Cambodian PM warns of 'bloodshed' over Thai border

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's premier warned Monday that a border dispute with Thailand was "very hot" and could result in violence, reiterating his call for international assistance to end the row.

"Cambodia would like to ask for intervention to have an international conference on the issue of the Cambodian-Thai border dispute," Prime Minister Hun Sen said during a ceremony attended by foreign diplomats.

"The issue is very hot. It may cause bloodshed," he added.

He said bilateral efforts to resolve the conflict with Thailand would not work and called on the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other countries to help resolve the spat.

Tensions between the two nations over the disputed border have flared up following protests in Bangkok by the royalist "Yellow Shirt" movement over the issue.

Thai media quoted Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as saying over the weekend that he was ready to use both diplomatic and military means to settle the dispute.

Thailand's opposition has accused the government of using the spat to fuel patriotism and boost its domestic political support.

Hun Sen wrote to the United Nations on Sunday accusing Thailand of violating UN rules by threatening to use military force against Cambodia.

Cambodia reserves its "legitimate rights to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in case of deliberate acts of aggression," Hun Sen wrote in the letter, which was distributed to the media.

Abhisit said Monday that the letter was based on incorrect information.

"Cambodia wants to give an image of Thailand as an intruder or using force, which is not true," he told reporters.

"We are Thais, whatever the problem we should talk."

Cambodia and Thailand have been locked in a troop standoff at their disputed border since July 2008, when the ancient Preah Vihear temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status.

Troops from both countries exchanged fire briefly on their border in June, the latest in a series of clashes between the neighbours.

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Torture Center Marks First Year as ‘Memory of the World’

Tuol Sleng museum, the former Khmer Rouge torture center, marked its first anniversary as a Memory of the World Monday, as officials set a giant stone on the southern side of Building A.

More than 12,000 people were sent to their deaths at Tuol Sleng under Kaing Kek Iev, the Khmer Rouge prison chief who was sentenced to a commuted 19 years by a UN-backed tribunal last month.

Known as S-21 to the Khmer Rouge, the former high school now goes by the official title of the National Museum of Tuol Sleng, following its Unesco Memory of the World listing on July 31, 2009.

The museum holds an archive of 4,186 prisoner confessions, 6,226 prisoner biographies and 6,147 photographs.

“Its significant and outstanding value were a part of the Memory of the World, stemming from its testament to man’s inhumanity to man, women and children, and from the documentation of one of the most extreme examples of crimes against humanity of the 20th Century,” Unesco’s representative to Cambodia, Teruo Jinnal, said during a ceremony Monday morning.

The anniversary comes just two weeks after the sentencing of Kaing Kek Iev, better known as Duch.

Chuch Phoeun, a secretary of stat the the Ministry of Culture, said the archives will be protected but that will require some technical assisance.

Van Nath, who survived the torture center under Duch, said he was satisfied that his former prison was now a Memory of the World.
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Hun Sen Issues Missives to UN After Thai Border Threats

Letters over the weekend from Prime Minister Hun Sen to key UN officials may be an attempt to prevent Thailand from resorting to violence over the border issue near Preah Vihear temple, a local analyst said Monday.

On Sunday, Hun Sen wrote the heads of the UN Security Council and its General Assembly, claiming Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had threatened to use military force to resolve the longstanding border issue.

Hun Sen was responding to Thai media reports that quoted Abhisit telling a pro-government rally that Thailand could walk away from a border agreement signed in 2000 and “use both democratic and military means” to settle a standoff.

“I think this is a sign of alarm to the United Nations Security Council to prevent the border dispute not going toward war and bloodshed,” Chheang Vannarith, the president of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, told VOA Khmer Monday.

“Cambodia is a small country” that needs multilateral support, “particularly the UN,” he said. “So these letters are diplomatic politics from Cambodia to put pressure on Thailand to not use illegal military force.”

Cambodia and Thailand remain at odds over a 4.6-kilometer stretch of land west of Preah Vihear temple, which was made a Unesco World Heritage site under Cambodian protection in 2008. Thousands of troops on each side are amassed on the border, where skirmishes since 2008 have left at least eight soldiers dead.

Both sides severed diplomatic ties last year after Cambodia hired ouster Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser to Hun Sen.

“I think the letters to the UN are a step toward peaceful resolution with UN intervention,” Cheang Sokha, director of the Working Group for Peace, said Monday. “The letters are a call for the help from the international community on the Cambodia-Thailand border problem and provide information to UN about the possibility of Thailand using military force to invade Cambodia.”

Hun Sen discussed the letters in a public speech on Monday, saying Cambodia would “fight against a warlike Thai invasion inside Cambodia” and “call an urgent [UN] meeting on the Cambodia-Thai border situation” if Thailand were to resort to military violence over the border.

The Bangkok Post reported Monday that Thai Foreign Ministry officials are preparing a response to the UN that claims, “Thailand had never changed its position, of wanting to cooperate with its neighbor and share common interests.”
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Thailand Will Not Revoke Border MoU With Cambodia

By Jamaluddin Muhammad

Thailand has no intention of revoking the border Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cambodia inked in 2000 as it is beneficial to Thailand, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Sunday.

He said under the MoU, Cambodia and Thailand need to consult each other if they want to carry out any activities in the disputed 4.6 sq km territory claimed by both countries near the Preah Vihear Temple.

"The MoU will not accept the map for the temple management plan submitted by Cambodia to the Unesco World Heritage Committee because it included part of the disputed territory," he said.

The MoU did not allow Cambodians to occupy the area, he said when leading the four-member government team in a live telecast three-hour debate with four members of the Thailand Patriot Network.

The debate was held after the network's peaceful demonstration in the capital yesterday demanding the Thai government to cancel the MoU as they feared it would cause Thailand to lose the disputed area.

The group claimed that Thailand was at a disadvantage because the MoU was the source of the problem as it gave Cambodians a chance to trespass and settle in the disputed area.

Abhisit said the MoU did not put Thailand at a disadvantage, instead it was beneficial to the country.

The 11th century Hindu temple is located in the Cambodian territory as ruled by the International Court of Justice in 1962 and Unesco listed it as a world heritage site in 2008.

This led to a strained relationship as both countries claimed the disputed area.

The issue heated up again last week when Cambodia submitted the management plan for the temple at the Unesco World Heritage Committee meeting in Brazil.

Thailand protested as the plan included part of the disputed territory and the meeting postponed its decision on the management plan to next year's meeting in Bahrain.

The group yesterday rallied at the Government House where the Prime Minister's Office is located before moving to the Army Region 1 headquarters and later to the Thai-Japanese Stadium.

The group is led by leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) also known as yellow shirts -- the group that seized the Government House in August 2008 and two airports in the city three months later.

Veera Somkwamkid led the group's debate team while the government side included Natural Resource and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti. The group distanced itself from the yellow shirts although it was led by yellow shirts' leaders.

Its rival, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), known as the red shirts, blamed the government for practicing double-standard for allowing such demonstrations to take place while Bangkok was still under state of Emergency which prohibits the assembly of more than five people.

Red shirts leaders also claimed that government was practicing double standards as the yellow shirts' leaders had yet to be charged for terrorism for the offences they committed two years ago following the seizure of the Government House and two airports.

Most of the red shirts leaders are in detention now facing possible terrorism charges following the unrest in the capital which ended May 19 and left 91 people dead and 1,800 injured.

-- BERNAMA Read more!

Cambodia says Thai demands for joint listing of temple is "out of date"

Cambodian government said Friday that Thailand's demand for joint listing of Preah Vihear Temple is "out of date".

Hor Namhong, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, told reporters at a news conference on Friday that a demand suggested by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on a joint listing of Preah Vihear Temple as World Heritage Site was "out of date" and that was only "Abhisit's dream".

Hor Namhong's remarks were in response to media report that quoted Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as saying a joint World Heritage listing of Preah Vihear and its adjacent compound - claimed by both Thailand and Cambodia - was the "best and smoothest path to take" to end conflict over Cambodia's controversial management plan for the ancient Khmer temple.

Hor Namhong said Thailand had "no real intention" to end the conflict at which during the past meetings, Thailand still even claimed a simple name of the temple as Preah Viharn, instead of original name as Preah Vihear that was built by Cambodians in 11th century, the name that was officially spelled out in convention 1904 and treaty in 1907 and the name that was called at the international court's ruling in 1962.

However, Hor reiterated that Cambodia hopes to solve the issue peacefully with Thailand through negotiation and dialogue.

The border conflict came just one week after Cambodia's Preah Vihear Temple was registered as World Heritage Site in July 2008.

And over the past days, Cambodia and Thailand have exchanged war of words concerning who won at the recent UNESCO's meeting in Brazil on the conservation and management plan submitted by Cambodian side over the world cultural heritage site.

Cambodia was due to present its progress report on the conservation and management plan of the Preah Vihear Temple to UNESCO's committee for World Heritage, but that was opposed by the Thai side, saying that to be done only after the border issues between the two nations have been finalized.

However, UNESCO accepted the report but suggested it to be examined next year in Bahrain.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Vietnam, Cambodia share similar growth issues

Vietnam and Cambodia in general, Ho Chi Minh City and Cambodian cities in particular have to face the same difficulties regarding infrastructure, traffic systems, environmental pollution and water resources during the economic development phase.

So said Pham Phuong Thao, chairwoman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council on August 6 while meeting with Try Chheang Hout, head of the Cambodian National Assembly’s Commission of Planning, Investment, Agriculture, Rural Development, Environment and Water Resources (Commission 3), who is visiting Ho Chi Minh City from August 6-8.

With the similarities the two sides have shared during the process of national construction and development, Vietnam and Cambodia need to bolster co-operation and the exchange of experiences, she said.

For his part, the Cambodian leader praised Ho Chi Minh City’s rapid development and its potential to be exploited in the future. He said Cambodia wishes to exchange with and learn from Vietnam’s experience in terms of economic development, especially in the agricultural sector and settling environmental issues.

The Cambodian officials are scheduled to have talks with several departments and agencies in Ho Chi Minh City and visit a number of economic models in the city and Binh Duong province. (VNA)
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Angelina Jolie: 'I miss anonymity'

Actress Angelina Jolie has revealed that she misses anonymity.

The Salt star, who is married to fellow actor Brad Pitt, admitted that she misses walking through New York without being recognised.

According to Virgin Media, she said: "I do miss anonymity. I lived in New York in my early twenties and I used to just walk block after block. I loved it.

"In Cambodia we live very locally and ride elephants and hang out in the streams and be with local people who are our friends."

Speaking of her children, she said: "They have more freedoms when we're not around. They do have an understanding of fame, it bothers them sometimes and it scares them sometimes." Read more!

Lowell immigrant soccer tourney set to crown champ

LOWELL, Mass.—An annual World Cup-style soccer tournament in Lowell created for Massachusetts immigrant groups will crown a champion this weekend.

The 20 team competition is scheduled to continue Saturday at Lowell's Cawley Stadium with knockout stages. The final is slated for Sunday.

The tournament has attracted immigrant players from countries including Somalia, Mexico, Brazil and Cambodia.

Under the rules of the tournament, 17 of a team's 22 players must be from the country of the team, or be children or grandchildren of a person from that country. The winner gets $600 and a replica of the World Cup trophy.

ONE Lowell, an immigrant advocacy group, started the annual competition four years ago as a way to bring the area's diverse immigrant groups together. Read more!

Cambodia, Iran Plan Energy Cooperation Deal

Cambodia's foreign minister is expected in Iran next week seeking investment and technical know-how to help develop his country's offshore oil fields.

A spokesman told VOA Khmer Service that Hor Namhong and other senior officials expect to sign an agreement on petroleum cooperation. They hope the visit will also boost diplomatic relations, trade and tourism.

Oil exploration is under way off Cambodia's coast and production could begin by 2012.

However the visit, scheduled for August 10 and 11, comes at a time when the United States is trying to rally support for international sanctions on Iran's oil and gas industry.

New U.N. sanctions approved in June target Iran's military and its ability to procure equipment for its nuclear program. The U.S. and EU have imposed additional sanctions aimed at deterring investment in Iran's energy sector.

U.S. diplomats have been traveling in Asia this month seeking additional support for the sanctions.

But a senior Cambodian official, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary of State Koy Kuong, told Reuters news agency that Cambodia is a "non-partisan" country and that it is "friends with everyone in the world." Read more!

Thai 'Yellow Shirts' plan Bangkok rally

BANGKOK — Thailand's royalist "Yellow Shirts" said Friday they would rally in Bangkok this weekend to pressure the government over a territorial row with Cambodia, in a show of strength by the movement.

At least 2,000 people are expected to attend the protest on Saturday, organisers said.

But the Yellows agreed to change the venue to a stadium in the city to avoid confrontation with the authorities, who earlier warned they would not be allowed to protest outside Government House as planned.

The compromise came after two hours of talks between Yellow representatives and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, a spokesman for the movement said.

Under a state of emergency imposed in Bangkok in April during mass anti-government protests, political gatherings of more than five people are currently banned.

The Yellows, formally called the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), have previously allied themselves with the current Thai political leadership but the spat is the latest sign that relations have soured.

Key PAD figure Sondhi Limthongkul accused Abhisit on Friday of "lying to the entire Thai nation" about the territorial issue.

The PAD has criticised the governing Democrat party of signing up to a deal with Thailand's neighbour in 2000 that the Yellows believe paved the way for recognition of a Cambodian land claim.

The group has demanded that Thailand tear up the memorandum of understanding, eject Cambodian citizens from the disputed 4.6 square kilometre (1.8 square mile) area, and try to regain control of the Preah Vihear temple.

Relations between the neighbouring countries, already strained by Cambodia's refusal to deport fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have been further tested by the dispute.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Friday dismissed a Thai compromise proposal for the temple as "a dream".

The Yellow Shirts, who are backed by the Bangkok-based elite, are a force to be reckoned with in Thailand's colour-coded political landscape.

The group's rallies in 2006 helped trigger the coup that unseated Thaksin, the hero of the mostly poor, working class "Red Shirts", whose mass protests in Bangkok in April and May culminated in deadly clashes with troops.

The Yellows also mounted a siege of Bangkok's two main airports in 2008, which stranded hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists and helped to topple a government allied to Thaksin.

Many Red Shirt leaders are in jail for their roles in this year's protests, and the movement has complained that the lack of charges against Yellows showed a double standard of justice.

This week prosecutors again postponed a decision over whether to indict individual Yellow Shirts over the airport siege.

Red supporters plan a small demonstration of their own in Bangkok on Sunday to protest at the May crackdown on their rally, during which about 90 people died and nearly 1,900 were injured.
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British man wanted over murder arrested in Thailand

A British man wanted in the UK over the 2008 murder of his south London landlord has been arrested in Thailand, police said.

Stuart Scott Crawford, 44, was picked up on Tuesday after an extradition warrant for the fugitive was issued.

Thai authorities also announced the arrest of a second Briton, David Fletcher, on charges of sexually assaulting children in Cambodia.

Crawford is wanted in connection with the murder of Michael Ryan at the pair's home in Sutton, Surrey.

The 67-year-old's body was found at the address on September 10, 2008, but it is thought he had been dead for a number of days. The corpse had been rolled in carpet and pinned under a bookcase to conceal it.

A post-mortem examination found that Mr Ryan died as the result of a heavy blow to the head from a blunt instrument.

Crawford, who lived with the victim, fled the UK after the murder. Before leaving, it is alleged that he withdrew £6,500 from Mr Ryan's bank account.

Police in Thailand said the suspect had been living in the country for almost two years. He was arrested at an apartment in the resort of Pattaya. Crawford is now set to be extradited. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "Proceedings continue to return him to the UK."

Meanwhile, Fletcher could be extradited to Cambodia, where he is wanted over child sex offences. He had been awaiting deportation from Thailand after being arrested on June 27 on immigration charges. The sex offender had failed to inform the Thai authorities of a conviction in the UK for raping a 16-year-old girl, a crime he served 18 months in prison for.

Whilst awaiting deportation, Interpol in Cambodia notified the Thai authorities that he was wanted in connection to child sex offences.
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Minority Opposition Leader Claims Intimidation by Ruling Party

Kem Sokha, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, stands outside his office in the capital Phnom Penh

One of Cambodia's opposition parties continues to face political repression and discrimination that need international attention, the leader of the minority party says.

Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party, said in an interview with VOA last week that his party faces repression both on the parliamentary floor, where time is limited for his three parliamentarians, and in the field, where his meetings with grassroots supporters find it hard to get permission to gather and participants are intimidated.

“In some places the local authorities don't allow us to have a meeting, even though I use my name as a member of parliament visiting my constituency,” Kem Sokha said, as he continued a two-month tour of the US and Canada.

“In some places the ruling Cambodian People's Party officials disturbed our meeting by verbally attacking our supporters during the session and threatening them with chair fighting,” he said.

Kem Sokha said the US should look into critical issues like land grabbing, elections and freedom of expression.

“The ruling party has classified Cambodian people into three different categories: black, grey and white," he continued, referring to lists the ruling party initiated earlier this year.

Those who support the Human Rights Party are labeled “black,” while those who support the CPP are labeled “white,” he said.

Kem Sokha is scheduled to meet US officials before attending his party congress on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, when party officials will review their strategy for the 2012 and 2013 elections. He is due to return to Cambodia at the end of September.

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Farmers Watch as Tonle Sap Authority Crushes Reservoirs

The machines had come to tear down more than 10 reservoirs local farmers had built to capture the receding waters of the swollen Tonel Sap lake.

One morning in early July, about a dozen bulldozers and excavators came to Msa Krong commune where Kong Heuv lives, about 50 kilometers outside Kampong Thom provincial town.

The machines had come to tear down more than 10 reservoirs local farmers had built to capture the receding waters of the swollen Tonel Sap lake.

“I was very disappointed with the destruction of my reservoir,” said the 67-year-old farmer, as he walked along the flattened dam one recent day.

“If I were rich, this would not be a problem,” he told VOA Khmer. “But I am still in debt due to the construction of the reservoir.”

The government has been tearing down these kinds of reservoirs since late June, under the new Tonle Sap Authority, which has a mandate to protect the flooded forests around the great lake.

There are about 1 million hectares of these forests around the lake; nearly 400,000 hectares have been destroyed already. Since 2002, villagers have been expanding their farmlands, while business owners have looked for other means to catch fish as the water recedes each year.

Kong Heuv said he spent about $5,500 two years ago to keep water for his rice paddies during the dry season.

“I don’t know how to deal with my debt now that I can’t work on the paddies I depend on,” he said.

Chan Yuttha, secretary general of the Tonle Sap Authority, said 35 of 239 reservoirs have now been destroyed across six provinces.

“And there will be no compensation for any loss of the reservoirs, because they were all built illegally,” he said.

Tri Horn, chief of Msa Krong commune, said the destruction of the reservoirs is good for the sustainability of the flooded forests. But, he acknowledged that the dismantling some of the small ones owned by poor farmers in his commune has caused problems for them.

“They borrowed the money from banks to build those reservoirs, so they are now in debt,” he said in an interview at this house. “Some almost want to commit suicide due to the debt.”

Most of the 9,000 people in his commune depend on farming, while a smaller number need the reservoirs for dry-season fishing, he said.

“In addition to keeping water for farming, the building of reservoirs is also meant to catch fish,” said Lim Kean Hor, Minister of Water Resources and head of the Tonle Sap Authority.

The reservoirs are especially problematic in Kampong Thom province, where they are built consecutively and impede the flow of the river, he said.

“So, all of the remaining reservoirs around the great lake will be dismantled to preserve the lake,” he said.

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Hun Sen Praises Tribunal Verdict in Duch Case

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday praised the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s sentencing of torture chief Duch, in the premier’s first public statement since the decision last week.

Victims have said they are unsatisfied with the commuted sentence of the prison chief, under whose supervision more than 12,000 people were tortured and executed.

Hun Sen said the courts had made an independent decision free of political influence.

“The Royal Government of Cambodia respects the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s decision because the court is independent,” he said in public remarks. “We respect the independence of the court. The court sentenced Duch to 35 years in jail. It is up to the court, which the Royal Government of Cambodia must respect.”

In fact, Duch was handed a commuted sentence of only 19 years, following leniency and time served.

And tribunal observers say the court risks being tainted by political influence, with a number of senior officials refusing to cooperate with the international investigating judge and public statements by the premier against further indictments at the UN-backed court.

“The tribunal is facing problems of independence…relating to summonses of witnesses and progress on Case Nos. 003 and 004,” said Long Panhavuth, a tribunal monitor for the Cambodian Justice Initiative. “The government has not allowed the arrest of more suspects.”

Bu Meng, a former prisoner in Duch’s S-21, was not convinced of the court’s independence.

“The tribunal verdict seems to have had pressure from some circle or someone,” he said. “But [Prime Minister] Hun Sen said the court has independence and non-interference. That’s his right. The rights of the victims are different.”

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the verdict had the support of donor countries in a decision that was jointly arrived upon by international and national judges.
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Author Undertakes Battambang School Rehabilitation

The author of a Khmer Rouge memoir who now lives in the US is raising funds to help education in Cambodia.

Ung Kilong, the 50-year-old author of “The Golden Leaf,” said he hopes better education will promote free thinking and a break from the kind of political ideology that led to the disaster of the Khmer Rouge.

“Young people joined the Khmer Rouge because they lacked understanding,” he said. “With the schooling in place they will have more knowledge.”

Ung Kilong is working with a group of associates to build a primary school in Thmor Kol district, Battambang province, where students are taught by underpaid teachers in a dilapidated school and without proper uniforms.

Ung Kilong is himself originally from Battambang, but he fled to the US with his sister following the Khmer Rouge and the loss of their parents and other siblings.

“I was lucky to come here, so I want to help Cambodia, so that in the future, Cambodian children can raise up the face of the country,” Ung Kilong told VOA Khmer from Portland, Oregon, where he was fundraising for the school project.

Cambodia’s ambassador to the US, Hem Heng, who attended the fundraising ceremony, urged other Cambodians to do more to help education, health and social issues.

“As Cambodians, no matter where we go and no matter what citizenship we hold, our blood is still Khmer,” he said. “Therefore, we always think of our country.
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Cambodia to celebrate day for indigenous people near Angkor Wat

About 1,000 people will get together next week in Cambodia's northern province of Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat Temple complex to celebrate international day for indigenous people.

In a joint statement released Tuesday, Oxfam America in cooperation with 17 other local and international organizations said about 1,000 people representing the Cambodian government, civil society, the United Nations and indigenous communities from across Cambodia will come together for the first time to celebrate the 16th International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples in Siem Reap on August 9, 2010.

The celebration is to recognize the aspiration of Cambodian indigenous peoples to exercise control over their ancestral lands, forest and other natural resources vital to their ways of life and economic development, and to maintain and develop their identities, languages and cultures.
Indigenous peoples, making up 5 percent (about 340 million) of the world's population, are among the poorest of the poor, according to the statement.

The statement, however, did not say how many percent that the indigenous people in Cambodia represent the country's total populations of more than 14 millions.

But it did say Cambodia has about 30 indigenous groups, and on the day some 300 indigenous peoples from across the county will join a parade to call for respect for their own rights.

They will present their ways of life in an exhibition and a cultural performance, the statement said.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Mystery Pig Deaths Spread Through Three Provinces

Animal health authorities are trying to learn what has killed nearly 200 pigs in three separate provinces.

An unknown number of pigs have died in the provinces of Battambang and Kampong Cham, while nearly 150 have perished in the southern province of Kampot.

Health officials said the disease appears to be bacterial, making an outbreak of H1N1, sometimes called swine flu, unlikely.

On Monday, officials began blood tests of pigs in Kampot, where the latest and most severe outbreak has occurred.

“On Saturday, we started the blood tests on seven pigs,” Kao Phal, director of the animal health department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said Monday. “But unitl now we do not know exactly the disease that happened to the pigs is.”

The animal health department is also appealing to farmers not to transport any pigs from their farms to market for the rest of the month of August, he said. Read more!

No Cluster Munition Ban for Cambodia

Cambodia has not yet signed a cluster munition ban that went into effect Sunday. Thirty-seven countries have ratified the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.

“As a heavily cluster-bombed country, we are willing to become a party to the convention,” Prak Sokun, a secretary of state for the Council of Minister, told VOA Khmer last week. “But we have to consider thoroughly any impact to our national security.”

The cluster munition convention bans the production, use, transport or stockpiling of cluster munitions.

It was opened to states for signatures in 2008 in Oslo, Norway.

“Countries like Thailand and Vietnam have not signed it either,” said Prak Sokun, who is an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen on landmine issues. Read more!

A small measure of justice in Cambodia

The punishment given the ex-chief of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison appears to be too lenient. And culpability for the reign of terror extends far beyond him.

By James Pringle

Last week in a Cambodian courtroom, I watched as the former commandant of the Khmer Rouge's notorious Tuol Sleng prison and torture center was sentenced to 35 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

During Monday's 70-minute session, the former executioner, now a born-again Christian, listened attentively from the dock, holding what appeared to be a small Bible. "If you want to stone me to death, as they did when Christ was with us, the Cambodian people can do so and I will accept it," he told the tribunal during his trial. But he also asked for mercy.

Kang Kek Ieu — known in tribunal filings as Kaing Guek Eav but best known by his revolutionary name, Comrade Duch — fled Phnom Penh when the Vietnamese invaded and deposed the Khmer Rouge in 1979. He remained at large for more than 20 years until he was found, working for a Christian aid agency, by Irish photographer Nic Dunlop

To many survivors of the Khmer Rouge era, last week's sentence seemed far too light for a man who was "addicted to the sight of blood," as one of them described Duch in trial testimony. After taking into account the time he's already served and other considerations, he is likely to serve 19 more years, which leaves the distinct possibility that the 67-year-old will live to see freedom again.

Is that too lenient a sentence? Probably. But it's hard not to also think about how the culpability for Cambodia's horror extends far beyond one prison commander.

The first time I saw Cambodia was during the American "incursion" in the spring of 1970. Flying over the country in a rickety Vietnamese helicopter, I beheld a landscape pocked with craters, the result of the secret bombing that had been ordered by President Nixon and his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, in 1969.

Some commentators have wondered since just how much the American bombings, which killed tens of thousands of Cambodians before being stopped by Congress in 1973, had to do with the ferocity of the Khmer Rouge, under whose rule an estimated 1.7 million people were put to death or died of hunger or overwork.

In 1979, I went to Phnom Penh as part of a press tour for half a dozen Western journalists who had been brought to see the "new" Cambodia. But everywhere we looked were signs of the despot Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge.

In the countryside, skinny oxen pulled wooden carts along mine-laden and bomb-blasted roads. In the city, mountains of wrecked automobiles stood alongside hillocks of rusting refrigerators, unacceptable bourgeois toys in Pol Pot's "glorious" Democratic Kampuchea.

At one point, having evaded our minders, we came across a handful of ordinary Cambodians who had crept past government barriers into Phnom Penh. They were kneeling in tattered clothes on the ground picking up individual grains of rice. The pathetic cavalcade of skeletons smiled shyly at a couple of foreigners before hauling themselves to their feet and tottering off, as if they felt their suffering was an eyesore to us.

Among the places we visited on that trip was Tuol Sleng, also known as the S-21 prison, where Duch had ordered the killing of thousands of Cambodians. Blood was still congealed on the prison floor when we visited, and it felt as if the last desperate scream still hung in the air. The whole awful place stank of death, fear and neglect.

Today, of course, Phnom Penh is a very different place, a busy city full of bars and restaurants. For decades, Cambodians have wanted to forget the past and move on with life, and it remains to be seen whether the government will muster the will to aggressively prosecute other war criminals. Only recently have young people even been taught much about the Khmer Rouge regime.

But as I watched Duch's sentencing last week, I found the past hard to forget. I remembered speaking to a mother and her 11-year-old son in 1979, soon after Pol Pot's ouster. The boy had lost both his legs in a mine blast while watching their cow. And he wasn't alone.

"The children of Cambodia have no legs," his mother, half-demented with grief, told me.

James Pringle covered the war in Vietnam and Cambodia as a correspondent for Reuters and Newsweek. Read more!

Poll: Respondents fear temple row will impact Thai-Cambodian relations

BANGKOK, August 1- The Thai public is concerned about the impact of the current diplomatic wrangling and four out of 10 respondents in a new poll -- 40 per cent -- expressed concern that the current dispute over Preah Vihear temple could negatively affect relations between Thailand and Cambodia, according to a survey conducted by Dusit Poll.

The survey conducted among 1,148 people from July 30 through August 1 showed that one in four -- some 25 per cent of respondents worry that Thailand might eventually lose the area adjoining Preah Vihear temple.

Almost 21 per cent of the respondents fear that more clashes between soldiers of the two countries would take place, causing unsafe conditions for residents living near the border, while 14 per cent said the dispute would affect the livelihood of people living near the border and those in the tourism business.

The survey was conducted after UNESCO's World Heritage Commission on Thursday deferred its decision on Cambodia’s request to review its management plan for the temple for one more year. It will be reviewed during next year's WHC meeting in Bahrain.

Thailand and Cambodia recognise different border demarcations, having resulted in clashes along the disputed border between the two countries. The clashes have occurred periodically since the temple was awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice in 1962.

The situation has worsened after the UNESCO named the temple a World Heritage site in 2008 after Cambodia applied for much-valued status.

The Dusit Poll said one third of the respondents -- 33 per cent -- believed the government should present facts on the temple to Thais and foreigners, 26.5 per cent said Thailand must prepare information and maps marking the boundary between the two countries in details and that it must work on an proactive basis.

Twenty-one per cent said Thailand must monitor Cambodia's movements and provide security to residents the border and 19 per cent suggested the Thai government to be patient and resolve the problem through negotiations. (MCOT online news) Read more!