Vietnam will control all sensitive information in Cambodia

Vietnam telcom firms win deals with Laos, Cambodia

Two affiliates of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) have inked business contracts to supply telcom services in Laos and Cambodia, local newspaper Nguoi Lao Dong reported Wednesday.

The contracts were inked on the sidelines of the ICT Digital & Electronics World Expo 2007, the largest of its kind held annually in Cambodia, jointly held by Cambodia’s National ICT Development Authority (NIDA) and Vietnam’s IDG World Expo.

Vina LSC won a $356,000 contract to supply fiber optic cables for the Laos National Telecommunications Company.

VDC, a software services provider, signed a deal with Cambodian firm AngKor Net to help increase the Internet transmission cable line from 6Mb to 10Mb. The two sides would continue the business contract in the future to raise the capacity for the line to 60Mb-70Mb.

The April 6-8 expo in Phnom Penh attracted 40 local and foreign companies, from Singapore, China, Malaysia and the European Union, and Vietnam.

VNPT, the platinum sponsor for the event, showcased its latest IT products and solutions such as NGN (New Generation Network) and new value-added services for internet, fixed-line telephones and mobile phones. Read more!

Cambodia reflected in Iran

BOSTON: When I saw pictures of the British sailors and marines, on the eve of their freedom from Iran, dressed in ill-fitting suits that Iranian tailors had run up for them, memory raced back nearly 40 years when a similar drama was being played out in another country of which the United States then disapproved.

It was Cambodia in the autumn of 1968, in that last twilight time before regime change, war, and the Khmer Rouge tore that country to pieces. Prince Norodom Sihanouk had managed to keep Cambodia out of the inferno that was raging in neighboring Laos and Vietnam, but the United States was cross at him for allowing the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese to use his territory - not that he really had any choice.

Some American soldiers, on a river boat, had wandered up the Mekong from Vietnam into Cambodian territory and been captured. Sihanouk played the incident with the same theatricality as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran did with his British prisoners.

"When we do something from Islamic compassion, we expect nothing in return," Ahmadinejad said, and so he freed his prisoners as a gift.

Sihanouk used the occasion of a national holiday to release his captives. He, too, had sent tailors around the jail to measure his prisoners for new suits - white linen suits in this case. Sihanouk threw in neckties as well - the tie of his political organization. Like the Iranians, he made a public spectacle of his country's generosity, and spoke, too, of religion.

"I love Buddha," he said in his high-pitched voice, "all Cambodians are small Buddhas" and they would be compassionate and let the prisoners go. But he refused to give back their boat. "It has no heart, it has no soul, it will do very well here with our little navy," he said.

I was amused when a Financial Times editorial used the word "mercurial" when referring to Ahamadinejad. That was the favorite adjective newspapers used for Sihanouk, although for my money Sihanouk had much more to recommend him than the Iranian president.

Scarcely 18 months later, Sihanouk was deposed. I have never believed that the Americans were directly involved in the coup, but they certainly encouraged it, and took advantage of it. An American invasion, and a no-quarter war followed for five years, until the long, genocidal night of the Khmer Rouge descended across the land.

It was the final spasm of a disastrous American foreign-policy mistake that had engulfed Indochina, and I thought, when it was finally over, that a painful lesson had been learned. I was wrong.

Some of the same characters in the American government who later brought us Iraq - Vice President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld high among them - took the wrong lesson away from the Indochina debacle. They thought: Just give us another chance and we'll get it right.

They didn't get it right, of course, and now Iran is in America's crosshairs. It is probably fortunate for Ahmadinejad that his captives were not Americans for it is unlikely that the Bush administration would have played the incident with the same skill as the British. A hostage crisis might have been just what Cheney needed to press for an attack upon Iran.

It is unlikely that Iran's dramatic release of the British servicemen, and one woman, will gain any good will with the Bush administration, any more than Sihanouk's gesture did with Nixon. In the end Congress closed down the Indochina war, and the last fighter bomber flying the last mission flew away with the pilot playing "Turkey in the Straw" on his harmonica over the radio.

Terrible things happened to Indochina after American power was withdrawn, and reasonable people worry that the same things will happen in Iraq. But the real betrayal was going in, not out, and the great mistake was to believe that the American public support would keep a losing war going on forever.

Iraq has passed beyond the ability of the United States to control in anything but the most temporary and superficial way. General David Petraeus undoubtedly spoke the truth when he said: "The Washington clock is moving faster than the Baghdad clock."

The Iraq drama will play out to its inevitable end, but if Congress really wants to do some good it should start putting up every possible legal barrier to a war with Iran.

Correction: My apologies to the ghost of Horatio Herbert Kitchener for misnaming him in last week's column.

H. D. S. Greenway's column appears regularly in The Boston Globe. Read more!

Village tours offer glimpse of the "real" Cambodia

By Thin Lei Win

SIEM REAP, Cambodia (Reuters Life!) - The village where rickshaw driver Buntheoun lives is only 15 minutes away from Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples, yet it might as well be hundreds of miles away.

There are no tourists, no signboards depicting the 800-year-old ruins and the gaggle of kids playing among the modest wooden homes aren't pushing you to buy anything.

This is the side of Siem Reap that tourists rarely see, but hotels and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) helping the poverty-stricken villagers want that to change.

Hotels catering to all price ranges now offer travellers a chance to connect with the locals in one of Cambodia's poorest provinces at the same time as seeing the sights.

Earthwalkers, which runs a local guesthouse, organises tours of the area called "NGO trips", costing $12 and with most of the money going towards villagers, many of whom would otherwise be getting by on less than a dollar a day.

The full-day trip includes visits to local orphanages, a silk farm, a non-profit hospital and a landmine museum -- a grim reminder of Cambodia's recent past, from the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" to decades of civil war.

The tours can also include visits to the home of locals who have received aid from the NGO, such as 34-year-old Buntheoun.

Thomas Holdo Hansen, one of the Norwegian siblings who started Earthwalkers five years ago, says visitors to the temples should see the "real" Siem Reap.

"The average length of a tourist stay in Siem Reap is less than three days. Many people come in a group, see the temples and fly out. They don't leave much behind," he said.

"We believe our trips will enhance guests' experience. This is not 'instead of' but 'in addition' to the temples."

The 20-room, basic Earthwalkers hostel bustles with independent travellers and local staff who receive training through the non-profit Earthwalkers Fund.

But if you want to help the locals without sacrificing luxury, stay at the Hotel De La Paix, which offers packages starting from $639 that include a Khmer menu and visits to some of the neediest villages in the province.

SIGHT-SEEING AND SEWING MACHINES

"Our community focus is extended everywhere in the hotel, from the food to the Arts Lounge, which showcases traditional and contemporary Cambodian arts," said Noelene Henderson, the hotel's director of sales and marketing.

With the help of guest donations, the hotel is funding a small sewing centre for disadvantaged girls. Overseen by a monk, the centre will soon produce its first batch of graduates, and each with get her own sewing machine.

"We have 29 girls, mostly from outside Siem Reap, who used to work in brick factories or come from abusive families. They're usually illiterate so we teach them not only sewing skills but English and social skills," said director Hoeurn Somnieng.

Hotel De La Paix's sister property, Shinta Mani, also encourages guests to participate in community projects. The most popular initiative is building water wells, which costs $90, according to General Manager Chitra Vincent.

The hotel can also arrange a visit to the nearby village of Prie, where the parched land has been transformed into fertile fields for 250 families.

Here, kids ride bicycles donated by hotel guests to school, while their parents, including some widows, till the land.

Vincent said the hotel gave the villagers their first bag of rice. "If they can farm well, we give them two pigs," he said. "Then we buy the piglets to give to another family. This gives them $600-$700 -- money they've never had before."

With over 200 registered hotels and guesthouses, Siem Reap is fast becoming a tourist town and the community initiatives are helping make the hospitality here stand out.

Read more!

Will U.S. abandon Iraq the same way it did Cambodia in 1975?

In my column, "U.S. should 'remember 1975'; we don't know how Iraq will evolve" (March 28 Pacific Daily News), I wrote of British writer William Shawcross, a Vietnam war critic and author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated-book, "Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia," who was critical of how Washington expanded the war into Cambodia to "extricate" itself from Vietnam.

Extrication became a goal in and of itself, replacing the original rationale for the war to fight communist expansion.

Shawcross quoted President Nixon's national security advisor Henry Kissinger in "Sideshow": "Look, we're not interested in Cambodia ... only ... in it not being used as a base (by the Vietnamese Communists)."

Kissinger later confirmed in his own book, "White House Years" that "Cambodia was not a moral issue" for the United States in obtaining "our exit from Vietnam."

While the extent of the devastation Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge would spread across Cambodia could not have been predicted, the ruthlessness of the Khmer Rouge was not unknown prior to the Americans' exit. They left anyway. In Shawcross's words, "two million of the seven million (Cambodian) people died, either murdered by the Khmer Rouge or from starvation and disease."

Plenty has been written on Cambodia's killing fields: Not a family has been spared injury or loss.

Shawcross pleaded that America should not abandon Iraq the way she did Cambodia in 1975.

Of e-mails I received after the Shawcross article, a reader commented, "History is not a favorite subject of Americans -- unfortunately."

If history is not a guide and its lessons are discarded for the present, on what basis do we move toward the future?

Reasonable arguments abound, from reasonable people, for and against America's involvement in the Iraq war. In my March 21 column, "When it comes to Iraq war, both supporters and critics show bias," I referenced a social psychologist who said, we "are really bad about putting ourselves in other people's shoes," and are so unaccepting of others who act "in good faith" but see things differently from us.

I studied arguments from both sides of the political spectrum. The March 16 Los Angeles Times editorial, "From the terrorist's mouth," reminds us however we disagree, "there is a movement that has declared war on the U.S. and the West . . . its existence is undeniable."

The March 18 Washington Post editorial, "Lessons of War," argues, "What matters most is finding the best policy now -- doing whatever can be done to help Iraq and safeguard U.S. interests in a vital region."

The Post posits we don't know how events in Iraq will evolve, and "We will never know what might have happened had Saddam Hussein and his sons been left in power." It notes the "easy way out" by blaming Bush, Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld, but argues, "Wars unleash unpredictable and ugly forces" and "the (Iraq) war might have spun out of control even under wiser leadership."

"It would almost be comfortable if Mr. Bush had 'lied the nation into war,' as is frequently charged," says the Post. But, "The best postwar journalism instead suggests" that Bush, his team, and the Central Intelligence Agency, "exaggerated, cherry-picked and simplified but fundamentally believed ... the catastrophically wrong case" the U.S. presented to the United Nations.

The March 31-April 6 London Economist's front page, titled cover, "Besieged," shows an armed President Bush, Secretary of State Rice, and Vice President Cheney in camouflaged uniforms behind sandbags on White House lawn. The accompanying article, editorializes, "Many people" may rejoice seeing Bush and Cheney "ducking for cover."

"But regardless of what you think about this most inept of presidencies," the editorial continues, "the current civil war in Washington has the marking of a tragedy -- both for America and for millions of people around the globe."

The Economist encourages Congress to "Carry on overseeing" and advises, "But hands off Iraq."
"Sooner or later, America will leave Iraq," says the Economist, "But it is essential that it leaves in the right way."

Last September, America's 16 spy agencies presented in a National Intelligence Estimate two bad choices for America: "perceived jihadist success (in Iraq) would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere"; and "should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, (America's spy agencies) judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight."

Perhaps it should be recalled that when Americans left former French Indochina in 1975, the North Vietnamese victors were happy to see Americans scramble to take off in helicopters from Saigon's building rooftops. The war was "over" for them.

Will the movement -- "Whatever you call it," says the Times, "militant Islam, Islamic fascism or a clash of civilizations" -- "that has declared war on the U.S. and the West" cease its warring activities as American and "coalition" troops withdraw from Iraq?

The soul of Islam is being wrested from the majority of traditional Muslims by a small but growing influential minority of radical Muslims who quoted the Koran to justify about "slaying the infidels" -- another topic that Americans must be concerned about while Bush and the Democratic Congress are entrenched in Washington's own "civil war."

How will the war in Iraq "end?"

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Read more!

Mekong River Commission launches First 24-hour Navigational Aid System In Cambodia

Phnom Penh, Cambodia
5th April 2007

The Mekong River Commission today laid the inaugural navigational buoy in Chaktomouk area in the access channel to Phnom Penh Port as the start of what will be the first 24-hour navigational aid system on the Mekong in Cambodia.

The navigational aids project is part of the MRC’s Navigation Programme which is funded by the Government of Belgium.

The buoy was released in an onboard ceremony by H.E. Mr. Sun Chanthol, Minister of Public Works and Transport, H.E. Mr. Sin Niny, Vice Chairman of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee and Chairman of the MRC Joint Committee for 2006-2007, H.E. Mr Jan Matthysen, Ambassador of Belgium to Thailand and Dr Olivier Cogels, Chief Executive Officer of the Mekong River Commission Secretariat.

Over the next six months, the Aids to Navigation on the Mekong River Project, will install 56 buoys of three types and 12 leading markers over a 100km stretch of the Mekong River. These buoys will mark a safe channel from Phnom Penh Port to the Cambodia-Viet Nam border, the busiest stretch of the Mekong in Cambodia.

The installation of this internationally recognised system of aids to navigation such as buoys, beacons and shore marks, aims to improve safety and efficiency of navigation so that sea-going vessels and inland barges can safely navigate for 24 hours a day in safety.

Shipping is being hindered by numerous shoals, sand banks, ship wrecks and other obstacles. A lack of aids to navigation is the main cause for various accidents from collisions, ships running aground, and risks for pollution, threatening the ecosystem of the river. This also results in a loss of opportunities as investors see navigation as an adventure rather than a transport mode which can provide a reliable schedule for cargo forwarders.

Pollution from spills is particularly important in this region as millions of the people in the Mekong Basin, particularly in Cambodia depend largely on the resources of the Mekong for their daily living and pollution accident could be a serious threat to their livelihoods. Proper channel marking will reduce these risks significantly.

This system will be of enormous assistance to Cambodia in increasing its export potential, as the river will become a reliable and more economic form of transport. The quality of waterborne transport will be improved, waiting times will be shortened, night navigation will be possible, and river transportation will be more cost-effective and efficient. A cost benefit study has shown that up to US$45 million can be saved per year in transport costs is the Mekong River can be used to transport containers between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City, but also directly to ports such as Singapore and Hong Kong.”

This stretch of the river is part of the international shipping route that connects Phnom Penh Port with the sea whilst passing through the delta in Viet Nam. Although international shipping from countries outside the Basin to and from Cambodia and Viet Nam on the Mekong River System exists, there is great potential for increased maritime shipping.

This initiative should assist in supporting the overall development of navigation on the Mekong.

The CEO of the Mekong River commission Secretariat Dr Olivier Cogels said this initial installation project was part of the MRC’s bigger plans to open up the Mekong and reduce physical and non-physical barriers to free navigation. As part of its mandate, the Navigation Programme is in the process of facilitating a Navigation Agreement between Cambodia and Viet Nam and establishing a legal framework between those two countries Nam which will facilitate passage of vessels and cargo, and boost confidence among investors.

This new navigational aids system will also form a basis for new commitments and closer cooperation between Cambodia and Viet Nam as well as opening up more trade opportunities between the two countries.

The Mekong River Commission, through the Navigation Programme is the Executing Agency of the Installation of Aids to Navigation Project. The 12-month project started in November 2006 and is being implemented by Australian Maritime Systems Ltd in cooperation with Phnom Penh Autonomous Port and the Waterways Department of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport. The equipment is manufactured by Mobilis Co Ltd (France) and distributed by Tempest Co Ltd. (Belgium).

The project will use Jet 2500, BC 1242 and Trackless buoys. Read more!

German arrested in Cambodia for child sex abuse

PHNOM PENH - A German man has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of a 13-year-old Cambodian street girl, an anti-trafficking official said on Monday.

Walter Munz, a 62-year-old tourist from Stuttgart, was detained on Sunday after police raided his guesthouse room in the capital Phnom Penh, said Keo Thea, deputy chief of the municipal anti-trafficking police.

When officers burst into the room, they found the German man in his underwear with the girl, Keo Thea said.

Munz was arrested on charges of debauchery -- a statute covering a broad range of sex offences that carry possible jail time of between 10 and 20 years.

“He met with the girl some days ago along the riverside and convinced the girl and her parents that he would help the girl study English,” Keo Thea said.

He said Munz had paid the girl’s family 20 US dollars a week for two weeks, notionally to pay for daily expenses, and had taken the 13-year-old to and from school each day.

The girl told police that Munz forced her to have sex with him many times.She said that she reported the abuse to her mother, who did not believe her.

Keo Thea said Munz, who entered Cambodia in 2006, had also committed sexual abuse against children in his home country.

He will be sent to court to face formal charges on Monday or Tuesday.

Last month, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced two German men to 28 and 12 years in prison on charges of human trafficking and abusing several Vietnamese girls as young as 10.

Around two dozen foreigners have been jailed or deported to face trial in their home countries for child sex crimes since 2003.

But officials, including foreign diplomats, have begun urging authorities to target Cambodian sex offenders as well as Westerners. Read more!

Record high production fuels Cambodia's dream of rice exporters' coalition

As its rice production in 2006 hit record high in a decade, Cambodia's dream to build a rice exporters' coalition aimed at sharing more profits and procuring economic power has been fueled.

Cambodia, a traditional agricultural country with rice as its major crop and staple food, harvested more than 6,264,000 tons of rice in 2006, which is about 4 percent up compared with the previous year, a senior government official said on Monday.

"The rice production in 2006 broke the record of Cambodia in a decade," Chan Sarun, minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told reporters in an annual meeting of ministry.

The rice production increased because of good weather and irrigation system, he said, adding that Cambodian farmers understood better about farming and chose correct seeds for planting.

Meanwhile, market also responded positively in 2006 as rice price jumped to a range between 120 U.S. dollars and 135 U.S. dollars per ton, while seeds of top-quality fragrant rice were sold at 180 U.S. dollars per ton, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Cambodia.

However, Pu Kea, chairman of the Rice Hulling Mills' Association in Battambang province, said that huge profits went to the exporters from Malaysia, Singapore and African countries, while the farmers and the mill owners could only make limited incomes from simple processing procedures.

Pu Kea found echo with Prime Minister Hun Sen, in his perception of the kingdom's awkward situation of giving profits to foreigners instead of its own planters and processors.

Back to Dec. 20, 2006, as part of his efforts to turn the table, Hun Sen called on Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to join hands with Cambodia to form an association of rice exporting countries to stabilize rice price and share more profits from rice sales.

An association of the rice exporting countries along the Mekong River could be important for the world market, he said, adding that the association was somewhat like the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The association could have say in rice price adjustment and play a role in balancing OPEC's influence, he said.

"If they want cheaper rice, then they should decrease oil prices," he added.

Annual rice exports in the region of the Mekong River stand at over 10 million tons, almost half of the world's annual rice exports.

Source: Xinhua. Read more!

Cambodia trains 4,700 vets for preventing bird flu

The Cambodian Agriculture Ministry and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have been cooperating to train about 4,700 vets and villagers for reeducating people to prevent bird flu, FAO officials said on Monday.

They were chosen to give the messages about preventing bird flu to villagers in rural areas, said Yon Fernandez, coordinator of bird flu project from FAO to Cambodia.

Meanwhile, the FAO, in cooperation with the relevant Cambodian ministries, will hold marches to raise public awareness of bird flu in districts throughout eight provinces from April 9 to 12.

"We chose all these provinces to raise the awareness of people for the danger of bird flu," Yon told Xinhua by phone.

Bird flu initially broke out in Cambodia in January 2004 and affected its eight provinces, including Kompong Cham, Prey Veng, Kandal and Phnom Penh.

The disease has killed seven Cambodians, and the latest toll occurred on Thursday.

Source: Xinhua. Read more!

Vietnam and Cambodia will resume landmark in May

Vietnam and Cambodia have agreed to start posting landmarks on their common border this May. The countries aim to post 100 landmarks by the end of the year.

Cambodia is expecting to lose more land to Vietnamese encrouchment. The join cooperation with communist Hanoi had never been good for Cambodia. The join cooperations are the bribes or value gifts for the Communist Vietnam in all options.

The agreement was reached at a chairman-level meeting of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee for Land Border Demarcation and Landmark Planting in Phnom Penh this week.

The two sides unanimously confirmed to complete the border demarcation before the end of 2008.

The Vietnamese side was represented by the committee's chairman Vu Dung, Deputy Foreign Minister and Head of the Border Department. The Cambodian side was led by chairman Var Kimhong, Senior Minister in charge of border affairs.

The two countries also agreed to discuss with Laos the possibility of marking the T-junction border line where the three countries meet. This is the chilling moment for Lao and Cambodia will lose more land to the Communist Vietnam.

Deputy FM Dung was received on April 5 by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, who appreciated the joint committees' efforts. The two Deputy PMs discussed the landmark cooperation.

Read more!

Mekong Delta Provinces open business fair in Cambodia

Cambodia: More than 30 businesses from the Mekong Delta provinces of both sides of the borders Vietnam and Cambodia are displaying their products at a trade fair opened in Cambodia's Prey Veng neighbouring province on April 7.

All products were displaying from medical equipment and medicines to farming facilities and consumption goods. Tourism services and five-day tours of Dong Thap are also being introduced to Cambodia.

Vietnamese and Cambodian businesses are looking for their suitable business partners. All importers and exporters on both sides are looking to expand their sale to new and old customers.

Present at the opening, State Secretary of Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce Kuok Ky said the fair concreted the willingness of the two sister provinces to boost cooperation in social, economic and cultural fields.

He also said that the development of the two provinces' multifaceted cooperation is in line with a plan for the development of border areas designed by the two governments. The development was aimed to ease livelihood in both sides of the borders. Read more!

Local church helps build orphanage in Cambodia

ByJoyell Nevins
staff writer

Even though Community Grace Brethren Church is nestled in West Milton, it's heart and hands reach out to the other end of the world. Most recently those hands have become an integral part in the recovery of the revolution-devastated Cambodia.

The Asian country Cambodia has been referred to by historians as a "beautiful woman who was raped". In 1975, a group called the Khmer Rouge, led by dictator Pol Pot, took power and although were officially pushed out by the Vietnamese in 1979, didn't leave the political picture until the late '90s. In their five year regime, approximately 2 million Cambodians were killed through the combined result of political executions, starvation, and forced labor, about 25% to 30% of the entire population. The goal was to get rid of education and original thought and start at 'ground zero'. As was often said by the Khmer Rouge, 2000 years of Cambodian history had now come to an end; April 17 (the day they took power) was the beginning of Year Zero for the new Cambodia: Democratic Kampuchea.

In order to create the ideal communist society, all people would have to live and work in the countryside as peasants. Urban areas - the 'roots of capitalism' - were evacuated by force, as people in cities were driven into the country. The Khmer Rouge created a faction between what they called the "new people," those driven out of the towns, and the "old people", the poor and lower middle-class peasants who had remained in the countryside.

The Khmer Rouge felt that new people had made an active choice to live in the cities and thus declared their allegiance to capitalism. All city dwellers became enemies of the new communist state. They were treated as slave laborers, constantly moved, were forced to do the hardest physical labor, and worked in the most inhospitable, fever-ridden parts of the country. New people were segregated from old people, enjoyed little or no privacy, and received the smallest rice rations. The medical care available to them was primitive or nonexistent. Families often were separated because people were divided into work brigades according to age and sex and sent to different parts of the country. New people were also subjected to unending political indoctrination and could be executed without trial (in one interrogation center, over 17000 people were questioned - 6 survived).

The Khmer Rouge regarded traditional education as an opponent to their communist regime. They executed thousands of teachers. Those who had been educators prior to 1975 survived by hiding their identities. Soldiers would feel people's hands, to determine if they worked with physical labor (if your hands were soft, you were likely to be killed). Like with Al Quaida, children were taught political allegiance and hatred. A special secret organization, called the Alliance of Communist Youth of Kampuchea, was considered by Pol Pot as his most loyal and reliable supporters, and was used to flush out any who were against him.

Like education, religion was not allowed either. The country's 40,000 to 60,000 Buddhist monks were defrocked and forced into labor brigades. Many monks were executed; temples and pagodas were destroyed or turned into storehouses or jails. Images of the Buddha were defaced and dumped into rivers and lakes. People who were discovered praying or expressing religious sentiments were often killed. The Christian and Muslim communities were even more persecuted, as they were labeled as part of a pro-Western cosmopolitan sphere, hindering Cambodian culture and society. The Roman Catholic cathedral of the capital was completely razed. Christian clergy and Muslim imams were executed. Even the Jews and Hindus were persecuted. A common torture tactic for Jews was to brand them with the star of David, using a white-hot metal rod, in the way used to brand cattle.

Vekhoun Tang was one of the persecuted Christian pastors. Out of his group of colleagues, Tang was the only one that survived. He and his family traveled the country - the distance of Cinncinati to Cleveland - on foot to escape, eventually ending up in Long Beach, California. That is where he met Pastor Steve Peters of Community Grace in 1991.

Tang had been praying about going back to Cambodia to build churches. Peters invited him to come to Community Grace's annual missions conference, and at the end of the conference, Tang said he would specifically like to start Grace Brethren churches in Cambodia. Their partnership has been extremely helpful in the movement of Christianity and the physical rebuilding in that country.

"He's the Billy Graham of Cambodia," describes Peters, "He is a mover and shaker and directs things very well."

1992 marked the first trip from West Milton to Cambodia, one of six Missions Director Woody Curtis and five Peters would make. Peters, Curtis and company met Ben Noun, a pastor discipled by Tang and who with Community Grace's help would found many house churches.

Another ground-breaking trip came in 1998. With the assistance of former pastor Scott Distler and the foundation Asia Hope (started by a pastor from Wooster, Ohio), Community Grace sent six guys with six suitcases of electronics. Miraculously the luggage was not searched or opened, and the equipment was used to start a radio station that reaches a large portion of Cambodia and down into Vietnam.

However, any time there are people involved, personal issues can come up. In November of 2005, it became 'increasingly obvious' that Community Grace would have to make another trip. A few weeks ago, Peters and Curtis traveled to Asia once again to smooth out situations.

Their other goal was to start an orphanage - institutions that are desperately needed in that country. The pair ran across a house that a wealthy man had built for his daughter, but had sat empty for years because she didn't want it.

The house has five bathrooms, four of which are Western toilets, which is absolutely unheard of, and even a 2 ½ feet deep pool. The man decided to lease it to the church for $150 a month - an extremely good deal. He even delivered paint for them.

Before Peters and Curtis left, the house had been prayed for, removed of spirit houses (places for Buddhist idols), and was starting to be fixed up. Since Community Grace as an American church cannot officially own property, they go through a foundation of four men. No changes can be made to the house or deed without the agreement of all four.

Peters and Curtis also found a staff. Both an administrator and a certified school teacher that they had worked with in the past suddenly became available while they were there. Then the pair found a widow to be the cook, fulfilling the Bible verse about caring for the fatherless and the widowed.

"God worked this out - it's just incredible," enthuses Peters.

Asia Hope will run the orphanage, and Community Grace will pay the bill. They left $2500 to start, for desks, mats, and other school supplies. The budget calls for $2000 a month, to cover everything from salaries to rent to medical needs.

"We're believing God that we can get the first year in the bank so we can expand as God brings the kids," Peters declares.

They already have at least 10 children who will come, hope to start with 20, and have room for 50 (in Thailand, an orphanage Community Grace helps with has a waiting list of 150). The kids lose their parents to crippling diseases like AIDS, are abandoned because of lack of resources, or simply tossed aside because their mom remarries and the new husband will have nothing to do with them.

Those children will all be screened by the staff to make sure they are actually without a mom or dad. With the rampant poverty, many parents endeavor to scam places they think can give their kids a better life.

"Money is so tough - it's a rough life," describes Peters, "It's just terrible."

The name of the orphanage will be Community Grace's Seeds of Hope. At the church in West Milton, Peters talks about an "army of kids" that have grown up in the church and have a heart for reaching people. Their goal is to make the same thing in Cambodia.

"That's our dream," Peters declares, "Each kid becomes a seed as they come to Christ and bring hope to their nation."

For more information, to sponsor the orphanage, or adopt a child, contact the church at 698-4048. Read more!

Cambodia's Red-king Sihanouk returns home from China

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), April 9 (AP): Cambodia's retired King Norodom Sihanouk arrived in Phnom Penh on Sunday after a seven-month stay in China for medical reasons.

He and his wife, former Queen Monineath, were received by their son King Norodom Sihamoni, as well as Cambodian leaders including Prime Minister Hun Sen and Senate President Chea Sim on their arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport.

Several foreign diplomats, Government Ministers and Sam Rainsy, Cambodia's main opposition leader, were also there to greet the 84-year-old former monarch, who spent the last seven months in Beijing for medical examinations.

He travels regularly for health checkups to China, which granted him exile after he was ousted from power in a 1970 coup. He has suffered from a number of ailments, including colon cancer, diabetes, hypertension and two strokes.

Sihanouk abdicated in October 2004, citing poor health. He was succeeded by Norodom Sihamoni, one of his two sons.

In November, he said he wanted his body cremated after he passes away, and his ashes should be put in a marble urn, blessed by Cambodian Buddhist monks, and placed in a stupa he built for his "most-loved daughter Kantha Bopha,'' who died at age 4 from leukemia in 1952.

Read more!

Chinese companies launch two power projects in Cambodia

Chinese companies here on Saturday launched two power projects in Cambodia, the Stung Atay hydropower plant and a set of electricity transmission network.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and Governor of China's Yunnan Province Qin Guangrong, who is leading a delegation to visit Cambodia, unveiled the foundation stones of the two projects during a ceremony hold in Phnom Penh.

The hydropower plant costs 190 million U.S. dollars and can generate 465 million kilowatt-hour of electricity per year, according to a press release from the Chinese companies.

The power transmission network is constructed at the cost of 113 million U.S. dollars to connect Phnom Penh, Kampong Chhnang, Pursat and Battambang, it added. .

China Yunnan Corporation for International Techno-Economic Cooperation and Yunnan Southeast-Asia Economy and Technology Investment Industrial Co., LTD. undertake the construction and development of both projects, the press release said, adding that the Cambodian government adopts BOT pattern (build, operate and transfer) for the projects.

Currently, Cambodia does not have the infrastructure to generate enough electricity to fuel the galloping demand, which has been rising 15 to 20 percent per year, according to Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Source: Xinhua . Read more!

Mass organisations of Vietnam and Cambodia foster

Vietnam like to play the same game and pushing so hard to get a head of the game. It is a so-called friendship cooperation between Yuon communist Hanoi and the dog head Phnom Penh. It is the cooperation that communist Yuon Hanoi and the German shepherd Hun Sen are always barking and biting Millions Cambodian People.

The more cooperation is the more suffering Cambodians are facing and Khmer Krom Monks are the target for Vietnamese authorities to attack.

Khmer Krom and Cambodian people are loosing their land, rice fields and the Rights of religious freedom. Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodians' land.

Leaders of the two mass organisations of Vietnam and Cambodia have vowed to boost co-operative activities in the coming years, on the basis of mutual benefit and respect for sovereignty with the intention of intensifying the friendship between the people of the two countries.

At their working session held in Phnom Penh on April 6, President of the Vietnamese Vietnamese Fatherland Front (VFF) Pham The Duyet and President of the Solidarity Front for the Development of the Cambodian Motherland (SFDCM) Samdech Heng Samrin expressed their hope that through co-operative programmes and experience sharing, the two mass organsiations will further develop, thus helping raise their political roles to a new height.

President Duyet is leading a VFF delegation for an official visit to Cambodia, beginning April 5, at the invitation of Samdech Heng Samrin, who is also Chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly and honorary President of the Cambodian People's Party.

Both Duyet and Samrin agreed to propose to the governments of the two countries to organise "Days of Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship and Solidarity" as part of a programme to be launched to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the two countries. Vietnam will send 40 representatives to visit Cambodia and attend a grand meeting held on this occasion.

While in Cambodia, the Vietnamese delegation met with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and paid courtesy visits to President of the Cambodian People's Party and President of the Cambodian Senate Samdech Chea Sim, and Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen.

The King and government leaders of Cambodia extended their thanks to the Party, government and people of Vietnam for helping the people of Cambodia escape from genocide.

They also addressed their thanks to the VFF for supporting the SFDCM to fulfill its role during the past struggle for national independence as well as the current national construction of Cambodia.

For his part, President Duyet extended his thanks to the King and government leaders of Cambodia for the assistance given by the people of Cambodia during the past struggle for national independence and the current national construction and defense of Vietnam.

He asserted that the VFF and the people of Vietnam always attach great importance to the friendly relationship with the people of Cambodia and expressed hope that this traditional relationship will be further developed in the future. (VNA) Read more!

Khmer Rouge Tribunal being waited

Victims of the Khmer Rouge's genocide in Cambodia are recording their accounts on video in the hope of being able to give evidence at the trials of their alleged persecutors, even if their testimony eventually is heard from beyond the grave.

Foot-dragging by the Cambodian government and legal wrangling pushed back the start of the UN-sponsored trials, which were agreed in 2003 but are now not expected to start until later this year. They are expected to last years, raising fears that many witnesses will not live long enough to give evidence.

Only three survivors of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh are still alive and they are all too aware that time is running out.

At 76, Chum Mei has already outlived the average Cambodian man by 25 years, despite the malnutrition and torture he endured in the prison, codenamed S-21 and now a genocide museum.

"During my interrogation I was electrically shocked and beaten and they pulled out my toenails," he said. "Now, I still sometimes dream that I am being beaten. Sometimes I scream until I wake my wife up."

Almost three decades after Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime wiped out a quarter of Cambodia's eight million population, he and fellow S-21 survivor Bou Meng, 65, have recorded their testimonies on film. Another to do so is former guard Him Huy, 50, who described how he was required to help execute prisoners at the extermination camp at Choeung Ek, one of the sites known collectively as the Killing Fields.

"They were blindfolded and handcuffed. One by one, each was taken out of the room to be executed," said Huy. "The henchmen were already waiting by the pits. The prisoners were clubbed to death with metal bars at first and then their throats were cut with machetes. They took the handcuffs and other stuff off the prisoners and pushed them into the pits. After everything was done, they filled the pit with earth."

As many as 14,000 perceived enemies of the Khmer Rouge who had been detained at S-21, met the same fate at Choeung Ek.

Huy claims that he too was a victim, brainwashed by the Maoist regime and haunted by what he had done.

"The prisoner was put on his knees and I clubbed him with a metal bar. After the hit, I threw down the metal bar and left the spot. I was very upset at being taken to work there. I am not the one to be blamed," he said.

Huy claims that he too was a victim, brainwashed by the Maoist regime and haunted by what he had done.

"The prisoner was put on his knees and I clubbed him with a metal bar. After the hit, I threw down the metal bar and left the spot. I was very upset at being taken to work there. I am not the one to be blamed," he said.

Huy said his former boss, Pol Pot's chief interrogator Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was "sometimes there" to witness the mass murders.

That could prove important evidence, as Duch is the only senior Khmer Rouge leader currently in detention awaiting trial following the death in custody last July of Pol Pot's most ferocious commander, Ta Mok, known as "The Butcher". Pot himself died under house arrest in 1998.

Mr Meng was also able to recall an encounter with Duch. He said he was saved from death only when his artistic talents were called on to draw portraits of Pol Pot. He was warned by Duch that if he did not paint flattering likenesses of the tyrant, he would be executed,

For two years he was kept barely alive with one daily ladle of gruel and forced to sleep on a concrete floor with 50 other men.

He said: "I thought to myself, it looks just like hell. After about a year of imprisonment I became so emaciated I was not sure I would live because an inmate sleeping next to me had already died.

"The young guards of about 13, 14, 15 stepped on him so many times that blood came out of his mouth. The smell became so bad before they took his body away. I couldn't sleep before midnight. I was waiting to see if my name was called. Those whose names were called were to be executed at Choeung Ek."

The men's evidence has been recorded by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which has spent 10 years collecting witness statements.

Campaigners fear that the delays to the start of the hearings mean that those facing trial will evade justice by outliving the witnesses. Last month, the tribunal was mired in petty squabbles over the height of the judges' chairs. Now it is prohibitive fees being levied upon lawyers who wish to appear at the trial, which the UN warns could lead to its collapse.

While the scarred nation waits for justice, the Cambodian government appears determined to ward it off until key players - who might implicate many people in power today - are silenced by death.

Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's spokesman on Cambodia, said: "Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen does not want this trial to go ahead and he has played a game of brinkmanship with the UN, forcing them to bow to his unreasonable demands again and again.

"The tribunal has not even started to gather testimonies and key witnesses are dying. It is now or never."

Read more!

Chinese company invests to build fiber communication network for Cambodia

Shenzhen Jindun Investment Developing Co., Ltd. will invest in Cambodian Fiber Optic Communication Network Co., Ltd. (CFOCN) to construct optical fiber cable backbone system and related infrastructure for Cambodia, according to the agreements signed in Phnom Penh on Friday.

Jindun Chairman Huang Xinglong, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, and Cambodian Minister of Post and Telecommunications So Khun signed the agreements on behalf of the companies and the Cambodian government at the Cambodian Development Council.

According to the agreements, CFOCN will lay over 8,000 kilometers of fiber to establish a communication network all over Cambodia in three to five years, thus making the kingdom capable of communicating with the latest technology.

The volume of the investment was not disclosed.

The agreements came in line with the Cambodian government's priority policy to develop the industry of communications with wide acceptance of investments from foreign countries, said a press release from CFOCN.

Cambodia currently relies on macro-wave and satellite for tele- communications, which brings about high costs and various impediments to its social and economic development.

Meanwhile, most of its rural territories don't have functional communication means and only 7.8 percent of its 15 million population possess mobile phones.

Source: Xinhua . Read more!

Chinese enterprise to develop real estate projects in Cambodia

An enterprise from China's Yunnan province in Phnom Penh on Friday signed two agreements with its Cambodian partner to co-develop two real estate projects in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville.

Yin Tengyun and Lau Ming Kan, respectively on behalf of Yunnan Southeast-Asia Economy and Technology Investment Industrials and Cambodia's Shukaku Company, signed these agreements in presence of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, Governor of China's Yunnan Province Qin Guangrong, and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Zhang Jinfeng.

The signing ceremony was held on the sidelines of the one-day China (Yunnan) - Cambodia Investment and Trade Fair, which attracted some 400 participants from both governments and business arenas to seek cooperation.

Under the agreements, the two sides will cooperate to develop the Boeng Kak Lake area in Phnom Penh into a multi-purpose living and recreation center called the New City of East, and establish an eco-garden in Sihanoukville for tourism and other commercial uses. .

Details of these agreements were not disclosed.

The above projects will be implemented as Yunnan plans to intensify its cooperation with Cambodian partners in the fields of agriculture, transport, hydropower, investment, trade, forestry, tourism and mining, said Qin Guangrong while addressing the fair.

A press release said that the bilateral trade between Yunnan and Cambodia stood at 3.51 million U.S. dollars in 2006.

By the end of 2006, the two sides have signed over 20 economic and trade agreements worth of 40.39 million U.S. dollars, it added. Read more!

Cambodia's SRP calls for alliance to compete with CPP

The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) has called for the opposition parties to form an alliance to vie with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) ahead of the 2008 national election, local media said on Friday.

SRP will serve as a key element of the proposed movement as it ranked second after CPP in terms of the number of votes cast during Sunday's commune councils election, English newspaper the Cambodia Daily quoted SRP President Sam Rainsy as saying.

"SRP will be the core of the movement. (It) will be a big movement that will win against the CPP. We want to reorganize the country to be better than it is under (the rule of) CPP," he said.

SRP Secretary-General Mu Sochua has met with Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) leaders and officials from other political parties to discuss and compromise on the formation of the movement, Cambodian newspaper the Sralanh Khmer quoted him as saying.

NRP Acting President Prince Norodom Chakrapong said that he welcomed Sam Rainsy's proposal and "it is a very good step to have a democratic foundation to develop the country."

Prince Sisowath Thomico, general delegate of the Sangkum Jatiniyum Front Party, said that SRP's appeal was in line with his policies, another Cambodian newspaper the Koh Santepheap reported. .

The co-ruling Funcinpec Party's spokesperson Nouv Sovathero said that his party didn't care about the other parties' proposal as the party is now implementing reforms to strengthen localities.

CPP spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that SRP's proposal to set up the so-called Democratic Movement didn't surprise the CPP.

"It is not the first time that SRP has formed a group of democratic parties," he said.

Sam Rainsy and Prince Ranariddh, then president of Funcinpec, established the Alliance of Democrats following the 2003 national elections in an attempt to coerce Prime Minister Hun Sen to resign.

After a political stalemate that dragged on for almost a year, the alliance ended as Funcinpec chose to create a collation government with the CPP.

Source: Xinhua . Read more!

Bird flu kills teenagers in Indonesia and Cambodia

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The bird flu virus racing through Asia killed a teenager in hardest-hit Indonesia and a young girl from Cambodia, both after being admitted to hospitals in serious condition, health officials said.

The 15-year-old girl from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta died late Thursday after experiencing multi-organ failure, said Sardikin Giriputro, a doctor at the facility.

“By the time she arrived, it was too late,” he said Friday.

The Cambodian child was initially suffering from high fever and diarrhea before being transferred from an eastern province to the capital Phnom Penh but she quickly got worse, the World Health Organization and health ministry officials said.

The 13-year-old developed a cough and was struggling to breathe before dying Thursday.

Bird flu has killed at least 170 people since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003, WHO said. It remains hard for people to catch and most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds — including the two latest deaths.

But experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.

Indonesia, the hardest hit country with 73 human deaths, is seen as a potential hotspot for that to happen because of its high density of poultry and people.

Health Ministry official Muhammad Nadirin said local lab tests confirmed the girl who died Thursday — apparently after coming into contact with the family’s sick pet bird — had the H5N1 virus.

Cambodia’s death was that country’s seventh — and the first in a year.

Some chickens in the girl’s village died before she became ill and she may have been exposed to the virus after preparing and eating tainted chickens, said WHO and the health ministry.

Officials have been sent to the area to see if any other villagers were displaying flu-like symptoms or had come in contact with sick or dead poultry, they said in their statement. Read more!

Cambodian judges in Khmer Rouge tribunal say ultimatum uncalled for

Phnom Penh- The Cambodian judges appointed to the joint
UN-Cambodian trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders issued a statement
Friday accusing a proposed boycott by their international
counterparts unnecessary and aimed at delaying the process.
The Cambodian judges reiterated earlier assertions that a row over
fees the Cambodian bar wants to impose on foreign lawyers was not
part of the internal rules and therefore should not delay their
implementation.

They were replying to Tuesday's announcement by international
judges that they would boycott a scheduled April 30 plenary to adopt
the internal rules if the Cambodian Bar Association did not back down
on its demands for 5,000-dollar registration fees for overseas
lawyers wishing to represent clients at the hearings.

Tuesday's international judges' statement further threatened to
exclude the Cambodian bar from the process if it continued to refuse
to drop the fees. The defence says that would severely limit the
number of foreign lawyers defendants can choose from, potentially
compromising the international standards' caveat of the hearings.

The 56-million dollar joint UN-Cambodian tribunal, which began
work last year and is budgeted to take just three years to complete,
cannot proceed without adopting internal rules governing every aspect
of the work of the special tribunals.

"The national judges appointed to the ECCC (tribunals) consider
that the international judges' decision not to participate in the
plenary session planned at the end this month would further delay the
process of the court," the 15 national judges wrote.

"In response to the proposal to exclude the Bar Association of the
Kingdom of Cambodia from the process, the national judges consider
the such a move is not consistent with the substance and spirit of
the Agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the United
Nations.

The national judges also rejected claims by the international
judges that the Defence Support Section of the tribunals was actively
discussing solutions to the dilemma.

Bar Association president Ky Tech has said he will not back down
on the fees, claiming foreign lawyers are far better paid than their
Cambodian counterparts and that it was his duty to his members to
impose what he believes are reasonable fees on foreigners wishing to
practice law in Cambodia.

The latest impasse is just another in a long line of delays to try
a handful of aging former leaders of the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge
regime, during which up to 2 million Cambodians died.

Donors have expressed increasing frustration at the lack of
progress, fuelling speculation they may walk away altogether if
issues are not resolved soon and the hearings begin to progress.

The Cambodian government has reacted angrily to allegations by
some human rights groups that it is deliberately stalling the
process, strongly denying the claims and in turn accusing lobby
groups of trying to hijack the trials for their own political ends. Read more!