A Decade Brewing Coffee, and an Arts Scene

Cambodian artists say they owe a debt of gratitude to Dana Langlois and her Java Gallery and Cafe, which marks its 10th anniversary on Saturday.

Langlois, an American, opened her cafe, near Independence Monument, in 2000, creating a space for Cambodian artists to display their work and encouraging the growth of the arts, which were devastated under the Khmer Rouge.

“The dozens of young Cambodian artists who have exhibited at Java have played significant roles in the Cambodian art scene,” Langlois said in an interview.

Artists who have shown their work at Java have pursued subjects like culture, conservation, the environment and the daily lives of other Cambodians.

At least 20 different Cambodians have shown their work at the gallery. Chath Piersath, a painter, said Langlois was the “first foreigner” to concern herself with Cambodian art.

Leang Seckon, a painter, said Langlois had helped Cambodian art reach foreigners and encouraged younger artists to pursue more works.

“Java is a center for training professionalism in art and for counseling the establishment, innovation and exhibition of new works of art,” he said. It has also provided a venue for Cambodian artists to study works “from many countries,” he said.

“At this time, foreigners have come to see the development of Cambodian works of art, which began to rise up after the war,” he said.

Leang Seckon has shown 100 different works at the gallery over the past 10 years, fetching tens of thousands of dollars.

“I developed into a well-known artist in Cambodia and now I’ve become an internationally recognized painter,” he said. “I’m very happy for the art works that I have learned from paintings of different countries at Java, such as the United States, France and the United Kingdom.”

Oeur Sokuntevy, perhaps Cambodia’s best-known female artist, said Java helped artists train and develop.

“Ms. Dana has helped counsel Cambodian artists in painting and promoted their knowledge, understanding and wisdom of the Cambodian artists,” Oeur Sokuntevy said. “I have more understanding of technical painting, and the reason is the establishment of my art works at Java.”

So far, Oeur Sokuntevy has shown 55 works of art at Java, including paintings and sculpture, with price tags between $400 and $500. But it’s not about the money, she says.

“We do not hope to sell the paintings,” she said. “We show our art works, and we want our work recognized by the international community. It doesn’t mean that we just sell our work.”

While some work brings high prices, “for the artists, they think that they do not need the money, but they think of producing new innovations and strangeness in their works.” Read more!

A Decade Brewing Coffee, and an Arts Scene

Cambodian artists say they owe a debt of gratitude to Dana Langlois and her Java Gallery and Cafe, which marks its 10th anniversary on Saturday.

Langlois, an American, opened her cafe, near Independence Monument, in 2000, creating a space for Cambodian artists to display their work and encouraging the growth of the arts, which were devastated under the Khmer Rouge.

“The dozens of young Cambodian artists who have exhibited at Java have played significant roles in the Cambodian art scene,” Langlois said in an interview.

Artists who have shown their work at Java have pursued subjects like culture, conservation, the environment and the daily lives of other Cambodians.

At least 20 different Cambodians have shown their work at the gallery. Chath Piersath, a painter, said Langlois was the “first foreigner” to concern herself with Cambodian art.

Leang Seckon, a painter, said Langlois had helped Cambodian art reach foreigners and encouraged younger artists to pursue more works.

“Java is a center for training professionalism in art and for counseling the establishment, innovation and exhibition of new works of art,” he said. It has also provided a venue for Cambodian artists to study works “from many countries,” he said.

“At this time, foreigners have come to see the development of Cambodian works of art, which began to rise up after the war,” he said.

Leang Seckon has shown 100 different works at the gallery over the past 10 years, fetching tens of thousands of dollars.

“I developed into a well-known artist in Cambodia and now I’ve become an internationally recognized painter,” he said. “I’m very happy for the art works that I have learned from paintings of different countries at Java, such as the United States, France and the United Kingdom.”

Oeur Sokuntevy, perhaps Cambodia’s best-known female artist, said Java helped artists train and develop.

“Ms. Dana has helped counsel Cambodian artists in painting and promoted their knowledge, understanding and wisdom of the Cambodian artists,” Oeur Sokuntevy said. “I have more understanding of technical painting, and the reason is the establishment of my art works at Java.”

So far, Oeur Sokuntevy has shown 55 works of art at Java, including paintings and sculpture, with price tags between $400 and $500. But it’s not about the money, she says.

“We do not hope to sell the paintings,” she said. “We show our art works, and we want our work recognized by the international community. It doesn’t mean that we just sell our work.”

While some work brings high prices, “for the artists, they think that they do not need the money, but they think of producing new innovations and strangeness in their works.” Read more!

Railway Presents Relocation Woes: Housing Advocate

A railway rehabilitation project under a loan from the Asian Development Bank will impact 4,000 families, and a housing rights advocate said Thursday the solutions for them are inadequate.

Eang Vuthy, a project manager for Bridges Across Borders, told “Hello VOA” that the families have not received enough compensation to relocate from the path of the rail line, while their businesses, jobs, and children’s education are in jeopardy.

Residents in the provinces of Battambang and Preah Sihanouk have already been moved, with negative results, he said.

“Those people are stifled in relation to their living, because the land that was exchanged for them is without enough infrastructure or programs to create businesses and jobs,” he said. The move from urban areas to relocation sites outside of town have meant a loss of jobs, work and school, he said.

“Some people received only $200 in exchange for leaving their houses, which were built near the railroad,” he said. “How can they live?”

In other countries, such projects entail clear plans on how to deal with evictions, he said. Those who live in the path of the railroad received fair compensation, shelter and means to find work and open businesses, he said. In Thailand, people who live within 20 meters of the proposed line receive rental housing for a certain amount of time, providing them an opportunity to find a new place to live.

“People are concerned about when they are going to change to a new place, so they dare not conduct business on their land, they dare not renovate their houses, and they feel frustrated,” he said. “We should review the examples of our neighbors and apply them to our country and clearly define when we are going to develop this land.”

One caller said he was given only $9 to leave his land in Banteay Meanchey province, but Eang Vuthy said this was illegal. Banteay Meanchey has not yet come up with a plan for rail projects, he said, and families should not be forced out ahead of time.

People cannot be forced off their land without a contract, he said, adding that there were commune, district and provincial authorities in place to help solve problems, along with the courts and the ADB.

The railway project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2013, but delays are possible as unexpected problems crop up. The plan calls for the rehabilitation of 600 kilometers of railway, between Phnom Penh and Preah Sihanouk, and Phnom Penh and Banteay Meanchey and Poipet.

Eang Vuthy said the ADB has allocated $3.5 million for the resettlement of residents, a figure he said was not enough. Read more!

Cambodian PM warns Prince to lose advisory role if joins politics

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen warned Thursday that Prince Norodom Ranariddh will lose his role as president of the supreme advisory council to King Norodom Sihamoni if he joins politics.

Delivering speech at inauguration of University of Battambang on Thursday, Hun Sen said he will inform the King to write off the prince's position from his advisory role in the next few days, if he decides to join politics as planned.

The prince wrote a letter to Hun Sen last month saying that he will return to politics to lead "Norodom Ranariddh Party"for the 2013 general election.

"Taking this opportunity, I would like to inform Samdech Decho (Hun Sen) that I am happy to go back and lead Norodom Ranariddh Party in 2013 in order to reunite royalists and Sihanoukists so that we can further cooperate with your Royal Government in the fifth term which will then comply by the principle of national reconciliation and unity...," the prince said in the letter.

Hun Sen said that the prince has his own choice between an" advisor to the king or politics".

The prince announced in October 2008 his complete resignation from politics.

The Norodom Ranariddh Party was established in 2007 after the prince was toppled from the president of the royalist FUNCINEC Party in 2006.

Hun Sen warned that Prince Ranariddh's re-entry into politics will cause ambiguity among royal family, the king and the former king whether they are also involved in politics.

He said once the prince joins politics, the prince might suggest he is the son of former King Norodom Sihahouk and is the elder brother of the present King Norodom Sihamoni.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Mining Company makes Sydne debut

Indochine Mining, which claims to be Cambodia’s largest mineral miner by land concessions, began trading on the Australian Stock Exchange on Thursday with a market capitalisation of A$54 million (US$53.2 million).

The company’s Chief Executive Officer Stephen Promnitz said the bulk of its 270 million tradable shares were owned by institutional investors seeking exposure to the Kingdom’s “expanding economy” and “resources in a new frontier such as Cambodia”.

“The great thing about Cambodia is it has not had a great amount of modern exploration,” he told The Post.

The company is “confident” of a “large discovery”, given the Kingdom’s history of limited exploration coupled with the large grants of land.

Indochine holds 2,900 square kilometres of land in Ratanakkiri province, in northern Cambodia, and another 1,400 square kilometres in Kratie province,

“I don’t think we’d be there otherwise,” said Promnitz.

The gold and copper explorer listed on the ASX in Sydney at A$0.20 a share after a successful initial public offering in October.

The IPO raised $20.1 million, exceeding its minimum target of $12 million.

Indochine’s share price fell to a low of A$0.16 during the first day of trading, finally closing 3 cents down at $0.17. Read more!

Cambodian refugee

By MIKE ECKEL

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (AP) — The distant thuds of gunfire and bombs weren’t nearly as memorable for Michael Misiewicz as fishing barehanded with his older brother in Cambodia’s Mekong River.

In 1973, as a 6-year-old then called Vannak Khem, he was more concerned with boys’ games than the deepening war – unaware, like most Cambodians, of the trauma that the Khmer Rouge would soon inflict on the country. He had no idea that after his adoption by an American woman that same year, it would take him 37 years to go home.

Misiewicz finally returned home Friday as commander of the US Navy destroyer USS Mustin – reuniting with the relatives who wondered whether they would ever see him alive, and the aunt who helped arrange his adoption. His ship departs Monday.

“Chumreap suor, Om,’’ he greeted 72-year-old Samrith Sokha in the Khmer language, clutching her in a sobbing embrace on the Mustin’s sea-swept walkway. “Greetings, Auntie.’’

The warship has a larger mission: to help the United States as it deepens ties with Cambodia and other nearby nations in a region overshadowed by China’s economic and military clout.

But the ship’s arrival in the port of Sihanoukville also ends an odyssey that took Misiewicz, now 43, from the poverty of Cambodian rice fields to the farmlands of the midwestern United States to the helm of a US destroyer.

The process of returning has been intensely emotional, he said: Sadness for the more than 1.7 million who died or were killed by the communist Khmer Rouge when they held power in 1975-1979, combined with guilt at his escape from it and joy at seeing the relatives who helped him leave it behind.

“This isn’t going to wash the guilt away but I am looking to provide some sense of closure, going back to my birth country, going back to where my family suffered, and where my dad was executed, seeing it firsthand,’’ he said in a phone interview before his ship arrived.

Born south of the capital, Phnom Penh, Misiewicz and his family were uprooted in 1969 as Khmer Rouge fighters forced villagers to join the radical communist movement. His father didn’t sympathize with it, unlike many of his mother’s family, and many considered him a traitor for not joining up, Misiewicz said.

They fled north, living on the streets as beggars for a time and scraping by until settling in Phnom Penh. They lived in a stilt house over mosquito-infested waters, subsisting mainly on his father’s work as an herbal medicine pharmacist. His father’s oldest sister Sokha worked for Maryna Lee Misiewicz, a US Army administrative assistant with the defense attache’s office at the US Embassy.

Misiewicz remembers eating popcorn and watching cartoons while his aunt cooked and cleaned Maryna’s home. Eventually, he said, his father decided they should ask Maryna to adopt him and Maryna and the boy left for the United States in April, 1973.

“They were concerned about the Khmer Rouge. No one had any idea what would happen, but they hoped for a better life for Mike,’’ Maryna Misiewicz said in an interview from her home in Freeport, Illinois. “We had no idea how long it would be before they would ever see each other again.’’

He grew up in Lanark, a town of 1,500 people just south of Freeport, most of whom had never seen an Asian before, and he said he cried frequently, thinking about his family.

Gradually, the letters to his relatives went unanswered as Cambodia spiraled into chaos. He forgot what little Khmer he knew, graduated from local high school and enlisted in the Navy. Like most Americans, he only later realized how many had died and suffered because of the Khmer Rouge’s nightmarish efforts to create an agricultural utopia. Maryna Misiewicz said she initially tried to shield her adopted son from the few reports about the Khmer Rouge’s brutal actions.

“You didn’t have any idea it would end up like that,’’ Maryna said. “I felt badly for Mike and his family and I wondered what was going on, what they were going through.’’

“As I got older it was less painful to not think about it,’’ Misiewicz said.

It was in 1989 when he was at the US Naval Academy when he was finally located by his family – and he learned of their own odyssey through refugee camps on the Thai border and in the Philippines and finally to Austin, Texas.

His birth mother, two brothers, and a sister had survived but two other sisters died, most likely of disease or malnutrition. All of his mother’s relatives, except for a brother, died or were killed by the Khmer Rouge, he said.

“We never knew what was going to happen,’’ said Misiewicz’s younger brother, Rithy Khem. “Thank God we were able ... to be reconnected with each other finally.’’

Misiewicz learned that his father, who was drafted as a medic for the US-backed government that collapsed in 1975, was summoned to a meeting with Khmer Rouge officials on the anniversary of their takeover and never returned.

Misiewicz said his reunion with relatives in Cambodia would go a long way toward easing his qualms about the opportunity he had – and that his relatives did not.

“A lot of who I am is small-town America, you know, work hard trying your best at whatever you do ... but certainly the genetic thing, so many of the blessings that I’ve had come from my birth family,’’ he said. Read more!

Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos determine to enhance co-op in combating drugs

The 10th tripartite/bilateral ministerial meeting on drug control cooperation between Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos began on Wednesday.

Ke Kim Yan, chairman of the Cambodia's National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), called for more cooperation among the three countries to achieve the ASEAN free of drugs by 2015.

"There are flaws in cooperation among the three countries in combating drugs,"Ke Kim Yan said during the opening ceremony.

He said that the three countries should intensify more cooperation to complete the flaw of cooperation in order to prevent circulation, production, farming drug crops at border areas of the three countries and turn the border areas as the wall to prevent production, plantation, circulation, smuggling, transit, and consumption of drugs.

"We need more efforts and cooperation to combat drug criminals to achieve the ASEAN free of drug by 2015,"he said.

Moek Dara, secretary general of the NACD, told reporters after the opening ceremony that Cambodia is actively combating against drug criminals.

In 2010, 320 cases of drug offensives have been cracked down with 638 suspects including 63 foreigners (three Laotians) and drugs were seized for destruction, he said.

He added that the number of drug addicts in Cambodia is still stable at 6,000 drug addicts. Currently, 1,119 drug addicts have been in the centers for drug quit and education.

The three-day meeting is attended by 84 drug officials from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

The Laotian officials led by Soubanh Sritthirath, chairman of the Lao National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision, and Vietnamese officials led by Le The Tiem, deputy minister of Public Security and permanent member of the National Committee on AIDS, Drugs, Prostitution Control of Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

[Viewpoint] Korean fury in Cambodia

The conference takes place to discuss global themes. But the conference room was full of smoke and fury generated by the two Korean delegations.

South Korean and North Korean officials toured the ancient Cambodian temple city of Angkor Wat over the weekend. The men were wowed and fervently took pictures to capture the grandeur of the 12th century Hindu architecture, no different than regular tourists.

They were among the participants in the three-day International Conference of Asian Political Parties in Phnom Penh that closed on Saturday. It was hosted by the Cambodian government.

About 300 delegates from 89 political parties of 36 countries attended the sixth such assembly. They flew to the ancient temple complex on a special flight provided by the Cambodian government.

South and North Korean delegates were among them. Representatives Kim Hyung-o and Hwang Jin-ha of the Grand National Party, Jung Jang-sun of the Democratic Party, and Lee Yong-kyung of the Creative Korea Party and their aides went on the trip.

Four came along in the North Korean delegation, including deputy secretary of the Workers’ Party’s international department, Park Geun, though he was without his boss, Kim Young-il, secretary of the international department of the Workers’ Party, who bowed out citing personal reasons.

Delegates from the two Koreas exchanged fiery words and icy looks over North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island throughout the conference. They were hardly in a mood to enjoy a leisurely tour. They had their backs to each other and avoided contact during lunch.

Out of professional obligation, I attempted conversing with North Korean delegates. I was able to ask deputy secretary Park a couple of questions.

Journalist: “South Koreans are outraged by North Korea’s attack. They aren’t likely to tolerate it if North Korea strikes again.”

Park: “It is the South that provoked us first. We warned several times that we will strike if South Korea tests artillery around the Yeonpyeong area. We issued a warning on the morning of the event [the attack]. But South Koreans ignored us and went on with their fire drill. We merely acted on our words.”

Journalist: “Still, how could you have fired on an island populated with civilians? That is a ruthless attack that cannot be excused whatsoever. Civilians died in the attack.”

Park: “We targeted where the fire came from. We regret civilian deaths, but it is the South Koreans who are using civilians as human shields near a military base.”

Journalist: “Civilians were there for construction work near the base. The artillery shells fell on civilian homes far from the military base. What you say does not make sense.”

Then Park lashed out at the United States, arguing that the South is being fooled by the U.S., which is simply trying to bring a nuclear-armed warship to the Yellow Sea to contain China. He then went on with the North’s typical claim that South Korea is innately dependent on external powers before suddenly stopping himself.

South Korea started the rhetorical fire at North Korea during the conference. Former National Assembly Speaker Kim strongly condemned the Yeonpyeong attack. Kim commented on the Yeonpyeong event in his opening remarks while his North Korean counterpart, Kim Young-il, lashed back during an afternoon address, devoting half of his speech to condemn South Korea and the U.S.

In the first bout of the verbal war, North Korea walked off with a curl of the lip. On the second day, Representative Hwang used the podium to lambaste North Korea. His speech was mostly devoted to attacking North Korea, reciting the trajectory of the North’s provocations from the presidential assassination attempt in 1968 to the torpedo attack on the Cheonan in March. North Koreans remained silent.

The forum was established a decade ago to promote exchanges and cooperation among Asian countries of different ideologies and cultures to enhance mutual understanding and trust, as well as contributing to peace and co-prosperity in the region.

The conference takes place in different cities every one or two years to discuss global and regional themes of poverty, development, human rights, energy, resources, the environment and climate change.

But instead of a series of sincere debates, the conference room was full of smoke and fury generated by the two Korean delegations. They may have raised consciousness among participants of heightened regional tension, but at the same time were disrespectful of the host country and other members as well as the norms and practices of international forums.

North Korea is entirely blamed for the bombardment of Yeonpyeong. The Phnom Penh declaration contained words of indirect condemnation of North Korea’s provocation. North Korean delegates nevertheless enjoyed the tour of Angkor Wat. They must have grown immune to words of censure.

*The writer is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo. Read more!

Assembly President Nixes Separate Bridge Inquiry

National Assembly President Heng Samrin on Tuesday denied an opposition party request that parliament establish a special commission to investigate the deadly Nov. 22 bridge stampede.

A government committee determined the stampede, which killed 353 people and injured nearly 400, was an accident due to panic on the crowded Diamond Bridge.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said in days following the disaster that no officials would be held responsible for what he called a “joint mistake” in an unforeseeable event.

But opposition lawmakers said the National Assembly should establish an investigation of its own, a request Heng Samrin said was “not a necessity.”

Son Chhay, a lawmaker for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, who signed the request with two other parliamentarians, said the denial showed “non-responsibility by the National Assembly.”

“It is regretful, but we will not give up on our investigation,” he said. “We will work closely with some non-governmental organizations to independently investigate the real cause and information on the deadly incident, and push the government to fine government officials who lacked responsibility.”

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights, an independent organziation, has said it will pursue its own investigation into the tragedy.

Speaking on “Hello VOA” Monday night, Kimsour Phirith, another lawmaker for the opposition, said the government findings were not enough.

“This was not a natural disaster like a tsunami or volcano eruption, where we were not able to know it in advance,” he said.

“Responsible officials,” he said, should be held accountable through resignations or suspensions.

However, Cheam Yiep, a National Assembly member for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, said the government investigators had “done their job to handle the problem.”

“If we set up a committee, we don’t know what to do,” he said. “It is not our expertise.”

He suggested that the legislative body bring government representatives to answer questions, a process Kimsour Phirith said had proven ineffective in the past.

“Instead of coming to answer questions, they just come to read their answers and ignore the questions,” he said. Read more!

Daughter Sought ‘Fun’ Festival Before Bridge Tragedy

It has been two weeks since Kim Sineng lost her daughter, Sok Lai Eng.

“She always used sweet words with her mother, her family,” Kim Sineng said, sitting on a wooden bed in a house near the Kandal province garment factory where her daughter worked. “She would take care of me when I was sick. She wanted me to wear clothes like a rich person. She said she would be happy to see me where clothes like this.”

Sok Lai Eng was 23, the third of six children, and she had left her job as a waitress in Kampot province for work in the garment factory in Kandal. Like millions of Cambodians, she had gone to Phnom Penh to watch the Water Festival. Like thousands of others, she had become trapped on Diamond Bridge on the night of Nov. 22. And like 352 others, she died on the bridge, when the throng became so packed that revelers panicked and stampeded.

Her mother said Sok Lai Eng had taken the job to help reduce the family’s debt and help them build a new house. She had $6 in her pocket when she left for the Water Festival. She died alongside one of her friends on bridge.

“She said her last words before going out, that she wanted to hear happy words,” her mother said, as tears ran down her sun-darkened face. “And she asked me permission to go to visit the Water Festival to have fun. I reminded her to be careful because it was crowded, and I wouldn’t be able to help her if anything happened.”

Sok Lai Eng had four sisters and one brother. The family relies on silk weaving to make a living, but with the silk market in decline, her mother had sent her to work as a waitress in Kampot and then to joint two older sisters in the Kandal factory. None of her sisters had went to school beyond 10th grade, while her younger brother has continued study in public school.

Kim Sineng said she lost touch with her daughter around 7 pm, and that night received a phone call saying she was missing. Kim Sineng spent hours searching the hospitals of Phnom Penh, as casualties continued to rise and the scope of the disaster unfolded. There were so many dead, she could not find her daughter.

“I prayed to Buddha, saying that if my daughter was really dead, I should find her corpse, because I didn’t see her in two or three hospitals,” said Kim Sineng, whose eyes have become rimmed in red from constant crying. “Then I found her and I prayed again to bring her home.”

The family has now received about $7,000 of at least $12,000 expected from payments from the government, donors and others.

“Even if I received five times the money, it could not buy the soul of my daughter,” said Mam Chha, Sok Lai Eng’s father. “But we can’t say anything because it was an accident. And it is our wish that they should be well-prepared for the next time." Read more!

US Warship Docks, Begins Humanitarian Mission

The US warship USS Mustin arrived in Preah Sihanouk province on Friday for a five-day visit, officials said.

Troops from the Mustin, which is commanded by an American-Cambodian who left with a US Embassy official prior to the fall of Phnom Penh, will conduct humanitarian missions, such as medical checks at orphanages and schools. Other exercises include training with Cambodian military personnel and visits to Angkor Wat.

For Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz, the visit is a homecoming to a country he left nearly 40 years ago. Misiewicz said he expected to meet with family members who had remained in Cambodia, in what he predicted would be an emotional visit.

Over the past few years, he said, the US has increased its visits to Cambodia and other countries across Southeast Asia, “to assure all the nations in the area that the US is there to help promote peace and stability.”

The arrival of the warship comes on the heels of a visit here by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November. Read more!

Cambodia's first merger of mobile operators announced

PHNOM PENH, Dec 06, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Cambodia's two mobile phone operators will merge their operations from March next year, according to a joint statement Monday.

Smart Mobile and Star-Cell will merge their operations under Smart Mobile to become one of the market leaders, the first merger among Cambodia's mobile operators.

It stated that Smart Mobile will become, with this combination, one of the market leaders with more than 850,000 subscribers and aims to be a market leader both in subscriber base and new subscriptions through its further aggressive growth and strong market presence.

"Our subscribers will enjoy the benefits of the merger without any change of telephone numbers and SIM cards," said the press release.

Smart Mobile's network will, after both networks have been combined, serve 23 out of 24 provinces of Cambodia and will extend to the remaining province in the course of 2011.

The completion of the transaction is, subject to final approval by Cambodian authorities, expected to be in December 2010, and the finalization of the network combination by March 2011.

Cambodia currently has 9 mobile phone operators with more than 6 million users, according to the statistics from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication. Read more!

US Navy commander returns to Cambodian roots

In this photo taken Dec. 3, 2010, family members of the U.S. navy officer Michael "Vannak Khem" Misiewicz boarding the USS Mustine at Cambodian coastal international see port of Sihanoukville, about 220 kilometers (137 miles) southwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Misiewicz finally returned home Friday as commander of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mustin, reuniting with the relatives who wondered whether they would ever see him alive, and the aunt who helped arrange his adoption. His ship departs Monday.

By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press

The distant thuds of gunfire and bombs weren't nearly as memorable for Michael Misiewicz as fishing barehanded with his older brother in Cambodia's Mekong River.

In 1973, as a 6-year-old then called Vannak Khem, he was more concerned with boys' games than the deepening war - unaware, like most Cambodians, of the trauma that the Khmer Rouge would soon inflict on the country. He had no idea that after his adoption by an American woman that same year, it would take him 37 years to go home.

Misiewicz finally returned home Friday as commander of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mustin - reuniting with the relatives who wondered whether they would ever see him alive, and the aunt who helped arrange his adoption. His ship departs Monday.

"Chumreap suor, Om," he greeted 72-year-old Samrith Sokha in the Khmer language, clutching her in a sobbing embrace on the Mustin's sea-swept walkway. "Greetings, Auntie."

The warship has a larger mission: to help the United States as it deepens ties with Cambodia and other nearby nations in a region overshadowed by China's economic and military clout.

But the ship's arrival in the port of Sihanoukville also ends an odyssey that took Misiewicz, now 43, from the poverty of Cambodian rice fields to the farmlands of the midwestern United States to the helm of a U.S. destroyer.

The process of returning has been intensely emotional, he said: sadness for the more than 1.7 million who died or were killed by the communist Khmer Rouge when they held power in 1975-1979, combined with guilt at his escape from it and joy at seeing the relatives who helped him leave it behind.

"This isn't going to wash the guilt away but I am looking to provide some sense of closure, going back to my birth country, going back to where my family suffered, and where my dad was executed, seeing it firsthand," he said in a phone interview before his ship arrived.

Born south of the capital, Phnom Penh, Misiewicz and his family were uprooted in 1969 as Khmer Rouge fighters forced villagers to join the radical communist movement. His father didn't sympathize with it, unlike many of his mother's family, and many considered him a traitor for not joining up, Misiewicz said.

They fled north, living on the streets as beggars for a time and scraping by until settling in Phnom Penh. They lived in a stilt house over mosquito-infested waters, subsisting mainly on his father's work as an herbal medicine pharmacist. His father's oldest sister, Sokha, worked for Maryna Lee Misiewicz, a U.S. Army administrative assistant with the defense attache's office at the U.S. Embassy.

Misiewicz remembers eating popcorn and watching cartoons while his aunt cooked and cleaned Maryna's home. Eventually, he said, his father decided they should ask Maryna to adopt him and Maryna and the boy left for the United States in April 1973.

"They were concerned about the Khmer Rouge. No one had any idea what would happen, but they hoped for a better life for Mike," Maryna Misiewicz said in an interview from her home in Freeport, Illinois. "We had no idea how long it would be before they would ever see each other again."

He grew up in Lanark, a town of 1,500 people just south of Freeport, most of whom had never seen an Asian before, and he said he cried frequently, thinking about his family.

Gradually, the letters to his relatives went unanswered as Cambodia spiraled into chaos. He forgot what little Khmer he knew, graduated from local high school and enlisted in the Navy. Like most Americans, he only later realized how many had died and suffered because of the Khmer Rouge's nightmarish efforts to create an agricultural utopia. Maryna Misiewicz said she initially tried to shield her adopted son from the few reports about the Khmer Rouge's brutal actions.

"You didn't have any idea it would end up like that," Maryna said. "I felt badly for Mike and his family and I wondered what was going on, what they were going through."

"As I got older it was less painful to not think about it," Misiewicz said.

It was in 1989 when he was at the U.S. Naval Academy when he was finally located by his family - and he learned of their own odyssey through refugee camps on the Thai border and in the Philippines and finally to Austin, Texas.

His birth mother, two brothers and a sister had survived but two other sisters died, most likely of disease or malnutrition. All of his mother's relatives, except for a brother, died or were killed by the Khmer Rouge, he said.

"We never knew what was going to happen," said Misiewicz's younger brother, Rithy Khem. "Thank God we were able ... to be reconnected with each other finally."

Misiewicz learned that his father, who was drafted as a medic for the U.S.-backed government that collapsed in 1975, was summoned to a meeting with Khmer Rouge officials on the anniversary of their takeover and never returned.

Misiewicz said his reunion with relatives in Cambodia would go a long way toward easing his qualms about the opportunity he had - and that his relatives did not.

"A lot of who I am is small-town America, you know, work hard trying your best at whatever you do ... but certainly the genetic thing, so many of the blessings that I've had come from my birth family," he said.

"I feel a lot of sadness for my own family, but also for so many Cambodian families," he said. "It's been a long, long time of war, genocide, civil war; my birth country and my fellow Cambodians just need a break."
Read more!

Cambodia Finds Solace in Spirituality

In the week after a stampede on a crowded Phnom Penh bridge killed 353 revelers celebrating the annual water festival, both the people of Cambodia and the country's government have been struggling to put hundreds of troubled ghosts to rest.

According to Khmer custom, the deceased believe they are merely asleep until the seventh day after their hearts stop. When they realize the truth--that they are dead forever, that they will never go home again--they grow terrified and angry.

The solution is the "seven-day ceremony," an hours-long funerary ritual to soothe the souls of the dead and placate them with offerings, speeding them on their way to the next life. On the seventh day after the stampede, the country was awash in these ceremonies, with mourners offering their dead everything from pigs' heads to fake bars of gold.

Although Buddhism is the state religion here, ancient animistic beliefs are just as important. Spirits lurk everywhere, predictable in their habits but terrifying once their anger is aroused. The ghosts of those who died in violent accidents are said to be especially restive.

The country's superstitious prime minister, Hun Sen, has already staged several traditional ceremonies designed to appease the stampede's unmoored dead. But he has been less proactive in the physical realm, presiding over an open-and-shut investigation that yielded no significant findings and refusing to concede any wrongdoing by anyone.

While Hun Sen's government has acted fast to compensate the families of victims with over $12,000, gathered from government funds and other donors, for each person killed, more than 15 times Cambodia's average per capita income, it has not even gestured toward addressing the deeper public safety concerns raised by the stampede.

The committee established to investigate the disaster was packed with government, police, and military police officials from the ruling Cambodian People's Party. One of the only exceptions was Pung Kheav Se, the wealthy and well-connected director of the company that owns both the bridge and the lavish new entertainment district it leads to, Diamond Island.

The government has a long history of closing ranks during a scandal, and an even longer history of favoring business interests over ordinary citizens. When developer OCIC pursued a 99-year lease to Diamond Island several years ago, the military summarily evicted all of the island's residents.

In a marathon two-and-a-half-hour speech on Monday, the prime minister called upon the ghosts of Diamond Island to haunt his political opposition and anyone who criticized his handling of the disaster.

"They will get back their bad deeds from the souls of the victims who died, who will do something to them," he said. "I do not know what they will do, but I pray that [the spirits] will give them backaches."

When the chief of the government's National Committee on Organizing National and International Festivals tendered his resignation, Sen refused to accept it. He said nobody would be held accountable for the stampede, which he portrayed as a freak event that could not have been anticipated, despite the frenzied crowds that pack Phnom Penh every year for the festival.

"We did not expect that people could collide with each other like motorbikes and cars," he said.

Sen's wife, Bun Rany, made the rounds of seven-day ceremonies over the weekend, delivering donations from the Cambodian Red Cross (which she leads) and pushing the party line.

"She told us that [Sen] was just trying to construct the country and make it develop but this was an accident that was impossible to predict," one mourner said.

The man was helping to memorialize his sister, 20-year-old Tay Sibuoy, at a seven-day ceremony outside a photocopy shop. A priest dumped sack after sack of fake gold bars onto a fire dedicated to her.

"She was very gentle and quiet," her brother-in-law Lao Kimchan said. "She hardly ever went out, but she went out that night."

As Kimchan spoke, he and several other men held tight to a thin white string that formed a perimeter around the family's burnt offerings.

"We make this holy line to make sure no other spirits can come to get this stuff, only her. We've burned everything--a house, a car, a box of gold. What we burn, she will receive."

When the fire had quieted into a heap of ash, they broke the thread.

"It's all over," he said.

A similar ceremony took place in an alley in central Phnom Penh, where Cheam Yoeun offered a large paper mansion to the ghost of his youngest son, Yen, who had been 19.

A chauffeur-driven gold Lexus SUV made of paper was parked in the paper garage. Two stern-faced servants flanked the front door. The mansion was accompanied by a deed and title handwritten by Yen's brother and sister.

"We're afraid that his soul doesn't have any house to stay in," Cheam Yoeun explained. "The deed and title are to make sure the home belongs to him."

With funeralgoers looking on, a holy man blessed the paper mansion, and touched a match to it. Flaming ash and fake $100 bills swirled around the alley.

"We're feeling better and more peaceful after we did the ceremony," said Cheam Yoeun.

But although he was grateful for the government's money, which made the elaborate ceremony possible, he was still searching for answers.

"I have no idea who was responsible for the death of my child, but I really want to know who should be responsible. I want the government to tell me."

Nearly two weeks afterward, the stampede is still a matter of near-unprecedented public fascination in a country where media penetration is so low--and so many people have personal tragedies of their own to deal with--that few news stories make much of a mark.

In the days after the stampede, homemade memorials--a bunch of bananas, a glass of water, a burning stick of incense--dotted driveways across Phnom Penh. The street price of bananas doubled. Telethons to raise money for the dead and injured brought in over a million dollars, a massive sum here.

The banks of the Bassac River near Diamond Bridge were covered with everything a dead soul might conceivably need: ramen noodles, lotus flowers, fake $100 bills, cups of coffee, tangerines, rice porridge, sugarcane stalks, spoons and forks, and take-out containers of pork and rice accompanied by tiny bags of chili-flecked sauce.

Doh Soeun, who had set up on the banks to sell incense sticks and lotus flowers, said 20 raw chickens were still being offered to the dead every day as mourners and curiosity-seekers continued to visit the riverside in droves.

"Some are crying," he said, "and some just come to see and some come to pray and some parents come to call their children's souls back home, performing ceremonies and then calling them back home: 'Oh, my beloved child, come home!'

Neou Vannarin contributed reporting from Phnom Penh.
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Wang students pen pals with Cambodia counterparts

The Lowell Sun

LOWELL -- The Student Council at the Wang Middle School has established a pen-pal program with a school in Cambodia, and has been exchanging letters with Cambodian middle-school students.

The Student Council hopes to continue building a partnership with the schools in Cambodia, and send its thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.

Here's what's happening this week in Lowell's public schools.

BARTLETT CPS: All-school assembly Monday to recognize Students of the Month and middle-school honor students. Picture retakes Tuesday.

BUTLER: Parents are invited to Parent Coffee Hour on Thursday, 9-10 a.m., in the Parent Center, Room 141; Amanda Hosmer, the school social worker, will discuss bullying. Green Team is looking for donations of house plants and/or pots; donations can be dropped off in the Parent Center; for more information, contact parent liaison Carol Sutton at 978-970-5496 or csutton@lowell.k12.ma.us.

DALEY: All students recently attended a presentation about Internet safety, such as social networking, privacy and Internet predators; parents may wish to discuss those topics at home; review the Parents' Section at

href='http://www.Netsmartz.org'>www.Netsmartz.org to find ways to keep children safe while surfing the Web. Thanks to all who attended Open House, and congratulations to all Term 1 Daley Diamond award winners. Seventh- and eighth-grade boys basketball tryouts are after school Wednesday.

GREENHALGE: Fourth-graders continue to sell Smencils for $1. Greenhalge offers a free breakfast program for all students; third- and fourth-graders may arrive at 7:35 and go directly to the cafeteria; kindergartners and first- and second-graders eat in their classrooms at 7:40.

LINCOLN: Parents, please remind children to do their RAH (reading at home) every afternoon or evening as part of their homework; initial your child's RAH Log. Lincoln's branch of Washington Savings Bank will be open Friday, 8:30-9:30.

MCAULIFFE: First schoolwide RIF book distribution Monday. Encourage your child to be a "high five" reader, and remind him or her to participate in the lobby book swap on their way to class in the morning.

MURKLAND: "Bingo for Books" is Wednesday, 6-7 p.m., for kindergarten, first- and second-grade families; Bingo winners choose a book for their prize. Preschoolers take home "Raising a Reader" book bags each Tuesday and return them to school by Friday. We are challenging our students to collect 2,000 Box Tops for Education this month.

ROBINSON: Thanks to parents who attended a record-breaking Open House; more than 400 showed overwhelming support for our school. Student Council continues to collect nonperishable items for their food drive to make baskets for Robinson families in need. Family Night Bingo for Books is Tuesday, 6-8 p.m., in the auditorium; bring a snack and share a snack; drinks will be available; students must be with an adult. Picture makeup is Thursday.

STOKLOSA: Stoklosa is collecting nonperishable food items for needy families in our school; send items in with your child to place in the shopping cart by the main office; if your family could use help this holiday season, call Mrs. Robtoy at 978-446-7452. Eighth-grade Talent Search students will visit Northeastern University on Monday. Sign and return all dental forms to the school nurse by Tuesday. Sixth-graders will read As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes to practice making inferences; other poetry and independent reading will be used for the purpose of inferencing. In Social Studies, many students will begin studying the Himalayas.

WANG: First-quarter honor-roll assembly is Friday morning in the auditorium, grades 7 and 8 at 8:20, grades 5 and 6 at 8:35; each ceremony will last about 15 minutes; parents are invited.
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Scientists develop drought tolerant rice

Crop protection solutions for the forward-thinking soybean farmer BayerCropScience.ca/Soybean

A new breakthrough study by scientists has led to the development of a rice crop that is not only drought tolerant but high yielding despite the lack of water. The crop has been developed by scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the genotypes have been dispersed to other Asian countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Originally, researchers planted different rice genotypes on two separate plots at IRRI headquarters in Los Ba¤os. The field plots were of similar soil fertility and the crops were equally managed apart from receiving different amounts of water.

IRRI scientists were able to identify 26 second-generation aerobic rice genotypes that produced significant yields compared to the first generation crops.

Initial analysis of the research found rice crops grown in drought like conditions show a decrease in plant height, harvest index, and grain yield.

The rice crops subjected to less water yielded 50 percent more than the previous generation and further gains are expected as the cycle is repeated.

"Aerobic rice is a good strategy for coping with the increasing water shortage and ensuring rice food security in tropical regions. A breeding protocol is key to the success of a breeding program in developing new aerobic rice varieties, "said Dule Zhao, one of the authors of the study.

Aerobic rice breeding studies are continuing at IRRI. Researchers are attempting to develop rice crops that are drought tolerant and also weed competitive and high quality.

The study is published in the issue of journal Crop Science. (ANI) Read more!

China gains influence with development push into Cambodia

By John Pomfret

KOH KONG, Cambodia — Down a blood-red dirt track deep in the jungles of southwestern Cambodia, the roar begins. Turn a corner and there is the source — scores of dump trucks, bulldozers, and backhoes hacking away at the earth. Above a massive hole, a flag flaps in the hot, dusty breeze. It is the flag of the People’s Republic of China.

Here in the depths of the Cardamom Mountains, where the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge communists made their last stand in the late 1970s, China is asserting its rights as a resurgent imperial power in Asia. Instead of exporting revolution and bloodshed to its neighbors, China is now sending its cash and its people.

At this clangorous hydropower dam site hard along Cambodia’s border with Thailand, and in Myanmar, Laos, and even Vietnam, China is engaged in a massive push to extend its economic and political influence into Southeast Asia. Spreading investment and aid along with political pressure, China is transforming a huge swath of territory along its southern border. Call it the Monroe Doctrine, Chinese-style.

Ignored by successive US administrations, China’s rise in this region is now causing alarm in Washington, which is aggressively courting the countries of Southeast Asia. The Obama administration has cultivated closer ties with its old foe Vietnam. It has tried to open doors to Myanmar, which US officials believe is in danger of becoming a Chinese vassal state. Relations have been renewed with Laos, whose northern half is dominated by Chinese businesses.

In an Oct. 28 speech about US policy in Asia, before embarking on her sixth trip to the continent in two years, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used military terminology to refer to US efforts: “forward-deployed diplomacy.’’

During a recent trip to Phnom Penh — the first by a US secretary of state since 2002 — Clinton, while speaking to Cambodian students, was asked about Cambodia’s ties to Beijing. “You don’t want to get too dependent on any one country,’’ she told them.

Still, China powers ahead.

China has concluded a free-trade deal with all 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, while a similar US pact is only in its infancy. It is cementing ties with Thailand, a US ally, despite recent political unrest there.

In Cambodia, Chinese firms have turned mining and agricultural concessions in the eastern part of the country into no-go zones for Cambodian police. Guards at the gates to two of them, a gold mine and a hemp plantation, shoo travelers away unless they are able to pay a toll.

“It’s like a country within a country,’’ Cambodia’s minister of the interior, Sar Kheng, quipped at a conference this year.

China’s real estate development firms have barged into Cambodia with all the ambition, obtrusiveness, and verve that American fruit and tire firms employed in Latin America or Africa in decades past. One company, Union Development Group of Tianjin, in northern China, won a 99-year concession for 120 square miles of beachfront on the Gulf of Thailand.

There, Chinese work teams are cutting a road and mapping hotels, villas, and golf courses. The estimated investment? $3.8 billion. The target market? The nouveau riche from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

In October, China pledged to support the construction of a $600 million railway between Phnom Penh and Vietnam that will bring China a major step closer to incorporating all of Southeast Asia, as far south as Singapore, into its rail network.

Across Cambodia, dozens of state-run Chinese companies are building eight hydropower dams. The total price tag for those dams will exceed $1 billion. Altogether, Cambodia owes China $4 billion, said Cheam Yeap, a member of the central committee of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

“This takeover is inevitable,’’ said Lak Chee Meng, a reporter on the Cambodia Sin Chew Daily, one of the country’s four Chinese-language dailies, serving 300,000 Khmer-Chinese and an additional quarter-million immigrants and businessmen from mainland China. “Cambodia is approaching China with open arms. It’s how the United States took over its neighborhood.’’

The perennial question about China’s rise is when will Beijing be able to translate its cash into power. In Cambodia, it already has.

Cambodia has avoided criticizing the dams under construction along China’s stretch of the Mekong River, structures that specialists predict will upend the lives of millions of Cambodians who live off the fishing economy around the great inland waterway, Tonle Sap.

Cambodia so strictly follows Beijing’s “one China’’ policy that it has refused Taiwan’s request to open up an economic office here despite the many millions of dollars’ worth of Taiwanese investment in Cambodia. Read more!

Life's too short to have the brakes on

By Carolyn Boyd


Some retirees don't want to live in the slow lane.

IN THEIR early 60s, Jeff and Sue Lovett are taking life by the bicycle handles. The couple, who live at Bangalow on the NSW north coast, have just returned from cycling in Vietnam and Cambodia.

They've barely unpacked their bags and already are planning their next trip – a bike ride across the Nullarbor from Perth to Bangalow. They intend to travel to Perth on the Indian Pacific and cycle back.

They've had plenty of practice. In the decade or so since they started travelling – after their two eldest children left home – they have done everything from walk across England to cycle around Italy for four months. Other journeys have taken them skiing in Argentina and Japan, and, closer to home, riding 1100 kilometres from Bangalow to Young to visit Sue's brother.

The Lovetts opted to do the Vietnamese trip through tour company World Expeditions.

"Vietnam and Cambodia don't use the alphabet as a general rule and it's very hard to find your way and cross borders without some help and a guide, especially when cycling," Sue says.

The Lovetts are semi-retired after building a successful real estate business. To afford to travel, Sue says they live fairly simply at home, with few meals out. On trips they often camp or opt for mid-range accommodation.

The Lovetts are just one couple heading into an active retirement. Many retirees are now taking the opportunity to live it up.

Some activities require a reasonable budget but others can be done virtually cost-free. The options are as broad as your imagination. There's everything from volunteering to playing sport, taking up a hobby or even the old favourite: gardening.

Keen gardener Christine Rethers, 70, is the secretary of the Ku-ring-gai Horticultural Society. The former high-school teacher became involved in gardening in a serious way about 10 years ago, after she retired. She says being an office-bearer allows her to use some of the skills she developed during her working life. Above all, Rethers loves socialising through the club.

"I have developed some very, very good and close friendships through meeting people of like minds," Rethers says.

"I think that's important when you get older because one of the worst things that I think happens to older people is that they lose touch.

"They're not going to work every day and they lose touch with people in the wider world and they are very much just at home and that can be not very good for older people."

Rethers places much importance on keeping active and getting out and about.

You don't need to have a huge block of land to be involved in a gardening club. "A lot of [members] . . . are people who have had to move into retirement villas who have been, in the past, great gardeners," Rethers says. "Unfortunately, time moves on and we get to the point where we're not as agile and can't maintain a big garden any more but we still want to maintain the interest in it."

Professionals winding down from paid work might want to look at goodcompany.com.au, an initiative that matches charities in need of volunteers with professional skills to those who have time to spare.

Goodcompany is targeted at professionals who have a university degree or several years of work experience. Since its inception last year, goodcompany has attracted thousands of skilled volunteers and helped provide more than $8.5 million worth of pro bono services to communities.

The internet has made searching for leisure activities much easier.

Don't stop now

Travel See worldexpeditions.com. World Expeditions has trips designed for over-55s.

Volunteering See govolunteer.com.au. Like using a jobs board, plug in your postcode and opportunities in your area pop up.

Gardening See gardenclubs.org.au. Find your local garden club here.

Sports club See ausport.gov.au/participating/find-a -sporting-club.

Services organisation See lionsclubs.org.au. Read more!

Cambodia: Silenced by a brutal past

By Neil Trevithick
BBC News, Phnom Penh

Four leaders of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s, will face trial next year accused of genocide, torture and religious persecution. But many of those affected by the country's brutal past still cannot speak about what happened.

The psychologist had agreed to be interviewed before I arrived in Phnom Penh.

But when we get to his office, beside a main road leading out of the city, where the green fields begin, there seems to be a problem.

A long, urgent discussion in Khmer ensues with our translator, Kunthi. The psychologist will talk, but only in English, and his name must not be used. "Why English?", I ask myself, but then drop it.

Replies to questions about his work with "victims" and "perpetrators" (as they are called here) of the Khmer Rouge period 30 years ago, are halting.

And I need a better feel for the internalised voices that are part of what I think of as "the great silence" here.

Older people just do not talk about the past and their mantra to the young is that staying silent is always a solution if there is a problem.

What used to be a survival strategy for them as children, in a time of unimaginable brutality, has become almost a national characteristic a generation or two on.

I rack my brains for a question that will bring our interviewee out of himself.

"Can you tell us," I ask finally, "what it is like inside the head of a perpetrator, and inside the head of a victim, now, today? Can you just be them for me?".

I hold out my arm towards him, beginning the classic radio producer's torture of the aching, extended arm, weighed down with an increasingly heavy microphone at the end.

We have turned off the air-conditioning because of the noise, sweat trickles in rivulets down my back. He lowers his eyes and begins to speak, slowly and softly in English, as a victim first.

"I can smile at you," he says, "but I don't know, one day you can kill me or, when you kill me and escape, you can be safe. You can just run away into another far-off province."

And then, in the role of perpetrator, he says: "I will try to hide my identity as much as possible, I will try not to talk about what I have done because I don't trust you.

"I want to tell the truth, I am not happy about the past, but I have no choice. I know I killed your father, but you don't know, you were small. I try to be as distant as possible in the relationship."

The psychologist talks methodically for about 15 minutes and everything slows as he paints a picture of a country of small villages in which an entire society is distorted by the tragedies and atrocities of the past.

Where everybody knows things that cannot be said, where one businessman does not deal with another businessman because he was a killer.

Where victims killed too, sometimes simply for survival.

Today, children who lost both parents live among their parents' killers. Secrets are everywhere: knowledge of where bodies were buried, who buried them, who did what to who.

Avoiding history

The next day I ask the president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, Ou Virak - a respected activist and intellectual - about the continuing bitterness of life in the countryside. He replies saying that the international community simply does not fully grasp what is going on in rural Cambodia.

This is a country, I feel, criss-crossed by invisible threads, the paths that people walk on to avoid their history.

"All we can do is try not to get closer," the psychologist concludes. And then he simply stays silent, eyes cast down, hands in his lap.

If I had not taken the battery out of his wall clock before we began the interview you would just have heard the clock ticking. We walked out into the humid heat in silence.

Later, I discover the reason the psychologist speaks in English is because the authorities do not really censor what is said in English. That's because, as the editor of the English language version of the Phnom Penh Post says to me, somewhat ruefully, they know hardly any Cambodians will read or hear it.

Time and again I am told: "We don't have a culture of reading in this country," which actually means, "we killed everyone who could read". This is old news.

Information about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge is in the open. Comrade Duch who ran the S-21 prison has been found guilty, there are four more Khmer leaders in prison just down the road from here.

Later that night rain pounds fiercely on the wide leaves of the palms outside my window and lightning flashes perilously close to the Buddhist temple next door.

I am trying to write up my notes about the psychologist but somehow it all seems pointless.

There are foreign investors, NGO workers, diplomats, as well as backpackers and young travellers lured by holiday brochures describing Cambodia as an "enthralling destination" and eulogising the "warm, enigmatic people".

There are tours, temples, mountains, wonderful beaches. But all of this just seems to skate over the top of the enigmatic Cambodians who walk their own invisible paths.
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ADB, Cambodia Continue Financial Sector Reforms to Spur Growth, Cut Poverty

The FINANCIAL -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Directors on December 2 approved a loan and grant of $15 million equivalent to the Government of Cambodia to promote the development of a sound, market-based financial sector.

According to ADB, the loan and grant will finance the final subprogram of the Second Financial Sector Cluster Program, which incorporates reform actions designed to improve public confidence and financial intermediation, strengthen sector resilience, promote good governance, and enhance system efficiency.

Key actions of the program include steps to improve check clearance and settlement amongst commercial banks and the government, regulations to guide interbank transactions, the promotion of deposit-taking by microfinance institutions in compliance with new prudential requirements, and improved prudential supervision of banks and microfinance institutions. It also promotes greater transparency in the insurance industry, measures to combat money laundering, and a new integrated accounting system at the National Bank of Cambodia.

"Finance sector development helps reduce poverty by cutting transaction costs for economic activities and expanding the reach of the formal finance sector to lower income groups, including rural microenterprises," said Samiuela Tukuafu, Principal Financial Sector Specialist in ADB's Southeast Asia Department.

The immediate gains generated by the program, which began in 2007, include new and increased loans of $1.52 billion, the creation of over 12,000 jobs, and the opening of over 980 new branches of banks and microfinance institutions throughout Cambodia.

The loan of $10 million equivalent from ADB's concessional Asian Development Fund has a 24-year term, including an 8-year grace period with an interest rate of 1% during the grace period and 1.5% for the balance of the term. The grant of $5 million also comes from the Asian Development Fund. The National Bank of Cambodia is the executing agency for the overall program, with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Ministry of Commerce the implementing agencies.

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Monks branch out into carbon market to protect forest

Sorng Rukavorn monks Sove Ui, Kea Mony Tapkea and Sou Mai in their community forest in Oddar Meanchey, northern Cambodia. Photo: Ben Doherty

A religious order aims to tap polluters to help a community.

THE forest surrounding the Sorng Rukavorn monks' pagoda in northern Cambodia has forever been ''theirs''.

They have always depended on the forest for food, for timber and for a living. They have long understood their forest's boundaries, its cycles of wet and dry, of fire and regeneration.

Advertisement: Story continues below But they have never owned it. Until now. Having spent nearly two years winning legal control of 18,000 hectares of forest, they are now able to lock it away from logging interests and other encroachments, and rehabilitate areas previously cleared.

The carbon that saves, they hope, might soon be for sale. They want to be players on a global carbon market. ''Any revenue from the forest will be important for the people here, and for Cambodia,'' monk Lee Ragana says.

''When the revenue comes in, we can use the money to build infrastructure, to build schools … and to build better roads. And we can improve the management of the forests.

''We will use the money to educate farmers in better land practices and technical improvements. We will be able to supply patrols with trucks and equipment … do more fire suppression and replanting.''

The Sorng Rukavorn monks are on the cusp of entering what is still a voluntary carbon market, in preparation for a time industrialised countries legislate to force polluters into offsetting the carbon they produce.

They aim to be a UN-recognised REDD - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation - project, in which governments and companies in industrialised nations that cannot reduce their own carbon emissions pay communities in poor countries to cut emissions on their behalf, usually by not cutting down trees.

Already, yellow-and-green signs mark the monks' land as a ''community forest'', and regular patrols are conducted by volunteers to see that trees aren't being felled illegally or land cleared for farming.

The monks' community forest is one of 13 such sites in Oddar Meanchey province, on Cambodia's northern border with Thailand. Combined, they preserve nearly 68,000 hectares of forest land and, maintained over 30 years, are expected to sequester 7.1 million tonnes of carbon. Within months they will seek a carbon buyer.

But even before a dollar has been paid to the monks, they feel they've won a victory in taking control of land that - informally at least - they have regarded as theirs for generations.

''Before we had the community forest, people from outside would … cut down trees illegally, clear land, and the people who depended on that forest had no right to stop them,'' Mr Lee says. ''Now we feel we own this land, we have control, and we can stop it being used badly.''

Kurt MacLeod, vice-president of Pact, a non-government organisation helping Oddar Meanchey's community forests bring their carbon to market, says REDD projects will bring enormous benefits and development to the poor communities running them.

''As soon as legislation is enacted [in major industrialised countries], there are going to be private sector companies looking for validated REDD projects,'' he says. ''The demand in five years will be much higher than supply.''

Industrialised countries see enormous value in paying poorer countries to preserve forests on their behalf. Germany, France, Norway, the US, Britain, Australia and Japan pledged $US4 billion towards REDD initiatives at the last round of climate talks in May. But just how much carbon will be worth on the market of the future is still unclear.

There is also the issue of measuring the carbon sequestered in forests, and how that might be affected by its growth, climatic change or unforseen events such as fire.

And there is concern at the sellers' end about how much of the money, in a country such as Cambodia, where a notoriously corrupt government has the sole right to ''sell'' the carbon, will ever reach those on the ground.

Cambodia has a poor record in forestry. It has experienced some of the most rampant deforestation. More than 7 million hectares of forest - 39 per cent of the country's land - was sold off for logging. In the four decades since 1970, primary forest cover in Cambodia was reduced from 70 per cent to just 3.1 per cent today.

Deforestation accounts for 20 per cent of all the world's greenhouse gas emissions - some 5.9 billion tonnes a year.

Read more!

Report Links Businesses With Rights Abuses

Children sit on top their inundated homes, where Shukaku, Inc., has been pumping fill into Boeung Kak lake, in early November 2010.


Government officials and businesses, backed by a biased court system, are behind many of the most egregious rights violations in the country, a new report has found.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights found what it called a governance gap, where the authorities are unable to protect citizens from rights violations brought about by powerful business interests.

The group also found financial ties between individuals in government and businesses responsible for rights violations, exacerbating the problem. In some situations, it was hard to tell the difference between the government and business, the center said in its report, “Business and Human Rights in Cambodia.”

Land rights violations brought on by economic motives have become endemic, the report said. And land cases and their respective crackdowns have meant curbs on land and labor rights and the freedom of expression and assembly, the report said.

“Victims of evictions are rarely given an opportunity for participation or consultation beforehand and any information which is provided to residents is often incomplete and inaccurate,” it said. “When consultations with communities facing the threat of eviction do occur, they are often manipulative or coercive. Evictions are regularly conducted by armed Cambodian troops and police, while the political and economic elite benefit from forced evictions.”

Rights activists, meanwhile, face regular threats of physical violence or criminal charges when they voice their opposition to harmful developments, it said.

Victims of land or labor violations who seek to demonstrate or protest meet “public and private forces [that] collude to deny them these rights,” it said, adding that the courts were also not free of political or financial influence.

“The judicial mechanisms in Cambodia are in practice utilized by the political, economic and social elite to ensure impunity,” the report said.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan called the report an “attack from a non-governmental organization.” Read more!

Challenges Await Newly Appointed Tribunal Prosecutor

The Khmer Rouge tribunal has named a new international investigating judge, who will step into the UN-backed court as it prepares for a complicated trial for four jailed leaders and considers more indictments.

Siegried Blunk, of Germany, will replace Marcel Lemond, who resigned in September following the end of the investigation stage in a case against four Khmer Rouge leaders.

Blunk, who was appointed by order of King Norodom Sihamoni, assumed office on Dec. 1, according to the tribunal.

Blunk will be facing tough questions at the tribunal, which is to decide on two more cases for indictments, something the Cambodian side of the court opposes. Those cases, Nos. 003 and 004, are in the hands of the investigating judges' office.

“We can say there might be new speed or new strategies in relation to the investigation” of the cases, said Long Panhavuth, who monitors the court for the Cambodian Justice Initiative. “That's what we are all waiting to see.”

The investigating judges have yet to endorse a lawyer for the defense of so far unnamed suspects in cases 003 and 004.

Meanwhile, at least one court observer said the investigating judges should move forward on those cases, following the completion of their investigation of Case No. 002 in September.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has said further indictments could destabilize the country, an opinion echoed by other Cambodian tribunal officials.

Blunk studied law at Munich University and wrote a PhD thesis in international law. He has been a judge since 1977 and has handled both civil and criminal cases, according to a tribunal statement. From 2003 to 2005, he served as an international judge at a UN hybrid court in East Timor. Read more!

Families Deal With Shock of Diamond Bridge Tragedy

Chea Channy, far right, who was also on the bridge, escaped with other siblings. She spoke along with other family members on a special edition of “Hello VOA” Wednesday.


Family members who lost loved ones in last week's Diamond Bridge stampede say they have been traumatized by the event, which claimed at least 351 lives.

“I'm still in shock,” said Chea Channy, whose 45-year-old father died on the bridge. “Even when I sleep, I still hear their voices calling for help in my ears. I don't know when I'll forget this.”

Chea Channy, who was also on the bridge, escaped with other siblings. She spoke along with other family members on a special edition of “Hello VOA” Wednesday.

The Nov. 22 bridge tragedy shocked the nation and led to an outpouring of donations and sympathy. No one has been singled out for responsibility, in what Prime Minister Hun Sen called an accident without blame.

Family members will receive up to $12,000 each from different organizations, the government, the owners of Diamond Island, and others. But the full reality of the disaster had yet to sink in for some.

Hun Ratha, a monk, lost his 19-year-old brother, Vichet, on the bridge. Vichet had been the breadwinner, and his mother, who was working abroad, has come back to mourn him.

“She is still in great shock and finds it hard to bear the fact that her son has died,” Hun Ratha said.

But he offered some comfort to other victims: “People will eventually die. Therefore, we should learn to calm our feelings of shock. Those who died did not know in advance there would be danger awaiting them. If they had, they would not have gone there. They are now at peace.”

Some family members suggested keeping the bridge as a memorial for victims and not reopening it for public use.

“It would be good if the government kept this bridge just as a memory of the dead victims, because it is very scary to cross it again,” Chea Channy said. “As for me I dare not go there to see it again. I am afraid. The incident was too bad.” Read more!

Cambodian King meets with Li Yuanchao

Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni (R) meets with Li Yuanchao (L front), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, secretary of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat, and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Dec. 2, 2010. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)


PHNOM PENH, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni on Thursday met with Li Yuanchao, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, secretary of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Li Yuanchao conveyed greetings from Chinese President Hu Jintao to King Sihamoni, and on behalf of the Chinese government and people expressed condolences to the King and the Cambodian people over the stampede tragedy happening at the Diamond Bridge on the night of Nov. 22.

Li said that the King and the King's father and mother Norodom Sihanouk and Norodom Monineath Sihanouk are old friends of China. The special friendship forged by the Cambodian Royal family and generations of Chinese leaders is a valuable asset of two countries and has played an important role in all of times in the relationship between China and Cambodia.

"Facts showed that it is a common aspiration to develop the friendly relationship between China and Cambodia, which is in keeping with the common interests of our two peoples and is always supported by our two peoples," Li said.

Li added that "China considers Cambodia as a sincere friend and reliable partner and will continue to persist in building a good- neighborly relationship and partnership with Cambodia."

China will continue to support Cambodia's independent choice of social system and development road which is accordant with the situation of a country as usual, and would like to continue to provide assistance for Cambodia's national construction and economic development within the capacity, Li Yuanchao said.

The king expressed his profoundly thanks to China for supporting generously the development of Cambodia's social and economic undertakings during the past to present, saying the Royal family attaches great importance to the development of the relations with China.

Sihamoni said that Cambodia is pleased to strengthen and expand friendship relation and cooperation on all sectors with China in order to continue moving forward the Cambodia and China friendship relations.

Vice-minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee Ai Ping and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue attended the meeting.

Li Yuanchao arrived in Phnom Penh on Wednesday on a friendly visit to Cambodia and attend the 6th General Assembly of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) to be held here on Dec. 1-4.
Read more!

PM takes stage in Cambodia conference

THT ONLINE


KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Thursday addressed the inauguration programme of the sixth International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is a member of the 11-member standing committee of ICAPP.

On the occasion he informed about the ongoing political situation of Nepal. He said that the government is heading towards ending the entire political impasse and reach its targeted destination i.e to take the peace process to its logical end and draft the constitution on time.

Ignoring criticism from all quarters, a team of five led by Nepal went for a 10 day tour to the capital of Cambodia as his capacity as the head of the nation at the invitation of his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen.

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, Chairman of Constituent Assembly Subhas Chandra Nembang and other political parties had advised him not to go abroad in the wake of political impasse at home.

The PM however insisted that he would cut short his tour if the need arose and went ahead with the tour.

The political convention was first held in Manila in September 2000, before moving to Bangkok (2002), Beijing (2004), Seoul (2006), and Kazakhstan (2009), arriving now in Phnom Penh for ICAPP's Sixth General Assembly this year.

ICAPP has attracted political parties of all hues and colours – leftists, rightists and centrists – from South Asia, South East Asia, East Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific as well, making it a truly broad-based international political forum.

After Cambodia, the Prime Minister will head for Brussels to attend the European Development Day at the invitation of European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. The two-day ceremony will kick off on December 6.

The PM is scheduled to return home on December 9. Read more!

30 Tax Agents To Face Corruption Charges

A watchdog organization says the Ministry of Economy and Finance's tax collectors are bilking the country out of at least a million dollars a year by overcharging for annual vehicle stickers.


Thirty tax officials will face the loss of their jobs, after an investigation by the new Anti-Corruption Unit.

Om Yentieng, a senior government advisor and head of the ACU, told reporters Wednesday the 30 agents from the Ministry of Finance’s taxation unit had overcharged vehicle owners as much as $1.20 per annual registration tag.

The ACU was acting on complaints filed by an NGO on behalf of more than 200 citizens who said they were routinely overcharged for vehicle registration.

The complaints were the first real test of the ACU, which was formed as part of a recently passed anti-corruption law. Some 2,700 people from 14 provinces contributed corruption complaints earlier this year.

“I will send all the evidence concerning the 30 agents to the Ministry of Economy and Finance and its general department of taxation tomorrow morning to make administrative punishments,” Om Yentieng said. “I believe that anyone who has made a serious mistake will be sacked from his or her job.”

Other administrative punishments can include the loss of promotion or suspension.

The ACU has compiled a 14-page brief, provided to reporters, that identifies the alleged corrupt agents, provides photo IDS and lists the sites were they allegedly bilked motorists of their money.

According to the brief, vehicle owners were overcharged for annual registration on “pretexts,” such as the cost of forms themselves, of filling out the forms or even for the purchase of drinking water.

San Chey, a project coordinator for the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific, which gathered the complaints, said administrative punishment was acceptable for now.

“Next year, we want to see those guilty of corruption sentenced to prison,” he said. “But for this year, administrative punishment is an acceptable act for civil society.”

Om John, deputy chief of the Ministry of Finance’s tax department, said agents would not escape punishment. Read more!

‘Centrist’ Asian Parties Establish Peace Commission

Mushahid Hussain Sayed of Pakistan, secretary-general of Centrist Democrats International Asia Pacific, right, confers with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, center left, during a signing ceremony in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, Wednesday.


Political party representatives of nearly 40 Asian countries signed an accord in Phnom Penh Wednesday to establish a commission to deal with regional security and global stability issues.

The accord was the result of the fourth meeting of a grouping called Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International. The CAPDI is part of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties, which is made up of 300 members.

The so-called CAPDI Peace Commission will “promote an environment of peace, stability and security in Asia by initiating and supporting negotiation and dialogue in various hot spots in the region,” said Mushahid Hussain Sayed, secretary-general of the Pakistan Muslim League and of ICAPP.

CAPDI, which includes political parties from China, North Korea, South Korea, Indonesia, Russia, claims to support a peaceful resolution of Iran’s nuclear build-up and disputes on the Korean peninsula, along with peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The group also aims to prevent violence and terrorism and rejects “extremist” politics.

The establishment of the Peace Commission comes amid growing tension between the two Koreas, growing international concern over Iran’s nuclear program and an ongoing US war in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said the Cambodian People’s Party wished to participate in CAPDI “to deal with problems in different countries as well as the region.” Read more!

Bayon TV Begins Disbursement of Bridge Donations

Eighty-three families of victims from last week’s bridge stampede received a first round of donations from Bayon TV, collecting more than $5,000 each.

The TV station raised the money from its Cambodian audience following the Nov. 22 bridge disaster, which left 351 people dead and 395 injured.

Tit Thavrith, deputy director of Bayon Radio and TV, said the disbursement was a “first step” to compensate victims of the disaster and would be followed by teams making provincial trips.

Bayon TV said it collected more than $2.5 million in the week following the deadly bridge stampede, one of the worst disasters in recent Cambodian history.

Tit Thavrith said the disbursements should end speculation the TV station would not transparently issue the money.

The money will help the families of victims to reduce expenditures, such as seven-day and hundred-day ceremonies, Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema said during a distribution ceremony at Bayon TV station on Wednesday. “But this money cannot fully compensate the loss to the families.”

Chan Serey, a 45-year-old soldier stationed in Kampong Speu province, who lost his wife and three children in the stampede, said the money was more than he had seen before, but it could not make up for the death of his family.

He would use the money to open a small shop in his house in Kampong Chhnang province, he said.

Phea Chan Nara, 43, whose brother was killed on the bridge, said he would use the money to hold the 100-day funeral ceremony and help his elderly mother. Read more!

PM to tackle bilateral issues with Cambodian counterpar

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who is currently on a Cambodia visit to participate in the sixth International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), will meet Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday.

According to Shuro Jung Pandey, a press assistant of PM Nepal, Nepal and his Cambodian counterpart will hold bilateral talks in the meeting.

Earlier, Cambodian Environment Minister and high ranking officials of the Foreign Ministry had received Prime Minister Nepal in Phnom Penh on Wednesday morning.

PM Nepal had left Kathmandu on Tuesday on a 10-day foreign tour amid criticism from various quarters. He is also a permanent and founding member the ICAPP.

The convention is also to hold separate discussions on various issues like climate change, heritage security, women's and youth's participation in politics.

PM Nepal is scheduled to address the inauguration programme of the convention. Read more!