Cambodia's gambling industry contributes 17 mln USD in tax revenues in 2006

The Cambodian Ministry of Finance and Economy in 2006 collected about 17 million U.S. dollars in tax revenues from the gambling industry, including casino, lottery and electronic gaming, the Cambodia Daily reported in Phnom Penh on Tuesday.

Casino tax revenues alone amounted to 13 million U.S. dollars, which exceeded the target casino revenues of 12.5 million U.S. dollars laid out in the 2006 national budget, Bankosal Ming, deputy director of the ministry's finance industry department, was quoted as saying.

According to another senior ministry official, Phnom Penh's NagaCorp Casino paid the lion's share of the revenues, or 2.4 million U.S. dollars, to the state coffers in 2006, while smaller casinos paid at varying levels based on their sizes.

In contrast to casinos, which are geared almost exclusively toward foreigners, the lottery, betting and electronic gaming cater to ordinary Cambodians, Bankosal Ming said.

The gambling industry is expected to contribute 19 million U.S. dollars in tax revenues in 2007, he added.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

By Ker Munthit
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5:19 a.m. January 16, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Scores of Asian and European companies have expressed an interest in tapping Cambodia's oil wealth, though it will be years before the country realizes the benefits from its offshore reserves, a government official said Tuesday.

Te Duong Tara, the director-general of Cambodian National Petroleum Authority, told The Associated Press Tuesday that the country was still assessing the situation and was a “long way” from reaching a production phase.

Impoverished Cambodia was set abuzz in 2005 following the discovery of oil off the southwestern coast by U.S. energy giant Chevron Corp.

Since then, Te Duong Tara said oil firms from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, France, Indonesia and China, have been lining up for licenses to explore other potential blocks in the Cambodian waters.

The Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC Ltd. is presently negotiating terms of agreement with the Cambodian government, which could be signed in the near future, he said without elaborating.

“We are bringing in highly experienced operators,” Te Duong Tara said on the sidelines of a petroleum seminar.

Chevron, meanwhile, is conducting exploration drillings in Block A where it first discovered oil, a site located about 87 miles southwest of the seaport of Sihanoukville, which is about 115 miles southwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.

The company discovered crude oil in 2005 in four wells in the block and has plans to drill 10 more through 2007.

Te Duong Tara said that oil revenues could have a “profound” impact on the future of Cambodia, where 35 percent of the country's 14 million people live below national poverty line of 50 cents a day. Read more!

54 U.S. soldiers still missing in Cambodia: Official

Charles A. Ray, former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, said on Tuesday that there are 54 U.S. soldiers still missing in action (MIAs) in Cambodia.

"The parents of those soldiers are still asking us about their sons and if they died. Their parents need the evidence," Charles told some 100 media management students at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Ray, also a veteran in the Vietnam War, said that in the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, his team will conduct investigation of archives and villages to seek out details that might lead them to aircraft crash sites or to potential burial location.

"But we are faced with rigid border-crossing rules and regulations. Our investigations have often been halted for months or longer, while negotiations must take place. Such delays are devastating to the progress of a case, and especially to the families who are waiting and hoping that answers on their missing loved ones will be forthcoming," said Ray, who arrived here on Monday in capacity of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs.

"Cambodia has set up an example for the other nations in this region and the citizens of the U.S. recognized that," added Ray, who was ambassador to Cambodia from 2002 to 2005 and got his current post in September 2006.

Meanwhile, he noted, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in Siem Reap in 2004 that the mission of recovering the remains of U.S. soldiers offered new venues of cooperation between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

"The relation between Cambodia and the U.S. is up and down and sometimes is rocky," he said, adding that presently both sides cooperate nearly in all sectors and "it is a positive sign." Ray, reportedly on a special mission to find out the whereabouts of the missing U.S. soldiers in Cambodia, is expected to meet King Sihamoni and Hun Sen on Wednesday.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Bush's New Iran Policy

POLITICS:Bush's New Iran Policy - War Plan or Propaganda?Analysis by Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (IPS) - President George W. Bush's seemingly aggressive Iran policy of taking direct action against alleged Iranian "networks" involved in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, combined with the deployment of a second carrier group off Iran's coast, triggered speculation that it is related to a plan for an attack. But the revelation by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the campaign against Iranian officials had already been in effect for several months before Bush's speech last Wednesday indicates that the new rhetoric is aimed at serving the desperate need of the White House to shift the blame for its failure in Iraq to Iran, and to appear to be taking tough action.

Rice told the New York Times in an interview Friday that Bush had ordered the U.S. military to target Iranian officials in Iraq allegedly linked to attacks on U.S. forces some time last fall. Bush and Rice had previously created the impression that the administration had launched a new initiative against Iran in connection with its proposed increase in troop strength in Iraq. The Bush speech coincided with an attack by an unidentified U.S. military unit on the building used by Iranian consular officials in Erbil and the seizure of six Iranian officials in the compound.

But all indications are that the U.S. military has no real intelligence on any Iranian direct involvement in supplying lethal weapons to insurgents. The statement issued by the U.S. military but clearly written in the White House said the detainees, who were not identified as Iranians, were "suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and coalition forces".

That statement shows that the seizure was not based on any prior evidence of the officials' complicity in insurgent attacks. U.S. troops also seized documents and computers, indicating that the attack was really nothing more than an intelligence operation, launched in the hope of finding some evidence that could be used against Iran. The only other such U.S. military raid came in late December and targeted four Iranian officials visiting Baghdad at the invitation of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. That operation bore similar evidence of being a fishing expedition against Iranians, based on nothing more than the "suspicion" that they were connected with the Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Contrary to the impression conveyed by the administration, therefore, it is not targeting those who it knows to be involved in supplying insurgents with weapons but is still trying to find some evidence to justify its tough rhetoric against Iran. The initial rhetoric from Bush suggesting a possible intention to expand the Iraq war into Iran or Syria in response to alleged Iranian and Syrian support for anti-coalition insurgents had been followed by clarifications and new details that point to a very carefully calibrated propaganda offensive aimed at rallying his own political base.

Bush's identification in his Jan. 10 speech of Iran and Syria as "allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq" and the more specific reference to Iran as "providing material support for attacks on American troops" seemed to hint at such a plan to expand the war across the board into Iran. Rice seemed to be dropping even more pointed hints of such a plan in television interviews on Thursday. On the NBC Today show, Rice vowed, on behalf of Bush, "[W]e are going to make certain that we disrupt activities that are endangering and killing our troops and that are destabilising Iraq." And when asked if that meant "attacks inside Iran and Syria" were "on the table", she responded that Bush "is not going to take options off the table..." Rice went on to declare, "The Iranians need to know, and the Syrians need to know, that the United States is not finding it acceptable and is not going to simply tolerate their activities to try and harm our forces or to destabilise Iraq."

Asked in an interview with "Fox and Friends" whether Bush's speech could mean "going over the border to chase down those who are providing the technology and possibly the training", Rice coyly replied, "Well, I don't want to speculate on what kinds of operations the United States may be engaged in," as if to leave that possibility open. Then she added, "But I think you will see that the United States is not going to simply stand idly by and let these activities continue." In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, Rice refused to answer a question from Chairman Joe Biden on whether the president has the authority to conduct military missions in Iran without congressional approval.

That provoked expressions of alarm from both Democratic and Republic senators. Sen. Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, said this ambiguity reminded him of the Richard Nixon administration's policy toward Cambodia in 1970 during the Vietnam War. Some analysts viewed Rice's rhetoric as evidence of an administration plan to justify an air offensive against Iran on the basis of alleged Iranian complicity in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, rather than on the more abstract threat of Iranian progress toward a possible nuclear weapons capability. But the careful wording used and the explicit caveats issued by administration officials belied the impression of menace against Iran that Bush and Rice had clearly sought to convey.

Bush's reference to the issue in his Wednesday night speech avoided any actual threat to Iran. Instead he said, "We will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq." That formulation was carefully chosen to limit the scope of U.S. actions. The next day, even though Rice was provoking Congressional fears of a wider war, the whole Bush team was qualifying that rhetoric in remarks to reporters by specifying that U.S. actions to stop the alleged Iranian interference in Iraq will be confined to Iraq itself.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is considered a full member of the Bush administration team, limited the threatened aggressive U.S. actions to "those who are physically present trying to do harm to our troops..." He concluded, "We can take care of the security of our troops by doing the business we need to do inside of Iraq." And spokesman for the National Security Council Gordon Johndroe, after repeating the new line that the administration would "not tolerate outside interference in Iraq", went on to say that the actions would be taken only inside Iraq, not across the border.. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates also said on Friday the United States had no intention of going into Iranian territory.

The contrast between the general impression of steely resolve toward Iran conveyed by Bush and the unusual clarity about the limited geographical scope of the response points to a sophisticated two-level communications strategy prepared by the White House. For those who get their news from television, the message conveyed by Rice was one of effective action against the Iranians supposedly causing harm to U.S. troops; for the Congress and the media, the message conveyed to reporters was much more cautious.

The two-level communications strategy suggests, in turn, that the White House was acutely aware that a single message of menace toward Iran could have triggered a negative Congressional response that would have defeated the purpose of the tough rhetorical line.

Ironically, therefore, the net effect of the new tough line toward Iran may actually have been to force the administration to admit, if only tacitly, that it is not free under present circumstances even to threaten to go to war against Iran. *Gareth Porter is an historian and national security policy analyst. His latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in June 2005. ** This article is the first of a two-part series on the escalation of hostile rhetoric and actions toward Iran by the Bush administration. (END/2007) Read more!

NZ prisoner in Cambodia says he faces human rights abuses

The lawyer for a New Zealander serving a 20 year sentence in a Cambodian jail says he is facing serious human rights abuses.

Graham Cleghorn is appealing his sex charge convictions which involve young girls who worked for him.

His lawyer, Greg King, says he has voiced his concerns to Prime Minister Helen Clark if she will ask Dame Silvia Cartwright, who is in Cambodia, to investigate.

He says prisoners are being beaten, shackled and locked in dark 'punishment rooms'. Read more!

China pledges 100 mln USD of loans for Cambodia to build infrastructure

China has pledged to offer 100 million U.S. dollars of preferential loans for Cambodia to build its infrastructure, said Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong here on Monday upon his return from the Philippines.

"The loan from China will be used to build National Road No. 10 from Battambang province to Pailin city and the Takhmao Bridge in Kandal province," said Hor, who is also Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

This finance aims to encourage Cambodia to develop and offer benefits to the rural area, Hor told a press conference at the Phnom Penh International Airport upon his return from the ASEAN ( the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) meetings.

Some of the loans will be dedicated to other road and bridge projects, he said, adding that China made this promise during the ASEAN meetings in Cebu, Philippines, in accordance with the Cambodian government's request made in 2006.

The loans were a follow-up to the 200 million U.S. dollars of aids and loans for Cambodia nodded by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in April, 2006, when he paid an official visit to the kingdom. Part of them have been earmarked to Cambodia to build bridges and roads.

Prime Minister Hun Sen also returned from the ASEAN summits on Monday evening.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Roundup: Hub in Sihanoukville re-opened to perfect Cambodia's air travel network

A triangular air travel network over western Cambodia was formed as a world-class airport was re-opened on Monday in seaside resort Sihanoukville to embrace anticipated influx of foreign visitors.

The network can apparently serve to link up the kingdom's major sight-seeing spots in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, so as to provide more selectable travel routes for those curious about this colorful country.

"The re-opening of the airport is really good for our tourism," said Thong Khon, secretary of state at the Ministry of Tourism, adding that it is part of the ministry's strategy to connect Siem Reap and Sihanoukville by airlines to encourage tourists to extend their stay to enjoy the kingdom's sandy beaches after seeing the Angkor temples.

Upon the inauguration of the Sihanoukville International Airport, a former Soviet Union-made Antonov-24 propeller-driven aircraft from Siem Reap landed on the runway in its maiden flight with 11 passengers and four crew members on board.

Currently, flights by domestic airliner PMT have started to shuttle between Sihanoukville and Siem Reap around three times a week, while the beach city's connection with Phnom Penh, some 300 kilometers away, is yet worth of air travel and can be easily handled with automobiles at around three hours' drive on the national road.

Meanwhile, said Thong Khon, there is still another option for non-domestic travelers, who can first reach Sihanoukville by marine route and then transfer to Siem Reap by airlines and, of course, vice versa.

The Societe Concessionnaire des Aeroports (SCA), a French- Malaysian joint firm entrusted to run the hub, is now in talks with several other airliners about using the airport, whose runway will be extended from the current 1,800 meters to 2,200 meters with a further investment of 200 million U.S. dollars to accommodate jet flyers such as Boeing 737 by the end of 2007, said Norinda Khek, SCA's communications and marketing manager.

By then, international routes will also be opened, thus tapping the potential of Siem Reap's already established air links with countries such as South Korea, Thailand and China to expand foreign tourists' access to Cambodia, he said, adding that SCA, a subsidiary of France's biggest construction group Vinci, is licensed to operate the hub until 2040.

The Sihanoukville airport was closed in the early 1980s due to financial difficulties. Renovation by SCA started in June 2006 to preliminarily extend the terminal and the runway suitable for propeller-driven aircraft to land.

According to official statistics, some 280,000 tourists visited Sihanoukville in 2006, up by 30 percent over 2005. Among them 60, 000 were foreigners.

In addition, tourist arrivals in Cambodia jumped more than 20 percent to about 1.7 million in 2006, bringing in 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenue for the government.

Each visitor was estimated to have spent some 700 U.S. dollars in Cambodia, while 300,000 local people have found jobs in the industry, according to the Ministry of Tourism, which expects to receive 3 million foreign travelers in 2010.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Chaotic Streets of Phnom Penh update

Posted by Admin / 14. January 2007, 19:55

Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh is arguably the most chaotic city in south east Asia. The roads, sometimes French style boulevards and at other times dirt tracks with holes, uneasily host a variety of pedal bikes, motor bikes and large jeeps which compete for space at every intersection and set of traffic lights. The motor bikes win if only by sheer force of numbers. There are said to be over a million bikes in a city not yet three times that number in terms of population. It’s certainly the traffic that leaves the most lasting impression on the casual visitor. Over the past 12 months, Phnom Penh has improved slightly from the natives’ point of view. Although the city is host to thousand upon thousand of near destitute people who throng the sea wall areas, free toilet portacabins have started to appear which is an improvement on the health and hygiene front.

Phom Penh traffic is truly chaotic. The building boom in commercial property, housing blocks and hotels is clearly providing more jobs and even the police have smartened up their appearance in terms of their uniforms. However, they are still harassing motor bike drivers at random who aren’t wearing a pair of goggles. For some reason, these are seen as more important than a crash helmet. Visa situation It has never been easy to obtain multi-entry or non-immigrant visas in Phnom Penh at the Thai embassy and that remains the situation today. The most you are likely to get is a single entry tourist visa (60 days) for Thailand and you are likely to be told not to come back for another one. Multiple entry tourist visas in the countries bordering Thailand seem to be decidedly a no-no. For the time being at any rate. We met one man who had secured a single entry non-immigrant “B” visa (90 days) but he was clearly applying for a work permit in Thailand and had a pile of company papers and a registration certificate from the Chonburi labour office to prove the point. A couple of other guys were trying to get multiple entry non-immigrant “O” visas to support their Thai wives. They eventually got a single entry apiece, but were told to apply inside Thailand if they wanted a one year permit. Accommodation A night’s stay in a lodging house can cost as little as US$3 but nobody is suggesting it’s luxurious. You can find a crop of these guest houses in the Independence Monument area or in some streets near to the Central Market. Then there’s a grouping of mid-price hotels for around US$20-50, some of which are located on the boulevard overlooking the estuary. Finally, there are the plush hotels from around US$60-$150 per night which are beginning to abound all over town. The Cambodiana and the Sunway are too of the most popular and can be booked, along with dozens of other choices, on the internet. It’s customary to throw in a free American breakfast, and the best rates seem to be reserved for package tourists, mainly from France and Japan, or for “rack” clients who just walk up to the front desk and ask for a discount.

Restaurants Prices in the eating houses tend to be cheap and excellent value. On the estuary boulevard, the foreign correspondents’ club – which is open to all – serves a variety of wholesome dishes both Asian and European. It’s also Phnom Penh’s main gossip shop although you probably won’t have heard of the guy or gal under the microscope. Nearby, also on the sea front, are a growing number of pubs-with-grub. We enjoyed several meals in the British run Hope and Anchor where a soup, bangers and mash and a beer will leave lots of change from a 10 dollar bill. For some reason nobody seems to understand, the Indian restaurants which number six or seven are amongst the best in Asia. The food in all of them is excellent and main courses start at around three dollars. How much more you pay depends on the surroundings rather than the dishes themselves. The Indian nosheries are also good for vegetarians – the people who don’t fancy eating anything which once had a face – and both north and south Indian cuisine is rich in non meat and non fish choices. Eating in the top class restaurants is expensive even by Thai standards. But many of them put on evening or weekend buffets which can be worth a visit. For example, the Sunway which is located near the recently opened American embassy, has several international buffets a week for a very fair US$18.50. Finally, at the other end of the scale, it’s best to avoid street kitchens and food stalls. They are strictly for the locals and no assumptions should be made about the quality of water used in the washing up or the personal hygiene standards of the operators.

Sight seeing: All the places to go are only a few minutes by motorbike taxi, except the notorious Khmer Rouge “Killing Fields” which require a limousine taxi for the 30 km round trip at about 30 dollars. Many tours start with the downtown, huge temple site Wat Phnom (temple on a hill) and take in the museum near the royal palace, mainly stone artefacts and ruins. It’s as well to remember that Cambodia had an advanced civilization at a time when medieval Brits were going around in the dark and looking for trouble with clubs and knives. Not much has changed.

Ghastly reminder of Cambodia’s pastEveryone has to go and see Toul Sleng, the prison where thousands of men, women and children were tortured and butchered in the era of the Khmer Rouge thirty years ago. Many people have found the visiting experience very moving indeed, perhaps the more so because of the thousands of photos of inmates staring down at you from the walls. Another place worth a quick look is the Russian Market although the piles of marijuana once on sale have disappeared for all time.

Night life: It’s tame by Pattaya standards. There are nightclubs dotted around the central areas including the once famous or infamous Heart of Darkness which attracts the Camodian jet set and their Oddjob type minders. There are plenty of beer houses, Pattaya style, the most popular being on the waterfront or near the independence monument. Keep well clear of the port area where assorted tarts try to entice unwary visitors into tiny shacks and where you are more likely to lose your wallet than your virginity. The only sort-of gay bar is the Salt lounge where foreigners seem to outnumber the locals. If none of the above applies, you could try the Naga casino in the government offices’ district. Most of the floor space is given over to hungry slot machines and to baccarat. Those looking for a blackjack game might be disappointed as there are only two tables, with all the seats mostly occupied by rich locals who never seem to go home. The casino isn’t allowed to advertise and many city guide maps don’t include it. It’s a short distance from the Cambodiana hotel and open 24 hours, 365 days a year. Food and drink is free whilst you are betting.

However, an entertainment complex and luxury hotel are currently being built next to the gambling den. Getting there Bus trips from Thailand are only for the hardy or the foolhardy. The el-cheapo flights start at around 3,000 baht round trip and Thai is currently offering the same for 8,500 baht. Don’t forget that the el cheapos are subject to more delays and amalgamations. The tourist visa on arrival at Phnom Penh airport costs US$20 and the departure tax a steep US$25. Taxis to and from are a set price at US$7. Take US dollars with you for all bills and you’ll receive change in that currency. The local currency, the riel, is only used by tourists for very small transactions under one dollar. There are no coins in use in the country and no ATM machines.

Read more!

China-ASEAN Free Trade Area

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries signed The Agreement on Trade in Services of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area on Sunday in Cebu, the second largest city of the Philippines.

The agreement was signed at the 10th China-ASEAN Summit attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and leaders of the 10 ASEAN member countries.

The signing is another major achievement in China-ASEAN economic cooperation and trade. It will mark a key step forward in the building of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and lay the foundation for full and scheduled completion of the China-ASEAN FTA.
The following are some basic facts about the China-ASEAN free trade area.

On Nov. 4, 2002, then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and leaders of the 10 ASEAN nations signed at the sixth China-ASEAN summit the landmark Framework Agreement on ASEAN-China Comprehensive Economic Cooperation, marking the beginning of the process of setting up a China-ASEAN free trade zone.

Under the agreement, the free trade zone would be completed by 2010, and the four new ASEAN members -- Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam -- have been allowed an additional transitional period of five years and are slated to complete the building of the free trade area in 2015.

The China-ASEAN free trade area, which will comprise China, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, is expected to be one of the biggest free trade areas in the world.

The China-ASEAN free trade area will have a total population of 1.8 billion and a combined gross national product of 2 trillion U.S. dollars when completed in 2010.

The estimated total trade volume of 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars will make it the third largest market in the world, after theEuropean Union and the North American free trade area.

Since 2003, China and ASEAN have held consultations on agreements concerning the building of the free trade area. Beginning from July 1, 2005, China and ASEAN countries started their tariff-reducing process. The two sides will gradually reduce or cancel tariffs on 7,000 kinds of products.

By 2010, China and six old ASEAN member nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will impose zero tariffs on most normal products, while China and the other four new ASEAN members -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam -- will do the same in 2015.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Villagers Oppose More Dams in Vietnam

ENVIRONMENT-CAMBODIA:Villagers Oppose More Dams in Vietnam

Sam Rith - Newsmekong*PHNOM PENH, Jan 14 (IPS) - Chao Chantha, one of 10 community representatives from the north-eastern Cambodian province of Stung Treng became agitated as officials of the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) fielded questions at a meeting called to discuss the neighbouring country's plans to build more dams on its side of the border.

''We have no hope that Vietnam will give any compensation to Cambodian people affected by their dams,'' Chantha, 46, said on the sidelines of the Jan. 12 meeting. Cambodian activists say this was the first time in more than a decade of Nordic aid-backed hydro-planning along rivers shared by Vietnam and Cambodia that Nordic consultants and the state-owned EVN met with affected residents and non-government organisations (NGOs). ''Since 2004, we have been experiencing unnatural floods two to three times a year. We are aware that the floods are caused by hydroelectric dams built upstream in Vietnam,'' Chantha explained, referring to construction activity that started in 2003 for a series of dams in the Srepok river basin.

Chantha says that in her village in Banmei, 83 families are already negatively affected by dams across the Srepok that flows into Cambodia. For two years, releases of water have unleashed floods that caused rice plants to rot. Their livelihoods affected, most residents are being forced to go to other provinces and find work in the garment or construction industries. A few families have decided to stick it out, but their crops are ruined by repeated flooding.

Thun Bunhean, who comes from Deilo village in Lumpat district in Rattanakkiri, said: ''During last year's floods, the water flowed very fast so that we did not have enough time to prevent our cows, pigs, chickens and ducks from being carried away by the waterà and now we have nothing to eat.'' In the Rattanakkiri and Stung Treng provinces, 11,000 villagers living along the Srepok have been facing negative impacts from hydropower development of the river basin, said Bean Sokun, dialogue project officer for the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong Rivers Protection Network (3SPN). Many fear that the Srepok projects will bring the same environmental and economic impact from that others experienced from the time dam projects began in the basin of the Se San river, a Mekong tributary shared by Vietnam and Cambodia, a decade ago.

The affected villagers, including from the Yali Falls dam, are still awaiting compensation. The Srepok and Sesan rivers merge some 30 km east of Stung Treng. In August-September 2006, 3SPN, a group banded together in the wake of the adverse impact of the cross-border dams, reported that villages, houses, schools, pagodas, and roads have already been inundated by fast-moving waters from the dammed Srepok. In mid-September, over 1,000 hectares of rice fields in Rattanakkiri were submerged, the group added. But EVN vice president Lam Du Son told the 20 community representatives from Rattanakkiri and Stung Treng, NGOs and others at the meeting here that the dams in Vietnam cannot yet have caused problems to Cambodians living downstream. ''We have not yet completed the dam to curb the Srepok river's water,'' said Du Son, referring to the fact that the dam does not yet store water and does not impact flow yet.

"Last year's floods might have been caused by storms -- not the dams." Plans for hydropower projects on the Srepok river basin upstream in Vietnam include four dams -- the Buon Kuop (280 Mw), Buontua Srha (86 Mw), Srepok 3 (220 Mw) and Draylinh (28 Mw). Two other projects are at the feasibility study stage, such as Srepok 4 (70 Mw) and Duc Xuyen (49 Mw), according to Luong Van Dai, director of appraisal for EVN. Do Son's remarks did not satisfy Tep Bunnarith, executive director of the NGO Culture and Environment Preservation Association (CEPA). "What he (Lam Du Son) replied was just his ideas, it is not factual information that he collected from the people who are the victims.

In nature, floods happen in the rainy season, but recently the floods occurred in the dry season.'' While the two sides stuck to their respective positions, the fact that a face-to-face venue was held on the issue is an indicator of the gravity of the issue. The Jan. 12 meeting was actually called to take up the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report done by the consulting firm SWECO Groner with funding from Swedish and Norwegian aid agencies, Sida and Norad.

''This discussion is to strengthen cooperation between the two countries by finding ways to keep the environmental impact to the minimum -- as the speech of Prime Minister Hun Sen said, no one benefits, no one loses," said Mok Mareth, minister for environment, and vice chair of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee. ''And if after we discuss, we cannot find any way to reduce impacts, that means the impact remains serious, and that the plan (for hydropower development) would not be continued.

'' A draft version of the EIA report, Cambodian NGOs say, predicts major changes for people living along the river on the Cambodian side of the border, ranging from unpredictable water fluctuations, riverbank erosion, water pollution and impact on fish migration. The EIA report is part of Vietnam's master plan study that looks into potential dam sites in the country. But at the Jan 12 meeting, representatives of the Srepok communities sought a suspension of dam construction, compensation from dam builders, and a stop to the financing of dam projects that had no people's participation and EIA processes.

If dams are ultimately built upstream, they would like a notification system for water releases and fluctuations to be set up for Cambodian communities. "We are still concerned that the draft EIA report would get approval from the two governments when they do not agree with our recommendations on what's lacking in the report," said Bunnarith. ''Our other concern is that Vietnam would not pay any compensation to Cambodians who are the victims of the dams because when we asked Vietnam about that, they replied that hydropower development is the important agenda of the three governments (Vietnamese, Cambodian and Lao).

" EVN's Du Son pledged that his government would implement dam projects with bilateral agreements, follow international treaties, look to having the citizens of Vietnam and Cambodia gain income, reduce environment impact and improve the Srepok EIA report.

Tore Hagen, vice president of SWECO Groner, acknowledged that his Company could only manage a ‘'rapid EIA report'' on the Cambodian part of the Srepok. His team spent only a few weeks in Rattanakkiri and Stung Treng in November 2005. "To complete the EIA report, it takes at least one more year because the work force needs to research during different seasons in Cambodia," explained Hagen. Read more!

Analysis: Congress Presses Bush on Iraq

Sunday January 14, 2007 5:01 AM

By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer

Congressional opposition to President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq has opened a new front in an increasingly complex war, setting the stage for political battles whose effects may be felt long after U.S. forces have come home.

The battle could well subvert administration efforts to bolster the power of the presidency, which many Bush supporters believe was undermined in the wake of another unpopular war a generation ago.

As if Sunni nationalists, Islamic extremists, foreign fighters and Shiite militias were not enough, Bush must now battle the Democratic leadership in Congress, as well as influential figures in his own Republican party, who oppose his plan to throw 21,500 more troops into the fray. The battlelines are reminiscent of the political struggles that occurred during two other unpopular wars - Korea and Vietnam.

Those half-forgotten struggles produced sweeping changes in the U.S. political landscape that persisted long after the guns fell silent.

Democratic leaders of Congress, fresh from victory at the polls in November, hope to force a vote on the Bush plan in the House and Senate, thereby isolating the president politically.
Although those votes will be nonbinding, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico said on MSNBC he expects them to be followed by measures ``that restrict troop funding and all kinds of financial support for the war.''

During a visit Saturday to Baghdad, Sen. Hillary Clinton told ABC News that instead of sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, it is time to start redeploying American forces out of the country.
A showdown between Congress and the White House could have far-reaching implications not only for Iraq but for American foreign policy as well.

In the best case scenario, the prospect of an American military departure might spur Iraq's ethnic and sectarian factions to reach a political settlement to spare the nation further bloodshed. But it could also encourage Sunni and Shiite extremists to grab as much power as possible before the Americans leave.

Bush's plan is reminiscent of the furor unleashed by President Nixon's 1970 decision to invade Cambodia during the final stage of the Vietnam War.

The Cambodian incursion, as it was known at the time, occurred at a time when the U.S. public was clamoring for an end to the conflict in Southeast Asia.

In seeking to justify his decision, Nixon said the goal was to destroy North Vietnamese sanctuaries in Cambodia and force Hanoi back to negotiations.

Last week, Bush said the reinforcements were necessary to bring stability to Baghdad so that the Iraqis could reach a political agreement. Military analysts are divided over whether Bush's plan can succeed, and the administration has refrained from a detailed explanation of what it would do if it fails.

But the 1970 invasion simply drove the North Vietnamese deeper into Cambodia. Five years
later, both South Vietnam and Cambodia fell under communist rule. Nevertheless, the showdown over Cambodia cast a long shadow over American politics for a generation.

The invasion enraged Congress, triggering legislative battles that culminated in the War Powers Act of 1973 that sets limits on a president's power to wage war without congressional approval.
Although the act's constitutionality has never been fully tested in court, Congress has invoked it on several occasions, setting conditions and limitations on the use of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Africa, Haiti and the Balkans.

Vice President Dick Cheney and others have cited the 1973 law as a major element in a series of Vietnam-era legislation that have severely undermined presidential authority to this day.
However, wartime showdowns between presidents and Congress occurred long before the Vietnam conflict.

Those political struggles reflect an ambiguity in the Constitution, which grants Congress the power to declare war but includes no language defining such a de Southern states in rebellion and ordered a blockade of their ports, triggering four years of war.
Eight months into the conflict, Congress established a joint committee to oversee the war, holding hearings into Union failures on the battlefield at a time when the very survival of the nation was in peril.

Critics complained at the time that the committee used newspaper leaks to discredit some of Lincoln's generals, undermining Northern morale at a time when Union victory was by no means certain.

Similar complaints were raised again during World War II when a little-known senator from Missouri, Harry Truman, chaired a committee investigating military waste and fraud.
Critics accused Truman of undermining the war effort. But his committee was credited with saving billions of dollars by uncovering waste and war-profiteering.

Truman's efforts won him the Democratic vice presidential nomination in 1944 and propelleduth Korea to block an invasion from the communist North. Public support for the war waned after China entered the conflict, which bogged down in a stalemate. The war became so unpopular that Truman decided against seeking re-election in 1952.

Republican war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower won the White House after promising to halt the fighting, which ended with a cease-fire on July 27, 1953. Read more!

Khmers rely on British defence

The Sunday Times

January 14, 2007

Michael Sheridan, Phnom Penh

BRITISH lawyers appointed to defend the leaders of the Khmer Rouge are to challenge the legal foundations of the international tribunal set up to try them for crimes against humanity.

They have drawn a bitter response from Cambodians who have campaigned for three decades to bring the Khmer Rouge to justice for the murder of an estimated 1.7m people between 1975 and 1979.

“This is all very philosophical,” said Youk Chhang, head of the Cambodia Documentation Centre, which has recorded the bloody excesses of the regime’s killing fields, “but what about the victims?”

At least four surviving leaders of the extreme communist movement are expected to be indicted

within months. They include “Duch”, the regime’s head of internal security, who oversaw the torture and murder of 10,499 “spies and traitors” and 2,000 children at the notorious Tuol Sleng detention centre.

Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, died in 1998. But Nuon Chea, his deputy, Ieng Sary, the foreign minister, and Khieu Samphan, the nominal “head of state”, all now in their late seventies, are liable to face trial.

“This is probably the most shaky tribunal in terms of its legal basis,” said Rupert Skilbeck, a war crimes barrister named by the United Nations as principal defender. Skilbeck, 35, and his deputy, Richard Rogers, 37, are controversial figures in Phnom Penh as Cambodia’s rulers and

foreign powers wrestle for influence over the verdict of history.

“There has to be a strong defence for a fair trial and there has to be a fair trial for the court to be legitimate,” said Rogers. “That’s important for the victims and for Cambodia.” The British lawyers argue that there is a fundamental flaw in the tribunal because most of the judges are Cambodians appointed by the present regime.

This condition so worried Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, that the UN negotiated a clause allowing it to withdraw if the process was not free and fair.

“Both sides have pledged to establish a tribunal that meets international standards and will deliver justice to the Cambodian people,” said Helen Jarvis, the tribunal’s chief of public affairs.
She said the rules ensure that verdicts can only be reached unanimously or by a majority including both the Cambodian and foreign judges.

Skilbeck is also to challenge a plan to conduct part of the trial in secret. On that, at least, the British team is in accord with investigators at the documentation centre, who have built up a massive archive on Khmer Rouge crimes.

“Look at this,” said Youk Chhang, reaching into a box to extract a sheaf of yellowing, handwritten documents. “Statements by villagers naming the Khmer Rouge for killing their husband or wife, 1.6m of them, each one signed and with a thumbprint. They have waited for this day. We have to have this court. For us, it is a classroom.”

The two defenders have yet to meet their clients, but Nuon Chea gave a hint of his defence strategy in an interview: “It was not us who killed our people. Our enemies killed them.”

Read more!

Thailand calls for action on Burma

(BangkokPost.com, Agencies)Cebu, Philippines

The failure of a US resolution condemning Burma at the United Nations means Southeast Asian neighbours will have to deal with the dispute, Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram said."I think we should perhaps redouble our efforts to see what we can do to help one another in terms of keeping this matter - give it a regional focus the way it should be - rather than to have it internationalised," he said.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, currently holding its annual summit on the central Philippines island of Cebu, declined to take a position on the US resolution. Indonesia abstained on the resolution, but both China and Russia used their vetoes.China was tight-lipped about Burma's crackdown on pro-democracy activists here at the Asean and East Asian summits. But Beijing was quick to direct criticism at Washington's resolution, which it said did not warrant Security Council attention.

"The situation in Myanmar does not constitute a threat to regional and international peace and security," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday. "If the Security Council passed a resolution on the (Burma) issue, that would have exceeded the duties of the Council laid out in the United Nations Charter." The US resolution urged Burma to release political prisoners, move toward democracy and stop attacks against minorities, many of whom are used for forced labour.

Earlier this week, Asean foreign ministers told member-state Burma it must make more progress on its "roadmap" for national reconciliation and democracy. But critics of Burma's hardline rule said the time had come for firmer action from international organisations. "I think the United Nations' human rights council has been examining this issue closely for over a decade, but there has never been any result. That's why we need the Security Council," Debbie Stothard of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma told the Reuters news agency. Read more!

Ex-Khme Rouge denied genocide

Jan 12, 8:11 AM (ET)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - A former Khmer Rouge leader denied in an interview published Friday that the regime whose extremist policies wiped out much of Cambodia's population in the 1970s committed mass murder.

Nuon Chea, 80, who was second only to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, is expected to go on trial before a joint Cambodia-United Nations tribunal later this year on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

"Why should we have killed our own people? I do not see a reason," the English-language Phnom Penh Post quoted him as saying. "We wanted a clean, illuminating and peaceful regime."
An estimated 1.7 million people died as a result of the 1975-79 communist regime. Some were executed, while others died of starvation, disease and overwork.

None of the leaders have been held accountable for the atrocities. Pol Pot died in 1998, but Nuon Chea and several other top deputies still live freely in Cambodia.

Nuon Chea also said any documents linking him to the regime's crimes "were manipulated," including photographs of human skulls.

"Those photographs with skulls now being presented do not mean a thing. Modern technology can do this," he told the Post, a biweekly published every other Friday.

The comments outraged Youk Chhang, a Khmer Rouge survivor and leading genocide researcher, who called Nuon Chea "disrespectful and arrogant."

"The Khmer Rouge did not regard us as humans. They took away our love, our family, soul, belief. We were not humans in their eyes. We were their enemies," Youk Chhang said. Read more!

UN, Cambodia dig into Vietnam's human trafficking control policy

Delegations from UN agencies and Cambodia flocked to Vietnam for a conference to exchange experience with the host in implementing the Governmental programme on preventing and fighting cross-border women and girls trafficking.

The two-day conference was wrapped up in the southwestern border province of An Giang on Jan. 12, with a call to strengthen cooperation between the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Cambodia and Vietnam on this issue.

Cambodian participants said they have learnt a lot from the Government of Vietnam in the implementation of relevant policies such as its 130/CP programme and the neighbouring province of An Giang in implementing these policies, from receiving and taking care of victims and taking preventive measures.

The senior Cambodian Governmental delegation and UN agencies' representatives also paid field-trips to pilot projects in Chau Thanh and Tan Chau districts, where victims have been given help to reintegrate into the local community. (VNA) Read more!

Countries move to narrow gap between ASEAN members

12:43 13/01/2007

VietNamNet Bridge – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, on Jan 12, underlined the significance of the organisation of the Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) summit, saying that the meeting demonstrated their determination to narrow the development gap between them and other ASEAN members.

The PM made the statement during the CLMV Summit held on the sidelines of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit which is currently being staged in Cebu, the Philippines.PM Dung proposed that the four countries establish a joint co-ordination mechanism and diversify their forms of cooperation, with attention being paid to areas of trade, electricity, mining, rubber and coffee planting.

The PM expressed his wish for Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to work closely with Vietnam to successfully organise the 2nd ASEAN Integration Development Cooperation Forum (IDCF). During the CLMV Summit, the Cambodian, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnamese leaders agreed upon 31 measures for their 2006 action plan, which is aimed at helping them to make full use of their potential and advantages.

They approved a joint statement and decided to hold their next summit in Vietnam late this year. The same day, Deputy PM-cum-Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem attended the Ministerial Meeting of CLMV and Japan during which participants discussed measures to enhance friendship and cooperation, particularly in the area of economic-trade.

Japan announced aid of US$52mil to help accelerate economic cooperation with ASEAN member countries. It also said it would provide US$40mil for CLMV, US$20mil of which is allocated to the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Development Triangle. Japan recommended organising the Ministerial Meeting between Japan and five Mekong sub-region countries in 2007 in Tokyo in order to increase dialogue and cooperation.

Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia proposed that Japan continue to support the Development Triangle area, and particularly consider financing the 12 infrastructure projects that they had presented Japan at the first summit of CLV and Japan in November, 2004 in Vientiane.

(Source: VNA)

Read more!

Onwards and Upwards for Hun Sen

As 2006 drew to a close, Prime Minister Hun Sen could look back on the year as one of continuing success as he consolidates his position as the currently unchallenged political leader of Cambodia. Four years ago, in December 2002, he boldly stated that he would like to rule for a further ten years, and nothing in recent times appears likely to prevent him having his wish. At the same time his Cambodian People's party (CPP) has no reason to believe that it can be challenged as the kingdom's leading party as it begins to prepare for the elections due in 2008.

In particular, the closing month of 2006 witnessed the further political decline of his potentially most important opponent, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. It has been clear for some time that Ranariddh's leadership of FUNCINPEC (the United Front for an Independent, Neutral and Cooperative Cambodia) was increasingly tenuous. Party members were critical of Ranariddh's prolonged absences from Cambodia and of his very public infatuation with a new mistress.

Whether it was clear to Ranariddh, or not, a combination of dissatisfaction with his leadership and a readiness on the part of senior FUNCINPEC members, including notably the party's Secretary-General, Nhiek Bun Chhay, to contemplate working more closely with the CPP, ultimately sealed his fate.

On 18 October, at a special party congress, FUNCINPEC stripped Ranariddh of his party leadership, replacing him with the Cambodian ambassador to Germany, Keo Puth Reasmey. As a sop to Ranariddh the congress awarded him the title of 'historic leader.'

Ranariddh and his dwindling band of supporters have now formed a new party incorporating his name, but it seems proper to conclude that they will struggle to overcome the coalition that has now been cemented between the CPP and FUNCINPEC.

Meanwhile, Sam Rainsy and his eponymous Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) seem unable to play much more than a gadfly role. Despite having returned to Cambodia from exile, following his being granted a pardon by King Sihamoni after Rainsy apologised for his attacks on both Hun Sen and Ranariddh; and, stating that he could now work in harmony with the government, he has reverted to form as a vehement critic. Having denounced the results of the village chiefs elections held in June, in which the CPP won 99.5 per cent of the vote, Sam Rainsy went on to compare Hun Sen's rule to that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and then, in August, to say that, 'The CPP regime is the continuation of the Khmer Rouge regime. There is no difference between the two regimes.'

During the year, there were, of course, various developments that can be cited as reflections of Cambodia's far from perfect political system. These include the dubiously legal eviction of squatter communities from prime development land in the capital; the allegations of serious corruption and malfeasance made by the former Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior, Hen Pov, who fled Cambodia in July and, at the time of writing was fighting extradition in Malaysia; and, the allegations made by Human Rights Watch of deliberate government interference in the preparations for the much-delayed Khmer Rouge Tribunal (the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia).

Yet none of these issues has prevented Hun Sen and the CPP remaining in power. What is more, and reflecting the international community's concern to support the government, against the possibility of any alternative being worse, the Cambodia Consultative Group gave the kingdom an increased aid guarantee of US$601 million when it met in March. This was followed by China's providing an almost matching sum of US$600 million at the time of Premier Wen Jiabao's visit in April, a gift as Hun Sen has pointed out that came without 'strings'. Then, in November, when Hun Sen was visiting China, Wen Jiabao gave him further assurances of China's intention to increase its aid.

Economically, Cambodia has survived better than many observers predicted, not least it has successfully weathered the 2005 cut-off of the Multilateral Fibre Agreement as the garment industry has undergone labour market reforms that have enabled it to increase market share.

Although the country will continue to be dependent on aid for the foreseeable future, both the IMF and the ADB have commended the administration for maintaining sound macroeconomic stability. What is more, the discovery of commercial quantities of oil and gas in Cambodian waters in the Gulf of Thailand promise the possibility of diversifying the economy's present reliance for revenue away from the garment and tourist industries.

It is just as well that there are reasons for optimistic judgments to be made about the future of Cambodia's economy, since the challenges that lie ahead are enormous. None are more challenging than those associated with Cambodia's demographic profile and the implications it has for politics and the economy in the future. Today, 70 per cent of the population are aged under 30 years of age, and 52 per cent under 18 years. As an ever-growing number of young people are coming onto the labour market, it is currently estimated that there is a need to find 200,000 new jobs each year. For those who have completed some form of tertiary education, the estimate is that only one in nine of the 8,000 students graduating each year is able to find a job. These statistics are a sobering qualification to the political success that Hun Sen has achieved through the year and are just as important as the legitimately expressed concerns of human rights groups about the continuing culture of impunity and pervasive corruption that exist in the country.

WATCHPOINT: As has been the case for several years, any development that has the capacity to bring Hun Sen's leadership into question would be a significant development. (The fact that it is not possible to be more specific is a reflection of the power of Hun Sen's current situation.) Read more!

Researchers call on Cambodia to enrich exports

Researchers from the Cambodian Economic Institute have called on the government to enrich and expand the kingdom's exports, which has enjoyed a rapid growth but with limited types of products.

Cambodia's volume of exports rose to 3 billion U.S. dollars in 2005 from 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2001, while its dominating portion went to textiles and other products only shared a little contribution, according to a seminar held by the institute here on Thursday.

For example, in 2005 as the exports amounted to 2.9 billion U.S. dollars, textiles accounted for 2.29 billion U.S. dollars or 79 percent, while formal agricultural products 3 percent, informal agricultural products 13 percent and transit trade products 5 percent, the seminar quoted the statistics from the country's central bank as saying.

Therefore, Cambodia has to enrich and expand the variety of its export products in order to tap the overall potential of its producing capability and balance any risk arising from the current monotony, analysts said at the seminar.

Tourism and textiles or garment have been Cambodia's major pillars of foreign currency attractions since it embarked on the road of market economy some 10 years ago.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Is Southeast Asia Becoming China's Playpen?

China never had to exert massive military might or economic investment to gain influence in Southeast Asia. After the US extended diplomatic recognition to the mainland in 1972, members of the Association of South-East Asia Nations (ASEAN) followed suit. During the Cold War, the US aimed to dilute Soviet influence in the region and encouraged collaboration. With the US increasingly distracted in the Middle East, China has deepened its roots in Southeast Asia through extended engagement and economic diplomacy. “China has gained its influence in Southeast Asia less by ‘muscles’ and more by skillfully exploiting changes in the international and regional environment, absent any wise and strong US engagement with the region,” writes Singapore-based analyst Sheng Lijun. As the ASEAN summit convenes in the Philippines, members remain divided about the balance of power in the region: Some welcome China’s growing influence, while others long for a US counterweight. ASEAN expects to be the driving political force in Southeast Asia, so the two powers must likewise pursue balance, neither pushing too hard nor neglecting the region. – YaleGlobal

As China gains strategic advantage in Southeast Asia, the region seeks balance

Sheng Lijun
YaleGlobal, 11 January 2007.

Southeast Asia, here we come: Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing arrives in the Philippines for a summit meeting with ASEAN leaders, where China's profile is rising.

SINGAPORE: China’s diplomatic success in Southeast Asia has often been fortuitous. Changes in the international and regional strategic environment, together with US absent-mindedness and negligence of the region, have played a major role in a closer embrace of China and Southeast Asia. History shows how the international as well as the regional strategic landscape can change overnight.

That happened with US rapprochement with China in 1972, forcing Association of South-East Asia Nations (ASEAN) nations such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines to swiftly change their respective policies on China and establish diplomatic relations with Beijing, despite no fundamental changes in China’s Southeast Asia policy and no massive increase in China’s military muscle and economic attractiveness.

When Deng Xiaoping stepped into power in 1978, eager to open China up and push into Southeast Asia, a blessing in disguise soon followed – Vietnam’s occupation of Cambodia from 1979 to 1989. China made good use of this “occupation” and effectively kick-started its initial cooperation with ASEAN. This engagement, lasting more than a decade, laid a solid foundation for relations in the subsequent years. The US, concerned about Soviet influence in the region, acquiesced and even encouraged this strong engagement. Once again China succeeded in going deeper into Southeast Asia without massive increase in its military muscle and economic attractiveness.

Just as ASEAN put the Cambodia issue onto a backburner, the Cold War ended and new uncertainties emerged in the region. Deciding against a passive wait for changes, ASEAN took the initiative and actively pursued engaging all the major powers in the region. Up until the end of the Cold War, ASEAN attempted policy that would push all extra-regional big powers out of the region. Realizing that it was impossible to push them out of the region, ASEAN, from the 1990s, began what it called “constructive engagement” with all of them. Under the policy, major powers balance one another while ASEAN is the primary driving force for a constructive balance. For this purpose, ASEAN needed China’s political backing to play its role as the primary driving force in this process. Under this backdrop, China scored an easy diplomatic success by building its first official ties with the ASEAN grouping in 1991.

The ASEAN-China relationship in the early was tentative at best. Not long after came a big push: the Asian economic crisis in late 1997. While the US, for its own reasons, was slow to come to rescue, China readily responded to ASEAN’s acute need, with an immediate promise not to devalue its currency, the Renminbi, and further destabilize the region. By November 1997, the lukewarm relationship evolved to the level of annual ASEAN+China summits.

This momentum receded as ASEAN countries withstood the shockwaves of the economic crisis, but then came another boost: The 9/11 terror attacks, which plunged the US into a seemingly endless war against terrorism. The increasing focus of the US on homeland security, Central Asia and the Middle East was accompanied by a negligence of Southeast Asia. In 2001, China made a diplomatic masterpiece by proposing a free-trade agreement with ASEAN to accelerate its cooperation with ASEAN, thus maintaining and even building its momentum in Southeast Asia.

The brief examination of recent history tells us that China has gained its influence in Southeast Asia less by “muscles” and more by skillfully exploiting changes in the international and regional environment, absent any wise and strong US engagement with the region – together providing strong “pulls” for ASEAN toward a China that is more than willing to “push” into the region.

Many observers have noted only the Chinese “pushes” without seeing ASEAN’s “pulls” and their strategic background. Without such “pulls,” however, China’s “pushes” will not get far and may backfire. Take the warming in China-Indonesia relations for example: The two nations have declared each other as strategic partners, which may have a lot to do with Muslim Indonesia’s intention to use China to balance the excessive US pressure against Islamic extremists in the country.

Indonesia’s overture to build defense ties with China and buy Chinese weapons can be interpreted as a tactical rather than a strategic re-orientation, a means to pressure the US to lift its arms embargo on Indonesia.

Myanmar and Cambodia both have close relations with China. In the case of Myanmar, the US has chosen not to engage with its government, likewise rejecting trade or investment. US trade sanctions and embargo against Myanmar still stand. China is Cambodia’s top investor and trade partner. The US, for political reasons, still has no significant trade or investment in Cambodia. If the US changes its policy and prioritizes these two countries, China may find it difficult to maintain its primacy there.

While there is less public talk of a “China threat,” Washington can take some comfort from the fact that distrust of China remains deep-rooted in the region and may grow if a rising China enters too deep. ASEAN countries have not joined the China bandwagon but “hedge,” engaging China while developing robust ties with the US and other extra-regional powers to balance China. Asian countries generally do not have much trust for one another and the US is perceived as the least distrusted of all major powers. Asian nations need the US as a balancer and double insurance when they develop their relations with China. ASEAN is aware that without a strong relationship with the US, China may take ASEAN for granted.

A vigorous but balanced relationship with the US is seen as not only security insurance but also an incentive for China to offer more economic sweeteners. Barring a sudden and major change in the international strategic landscape and a disaster in US Southeast Asia policy that would unexpectedly boost China’s influence by default, the more China pushes in deepening its relations with ASEAN, the more ASEAN may feel that it needs a strong relationship with the US and other extra-regional power to keep the balance.

The US is, thus, still favourably poised to keep and enhance its position in this region. However, as illustrated by recent history, success depends less on “muscles” and more on “brain” that can quickly exploit any changes in the strategic environment, less on how many resources a country has but on how much it is willing to spend. Washington does not lack the resources, but the willingness to use them profusely for the region, at least for now.

How deep can China push into Southeast Asia? At the moment, there is an active balance in the region, and any power that seeks dominance will likely push other powers, together with ASEAN, into a stronger resistance to maintain this balance. Any success China has in pushing further is less likely due to its growing “muscles” but more due to an ever-changing international and regional strategic environment that may suddenly multiply those “muscles” for a much deeper penetration. In this sense, continued US negligence of the region and absent-mindedness to the ever-changing strategic environment in the region will cost it dearly.

Sheng Lijun is a senior fellow of international relations at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. Read more!

Microsoft donates 100,000 USD to ECCC in Cambodia

Microsoft Singapore, part of U.S. computer giant Microsoft CorpCK, donated 100,000 U.S. dollars to the U.N. side of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), local media said on Thursday.

"It would be nice if there were more," Helen Jarvis, chief of public affairs at the ECCC, was quoted by the Cambodia Daily as saying.

The fund was put toward the court's general operating budget, ECCC public affairs officer Peter Foster said. "It came with no strings attached," he added.

This is the first donation from a private company to the court, the paper said. The tribunal still faces a budgetary shortfall of nearly eight million U.S. dollars, most of it on the Cambodian side, it added.

After six years of talks, the U.N. and Cambodia agreed in 2003 to set up the ECCC to jointly hold trial of the former Democratic Kampuchea (DK) leaders. Formal trial is expected to begin in mid-2007 and the entire process will take three years at the cost of 56.3 million U.S. dollars.

The DK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 and was accused of being responsible for the death of 1.7 million people.

Source: Xinhua Read more!