Union leaders have been meeting in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh this week to look at ways to curb the garment industry's widespread use of temporary or short-term contracts for hiring workers - and have warned they could resort to strike action if changes aren't made.
The unions are uniting to put pressure on the government, factory owners and buyers to take steps to put an end to the practice, which they say is illegal.
The short-term, temporary contracts - referred to in Cambodia as 'fixed-duration contracts' - are repeatedly renewed. However, their use can lead to increased worker insecurity, denies workers benefits to which they are entitled, including maternity leave, and can coerce workers into forced overtime.
However while the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), which represents employers, confirmed that temporary contract are used, it warned foreign investors' interest would be harmed if the government backs the unions' requests.
Of major concern for the unions is the face that fixed-duration contracts are being used to avoid paying maternity leave to female staff, who make up the overwhelming majority of a workforce that produces about 85% of the Kingdom's exports.
"Women on fixed-duration contracts often have to choose between keeping their jobs and having children," said Chheng Kim Lang, a representative of the Cambodia Labour Confederation. She said that because the labour law requires employers to provide maternity leave to employees who have worked for them for one year, factory managers were using six-month contracts to avoid this.
Short-term contracts also hurt "labour productivity and corporate competitiveness by discouraging human resource development and jeopardising industrial relations", a statement from the union leaders said.
At some garment and footwear factories, up to 90% of staff are on short-term contracts, they said, adding that the use of such contracts is far less prevalent in countries whose garment industries compete with Cambodia's.
Although the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia says the labour ministry has interpreted the law to allow for the indefinite use of fixed-duration contracts, not all of its members use them.
Kevin Plenty, a member of GMAC's executive committee, said his company, Quantum Clothing (Cambodia) Ltd, uses long-term contracts "because they allow us to increase productivity and efficiency."
A study the sector's recruitment practices earlier this year warned the use of short-term employment contracts in Cambodia not only threatens to erode the industry's competitiveness but also violates labour laws and could lead to widespread unrest.
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Friday, December 23, 2011
CAMBODIA: Unions threaten strikes over short-term contracts
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Laos, Cambodia to strengthen relations
Dec 22, 2011 (Vientiane Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- VIENTIANE (VIENTIANE TIMES/ANN) -- The ruling parties of Laos and Cambodia signed an agreement in Vientiane on Wednesday to reaffirm their commitment to develop their relations for the benefit of the people of the two nations.
The agreement was reached during an official working visit to Laos by a high-level delegation from the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) from December 20-23.
Party Politburo Member and President of the Inspection Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee, Dr Bounthong Chitmany, representing the Party Central Committee signed the agreement with the CPP Standing Committee's Sim Ka.
Sim Ka is leading the high-level delegation from the CPP during the visit to Laos and in talks with LPRP leaders.
During the meeting, the two sides reported on the general situation in their respective countries and on Party activities in recent years.
They also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest before expressing their shared appreciation of the relations between the two Parties.
The two sides reaffirmed they would strengthen their relations for the benefit of the two parties, nations and people of Laos and Cambodia and to contribute to international peace, friendship and cooperation.
On the same day, the Cambodian delegation called on LPRP Politburo member and National Assembly President Pany Yathortou.
Pany said she appreciated Sim Ka's visit, which would contribute to consolidating the cooperative relations between Laos and Cambodia.
Sim Ka expressed his pleasure at the visit to Laos, to witness the progressive development of Laos under the leadership of the LPRP.
He appreciated the relations between the LPRP and the CPP and was confident that the two parties would continue to share their experiences in various fields for the mutual benefit of their two countries.
The Cambodian delegation will also visit sites of historical and cultural interest in Vientiane and Vientiane province.
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'Cambodia to build bigger roles for ASEAN Secretariat, Secretary General'
PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) - Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Thursday afternoon that as the 2012's ASEAN chair, the country would empower bigger and stronger roles for the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its secretary general.
The premier's remarks were made during a meeting with the visiting ASEAN's Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan at the Peace Palace.
He said the ASEAN Secretariat is the ASEAN's core and is permanently in charge of ASEAN's affairs, whilst each member country is just rotating chair, so Cambodia wants ASEAN Secretariat and its Secretary General to have bigger and stronger roles for the interests of the whole ASEAN.
The premier advised Surin to prepare documents relevant to the roles of ASEAN Secretariat and its Secretary General for Cambodia when it is the chair next year in order to discuss and decide to empower them bigger and stronger roles.
Surin said the ASEAN Secretariat would try all its best to help Cambodia chair ASEAN successfully next year and added that all ASEAN members and dialogue partners have expressed their supports for Cambodia as the rotating ASEAN chair in 2012 and are ready to help the country by all means.
Surin arrived here on Dec. 21 for a 3-day visit to discuss Cambodia's chairmanship of ASEAN in 2012.
Earlier in the day, he held talks with Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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Cambodia: Revise or Abandon Draft NGO Law - Donors Should Insist on Protections for Civil Society
For immediate release
Cambodia: Revise or Abandon Draft NGO Law
Donors Should Insist on Protections for Civil Society
(Bangkok, December 22, 2011) – Donors, who provide approximately half of Cambodia’s national budget, should make clear to the Cambodian government that the fourth draft of the Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO) must be revised to protect civil society or be withdrawn, a group of concerned international human rights organizations said today. Any revisions should involve meaningful consultation with civil society organizations and aim to support their activities instead of creating a legal framework allowing for arbitrary closure of organizations or the denial of registration.
The groups involved are Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, Freedom House, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Article 19, Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), Civil Rights Defenders, Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, Centre for Law and Democracy, Protection International, and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a joint program of the International Federation for Human Rights - FIDH, and the World Organisation Against Torture - OMCT).
“The Cambodian government is pressing forward with a draft law that grants it broad authority to make arbitrary decisions about which groups can operate and which cannot,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Civil society delivers essential services and acts as a constructive watchdog over government and private sector activities. This law is hardly the sort of ‘reform’ that will benefit Cambodian citizens. Donors should say no to this farce.”
The 4th draft of the LANGO contains vague and unspecified terms that will enable the government to target critics by ordering their closure or denying them registration, the groups said. These terms should be clarified, and new and unnecessary barriers to the registration and operations of international NGOs should be eliminated. Furthermore, protections should be established to ensure that if an organization decides not to register, it is not denied legal status and therefore rendered incapacitated. Provisions placing burdensome notification requirements on community-based organizations should be removed.
Governments have a legitimate regulatory interest in providing benefits to organizations that become legal entities and preventing criminal activity. But such regulations cannot be used as a cover to undermine rights to freedom of association, expression and assembly, which are protected under the Cambodian constitution and international treaties to which Cambodia is a party.
The Cambodian context is critical for understanding the risk to Cambodia’s civil society should the current draft of LANGO pass, the groups said. Cambodian governance is still missing the checks and balances found in functioning democracies that limit arbitrary action by the executive branch of government. Government officials who react most harshly to NGO criticisms frequently are found to have a financial stake in the case at hand. Therefore, to argue that Cambodia should have a specific law on NGOs simply because other countries have one ignores the Cambodian government’s increasing actions to constrict public space for pluralistic debate and peaceful expression of views.
The fourth draft of LANGO fails to establish clear provisions to justify denial of registration to associations or NGOs. It violates Cambodia’s obligations under international law, such as under article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cambodia is party. LANGO also fails to include clear and objective standards in articles 28 and 29 concerning suspension or termination of registration. Article 28 provides that domestic organizations can be “dissolved by court decisions” but no further details are given, leaving matters to the discretion of a judiciary where political interference is common.
There are no provisions for appealing a suspension or termination and the law lacks procedural safeguards such as advance notice of regulatory action, opportunities to resolve problems prior to termination or suspension, or limiting termination to a sanction of last resort. Such provisions are extremely worrisome given the political and governance context of Cambodia, which is characterized by endemic corruption, arbitrary application of punitive legislation and an absence of judicial independence, the groups said. The Ministry of Interior’s suspension in August of the NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) is a harbinger of the sudden, unilateral, and non-transparent actions this law will legitimize. The government has still failed to adequately indicate the legal basis for STT’s suspension.
“Many officials in the Cambodian government have never accepted that civil society should operate independently or criticize their decisions,” said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, the director of Southeast Asia Program at Freedom House. “A major success of the UNTAC peacekeeping mission 20 years ago was to create this space for civil society. Now it is up to donors to protect it and ensure NGOs can continue to independently provide their essential services to Cambodians.”
Despite promises by the Cambodian government to eliminate mandatory registration, the fourth draft makes legal status dependent on registration, and thus essentially maintains the requirement. The fourth draft represents a bait-and-switch by removing the mandatory clause but then requiring an organization to register if it wants to obtain legal status. Without legal status, it is unclear under the draft law whether an association or NGO will be able to operate in Cambodia since that status is required to enter into legal contracts, open bank accounts, hire staff, import materials, and collaborate with partners “for implementing aid projects according to the existing laws.”
This arrangement effectively undermines respect for the right to freedom of association and cynically presents local associations and NGOs with the choice of either registering or facing constant bureaucratic roadblocks in their work. Although community-based organizations will no longer have to register, under article 5 of the draft law they will be required to provide prior written notice to local authorities who could be easily used to restrict their work.
The groups also expressed serious concerns that this fourth draft specifically targets international NGOs (INGOs) and would severely hamper both their projects and their advocacy efforts to promote good governance and development approaches that respect human rights. Article 17 of the draft law sets out an overly broad and vague standard that will allow the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) to use wide discretion in dealing with INGOs, including terminating a group’s registration if the ministry decides that the INGO has conducted activities that “jeopardize peace, stability and public order…or harm the national security, national unity, culture, customs and traditions of the Cambodian national society.” Moreover, the Memoranda of Understanding that INGOs would have to negotiate with ministry is valid for only three years, resulting in a de facto re-registration process. INGOs also will have no right to appeal any termination of their registration.
“This latest version of the law can be arbitrarily misused to root out international NGOs who employ rights-based development approaches and offer constructive but critical opinions and critiques of the government’s policies and practices,” said Yap Swee Seng, Executive Director of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA).
Finally, passage of this law is not necessary in light of existing Cambodian legislation addressing legitimate regulatory concerns: NGOs can obtain legal status through the newly effective Civil Code. Civil Code sections 46-118 provide details on registration and dissolution of non-profit legal entities, the right to appeal government decisions, and far less burdensome registration requirements. The Penal Code and Anti-Corruption Law address fraud; meanwhile INGOs already obtain legal standing through Memoranda of Understanding with the government.
“Cambodia’s donors should press the Ministry of Interior to extend the consultation period on the fourth draft of LANGO so that all viewpoints and voices are heard,” said FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen and OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock.
Simon Taylor, Director of Global Witness, concluded “At stake now is the last 17 years of development assistance in Cambodia and the extent to which the donors will be remembered for failing to prevent the removal of one of the few instruments of accountability in Cambodia, nurtured to a great extent thanks to their investments.”
For more information, please contact:
In Bangkok, Yap Swee Seng, Executive Director, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA): +66-81-868-9178 (mobile), yap@forum-asia.org
In Bangkok, Phil Robertson, Deputy Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch: +66-85-060-8406 (mobile), robertp@hrw.org
In Bangkok, Gayathry Venkiteswaran, Executive Director, Southeast Asian Press Alliance: +66-88-017-4810 (mobile), gayathry@seapa.org
In Geneva, Delphine Reculeau, Coordinator, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT: +41-22-809-4939, dr@omct.org
In Halifax, Canada, Toby Mendel, Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy: +1-902-431-3688, toby@law-democracy.org
In London, Mona Samari, ARTICLE 19 Senior Press Officer: + 44 (207) 324 2510, mona@article19.org
In London, Brad Adams, Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch: +44-7908-728-333, adamsb@hrw.org
In Paris, Arthur Manet, Press Officer, FIDH: +33-14-355-2518, amanet@fidh.org
In Stockholm, Brittis Edman, Program Director, Southeast Asia, Civil Rights Defenders: +46-70-722-6086, Brittis.Edman@civilrightsdefenders.org
In the United Kingdom, Jenny Bromley, Senior Campaigner, Global Witness: +44 7540 891 837, cambodia@globalwitness.org
In Vancouver, Gail Davidson, Executive Director, Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC): +1-604-738-0338, lrwc@portal.ca
In Washington, DC, Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, Southeast Asia Program/International Religious Freedom Consortium, Freedom House: +1-202-489-2578, vaughn@freedomhouse.org
.
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Hong Kong and Cambodia renew agreement on police co-operation
Hong Kong (HKSAR) - The Police of Hong Kong and Cambodia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on December 20 to renew the co-operation on combating transnational crime, including drug trafficking, economic crime, cyber crime and money laundering.
The MOU was signed by the Commissioner of Hong Kong Police(HKP), Mr Tsang Wai-hung, and the Commissioner General of the Cambodian National Police (CNP), Mr Savoeun Neth.
The agreement, signed during the Commissioner's visit to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, complements existing co-operation between HKP and CNP. It sets out the framework in tackling transnational crime and also bolsters the partnership in capacity building and professional development.
Following the signing ceremony, Mr Tsang held a meeting with senior CNP officers on various policing issues of mutual concern.
"Renewal of the MOU marks the commencement of enhanced co-operation between the two forces. Both sides are committed to assisting one another in practical term of policing," the Commissioner said.
He also made a courtesy call on the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Mr H.E.
SAR Kheng, who further reiterated the importance of police co-operation.
The Commissioner headed a five-member delegation, including the Director of Personnel and Training, Mr Ma Wai-luk, for the visit. They returned to Hong Kong today.
Police Report No. 182
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Cambodia Earns US$180mil Annually from Migrant Workers
PHNOM PENH, 22 DECEMBER, 2011: Cambodia has earned about US$180 million annually from migrant workers, working in four countries in Asia, according to a government's statistic released on Thursday, reported China's Xinhua news agency.
Some 126,000 Cambodian workers were working in Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, said the data, adding that the amount sent was direct income for their families, whom majority of them are poor and living in rural areas.
A separate report filed by Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training showed that by the end of July this year, Thailand was the biggest recipient country offering 8,464 jobs, while Malaysia was the second, offering 3,200 and South Korea ranked third with 3,144, respectively.
South Korea is seen as a big growing labour market for Cambodians this year.
Heng Sour, director general of Ministry Labour and Vocational Training, said a rough number of 5,957 Cambodians had been sent to work in South Korea in 2011, already double in number compared to a year earlier that recorded at 2,116 Cambodian workers under the employment permit system.
South Korea began to accept Cambodian workers in 1993 under industrial training system and such system lasted through 2006 with a total of 3,399.
Asia Foundation and the USAID have estimated that there are an average of 300,000 new labour forces in Cambodia, but only 20,000 to 30,000 are expected to get jobs.
Therefore, they said those new labour forces are looking for job opportunities in other countries, and are targeting Malaysia, Thailand, and South Korea, the richer nations.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Cambodia, Thailand agree to withdraw troops from disputed land around temple
By Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia and Thailand have agreed in principle to withdraw troops from a border area where a territorial dispute triggered deadly clashes.
The agreement was announced Wednesday after Thai Defense Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha met with his Cambodian counterpart, Tea Banh. It is meant to end combat over a small patch of land both countries claim around the ancient temple of Preah Vihear. Eighteen people were killed in the last round of fighting in April.
The new agreement calls for both sides to withdraw troops completely and simultaneously from a demilitarized zone demarcated by the Netherlands-based International Court of Justice, but sets no date. The court in July ordered troops from both countries to withdraw after Cambodia sought its help.
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Russian convicted of child sex charges gets royal pardon from Cambodian king
By Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A prison official says a Russian businessman convicted of sexually abusing more than a dozen girls in Cambodia has walked free after being granted a royal pardon.
Preah Sihanouk Prison director Pich Veasna says 45-year-old Alexander Trofimov was one of 360 prisoners granted amnesty by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. Trofimov had been convicted of buying sex from 17 girls between the ages of six and 13.
Before his arrest in October 2007 Trofimov was chairman of a Russian-led investment group developing a Cambodian tourist island.
Trofimov was originally sentenced to 17 years in jail but his term was slashed to seven years in August 2010.
Trofimov was one the higher profile cases in recent years in Cambodia’s efforts to crackdown on pedophiles.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Vietnam’s investment in Cambodia doubles in 2011
HCMC – Vietnam’s investment in the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia kept surging this year, accounting for over half of the country’s total outbound investment, of which the investment in Cambodia has doubled.
As of now, Vietnamese enterprises have invested in some 100 projects in Cambodia, with the total registered capital of US$2.1 billion. This statistics was published by the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment at the Mekong Investment Cooperation Forum 2011 held in HCMC last weekend.
In 2011 alone, local investors registered the investment capital worth over US$1 billion in the neighboring country, twice as much as the figure last year.
In addition, Vietnamese enterprises have to date also invested in 200 projects in Laos, worth US$3.3 billion in total registered capital. In the January-November period this year, Vietnam’s registered capital in this country amounted to US$500 million, rising by 15% year-on-year.
Currently, Laos attracted most of Vietnam’s overseas investment, followed by Cambodia in the second place. On the other hand, Vietnam is the third biggest investor in the two neighboring countries, after China and Thailand
The majority of Vietnamese investment projects in Laos and Cambodia are in the fields of forestry, agriculture, energy, mining, telecommunication, and banking. Among those, several large-scale projects in Laos will soon start service in 2012.
Big Vietnamese investors in Laos and Cambodia include the military-run Viettel, Vietnam Rubber Industry Group, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, and Saigon Invest Group.
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Thaksin hogs limelight as Thai PM struggles to shine
By Natnicha Chuwiruch
BANGKOK | Tue Dec 20, 2011 4:46pm IST
BANGKOK Dec 20 (Reuters) - Thailand's jet-setting, self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is carving out a more direct political role for himself in government led by his sister, a move that could rock a fragile peace in his deeply polarised country.
The billionaire who fled in 2008 before he was convicted in absentia of power abuse has spent the past week visiting Cambodia, Nepal and also Myanmar, smoothing the way, he says, for an official visit to the former Burma by his sister, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
According to the Bangkok Post newspaper, Thaksin said he was in Myanmar last Thursday and met President Thein Sein and retired former military dictator Than Shwe, although a source close to the fugitive tycoon told Reuters the visit was personal and no high-level meetings took place.
Despite his overthrow in a 2006 coup and his self-exile in Dubai, Thaksin, 62, has never faded from the Thai political scene and the landslide election win for Yingluck's Puea Thai Party in July has strengthened his hand.
He has been central to Thailand's six-year colour-coded crisis, backing two ruling parties led by his allies and the main focus of crippling street protests in 2007 and 2008 by anti-Thaksin "yellow shirts" and bloody counter demonstrations by his "red shirt" supporters in 2009 and 2010.
The latest moves, independent analysts say, may be counter-productive for the political neophyte Yingluck, who is trying -- with little success -- to emerge from behind Thaksin's shadow and assert herself as the real leader of Thailand.
It also risks striking a raw nerve for influential figures in the royalist establishment and the military that toppled him and crushed the subsequent red shirt street insurrections.
"Everyone knows Thaksin is the one controlling the new government from behind the scenes but no one (in the government) wants to come out and say it out loud," said Kan Yuanyong, director of the Siam Intelligence Unit think tank.
STEP TOO FAR
Kan said Thaksin, whose five-year ban from politics expires in May next year, had kept a low profile as a government advisor in 2008. But his latest moves to reassert himself, seemingly as representative of a country in which he is technically a criminal, could be a step too far.
"In the upcoming year, I think we could expect to see Thaksin trying even harder to come back into power," he added.
The Myanmar visit, which the Post quoted Thaksin as saying was to smooth the way for Yingluck's trip, followed a similar visit to Cambodia in September, a few days before the first official visit by his 44-year-old sister, who critics deride as his "puppet."
Yingluck held separate meetings on Tuesday with Thein Sein and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi while in Myanmar.
Thaksin remains loved and loathed in equal measures in Thailand and his latest activities follow moves by the new government to seek out legal avenues to aid his return.
Some ministers close to Thaksin have made no secret that they would like to see his conviction overturned, something that could re-ignite tensions in a country where he has powerful enemies -- who could move against Yingluck's government.
A proposed plan to amend an amnesty law that would have allowed Thaksin to return a free man was aborted by Yingluck's government last month after it prompted an outcry from the main opposition party and anti-Thaksin groups.
The opposition last week cried foul over a decision by Foreign Minister Surapong Towijakchaikul -- a distant relative of Thaksin -- to reissue his Thai passport after it was rescinded two years ago by a previous government.
Sukhum Nuansakun, a retired political scientist, said that although Thaksin was trying to assist his inexperienced sister, his prime motivation was to stay in the spotlight.
"It's not like he would be in competition with his sister," he said. "He wants everyone to see that he still has a role in this new government." (Writing and additional reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Ed Lane)
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FM Surapong accused of failing to protect Thailand's interest
Democrat spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalsut said the foreign minister failed to protest when Unesco's international coordinating committee (ICC) last Wednesday inspected the ancient Preah Vihear temple on the border between the two countries.
Both Thailand and Cambodia claim sovereignty over a 4.6squarekilometre area next to Preah Vihear - known as Phra Wihan in Thai - which the World Court said in 1962 belonged to Cambodia.
Meanwhile Surapong dismissed the accusation as a Democrat attempt to distort facts for political benefit. "I call on the opposition to stop playing politics. They should avoid causing damage to the country by playing political games," he said.
Chavanond said the Cabinet in December 2008 resolved to reserve Thailand's right for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation to notify the country before entering the area claimed by Thailand to examine the temple.
He said Unesco was aware of the Cabinet resolution as it was informed by Thailand's ambassador to France.
According to the Democrat spokesman, this government failed to send any representative to join the ICC examination of the Preah Vihear compound. "Thailand this time failed to abide by our own order and allowed them to pass our territory easily," he said.
Chavanond added that it was likely that Cambodia would try to take advantage of the situation when it came to the border dispute between the two countries.
Chavanond, serving as secretary to Surapong's immediate predecessor Kasit Piromya, claimed that some officials of the Foreign Affairs Ministry - increasingly discontent with the foreign minister's actions - were regularly supplying him with information about what Surapong did.
"I do not call for anything more than abiding by the Cabinet resolution to protect our sovereignty," Chavanond said. "I believe [Cambodian Prime Minister] Hun Sen loves this government the most. This government has allowed him to do whatever he likes more than any other government over the past 10 years."
Surapong said that Unesco and Cambodia invited Thailand to join the ICC examination tour but that Thailand turned it down. He added that the opposition should not try to politicise the matter. Read more!
Thai Army Chief to Attend Thai-Cambodia General Border Talks
Army Chief Gen Prayuth Chano-cha on Tuesday said he would join Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC) meeting led by Defense Minister Gen Yutthasak Sasiprapa in Cambodia on Wednesday.
He said the meeting will discuss 17 key issues including peaceful co-exist between the two countries as well as the Cambodian stance in compliance with the injunction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The ICJ on July 18 ordered Thailand and Cambodia to withdraw their troops from the newly defined demilitarised zone in disputed area around the contentious Preah Vihear temple while urging both countries to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to allow the observers to enter the disputed zone.
The army chief said the conclusion of the GBC meeting will be proposed to the cabinet and parliamentary meeting for approval as it is required by Article 190 of the Constitution, stipulating that any international treaties and agreements having effect on the country's territory must first be approved by the parliament.
At the GBC meeting, it is expected that both sides will specify the forces to replace their soldiers at Preah Vihear in accordance with the court order.
The ancient temple and its surrounding area have been frequently a flashpoint between the two countries. Although the World Court awarded the 11th century temple to Phnom Penh in 1962, a plot of 4.6 sq-km land has been claimed by both neighboring countries. Military build-up along the border and nationalism in the two countries prompted cross-border firings and shelling in February and April this year, killing at least tens of soldiers on both sides and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.
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Monday, December 19, 2011
The well-kept secrets of Angkor Wat
If you look beyond the smiling Buddha faces of Bayon and the towers of Angkor Wat, you might stumble upon a sleepy district lost somewhere in the shadows of its more popular neighbour Siem Reap.
Initially, I wanted to take a boat to Battambang from Siem Reap, despite knowing that the journey time would be doubled. The water levels of the Tonle Sap river were quite low, so that made sure I stuck to the three-hour road journey. To my surprise, this town that came across as a laid-back settlement, was actually the second-largest in Cambodia and has witnessed its fair share of tumultuous events in Cambodia's long, mutinous history.
The bamboo train Apart from the past that it still retains, Battambang has also held on to its ancient bamboo train system. Extremely impatient for a ride, I left the very same day for Odambang, the village from where you can 'board' the train. The train is nothing more than a large bamboo platform mounted on train axles powered by a small gokart engine, and as mundane as it looks, the journey atop is nothing short of exhilarating.
I didn't realise it till I sat on it, and waited for the young boy to pull the engine cord that brought the bamboo train to life. Within a few seconds, we were hurtling through greenery with fierce speed. With no roof, doors, or seatbelts and with only a railing to hold on to, it's more thrilling than a rollercoaster ride. The most quirky part is that when another bamboo train approaches from the opposite side, you have to stop to get off, heave the cart off the tracks, change positions and resume! It could actually be tiresome once the novelty wears off, but the teamwork of strangers is quite endearing.
For ages, the rural parts of the surrounding region have had the bamboo train as its most dependable mode of transport. I was sad to learn that it was phasing out and would soon be replaced by the modern railway system, and glad that I had a chance to experience it before that happened.
Art of making rice paper Around the main Battambang town are a host of elfin villages that introduce you to the rural heart of Cambodia in a way that none of the other places here do. I started this tryst in one such village where I saw and learnt the traditional way of making 'rice paper'. This is not the paper used for artwork but refers to the thin, translucent layer of pounded and steamed rice used to wrap fresh spring rolls.
Until I spent hours there observing how the rice is boiled, drained and milled before even starting the real process, I would have never thought of the humungous effort that goes into making an everyday dish here. My remork or 'tuk tuk' driver was on a mission to show me 'real Cambodian food' and the village of Phsa Prohok welcomed us with a stench that pervaded my senses for days after.
Fish paste, which is a condiment of freshly pounded fish of all kinds that is left to rot, is a major ingredient in authentic homemade Cambodian food. Though I was assured by everyone that once cooked, the smell evaporates, there was no way I could be convinced to buy some and try it out. What I did buy though was the delicious bamboo sticky rice. Though it is found pretty much all over Cambodia, the sticky rice in Battambang, the 'rice bowl of Cambodia' is famous all over. Getting off from the ubiquitous hammock that Cambodians love to lie in, the young girl at the roadside shack heated one of the bamboo pieces over fire and cracked it open to reveal the ready mix of steamed rice, coconut milk and nuts. Despite not being a rice lover, I devoured it in minutes. No visit to the palate trail is complete without a visit to the petite Battambang Winery, the sole winery of Cambodia, so we made a pit stop there to sample the traditional red and white wines apart from the locally brewed brandy and delicious ginger ale.
The mini Angkor Wat
While Angkor Wat is Cambodia's biggest draw, few know that tucked away in Battambang is a primeval temple that is believed to have been the inspiration for the magnum opus. A long flight of steps up the quiet hillock takes you to the Banon temple which was built in the 11th century by Udayadityavarman II. It has five towers pointing towards the sky and looks like a smaller version of Angkor Wat.
Being surrounded by dense foliage, it's hard to get anything more than a glimpse of the expanse below. But if you want a grand view, the best bet is the hill atop which rests the temple Phnom Sampeu. It commands a surreal sight of Battambang in the distance and a vast canopy of green in the foreground of the dark hills that glow like embers in the last rays of the dying sun. Before it turned completely dark, I spiralled down the hill on a 'bike taxi' for my most awaited moment.
The colony of bats
Close to the base is a limestone cave that houses a colony of bats that numbers close to three million. I was sceptical initially, as I had not read about it in my guidebook or heard about it from fellow travellers, but I decided to give it a shot because the locals know best. We parked the bike on the roadside and stood solemnly like the handful of other people waiting for the spectacle. I turned my face towards the cave that a native pointed out and waited with bated breath. As the light began to dip, the distant din grew louder and slowly the insect bats spilled out of the cave's mouth, tumbling, reeling and getting back into the file that flew towards the fields each night in search of food. I stood there with my neck craned up for nearly an hour, amazed at this secret that Battambang cradles. As the last of the bats dissolved into the night, I left the site trying to discern the dark track still moving across the sky. I'm not sure if the bats earned Battambang a special place in my heart, but they would definitely be a big part of my reason to return.
Fact file
Getting there:
Fly to Siem Reap via Bangkok. From Siem Reap, it's a three-hour bus journey to Battambang.
Best time to go:
Winter (November-March) is the best time to beat the humidity.
leisure.mirror@indiatimes.com Read more!
Secret Recipe secures master franchisees in Cambodia, India
KUALA LUMPUR:Lifestyle café chain Secret Recipe has secured master franchisees to operate its business in Cambodia and southern India by April next year.
Faba Global Group Co Ltd has been granted the master franchise to operate in Cambodia, while Secret Recipe South India Pvt Ltd will operate in India.
Secret Recipe Cakes and Cafe’s chief executive officer, Datuk Steven Sim said the business in India was expected to start in the third quarter of next year with target of 10 outlets by end of 2013.
The Indian market has a huge growth potential as its gross domestic product is expected to grow at 8.4 per cent in 2012 and 8.5 per cent in 2013, he added.
Sim was speaking to reporters at the international franchise signing ceremony yesterday , witnessed by Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir.
In Cambodia, Sim said, the target location was Phnom Penh with the first cafe expected in April next year. The country’s gross domestic product projected to grow at 6.5 per cent for next year and the year after.
Meanwhile, Mukhriz said Secret Recipe’s venture into India and Cambodia was timely amid the anticipated growth, demographics expansion and robust gross domestic product trends and very attractive consumer markets in the two countries. Bernama
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Surapong plays down Cambodian attack on chopper
Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul said yesterday that an incident in which Cambodian forces fired upon a Thai helicopter near the Cambodian border last week was a misunderstanding and would not lead to a dispute between the countries.
He said he would clear up the misunderstanding, although reports had it that Navy commander Admiral Surasak Runrerngrom had issued a letter of protest against Cambodia and closed border checkpoints and goods-transit points.
The foreign minister said the incident would not inflame the border conflict because Thailand and Cambodia enjoyed cordial relations. He said he is scheduled to meet Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on December 29, which would give him an opportunity to discuss many issues.
Vice Admiral Pongsak Riroj said the helicopter of the Chanthaburi and Trat Border Prevention Command was attacked and damaged by Cambodian forces for unknown reasons while flying in Trat on Friday. The Thai military retaliated by closing two transit points for goods in Trat's Muang and Bo Rai districts, and 30 smaller border checkpoints in Chanthaburi and Trat used by Cambodia to buy supplies for military personnel and civilians.
The checkpoint at Ban Had Lek, however, remained open.
Democrat Party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut accused Surapong of failing to protect the country's integrity and sovereignty by not protesting to Cambodia over the incident. "The first thing the government must do is to lodge a protest with the Cambodian government, otherwise it means we admit that we are wrong.
"Cambodia has issued a statement saying its forces shot at the helicopter legitimately because Thailand encroached upon its territory,'' he said.
Meanwhile, Chavanond called on the Foreign Ministry to reveal the truth over the issuing of a passport to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The Pheu Thai Party earlier said Thaksin, who is on the run from a corruption conviction, was not on a ministry blacklist. Chavanond said Thaksin is the subject of an arrest warrant on a criminal charge and is banned from holding a travel document.
"The rules are clear. How can the government distort or delete these rules?'' the spokesman asked.
Meanwhile, Auditor-General Sriracha Charoenpanit said his office last week submitted its second summons for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to give a statement on an alleged conflict of interest in connection with the government's tax-deduction policy to support first-time homebuyers. Sriracha said Yingluck postponed her first summons response because she was occupied with tackling the flooding.
Yingluck has 30 days from the issuing of the second summons to meet with officials. The Democrat Party accuses the government of policy corruption by issuing a housing scheme that favours SC Asset. Yingluck is a former chief executive of the company.
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Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie launching charities for their kids
Angelina Jolie has announced that she and partner Brad Pitt will create charities for each of their six children.
Jolie revealed during a chat on Anderson that she and Pitt are funding a clinic in Ethiopia in honor of their daughter Zahara Marley, who was born in the country.
The Hollywood superstars have also built a children's medical center in Cambodia for their son Maddox.
Pitt and Jolie plan to create several more charities in order to teach their children the value of philanthropy and keep them in touch with their home countries.
"They have programs in their countries [for] each of them we're starting. There's a TB/AIDS clinic being built for Zahara; there's a clinic already for Mad," Jolie told Anderson Cooper.
The actress continued: "So each of them will take that responsibility. They are from their country and they are of their country and they should know that, it's part of their family, we are their family but so is their country."
Jolie recently acknowledged that she was living a "self-destructive" lifestyle until she began her own charity work as a UN Goodwill Ambassador.
Her directorial debut In The Land of Blood and Honey, which has netted her a Golden Globe nomination, opens in US cinemas on December 23. A UK release date has yet to be announced.
Jolie's full interview on Anderson airs on Monday (December 19). Read more!
Americans donate blood to Cambodia
REAM NAVAL BASE, Cambodia - U.S. Marines and sailors and members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces queued up to give blood to Cambodia's national supply during a drive at an auditorium on Ream Naval Base Dec. 16.
U.S. service members from USS New Orleans, USS Pearl Harbor, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Amphibious Squadron 5 donated 107 units, while Cambodians from the Royal Khmer Navy donated 113 units.
Hok Kim Cheng, the Ministry of Health's National Blood Transfusion Center director in Phnom Penh, said Cambodia needs blood - around 3,000 units per month, with two-thirds required in the capital alone.
Approximately 35 percent of the national supply comes from voluntary donations, while the rest comes from families; however, a fifty-fifty source is ideal, said Cheng.
"That is why we organize mobile blood drives," said Cheng, adding that the Ministry of Health solicits donors from the country's own infrastructure - the military for example.
"Today is very helpful," said Cheng. He said the collaboration between Cambodia and the U.S., and the health ministry's relationship with the American embassy and U.S. Pacific Command, was "good for our nation."
Ten-time blood donor Staff Sgt. Toby Salas, 28, who serves as an administrative chief for unit Marines aboard New Orleans, said, "It was a different experience from giving blood in the past."
Salas, who carries an American Red Cross donor card in his wallet, said, "The feeling of giving this time was special - being in a different country, around a different culture. I felt good about it."
The Cambodian and American donors alike received a 20-page booklet, slightly larger than a business card and stamped by the Ministry of Health, with the first blocks filled out to mark the donation.
"It's a good souvenir," said Salas, who hails from Tuscaloosa, Ala. "I can't read it; it's in a foreign language, but it's a reminder of my time in Cambodia. It's a keepsake that I can show the kids and wife. It'll show them there are other cultures outside our own, outside America."
The Camp Pendleton-, Calif., based Marine unit embarked three U.S. Navy ships in San Diego Nov. 14 and arrived in southeastern Asia Dec. 11 as part of a regularly scheduled deployment. Read more!
1st motor manufacturing plant starts operations in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- A Japan-invested motor manufacturing plant launched operations in Cambodia on Saturday, raising a hope for the development of hi-tech industry in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
"Cambodia has reached a new phase of attracting investors for high technology industry after, in the past, it had attracted investments in garment industry," Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the inauguration of the small-size motor manufacturing plant (Minebea Cambodia) in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone.
"The plant reflects Japanese investors in Cambodia and it has brought modern technology for the development of Cambodia," he added.
Kinoma Yoshihisa, president and CEO of the Tokyo-based Minebea Co., the investor of Minebea Cambodia, said the plant would assemble DC brush motors and micro-actuators for office-automation equipment, household electrical appliances and digital equipment, using parts supplied by Minebea plants in Thailand, and the finished products will be exported back to Thailand.
"The plant is the first manufacturer of sophisticated and small- sized motors in Cambodia and it creates thousands of jobs and contribute to the development of Cambodia's economy," he said.
Kep Chuk Tema, the governor of Phnom Penh, said the plant began the construction in April, 2011 on the land plot of 100,000 square meters in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone.
He said in the next phase, the company will build one more plant on the same plot of land to manufacture medium-size motors.
The total investment for the project is 60 million U.S. dollars, he said.
Japan is Cambodia's 11th largest investor with the total investments of 257 million U.S. dollars from 1994 to October 2011, according to the reports of the Council for the Development of Cambodia. Most Japanese investment projects here are in manufacturing industry.
The Minebea was founded in 1951. So far, the firm has set up 32 motor manufacturing plants in 11 countries: Japan, Thailand, China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Slovakia, Czech and Cambodia.
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More Japanese firms eye investments in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH (Kyodo) -- More Japanese firms are looking to Cambodia this year either to invest or to learn about the investment environment in the country, participants in an economic forum were told Friday.
Sok Chenda, secretary general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, told the forum in Phnom Penh for Japanese investors that the government is improving as quickly as possible the investment environment, human resources and infrastructure.
More than 65 Japanese representing various institutions and companies attended the meeting.
Yoshihisa Kainuma, president of Minebea Co., said some challenges remain in Cambodia such as incomplete infrastructure and the high cost of electricity, but his company decided to invest there because of low labor costs, strong support from the government and a location close to Thailand where his company had already invested.
Statistics provided by the council showed that in the first 10 months this year, 16 Japanese companies invested $67.6 million in Cambodia, up sharply from only six companies that invested $35.3 million in all of last year.
In addition, nine more Japanese companies have applied in the first 10 months this year to make investments worth another $53 million, the statistics showed.
The investments cover a variety of industrial sectors, including shoemaking, garments, motorcycles and packaging, as well as beach and island development.
Japanese investments in Cambodia since 1994 through October this year totaled $250.6 million.
Since 1994 through November, China has invested $8.8 billion, South Korea $4 billion and Malaysia $2.6 billion.
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Cambodia to guard garment exports amidst EU crisis
The Cambodian Government is worried that the Greek economic crisis could affect the country’s garment exports to the EU, and it will take measures to absorb external shock, Keat Chhon, Minister of Economy and Finance said at a trade exhibition in Phnom Penh.
The Government has expressed concern in spite of it upgrading the Kingdom’s gross domestic product outlook for 2011. The concern stems from the fact that EU is the second largest importer of Cambodian garments, and hence crisis in the EU countries could hurt our exports, the Minister said.
The Government will take measures to absorb external shock arising from the EU debt crisis. These will include those related to strengthening domestic laws, human resources and financial institutions, he added.
However, Cambodian garments being less expensive in nature, there may not be much decline in orders from European countries, according to Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh.
He hoped that Europeans would not stop buying Cambodian clothes even in the midst of financial crisis.
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Nuon Chea Denies Khmer Rouge Intended To Destroy Buddhism
“He demolished Buddhism when he was in power.”
In this photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Nuon Chea, center, who was Pol Pot's No. 2 and the group's chief ideologist, sits during the second trial of the top leaders of Khmer Rouge in the court hall of the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, file photo.
Jailed Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea continued to defend the regime’s policies in a major trial on Thursday, saying the movement was not bent on destroying Buddhism, despite the systematic destruction of pagodas across the country.
Those who accuse the Khmer Rouge of seeking to destroy the religion “do not understand Buddhism,” he said in testimony before the UN-backed tribunal. Buddhism resides in the heart, and in meditation, he said, not in temples.
Thousands of pagodas were destroyed, along with the banking and education systems, after the regime came to power in 1975.
“The party had no measures to eliminate Buddhism,” Nuon Chea told the court under questioning.
However, tribunal attendee Lay Sochea, a monk from Wat Neakvoan pagoda in Phnom Penh, disagreed.
“It’s just his pretext,” he said. “He demolished Buddhism when he was in power.”
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Cambodia's future rests on punishing past sexual crimes, argue campaigners
Gender violence in Cambodia owes much to the Khmer Rouge, many feel – yet the trial of the regime's leaders ignores the issue
By Hanna Hindstrom
Net Saveoun was 18 when she was gang raped by Khmer Rouge soldiers. She was one of 30 women selected to "carry salt" and taken to the forest in Pursat province, western Cambodia in 1978. Each of them was beaten, brutalised and had their throat slit before being tossed into an open grave.
"I was the last one," said Saveoun. "I was hit with an axe and my clothes were torn off and then they raped me. They hit me three times with an axe. Then I was thrown into that hole full of blood. Everyone else was already dead."
There is also evidence to suggest that perpetrators were not punished and that the Khmer Rouge deemed rape an acceptable retribution against "enemies of the state".
The hearing's panel of experts called for the ECCC to hold senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge to account for the widespread sexual violence inflicted on the Cambodian people.
"Sexual violence is the only crime against humanity that is routinely dismissed as 'collateral damage'," said Nancee Bright, chief of staff to the UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict.
Organisers hope the event will encourage victims to speak out and help end the culture of impunity that still haunts Cambodia today.
"[The brutalities of the Khmer Rouge regime] may have happened a long time ago but the legacy of those crimes lives on," said Bright. "We see sexual violence including trafficking of girls as young as six, we see forced prostitution and gang rape, oftentimes via people within their communities, and we see very little protection of migrant workers."
There are no comprehensive statistics on sexual violence but, according to rights groups, rape is on the rise, especially among young people. While rape is illegal and punishable by law – Cambodia introduced a new penal code last year that clarified the definition of rape – enforcement is a problem. So too is a culture of blaming victims, which ensures few women speak out. Poor women and sex workers are the worst affected.
"I have no hope at all in the legal system of this country," said Kong Vanna, who witnessed his sister's rape more than 30 years ago and still lives in the same village as two of the perpetrators. As the statute of limitations under Cambodian law has passed, he has no legal recourse.
Rights activists are adamant the ECCC must end the legacy of impunity and send a clear message that rape is unacceptable. "If we don't address issues of violence in the past, the violence of the present will continue to happen," said Duong Savorn. Read more!
Gunfire hits Thai Chopper
By Cheang Sokha
Cambodia military forces shot at a Thai military helicopter yesterday after it flew into Cambodian airspace in Koh Kong province.
Major General Dy Phen, chief of Cambodian-Thai border relations office, said the helicopter made an emergency landing after about 100 bullets were fired at it as it crossed markers in Koh Kong’s Mondul Seima district at about 1:30pm.
“They have abused the air territory of Cambodia, so we had to fire at them,” Dy Phen, who was recently promoted to the position of adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, said.
The rear of the helicopter was damaged and could not fly, so it landed at the border between Koh Kong and Pursat provinces, he said.
“If we flew into their territory, they would also shoot at us, but so far we have not received any reaction from Thailand.”
Dy Phen said he believed the encroachment was deliberate and related to Thai soldiers wanting to erect a Buddhist statue along the border so they could deploy their military officials in the area.
“They did it on purpose,” he said. “Our soldiers are now following the situation.”
Attempts to place statues along the border had been made in the past, but Cambodian soldiers had always removed them, he said.
A high-ranking military official in Koh Kong province also confirmed to the Post that they fired at the helicopter after it flew into Cambodian territory.
“They tried to land, but we did not allow it,” he said.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdee and Defence Ministry spokesman Thanatip Sawangsaeng could not be reached for comment, but a government source in Trat, Thailand, who did not wish to be named confirmed that a Thai military helicopter on a mission to supply a border post had suffered damage to its tail but had landed safely without anyone being injured.
At the Preah Vihear temple, on the border, Cambodian border-relations officials yesterday received a letter from their Thai counterparts saying Cambodian officials had brought a group of heritage experts to see the temple of Preah Vihear, damaged from shells during the clashes earlier this year, without prior permission, Chan Chhorn, official for the Preah Vihear National Authority, said.
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Thai chopper shooting caused by misunderstanding: Thai navy
BANGKOK, Dec 16 - The commandant of the Royal Thai Marine Corps on Friday said Cambodia's firing on a Thai helicopter on a border mission was caused by a misunderstanding but said that Cambodian and Thai agencies would meet Saturday to discuss measures to prevent any repetition of the incident.
Vice Admiral Pongsak Phureeroj spoke in his capacity as commander of the Chantaburi-Trat border defence forces following media reports that Cambodia's firing at a Thai Bell 212 helicopter while it was on mission to survey the border area and transport food to army personnel stationed along the Thai-Cambodian border.
Adm Pongsak said the Royal Thai Navy already submitted a protest letter to Cambodia's Military Region 3 commander after the attack.
"I definitely affirm that the Navy's helicopter did not trespass Cambodian territory but we were flying to transport food for Thai and Cambodian troops which were deployed only 50 metres away from each other and this is a regular mission," he said.
Adm Pongsak said he was surprised after being informed of the attack as military ties between the two neighbours were considered "very good" and both troops had lunch together every day.
"The Cambodian commander will come to talk with us about this tomorrow (Dec 17) and lay out measures to prevent any repeated incident," Adm Pongsak stated. "What happened must have been caused by misunderstanding and there was no ulterior motive."
The Thai commander said his troops did not return fire on the Cambodian troops after the shooting but the pilot landed immediately as irregularities were detected after the shooting.
Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Towichakchaikul on Friday commented in correspondence with the Royal Thai Marine Corps chief that the firing at the Thai chopper by Cambodian troops was caused by "misunderstanding", and said he is waiting for more details on the matter. (MCOT online news)
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Thursday, December 15, 2011
Logging in Cambodia
Dead wood
A resurgence in illegal logging takes its toll
OF THE five dirt-poor farmers who set out from Chhoeu Slab village in November in search of rosewood, only four returned. The fifth is recuperating in a Thai hospital, having been shot by a Thai border patrol. The boom in trade of the rich-hued hardwood has already claimed 15 lives in 2011, and dozens more have been wounded by Thai soldiers. An unknown number have simply vanished. The shootings could yet become a source of tension between the Thai and Cambodian governments, whose relations have improved immeasurably since Yingluck Shinawatra became Thai prime minister in August.
Slung along the Thai-Cambodian border, the forests of the Dangrek mountains were once brimming with the luxury wood. But rosewood stocks have fallen precipitously in recent years as illegal logging has run rampant. For Cambodian loggers, that means having to push farther into Thailand’s territory—risking capture, injury or death.
The cause of the boom is simple: growing demand in Vietnam and, especially, China. To meet the demand, a complex network of loggers has sprung up, with the riskiest work carried out by the poorest. Some are country men plucked out by ringleaders promising large sums for sawn planks. Others are villagers solicited by local soldiers.
Timber is smuggled out of Cambodia in boats and trucks. For years the trade was overseen by top officials, tycoons and their families, until international attention and even the Cambodian prime minister’s displeasure put a clamp on things. Environmental groups say it is now led by Cambodia’s armed forces. A long-running Thai-Cambodian border dispute that flared up in early 2011 around the temple of Preah Vihear has been a boon for the trade: the army has free access to surrounding areas that others do not.
Inevitably, prices are rising with demand. On the international market, the best rosewood planks can sell for $50,000 a cubic metre. A rosewood wardrobe can fetch $20,000. And as the trade diverts wood abroad, prices within Cambodia have climbed too.
The financial impact on the villagers has been huge. They may earn as little as $250 a year as subsistence farmers, but middlemen will pay them $100 for a good rosewood stump and $10 for a small one. So it is hardly surprising that villagers are venturing farther into the Thai forests, even as the risks mount.
Soy Sambo, a 53-year-old who lives in Por Peal village, 120km (75 miles) east of Chhoeu Slab, is testament to those risks. Her husband and 19-year-old son ventured into the forests in October as part of a logging expedition of 12 people, organised at the behest of a local military officer. The teenager was shot dead, and his father was arrested by Thai authorities when he returned for the body.
A tearful Mrs Soy Sambo says that everyone knows the danger. But they are so poor, she says, they have to risk their lives for the money. Read more!
Cambodia’s Healing Fields
Land mines once crippled a war-ravaged Cambodia. Today the nation is a model for how to recover from this scourge.
By Mark Jenkins
Phototograph by Lynn Johnson
Delicately brushing away the soil with his fingers, Aki Ra uncovers a dark green land mine buried two inches beneath the overgrown dirt road. The size of a large soup can, the mine was planted by the Khmer Rouge about 15 years ago on this ox track in northwestern Cambodia—the most densely mined region of one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
"This is the type 69 Bouncing Betty made in China," says Aki Ra, his breath fogging the blastproof visor of his helmet. Bouncing Betty is the American nickname for a bounding fragmentation land mine. The pressure of a footstep causes it to leap out of the ground and then explode, spraying shrapnel in every direction. It can shred the legs of an entire squad.
Soft-spoken and cherubic, Aki Ra knows the inner workings of the Bouncing Betty and just about every other variety of mine. In the mid-1970s, when he was five, the Khmer Rouge separated him from his parents and took him into the jungle with other orphans. At that time, Pol Pot, commander of the Khmer Rouge, had plunged the country into chaos, closing schools, hospitals, factories, banks, and monasteries; executing teachers and businessmen; and forcing millions of city dwellers into a gulag of labor camps and farms. The small hands of children like Aki Ra were invaluable tools. He was trained to lay land mines, defuse and deconstruct enemy mines, and reuse the TNT for what are now called improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Some years later, when Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia, they dragooned Aki Ra into their army, and he was forced to fight against his former captors. When the United Nations' peacekeeping forces finally arrived in 1992, he'd been living in the jungle for some 15 years. He joined the UN as a deminer. When the peacekeepers left two years later, much of the best agricultural lands—vegetable gardens, pastures, rice fields—were still mined. Farmers trying to reclaim their fields were being blown to pieces. For a decade and a half, using only a knife and a stick, Aki Ra worked as an unpaid sapper, defusing rather than detonating land mines, reclaiming his country one square foot at a time. By his own count, he has defused some 50,000 devices: blast mines, antitank mines, bounding mines, and other explosives.
"I found a lot of mines that I laid," he says with a conflicted sense of pride and shame.
Now a certified deminer, he has his own squad, the Cambodian Self Help Demining team, partially funded by the U.S. The deminers use special metal detectors to search for explosives; that's how they found the Bouncing Betty.
Sweat is dripping off Aki Ra's face as he carefully places a small charge beside the land mine, attaches wires, and runs a thin cable a hundred yards away. Like all official demining organizations, Aki Ra's team no longer defuses land mines but detonates them in situ instead. Squatting behind a tree, he pushes the red button. The explosion is terrifying. With half a grin, Aki Ra says, "One less land mine, one less child without a leg."
In the warfare that raged in Cambodia from 1970 until 1998, all sides used land mines. There are more than 30 different types. Villagers have prosaic names for them based on their appearance: the frog, the drum, the betel leaf, the corncob. Most were manufactured in China, Russia, or Vietnam, a few in the United States. Pol Pot, whose regime was responsible for the deaths of some 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, purportedly called land mines his "perfect soldiers." They never sleep. They wait, with limitless patience. Although weapons of war, land mines are unlike bullets and bombs in two distinct ways. First, they are designed to maim rather than kill, because an injured soldier requires the help of two or three others, reducing the enemy's forces. Second, and most sinister, when a war ends, land mines remain in the ground, primed to explode. Only 25 percent of land mine victims around the world are soldiers. The rest are civilians—boys gathering firewood, mothers sowing rice, girls herding goats.
Despite its horrific history, Cambodia has now become a model for how a nation can recover from the scourge of land mines. There are more than a dozen programs for demining, land mine risk education, and survivor assistance in the country. The number of men, women, and children killed or injured each year by mines (both antipersonnel and antitank), explosive remnants of war, or IEDs has fallen from a high of 4,320 in 1996 to 286 in 2010. Survivors are offered medical and vocational assistance. Every schoolchild is taught about the dangers of explosives. Contests have even been held for the best hip-hop songs about land mine awareness.
"I've been rude since I was young," a male performer boasts in one winning song. "I can only make things from bombs."
"No need to exaggerate and show off to me," the female chorus replies. "I don't care and don't want to hear about this."
Major minefields have been mapped and are being systematically demined. There's even a Cambodia Landmine Museum, created by Aki Ra. Located outside Siem Reap, a provincial capital, it displays the mines and ordnance that he deactivated. With support from Americans Bill and Jill Morse, who founded the Landmine Relief Fund, Aki Ra also cares for and educates 35 children at an orphanage.
Worldwide, millions of land mines are buried in nearly 80 countries and regions—from Angola to Afghanistan, Vietnam to Zimbabwe. That's one of every three nations. Many of them are following Cambodia's example. In 2002 almost 12,000 people worldwide were reported killed or maimed by land mines or other explosives. Since then, annual casualties have fallen to fewer than 4,200. This dramatic improvement is a direct result of the Mine Ban Treaty signed in Ottawa, Canada, in 1997, an international agreement banning the use, production, or transfer of land mines and calling for mandatory destruction of stockpiles. Today 157 countries have become party to the treaty, including Afghanistan, Liberia, Nicaragua, and Rwanda; but 39 countries have refused to join, including China, Russia, North Korea, and the U.S.
The American position is complicated. The United States has not used antipersonnel land mines since 1991, not exported them since 1992, and not produced them since 1997. But the nation has a stockpile of some 10 million land mines, and prior to the '90s, it exported 4.4 million antipersonnel land mines, an unknown number of which are still in the ground. Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman, described the government's official position in 2009: "We would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we signed this convention." Nonetheless, under pressure from the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines, the Obama Administration has been conducting a comprehensive review of its land mine policy.
Despite its refusal to join the treaty, the U.S. has done more to counteract mines than any other country, spending $1.9 billion during the past 18 years through the Humanitarian Mine Action Program—roughly a quarter of the total spent on demining and other remediation activities around the world. There's been a special emphasis on helping Cambodia, which has received more than $80 million since 1993.
As in many countries, the vast majority of demining in Cambodia is done by hand. Demining machines—30-ton, dinosaur-size rototillers that flail the earth to a depth of 12 inches—are exceedingly expensive. Only three are in use, along with 50 or so dogs trained to sniff out a mine. But in the end, a human must dig it out.
Demining operations have strict protocols. Outfitted in heavy, high-collared, crotch-protecting flak jackets and thick-visored helmets, a team of 10 to 25 deminers line up along the edge of a minefield with garden tools and a metal detector. Moving forward in yard-wide lanes, they first clear the vegetation from each three-foot-square block, then sweep the ground with the detectors. They toil straight through monsoonal rains and scorching heat, moving the detectors across the ground, listening for the telltale beep.
The salary is decent for Cambodia—about $160-$250 a month—but money is not the main motivation. When Hong Cheat was five or six years old, a cow he was tending stepped on a land mine. The explosion killed his mother and father and blew off his right leg. He was surviving on the streets of Phnom Penh as a beggar when Aki Ra adopted him and trained him to be a deminer.
"I like to clear the land mines," says Cheat. "I don't want to see any more people like me in my country."
There's a new sense of hope spreading across Cambodia. The country is becoming a place where you can dream of a better life—and where sometimes, those dreams come true. Just ask Miss Landmine Cambodia.
Dos Sopheap, a young woman from Battambang Province, lost her leg to a mine when she was six years old. Her father, then a soldier, was carrying her in his arms through the forest at night when someone in front of them stumbled on a trip wire. Her leg was amputated high above the knee, and she has always used crutches with her false leg—until now.
To the tearful clapping of her family, Sopheap is taking her new titanium prosthesis for a test run around their dirt front yard, scattering the ducks and chickens. As befits a beauty queen, she is wearing a flouncy, peach-colored dress lit up like a rose by the setting sun. Her twin sisters hang on to each arm as she walks stiffly in circles, and her mother weeps.
Competing against 19 other women who had also lost limbs, Sopheap won the 2009 title of Miss Landmine Cambodia through an Internet vote based on her photo. She was awarded $1,000 in cash and a $15,000 state-of-the-art prosthesis. The beauty pageant was founded by Morten Traavik, an eccentric Norwegian theater director who organized the first contest in Angola in 2008.
"The goal is to bring attention to the global issue of land mine contamination," Traavik had told me earlier at a beauty parlor in Battambang where Sopheap was being coiffed and made up for a photo shoot, "and to make us think about how we, able-bodied people, look at disabled people, and not least how disabled people perceive themselves and present themselves."
"It was so hard to watch other children run and play in the schoolyard," says Sopheap's mother. The other children teased the young girl. But that didn't discourage her. Beautiful and quiet, she became a top student, ranking fifth in her high school class. The other kids now call her Miss Landmine, which pleases her. She hopes to become an accountant someday. Her mother later confides that Sopheap also "just wants to be like the other girls and be able to wear jeans."
People aren't the only victims of land mines. A country's economy is crippled too. More than 60 percent of Cambodians are farmers, who can't work a field if it's mined, can't earn an income, and can't feed their families. This is one reason why so many other mine-poisoned countries have struggled for so long after armed conflict has ended.
"There's a clear link between land mine contamination and poverty," says Jamie Franklin of Mines Advisory Group (MAG), one of the major demining operations in Cambodia. Franklin has a large map of the country on the wall of his office in Phnom Penh. The eastern half is splattered with thousands of tiny red and purple dots, representing U.S. bombing raids during the Vietnam War. The western half is marked with hundreds of yellow squares, representing minefields. Unexploded ordnance and minefields are huge obstacles to increased agricultural production, which the government believes is necessary for economic development and recovery.
MAG has demined thousands of acres of contaminated land during the past two decades, including the village of Prey Pros in central Cambodia, where brilliant green squares of flooded rice fields shimmer as far as the eye can see. In Prey Pros, you can hear hammers and laughter. Crops have been good for the past few years, and residents are building homes.
Thath Khiev, the village chief, bounced a naked baby on his knee while his wife stirred a cauldron of bubbling rice. Seventeen years ago, their world was very different.
"We did not have enough food to eat," Khiev tells me. "We could not grow rice on our own land because the soldiers had laid the mines." Prey Pros was once a garrison for Cambodian government forces. Two companies of soldiers were stationed here to protect a nearby bridge. To deter the Khmer Rouge, the bridge was mined and the village's rice fields were also heavily mined as a no-man's-land perimeter. Even footpaths in the village were mined. "It was very difficult," Khiev says.
MAG demined the area around Prey Pros in 1994 and 1995, removing 379 antipersonnel mines and 32 unexploded ordnance.
"Now we can walk safely to the rice fields and work freely without fear of mines," Khiev says. Tossing his grandson in the air, he adds, "It's safe for little children. If they want to swim in the river, in the lake, they can."
As villages and rice paddies like Prey Pros have been cleared, Cambodia's economy has grown stronger. In 1999, the first full year of peace, Cambodia had a gross national income (GNI) of $10 billion and a per capita annual income of $820; 11 years later, in 2010, the GNI had almost tripled to $29 billion, and personal income had more than doubled to $2,040.
Since 1992 demining has cleared about 270 square miles, but there are still some 250 square miles of contaminated land left. Currently, 23 to 31 square miles are cleared a year, which means it will take another decade to rid Cambodia of mines and other explosives—a goal that has been achieved in less heavily mined countries like El Salvador, Honduras, and Albania.
"We simply cannot clear them fast enough," Franklin says.
Even though deminers are still busy, Cambodia is no longer a devastated nation. Cities and villages throb with industriousness.
"We have a future now," says San Mao.
Short and muscled, Mao is an elite runner. He rises at four o'clock every morning to train, threading five miles through the wet, black streets of Phnom Penh. An hour later, after changing his curved fiberglass prosthesis for a rubber foot, he goes to work, whizzing around town as a motorcycle taxi driver. At five in the afternoon, he picks up his young daughter from school, then goes out for another run. His efforts have paid off.
Nine times in recent years, Mao has won the Angkor Wat International artificial leg ten-kilometer foot race, part of the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon, which was founded in 1996 to help land mine survivors.
He doesn't run just to win races. Running has calmed his mind. He used to get headaches from thinking too much about the past. "Now I focus on making a living for just one day, on eating for one day," he says, almost smiling.
Mao was a 15-year-old farm boy in 1987 when he was kidnapped by the Khmer Rouge. Soldiers dragged him away from his family into the jungle near the Thai border, forcing him to carry ammunition and refusing to feed him. One morning he spotted fruit beneath a tree. The next thing he remembers he was lying in the mud, blood everywhere. The tree had been booby-trapped. "I cannot find anything to compare to the pain," whispers Mao. "I died there."
Three days later, unconscious but alive, he was found by other soldiers, who carried him to a hospital across the border in Thailand. Doctors amputated his leg below the knee. Upon returning to Cambodia, he began vocational training sponsored by Handicap International. That's where he met Ouch Vun, his future wife.
Today the couple live in central Phnom Penh with their daughter and ten other tenants. Their corrugated metal shack is set on stilts above a swamp with floating garbage. Inside, the walls are papered with pages from a pop culture magazine. Mao's race medals hang from nails behind the TV.
When I visit, Regina, their seven-year-old, offers me a bottle of water, then sits in her father's lap. Ouch Vun hobbles over and places a whirring electric fan before me, then awkwardly seats herself beside her husband, tucking her sarong over her artificial leg.
Vun is so shy she barely speaks. Her eyes drop when I look at her. She tells me that her right leg was blown off in 1990 when she was digging for gold with her impoverished family. "When the doctor cut off my leg, I cried for months," she says.
Regina has been watching first her father, then her mother, tell their stories. Mao is stroking her hair, Vun lightly touching her arm. Unlike her parents when they were her age, she can walk without fear of suffering the same fate.
A week later, on a mild December morning, a crowd of hundreds cheers the start of the Angkor Wat ten-kilometer race. It's a fitting location for the biggest race of its kind in Cambodia, with 50 or more runners. The famous ruins were once indiscriminately planted with land mines. Today Angkor Wat is one of the world's most popular tourist destinations.
When San Mao first comes into view, the clapping and cheering swell. Sweat streaks his cropped black hair; his round face is as calm as Buddha's. Whether he knows it or not, Mao is the embodiment of a country transcending its past. His feet, one muscle and bone, the other bowed fiberglass, are like wings. When they carry him first across the finish line, Cambodians erupt in jubilation.
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Cambodia is the new China for Halfords
By Enda Mullen
China is no longer the automatic go-to country for manufacturing with the emerging economies of tomorrow offering better value, according to the boss of one of the Midlands’ best known companies.
Halfords chief executive David Wild said the company was seeking out new manufacturers across the globe in countries such as Cambodia as it strove to retain a competitive edge.
Mr Wild revealed the South East Asian country had emerged as an unlikely supplier for bicycles in a supply chain that is rapidly changing and evolving and believes it offers a real alternative to the Chinese option.
“As these markets mature labour costs increase,” he said. “If we want to stay price competitive we also have to be trying to find new manufacturing sources.
“We are now buying bikes from Cambodia, which is a lower duty area and therefore has lower costs.
“We have to go to new sources and have found a supplier that provides excellent value and we pass that on to the customer. You have to work much harder to find the cheapest sources.”
But it is not a case of the company turning its back on China, with Halfords having recently opened an office in Shanghai to target new manufacturing areas of the country and Mr Wild continues to see the country as a major supply source.
“We have set up an office in Shanghai to look at the whole of China and see there are areas that offer lower production costs,” he added.
“The south east seaboard of China was the traditional production area and most of the buying offices were in Hong Kong. More and more production is spreading to other parts and Shanghai is an important buying area for us.”
The Cambodian connection came about more by chance than by design, according to Mr Wild, with Halfords taking a proactive role as it developed.
“We go to fairs two or three times a year where all the cycle producers exhibit,” he said. “At one we met someone who was actually producing in Taiwan. He found it increasingly expensive and said he was thinking of opening a factory in Cambodia.
“We looked at the bikes and the guy clearly knew what he was doing.
“Cambodia offered cheap labour costs and duty rates, so we said if you want to build a factory there we will provide some technical help regarding the bikes we want.
“We started buying bikes two years ago, in relatively small volumes at first but it has got bigger over time.
“It’s an example of finding the right partner, supporting them with our technical help and moving to a significant level of production.”
Importantly, Cambodia could be just the first step of many and Mr Wild revealed it is not the only new country it is exploring opportunities in.
“We’re not talking about it publicly but we are already looking at where we can go next,” he said.
The Halfords chief remains cautious about dealing with the downturn but believes providing customers with services and products they need and want at the right price remains key, particularly in relation to car servicing at its Nationwide Autocentres chain.
“The recovery profile is looking to be a long one so what customers are doing is recognising things are not going to get any better so they are changing their behaviour,” he said. “Customers are much more price conscious when servicing their car and our autocentres business has been doing well.
“Our position is that most customers feel main dealerships do a very good job but they pay a very high price. They are happy with the quality of work but feel they are paying too high a price. Independents are much more flexible, much more responsive and you can usually get your car in more quickly. But customers need to feel more comfortable with an independent as regards the same quality of work and trustworthiness.
“We are delivering a balance, the quality of work of a main dealer with a brand that is trusted and the same price you pay at an independent.”
There are also plans for growth of the Nationwide Autocentres business. When Halfords bought it last year there were 223 servicing outlets, a figure that has since grown to 247, and Mr Wild said he believes there is room for 400 or more with plans to grow the business by around 30 outlets a year.
Bicycles also continue to be a growth area for Halfords, as does its online retailing operation, though Mr Wild feels its ‘reserve and select’ model where people browse online but go to a store to confirm their purchase is in line with what customers want.
“It’s a very powerful combination,” he said. “People talk about multi-channel retailing and Halfords is one of the best in the UK at doing that.
“They research online and buy online but come to the store to get added value. In most cases don’t take money off customer until they come to the store, to give them a chance to be completely satisfied before parting with their money.”
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Cambodia to get its first drop of oil by end of 2012
China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has begun drilling in Block F, nearly 40km south of Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia, Council of Ministers Press and Quick Reaction Unit spokesman Ek Tha said Wednesday.
"CNOOC’s chief executive told Deputy Prime Minister HE Sok An today about the company drilling its first well since it got the oil and gas exploration project in 2007," he said.
The spokesman said Sok An welcomed the drilling and asked about CNOOC’s decision in Block F.
According to the National Petroleum Authority, the block covers more than 7,000sqkm, with the first drilling project expected to cost US$20 million.
The commencement of drilling follows an environmental impact assessment received by civil society last month. Cambodia expects to get its first drop of oil by the end of 2012.
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