Cambodia starts work on Chinese-funded road in northwest

Battambang, Cambodia, March 21 (Xinhua) - Cambodia on Monday broke ground for the construction of a China-funded 176-kilometre-road in the Northwestern part in order to facilitate travelling and trucking agricultural products to markets.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the road No 57B was held Monday in Battambang province about 350 kilometres northwest of capital Phnom Penh.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue, and top government officials, diplomatic corps, locals and students.

The road will facilitate travelling among former-battlefield provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Pailin, the premier said during the ceremony.

"The construction of the road today was resulted from good close cooperation between Cambodia and China," Hun Sen said. " Through the ambassador Pan Guangxue, I'd like to express my sincere thanks to the government and people of China for financial support for this road."

"The road will provide huge economic benefits to our people to truck their agricultural products to markets and facilitate them in travelling easier and faster," he said. "We have been turning the former fighting zones to be a development area."

The premier also asked the ambassador to help attract Chinese investors to the country's agricultural sector through investing in high technology rice mills and warehouses in order to boost Cambodia's economy and to export to China as the two countries has signed the rice and cassava export agreements already.

Meanwhile, the ambassador said that the road will be vital for rural farmers in trucking their products for markets.

"Through the construction of the road, I believe that farmers will increase their farming as it will be easier to truck their products to markets," he said.

"The road is also reflected the attention of Chinese government on Cambodian development and always ready to provide assistance to Cambodia in social and economic development," he added.

According to the master-plan, the construction of the road will cost 89.9 million US dollars, which is the soft loan from the government of China. It will take 48 months to complete.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

CAMBODIA TO ESTABLISH ELECTRIC-POWERED CAR PLANT

PHNOM PENH, March 21 (Bernama) -- A local Heng Development Co., and a Hong Kong-Chau Leong Enterprise on Monday signed a joint- venture of US$20 million to build a electric-powered car manufacturing plant branded ''Angkor'' in Cambodia, reports Xinhua news agency.

The agreement was inked among Sieng Chan Heng, director general of Heng Development Co., Li Yue Liang, director general of Hong Kong-Chau Leong Enterprise, and a Cambodian innovator Nhean Phaloek, witnessed by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam On.

Of the US$20 million joint venture, Heng Development Co., holds 80 percent while Hong Kong-Chau Leong Enterprise holds the rest, said Sieng Chan Heng during the signing ceremony.

"The establishment of the electric-powered plant will be an opportunity for Cambodia to show the world about the works of Cambodia by Cambodian people," she said. "We hope the Angkor- branded cars will be supported by local customers and in the future, we will expand our sales to overseas markets."

The plant is being built on the land area of 47,000 square meters in Takhmao district of Kandal province, generating 300 jobs. It will be capable to produce between 500 units to 1,000 units a year, with raw materials and spare parts from China, she said, adding that the first production will be available early 2012.

Li Yue Liang, director general of Hong Kong-Chau Leong Enterprise, said that the establishment of the car plant will contribute to the development of Cambodian economy in the long term.

"We hope the government will fully support us in this car production as it will contribute economic growth and reduce poverty," he said.

"The electric-powered car will be environmentally friendly." Ith Praing, a secretary of state for the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Energy, said that the plant will also bring technology transfer from Chinese technicians to local technicians.

"This will be the first car production factory in Cambodia," he said. "The electric-powered cars will help to reduce environmental pollution and reduce reliance on the usage of hiking oil," he said.

The car models and designs will be created by Cambodian innovator Nhean Phaloek.

-- BERNAMA Read more!

Cambodia calls for 15 border checkpoints

Thais suspect ulterior motive in disputed area

The Cambodian military has proposed 15 joint border checkpoints be set up in the 4.6-square-kilometre area near Preah Vihear temple also claimed by Thailand, a military source said.

The idea has been floated to the Thai military through Indonesia, as the incumbent revolving chair of Asean, and the Thai Foreign Ministry, but details have yet to be discussed, the source said.

The proposed joint border checkpoints, which would be overseen by observers from Indonesia, did not include one at Keo Sikha Kiri Savara pagoda, a temple in the disputed area claimed by Cambodia, the source said.

Most of the proposed checkpoints would be located in areas supervised by Thai troops, including Phu Makhua mountain, the source said.

The source said the proposal would put Cambodia at an advantage and there could be an ulterior motive for the suggestion.

There are more Thai troops stationed in the 4.6-square-kilometre disputed area than Cambodian soldiers.

Cambodian soldiers will push for the setting up of the checkpoints during a visit to the border area by Indonesia, the source said.

The details, however, will be thrashed out at a meeting of the Thai-Cambodia General Border Committee in Indonesia on April 7-8.

The meeting will be co-chaired by Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and his Cambodian counterpart, Tea Banh.

The proposal came after the Suranaree task force halted construction of a two-kilometre-long road stretching from Pha Mor I Dang cliff to the ancient Sa Trao reservoir and stairway of the Preah Vihear temple.

Thai soldiers had completed 70% of the road when border clashes on Feb 4 brought construction to a halt.

They resumed building the road on March 4, prompting Cambodian soldiers to send a letter protesting against the construction.

Cambodian soldiers last week threatened to open fire if Thai soldiers continued, so the roadworks were suspended, the source said. Read more!

Cambodia paedophile Nick Griffin accused of raping boy while working in Wale

By Darren Devine


PAEDOPHILE Nick Griffin, who used a Cambodian orphanage as a front for his sick urges, repeatedly raped a young boy while running a Scout group in North Wales, it was claimed today.

His alleged victim, now aged 23, told Wales on Sunday that Griffin – jailed earlier this month after being convicted of abusing children – attacked him over a two year period.

His shocking accusation – which is now being investigated by police – came as those who worked with the Griffin in Cambodia revealed they raised concerns about his relationship with young boys long before his arrest but were not heeded by authorities there.

Griffin, 53, was finally unmasked as a sex monster only last week when he was convicted of abusing young boys in the Cambodian orphanage he set up and ran for five years. He was jailed for two years for offences against children.

We found the alleged victim during an investigation into the eight years Griffin spent in North Wales before he emigrated to Cambodia in 2006.

During his time in Wales, Griffin was a fisheries manager and Scout leader in Llangollen.

His alleged victim told us he complained to the authorities at the time but believes he was not taken seriously as Griffin was “a respectable man” – an allegation North Wales Police last night told us they took “very seriously” and would investigate.

He said he was raped repeatedly between the ages of 13 and 15 by Griffin after he won his trust, and that the abuse had changed his life.

He said that he has since had sexual problems with partners and was found with indecent images of child abuse as an 20 year old and put on the sex offenders’ register by a court.

The Scout Association confirmed his account that Griffin had worked as a Scout leader in the Llangollen area during the early 2000s. A spokesman stressed all necessary checks had been done at the time and Griffin had no criminal record.

He said: “Local leaders in the area shocked and saddened by this man's actions. They’ve gone back through their records.

“We will obviously treat this matter very seriously. There is no place in Scouting for a man that abuses the trust of others.

“I would like to say that we have half a million members and the safety of young people is of paramount importance.

“We have a strict code of conduct for Scout leaders. It’s horrible and it has upset the local people that are doing brilliant work in the community.”

He told us Griffin worked as Scout leader in Llangollen, taking charge of young boys.

The alleged victim said the pervert, whom he said was also a former youth worker, started with low level abuse before raping him several times over a period of two years beginning when he was 13.

He said: “I knew him for a few years and then all of a sudden the abuse started.

“It’s completely messed up my life. It’s not a fact of trying to live with it because you can’t.

“It affects your relationships and your daily life. Now when I’m having sex with a partner I don’t like certain things being done because it brings back memories.

“He’d come into the room very slowly and sneakily and [abuse me].

“In those circumstances you’re a bit too scared to say anything. Also because he was a Scout leader we don’t know if there are any more victims.”

Griffin is believed to have arrived in North East Wales from London in 1998 with a property development firm, before going to work at the Glyn Ceiriog Upper Mills trout farm as a manger.

Shortly after arriving it is thought he tried to start up a Scouting group before becoming an assistant district commissioner in Llangollen.

His alleged victim claims he first went to the police in around 2004 about Griffin, but nothing came of his complaint at that time.

“It’s gratifying to find out that he’s in prison, but it’s not going to be for long really and when he comes over here hopefully the police will carry on with their investigation,” he said.

“He’d always had a sideline of working with children whether it was the Scouts or youth work.”

The man said he felt confused by the abuse and couldn’t talk to his parents because he didn’t know what to tell them.

“I didn’t really know what was going on.

“I was confused and just sort of accepted it.

“It wasn’t something I was familiar with and could talk about with somebody else so I just accepted it really.”

Griffin was arrested in a dawn raid in Cambodia last year that saw dozens of officers rescue as many as 100 youngsters from his care.

The children were moved to a safe house.

Griffin had been under investigation for more than two years following suspicions surrounding the fortress-like orphanage, which housed youngsters up to the age of 18.

He ran several centres for deprived and vulnerable children in one of south-east Asia’s poorest countries.

Sun Bun Thorng, of Siem Reap’s anti-human trafficking department, claimed Griffin faced several charges of child molestation in 2008.

These were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Griffin’s alleged Welsh victim said he began to realise what was being done to him was wrong when he started taking an interest in girls at around the age of 14.

“At the higher end of puberty where everything makes sense I started exploring girls and realising that what he was doing to me was wrong,” he said.

The man added he suffered from depression as a result, and had undergone counselling.

“I felt empty inside,” he said.

“Your emotions stop because there was nothing there. It was all forced upon.

“For so many years it was locked away. When I went to the police they disregarded it. The police officer thought he wouldn’t be doing it because he was such a respectable person. It was brushed aside completely.”

The man, who will remain on the sex offenders register until 2019, said he has since complained to the police again and the matter was being looked into.

A spokesperson for North Wales Police said they took the suggestion that the alleged victim’s complaint wasn’t properly investigated very seriously and would investigate the allegations.

His behaviour disturbed us from start, say staff at Cambodia orphanage: next page
We warned authorities about Nick Griffin, volunteers say: page three

His behaviour disturbed us from start, say staff at Cambodia orphanage

CHARITY volunteers who worked with Griffin in Cambodia told Wales on Sunday of the disturbing behaviour they witnessed.

Nick Griffin abused boys under the age of 15 at the orphanage he set up in Siem Reap but was only convicted last week – five years after he founded the institution.

Staff who worked alongside Griffin complained about him first in 2008 but the complaints were never proven and it was not until last year that he was arrested.

Sally Sayer, regional director of Volunteer Project Overseas, lives in Siem Reap and said she had become concerned about 53-year-old Griffin and the orphanage more than a year ago.

She said: “I didn’t have much to do with him at the start, but then in January last year I took over as project manager and I had a huge amount more to do with him.

“It was then that I started to look at things and think things were a bit odd.

“People were moving in to the orphanage and we did not know who they were. I was worried about the children.

“We took our worries to Nick and nothing was done about it. It was the whole set-up of the orphanage. I knew something was going on but I could not put my finger on what it was. I decided that we needed to pull out of the organisation.

“We started to ask questions about this man and what he had done before he came here. But we were ignored and accused of causing trouble and wanting to take over.

“There was one incident which I can remember, where we went for dinner one night and Nick came along.

“He brought one of the boys from the orphanage with him, he was about 14 years old. There was just something that wasn’t right with the body language between them. One of the volunteers came up to me and said ‘just tell me it’s not what I think it is’.

“The next day I went down to one of the coffee shops and the same boy was behind the counter.

“I asked why he was not at school and he said that he was spending time with Nick. He had an iPod with him and said Nick had given it to him. I just thought that it was very odd, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.”

The group then severed all ties with Griffin.

Sally said: “Rumours started to circulate about a previous incident with some boys. I went to ask him about them and he told me that he was with some friends one night and they wanted to see some street kids.

“He said they played with the street kids for a while and then said goodbye. He said the street boys then followed him home and he agreed to let them in for a drink. Then one of the boys opened his drawers and he was worried they would steal something so he asked them to go.”

Sally first met Griffin two years ago, and said he appeared friendly at first but then he began to change.

“When he was first there he did not seem unfriendly but he was very arrogant and he became unfriendly. He had a house with a massive high fence around it. You see things day in and day out and you see small things in people’s body language.”

But she says she is just happy to get a conviction in a country whose attitudes to child abuse have been complicated.

She said: “In Cambodia, a girl’s virginity is considered more important than a boy’s. Boys are thought to be like diamonds, they can be cleaned, but girls are like cotton, and once they are dirty, that’s it. The abuse that Nick did was with boys.

“If I’m totally honest I’m just grateful for a conviction, it could have gone the other way.

“After Nick was arrested we arranged for a bus to pick up the children and take them in. But then one of the trustees came and is running the orphanage.”

Nick Marsh, a trustee of VPO, added: “I can’t say I’m happy about the sentence but even a week in a Khmer prison will be better than 10 years in one of ours.”

Griffin was arrested during a dawn raid, which involved dozens of officers and as many as 100 youngsters were rescued and moved to a safe house.

He was caught after a joint operation by officers from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and the Cambodian National Police.

He had been under investigation for more than two years following suspicions surrounding the orphanage, which looked after children up to age of 18.

According to CEOP, Griffin had run a number of orphanages in a “tourist hotspot”.

The orphanage is now under new management.

In a statement on the Cambodia Orphanage Fund’s website, posted during the investigation, Lidia Linde, of the fund, said she wanted to “guarantee that this nightmare would never happen again.”

She said: “ I will not tolerate any action that will put in risk the life and dignity of the children, especially those who live in conditions of poverty, vulnerability or those who are abandoned.”

Read more!

Vietnam, Cambodia boost agricultural cooperation

The very close tie friendship between Cambodia and Yuon is very strange. Also for the co operations that Yuon asking Cambodia are never ended. Every cooperation, the Yuon was always asking for Land concessions or give up a piece of land, spying business or opening free traffic for Yuon to come and go or living in Cambodia illegally. Hun Sen should tell Yuon to plan rubber on its motherland.

Vietnam and Cambodia will jointly implement some 20 cooperative projects in agricultural science and technology, quarantine, forestry and seafood with a total investment of nearly VND365 billion (over US$17 million) from 2011-2020.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said it will work with the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Seafood on the signing of a government-level agreement on growing 300,000 ha of rubber and industrial trees in Cambodia.

The two sides will strengthen cooperation in plant protection and veterinary as well as discuss measures to prevent the spreading of epidemics through borders.

They plan to sign cooperative agreements on the exchange of information and data on seafood, aquaculture development and research activities.

Vietnam and Cambodia will attach importance to sustainable forest management, the control of the trading of timber, forest products and wild animals as well as scientific and technological cooperation in forest development.

The two sides will speed up investment and trade activities in seafood processing and cattle-feed production.

In addition, Vietnam will also assist Cambodia in a VND50 billion aquatic breeding development project and a VND200 billion project to build a seafood research institute in Kampot province.

The two sides will also cooperate in developing safe vegetable production in border provinces.

VOVNews/VNA
Read more!

Charity worker overcoming injury

IT’S hard to keep a good woman down, as family and friends of Ruth Golder are once again witnessing.

The former Sunshine Coast resident has lived in Cambodia for the past 11 years, where she provides shelter to the country’s orphans and engages in other charity work.

But she took a nasty fall at her Phnom Penh home last month.

Despite splintering a bone in her neck and suffering multiple muscle and tendon tears, as well as bad bruising, it has been a struggle to get the 68-year-old to rest since the incident about a month ago.

Ms Golder’s daughter Tracey, currently on the Coast attending to business at their Love In Action office at Bli Bli, said her mother was one headstrong woman.

The day after she tripped on a bedsheet and badly twisted her body as she slammed into a hard wooden door, she took possession of a newborn baby.

Not trusting orphanage staff to adequately care for the infant, Ms Golder took on the responsibility herself.

“Anyone who knows my mum knows she won’t lie down and die,” she said.

“She’ll be physically okay (eventually). She’s doing the right thing by her body as much as she can.

“Her (Australian) doctor says she’s a tough old bird.”

Tracey said her mum was still in traction a lot of the time, was still in much pain and tired easy.

“She’s still looking after the bubbies (but) she’s wise, she’s not stupid.

“She knows she’s got a long haul in the country.”

Tracey said Ms Golder had hoped to get back to Australia soon, but her doctor forbade her from taking the 10-hour flight.

Instead, mother and daughter plan to meet up in Malaysia soon for a much-needed break.

“It’s the first holiday we’ve ever had together,” Tracey said.

“I’ll still run the office while in Malaysia, but we’ll have a week off. One way of getting us to have a break is to get us both out of the country.”

Through their non-government, not-for-profit organisation, the Golders run two orphanages and a nursery in the Cambodian capital.

Love In Action’s other charitable work includes educating the children in its care and providing clean drinking water for poorer, remote areas of the country.

Read more!

Canadians make malaria breakthrough

By Lana Haight, Postmedia News

Children rest under a mosquito net in Prey Mong Kol, Cambodia in a file photo. Malaria is contracted when people are bitten by mosquitoes infected with a parasite called Plasmodium.Photograph by: Paula Bronstein, Getty Images


SASKATOON — Scientists in Saskatoon have developed an inexpensive malaria treatment that will help the million people who die every year from the infection.

“This is the most important drug in the treatment of malaria today. The World Health Organization says it should be the first line of defence,” said Patrick Covello, a senior research officer at the National Research Council in Saskatoon.

Covello and his team figured out a way to produce a difficult-to-cultivate chemical needed to build effective malaria drugs.

The breakthrough was announced Friday at the National Research Council Plant Biotechnology Institute.

The best drugs available to fight malaria are made with artemisinin, a compound derived from the sweet wormwood plant found in parts of Asia and Africa. But cultivating and harvesting the plant and then extracting artemisinin is time-consuming and labour intensive, says Covello. And the supply of the natural compound is also dependent on weather and growing conditions.

In 2003, Covello began work to identify the genes in the wormwood plant that produce the protein that leads to artemisinin.

“We identified four genes in what we call the pathway to artemisinin in the plant,” he said in an interview.

Meanwhile, University of California at Berkley researchers found they could develop a precusor to artemisinin by introducing chemicals into yeast.

Covello contacted Amyris Technologies, a spinoff company from the Berkeley research group, to suggest it use the genes his group had identified in the wormwood plant. When two of the genes identified in Saskatoon were introduced to the yeast compound developed at Berkeley, the production of artemisinin doubled.

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the American-based organization that has led the project to develop the semi-synthetic artemisinin, and pharmaceutical company Sanofi-aventis jointly announced on Friday that the drug company is preparing to ramp up production using the genes identified in Saskatoon.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has already contributed $42.6 million toward the American research, is also supporting the production of the drug to ensure it will be available on a not-for-profit basis for the developing world.

“The idea is to provide the developing world with antimalarial drugs at the lowest possible cost and, in addition, to provide a very stable supply because this yeast-fermentation process is shorter term and more reliable than growing the plants themselves,” said Covello.

Covello understands that Sanofi-aventis will begin commercial-scale production in 2012.

The federal government has spent $869,000 over eight years to support the Saskatoon research.

“Our government is committed to improving the health of women and children in developing countries,” said Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, in a government news release.

“This new development in the production of a malaria treatment represents a major development in the fight against the disease. It will strengthen Canada’s position as a world leader in health research and provide a reliable and affordable solution.”

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

lhaight@thestarphoenix.com
Read more!

Vietnamese opposition could sway Lao Hydropower Plans

Vietnamese officials are criticizing the Lao government’s controversial plan to build a dam on the Mekong River. Analysts say opposition from Vietnam and other lower Mekong countries could force Laos to scale back its hydropower ambitions.

Vietnamese officials are publicly opposing a plan by neighboring Laos to build a hydropower dam on the Mekong River.

The $3.5 billion Xayaburi hydropower dam is the first of 12 dams planned for the lower Mekong. A Thai developer would build the dam, and Thailand would buy most of the 1,260 megawatts of electricity the dam would generate.

Lao officials say the proposed Mekong dams would cut poverty and bolster their land-locked country’s economy.

Criticism

But Vietnamese officials say the dam would jeopardize water supplies and threaten fishing on the river’s downstream reaches. Their recent comments echoed warnings by environmentalists that the Mekong dams would damage the environment and threaten the livelihoods of people who live near the river.

Analysts say political pressure from Vietnam and its lower Mekong neighbors – Thailand and Cambodia – could force Laos to delay or modify its plans to harness the Mekong’s flow.

Philip Hirsch, a professor of human ecology at the University of Sydney, told VOA that of the lower Mekong countries, Vietnam has so far been most publicly critical of Laos’ hydropower ambitions.

"The interesting question, which I think is very difficult for anyone to answer, is how these two countries, Vietnam and Laos – which are so close – are going to extricate themselves from what at the moment seem to be diametrically opposite positions on the Xayabouri dam," Hirsch said.

Vietnam and Laos are both one-party states and Hirsch says Vietnam typically influences Lao policy "behind closed doors." But Hirsch says recent criticism of the Xayabouri proposal by high-ranking Vietnamese officials has been "very public."

All four lower Mekong countries will be closely watching a recommendation on the dam expected this month from the Joint Committee of the Mekong River Commission, an advisory body formed in 1995 to promote sustainable development along the 4,900-kilometer Mekong system.

Influence

But Hirsch points out that the MRC has no power to force Laos to abandon its plans for the Xayabouri and other Mekong dams.

"The MRC is not a regulatory institution,” Hirsch added. “It’s not a strong agency in that way, it’s one which has always worked on the basis of trying to achieve consensus, and if we’re looking for regulation from the MRC, I think we’re looking in the wrong direction."

Hirsch says Thailand has vowed to stay neutral in MRC negotiations, which puts the onus on Vietnamese and Cambodian officials to address the Xayabouri dam proposal in discussions with their Lao counterparts.

Trinh Le Nguyen is executive director of the Vietnamese NGO PanNature. He tells VOA that although Laos has final say over the Xayabouri and other Mekong dams, Vietnam may pressure Laos by threatening to not invest in future Mekong hydropower projects.

"Vietnam can decide not to invest or buy anything from [Laos],” Trinh Le Nguyen said. “It’s one of the ways they can have some power."

In October, an independent study commissioned by the MRC recommended that lower Mekong countries delay decisions on hydropower projects for 10 years, warning that Mekong hydropower dams would exacerbate food insecurity and cause "serious and irreversible" environmental effects.

China, which borders northern Laos, already operates four dams on the upper reaches of the Mekong River.

Read more!

Hun Sen Orders Investigation of Labor Recruiters

Hun Sen ordered the Anti-Corruption Unit to look into the growing sector of recruitment, following death of Seung Sina earlier this month at the T&P company’s center in Phnom Penh.


Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered a government investigation into the business practices of labor recruiters, after a worker died in the facility en route to work in Malaysia, a government spokesman said.

Hun Sen ordered the Anti-Corruption Unit to look into the growing sector of recruitment, following death of Seung Sina earlier this month at the T&P company’s center in Phnom Penh.

T&P officials have denied wrongdoing in the past, but the death followed reports of another woman’s reported escape from the center, during which she said she jumped a fence and broke bones in her legs.

Those two incidents and another death at a separate company earlier this year have underscored the weak system of regulation surrounding the aggressive recruitment of exported labor, especially as more young Cambodian women have sought work as maids in Malaysia.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith posted on his Facebook page on Friday a note saying Hun Sen had ordered the ACU, headed by Om Yentieng, to investigate the social labor offices of companies in Phnom Penh and the provinces “following different articles in the press and radio reporting.”

ACU officials could not be reached for comment on Friday. Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak said that police have investigated the death at T&P and have filed with the court already.

Meanwhile, at six rights groups and development organizations met in Phnom Penh this week to consider the practice of aggressive recruitment and plan report to the ministries of Labor and Interior.

Recruitment firms have sprung up across the country in the past year, convincing young women to take jobs as domestic help in Malaysia and often offering families money and goods up front.

This has made some companies loathe to release their new recruits, even if the women have changed their minds.

Read more!

US Maintains Ban on Cambodian Adoptions

A young orphaned Cambodian infant girl infected with the HIV virus sits on a mat in the Phnom Penh Nutrition Center.


A US envoy for children’s issues declined to lift a ban on US adoptions from Cambodia Friday, despite the 2009 passage of an adoption law, officials said.

The US banned adoptions from Cambodia in 2001, after allegations that mothers were being paid to give up their children to adoption agencies.

Susan Jacobs, the US Ambassador for Children’s Issues, told Cambodian officials the country had made improvements in children’s protection.

But after her two-day fact-finding mission, the US Embassy said in a statement, “The United States has not set a date for resumption of inter-country adoption with Cambodia.”

Cambodian officials say they expect to begin initiating a 2009 law in April this year to bring the country in line with international standards.

The law includes age requirement for prospective parents, between 30 to 45, and an age limit on a child of 18 years. It also includes requirements the adoptive parent is not a criminal and can care for the adopted.

“We aim to prevent human trafficking and child smuggling,” said Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The law would ensure a child lives with its adopted family, he said, “with proper living, dignity and happiness.”

Read more!

Research and Markets: Cambodians and their Doctors: A Medical Anthropology of Colonial and Postcolonial Cambodia

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/e831b2/cambodians_and_the ) has announced the addition of the "Cambodians and their Doctors: A Medical Anthropology of Colonial and Postcolonial Cambodia" report to their offering.

This is an anthropological study of doctors and patients in Cambodia. These two categories include the actors within the separate but coexisting medical traditions in Cambodia - the biomedical and the indigenous. Doctors in the biomedical tradition generally seek to cure the physical body, while indigenous medical practitioners seek to heal the social person. Ideally, both strategies for regaining health should be complementary, but medical doctors and indigenous healers have rarely collaborated. This book traces the social, historical, and political circumstances under which these two medical traditions have evolved and the opportunities and constraints which Cambodians have faced and still face when seeking healthcare.

Our study spans the colonial introduction of biomedicine into Cambodia in the late nineteenth century to the present. By anthropological standards this is a rather longue durée, also given that our own observations of Cambodian society go back a mere 13 years, and that most of our informants' recollections hardly extend further than the 1960s. Our aim, however, is to trace the articulation of the two medical traditions from the beginning of their coexistence and thereby offer a colonial and postcolonial anthropology as well as a political economy of medicality.

Among the Asian medical systems, Ayurvedic, Unani, and Chinese medicine would represent the great medical traditions (Leslie 1976), comparable in many respects to the great, though much less ancient, European tradition of biomedicine. The notion of a medical system includes both theory and practice: theory as a more or less consistent body of medical cosmological ideas - a world view - and practice as an associated set of therapeutic techniques and technologies. Medical systems are by no means static, and changes within them occur to varying degrees and at a varying pace as a matter of course, precipitated, for instance, by globalization and indigenization. In biomedicine changes in technique and technology are virtually built into the system through the notion of continual scientific and technological progress, whereas changes in world view are considerably less perceptible and rather longue dure.

Key Points:

•Offers a unique blend of historical anthropology and contemporary ethnography.
•A key text for scholars and students of Cambodia and Southeast Asia in general.
•An important resource for development planners and aid workers in medical and related ?elds.

Key Topics Covered:

•Preface vii
•Glossary xi
•1. Introduction
•2. Colonialism and Medicine in Indochina
•3. French Medicine in Cambodia
•4. The Khmer Rouge Medical Regime and Socialist Health
•5. Indigenous Practitioners: Healers, Spirit Mediums and Magic Monks
•6. Midwives and the Medicalization of Motherhood
•7. Leprosy: Symbol and Social Suffering
•8. Contemporary Healthcare Resources
•9. Conclusion
•Appendix
•References
•Index
•Figures
•Tables

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/e831b2/cambodians_and_the


Contacts

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager,
press@researchandmarkets.com
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
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CAMBODIA: Trafficking domestic workers to Malaysia

PHNOM PENH, (IRIN) - Investigations by NGOs in Cambodia have found that companies are recruiting girls as young as 13 to work in Malaysian households, confining them in overcrowded and unhygienic “training centres”, forging birth certificates to raise their age, and paying finders’ fees to brokers.

Hou Vuthy, a deputy director-general at the Ministry of Labour, said the government is moving swiftly to address the abuses and that “vast improvements” have been made.

He estimated it would take about three more years to fully control the recruiting companies, some of whom employed unscrupulous agents who “cheated” illiterate village residents. He stressed, however, that the government had already managed to eliminate the illegal recruiters.

Attention has focused on the burgeoning industry, and the firm T&P Co. Ltd. in particular, since one woman died at its “training” facility in suburban Phnom Penh and another broke bones in both of her legs while trying to escape from its third floor balcony.

She got entangled in the razor wire around the second floor, and then fell to the pavement, neighbours said. The three people who carried her off the street and comforted her while awaiting an ambulance were later summonsed to the local police station and interrogated by officers who accused them of colluding with the “trainees” to help them escape, neighbours said.

Tola Moeun, head of the Labour Programme at the Community Legal Education Centre, said the Ministry of Labour and the Department of Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection were more concerned with protecting the recruitment agencies than the welfare of the more than 20,000 Cambodians who had been recruited to work as maids in Malaysia.

He said that in most cases he had investigated, the maids were under 21, and many were under 18. He alleged that officials at the commune level were falsifying birth certificates so that passports with false dates of birth could be issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Labour Ministry’s Vuthy admitted this had been happening, saying his office had no control over local officials and that it could not verify the authenticity of birth certificates that were delivered by the recruiting companies. He said, however, that the Ministry of Interior had cracked down on village and commune officials who forged documents. “That does not happen any more,” he said.

Government complicity?

MP and former minister for women’s affairs Mu Chua has accused the government of complicity in trafficking.

“The Cambodian government has effectively legalized human trafficking,” Mu Suchua said. She also said the government was protecting the recruiting companies because some of its members might have financial interests in them.

Local media have reported more than 90 recruiting companies registered with the government, but Vuthy said there were 33, though they operate about 100 “training centres” in and around Phnom Penh. When asked if any companies were connected to the government, he replied: “It is legal in Cambodia for wives of politicians to run businesses,” but added, ownership is irrelevant because all companies must abide by the law.

Mu Chua said some of companies brazenly violate the law. “The girls are being bought, documents are being forged; they are being imprisoned and abused in Cambodia, and then they are sent into an environment where there are no safeguards to protect them. Often their passports are confiscated and they are confined in households.”

The Cambodia Human Rights and Development Association (Adhoc) had warned in September 2010 that its investigation found severe cases of abuse at “training centres” in Phnom Penh and in Malaysia. Passports were being confiscated, maids were forcibly detained, and some were beaten, raped and tortured, Adhoc said.

Lobbying for legal age reduction

“This is probably just the tip of the iceberg,” said deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, Phil Roberston. “There is also an overland route for smuggling Cambodian girls into Malaysia through Thailand.”

He also warned that efforts to lobby the Malaysian government to lower the legal age of maids from 21 to 18 were a “recipe for disaster”. “Our research has found that the younger the maid the more vulnerable they are to abuse and exploitation,” he said.

Vuthy said reports in Malaysian media that the Cambodian government was lobbying for a reduction in the age were fabricated by recruiting companies attempting to pressure Kuala Lumpur. Neither the Cambodian government nor the Malaysian government would give into their pressure, he said.

Recruitment companies in Malaysia set their sights on Cambodia in 2009 after Indonesia [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=85664 ] announced a freeze on sending new domestic workers to Malaysia, following reports of extreme abuse there.

Cambodian maids are more vulnerable because of the language barrier, greater cultural differences, the extreme poverty many came from, and the distance between the two countries, Robertson said.

Roberston said efforts by the international community to train Cambodian officials about trafficking had had little success. “Some top level officials go to seminar after seminar, while lower level officials receive little or no information on what trafficking is and how to prevent it. There is also a bigger problem of corruption among government officials, which is what we are seeing in relation to these labour recruitment schemes seeking to send maids to Malaysia.”

Vuthy sees things differently. He said his ministry was struggling with a surge in demand and a lack of experience and resources to monitor the industry. It was only last year that it produced its first orientation manual for migrant workers, he said.

“We’re learning quickly,” he said.

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US, Cambodia discuss 'dirty debt' repayment

PHNOM PENH — Cambodian and US officials held talks on Thursday to explore ways of settling a decades-old "dirty debt" of more than $400 million, both sides said.

The low-interest loans from the US were given to the government of General Lon Nol after it came to power in a US-backed coup in 1970.

Cambodia says the money helped pay for a devastating bombing campaign on the country by US forces targeting Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the early 1970s.

Prime Minister Hun Sen last year called for the "dirty debt" to be cancelled, but the government softened its stance after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in November that Washington was willing to discuss alternative ways for Cambodia to repay the sum.

A Phnom Penh meeting between US Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun and Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong was the first step in that direction, the US embassy said in a statement.

During the talks, Hor Namhong asked the US to lower the interest rate on the loans from three percent to one, foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said.

Phnom Penh also requested that 70 percent of the debt be converted into development assistance for Cambodia, he said, without giving further details.

The remainder of the amount would be paid to Washington, he added.

"Our real wish is that... we want it to be cancelled. (But) we have to find common ground that we all can agree on. We cannot resolve it if we stick to a point that they do not agree with," Koy Kuong said.

Yun did not talk to reporters after the meeting but the US embassy said the US hopes "an agreement can be reached soon".

"Such an agreement would enhance Cambodia's creditworthiness and ability to access international capital markets," the statement said.

By the end of 2009, Cambodia's debt to the US totalled approximately $445 million, it added.

Washington was the main financial and military supporter of Lon Nol's regime until it was toppled by the Khmer Rouge movement in April 1975.

Officially, the loans were to develop the country's agriculture sector and boost commodities exports.

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Cambodia Seeks Large Reduction to US Debts

Cambodia has asked the US to decrease its Lon Nol-era debt and to decrease the interest rate on the balance, officials said Thursday.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong met with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Yun, who is in charge of Asia Pacific, on Thursday, over some $445 million in debt accrued during the Lon Nol era.

Hor Namhong requested that debt be lowered by 70 percent, to about $133 million, and that interest be lowered from 3 percent to 1 percent, officials said after the meeting.

The war-era debt has been a sticking point in bilateral relations between the countries. Cambodian officials have said they should not have to repay the debt, which was accumulated by a pre-Khmer Rouge era government. Prime Miniser Hun Sen calls the war-era debt “dirty.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Cambodia has changed its position on the debt in order to reach an agreement.

The US has said countries typically must repay such debts, despite changes of leaders or regime. However, in a visit in November, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said officials would revisit the debt question.

Following Thursday’s discussion, Yun said he would take the new debt request back to Washington, according to Cambodian officials present. Yun was not available to reporters following the meeting.

US Embassy spokesman Mark Wenig said in a statement a debt agreement “would enhance Cambodia’s credit worthiness and ability to access international capital markets.” Read more!

National Assembly To Unseat Opposition Leader

Exiled Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy talks to Cambodian-American supporters in Falls Church, near Washington, DC on February 24, 3011. He has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and is on a two-day trip in Washington to garner support from the US government.


The National Assembly announced Wednesday it was removing Sam Rainsy from parliament, following the decision by the Supreme Court in February to uphold criminal charges against him.
Sam Rainsy, the main opposition leader in the National Assembly, will no longer hold his representative seat there, the Assembly said in announcing a decision made Tuesday.

The February Supreme Court decision, which upheld Sam Rainsy’s guilty verdict and two-year sentence for racial incitement and the destruction of markers on the Vietnamese border, effectively ended his legal bid to avoid a criminal sentence. He still faces an ongoing legal battle over a charge of disinformation, which carries a 10-year sentence.

In a directive issued Tuesday, National Assembly President Heng Samrin said the decision also meant, “Sam Rainsy must lose all rights and privileges to membership of the National Assembly for Kampong Cham province.”

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann called the move a slide in Cambodian democracy. The party will now work with the government to find a solution, he said, without elaborating.

Koul Panha, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, said the loss of the opposition’s main party leader would damage the upcoming elections in 2012 and 2013.

The move would hurt the opposition’s access to free and fair elections, he said, especially with its now ousted leader in exile.

Chea Vannath, an independent political analyst, said Wednesday Sam Rainsy’s political life would be hurt in the short term, but she predicted he would eventually be allowed to return under a political solution. Read more!

Indonesia to host Thai-Cambodia border negotiations April 7-8+

JAKARTA, March 16 (AP) - (Kyodo)-;Cambodia and Thailand are expected to resume their bilateral negotiations on a disputed border area on April 7-8 in Indonesia, a Cabinet minister said Wednesday.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said in an interview with the Japanese media that the meeting will take place in Bogor in West Java Province.

"That meeting will be a meeting between Thailand and Cambodia on the border issues, but at the same time, Indonesia will be appropriately engaged as the chairman's statement stated," he added.

The minister referred to the Feb. 22 ASEAN informal ministerial meeting in Jakarta that was held to discuss the border dispute.

Indonesia, as the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, was tasked by the U.N. Security Council to help mediate the border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over their rival claims to 4.6 square kilometers of land around a temple on the border.

Since the temple was registered as a World Heritage Site in 2008, several rounds of border clashes have occurred.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Read more!

Cambodia sets age limit for foreign husbands

Male foreigners over the age of 50 have been outlawed from marrying Cambodian women in the country under new rules designed to crack down on sham marriages and human trafficking, the government said.

Foreigners who earn less than $2,550 per month are also barred from wedding local women, foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said, but the restrictions do not apply to weddings taking place overseas.

Marriages between old men and young women are "inappropriate", Mr Kuong said, and foreign men who wish to marry nationals must earn a high salary to ensure that "Cambodian women can live a decent life".

"We are preventing fake marriages and human trafficking," he said, adding that the government was aware of cases, documented by rights groups, where Cambodian women were sent into prostitution or "used as slaves" in their husband's home country.

The Cambodian foreign ministry has sent a diplomatic note to all the embassies and consulates in the country informing them of the new regulations, which came into effect on March 1.

Kek Galabru, president of local human rights group Licadho, praised the government's intention to protect Cambodian brides.

But she said the new guidelines "go against Cambodian marriage law and international law" - specifically the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

"This is discrimination against women because they will not be allowed to marry men who are over 50... while Cambodian men can marry any foreign woman they choose," she said.

Cambodia imposed a temporary ban on foreign marriages in 2008 to prevent human trafficking, amid concern over a sharp rise in the number of brokered unions involving South Korean men and poor Cambodian women.

That ban followed an International Organisation for Migration report that said many Cambodian brides suffered abuse after moving to South Korea in marriages hastily arranged by brokers who made large profits.

The restriction was lifted about eight months later after new laws were introduced to prevent women becoming mail-order brides.

- AFP

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Cambodia's growing dispossessed

As the country's economy booms, thousands of people have been evicted from their homes to make way for developments.

Boeung Kak Lake, a 90 hectare expanse of water, has already had three-fourths filled in, while
residents around it are being forcibly evicted [CC - Save Me Jebus]


When armed construction workers turned up at dawn to start pumping thousands of gallons of sand and water into Ly Si Moan's home, her terrified scramble for safety had her joining thousands of others who have recently had to flee developers in Cambodia.

"They started pumping during the night," she says, "while we were sleeping. I think they wanted to eliminate all trace of us."

Indeed, all that remains of the village where Ly Si Moan's house and business once stood is a long sandbank, covering three-quarters of what was once a lake at the heart of Phnom Penh.

Ly Si Moan is also just one of some 20,000 people who have been evicted from their homes either on or around the historic, 90-hectare Boueng Kak Lake during the last few months.

And according to Surya P Subedi, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, what is happening is also "representative of the problems of this nature that exist in the country. Land grabbing by the rich and powerful is a major problem in Cambodia today".

An 'escalating problem'

Indeed, Cambodian rights group Adhoc says that last year alone, 12,389 families in the country became the victims of forced evictions.

Another rights group, housing advocates STT, estimates that around 10 per cent of the population of Phnom Penh has faced eviction in the last decade.

At the same time, the Cambodian Human Rights Foundation (LICADHO) director Naly Pilorge says that in their survey of half the country's provinces "between 2005 and 2009 some 250,000 people were evicted. Last year alone we dealt with 94 new cases of land grabbing involving approximately 49,280 people".

"And the problem is escalating," she adds.

The residents of Boeung Kak are being moved as developers fill in the lake with sand and silt scooped out of a nearby river. Where this lake once spread, a new, residential, commercial and entertainment complex is due to be constructed.

Economic boom

As Cambodia's economy booms, land is becoming more valuable, particularly in the capital, Phnom Penh.

"Cambodia has so much land available for concessions," says Ngnon Meng, the director-general of the Cambodian chamber of commerce. "The government is very willing to do things for foreign investors too … when they come in they don't want to leave."

The economy grew by 5.5 per cent last year, according to government figures, with last year seeing a new law allowing foreign ownership of property. It also saw another new law allowing the government to expropriate land for developments it deems to be in the public interest.

The Cambodian ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries says that the government granted more than 1.38 million hectares of land in concessions to 142 different private companies between 1993 and June 2010.

"When land belongs to the government, they can do what they like with it," says Ngnon Meng. "Although some people are just trying to hold back our country's development with their protests."

Yet Cambodia has some very unique issues when it comes to land and the people who live on it.

Rooted in war

"It all goes back to the war," says Sung Bonna, the vice-president of the Cambodian Real Estate Developers Association. "Everything got completely mixed up back then."

In 1975, the notorious Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia, after years of fighting and US bombing.

One of their first acts was to evacuate the entire population of Phnom Penh. Forced into the countryside, this was the beginning of the horror of the Killing Fields.

Around 20 per cent of the country's population died in that carnage, while the Khmer Rouge also abolished private property, destroying land titles and records.

In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia. Many Cambodians fled to neighbouring Thailand, with conflict then continuing into the 1990s. This left an enormous displaced population, with many survivors moving to areas because they were safe and offered a chance of survival.

Boueng Kak Lake was one such place. Many of those there now were born in refugee camps in Thailand, or remember all too well the horrors of that era.

"In 1979, the Khmer Rouge shot my husband in front of me, by the roadside, as we tried to get back into Phnom Penh," says 67-year-old Ngin Savoeun. Her house was flooded with sand and water last November. "I've lost everything now," she says. "I had no time to take anything away when they started flooding my home. I survived the Khmer Rouge and now this."

Land denied

In 2001, the Cambodian government issued a new land law recognising the problem of land title. If you could show you had lived in a place for five years continuously, and there were no challenges, you could apply for a title.

Many at Boeung Kak, who had been there since the early 1980s, applied.

Yet, "in early 2007, the residents were denied title en masse," according to a January 2011 report on the issue from Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, an NGO advocating for the residents. "In the same month, the Cambodian government entered into a 99-year lease agreement with private developer Shukaku Inc.," the report continues.

A representative of Shukaku declined to comment on this story when contacted.

While this was going on, the World Bank - along with the German, Canadian and Finnish national overseas development organisations - was cooperating with the Cambodian government in a project to assess and award land titles across the country.

Too little too late

Last week, the Bank announced the results of an internal inquiry into this project. The inquiry found that "residents in the Boeung Kak Lake area were denied access to due process of adjudication of their property claims and were displaced in violation of the policies the Bank agreed with the government for handling resettlement".

The Bank admitted failings in the project and called on the government to stop the evictions.

The Cambodian ministry of land management then responded in an official statement that Boeung Kak had been outside the remit of the project and thus was "not under the conditions set for social safeguards".

Now, residents are calling for the Bank - and other international agencies - to take stronger action.

"Only foreign pressure can help us now," says resident and local organiser Tep Vanny. "We believe the companies are tied to the government and when we protest, we are threatened and no one listens. Please, see what is happening here."

Time may also be running out. Last week, Vanny says the remaining residents were given seven days to accept the company's offer of $8,500 compensation and demolish their homes, or get nothing.

"We would rather die here," says Vanny. "People must also understand this. This is our home and we will not leave."


Source: Al Jazeera

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Unions meet over worries in draft law

Cambodian garment factory workers travel together in motor carts to get home from work at the Sala Lek Pram village, Kampong Chhnang province.


Trade unions say they are concerned that a draft law under consideration by the government will be used to attack or dismantle group’s that do not follow the government line.

A coalition of factory unions met Tuesday over the draft law, currently under consideration at the Ministry of Labor.

Concerns over the draft law echo similar worries by NGOs on a draft law to further regulate that sector.

Among their concerns are provisions in the draft that requires a request for registration, a list of dues-paying members or other leaders, and report requirements of an action plan to the government.

The law also allows for unions to be dissolved by court order following complaints by a third party or the government. It also allows for fines of between $500 and $2,500 and jail sentences as high as three years for union leaders in breach of regulations.

“The current draft law is a strong restriction on the rights and freedoms in the establishment and participation of trade union activities,” Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, told reporters after Tuesday’s meeting. “If the draft is passed without the recommendations of the trade unions, non-government unions will not have a presence in Cambodia.”

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Free Trade Union, said the draft would silence union leaders and seriously restrict the rights of unions. He called the draft in contravention to the International Labor Convention and the Cambodian constitution.

Moeun Tola, an official at the Community Legal Education Center, said the draft law provides a system of permissions for trade unions and hands more power to the Ministry of Labor in approving unions.

However, Huy Han Song, undersectary of state for the Ministry of Labor, said the draft was aimed at “social harmony” and not to pressure any certain group.

Cambodia’s sometimes unruly garment sector has 62 different unions, though some of those stand by government and factory owners, according to union leaders.

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Cambodia ready to join ASEAN-proposed meetings on border conflict with Thailand: PM

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday Cambodia is already prepared itself for the ASEAN- proposed meetings on March 24 on Cambodia-Thailand border conflict near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple.

"Cambodia has already prepared to depart for Cambodia-Thai General Border Committee and Joint Border Committee on Demarcation for Land Boundary in Bogor, Indonesia on March 24-25 under the presence of ASEAN chair," he said during a graduation ceremony for students at the Royal University of Law and Economics. "Now we are waiting Thai side's confirmation of participation."

Hun Sen repeated that ASEAN chair has to join in the opening ceremony of the meetings, and after Cambodia and Thailand discuss, the two sides have to report to ASEAN chair about the results.

"And if any agreement needs to be signed between Cambodia and Thailand during the meetings, Cambodia will ask the third party (ASEAN chair) to sign together," he said.

Cambodia's General Border Committee will be lead by Defense Minister Tea Banh and the Joint Border Committee will be lead by Var Kimhong, the president of it.

Meanwhile, the premier said that so far, the tension between Cambodian and Thai troops over the border dispute is rather calm and troops from the two sides even played volleyballs together over the weekend.

"However, it's still fragile, I hope that both sides will continue to exercise their most restraints," he said.

The premier announced that Cambodia will no longer allow Thai troops to come to worship at Wat Keo Sekha Kiri Svarak pagoda next to Preah Vihear temple.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the Temple of Preah Vihear belonged to Cambodia; however, the row over the 4.6-square-km territory around the temple has never been resolved.

Conflict occurred just a week after Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008, since then both sides have built up military forces along the border, and periodic clashes happened, resulted in deaths of troops on both sides.

The latest clashes on Feb. 4-7, unleashed a barrage of artillery shells on both sides of the border, had killed and wounded many soldiers and citizens of both sides, and caused tens of thousands of the two countries' villagers nearby the disputed areas fleeing for safe shelters.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua

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Massive earthquake in Japan harms its economy, aid abroad: Cambodia PM

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday the massive earthquake in Japan on March 11 will not only damage Japanese economy, but also will affect Japanese assistance overseas.

"The destruction by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan were the worst and caused hugely losses both human lives and properties," he made the remarks during a graduation ceremony for students at the Royal University of Law and Economics.

"The natural disaster will impact both Japanese economy and Japan's internationally obligatory implementation abroad including Cambodia."

The premier said that tomorrow (Tuesday), Masafumi Kuroki, ambassador of Japan will still sign up to provide a grant aid package of 94 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for flood protection, water distribution system, and demining activities.

He confirmed that so far, there is no report on Cambodian students were killed or injured in the massive earthquake in Japan.

A total of 1,598 people have been killed and 1,720 others are still missing by 8:00 a.m. (2300 GMT) Monday in Japan following Friday's catastrophic earthquake 9.0 magnitudes on the Richter scale and ensuing enormous tsunami, said the National Police Agency.

Source: Xinhua

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Riel deal for new bourse

CAMBODIA’S stock exchange will require listings in riel but will initially allow dual currency settlements, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia.

“The issuing of securities shall be completed in riel and the quotation of securities in the [Cambodia Securities Exchange] shall be conducted in riel,” it said in a statement issued late last week.

Settlements between buyers and sellers, however, will be allowed in both dollars and riel during the first three years of the bourse’s operation, it said.

Government policy is to promote usage of the domestic currency in order to facilitate economic development, said SECC Director General Ming Bankosal. The dual options for settlements reflected the widespread use of the dollar, he said.

“We will use the riel, but we also recognise [there is interest in] widely using US dollars in the Cambodian securities markets,” he said yesterday.

The Cambodian economy is currently highly dollarised. The National Bank of Cambodia has estimated the greenback accounts for more than 90 percent of currency in circulation, but has also stated it is committed to dedollarisation.

Private sector officials said yesterday they were supportive of the decision.

ACLEDA Bank CEO and President In Channy said yesterday that initially allowing bourse settlement in either dollars or riel would invite more participation in the exchange, which is due to launch this July.

Banks currently more deposits than outstanding loans, meaning there was excess liquidity available which could be invested in securities, he said. “The stock exchange does allow small investors the great opportunity of owning a portion of … a large corporation,” he said.

Leopard Capital Managing Partner Scott Lewis said most countries – including neighbouring Laos – successfully used local currencies for listings. “The government has a clear policy to encourage use of the riel and I think it’s appropriate to list the stocks in riel,” he said yesterday.

Although there could be concerns over currency risk, the government does keep the riel in a fairly tight band against the United States dollar, he said. He also hoped companies would continue to be allowed to disclose financial results and complete accounting in dollars.

Leopard has two interests in the Cambodian exchange – it has a few companies in its portfolio that may list, and could also pursue opportunities to buy shares in some of the first companies to list.

Scott Lewis also stressed that it was important that companies were ready to float and the regulatory framework was in place for the exchange to succeed.

“If that takes six months or it takes three years, I’m indifferent. I’d rather have them do it right, and more time allows more companies to become mature and become listing candidates,” he said. “So I don’t think there’s any rush.”
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Cambodia approves rubber plantation—in national park

The Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, has approved a 9,000 hectare (22,200 acre) rubber plantation in Virachey National Park despite its status as a protected area, reports the Phnom Penh Post. The park is also listed as an ASEAN Heritage Park.

Spanning 332,500 hectares in Ratanakkiri province, Virachey National Park, is Cambodia's largest.

The concession to clearcut the forest and establish a rubber plantation was awarded to Srun Sovannaphoum Investment Co Ltd.

"It is good because that area is uninhabited, so when the company comes to invest they will also construct a road,” Ratanakkiri provincial governor Pav Hamphan told the Phnom Penh Post. Villagers in another region of Cambodia are protesting the loss of their forest, known as Prey Lang, to rubber plantations.

“Cutting some part of Virachey National Park may not affect villagers, but it seriously affects the forest and this province will lose even more forest land,” Pen Bonnar, coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, told the Phnom Penh Post

The World Bank has invested $5 million into managing Virachey National Park, which has suffered from illegal logging.

The rubber plantation concession is not the first time Cambodia has handed parts of the park over to private industry. In 2007 the government granted Australian gold-mining company, Indochine Mining, rights to exploratory mining in half the park.

The wildlife of Virachey National Park have been little studied, but a Rapid Assessment Survey (RAP) in 2007 found evidence of healthy populations of dholes—listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List—inhabiting the park, in addition to gaurs, yellow-cheeked gibbons, stump-tailed macaques, Asiatic black bears, Malayan sun bears, and Asian small-clawed otters. The short survey also found a number of species that may be unknown to science. Read more!

Thai Villagers Sue Cambodia

Following the Thailand-Cambodia dispute, villagers from Thailand border, petitioned to sue Cambodian government for the damages caused by the cannon and Missile-BM21 fires from Cambodia, requesting over 2 Billion Baht in compensation.

Srisaket, 10th March 2011 [PDN]: Mr. Weerayut Duangkaew, Sub-district Chief of Saothongchai, Kantaralak, Srisaket stated that villagers from 7 sub-districts, including Poomsaron village, have united together to sign a petition for the damages caused by the Thailand-Cambodia dispute. The village people planned to sue Cambodia reaching various levels of authority – first to the World Court or ICJ, proceeding through to the District Chief Officer of Kantaralak, forwarding to the Governor of Srisaket, then to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Prime Minister respectively.

About 50,000 villagers joined together and calculated the requested compensation amount. The costs were the multiple of the people by their daily income (100 Baht/day) by 30 days. The estimated reimbursement was a grand total of 150 million Baht. Furthermore, farming total damage costs for 600 Rai were around 9,000,000 Baht at 15,000 Baht per Rai.

Personal compensation was also evaluated. 1 million Baht compensation was requested for each of the 7 houses burnt. Partial house damages was priced at 300,000 Baht per house. One dead person was worth around 1,500,000 Baht. The compensation amount was a grand total of approximately 2,239,905,000 Baht.
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Cambodia and Thailand agree to UNESCO meeting over damaged temple site

Representatives of Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to a United Nations-sponsored meeting to discuss ways to safeguard the Preah Vihear Temple, a World Heritage List site that was damaged during border clashes between the South-East Asian neighbours earlier this year.

The two sides will meet at the Paris headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on 25 May, the agency reported this week.

The agreement follows a recent mission to Cambodia and Thailand by Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Preah Vihear, who met with the prime ministers of the two nations and other senior officials.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement that the main aim of the discussions on 25 May will be “further dialogue on the effective conservation of Preah Vihear.”

An 11th-century Hindu temple, Preah Vihear was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2008 in recognition of its outstanding universal value. Considered an outstanding example of Khmer architecture, it consists of a complex of sanctuaries linked by pavements and staircases on an 800-metre-long axis.

Ms. Bokova said she has also been briefing both Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the latest developments.

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Paedophile who ran Cambodian Orphanage jailed for abusing children

By James McCarthy, Western Mail


A PAEDOPHILE in charge of an orphanage has been jailed in Cambodia for abusing the children he was looking after.

Nicholas Patrick Griffin was arrested last October after leaving the UK in 2006 and setting up the Cambodia Orphan Fund in Siem Reap a year later.

Griffin, 53, from Llangollen, has now been sentenced to two years, one suspended, for offences against children.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) said officers worked with the Cambodian National Police (CNP) to bring Griffin and another man Matthew Harland, 38, to justice.

Peter Davies, lead police officer at CEOP, said: "Two convictions in two days shows that like never before this crime will not be tolerated, no matter where in the world you think you can go to escape capture.

"Any offender who thinks they can come to such wonderful places as Cambodia and target young, vulnerable children for sexual gratification should think again.

"These are major convictions and show the severity in which we all view this crime.

"I am here at the moment seeing at first hand the work we have been doing building an International Child Protection Network all dedicated to forming partnerships, sharing expertise and working collaboratively to bring such offenders to justice.

"That work continues at pace and underpins the successes we see today.

"Our message is clear the world is smaller for offenders who think they can hide in order to abuse children.

"You will not go off our radar."

Griffin was arrested in a dawn raid last year that saw dozens of officers rescue as many as 100 youngsters. They were moved to a safe house.

He had been under investigation for more than two years following suspicions surrounding the fortress like orphanage, which housed youngsters up to the age of 18.

Griffin ran several centres for deprived and vulnerable children in one of south-east Asias poorest countries.

In a statement on the Cambodia Orphan Funds website posted during the investigation Lidia Linde, of the fund, said she wanted to guarantee that this nightmare would never happen again.

She said she was working to close down the orphanage and open a new body called Together for Cambodia.

Sun Bun Thorng, of Siem Reaps anti-human trafficking department, claimed Griffin faced several charges of child molestation in 2008. These were dropped due to lack of evidence.

CEOP said Harland will spend seven years in prison, after buying sex from two young girls.

He fled to the Asian country in 2005 after jumping bail in Hampshire on charges of possession of child abuse images.

In May last year, CEOP received intelligence from childrens organisation Action Pour Les Enfants saying Harland had surfaced in Cambodia.

He was arrested weeks later with reports saying he was living in a rented house with two young girls. CEOP then deployed officers to the country following a request for assistance from the CNP. He was arrested on May 20.

Cambodia is engaged in a major drive to net foreign paedophiles.

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Cambodia expresses deep sympathy to Japan over massive quake

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday expressed a deep sympathy to Japan over the massive earthquake that struck Friday and donate 100,000 U.S. dollars as relief to the victims.

In a message to Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan on Saturday, Hun Sen wrote: "I feel extremely saddened to hear about the loss of hundreds of lives, many injuries and colossal damages in the most powerful earthquakes and Tsunami that struck your country in the afternoon of March 11."

Hun Sen further said, "On behalf of the government of Cambodia and Cambodian people, may I convey to Your Excellency and the people of Japan, particularly the victims and members of the bereaved families my deepest sympathy and profound condolences on the tragic losses and great suffering brought about by this natural disasters."

The government of Cambodia would also like to make a very modest contribution of 100,000 U.S. dollars for the relief of the victims, he said.

Meanwhile, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong also sent a message to his Japanese counterpart Takeaki Matsumoto to express his deepest sympathy and condolences to the people of Japan on their losses and suffering due to this natural disaster.

Hundreds of deaths and extensive devastation have been reported since the earthquake, measuring 8.8 magnitudes on the Richter scale, hit northeastern Japan on Friday afternoon and triggered a massive tsunami in the Pacific Ocean.

Source: Xinhua

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Cambodia to use local currency on stock exchange

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA will use the local currency for trading on its soon-to-be-launched stock exchange, officials said on Saturday, in a bid to boost the use of the riel in the heavily dollarised country.

Stock quotations must be in riel only, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) said in a statement on its website, ending a debate about whether listings on the bourse, set to open in July, should be in riel, US dollars or a combination of both.

But for the first three years, 'if buyers and sellers both agree, then they can arrange to settle payments in US dollars", Chan Narith, director of the SECC's securities market supervision department, told AFP.

Cambodia has a long-term goal to reduce reliance on the greenback, which according to the Asian Development Bank makes up more than 90 per cent of all currency in circulation in Cambodia.

The country signed an agreement in 2008 with representatives from South Korea's stock exchange, the Korea Exchange (KRX), Asia's fourth-largest bourse operator, to establish a stock market in 2009 but the launch date has been pushed back twice.

While still among one of the world's poorest countries, Cambodia has emerged from decades of conflict as one of the region's rising economies. -- AFP

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Cambodia and Thailand agree to UN-sponsored meeting over temple damage

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) — Cambodia and Thailand on Friday agreed to a United Nations-sponsored meeting over the damage caused to an historic temple during the recent border clashes.

Representatives from both countries will meet to discuss ways to safeguard the Preah Vihear Temple, a World Heritage List site. The meeting will be held at the Paris headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on May 25.

The meeting was the result of the efforts from Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Preah Vihear. The UN body sent a mission to assess the damage caused to the temple which dates back to the 11th century and is located on the Cambodian side of the border.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said that the upcoming dialogue will focus on the effective conservation of Preah Vihear. In February, clashes between the two countries resumed as both sides claimed the disputed territory in which the temple is located.

Tensions first escalated between the two countries in July 2008 following the build-up of military forces near the Preah Vihear temple. The United Nations Security Council urged both sides to establish a permanent ceasefire after at least 10 people were killed.

In 2008, the Hindu temple, Preah Vihear, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding universal value. It is considered an outstanding example of Khmer architecture and consists of a complex of sanctuaries linked by pavements and staircases on an 800-metre-long axis.

“World Heritage sites are the heritage of all humanity and the international community has a special responsibility to safeguard them. This requires a collective effort that must be undertaken in a spirit of consultation and dialogue,” said Bokova.

The temple dedicated to Shiva, was built in the first half of the 11th century AD. The site is exceptional for the quality of its carved stone ornamentation and its architecture, adapted to the natural environment and the religious function of the temple.

“Heritage should unite people and serve as an instrument of dialogue and mutual understanding and not of conflict,” added the UNESCO Director-General. Read more!

Thailand non-committal to joining proposed border meeting with Cambodia: FM

By Sinfah Tunsarawuth

BANGKOK, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Thailand has been non-committal to joining meetings with Cambodia later this month as proposed by Indonesia to discuss the two countries' border dispute, according to a Thai Foreign Ministry statement.

Meanwhile, the nationalistic "yellow-shirt" People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) on Thursday submitted a letter to the Indonesian ambassador in Bangkok in protesting against a planned Indonesian observer mission to the Thai-Cambodian disputed border.

PAD said in the letter that the coming of the Indonesian observers would amount to "a foreign military operation to control Thai military operations defending Thai sovereignty, which has been deliberately violated by Cambodia."

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, the current ASEAN chair, has proposed that Thailand and Cambodia meet later this month to solve their border dispute under the existing General Border Committee (GBC), co-chaired by the defense ministers of both nations, and separately under Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC), co-chaired by the two countries' senior officials, according to media reports.

Natalegawa made the proposal in a letter sent on Wednesday to Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and other ASEAN foreign ministers. The GBC and JBC meetings were proposed on March 24-25 in Bogor, Indonesia.

Natalegawa also said in the letter that Cambodia has responded positively to the Terms of Reference (TOR) in sending the Indonesian observers.

"I am looking forward to hearing positive responses from Thailand," he was quoted as saying in his letter.

The sending of Indonesian observers was a result of the informal meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations on Feb. 22 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said in the statement on Thursday that: "Thailand welcomes Cambodia's readiness to attend the said meetings as it has all along been trying to convene bilateral negotiations with Cambodia."

Thani said the proposed GBC meeting would allow the two countries to discuss the TOR of the Indonesian observers.

However, he said in regard to the GBC meeting, "details with regard to the dates, venue and appropriate engagement of Indonesia remain matters to be discussed further."

He continued: "It is noted that at this juncture Cambodia has proposed that Indonesia attend the opening ceremony, and that, after the conclusion of the said meeting, both countries would share its outcome with Indonesia."

For the JBC meeting, Thani said Thailand had wanted to hold such a meeting in February "a proposal which Cambodia had first agreed to in principle before subsequently changing its position."

He continued: "However, it had been the Cambodian side which maintained that the three draft agreed minutes of the previous JBC meetings be approved by the Thai Parliament first before the said meeting could be convened."

A joint sitting of the House of Representatives and Senate is expected to deliberate and vote on the three draft minutes, seen as agreements that could affect Thai territory, later this month.

Thani's statement did not say clearly whether Thailand was prepared to join the GBC and JBC meetings on March 24-25 in Bogor.

PAD, which has been protesting against the government on its alleged mishandling of the Thai-Cambodian border dispute since Jan. 25, said in its letter to the Indonesian ambassador that the proposed sending of the Indonesian observers would not comply with the bilateral arrangement of Thailand and Cambodia on solving the border dispute, which is involved with a 4.6-square kilometer piece of land around the Preah Vihear temple.

The PAD letter also said the TOR of Indonesian observers could be seen as an agreement that would alter Thailand's sovereign border and, hence, require an approval from the bicameral parliament first.

In launching its rally in January, PAD wanted the Thai government to scrap the existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Thailand and Cambodia in 2000 as the framework for settling the two countries' border dispute.

They also urged the government to move out Cambodians who are occupying the disputed areas, and to pull out as a party to the World Heritage Convention, under which the Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as a World Heritage site by Cambodia in July 2008.

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Thai embassy in Phnom Penh seeks Veera's signature for royal pardon petition

BANGKOK, March 10 - The Thai embassy in Phnom Penh will ask two Thai Patriots Network activists convicted and detained for espionage to endorse the letters seeking royal pardon for them from the Cambodian monarch on Friday, the secretary to the Thai foreign minister said today.

Chavanond Intarakomalayasut, secretary to the Thai foreign minister, disclosed the information after the mother of Veera Somkwamkid met with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva Wednesday seeking the government’s help to secure the release of her son. She said Mr Veera was "seriously ill" while serving jail sentence in Preysar Prison as he has not been given appropriate medical treatment and nutrition.

Mr Veera and his secretary Ratree Pipattanapaiboon were convicted by a Cambodian court on Feb 1 for espionage, illegal entry, and trespassing in a military zone. The 53-year-old activist was sentenced to an eight-year jail term while Ms Ratree was handed a six-year jail term.

Mr Chavanond said the lawyers of Mr Veera and Ms Ratree have finished drafting the royal pardon documents in the Cambodian language and forwarded them to the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh for translation into Thai.

Embassy officials will bring the letters to the two detainees on Friday so that they could read the details and endorse the papers.

The embassy would be able to send the royal pardon letters to the Cambodian foreign ministry within next week, said Mr Chavanond, adding that the Cambodian ministry will have to forward the letters to the Justice Ministry and then the Cambodia's Office of the Prime Minister.

Following recommendations regarding a prisoner exchange, the secretary stated the foreign ministry already considered that approach but later learned that such transfers do not cover national security cases and that both Mr Veera and Ms Ratree must first serve at least one-third of their jail time.

"Moreover, with the prisoner exchange, they would also have to [continue] imprisonment in Thailand," said Mr Chavanond. "So the ministry advised them to seek a royal pardon, an option which can proceed immediately. The two detainees agreed with the idea and have signed documents expressing their will to use such as approach."

Mr Chavanond added that he will visit Phnom Penh seeking to take Mr Veera from jail for medical treatment and is now awaiting a reply from the Cambodian authorities whether they will allow him to visit the convicts.

The prime minister asserted Thursday that Mr Veera's health problem is a cause of concern for his government, and that seeking a royal pardon is the better option to help them. (MCOT online news)

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Thailand wants talks wIth CambodIa on observers

By The Nation


Thailand wants to discuss plans for Indonesian observation of the border conflict with Cambodia during boundary committee meetings in Indonesia later this month, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

As Asean chair, Indonesia has proposed hosting the Thailand-Cambodia Joint Boundary Committee (JBC) on demarcation and the General Border Committee (GBC) in Bogor from March 24-25.

Cambodia has said it agrees to the proposal and will attend the meetings of the two bodies.

Phnom Penh insisted the meetings could not be bilateral discussions between the two parties, asking for Indonesia to act as a "referee" over the matter.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said Thailand regarded the meetings as bilateral although Indonesia would observe proceedings.

Thailand wants discussions on the terms of reference (TOR) for Indonesian observers on the border between the two countries at the disputed area adjacent to the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear, he said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thailand was ready to discuss the border matter with Cambodia and hoped the border meetings in Indonesia could ease border tension.

"But we have to look at the form of the meetings since there will be a third country to engage with the issue," he said.

"The JBC and GBC have their own mechanisms but it would be no problem if anybody sat in as a witness," he said. "Indonesia, as the chair of Asean, will acknowledge the meetings but it will not intervene in the content of the meetings."

Thailand and Cambodia have long been at loggerheads over the boundary issue. The latest clashes took place from February 4-7 and claimed around 10 lives including three civilians on both sides.

Cambodia brought up the issue with the United Nations Security Council and Asean last month.

The UN urged Asean to enforce a "permanent ceasefire" at the border areas. Indonesia came up with a plan to dispatch observers to the disputed border. The TOR has been sent to the two for consideration. Phnom Penh has agreed to the terms, though Thailand is still studying them.


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World Bank urges Cambodia to stop mass eviction

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – The World Bank called on Cambodia Wednesday to halt a mass eviction taking place in the capital amid mounting criticism over forced displacements in the country.

"We are deeply troubled and frustrated about the people who are being forced from their homes," World Bank president Robert Zoellick said in a statement.

A private company headed by a ruling party politician is filling in a lake in central Phnom Penh for commercial development, a controversial project that will eventually displace some 4,000 lakeside families.

Half the residents living on the shores of the Boeung Kak lake have already left, but they received only limited compensation from the company, according to a local housing rights group.

The remaining residents have held frequent protests in recent weeks, urging the company and the government to provide adequate compensation or allow them to stay in their homes.

The Bank is offering the Cambodian government "financing and technical advice to find practical solutions," Zoellick said. "We have repeatedly called on the government to end the evictions."

Cambodia has faced mounting criticism over a spate of forced evictions in recent years.

Last month the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia, Surya Subedi, said he was "deeply concerned" about land rights violations.

In 2009 alone, at least 26 cases of mass evictions displaced approximately 27,000 people across the country, according to a UN report issued last year.

Land disputes have been a major problem in the country since land ownership was abolished during the 1975-1979 rule of the communist Khmer Rouge. Many legal documents were lost during that time.

The World Bank started a land titling programme in Cambodia in 2002 to address these issues, but it failed to include the Boeung Kak lake residents.

The government cancelled the programme in 2009, saying it was "too difficult".

A investigation by the World Bank later found that the lake residents were displaced in violation of policies it had agreed with the government for handling resettlement.

The Bank recognised it had been too slow to respond to the evictions, however.

A spokeswoman for the Cambodian Ministry of Land Management refused to comment on the statement but said a government response was expected shortly.

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