Hun Sen warns Thais against air incursions near disputed temple

Written by vong Sokheng and Thet Sambath


PM also says that in the event of war, Thailand will need up to 50,000 troops to subdue 10,000 of the Kingdom's own battle-hardened soldiers.

PRIME Minister Hun Sen sounded a belligerent note during informal talks with Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon on Saturday, warning that if Thailand violates Cambodian airspace along the border Cambodia has the right to shoot down Thai aircraft, the premier said Tuesday.

"I told the Thai deputy prime minister and minister of defence frankly to be careful about not flying across the border into Cambodian territory," Hun Sen told an audience of new graduates at the National Institute of Education in Phnom Penh on Tuesday.

"I am afraid that I won't be able to control the shooting if the ground soldiers lose patience."

Hun Sen said he also told Suthep and Prawit that, if full-blown hostilities break out between the two countries, Bangkok would need to mobilise between 30,000 and 50,000 soldiers to match 10,000 of the battle-hardened troops stationed at the disputed Preah Vihear temple. He said that Cambodia did not want confrontation, but that Thailand must not violate the the country's territorial sovereignty.

"We are waiting to shoot because we are not invading [Thailand]. Cambodia is not showing muscle, but to defend the nation we will play it until the end," Hun Sen said.

Meanwhile, the situation on the border remains tense, with officers of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) saying they are ready to counter any Thai incursions.

"The situation at the front line is increasingly tense since I learned that Thai soldiers are scheduled for military exercises along the Thai-Cambodia border near Koh Kong province to Anses of Preah Vihear Temple on July 3," said Seoun San, an RCAF captain based at Veal Sambokhmum.

"If the rockets launched from the military exercises fall into Cambodian territory, we will open the fight without discussions."

Officials at the Thai embassy could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Read more!

Photographer Hei Han Khiang, ‘Right Place, Right Time’

By VOA Khmer, Sothearith Im


After Hei Han Khiang survived a forced labor camp for children under the Khmer Rouge, he wanted little more than to live a life of peace. But innate talent and dogged pursuit enabled him to become an accomplished photographer.

Now living in the New York, Hei Han Khiang was born in 1968 to a family of six near Phnom Penh’s Damkor Market. His father was a teacher and noodle shop owner.

The Khmer Rouge pushed the family to Battambang province as the regime enacted Year Zero, and Hei Han Khiang lost an older brother and older sister. After the regime’s overthrow, the family sought refuge in the US, by way of Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Finally, in 1981, they arrived in New York.

“When I first came here I had no clue what the city was going to be like,” Hei Han Khiang told VOA Khmer in a phone interview. “I came here with a pair of sandles, and it was cold, but I was so amazed to see the streets, big buildings, and we lived near the bridge here. It was just amazing, George Washington Bridge, how long it is. And there was just so much to buy, so much selling in the stores, so many kinds of food here, different kinds of people. You know, when we first came here, we ate a lot of meat.”

When he first arrived in the United States, he had few ambitions, having survived his ordeal in Cambodia.

“It was still fresh in my memory, war, evacuation, and escaping from one place to another in refugee camps,” Hei Han Khiang said. “We didn’t have much of anything, so we didn’t really see very far. I think maybe it was just culturally shocking to me to see, you know, a new world.”

As time passed, his interests grew: he wanted to be a teacher, or doctor; his parents wanted him to go into business. In the end, he realized his interest was in the arts. He began snapping pictures of his family, who had never had photographs before. His love of the art form grew from there.

He began taking classes at the Cooper Union School, on Saturdays.

Marina Gutierrez, director of Cooper Union’s Saturday Arts Program, said still remembers him.

“Khiang mentioned us as helping open his eyes to art, but he also helped us open our eyes to a larger world,” Gutierrez said. “When he was a student with us, I can’t say he showed much promise in drawing or painting, but he has an incredible spirit, and I think that’s something that you cannot teach somebody. That’s what really makes the artist.”

Hei Han Khiang’s art, temperament and spirit are interchangeable, she said, contributing to a successful career.

“When he was my student I thought that he was a wonderful person,” Gutierrez said. “I didn’t have any idea that he would become a wonderful photographer and artist, because the work he did was OK. It was not notable. As a teacher, you can never imagine a limit on somebody. Only they can define their own limit.”

Hei Han Khiang went to State University of New York, in Buffalo, in 1988. He was sent by the university to study Chinese language, culture, history, political science and paintings in Beijing, from September 1988 through June 1989. Just then, the Tiananmen Square demonstrations broke out.

Hei Han Khiang photographed the unrest, proving his mettle as a photographer.

Dee Wedemeyer, a former employer, recalled Hei Han Khiang as a courageous, dedicated, and talented photographer.

“He makes sacrifices to make this trip abroad to take photographs, and he is a documentarian,” Wedemeyer said. “He documents anything that other people have not found. You know, walking the Ho Chi Minh Trail is not something that everyone has done.”

Thirty of his Tiananmen photographs were displayed at Christonpher Henry Gallery, New York, from May 29 through June 28, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the crackdown.

The gallery’s owner, Christopher Henry, told VOA Khmer he selected the photographs from thousands of applicants.

Henry said sometimes photojournalists can be too good at taking pictures: their images can look unreal. Hei Han Khiang’s photos were honest and real, and the exhibition was a success.

The images were visually striking and iconic, he said, and, coming from a student, came from a different perspective.

“It really has a much more honest impression,” Henry said. “Any images therefore were much more [like] somebody just happened to be at the right place at the right time, rather than somebody that was sent there to chronicle or document an event.”
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UN rights expert concerned at restriction of lawyers’ freedom in Cambodia

A United Nations independent human rights expert today voiced concern at attempts to curtail lawyers’ freedom to effectively represent their clients in Cambodia, with criminal charges being leveled recently against attorneys in the South-East Asian nation.

“To be able to represent their clients effectively, lawyers should not be subject to threats or intimidation, nor should they be targeted for prosecution or disciplinary action merely for having acted in the interests of their clients,” said Leandro Despouy, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

“Lawyers play an important role as defenders of human rights and must be free to represent their clients as they see fit in accordance with professional standards and the rule of law.”

Last week, he said, a lawyer, working for an opposition member of the National Assembly who alleged that she has been defamed by the country’s Prime Minister, was himself charged with criminal defamation and could be expelled from the Cambodian Bar Association.

This January, he added, defense lawyers representing defendants at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) – the UN-backed tribunal trying Khmer Rouge leaders accused of mass killings and other crimes three decades ago – were threatened with legal action by Cambodian judges for having called for corruption allegations at the tribunal to be properly investigated.

Further, Mr. Despouy noted, in June 2007, attorneys representing indigenous communities in Ratanakiri Province, involved in a land dispute with a businesswoman with ties to the Government, were threatened with criminal charges and disciplinary action for having allegedly “incited” communities to file a suit to reclaim their land.

The expert cautioned that these recent moves against lawyers seem to indicate a worrying new trend which could have a chilling effect on the legal profession, expressing his support and encouragement for the Bar Council and its President “in their efforts to strengthen the legal profession in Cambodia and to defend lawyers against attempts to undermine their independence.”

In a press release, Mr. Despouy, who reports to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in an independent and unpaid capacity, underscored that Cambodia’s obligations under international law, as laid out in the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, say that “lawyers should not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions.” Read more!

Cambodia gets more time to submit Preah Vihear plans

Cambodia has until February next year to submit its plan for safeguarding and developing the Preah Vihear temple, Natural Resource and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said yesterday.

The World Heritage Committee's decision initially obligated Cambodia to submit its plan by February this year, following the temple's heritage inscription last July.

However, Phnom Penh has not been able to submit many details of the plan, including a map of buffer zones around the site, owing to its boundary conflict with Thailand.

Fortunately, the delay has given Thailand a chance to campaign for a joint nomination of the Hindu temple with Cambodia, Suwit said.

The controversial Preah Vihear attracted renewed international attention after Thailand maintained its objection to the temple's inscription, which resulted in an angry outburst from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and tension at the border.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva did not discuss the campaign for a joint nomination. However, he did say that since Cambodia has more time to submit its plan, it would have an opportunity to follow the World Heritage Committee's decisions and clear up any difficulties along the border.

"We have expressed our concerns to the World Heritage Committee over several sensitive issues because we don't want to have problems or any tension with Cambodia," Abhisit said.

However, acting government spokesman Panitan Watanayagorn interpreted the delay as a victory for Thailand, following Suwit's heavy campaign during the committee's meeting in Spain from June 23 to 30.

He said the delay would give Thailand a chance to seek better understanding from members of the World Heritage Committee.

"The government hoped the World Heritage Committee would allow the two countries to jointly run the temple," Panitan told reporters.

Army chief General Anupong Paochinda said he would redeploy troops to border areas adjacent to the Hindu temple in accordance with the government's policy to pave the way for a peaceful solution.

"We don't have a timeframe, but it depends on the satisfaction of both countries. We have a common intention not to use force," he said.

Read more!

Cambodians Take Back the Lens

By ROBERT TURNBULL


PHNOM PENH — While Pol Pot was still alive and civil war raged, it was a great time to be a photographer in Cambodia. That’s unless you happened to be Cambodian.

At the first scent of blood the testosterone-fueled pack, largely routine invaders from the safe haven of Bangkok, would assemble, all too appropriately at Phnom Penh’s Foreign Correspondents Club, a Mekong-side colonial watering hole straight out of a Marguerite Duras novel. They had tripods strapped to their backs and phallic zoom lenses at the ready.

Meanwhile the few Cambodians lucky enough to have access to a camera could be found snapping tourists emerging from the Royal Palace nearby or in Siem Reap, positioning honeymoon couples on the causeway of Angkor Wat. As one of Cambodia’s leading photographers, Mak Remissa recalled, “The foreign media didn’t really trust us to take pictures, but we needed to eat.”

That changed when the dictator died in 1998. With the Khmer Rouge vanquished, Cambodia was no longer a “hot” destination. The foreigners departed, leaving the handful of Cambodians with a modicum of technical competence to fill the vacuum. For Reuters, Agence France-Presse, the Cambodia Daily and the Phnom Penh Post, they represented a useful supply of cheap labor; for the Cambodians, it was a rare opportunity to learn on the job.

Cambodia is, of course, one of the world’s most photogenic places. Its abundance of ancient monuments, rambunctious street life and saffron-robed monks habitually silhouetted by crimson sunsets stirs even the most disinterested tourists to fiddle with their apertures.

Though it’s perhaps taken too long for Cambodians to stake their rightful claim on some of this imagery, a handful of recent events confirmed what many have long suspected: that given a chance, Cambodians have very personal stories to tell, both in artwork and photojournalism.

The opening in March of the Sa Sa Gallery on Street 360 in Phnom Penh trumpeted the first photographers’ collective to be run entirely by Cambodians for Cambodians. Six young professionals — Kong Vollak, Heng Ravuth, Khvay Samnang, Lim Sokchan Lina, Vuth Lyno and Vandy Rattana — aim to create a buzz around this new space by mounting monthly shows of work by both artists and photographers. “The gallery is open to any Cambodian with a serious body of work,” said Mr. Vandy.

Significantly, Sa Sa is an abbreviation of Stiev Salapak, or “Art Rebels.” The gallery takes its name from a group founded in 2007 by Mr. Vandy, a passionate 27-year old who is trying to defend photographers’ interests in an increasingly competitive and still foreign-dominated environment. Currently employed by the Phnom Penh Post, Mr. Vandy is perhaps unique for having criticized foreigners living in Cambodia for not providing enough technical and moral support to Cambodian photographers.

Yet he would be the first to acknowledge a debt to more experienced colleagues from abroad. Since 2000 the Magnum photographer John Vink has been quietly rebuilding capacity in Cambodia by setting up workshops and mentoring several members of the first generation of post-conflict Cambodian photographers.

When the French photographer Stéphane Janin opened his Popil Gallery in Phnom Penh in October 2005, members of the younger generation of Cambodian photographers began to glimpse a future in the medium. Using the gallery as a forum, Mr. Janin encouraged his students to examine the history and content of photography, as well as its sociological impact.

His star pupil was Mr. Vandy, whose 2006 “Looking in my Office” series used the milieu of a telecommunications company to throw light on corporate behavior during the country’s short-lived boom. “I doubt if any professional foreign photographer in Cambodia could have come up with something as timely and insightful as these images turned out to be,” said Mr. Janin, who is currently living in Washington but still exerts considerable influence in the country.

The other significant change has been the advent of photo festivals. Following the Angkor Photography Festival in Siem Reap, now in its fourth year, PhotoPhnomPenh was inaugurated in November 2008. The curator was Christian Caujolle, the creator of the Vu agency and gallery and the first picture editor of the French daily Libération. Mr. Caujolle will reprise the festival in November.

“Cambodian work is technically unsophisticated but it is driven from personal necessity, and there is no question in my mind that some of it meets international standards,” said Mr. Caujolle. Looking back into history, local photographers, he said, were functionaries in King Sihanouk’s newly independent Cambodia and took part in national propaganda campaigns during the 1960s. Many died under the Khmer Rouge, who rather than exploit their talents sent their own novices to learn the craft in China, whose Cultural Revolution influenced Pol Pot’s regime.

A highlight of the Phnom Penh festival was “Bodega,” an event in which the recently created agency Melon Rouge showcased 15 photographers in a dilapidated colonial building one block from the Mekong. The results revealed both the variety of approaches to diverse subject matter and a paradox at the heart of the national psyche: the combination of pride and profound unease.
Melon Rouge’s founders, Nicolas Havette and Thierry Marre, want Cambodians to realize their own projects without pressure. Images of rubber harvesting in Kompong Cham by three “resident” photographers sponsored by the French Agency for Development were hung cheek-by-jowl with “Cinderella,” a study of the evanescence of identity by Chan Moniroth, the only female photographer in the show.

But Cambodian photographers also need to learn to “present pictures to editors, create narratives, photo essays and generally manage images,” according to Mr. Havette. Reasons often cited for their apparent lack of professionalism are the high cost of materials and weak computer skills. Yet perhaps the most evocative example of Cambodia’s contribution to photography could not have been more low tech.

Thaing Chhea Chhinn’s pinhole shots of the architect Vann Molyvann’s White Building, a riverside dilapidated architectural gem built to house athletes and civil servants in the 1960s, were taken with nothing but a shoe box and negative paper, yet for Mr. Caujolle they conveyed “a total awareness of a major issue in Phnom Penh, namely architectural heritage being sacrificed for personal profit. While meaningless on the international circuit, for Cambodians these pictures resonate.”

“The Building,” an ongoing project involving 25 emerging Cambodian photographers, explores landlessness, poverty and social exclusion from the perspective of the squatter community of thousands of families living in and around the White Building. It is being exhibited through Saturday at the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre in Phnom Penh. Among other revelations, the project illustrates how Cambodia’s urban poor share resources and in some cases flourish.

Some photographers working on “The Building” have come to the medium through another visual art: painting. At the same time, a number of Cambodians trained as photojournalists see themselves primarily as artists. Mr. Mak’s solo shows at Phnom Penh’s Java Café and the McDermott Gallery in Siem Reap, for example, featured close-ups of colonies of ants carrying fish. According to an old Khmer proverb, “when the water rises, the fish eat the ants; when the water recedes the ants eat the fish.”

“I love these fluctuations,” said Mr. Mak. “In this case, which species dominates the other depends on the changing situation of nature.”

Mr. Mak, who has won multiple awards, dreams of setting up his own school to train independent photographers. He complains of government indifference and little progress since the era when photography was used largely as a propaganda tool. At the Phnom Penh festival the Ministry of Culture went so far as to ban Mr. Vink’s images for Magnum of the funeral for the murdered union activist Kem Sambo, an act that could hardly have helped assuage suspicions of the government’s involvement.

Sensitivities over subject matter are not confined to the state. “It’s easy to find suffering in Cambodia and even easier to photograph it,” said Maria Stott, the founder of On Photography Cambodia, the organization behind “The Building.” Visiting photographers’ voyeuristic images of monks, sex workers, amputees and AIDS sufferers don’t always tell the truth or contribute to the debate, she said.

Many foreigners have set up shop in Cambodia at a time when many locals wish they would stay away. The difficulties of a small market and struggling media outlets has made the scene increasingly competitive. “Exposure to other people’s work can be challenging and motivating,” said Ms. Stott, a Polish photographer and curator. “The first Phnom Penh festival demonstrated that photography really functions in Cambodia and has been a valuable educational tool, but the medium can also be discriminatory, disrespectful and dangerous.” Read more!

Hwang-DBS to start Cambodia bank ops soon

HWANG-DBS (Malaysia) Bhd (HDMB) is a step closer towards operating a commercial bank in Cambodia.

HDMB said Cambodia's Minister of Commerce had on June 26 issued a certificate of incorporation of HwangDBS Commercial Bank Plc (HDCB) which is effective from June 19, 2009.
As required by the National Bank of Cambodia, HDCB targets to start operations in Cambodia by July 31, subject to a final licence to be issued by the National Bank, HDMB said in announcement on Bursa Malaysia.

HDCB is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the HDMB and will operate as a commercial bank in Cambodia.

Currently, HDCB has an issued and paid-up capital of US$2 comprising two ordinary shares of par value US$1 each.

The issued and paid-up capital of HDCB will be increased to US$20 million, comprising 20 million ordinary shares of par value US$1 each, all to be issued to HDMB before the start of business operations. - Bernama . Read more!

I ate insects to live, says Pol Pot torture survivor

Former Khmer Rouge prisoner tells of haunting memories of 'killing fields'
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent


One of the few survivors of a notorious Khmer Rouge torture centre from which thousands of people were despatched to their deaths has revealed how he and the other inmates scrabbled to find insects to eat to avoid starvation and ate their paltry meals alongside the corpses of those who had died. At times he thought about eating the remains of the dead.

Van Nath, an artist who dodged death only because of his ability to produce a portrait of the regime's leader, Pol Pot, told a genocide trial in Cambodia that although he escaped with his life 30 years ago he was still shackled by his memories. Wiping away tears as he launched into a series of harrowing recollections, the 63-year-old said: "My suffering cannot be erased – the memories keep haunting me."

As he gave his testimony the white-haired survivor was face to face with his jailer, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as "Comrade Duch", the head of Tuol Sleng jail where Mr Nath was held between January 1978 until January 1979. Duch is one of five former regime members being tried by the joint UN-Cambodian inquiry.

"We were so hungry, we would eat insects that dropped from the ceiling. We would quickly grab and eat them so we could avoid being seen by the guards," said Mr Nath, who lost two children during the four years the Maoist-inspired regime controlled the country. "We ate our meals next to dead bodies, and we didn't care because we were like animals. The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little. I even thought eating human flesh would be a good meal."

In a country where 1.7 million people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge either by execution, starvation or disease, Mr Nath is that rare thing: a survivor. Of the estimated 14,000 people sent to Tuol Sleng to be tortured and interrogated before being dispatched for execution at "killing fields" on the edge of Phnom Penh, barely a dozen are known to have lived through it, and just six are still alive today. Mr Nath said the only reason he survived was because Duch learned that he was a trained artist. He was quickly asked to produce portraits of Pol Pot, the regime's leader who died in 1998. "I survived because Duch felt good when he walked into my workshop," he said.

But he also revealed details of the torture suffered before Duch learned of his talents. He was beaten, electrocuted, had his fingernails pulled out, and also underwent a form of "water-boarding". Prisoners, he said, were fed six teaspoons of rice porridge a day.

Duch, who showed little reaction as he watched Mr Nath give evidence, is the first former Khmer Rouge leader accused of crimes against humanity to go on trial. The others are deputy leader or "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, the former foreign minister Ieng Sary; the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith; and the former head of state Khieu Samphan. Duch, now 66, was arrested in 1999 after a journalist found him working for a Western aid group in northern Cambodia, having converted to Christianity. Earlier this year as final preparations were being made for the long-awaited tribunal, The Independent interviewed Mr Nath in his gallery in Phnom Penh. Almost every painting was starkly produced in dark colours. Many showed torture and execution.

"I cannot escape from being a witness," he said at the time. "It is so hard for me to tell you. I suffered so much from that prison; that is why I have been so sick."

Mr Nath said he had either witnessed everything he painted or else was told about it by other prisoners. "Now I have the ability to testify before this chamber. This is my privilege, this is my honour," he told the court. "I do not want anything more than justice."

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Kids as young as four are sold and then raped

CAR boss Peter Vardy was so traumatised by child sex trafficking in Cambodia that he couldn’t sleep at night — and now he’s vowed to help tragic victims.

The 31-year-old visited the Asian country several years ago and was shocked that families were selling their kids as young as FOUR to pimps.

He’s now teamed up with Swiss-based charity Hagar International to launch a campaign tomorrow to raise cash for forgotten victims.

The charity — which has taken a battering in the recession — needs £40,000 to build a new shelter in the country, and Peter is aiming to raise another £60,000 to help it survive.

Peter, from Durham, said: “I was left numb with horror. It’s hard to understand just how bad the poverty is.

“I was aware of children being sold by their families to pimps just to buy a fridge. That child is then at the mercy of rape and torture. If you walk onto the streets of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, within seconds you will be offered the chance to have sex with a girl or boy of any age.

“The damage done to these kids is immeasurable. That’s why we need to keep this organisation alive.

We want to help Hagar build a new shelter for the abused kids, to protect them so they get the chance to be educated.”

Peter — grandson of car magnate Reg Vardy — has started a new Vardy empire in Scotland with showrooms in Motherwell, Kirkcaldy, Edinburgh and Perth.

Last year Vardy’s showrooms raised £35,000 to help build water filters for 1,400 communities in the country, estimated to save one child’s life every month.

He even returned to Cambodia to help build the water filters. And now he’s urging employees to back the new campaign.

Peter added: “Colleagues throughout the dealership will be involved in sponsored events. They have really enjoyed being part of the process.” Read more!

Cambodia, Bahrain to sign joint agreement of diplomatic establishment

The Kingdom of Cambodia and the Kingdom of Bahrain will sign a joint communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations to expand the cooperation between a country in South East Asia and a country in the Middle East, a Cambodian official said on Monday.

Hor Nam Hong, Cambodia's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, and his Bahraini counterpart will sign the joint communiqué of creating the official diplomatic ties, said Koy Khong, under secretary of state and spokesman for Cambodia's Foreign Ministry.

"It is the first time for the two countries to mend the diplomatic ties," he said, adding that in future the two countries will expand cooperation on tourism, investment, trade, and economy.

According to a press release from the Cambodian Foreign Ministry, Hor is to join the first ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council Ministerial Meeting, to be held from June 29 to 30, in Manama, Bahrain.

At the meeting, "we will talk about the cooperation on the global economic and financial crisis, combating terrorism, poverty reduction, sustainable development and economy," Koy Khong said.

The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Gulf group includes Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
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Gillings lab at UNC wins $8.5M for USAID clean water initiative

A clean water program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has won a new award worth up to $8.5 million, the university announced Monday. The program traces its origins to a gift made by Quintiles founder Dennis Gillings and his wife, Joan.

The funding will be used to expand a project to bring clean drinking water and improved sanitation to homes in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The five-year award comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The program is called Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Enterprise Development – or WaterSHED. It is a joint effort between UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Kenan Institute-Asia.

UNC says in a statement that its researchers will search for ways to increase the use of water filters in homes that lack clean drinking water in order to help reduce diarrhea and related diseases that kill nearly 2 million children a year. They will also investigate ways to achieve financially sustainable, scaled-up access to safe water sources. These include harvested rainwater, improved sanitation and greater practice of personal hygiene.

The USAID award will be managed by UNC’s public health school. The principal investigator is Mark Sobsey, the Kenan Professor of Environmental Sciences and

Engineering.

The award grew out of the Carolina Global Water Partnership, one of the first Gillings Innovation Laboratories funded through a $50 million gift to the public health school from Dennis and Joan Gillings.

Dennis Gillings, a former UNC professor, launched and built Durham-based Quintiles into the world’s largest contract research organization. CROs run clinical trials on drug candidates for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

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Pol Pot artist weeps at jail horror

One of the few survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime's main torture center wept yesterday as he told Cambodia's war crimes court how he was only spared because he painted propaganda pictures of Pol Pot.

Van Nath described how hunger drove prisoners to eat insects that fell from the ceiling at the communist movement's Tuol Sleng prison, and said he was so famished he dreamed about eating human flesh.

The 63-year-old is the first survivor to testify at the UN-backed trial of jail chief Duch, who is charged with overseeing the torture and extermination of around 15,000 people who passed through the notorious facility.

"The conditions were so inhumane and the food was so little," Van Nath said. "I thought even eating human flesh would be a good thing for me at that moment."

Duch, real name Kaing Guek Eav, slumped in his chair while the former inmate recalled how he was photographed, stripped and then shackled with other prisoners after being taken to Tuol Sleng.

Prisoners had three teaspoons of gruel for each meal and some ate insects, Van Nath said, although he could not as they fell too far from where he was chained.

"I lost my dignity. Even with animals they would give enough food," Van Nath said. "If they (guards) found out we were eating insects we would be beaten, so we could only do it if we avoided being seen by the guards."

Inmates shackled next to him died during his first month and at one point, too weak to walk by himself, he was summoned downstairs and thought his own death was imminent.

But he was instead told to paint a portrait of Pol Pot, the leader of the 1975-1979 regime, whom Van Nath did not recognise.

"I knew that if I did not paint very well, I would be in big trouble. I was so nervous," Van Nath said.

"I only had the feeling that I had to paint very good portraits so that he (Duch) would be happy," Van Nath said. "When he did not show good feelings in his facial expressions, I was scared and anxious."

Guards strung one prisoner up in the yard at Tuol Sleng when he was found to be a poor sculptor, Van Nath added.

Van Nath went on to become one of Cambodia's most famous artists. The court was shown his paintings of torture methods including prisoners being whipped, plunged in water and having their fingernails pulled out with pliers.

"Even though I've tried my best to forget, it still haunts me," Van Nath said. "I never imagined that I would be able to sit in this courtroom today to describe my plight, my experience."

Sketches showed how he was taken from his family and tortured with electricity, while a painting showed Tuol Sleng guards whipping prisoners and seizing their babies.

Earlier in his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Duch, 66, begged forgiveness from victims of the regime after accepting responsibility for running the jail. He faces a life sentence.


Read more!

Killeen couple cares for Cambodian children

By Jade Ortego


The Tuckers say they feel happy. They're lucky. They're blessed. They have more than 1,000 Cambodian children infected with the human immunodeficiency virus who rely on them for medication, food and sometimes shelter, schooling and companionship.

John and Kathy Tucker of Killeen went to Cambodia in the January 2000 as Catholic lay missionaries. They became involved with a hospice program for Cambodians infected with HIV, Seedlings of Hope. Cambodia has one of highest rates of HIV in Asia.

It soon became clear that there were no programs to help children in Cambodia infected with HIV. Because of widespread ignorance about the nature of the virus, those children were frequently cast off, left to die in the street. None of the 200 orphanages in Cambodia at the time would accept any HIV-positive child.

"Assume your sister died of AIDS and you take her children, and find out one of the kids has AIDS. You're afraid that child may infect your biological children … even though it's almost impossible to transmit from child to child," John said. "People don't know that and they want to protect their own children so out of ignorance they abandon these other children," he said.

Their own clinic

In 2006, the Tuckers began New Hope for Cambodian Children (NHCC), a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, which includes an outreach program, a transitional home for intensive care for infants and the very ill, a day care, and most recently, a village for abandoned children infected with the virus.

Neither John nor Kathy has any medical background.

"There was no (antiretroviral) medicine. The choice was to learn about the medicine or let the kids die," John said.

The Tuckers got a manual about HIV and learned about the medicine and found out it was available in Thailand. They bought it, imported it and hired local doctors to help them start their own clinic.

The NHCC outreach program now covers five provinces and attends to the medical needs of 850 children still living with family members. NHCC provides antiretroviral medication, medical transportation expenses and food for these children.

Antiretroviral medication suppresses the virus enough so that the immune system can reconstitute itself. After taking the medication, some children can be tested and come back with a negative result. The children will become sick again if they miss dosages, however, and can develop resistance to the drugs.

The Clinton Foundation donates money for the medicine for all of these children involved with NHCC, and has gotten the cost down to $12 a month for one child. The same medicine is about $1,000 a month in the United States.

NHCC now includes a village, an almost-sustainable commune of abandoned children on 20 acres about 45 minutes from capital city Phnom Penh.

Building a community

New children arrive every week, kicked out of orphanages or abandoned at hospitals, but the current number is 180.

The kids, age 2 to 19, live in a family and community. NHCC pays a married man and woman $50 a month each to live with and raise eight children in the village. These households are in groups of three, and they eat together; these groups of homes are part of a close-knit larger community.

The Tuckers are working to make the village sustainable. They use only three and half hours of electricity a day, and make their own bio-diesel out of waste vegetable oil from local restaurants. They make methane gas from pig waste, and use solar panels to power water pumps. The village has 250 pigs and 2,200 chickens.

Many orphanages in Cambodia have children make postcards or other crafts to pay for the cost of running it. The NHCC village is funded entirely by private donations, many from the Killeen area, especially St. Paul Chong Hasang Catholic Church in Harker Heights.

"These are children and they're going to be children and they're going to go to school, they're not going to work in the afternoon," John said.

No splitting families

The orphans all attend the local provincial school. Their studies are supplemented by tutoring in every class, largely to make up for a lack of education before their entrance into the program. The village also has art, music and dance classes, and a computer class and basketball court that non-infected children from the provincial schools are allowed to sometimes use.

This year, a 19-year-old is graduating out of the village and will move to Phnom Penh to go attend a university there. The boy isn't infected with the virus; he is one of the 27 non-infected siblings of a child with HIV who lives on the village. "We don't split up families," Kathy said.

Next year, the first HIV-positive child will graduate, and the year after, 12 will. The Tuckers want to rent a house in Phnom Penh for graduates to live in while they attend college or vocational school, where they can still receive care and medication, and remain a part of their family.

NHCC is a secular organization, and doesn't proselytize to the children. "Our kids are Buddhist and they stay Buddhist," John said. "But they do all wear rosaries because they glow in the dark," Kathy said.

Kathy also started a daycare program for HIV positive children that provides their widowed mothers with local, living-wage jobs making quilts, which got media coverage by the BBC and the New York Times. Those quilts, which look like baby blankets decorated with elephants and other animals, can be purchased at St. Paul's.

People can volunteer to work at the village or donate to NHCC online at newhopeforcambodianchildren.com.

"We get to take care of sick kids and get them healthy. We found something at the end of our lives that gives us real meaning. We love what we're doing," John said. "We sleep very well," Kathy said.
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Cambodian ruling party CPP marks 58th anniversary

PHNOM PENH, Thousands of members of Cambodian People's Party (CPP) on Sunday gathered to celebrate the58th anniversary of the founding of the party (1951-2009) in the central headquarters in Phnom Penh.

"We celebrate this event in order to express profound gratitude to our beloved compatriots, soldiers, and people in all generations for their resolute struggles and sacrifices for the cause of nation and fatherland," Chea Sim, president of the CPP told the ceremony.

"In its name as the political force that is leading the country, the party must double efforts to achieve its supreme objective that is guaranteeing sustainable peace, stability and national security, maintaining independence, sovereignty and territory integrity, accelerating socio-economic development to catch up with other countries in the region," he said.

"At the same time, people's poverty, good governance, fight against corruption, extension of public services with quality and confidence, are some of the priority areas that require more efforts," he said.

"We have a firm belief that Cambodia will continue to achieve positive growth this year despite currently being affected by the global financial crisis and economic downturn," Chea Sim said.

"I would like to express my respect for army and police and soldiers of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and national police who have been heroically fulfilling their duties defending our fatherland and along the border," he said.

Cambodian People's Party was initially called the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), which originated in the longstanding people's struggle movement for national independence. CPP won 90 of 123 seats in general election in July 27, 2008.

Representatives from CPP's coalition partner FUNCINPEC and other small political parties as well as some foreign diplomats, including Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Zhang Jinfeng, also attended the celebration.
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Lightning kills five Cambodians in a day: newspaper

Lightning strikes killed five people in Cambodia in a single day, a local newspaper reported Sunday.
Two people were killed in Kampot province, in Cambodia's south, while three were killed in the central provinces of Kampong Chhnang and Kampong Speu, according to the newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea Daily.

It said four of the victims, all killed on Friday, were farmers working in the fields -- a group especially at risk when they continue to work during rainstorms.

Around 50 Cambodians were killed by lightning in the first four months of 2009, while the official toll for last year was 95 deaths.

Experts say the tropical Southeast Asian country, with its many rivers and lakes, is particularly prone to cloud formations which generate intense lightning storms.

These formations can lie just 50 metres (164 feet) above the earth, and anyone underneath is vulnerable to lightning strikes.

Cambodia's government is trying to raise awareness in the provinces of measures to protect against such natural disasters, according to Long Saravuth, weather expert at the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology.

"We hope there will be fewer deaths as more and more people become well-informed about safety during lightning storms," he said on Sunday.

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Cambodia PM meets Thai minister on border dispute

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen hosted one of Thailand's deputy premiers at his home on Saturday in an attempt to diffuse a long-standing border row with friendly chat.

Hun Sen's wife cooked lunch for Suthep Thaugsuban and Thai Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon at his residence in southern Kandal province, Suthep said, after tensions recently escalated over the UNESCO listing of an ancient temple.

Troops from both sides have built up on the Thai-Cambodia frontier in recent days near the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, where seven soldiers have died in clashes since tensions flared last year.

Thailand's decision to ask world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider listing the temple has angered Hun Sen, but despite claiming the issue would not be discussed Saturday, Suthep said they had agreed to reduce tensions at the site.

"Prime Minister Hun Sen asked me to convey the message to our Prime Minister Abhisit (Vejjajiva) and the Thai people that Cambodia will try to reduce tensions (along the border) to assist economic cooperation between the two countries," Suthep told reporters after returning to Thailand.

"We should let bygones be bygones, forget the nightmare of the past and look forward to a positive future for both countries," he said.

Suthep also announced that a dam would be constructed in Cambodia to channel water to Thailand's eastern seaboard.

Foreign ministry spokesman Kuoy Kong said the pair had simply had a "friendly talk".

Hun Sen vowed on Thursday to take a hard stance on the dispute over the temple, the ownership of which was awarded to Cambodia by the World Court in 1962, sparking decades of tensions.

Unrest flared in July 2008 after UNESCO granted world heritage status to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings.
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Q+A-Preah Vihar temple and Thai-Cambodian tensions

BANGKOK, (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met behind closed doors on Saturday with Thailand's deputy premier, Suthep Thaugsuban, as tensions simmered over the disputed Preah Vihear temple.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva sent his right-hand man, Suthep Thaugsuban, to meet Hun Sen to explain why Thailand was challenging a U.N. decision to make the 900-year-old temple a world heritage site under the sole jurisdiction of Cambodia. [ID:nBKK469181]

WHAT'S THE HISTORY OF PREAH VIHEAR?

Preah Vihear, or Khao Phra Viharn as the Thais call it, was completed in the 11th century and pre-dates Cambodia's more famous Angkor Wat temple complex by 100 years.

Many say its stunning setting atop a jungle-clad escarpment overlooking northern Cambodia also eclipses its celebrated cousin as the finest of all the ruins left by the mighty Khmer civilisation.

The temple has in recent years been accessible mainly from Thailand. Landmines and Khmer Rouge guerrillas kept it off-limits from the Cambodian side for decades.

WHY THE DISPUTE?

Both sides have historically laid claim to the temple but a 1962 World Court ruling awarded it to Cambodia, by a vote of 9-3.

Thailand and Cambodia have since squabbled over the demarcation of the border and jurisdiction over the 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of land around Preah Vihear has never been settled.

For generations, the temple stirred nationalist passions on both sides. Before the court in the Hague made its ruling, Thailand's government organised a fundraiser in which every citizen donated 1 baht to pay for the legal team.

COULD THE ISSUE TURN VIOLENT?

Cambodia's bid last October to list the ruins as a World Heritage Site sparked a flare-up in which one Thai and three Cambodian soldiers died in a gunfight.

In the most recent flare-up in April, two Thai soldiers died in an exchange of rocket and rifle fire with Cambodian troops.

Both countries have sent more troops to the border and security analysts say minor skirmishes are always a possibility.

A military standoff would further strain ties between the two historic foes and only exacerbate a long-running dispute that is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.

HOW IS IT BEING RESOLVED?

The two countries routinely pledge cooperation over the temple issue, give guarantees their border troops will not engage in hostilities and agree to delineate the border once and for all, but the quarrelling never seems to stop. Thailand wants joint development and supervision of the Hindu temple which could one day be a lucrative tourist site. However, the temple debate is often used as a tool to gain popular support or to distract the public from other issues at home.

"This challenge by Thailand has more to do with the political situation in Bangkok," said Chanthana Banprasirichote, a political science professor at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University.

"They know this is a good way to boost their credibility and get support from the public." (Compiled by Martin Petty; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
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Four Teens With East Texas Ties Have First H1N1 Cases in Cambodia

DALLAS (AP) - Four American teens who went on a mission trip to Cambodia to help the needy, wound up needing help as they became the first cases of swine flu in that Southeast Asian country, officials with the youth ministry said Thursday.

Whether they contracted the new strain of influenza in the United States, on the plane or in Cambodia remains a mystery.

The teens came down with fever after arriving in Phnom Penh on June 18, according to a statement from Ron Luce, president of Teen Mania, the Christian youth organization based in Garden Valley that sponsored the group.

The four were released from a Cambodian hospital Thursday but remain in isolation.

They were among 40 American students in Cambodia participating in a Teen Mania summer work project known as global expeditions.

They went to volunteer in orphanages, do home repairs and yard cleanup in slums but were soon sidelined by sickness.

The youths are from across the U.S.

Teen Mania said the stricken high school students were not from Texas, but declined to say where they were from. The World Health Organization and other health officials are monitoring their condition.

All 40 flew out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on June 17.

Everyone in the group has been quarantined and expected to remain in a lodge in Phnom Penh for another three or four days, Luce said.

Organizers say the teens are anxious to get back to work. When not working on crafts for orphans or writing letters of encouragement to missionaries in Cambodia, Luce said they've passed the time singing, laughing and praying together as well as planning what they hope to do for the community once they're released.

Half the group is scheduled to return to the states July 7 while the rest will travel to Thailand to do more work projects there.

Teen Mania has about 700 students volunteering in service projects in 13 countries. This is the third time the organization has taken youths to Cambodia since its founding in 1987.

"This group raised money for months and months to go to Cambodia and serve the lord Jesus ... and they're stuck in a house in Cambodia," said Ed Hale of Escondido, Calif., whose nephew is one of their hosts in Cambodia. "They can't do what they were sent to do. It's a tragedy."
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Four Cases of Swine Flu in Cambodia

Cambodia has confirmed an additional three cases of swine flu after reporting its first case this week. All four flu patients are U.S. nationals.

Cambodia’s first confirmed case of the H1N1 virus was reported on Wednesday.

A 16-year-old American girl developed symptoms after arriving in Phnom Penh last Friday. She sought medical care at a private clinic on Monday and was immediately placed in isolation.

The girl was visiting Cambodia as part of a student group. Other members of the American group were put under voluntary observation.

Three more cases of the virus were confirmed yesterday among the student group but all four are said to be in a stable condition and recovering well.

The World Health Organization has declared the H1N1 virus spread a global pandemic and has been advising governments to prepare for a long-term battle.

There have been more than 50,000 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus and at least 237 people have died since it emerged. Read more!

Cambodian editor sentenced on 'disinformation' charge

New York, June 26, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the sentencing today of Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the opposition Khmer-language daily Khmer Machas Srok, to one year in prison stemming from his reports on alleged government corruption.

According to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), a Cambodian court ruled that Hang Chakra violated criminal disinformation laws by publishing a series of articles that accused officials working under Deputy Prime Minister Sok An of corruption. The court also fined the editor 9,000 riels (US$2,250), according to SEAPA.

Cambodia's National Assembly decriminalized defamation in 2007, a move many hoped would end the legal harassment of journalists who reported critically on government affairs. But journalists still risk criminal prosecution and maximum three-year jail terms on disinformation charges, which are outlined in the penal code that was enacted under the former United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). Cambodian newspapers, including the Phnom Penh Post, denounced the verdict, and quoted Hang Chakra as saying "this is the cruelest thing to happen to me."

In a June 4 article in the Phnom Penh Post Hang Chakra said he stood by the story. "When the prosecutor asked me to show them more information, I told them that I stood by the information published in my newspaper and told them that I could not reveal the source of the information."

The paper pointed out that under the Press Law, publishing "false" information, while a criminal offense, carries only a fine of up to 5 million riels (US$1,250). "But the UNTAC criminal code contains much harsher punishments," the paper noted, "with offenders facing a prison term of between six months and three years, and a fine of up to 10 million riels."

UNTAC's legal authority expired with the promulgation of a new national constitution in 1993; the 1995 Press Law broadly protects press freedoms. But since the decriminalization of defamation, Cambodian officials have resorted to the UNTAC-era criminal code to clamp down on media criticism.

"We urge the relevant Cambodian authorities to release journalist Hang Chakra," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia Program Director. "Cambodia's 1995 Press Law broadly protects press freedom, and rulings such as these run counter to the letter and spirit of that legislation. The court should not rely on outdated laws to prosecute journalists who report on government corruption."

It is not clear whether Hang Chakra will appeal. The ruling comes amid a wider crack down on free expression in Cambodia that has targeted government critics including two opposition politicians who have been stripped of their parliamentary immunity so that defamation charges may be brought against them. Read more!

Thai official to avoid temple issue in Cambodia

BANGKOK (AFP) – Thailand's deputy prime minister said he would steer clear of a dispute over an ancient temple on the Cambodian border when he meets the neighbouring country's leader this weekend.

Troops from both sides have built up on the frontier in recent days near the the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, where seven soldiers have died in clashes since tensions flared last year.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said he is sending his deputy, Suthep Thaugsuban, to Phnom Penh on Saturday to explain Thailand's decision to ask world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider listing the temple.

But following a warning by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that Thailand must respect his country's sovereignty, Suthep said he would now avoid the issue.

"I will not discuss any topic that could trigger conflict," Suthep told reporters in Bangkok.

"But do not jump to conclusions that my mission will not achieve anything. I am confident that bilateral talks will enhance a better understanding that Thailand will treat its neighbours cordially," he said.

Hun Sen vowed on Thursday to take a hard stance on the dispute over the temple, the ownership of which was awarded to Cambodia by the World Court in 1962, sparking decades of tensions.

Unrest flared in July 2008 after UNESCO granted world heritage status to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings.

Thai army chief General Anupong Paojinda said on Friday that troops from both sides wanted to avoid clashes and were regularly speaking to each other to ease tensions.

"We will not be the first to start fighting," Anupong told reporters.

"The local commander told me the situation is still calm. Forces from both countries deployed at the temple are constantly in contact with each other and there is no indication that it could lead to confrontation," he said.

The Thai government will protest the listing of Preah Vihear at a UNESCO meeting which is continuing in Seville, Spain until June 30.
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