

BY CHARLES KEYES Charles Keyes is professor of anthropology and Asian studies at the University of Washington and author of many works on Southeast Asia, including "Buddhist Economics and Buddhist Fundamentalism in Bu.

The government's violent crackdown against thousands of monks marching in the streets of Myanmar to protest the long rule of a military dictatorship occurs, ironically, in a country where those who hold political power have always sought legitimacy through association with Buddhism. But the junta follows a very different form of Buddhism than do the protesting monks.

The fundamental relationship between politics and Buddhism is known as the "Two Wheels of the Dhamma." Legitimate order depends both on the dhamma (fundamental truths) embodied in the teaching of the Buddha and the dhamma that constitutes the authority of rulers.

The connection stems from a modernist form of Buddhism called Theravada that took hold in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Burma (now Myanmar), Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, emphasizing meditation not to withdraw from the world but to remain active in the world, while tempering desire for material things with compassionate actions to help reduce the suffering of others.

It was this modernist Buddhism that monks such as U Ottama (1879-1939), one of the major leaders of Burmese anti-colonialism, drew on to provide moral support for protests against British rule, which finally ended with independence in 1948. But it is not the Buddhism that the military rulers have embraced since the first coup in 1962.

Gen. Ne Win, the dictator from 1962 to 1988, was conspicuous in his support of an earlier, more magical tradition focused on stupas and shrines, centered on the worship of "reminders" of Buddha, through which it was believed that people could gain magical powers for acting in the world.

This didn't stop many members of the Sangha, as the order of monks is called, from promoting the modernist Buddhism, most emphatically in the act of "turning up of alms bowls," which they did in their last great protest, in 1990, after the government refused to abide by the results of a democratic election. In this gesture, the monks refused to accept offerings from members of the military, an act equivalent to excommunication in the Catholic Church.

In the Buddhist tradition, because monks adhere strictly to a discipline laid down by the Buddha, they are considered to be "fields of merit." Laypersons gain merit, or positive karma, primarily through alms offerings to the monks. Refusing offerings is effectively blocking a path to holiness.

As in the early 1960s, the military junta attempted to gain legitimacy for its violent assertion of power in 1988-90 through very public acts of support for the Buddhist religion. An example was the sponsorship in 1994 of a 45-day tour of a tooth relic of the Buddha that was sent from China. By focusing attention on the relic, the junta sought to accentuate its support for magical Buddhism, as opposed to the modernist Buddhism being taught by most leading monks.

The present protests clearly demonstrate the failure of the military to achieve legitimacy through its ostensible support of Burmese Buddhism. As the monks and their followers again face armed soldiers and police who are willing to use force to reassert the domination of the military regime, they are again turning up alms bowls. If things go according to history, we might expect another government push soon for magical Buddhism.

The monks who are being killed will be seen as Buddhist martyrs, much like Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk who immolated himself in 1963 to protest the Vietnam War. The death of monks in a political protest entails a deep and troubling meaning that will not be soon forgotten, even if the junta succeeds through force of arms in imposing control.

Whatever the results of this "saffron revolution," the renewed protests against a corrupt and repressive military regime have captured the attention of people around the world and of the international community - with responses including new U.S. sanctions and the dispatch of a United Nations special envoy.

The monks' bravery also has inspired a measure of hope among the people of Myanmar.

More articles. Read more!

2 Cambodians die after eating puffer fish, prompting trade ban of the deadly meat

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian provincial authority has banned the trade of puffer fish meat suspected to have caused the deaths of two villagers recently, a police official said Sunday.

A 23-year-old man died Saturday, and a 13-year-old boy early last week, after both villagers ate salted puffer fish, Suon Phon, deputy police chief of Takeo province, said.

He said the fish was imported from neighboring Vietnam and sold in rural markets in the province, about 90 kilometers (56 miles), south of the capital Phnom Penh.

In the wake of the two deaths, Takeo province governor Srey Ben, banned the trade of the fish across the province to prevent further fatalities, Suon Phon said.

The ovaries, liver and intestines of the puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can "produce rapid and violent death."

Read more!