Child sex trade: The sad truth

The nation of Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia, just west of Vietnam. It is largely underdeveloped, poverty stricken, and lacks a strong central government.

To support themeselves, many Cambodians live and work on farms, or in factories. In a nation where the average annual salary is around $350 a year, some citizens turn to illegal activities such as narcotics or the sex trade to make money.

Brothels have been an easy way to generate revenue for Cambodian pimps since the early 1900's. When the United Nations (UN) entered Cambodia, sending troops to supervise the country's transition to the current democratic government, there was a large demand for prostitutes. Not long after the UN left, brothel owners discovered that they could market young girls to huge numbers of foreign clientele.

Today the sex trade in Cambodia is one of the largest money making businesses in the nation.

Out of an estimated 20,000 sex workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, the average age is around 15.

According to the U.S. State Department, sex trafficking is becoming a bigger business worldwide than drug trafficking. This means that every day thousands of young girls and boys are bought and sold into slavery.

The big question is, how do these young people find themselves as sex slaves?

According to a recent MSNBC article, one of the most popular ways of recruiting is by promising young girls steady work and shelter, an appealing prospect for girls who hope to help their families with much needed income. When they agree, they are brought to the brothel and sold for money. Because many young women in Cambodia are homeless and uneducated, one can imagine how easy this type of recruiting is. It is also not uncommon for a struggling family to sell one of their own children into the sex trade. The article reported that one woman recalls being tricked and sold to a brothel by her newly wed husband for $200.

The majority of brothels are usually filthy, run down shacks, that offer subhuman living conditions. Upon arrival, the young women are usually beaten, cadged and drugged.

Dateline also reported that, it is also common for the pimps to show pornography to the youngest women, as "educational" background so they know how to service a paying customer. Because Cambodia is ravaged with HIV, AIDS, and numerous sexually transmitted diseases, it is considered good luck for a Cambodian man to have sex with a virgin. Because of this, it is not uncommon for the young girls to have their hymen re-stitched so that they can be sold as virgins more than once for a larger sum. Their ages range from 4 and up.

CNN recently reported that, a young girl only fifteen who was recently rescued from a brothel testified that she had been "locked in a cage," and forced to service at least fifteen customers a day. If she objected she was starved, and shocked with electric rods. She was also given a methamphetamine tablet several times a day to cloud her memory and keep her in an altered state.

What is being done?

There have been numerous efforts by both internal and external organizations to break up the sex trade in Cambodia, but the struggle is far from over. The Cambodian government has set up an anti-trafficking department, but it is poorly funded, and many of the enforcement officers partake in the illegal activity themselves, such as taking handouts and tipping off the brothel owners.

For the girls who do find a way out of the sex trade, many of them turn to specialized shelters, which are dedicated to the rehabilitation of the young women. Here they receive both medical and psychological attention. The sad truth is that most of these girls die at a young age because of AIDS or other physical problems. Also a large number of the girls end up leaving and returning to a life of prostitution because it is the only thing they know.

Most of these young women have been exploited and abused on a daily basis for the majority of their lives. They have been stripped of their basic human rights, and demoralized to the point where there is nothing left but an empty shell. The United States and other developed countries have a moral obligation to educate and hold Cambodia to ensuring basic human rights for all. Read more!

Cambodia bans UN human rights envoy

VIA KI: VOA has the latest on the simmering war between the Royal Government and U.N. human rights envoy Yash Ghai.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued an order banning Cambodian embassies the authority to issue visas for UN human rights envoy Yash Ghai without prior approval.

Ghai has had an increasingly cantankerous relationship with the government, especially with Prime Minister Hun Sun, following his strident criticism of Cambodia’s poor human rights record and the concentration of power in the hands of the premier.

Banning U.N. human rights officials puts Hun Sen and his government in decidedly unsavory territory. Only the most egregious abusers of human rights — countries such as Myanmar and the United States — have ever taken such action. Furthermore, barring Yash Ghai from entry does zero to address his accusations. In fact quite the opposite, such censure only gives them credence.


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CAMBODIA: INDITEX Driving Change In Global Garment Industry

More than 1100 workers dismissed for trade union membership or activity have been reinstated, conflicts resolved in countries in every continent, trade unions recognized in ten enterprises and industrial relations management systems negotiated and adopted in five major garment manufacturing companies as a result of the partnership between Inditex, the Spanish-based retailer, and the ITGLWF, the textiles global union federation, a partnership cemented late last year by the signing of their International Framework Agreement, the first covering the supply chain of a global retailer.

Outlining these achievements in a presentation in Phnom Penh before Her Majesty, Queen Sophie of Spain during her current visit to Cambodia, Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation said that though there was much still to be done, Inditex and the ITGLWF, through their partnership and International Framework Agreement, had made a positive beginning in promoting the sea change needed in management and trade union thinking to promote decent work in the global textile and clothing industry.

Significantly, the presentation was made immediately after the formal signing of two company-level agreements between Inditex suppliers River Rich Textile Limited and Gold Fame Enterprises and the Cambodian trade union, C.CAWDU and which provided for the recognition of the union accompanied by the introduction of industrial relations management systems including clear company rules and grievances and disciplinary procedures alongside a protocol for management/union relations.

In addition, as part of the agreements a comprehensive manager/worker training programme over a two to three year period was put in place aimed at building the capacity of management at all levels and the trade unions to grow sustainable decent work on the back of continuous improvements in productivity, quality, profitability and international competitivity.

Said Mr. Kearney, “In the trail-blazing International Framework Agreement, signed late last year, Inditex recognizes the ITGLWF as its global partner in the pursuit of decent work throughout its supply chain.

“The agreement provides for the right of all workers to unionize and bargain collectively as the cornerstone of decent work. It outlaws child labour, forced labour and discrimination, provides for the payment of a living wage, puts restrictions on working hours, insists on safe and healthy workplaces and promotes job security free of abusive treatment.

“In the agreement Inditex and the ITGLWF pledge to work together to ensure the full application of these standards by engaging with suppliers and representatives of the workforces to eliminate abuse, build mutual respect and avoid conflict.

“It is an approach based on the employment relationship where the supplier, as employer, takes responsibility for those employed and where the exercise of that responsibility is regulated by a mature system of industrial relations at workplace level involving management and trade union representatives.

“Irregular policing of workplaces through snapshot audits is replaced by constant internal factory monitoring by those who know the enterprise best – management and workers – aided by the commitment of Inditex to build a totally socially compliant supply chain through support and training rather than sanction.”

Mr. Kearney outlined how an unfortunate garment factory disaster in Bangladesh in mid-2005 brought the ITGLWF’s first direct contact with Inditex. “From a low key beginning when we combined our efforts to bring relief to the families of the dead and the injured at the Spectrum factory in Bangladesh we proceeded jointly to deal with conflicts elsewhere in the Inditex supply chain and to recognize the shortfalls in action and capacity at local and national levels around the world.

“It was obvious that the near absence of industrial relations management systems in factories and the inadequacy of supervisor and manager training on labour issues combined with limited trade union organization was creating growing supply chain problems.

“Inditex and the ITGLWF soon concluded that global problems required global solutions, implemented locally, and we began to pool our energies to build the partnerships we knew were needed to achieve decent work in the sector.

“So was born the first international framework agreement on labour issues in a supply chain between a global trade union and a global retailer.

“Such a framework for a joint retailer/trade union partnership was urgently needed to tackle worker abuse in the global textile and garment industry where production is today carried out in 160 countries for export to markets in only about 30 nations making the sector one of the most globalised and most competitive.

“With most production costs fixed, labour bears the brunt of this competition. Globally, the industry is characterized by low wages, excessive working hours, health and safety risks, child labour, discrimination, abusive treatment and job insecurity.

“Abuses are driven by the general inability or unwillingness of governments to protect rights at work and compounded by the fact that most of the workers are women.

“During the 1990s maltreatment of workers, including the use of child labour, disgusted consumers who turned their anger on the brands and retailers who had come to dominate the industry.

“For nearly 200 years, trade unions had defended and advanced workers interests at local and later at national levels. Globalization greatly weakened that defense and retarded advance.

“In the mid 1990s national trade unions began to recognize that the globalization of union efforts was needed to harness economic globalization.

“In the textile and clothing sector the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation which traces its roots back to the 1860s had long been promoting cross-frontier trade union co-operation. With 220 affiliated unions and more than 10 million members in 120 countries it was one of the first global unions to recognize the need for a global drive to promote corporate accountability, in sectors such as textiles and garments, based on social dialogue between employers and workforce representatives.

“Largely unregulated globalization needed to be molded to serve wider interests and the ITGLWF realized that change could best be driven by building partnerships between the industry’s key players, including the brands and retailers as buyers, manufacturers as suppliers and workers and their trade unions as producers.

“The Inditex/ITGLWF partnership is beginning to drive that change for the benefit of workers, their families and communities, the manufacturers and the exporting country involved. As the managing director of Gold Fame Enterprises earlier told Queen Sophie, ‘This approach has enhanced the image of our factory, brought about significant benefits through improved labour relations and a better understanding with our buyers enabling us to greatly increase our turnover forecasts for 2008’”, concluded Mr. Kearney.

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Adoptions lead to helping hand

by Danielle Portteus

Deb Lagger not only adopted two girls from Cambodia, but she also adopted the country.

Ms. Lagger adopted Hannah, now 8, and Kalliyan, now 7, from orphanages in Cambodia when they were infants.

Her love for her girls inspired Ms. Lagger, the director of workforce development for Goodwill Industries of Northwest Ohio, to donate money to build an English language and career center in Cambodia.

The center, which will be named after the girls, is scheduled to open this month.

"Cambodia trusted me to raise two of their most precious gifts, and I want to thank them by providing education and vocational opportunities that will allow Cambodians to rise above the unimaginable poverty that still exists," Ms. Lagger said.

The center will open a new world to those in Cambodia through education and provide a way to obtain jobs and careers that provide economic stability for them and their families, Ms. Lagger said.

Ms. Lagger has worked with three agencies to get the center build. Goodwill Industries of Northwest Ohio, Goodwill Industries International and Digital Divide Data have partnered to build the center as well as existing facilities in Battambang, Cambodia, and Vientiane, Laos, to provide career and life skills to those who need it most.

One center, located near the orphanage where one of the Lagger girls lived, teaches sewing skills. The new facility will offer more than one marketable skill, English language training and additional career development options.

"We hope to provide them not only with career and life skills, but also feeling empowered when they have completed their training," Ms. Lagger said.

For two years, some classrooms at Monroe Road Elementary, where the girls attend school, have donated money to purchase gifts for children living in the orphanages. Last year, a couple classes decorated water bottles and sold them in the cafeteria during lunch to purchase a well in the rural Pursat village, where villagers have to walk nearly two miles to get fresh water.

"Our Bedford community should be very proud to have young citizens who have humanitarian hearts at such a young age," Ms. Lagger said.

Meg Mall, manager of international development at Goodwill Industries International said in a 2007 e-mail that more than 500 people with disabilities, orphans and rural migrants benefited from the current centers in Cambodia and Laos.

"The center aims to serve more than 1,000 people in 2008," she said. "At Goodwill, we know that people are best able to focus on job training and career goals when they have a stable home life. The Family Resource Center complements existing employment and training programs by identifying the needs of the family and linking employees to community resources."

Ms. Lagger said the cost to sponsor a student at one of the family resource centers is $28.37 for the entire year.

For information about donating to the Hannah and Kalliyan Lagger Career and English Language Center, call Goodwill Industries of Northwest Ohio at (419) 255-0070.
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Cambodia rejects U.S. human rights assessment

PHNOM PENH, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has dismissed a U.S. report on the country's human rights record, saying that the annual report to the U.S. congress entirely contradicts the true reality in the country, the Cambodia Daily newspaper reported Friday.

The Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement in response of the U.S. report, saying "we have found that many of the accusations contained in this report do not even exist or are simply over exaggerated."

"We certainly recognize that human rights in Cambodia are not perfect. But is there any perfect human rights situation anywhere in the world?" the statement said, adding that the report relied too heavily on the views of anti-government NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) and appeared timed to coincide with the national election.

Cambodia fully does not believe that the country will ever receive a good mark unless the Cambodian government has "affectionate" relations with the United States, the statement said.

The annual report, release by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday, said an array of human rights guarantees were lacking in Cambodia and that the country's human rights record "remained poor."
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Cambodia's genocide trials threatened by funding crisis

The lucky notorious chef of Tuol Sleng prison is still living a long life sitting in the room with air conditioning, listening to hip hop judge rap about his crime

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia's top administrator to the country's Khmer Rouge tribunal this week gathered together his more than 200 staff to break the news that after April they would not be paid.

The stunning announcement by Sean Visoth is the most tangible sign yet that the UN-backed genocide court, established to prosecute leaders of the regime that was toppled nearly 30 years ago, is going bankrupt months before the first trials are expected to open.

The court's top officials hold out hope that the international community or the Cambodian government will come up with the millions needed to keep the tribunal running.

But the funding crisis has become the most serious threat yet to the proceedings, already beleaguered by allegations of corruption and mismanagement amid fears of political interference.
"It is hard to imagine that the court can continue to function without funds," said tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis, explaining that the Cambodian side of the joint court would go broke in April.

The UN-supported half of the tribunal is funded for several months more, but would also need a significant influx of cash after that.

"As the time for expiration of existing funds draws nearer, the situation obviously becomes more acute," Jarvis told AFP.

Originally budgeted at 56.3 million dollars over three years, the tribunal's operating costs have ballooned as the enormity of the job of prosecuting those behind Cambodia's darkest chapter becomes more apparent.

Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed as the communist Khmer Rouge dismantled modern Cambodian society in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia during their 1975-79 rule.

After nearly a decade of wrangling, the UN and Cambodia opened the tribunal in 2006. The regime's top five surviving leaders were arrested last year in what many saw as a sign of the sluggish court's gathering momentum.

But those close to the proceedings say staff are overwhelmed, in part by paperwork, particularly the task of translating tens of thousands of documents into either Cambodian, French or English, the three languages used by the court.

"The original assumptions about the resources needed and the tasks to be accomplished were inaccurate as is often the case in these tribunals," said co-prosecutor Robert Petit, who like other court officials has been critical of the tribunal's funding structure and projected timeframe.

"The original budget was inadequate and contained many gaps in essential areas," said the UN's tribunal spokesman Peter Foster.

The UN and Cambodian government have requested an additional 114 million dollars that would allow the court to add hundreds of new staff and remain in operation until 2011.

But so far none of the tribunal's principle donors -- Japan, France, Britain, Germany and Australia -- has stepped forward to commit more money.

"A lack of funds could certainly delay the proceedings," Foster said.

Another obstacle in the oft-stalled proceedings would be a further blow to the tribunal's credibility at a time when support is crucial.

Observers say that despite the arrests, donors do not want the tribunal to be a show-trial that risks being commandeered by Cambodia's government, which includes many former Khmer Rouge.

Two critical audits detailing hiring irregularities, with lucrative jobs allegedly going to under-qualified candidates, have also made donors hesitant to throw their full support behind the tribunal, the funding for which remains a fraction of that received by other international courts.

"The donors received the revised budget estimate at the end of January.... They have asked for further clarification in a number of areas and that is now being provided by the court," the UN's Foster said.

He added that donors are expected to meet before the end of the month to discuss the tribunal's money crunch, and that a sliver of optimism remains.

"Neither the international community nor the United Nations want to see the court fail, especially since we have successfully come so far along in the process," he said.
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UN expert slams India, Cambodia, Thailand over sex tourism

GENEVA (AFP) — India, Cambodia and Thailand are not doing enough to protect children against the risks associated with sex tourism for fear of damaging their economies, a UN human rights expert charged on Friday.

Juan Miguel Petit, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of children, said authorities in these countries are often not willing to tackle the issue of children's sexual exploitation for tourists' benefit.

"Sometimes there are big pressures on governments, explicitly or implicitly, when there are enormous touristic activities going on, making millions of dollars," he told journalists.

"Some interests see the limitation on the sexual market as a limitation for their earning of money," he added.

He denounced this "insane tourism that puts at risk the lives of hundreds and hundreds of children," saying it was against the public interest in such countries.

In general, Asia "continues to be a very difficult, alarming place" as far as human trafficking is concerned, Petit said.

Police often appear unconcerned about the scale and gravity of the problem, he charged.

"They accept this kind of crime in a passive way, as if their job was only to chase bank robbers," he said.

Many convicted Western sex offenders are drawn to Southeast Asia for its perceived laxness in terms of child sex.

British former pop star Gary Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was jailed for three years in Vietnam in 2005 for molesting girls aged 11 and 12.

He fled Britain for Southeast Asia, initially Cambodia, in 1999 after serving half of a four-month prison term for possession of child pornography.

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Russian investor receives 13 years in jail in Cambodia for abusing teenager

PHNOM PENH, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Russian investor Alexander Trofimov, 41 years old, received 13 years in jail from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court here on Friday, for his sexual abuse of a 14-year-old Cambodian girl.

Chief Judge Ke Sakhan said that the court had enough evidence to convict Trofimov.

Cambodian man Phal Vannara, 34 years old, was also sentenced to11 years of imprisonment for providing the girl to the Russian man.

According to the sentence, the two men had to pay 100,000 U.S. dollars in compensation for the victim.

The girl earlier testified to the court that she had sex with Trofimov for four times in September last year for some 100 U.S. dollars out of the 1,000 U.S. dollars that Trofimov paid to the middle man.

Lawyer for the investor told reporters that his client will appeal.

Trofimov was arrested in October 2007 for allegedly sexually abusing at least 19 girls since 2005.

He has remained a prominent figure in the kingdom, after signing a deal of 300 million U.S. dollars in 2006 to develop an island near port city Sihanoukville into a tourist resort.

The Cambodian government in recent years exerted a heavy hand over paedophiles, as child rights groups campaigned hard for it to take the problem in a serious way.
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Cambodia, a 'haven' for sex offenders

Phnom Penh - A German man has been jailed in Cambodia for 15 years after being convicted of sexually abusing a girl while visiting the capital Phnom Penh, court officials said on Thursday.

Walter Munz, of Stuttgart, was arrested last year when police raided the guesthouse he was staying at and found him in his room with the 13-year-old victim, judge Sao Meach said.

Munz, 61, repeatedly assaulted the girl and was charged with debauchery, a criminal charge covering a wide range of sex offences, Sao Meach said.

"I sentenced him to 15 years in jail for committing debauchery against the girl," Sao Meach said, adding that Munz was also ordered to pay a $7 000 fine to the victim.

Munz denied the charges during his trial, but the judge said doctors had confirmed that the girl was sexually abused.

Samleang Seila, director of the French child welfare group Action Pour Les Enfants, welcomed the court's decision.

"The punishment is a good message for those foreigners who wish to abuse children in Cambodia," he said.

Dozens of foreigners have been jailed for child sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries since Cambodia launched an anti-paedophilia push in 2003 in a bid to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators.

A Russian businessman accused of sexually abusing at least 19 Cambodian girls went on trial earlier this week in the country's largest-ever paedophilia prosecution.

While lauding the government's efforts to fight child sex crimes, officials, including foreign diplomats, have urged authorities to also target Cambodian paedophiles, who are thought to make up more than half of all sex offenders. Read more!

MTV in Cambodia 3G, Japan ads

NEW YORK -- Viacom's MTV Networks Asia is partnering with Shockwave in Japan to develop new advertising models and has licensed its first mobile content in Cambodia to telecom Cadcomms.

MTV said Thursday that Phnom Penh-based Cambodia Advance Communications will begin offering MTV and Nickelodeon content to its 3G platform subscribers on March 15 under the brand qb.

Video content will be provided to mobile subscribers via mobile television and video-on-demand formats.

"The MTV brand and its position in the local market is very strong and it fits very well with our brand and strategy in targeting the young and music inspired segment of the market," CADCOMMS CEO Morten Eriksen said in a statement released jointly with Robert Kim, MTV Networks Asia's senior director for digital media and video broadcast services.

Subscribers will be able to choose from such content as MTV's "Pimp My Ride" and Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Dora the Explorer."

The service will kick off with a qb goes LIVE concert featuring Stacie Orrico and local artists from the Olympic Stadium in the capital.

In Japan, MTV Networks Japan K.K., entered into a strategic partnership with Shockwave Entertainment to create a new advertising business model that will add value to Japanese advertisers and consumers, the Viacom unit said in a statement issued from Tokyo.

Shockwave, one of the largest Japanese entertainment Web sites for casual gamers and animation fans, and MTVJapan.com will collaborate to widen their reach in a partnership that will try to encourage the transfer of existing members of one Web site to the other, increasing the audience pool for advertisers, the companies said.

The partnership also will develop "advergames," free online games used for advertising. By integrating brand logos and services into games, advertisers hope to increase brand exposure.

"This alliance will blend our brand power with Shockwave's compelling entertainment destinations, further strengthening our ability to offer advertisers innovative and unique solutions," MTV Networks Japan K.K. Peter Bulllard said.

MTV and Shockwave also plan to provide multiplatform advertising solutions that encompass cable TV and satellite broadcasts in addition to online properties. Read more!

Cambodia to host meeting on ASEAN integration in 2015

PHNOM PENH, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Sixty officials from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam will meet on March 17-20 in Siem Reap province to boost their progress on commercial law and trade reform, said a press release from the U.S. Embassy on Thursday.

They will also discuss approaches to working together on reforms that will support the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asia Nations) integration in 2015, it added.

"They will review the findings and best practices identified in the SEA CLIR report named A Regional Agenda for Shared Growth," it said, adding that SEA CLIR stands for the South East Asia Commercial Legal and Institutional Reform and Trade Diagnostics Report.

The meeting will bring together public and private-sector officials to meet in small groups to discuss the best regional legal and institutional models to meet the challenges in Southeast Asian trade and business, it said.

Topics will include building a stronger environment for doing business, enhancing cross-border trade, and deepening regional and global integration, it added.
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Cambodia's top court upholds life sentences for Islamic militants

Thai nationals Muhammad Yalaludin Mading (2nd R) and Abdul Azi Haji Chiming (R)

Thai national Abdul Azi Haji Chiming (R) is handcuffed with Cambodian Sman Ismael

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld life sentences for three Muslims convicted of plotting terror attacks against the British embassy and a UN agency in the capital Phnom Penh.

Cambodian Sman Ismael and Thais Abdul Azi Haji Chiming and Muhammad Yalaludin Mading were sentenced in 2004 to life in prison by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for plotting attacks here between 2002 and 2003.

Despite persistent criticism of the prosecutions from rights groups, a five-judge panel ruled that evidence proved the three had helped Islamic militant Hambali, an alleged key member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network, to plan the strikes.

Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, reportedly spent several months in Cambodia before being captured in Thailand in 2003. He was later handed over to US authorities and is now being held at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"There is enough evidence to prove that the three men facilitated Hambali's group in preparing terror attacks," said judge Khim Ponn, adding that the group had intended to strike the British embassy and the UN children's agency UNICEF.

Hambali, an Egyptian and a Malaysian were tried in absentia in Cambodia and sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for their roles in the planned attacks, which Khim Ponn said were intended "to cause the loss of many lives."

All three imprisoned men have repeatedly denied the charges against them, with Sman Ismael saying after Wednesday's hearing that the court only used "evidence written on a piece of paper by the United States" to find him guilty.

"I am not a terrorist. I had no plan to kill people," he added.

The trio's lawyer, Kao Soupha, told AFP that there were no witnesses to prove that his clients were conspiring with international extremists, adding that the court's decision was "unacceptable."

Speaking in Thailand, the wives of the two Thai men protested the decision, accusing the court of trying to curry favour with the Americans.

"Our husbands went to Cambodia to work as religious teachers, hoping that they could earn more money than in Thailand," said Asisa Haji Chiming, 33, who has three children with husband Abdul.

"But they were accused of being terrorists and planning to stage attacks," Asisa told AFP in Yala province in the Muslim-majority south of Thailand.

"We have closely monitored the case for five years with high hopes that they would receive justice and be freed, but we think the Supreme Court has delivered a verdict just to please the US."

Asisa and Muhammad's wife, Parida, 42, said they plan to petition to have their husbands moved to Thailand to serve their sentences, so they can ask for a royal pardon for the two men.

JI has been blamed for the October 2002 bombings in the Indonesian resort of Bali that killed 202 people.

Washington has lauded Cambodia for its role in the US "war on terror," with the country's leaders earning praise from top American police and military officials seeking better co-operation with Cambodia's government on anti-terror efforts.

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Cambodia vigilant for chemical, nuclear weapon imports

PHNOM PENH, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian government has remained committed to preventing any chemical or nuclear weapons smuggled into the country, said English-Khmer language newspaper the Mekong Times on Wednesday.

"The government still continues to prevent the import of chemical and nuclear weapons to keep peace and stability, while countries around the world are facing threats of terrorism," said Em Sam An, secretary of state at the Interior Ministry while addressing a National Awareness Workshop of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) here on Tuesday.

Cambodia cooperates with several other countries on weapons control and has held a strong stance on the issue since 1993, he said, adding that the country has destroyed over 190,000 weapons since then.

"The Interior Ministry has prohibited the circulation of chemical weapons and cut down on the level of weapons in the country with positive results from the crackdowns conducted by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces," he said.

Cambodia ratified CWC in July 2005, becoming the 170th member of the convention.


Editor: Jiang Yuxia
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Top Spots For Southeast Asian Ecotourism

Inspired by Southeast Asia's natural beauty and rich culture, many travelers are showing an interest in the area's alternative "eco" vacations, like the one offered in the Thai National Forests.

Participants on this $2,300, 10-day tour (airfare and two nights' stay in Bangkok not included) receive an intensive education in regional ecology and conservation efforts, which range from using biogas to discourage logging and creating communal farms to decrease poaching. Highlights include trips to the Erawan, Budo Sungai-Padi and Khao Yai national parks, where tropical birds, elephants and Asiatic tigers live.

It's one of many luring travelers to the region. As travel to Southeast Asia continues to rise--an estimated 60.4 million tourists visited the region in 2007--many visitors are foregoing traditional packages and chain hotels and instead discovering the nascent ecotourism market.

In Depth: Top Spots For Southeast Asian Ecotourism

Ecotourism is broadly defined as "responsible" or "ethical" travel during which tourists try their best to minimize environmental impact and ensure their spending and presence benefits the local community. This niche market has grown steadily in recent years.

While it's difficult to estimate the region's share of this growth, experts say that examples like a solar-powered lodge in Sumatra, Indonesia, and a conservation-focused tour of the Sukau rainforest in Malaysia are indicative of a growing trend to provide tourists in Southeast Asia with culturally sensitive and environmentally friendly vacations.

"Some of [these countries]," says Ayako Ezaki, director of communications for the International Ecotourism Society, "have taken advantage of the natural and cultural heritage they have to develop tourism. They've highlighted those beauties and attracted tourists."

Enlightening Excursions
Though the market in Southeast Asia is still growing, there are several countries in the region that offer ecotourism options, including Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Visitors to northern Laos, for example, can stay at the Boat Landing Guest House, an eco-lodge certified by Green Globe, a company that rigorously evaluates a hotel's environmental practices. Guests at the riverside bungalows can rest assured the lodge is working to reduce its solid waste through recycling and composting. Tourists can spend their time trekking, rafting and biking in the nearby protected forests.

On a trip through the Sukau Rainforest in Malaysia, where the landscape features jungles, paddy fields and rivers, tourists will learn about local turtle conservation efforts and stay at the 20-room Sukau Rainforest eco-lodge where the water is heated with solar power and "passes" have been built into the land to accommodate elephant migration in the area. The lodge charges one dollar extra per international adult guest and uses it to fund projects like wildlife rehabilitation and tree planting.

Travelers worried about their carbon footprints can try a two-week trip to Cambodia, for which the tour operator can purchase carbon offsets. Highlights include visits to Angkor Wat, a 12th-century temple, and the Royal Palace, as well as the knowledge that the economic and environmental impact on communities is closely monitored.

A range of policies and practices like these are important, according to Dr. Eric Crystal, a lecturer at University of California, Berkeley, who has researched the positive and negative consequences of tourism in Southeast Asia.

"Tourism has brought a lot of good and bad things," Crystal says. But people can also be very conscious, he says, of what they can put back.

What To Know Before You Go
Though "ecotourism" is a vague term to most consumers, Andy Drumm, a senior ecotourism specialist at the Nature Conservancy, says there are specific components to look for in a vacation marketed with the word.

Where the environment is concerned, Drumm says tourists should ask whether or not a tour operator or hotel is certified and incorporates sustainable energy practices like solar power or water conservation.

Companies should also make clear exactly how they contribute to local communities. Volunteer time, financial contributions or donations of needed materials can be effective depending on the location. If a company doesn't comment on these issues or doesn't respond to questions, chances are they may be "greenwashing"--just using the "eco-" term as a marketing tool.

"You don't want to turn your vacation time into labor," he says of researching ecotourism travel options, "but you have to be pretty determined."

Awareness of one's impact often helps convince travelers to explore so-called ethical measures. At the Komodo National Park in Indonesia, for instance, independent travelers contribute about $100 to the local economy, whereas those on a package tour spend half that and those who arrive via a cruise ship have a local impact of only three cents. With this knowledge, a tourist might decide against a cruise and instead book local alternatives and buy keepsakes from native artisans.

"The important thing to note," says Ezaki, "is that when you say 'ecotourism,' it's not just about one particular group of companies you can travel with. It's about doing everything possible to make your experience more sustainable and more responsible." Read more!

Russian man denies child sex abuse charge during trial in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Russian businessman accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl in Cambodia denied the charge Tuesday, despite the child's testimony that he paid her for sex last year.

Alexander Trofimov, 41, is accused of debauchery. If convicted of the child sex offense, Trofimov could face from 10 to 20 years in prison.

Police arrested Trofimov in the coastal city of Sihanoukville in October on suspicion he had sexually abused up to 19 Cambodian girls since 2005. Tuesday's trial, held in the capital, Phnom Penh, considered only one of those allegations.

Judge Ke Sakhan said he would announce a verdict Friday.

The teenage girl testified that she and Trofimov had sex in September last year. She said she received $100 out of $1,000 that Trofimov paid to a broker to bring the girl to him.

Trofimov, who has lived in Cambodia for more than three years, denied the charge.

"I have never seen her or committed any sex acts with her," Trofimov told the court. He urged the court to release him.

Phal Vannara, a 34-year-old Cambodian man, is charged with conspiracy in the sexual abuse for his alleged role as the broker. He is being tried alongside Trofimov.

Trofimov runs a company that in late 2006 received permission from the Cambodian government to develop Koh Puos, or Snake Island, into a tourist resort. Read more!

Jackson's Sadie Thompson has school in Cambodia named in her honor

Jim Thompson and his sister, Hazel Joyce of Sutter Creek, hold up a picture of their mother, Jackson resident Sadie Thompson at a school in the village of Proa Chum, Cambodia. The school is dedicated to her by her son.

The new school in Cambodia is a tribute to Jim Thompson's mother, Sadie Thompson.

By Scott Thomas Anderson

On Dec. 8, 2007, a group of Cambodian children gathered in the early morning light at the center of their village and happily waved flags. The new school that was being opened for them was more than just a necessity, it was a symbol - a glimpse at a future not dominated by staggering poverty and hardship, but rather hope through education.

The opening was made possible by the generosity of an American man named Jim Thompson, and it was done as a tribute to the woman who'd taught him everything he knew about caring and compassion.

Before moving to Amador County in 2000, Sadie Thompson had traveled the world. Her husband, the late Jim Thompson Sr., was in the U.S. Navy and then worked in international business. The taste for foreign living was never lost on her son Jim, who's spent most of his adult life living in Asia. Today, Jim's international transportation and storage business, Crown Worldwide, is headquartered in Hong Kong and has offices in more than 50 countries.

Sadie's life, on the other hand, has been quieter lately. She lives in Rollingwood Estates in Jackson and spends a great deal of her time with her daughter, Hazel Joyce of Sutter Creek. Joyce said that, despite some health problems, the feisty 90-year-old still makes a strong impression on those who meet her. "My mom's a unique person," Joyce explained. "She's made a lot of friends since moving up here. She's very upbeat and positive. It's hard to explain, but people just tend to remember her."

Jim has always agreed, and that message was about to be shared with a village full of children who had never met anyone in the Thompson family. When he recently opened a new office for his company in the Cambodian city of Phnom Penh, his wife, Sally, toured the dire situation in the out-lying countryside. It was eventually brought to the Thompsons' attention that the village of Proa Chum needed a real school for its children, and that the area where what few classes were taught lacked an actual bathroom - which kept many young girls from showing up. The Thompsons wanted to help create a safe and secure place where the kids from Proa Chum could better their chances for the future through education. Jim contacted the Cambodian government and agreed to provide the funds for the school. His only condition was that it be named in his mother's honor.

With the aid of a professor from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Hun Sen Proa Chum Primary School was built in four months. On the day it opened, Joyce, along with a representative from Cambodia's prime minister and 1,500 other people were on hand. "The experience was so emotional, so overwhelming, that it's hard to put into words," recalled Joyce. "The idea that my brother would do this to honor my mother was amazing. And for me to share that day just provided a memory that I'll hold forever."

After a large picture of Sadie was shown to those gathered, Jim addressed the children. According to Johnson, they hung on his every word. "The only way for the children to escape the devastating poverty is to get an education; and that's what he stressed to them," she said. "For the girls who don't, they're often forced into prostitution. In Cambodia, the problem with AIDS and children being sold into prostitution has been well-documented by the media. It's horrific, and that's why Jim emphasized to the kids of Proa Chum to stay in school and use education as their way out."

The goal of helping children is something Joyce is very familiar with herself. She's currently on the board of Amador's Operation Care, which helps women and children who are the victims of abuse. She said both she and her brother's commitment to making a positive difference can be directly attributed to the role Sadie played in their lives. "There's certainly a connection between what Jim did in Cambodia and her," she said. "Anything about being good and trying to care for people, we learned from our mother."
Read more!

Volunteers going overseas for Operation Smile

Dr. Alice Smith of Coralville will be among more than 50 volunteers traveling to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday to March 21 with Operation Smile to provide free treatment to children born with facial deformities.

The volunteer team consists of more than 50 medical and non-medical volunteers from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore and the United States.

Founded in 1982, Operation Smile is a worldwide children's medical charity dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults.

For more informaton visit www.operationsmile.org Read more!

Cambodia to form committee to check on quality of medicines

PHNOM PENH, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Around 30 leaders from Cambodia's various pharmaceutical organizations have agreed that a Pharmacy Accreditation Committee must be formed this year to keep check on the quality and validity of medicines sold through the kingdom's growing number of pharmacies, local media reported Monday.

"Among our many challenges are keeping check on the quality of medical products sold and an overall improvement in the quality of health services, so a Pharmacy Accreditation Committee is needed," Yim Yann, president of the Pharmacist's Association of Cambodia, was quoted by the Mekong Times as saying.

The Pharmacy Accreditation Committee, to be supervised by the Health Ministry's Department of Drugs and Food, will assess whether pharmacies reach a standard called "Good Pharmacy Practice," said Yim Yann, with those up to scratch receiving of facial accreditation .

The rapidly increasing circulation of medicines is hampering efforts to control the sector, Sok Pheng, Under Secretary of State for the Health Ministry, said, adding that drug traders with no medical knowledge often conspire with dishonest traders to circulate fake medicines.

Although relevant laws are enforced, most pharmacies are substandard so contraband, counterfeit, inferior, unregistered and expired drugs still sit on pharmacy shelves, he said.

Mao Dareth, deputy president of the Pharmacist Association of Cambodia, said that there are about 1,300 pharmacies throughout the country, nearly 500 of which are in Phnom Penh.
Read more!

Uzbekistan, South Korea eye natural gas

While Russia's Gazprom dominates Central Asian natural gas exports through its pipeline monopoly, the leaders of the "stans" are unhappy about the arrangement, as Gazprom buys cheap and sells dear to European consumers, United Press International (UPI) wrote.

Seeking to break the deadlock, Uzbekistan has been investigating alternatives, and on 25 February state-owned Uzbekneftegaz signed an agreement with a South Korean energy consortium led by state-run Korea Gas Corp. to develop a gas field in western Uzbekistan and construct a gas-chemical industrial complex.

Western Uzbekistan's Surgil gas field is estimated to have reserves of nearly 96 million tons of liquefied natural gas, an amount equivalent to nearly four years of South Korea's LNG consumption. The deal is generous to the Korean consortium. Joint venture partners Korean Gas Corp. and Lotte Daesan Petrochemical Corp. will each hold a 17.5% stake while LG Corp., STX Energy and SK Gas will each hold 5%, with Uzbekneftegaz holding the remaining 50%.

The deal, signed during a visit to Seoul by Uzbek President Islam Karimov, represents a useful marriage of convenience, as Uzbekistan is as eager to export energy as South Korea is to diversify its hydrocarbon imports. Rising energy prices have contributed to keeping South Korea's trade balance in deficit for the third consecutive month in February, which saw the country's exports total US$17.9 billion; imports totaled US$21.8 billion.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, sworn in last month after having scored a record victory margin in December's presidential election with his "Economy, First!" pledge, has moved swiftly to implement his "energy diplomacy."

On 26 February Lee met not only with Karimov, but Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, all of who came to Seoul to attend Lee's inauguration ceremony. During his discussions with Enkhbayar, Lee stressed the need for closer bilateral cooperation in the resource and energy sectors, while Enkhbayar requested closer South Korean-Mongolian cooperation in the high-technology fields of bioengineering, IT and climate change. In his meeting with Sen, Lee emphasized deepening bilateral ties and asked for greater support of South Korean firms wishing to enter Cambodia's resource and construction markets.

It is Uzbekistan, however, that represents the potential crown jewel of Lee's "energy diplomacy." In 2006 Uzbek natural gas production was estimated at 62.5 billion cubic meters, of which 48.4 billion cubic meters was consumed domestically and 12.5 billion cubic meters exported, more than half going to Russia and the remainder to neighboring Central Asian states.

It is Uzbekistan's largely untapped natural gas reserves that are the real prize, however, as in 2006 the country's proven reserves stood at 1.798 trillion cubic meters. Uzbekistan is currently producing natural gas from 52 fields; with 12 major deposits it is the third-largest natural gas producer in the former Soviet Union, exceeded only by Russia and Turkmenistan, and is now one of the world's Top 15 natural gas producers. Since becoming independent in 1991, Uzbekistan has increased its natural gas production by nearly 40%, from 42 billion cubic meters annually to 62.5 billion cubic meters in 2006.

The recent South Korean-Uzbek Surgil gas field joint venture follows on earlier arrangements with foreign producers, including a 2006 35-year production-sharing agreement with an Asian consortium including Malaysia's Petronas, China's CNPC, South Korea's KNOC and Lukoil to explore Uzbekistan's sector of the Aral Sea and central Ustyurt plateau.

Of foreign investors, South Korea is establishing a dominant position, as earlier this year Daewoo International signed a contract to operate fields in northwestern Uzbekistan for five years. Even more worrying to Russia's hopes of complete dominance of Central Asian energy exports, in May 2007 arch-rival China signed a joint-venture accord with Uzbekneftegaz to participate in a natural gas exploration project in Namangan province.

While Karimov has been assiduously courting non-Russian energy investors, he adroitly has not shut Russia completely out of the picture. Following protracted negotiations a year ago, Russia's Soyuzneftegaz signed a new 36-year PSA with Uzbekneftegaz to invest US$462 million to develop gas fields in the Ustyurt plateau region and the Southwest Gissar concessions. Last month Lukoil acquired a controlling interest in the PSA and is hoping for eventual production of 3 billion cubic meters annually.

Nor has Uzbekistan completely shut out Gazprom. In 2004 Gazprom and Uzbekneftegaz signed a US$15 million, 15-year PSA to develop Uzbekistan's northwestern Shakhpati field. Two years later, in December 2006, Gazprom received exploration licenses to develop seven Uzbek concessions with combined reserves of 1 trillion cubic meters, and intends to invest US$400 million by 2011 and US$1.5 billion over the contract life to develop their concessions, from which they eventually hope to produce 13.6 billion to 16.4 billion cubic meters annually. Read more!

Cambodia travel – some like it hot

If you’re thinking about visiting Cambodia soon, go this month (March) if you can handle some heat (by April, it’ll be even hotter). Or plan a trip for summer, when monsoon rains cool things down and really only inconvenience you for part of the afternoon.

A few years ago I traveled around Cambodia in late April, when the heat was really beginning to escalate (which it does starting around March, before hitting a peak in May or June to initiate monsoon season). The temperature was in the 90s and the humidity oppressive.

I remember stumbling around after a trip to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. The gravity of what I’d observed there was enough to make me delirious, but in addition I’d come down with heat stroke. I spent the next couple days cooped up in my room with fever, a migraine and nausea. If you go to Cambodia in April, bring a big hat, and drink bucketfuls of water.

Why go: Thailand’s neighbor to the southeast, Cambodia is fascinating in many ways, but it has a sobering yet educational impact on many tourists; its recent history is so heartbreaking that you can’t leave the country the same person that you were upon entry. Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples and ruins are truly sights to behold. And adventurous foodies can try all manner of unusual edibles: locusts and spiders, for instance.

What’ll it cost me?: In his article “Countries where dollars go the distance,” L. A. Times Staff Writer Jason La breaks down general food and lodging costs. Right now you’ll spend around $1200 for a flight from LAX to Phnom Penh (PNH) after taxes. Maybe that sounds exorbitant, but if you’re shelling out $10/night for a room, you may decide it evens out. If you’ve got miles, though, all the better.

Read more!

Cambodia's thriving real estate market enriches the elite and sidelines the poor

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building — a 42-story twin condominium tower. A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.

Cambodia is experiencing a construction boom fueled by foreign investment, particularly by South Koreans, and buying and selling among the country's few nouveaux riche — while leaving the poor majority behind.

Shopping malls and tall apartment buildings are sprouting up, transforming the capital's landscape that once bore the charm of colonial French-styled villas but resembled a ghost town at the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime nearly 30 years ago.

Political stability and robust economic growth of nearly 10 percent have lured investors to the real estate market that has seen prices surge over the last few years — though they are still lower than in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand.

"Cambodia was sleeping for many years and now it's waking up," said Claire Brown, managing director of Britain-based Claire Brown Realty who began buying and selling property in Phnom Penh two years ago.

"Everybody wants to get a piece of the action," she said by phone. "The time to get in is now because soon it's going to be too late."

Prime city land prices have tripled over the last two years to US$3,000 (€2,000) per square meter. Those kinds of returns have drawn rich and middle-class Cambodians, as well as those living abroad.

"In buying and selling land, they could get profit 100 or 200 percent a year, if they make the right bet on the right location," said Dith Channa, the sale manager of CPL Cambodia Properties Ltd., a Phnom Penh-based real estate agency.

But the soaring real estate market is also widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

"Phnom Penh city is getting modern every day — of course for the wealthy," said Chhorn Et, a former slum dweller now living with hundreds of others in a village in the middle of rice field about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the capital.

"The government swept us away because they regarded us as very unpleasant for their eyes," said the 34-year-old woman who scavenges for discarded cans and bottles to sell for a living.

The flourishing property market is also happening in the shadow of problems of land rights disputes that, in recent years, have often pitted the poor against wealthy developers with links to the Cambodian political establishment.

"We're moving toward possibly about 10 percent of the population owning 90 percent of the land in Cambodia," said Naly Pilorge, director of the nonprofit human rights group Licadho.

That could fan social and political unrest, she and others have warned.

The biggest projects are being funded by South Korean investors and companies, which have been the leading investors in Cambodia following the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1997. Investment and tourists from South Korea have surged following a 2006 visit to Cambodia by former President Roh Moo-hyun.

World City Co. Ltd., a South Korean company, is investing US$2 billion (€1.3 billion) to build a "satellite" urban complex called Camko City on a 120-hectare (300-acre) area on the northwest side of Phnom Penh. The project, the single biggest foreign direct investment in Cambodia to date, will include residential, commercial and public facilities — villas, condos, trade and financial centers, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, schools and hospitals.

Meanwhile, at a busy corner leading up to the city's landmark Independence Monument, an old government hospital has been torn down to make way for a 42-story condominium and shopping complex worth about US$250 million (€162 million). That's going to dramatically change Phnom Penh's skyline, where the tallest building now is a 15-story hotel.

It is going to be the first luxury residential building and tallest structure in Cambodia, said Kim Tae-Yeon, chairman of Yon Woo Inc., a South Korean developer.

Kim said the towers will have about 500 units of apartments, office space and retail shops with price tags ranging from US$112,000 (€72,647) to US$1.8 million (€1.17 million) a unit. Construction will start next month and take 3 1/2 years to complete, but Kim said nearly half of the units have already been bought.

In recent years, Siem Reap, a northwestern town near the famed Angkor Wat ruins, also has seen a frenzy of hotel and guesthouse construction for the growing numbers of tourists.

Thrilled with the boom, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said it has been made possible by the political stability he has brought. In a recent speech he warned that if he is not re-elected in July elections, property prices could nosedive.

"It was a threat, a dirty trick to gain votes," said Son Chhay, an opposition party lawmaker.

Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.

"This is not going to be healthy for the Cambodian economy," Son Chhay says.

There are also concerns that the rapid price gains are creating a bubble that will eventually pop.

Eric Sidgwick, senior economist at the Asian Development Bank office in Phnom Penh, said the real estate market has been "driven by a combination of genuine demand for business-related and residential construction," as well as a growing population, increased urbanization and speculation.

Still, there were "reasons to be concerned about the recent increase in real estate prices and the dangers of further inflating a speculation-led bubble," he said in an e-mail. He declined to comment about any possible link between money laundering and the property market boom.

Meanwhile, poor residents like Chhorn Et, the former slum dweller who was moved outside the capital, are left to cope with a stark reality in their new village, which has no running water or sewage system.

Although each family has been given a small piece of land, they complain of the lack of means to support their livelihoods. They have to travel daily to the capital to do odd jobs as motorbike taxi drivers, construction workers or scavenge for bottles and cans to sell to buy food.

Many of them are too poor to afford a latrine and have to use a nearby rice field as a toilet, said 37-year-old Mom Somaly, a mother of five children.

Pointing to a distant land-for-sale sign, she said "soon they may not even have a field to use as toilet any longer." Read more!

Cambodia is wrongly claiming part of its territory : FM

Cambodia wrongly claimed its territory? Surin province and others were belong to Cambodia in the past and all castles and temples also. Not just talking about Ta Mean temple, the Surin Province is Cambodian. There are million Cambodian living in the Province for handred of years.

The Foreign Ministry summoned on Friday French and Cambodian ambassadors to complain maps of Cambodia publish in France and Cambodia wrongly claimed Thai territory.

The envoys were told that maps of Utdor Mean Chay and Preah Vihear provinces published in France and Cambodia claim that parts of the Ta Mean Prom temple in Surin province are in Cambodia.

Director of Treaty and Legal Affairs, Virachai Plasai, told the ambassadors the area in question is "overlapping" and requires demarcation under a treaty signed by Thailand and Cambodia in 2000.

"We raised objections in line with international practices because we believe the map is incorrect," he says.

Thailand says the issue will not affect bilateral relations. The two countries have clashed previously over ownership of the Preah Vihear Hindu temple. Bangkok opposes Phnom Penh's plans to list it as a United Nation's World Heritage site before ownership is settled.
Read more!

Cambodian Disabled Arts Festival Promotes Equal Rights

By Bory Byrne

A festival aimed at promoting disabled artists in Cambodia has just ended in the nation's capital, Phnom Penh. Despite having one of the world's highest rates of disabled people, social, political and economic discrimination against the disabled is widespread in Cambodia. Organizers say that the aim of the festival was to try to help change popular perceptions of disability in Cambodia by promoting disabled people's abilities rather than their disabilities. Rory Byrne reports for VOA from Phnom Penh.

Hundreds of mainly disabled children took part in the opening parade of the Spotlight Festival - the first of its kind in Cambodia aimed at promoting the rights of the disabled.

The children came from towns and cities all over Cambodia bringing a big splash of color on an otherwise dull afternoon in Phnom Penh.

Hannah Stevens, the Director of the Spotlight, says that the festival is trying to show how the disabled can play a fuller role in Cambodian society,

"I believe that Spotlight gives people the opportunity to prove their abilities. In Cambodia, we still have quite a problem where people with disabilities aren't integrated into society, there isn't full access to education, people aren't necessarily able to get jobs," said Stevens. "I think this project - the whole point of it is to promote the abilities of these people so that actually they're very, very capable to go to school, and to receive education, to participate in the arts and to participate in society generally."

Decades of war and poverty have left Cambodia with one of the highest rates of disabled people in the world. A 2005 report by the Asian Development Bank estimates that about 15 percent of the population is afflicted with some form of disability

That includes an estimated 40,000 land-mine survivors and 50,000 victims of preventable diseases like polio.

Like in other developing countries, disabled people in Cambodia are typically among the poorest of the poor. Many suffer discrimination in their daily lives.

Polio victim Ngin Saorath is the Executive Director of the Cambodian Disabled People's Organization.

"In Cambodia, there are a lot of discrimination towards people with disability because the people in Cambodia believe in Karma - they say that you did something wrong - because you did something very bad - in the past life, that's why you live and you're born with disability," explained Saroth.

Saroth says that disabled people in Cambodia are often denied access to education and employment opportunities.

"In the family most people they got the children with disability - they not allow the children to go to school or they just let the children to stay home and look after or cooking for the relative," added Saroth. "They feel that [a] disabled person cannot do anything - just look after the cow or take care of the sister or the nephew - so they cannot get education, they don't send their children to get education because they feel that in society there is no available job for [a] disabled person."

The Spotlight festival featured performances and workshops from a number of acclaimed disabled artists from Cambodia and the wider region

Performers included blind Cambodian musician Kong Nay, master of the so-called "Mekong Delta Blues," who some call the "Ray Charles of Cambodia" because of his trademark sunglasses.

Also performing at the festival was acclaimed drumming team Koshu Roa Taiko from Japan. All of the drummers are deaf and play by feeling the drum's vibrations


Mary Scott is the Country Director of the Cambodian Trust, a British NGO working to promote disabled rights in Cambodia:

"The Spotlight Festival was groundbreaking in Cambodia," she said. "There has never been a festival like that where people with disabilities and people without disabilities have pulled together to bring together a cultural programme."

As well as showing how the disabled can play a full role in the arts, the festival succeeded in bringing some joy into the lives of some of Cambodia's most vulnerable disabled children.

Organizers hope that festivals like Spotlight can help to bring about a general shift in attitudes towards the disabled in Cambodia and the wider region.

Read more!

Baby dolphin's health causes concern in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Though infant mortality is on the decline among Cambodia's endangered Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin population, the overall health of the baby dolphins is of concern, national media on Friday quoted expert as saying.

Two of the nine baby dolphins born in 2007 died - one in January and another last week, said Touch Seang Tana, head of the governmental Commission of Mekong Dolphin Conservation.

In 2006, 14 babies were born, six of which died, he said, adding that these numbers were encouraging given the fact that the previous years saw an average of 15 babies die.

"Before there were a lot of deaths. Now there is only two," he was quoted by English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodian Dailyas saying.

The improvements are attributed to education campaigns over the last couple of years warning villagers not to use gill nets and encouraging them to find work in tourism instead of fishing.

However, the surviving baby dolphins are underweight and look unhealthy, he said, adding that the baby dolphin dying in January weighed only 3.8 kg and the baby found last week tangled in a fishing net 4 kg, some one kg shy of the normal weight.

"The remaining babies are small," he said, adding that the baby dolphin’s failing health is partly due to a shortage in the fish their mothers eat, which is something he attributed to global warming and shifting temperatures.

World Wildlife Fund' Cambodia Country Director Teak Seng said that global warming may be a threat to the dolphins, but there is no conclusive evidence to support the theory.

"We don't have any scientific evidence that supports this casual relationship, therefore further research needs to be conducted," he said.

"While dolphins are very sensitive to changes in their environment, such as water temperature and quality, other factors may be more influential such as diseases and water pollution," he added.

According to the Commission of Mekong Dolphin Conservation, there are currently 140 to 150 dolphins in Cambodia, over some 90 in 2006.

The Cambodian government has adopted a series of measures to protect the animal, such as no use of fishing net in its inhabiting area, and encouragement of local people to salvage those struggling in nets.
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Thailand, Cambodia agree on UN plan for disputed temple

BANGKOK - THAILAND'S prime minister said on Tuesday he would not block attempts by neighbouring Cambodia to have the disputed Preah Vihear temple complex listed as a United Nations World Heritage site.

Thailand and Cambodia have historically both laid claim to Preah Vihear, an ancient Hindu site perched high on a mountaintop on the Thai-Cambodia border.

Newly-elected Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said his government had reached an agreement with their neighbour allowing Cambodia to propose Preah Vihear temple - but not the surrounding land - as a World Heritage site.

'Cambodia and Thailand are preparing to issue a joint communique, but first I have to inform the Thai people,' Mr Samak told reporters on Tuesday as he returned from an overnight trip to Cambodia, his first as prime minister.

'Cambodia confirmed that they will propose only the temple site for World Heritage status, not the surrounding area,' he added.

Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said the communique would also stipulate that Thailand and Cambodia must jointly manage the area surrounding Preah Vihear.

The United Nations culture organisation Unesco ruled last year against granting the temple coveted World Heritage status, but recognised it as a significant international site.

Rumours swirled that Thailand had blocked Cambodia's efforts to have Preah Vihear listed, but Cambodian officials denied that and said they expected the temple would be accepted this year after they submit a management plan to the World Heritage Committee.

A dispute with Thailand in 2003 over Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple - the most significant symbol of the country's ancient Khmer empire - sparked a night of riots that saw Thailand's embassy and several Thai-owned businesses burned and looted in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Disagreements over Preah Vihear, which sits on Cambodian soil but can only be easily accessed from Thailand, have long plagued Thai-Cambodian relations.

Former Cambodian king Norodom Sihanouk took Thailand to the World Court in 1962 over the two countries' claim to Preah Vihear. The court ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia. -- AFP


Read more!

Wiregrass Man, "The Father of Baseball in Cambodia"

Dothan, Al. (WSFA) -- It's America's favorite pastime and many in the Wiregrass have grown up playing it: baseball.

However, for one man, it's much more than a game. For Joe Cook it's an escape from a violent past.

Now Cook is using that game to teach kids about the country that took him in.

He's your average joe, but he doesn't look like it.

He and his family were forced from their native Cambodia to escape the genocide of the Khmer Rouge in early 1980's.

"Everything was just overwhelming at the time," says Cook.

Baseball opened up so much for Joe. It makes him feel American.

He's married with two children, and working as a chef in Dothan.

His first trip back to Cambodia was in 2002. It was on that trip that he made the decision to take the game that gave him so much back to the kids of Cambodia.

"I'll bring gloves, balls and I'm going to teach you how to play baseball," says Cook.

With his promise, Joe and the people of Baribo built their own field.

Joe's dream hasn't been easy to accomplish, though.

He doesn't make much money and what he does earn goes to paying bills and his family.

It's the passion for baseball in Cambodia that keeps him going.

Cook says, "I throw balls to the kid, they throw back to me, there's so much joy in that kids eye."
In December of 2007 Cambodia's first national baseball team competed in the Southeast Asian games.

Cook was able to be a part of that experience, because to many, he's the father of baseball in Cambodia.

"They always come up to me, ask me questions to learn about new things," says Cook.

Read more!

Renewed fears for rare Mekong dolphin in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A sharp drop in the number Mekong dolphins born in Cambodia has renewed fears for the survival of the rare mammals, wildlife experts said on Wednesday.

Only three baby dolphins, one of them dead, were found during an annual survey conducted in late November, down from six newborns in previous years, Touch Seang Tana told Reuters.

Their weight had also dropped to under 2 kg (4.4 lb) from 5 kg (11 lb) in the 1980s, the chairman of the Commission for Mekong Dolphins Conservation said.

"A group of 10 full-grown dolphins living in the upper Mekong River had no babies at all this year," he said, blaming a shortage of fish and rising water temperatures which might have affected their reproductive systems.

There are about 150 dolphins living in the upper Mekong River, up from only 90 before a 2006 ban on net fishing in the eastern provinces of Kratie and Steung Treng.

Conservationists had hoped for a surge in newborn dolphins after the ban was imposed.

"Global warming may be a possible indirect threat to the dolphin population, particularly if their fitness is reduced," said Teak Seng of the World Wildlife Fund.

"Dolphins are very sensitive to changes in their environment such as water temperature and quality. Other factors may be more influential such as diseases and water pollution," he said.


Read more!

CNVLD Announces Annual National Disability Awards

The Cambodian National Volleyball League (Disabled) (CNVLD) has caught the spirit of the Recommendations of the Second International Conference on Accessible Tourism with its new National Disability Awards program.

As part of its ongoing commitment to promoting the Rights of Persons with a Disability, the CNVLD is proud to announce the inaugural CNVLD Annual National Disability Awards recognising commitment to accessibility and support in the Cambodian corporate sector.

After signing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability in October 2007, the Cambodian Government recently passed its domestic disability law.

Rising investment in Cambodia has also led to rapid urban development in the capital Phnom Penh. In response to Cambodia’s changing landscape, the CNVLD National Disability Awards aim to encourage local corporate sector social responsibility in Disability Rights and Access.

The 2008 CNVLD National Disability Awards will be presented for:

• Best Access: Hotel /Hospitality
• Best Access: Retail
• Best Access: Educational Institute
• Best Access: Restaurant
• Best Employer
• Best Corporate Support for Disability Rights

The CNVLD will assess the disability friendliness of some of Cambodia’s leading businesses based on a number of criteria including accessibility (entrances, steps, ramps, lifts, helpfulness / understanding of staff, use of facilities), positive employment and support for disability issues.

The inaugural 2008 CNVLD National Disability Awards winners will be announced on 1st September 2008. Category winners will be presented their awards along with the year’s best athletes by H.E Ith Sam Heng Minister of Social Affairs, Youth and Veteran’s Rehabilitation at the 2008 National Volleyball League Finals at the Olympic Stadium at the end of September 2008.

Award winners will receive unique a Cambodian trophy produced from destroyed AK-47s by Armed Art and a framed certificate. Award winners will also be provided stickers to promote their Accessibility Friendly’ status in their premises. Each winner will also be specially profiled on the CNVLD website.


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Small loans make a BIG difference

South Medford freshmen use idea from Nobel Prize winner to make Third World entrepreneurial dreams a reality

By Paris Achen

Lim Um, 55, wanted to buy a motorbike to help her and four of her seven children transport cookies and vegetables from their home 10 miles outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to sell at the market in the capital city.

Some students at South Medford High School recently loaned her about $25 to help her do so as part of a freshman world studies activity making microloans, small loans to poor entrepreneurs in developing countries with no collateral.

"It's awesome to be able to donate what is spare money to us, and to people there it makes a huge difference in their life," said freshman Kimberly Brown.

For the past month, the students in teacher Dave Lefkowitz's social studies classes have been making the loans online through Kiva, a nonprofit group in San Francisco.

Kiva participants loan some or all of the requested amount, and the borrower makes payments like any traditional loan.

Lefkowitz thought the concept devised by Bangladesh Professor Muhammad Yunus would be a good learning tool to connect students to other parts of the world, some of which they already study. Yunus won the Noble Peace Prize in 2006 for the role microfinance has played in helping to lift people out of poverty and provide their children with a better future.

"I'm a believer that teaching people facts is boring," Lefkowitz said. "For most of us, if we're not getting involved in society, we are only going halfway. I think you've got to get involved, and if we haven't taught students how to get involved we haven't done our job as teachers."

Lefkowitz's five world studies classes have loaned a total of about $425 to 17 people in Central America, South America, Africa and Asia. Another $170 raised by two students at a dance two weeks ago is waiting for distribution.

The students collect no interest on the loans. Instead, Kiva's field partners, usually small banks in the 41 countries, collect the interest on the loans in exchange for their services.

Kiva has facilitated more than 35,300 loans equaling more than $23.6 million in the past two years since its Web site was launched two years ago.

The average loan request is about $550.

As students scrolled through loan candidates on the Kiva Web site on a Thursday morning, the excitement was palpable.

The class selected Lim Um based on the number of children she has.

"Pay it," one student shouted, as if he were urging on his home football team to score a touchdown.

The class cheered as Lefkowitz clicked on Lim Um's name and typed in a credit card number to make the loan.

He also took the opportunity to review the characteristics of Cambodia, as the class has recently been studying the monsoon weather phenomenon in Asia. He quickly quizzed them on their knowledge of Buddhism, a dominant religion in the country, before moving on.

"I think doing this helps us learn where people are coming from and what other countries are like and teaches us to be more grateful for what we have," said freshman Kris Leitz.

About one-third to one-half of the world's population earns $2 day. That equals the price of a large cup of soda, noted freshman Jed Hamilton.

Teacher Joshua Wallace's Spanish class also has joined in after two of his students who are in Lefkowitz's class made a presentation about microloans. Wallace's class will translate letters between some of the Central and South American loan recipients and Lefkowitz's classes.

"That will take us one step further to see how the money is being used," Lefkowitz said.

Students said they were amazed to learn that poor people in developing countries have a better rate of loan repayment than middle-class Americans. Kiva loan recipients have a repayment rate of more than 99 percent.

"It kind of blows my mind because people in Third World countries have to struggle to pay these loans back," said freshman Corie Davis. "Those who don't have to struggle aren't as likely to pay it back. I don't know why that is, but maybe it's because people in Third World countries know what it's like to live without things."

Reach reporter Paris Achen at 541-776-4459 or pachen@mailtribune.com.


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Thai PM visits Cambodia to strengthen bilateral relations

BANGKOK, March 3 (TNA) – Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej began his second official trip abroad, leaving for Cambodia on Monday morning.

The prime minister and his delegation left for Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, Monday morning on a two-day visit, after having made his first visit abroad since assuming the premiership in an official visit to Laos last weekend.

Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said the Thai premier's visit to Cambodia was aimed at strengthening ties between the two countries

Gen. Anupong Paochinda, Thailand's Army chief, who also accompanied the prime minister, said the main issue to be discussed with Cambodian authorities is border demarcation, which has not achieved much progress in the past.

Among the agenda items is the Cambodian request for a loan from Thailand to build a road with the budget of Bt1.4 billion (currently US$43.75 million).

Land development, oil and gas exploration in disputed, overlapping Thai-Cambodian geographic areas, are expected to be dealt with on the agenda, said Mr. Noppadon.

Speaking about the ancient Preah Vihear Khmer temple ruins, which Cambodia has proposed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for designation as a World Heritage site, Mr. Noppadon said Thailand can discuss the issue to reach a solution with the neighbouring country. However, Cambodia said the issue won't be considered.

"The International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled (in 1962) that Preah Vihear temple belongs to Cambodia, but the move by Cambodia to push the temple on the UNESCO World Heritage list should neither affect Thailand's rights in the overlapping zone nor at the border," the Thai foreign minister said. (TNA)-E004

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Cambodia launches second post-war census

PHNOM PENH, March 3 (Xinhua) -- With a budget of over six million U.S. dollars and a staff of almost 40,000 officials, Cambodia's second post-war population census began on Monday, local media reported.

The 10-day census is a major undertaking, the Mekong Times newspaper said, citing San Sy Than, director general of the Planning Ministry's National Institute of Statistics (NIS).

Each interviewer will gather data on 120 families, he added.

Census officials have been trained and notified families that a census would be taking place, San Sy Than said, explaining that basic demographic, economic, cultural and social information will be gathered.

"We will also gather family-related information about residential situations and household equipment," he was quoted as saying.

This work will help identify the number and characteristics of the people and to estimate population growth from the village level to the Kingdom as a whole, he added.

The Planning Ministry will announce the preliminary results of the census in August and the complete data by 2009, San Sy Than said.

Cambodia held the first post-war census in 1998, which showed the kingdom had a population of 11.4 million people.
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US soldier's remains flown home from Cambodia

Phnom Penh - The remains of a US soldier believed to have been missing in action since the Vietnam War period were flown home from Cambodia Saturday. The unidentified soldier's remains are the 29th of a total of 55 US military personnel recovered who went missing in action in the South-east Asian nation during the late 1960's and early 1970's.

The soldier's remains were found in the Thai border province of Koh Kong, more than 300 kilometres south-west of the capital, the US embassy in Phnom Penh said.

It said the remains were being flown to a military facility in Hawaii in an effort to identify them before being awarded a full military funeral. Read more!

Selling the largest Hindu temple in the world

Angkor Wat is celebrated, the world over, as a temple of steroid-induced proportions, buried for centuries in the forests of northern Cambodia before being rediscovered by modernity. Visitors such as I, expect to ‘stumble upon’ a giant temple rising about 700 feet in the air amidst the isolation of an intrusive forest.

In today’s global tourism industry, Angkor Wat is portrayed as that rarity, the last chance to truly discover.

There is some truth to this image. Before it was ‘discovered’ in 1840 by a French adventurer, it had not yet entered European imagination. During much of the late twentieth century, when global tourism really took off, Angkor Wat (means city temple) remained inaccessible due to a catastrophic civil war in Cambodia.

Besides, Angkor Wat is probably the largest Hindu temple in the world.

Built by King Surya Varman in the early 12th century, it is dedicated to lord Vishnu. Even the Creator of the Universe would have gasped at the scale of this creation—one square kilometer in size, and built on multiple levels. The artistry of each panel is intricate.

I spot a horde of Hindu tourists, aggressively explaining to their befuddled Cambodian guide that this is actually ‘their’ culture.

The truth is Hinduism in Cambodia dates back to the first century AD, brought by Indian traders from the kingdoms of Magadha (East Bihar) and Tamil Nadu. By the time of the Angkor era, this influence had flowered into a distinct culture of which Angkor Wat is the most enduring example.

So much for the product. Now the packaging.

Even at the time of its so called discovery, Angkor Wat was being administered by some one thousand Buddhist monks. Today, chattering groups of pliant tourists arrive in chartered planes to the nearby airport, Siem Reap. The scatter of shops around the temple sites—some mom and pop, some more enticing—sell every possible packaged memory. The entire area seems like a giant well run hotel.

This gilt-edged wrapping paper, however, is torn at places, revealing contradictions. In sharp contrast to the booming Asian Tigers that surround it, the Cambodian countryside is stark, famished and numbingly poor. Entirely different is Siem Reap, an artificial city, meant to service the many rich western and Japanese tourists who come to visit the Angkor temples. There are super markets everywhere, and the architecture is Baroque-meets-Surya Varman.

The obvious poverty of Cambodia seems to give way to a bubble of smooth highways and air-conditioned modernity. The economy seems as fissured: I could pay in Riel (the Cambodian currency), Baht or in US dollars.

Even the culture that was peddled as Khmer (the majority ethnic group in Cambodia) seemed hybrid. Like in neighbouring Thailand, the Angkor massages on offer in Siem Reap reflected the specific tastes of our globalised times. Eastern European women offer their white skin for the post-colonial Asian, and Nigerians peddle their bodies, rumoured to be well endowed, to Japanese women.

It may seem petulant to emphasise this lack of ‘authentic’ history here. After all every country packages its attractions in bubble wrap for outside tourists. But Angkor Wat’s history has been repackaged for its own people. For Cambodia has had to wrestle with notions of history like few others.

From 1974 to 1979, a far left Maoist regime controlled Cambodia. Until it was overthrown, the Khmer Rouge had succeeded in killing a tenth of Cambodia, forced the entire urban population to the countryside, and sought to radically reshape Cambodian society. Worse (if at all possible) was to follow.

During their fourteen years of exile and guerrilla warfare from the northern jungles, it laid ten million landmines across north Cambodia—one for each Cambodian.

Today, Cambodia enjoys a tenuous peace, and seeks to put behind its immediate past. The Angkor temples are now packaged for Cambodians, as a symbol of national unification.

Even the current Cambodian national flag carries an etching of Angkor Wat. But the phantoms of a grisly past cannot be wished away. Some temples in the Angkor area are still inaccessible due to landmines, and I saw many amputees hobbling across the temple stones.
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Southeast Asia holidays now from just $1,530

See the sights in Borneo, Singapore, Langkawi, or Cambodia

www.Shermanstravel.com

Book by: ASAP
Travel by: Various through March 2008

The deal
Southeast Asia holds many a treasure for adventurous travelers, including some of the world’s most spectacular manmade wonders and natural marvels. We found well-priced deals to get you there, from Cambodia’s stunning Angkor Wat temples to the rainforests of Borneo and the island paradise of Malaysia’s Langkawi. Air and hotel packages to these stellar destinations now start at only $1,530!

Borneo holiday from $1,530
Just off the coast of Malaysia lies the captivating island of Borneo, with its lush jungles; a strong indigenous culture; and beguiling historical sights. Now you can visit it with the Asian Affair Holidays special at a super-low price of $1,530! This five-night holiday covers air from San Francisco or Los Angeles (just $60 extra from New York); lodging with daily breakfast at one of two luxurious resorts — the Shangri-la's Tanjung Aru Resort or Rasa Ria Resort; and a lunch-inclusive day trip to scenic Coral Island. This low price is good for travel between March 27 and 31 only.

Singapore & Langkawi for $1,688
Another terrific Southeast Asian destination is Malaysia’s Langkawi archipelago in the Andaman Sea. Rich in folklore and legends, this cluster of 99 islands provides an ideal tropical retreat. You can check it out, together with Singapore, with the Asian Affair Holidays package for $1,688. Good for departures through March 31, this six-night city and beach escape comes with airfare from San Fransisco or L.A. ($60 extra from N.Y.); airport transfers; deluxe lodging; and a couple of tours (a half-day city tour of Singapore and a half-day island-hopping tour in Langkawi).

Singapore & Cambodia for $1,570
Another trip we recommend: combine the city-state of Singapore and Cambodia’s marvelous Angkor Wat temple complex and you’re in for a real treat! This exact itinerary is currently on sale by Asian Affair Holidays for $1,570. Good for departures through March 31, it covers airfare from L.A. or San Fransisco ($60 more from N.Y.); two nights’ upscale lodging in Singapore, with a half-day city tour; three nights in the jungle town of Siem Reap (the gateway for Angkor Wat), with two full-day temple tours; all transfers; and daily breakfasts.

The dollars
The rates above are listed per person, based on double occupancy. Accommodation may be wonderfully affordable once on the ground, but the cost of flying to Southeast Asia is known to break the bank. Indeed, if you take only the cost of airfare to these far-flung destinations, you’ll found it can rise as high as the price of these hotel-inclusive packages.

The catch
Make sure you get all the right jabs! Read more!