Calmy:Rey visit to Asia aims at new horizons

Swiss president Micheline Calmy:Rey is starting an official week:long visit to Cambodia and Indonesia on Monday.

While former French protectorate Cambodia is still trying to shake off its difficult past, Indonesia is undergoing a boom and is becoming an economic and political power in south:east Asia.

This initial part of Calmy: Rey's first trip abroad as Swiss president ? she is also the foreign minister ? will be devoted to marking a special anniversary. It is exactly 50 years since Switzerland recognised Cambodia on a diplomatic level.

In Phnom Penh, Calmy:Rey will meet King Norodom Sihamoni and other high:ranking officials to discuss economic, development, human rights and governance issues.

Apart from the events surrounding the anniversary, also on the agenda are visits to several Swiss development cooperation projects.

These have set priorities : Cambodia is still in a poor state of development and depends on international aid, which makes up almost two thirds of the kingdom's budget.

Calmy:Rey will therefore go the hospital at Kantha Bopha, one of four large health centres for children set up by Swiss doctor Beat Richner, with help from Swiss donations and funding from the government ? set to rise to SFr3 million ($2.4 million) in 2007.

"Beat Richner's projects contribute in a substantial way to the functioning of the Cambodian health system," Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel told swissinfo.

Indonesia

On Wednesday Calmy:Rey is due to move on to Indonesia, a country that is undergoing a development boom ? the growth in gross domestic product for 2007 is estimated at six per cent ? and is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.

"Indonesia is becoming an important political and economic partner. Switzerland is therefore very interested in broadening its relations with this country," said Knuchel.

According to Massimo Baggi, in charge of the Asia and Oceania department at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), practically all the large Swiss companies are active in Indonesia.

"It's a huge market, with many raw materials and which is developing well from a macroeconomic point of view. Our commercial relations are good and potential for growth is not lacking," he told swissinfo.

In the capital Jakarta, after meeting the authorities, Calmy: Rey will hold talks with leaders from different religions in the country, which is majority Muslim.
Coexistence

The problem of the coexistence of different cultures and religions is very topical in Indonesia, particularly given the backdrop of international tensions. In the past the country has been hit several times by attacks from Islamic groups.

"I have the impression that things are starting to normalise, even if some uncertainties remain," said Baggi. "It is however clear that security and stability are vital for economic relations."

The Swiss delegation will conclude its south:east Asia visit on Saturday, February 10 with a trip to the Indonesian province of Aceh, at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, which was hit hard by the 2004 tsunami. The wave left almost 170,000 people dead and a huge amount of destruction.

In Aceh, Calmy: Rey will be inaugurating an important drinking water plant which has been rebuilt using Swiss funds at a cost of SFr4 million.

"In the framework of humanitarian aid and reconstruction after the tsunami, Switzerland has up until now invested altogether around SFr12.5 million in Indonesia," said Knuchel.

The Swiss government has for some time been supporting the peace process in Aceh, which from 1976:2005, was in the throws of a secessionist conflict.

swissinfo, Marzio Pescia Read more!

Cambodia's Highway 78 link with Vietnam's border upgraded

12:57' 05/02/2007

VietNamNet Bridge – The upgrade of Cambodia's Highway 78 which links with Vietnam's border started in Ban Lung town in the border province of Rattanakiri on February 4.

The 70km-long and 9m-wide Highway 78, which runs from Ban Lung through Bokeo and Oyada towns in Cambodia to Vietnam's border-gate Le Thanh, will be completed in 30 months at a cost of US$25.8mil, paid for by the Vietnamese Government's preferential credits.

Speaking at the upgrading ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong said that the two countries' cooperation in the upgrade project does not only affirm the efforts and determination to strengthen bilateral ties by both the Vietnamese and Cambodian Governments and people but also reflects time-honoured friendly cooperation between the two countries.

As soon as it is completed, the highway will benefit the Cambodian people and the Laos-Vietnam-Cambodia development triangle as it will create an additional East-West corridor connecting Cambodia's Rattanakiri Province with the Central Highlands and central sea ports in Vietnam, said Deputy PM Trong.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed his thanks to the Vietnamese Government and people for their whole-hearted support for Cambodia in upgrading its Highway 78.

The upgrade of Highway 78 is necessary for Cambodia's northeastern provinces, facilitating the exchange of farm products and other commodities in the region, elaborated PM Hun Sen.

This is an initial step for Rattanakiri province as well as Cambodia to integrate into the development triangle area, he affirmed.

The Cambodian PM also thanked the Vietnamese Government for its help in building a boarding school in Ban Lung town and a market in the centre of Oyada Town in Rattanakiri Province.

In the context of many difficulties, the sharing and assistance of the Vietnamese Government and people to the Cambodian Government and people re-affirmed the solidarity, friendship and cooperation between the two nations and people, which have been fostered through many historical periods, noted the Cambodian Governmental leader.

(Source: VNA)

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Man banished to the land his family once fled

By Kristi Heim

Seattle Times staff reporter

CHAMCAR SVAY, Cambodia — In this lush countryside, rice farmers toiling in the harsh sun shade themselves with straw hats or traditional head scarves.

Ho Beua stands out in his purple Washington Huskies baseball cap. Beua is surely the only farmer in this tiny village who once enjoyed a prosperous life in Seattle, days when his only care in the world was whether his favorite team would beat the Cougars.

At 41, Beua now works the fields from sunrise to sundown. He worries about whether he will grow enough rice to eat this year or catch enough minnows to eat that day. Or how his three children will grow up without him in the United States, a place he may never see again.

Beua left Cambodia as a child when his family fled the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, an experience that still haunts him. The family came to the United States as refugees when he was 14 and settled in Bellingham.

But in 2004, Beua was expelled, part of a wave of 1,500 Cambodians ordered sent back to the Southeast Asian nation for committing crimes the U.S. government has deemed "deportable offenses."

In America, Beua was no angel. But he never imagined one of his missteps — a drunken fight with his girlfriend — would send him back to Cambodia 25 years later.

"I regret I threw that punch," he said. The situation has thrust returnees like Beua into a strange limbo. They didn't become U.S. citizens, which would have protected them against deportation. But they did become thoroughly Americanized, making it difficult to fit back into their native country.

For Beua, deportation has sent his life on a strange journey backward. The former welder, who once earned $2,000 a month at a Kirkland factory and spent weekends salmon fishing with his brothers, now ekes out a living as a subsistence farmer.

But the hardest thing, he said, is facing a life without his children and his parents.
I miss them all the time," he said. "If I don't think about it, it's OK. If I think about it, it's not OK. It's too hard."

Beua arrived in Phnom Penh 2-½ years ago with a single lifeline — a fellow Cambodian had given him the name of his relatives in the remote village of Chamcar Svay. As soon as Beua was released from immigration jail, he headed there.

What he found was a place stuck in another time. Cows pull wooden carts, there's no electricity or running water, and some thatched houses are barely patched to keep the rain out. After a storm, villagers have to wade through ankle-deep muddy water.

Beua quickly landed in the hospital after eating something that caused him to vomit blood for a week. The sickness lasted a month.

Ry, a relative of the Cambodian man who helped Beua find a place to stay, sat with him in the hospital, then took care of him at home every day until he recovered. A month later, they got married.

Ry is pregnant. At 28, she has a shy demeanor and a face that shows the strain of a hard rural life. Ry said she is grateful Beua can help her family, including her young daughter.

Though he loves his new family, Beua says, "If I had a choice I wouldn't be here. But now I'm stuck here."

At home in Marysville, Beua's 65-year-old mother, Ngoy Ngep, agonizes over her eldest son's banishment to a place the family escaped in 1976.

With Pol Pot's henchmen on their heels, the family fled to the Thai border by foot, sleeping at night in wet rice paddies. During the two-day journey, her father, sisters and nephews were killed by the Khmer Rouge.

Somehow, Ngep survived and kept her own family of seven children intact. Until now.
"I miss him, I love him. But too far," she said, looking down at her hands. Her soft voice trails off as she begins to cry.

Beua's father, 68-year-old Beua Pruel, doesn't understand what happened to his son, but he is less sympathetic. "If he was a good guy, they wouldn't send him back," he said.

Ho Beua was one of many refugees caught up in a 1996 immigration-law change that greatly expanded the list of crimes committed in the U.S. that would lead to deportation.

The changes also made it much more difficult to get waivers, which in the past had been granted to offenders who had been rehabilitated or could show deportation would hurt family members.
Lacking extradition agreements with Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and other countries, the U.S. could not send refugees from those countries back immediately.

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. pressured Cambodia to sign an extradition treaty. It was signed in 2002, setting Beua's departure in motion.

Nothing came easy for Beua in America. He didn't know a word of English when he first arrived, struggled in school and dropped out of ninth grade when he was 19.

And he had difficulty coming to terms with his past. When the family gathered at home to watch "The Killing Fields," a movie depicting the Khmer Rouge atrocities, Beua got upset and refused to join them.

"He didn't talk about it much," a brother recalled. "The times he did, he cried." Beua had a lengthy record of run-ins with the law, including convictions for drunken driving and assault. In 1996, Beua spent four months in jail on an assault charge for hitting his girlfriend. She bailed him out, and eventually they had a child together.

That crime led to his expulsion eight years later. His family, left behind, has paid a high price.
Beua had been raising his teenage daughter, Shantel, now 16, by himself in a Mountlake Terrace apartment. The two had grown close.

These days, Shantel and Beua's son, Anthony, 19, avoid talking about their father's absence. They now live with Beua's sister-in-law, Marissa Beua, in Marysville.

"They can't face that their dad is in Cambodia," she said. "It hurts them too much." Anthony, tall and handsome, looks like an Asian rapper in a plaid shirt, loose jeans, gold earrings and a baseball cap. Asked how he's coping without his dad, he replies "I'm cool." But after a few minutes, he chokes up and leaves the room.

Beua's youngest son, Tapi, turned 10 last year and lives with his mother in Ferndale. Ho Beua hasn't been able to reach Tapi by phone for months.

In all, more than 160 Cambodian refugees have been deported since 2002, about a dozen from Seattle. The last wave was in December, and hundreds of others in the pipeline may be sent back at any time.

Some were hardened criminals taken right after prison. Others, like Beua, left steady jobs, families and lives they had worked to rebuild.

Unprepared for life in Cambodia, some fall into local gangs, drive loud dirt bikes through the streets in a show of bravado, and use readily available drugs. A few have become monks; about a dozen have gone to prison.

The readjustment problems were so severe that the U.S. government began funding a nonprofit organization in Phnom Penh to assist the deportees. Now called the Returnee Integration Support Program, it teaches basic survival skills, including Cambodian culture and language.

Many Cambodians are wary of the returnees. Some are amazed anyone could fail in a place like America: One saying in Cambodia goes, "They couldn't make it in heaven, so they were sent back to hell."

Beua spent his first week in Cambodia in a local immigration jail. He had no friends or relatives in the country, uncertain of what to do next or where to go. "It was like, man, I'm lost. I don't know any of these people," Beua said. Cambodia seemed the recurrence of a bad dream.

He remembered days of hard labor and nights of fear as a boy under the Khmer Rouge, which killed as many as 2 million Cambodians. "I was starving," he said. "I had to go steal at night just to feed my little brothers and sisters. If I got caught, it was death."

In Beua's new home, reminders of that time crop up unexpectedly. Land mines still litter the terrain around Chamcar Svay. Beua and his wife were picking bamboo shoots in the nearby mountains recently when he almost sat on an unexploded grenade.

To his neighbors, Beua is still the American. He can speak Cambodian but he can't read or write it. No one around speaks English, so he sometimes resorts to talking to himself.

"Too bad about the Seahawks," he greets his visitor from Seattle. He carries a mobile phone, a treasured connection to the world outside the village, and keeps up with Seattle sports teams in weekly phone calls from his mother in Marysville.

Dressed in the clothes he packed from Seattle two years ago — long gray denim shorts and a microfiber T-shirt, he is 30 pounds lighter with skin baked deep brown by the sun. "A couple months in the rice field," he explains.

Watching the frail and stooped man who is now his father-in-law, Beua learned to plow the fields, transplant rice seedlings and cast a fishing net.

It's a far cry from grabbing his fishing poles and driving to Edmonds, where his last photo in the U.S. was taken. The framed picture shows Beua proudly displaying a giant salmon caught off the pier.

His wife says the family depends on him to eat. But without money sent by his relatives in Marysville, he couldn't survive, let alone buy any extras such as mosquito repellent, clothes for the kids or a TV.

Even by Cambodia's modest standards, Beua struggles. He dismisses suggestions he look for work as a welder or a tour guide. In Cambodia, he has no connections or education. And workers make about $30 a month, what he used to spend on dinner in the States.

Beua's home consists of two raised wooden platforms covered in plastic mats and protected by a long thatched roof. In the back of one platform is a makeshift stove. The other platform holds a television and stereo and functions as sleeping quarters for eight people.

"We eat here, we sleep here," he said. "It's what I call a shack. A shelter is better than this. A house got walls, lights, a bathroom."

A large clay urn holds rainwater for drinking and cooking. Another holds river water for bathing. His meal today consists of tiny silver minnows he caught in the river and grilled over an open fire. "What you see today, it's gone tomorrow," he said.

Even in this remote village, one thing brings Beua instantly back home to Seattle. "I want to get depressed, I just pull these out," he said, retrieving four scratched and grimy CD cases: Dr. Dre, Mariah Carey, a hip-hop mix and Journey.

He doesn't play them too often because it's like opening a wound. But today he's already thinking about the past. He takes out a Thunder Lite car battery, clamps cables to each side of the battery like jump-starting a car, and then powers the stereo up. He puts on a Journey song: "Don't stop believin', hold on to the feelin'... "

The music makes him cry.

"Whenever we got together for Christmas or birthdays we listened to it," he said. It's hard to imagine Beua, this weary, middle-aged farmer, young and free and cruising past the lights of downtown on the way to a party. "I thought I had everything set," he said.

In the oppressive afternoon heat, he sits on the wooden platform, batting away mosquitoes.

Read more!

US eyes closer trade, investment ties with Vietnam

Barbara Weisel, Assistant US Trade Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific
The US hopes to open negotiations with Vietnam on the Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement (TIFA) to facilitate trade and investment exchanges between the two nations.

At a meeting with the Ho Chi Minh City administration Friday, Barbara Weisel, Assistant US Trade Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said TIFA would be an important step towards establishing a free trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam.

Next week a group of US experts would visit Vietnam to work on the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), Barbara said. Products in the GPS list are exempt from US import tariffs.
Nguyen Trung Tin, deputy head of the municipal government, hoped trade relations could be developed between HCMC and the US, especially San Francisco, an officially designated twin city.

HCMC was striving to reform its laws and policies to create a friendlier business environment and attract more foreign investment.

In Southeast Asia the US has already held TIFA and FTA negotiations with Thailand and Malaysia.

Over 4600 commodities from 144 countries are present in the GSP list.

Read more!

Thai auto parts maker to ride into Vietnam

Auto parts maker ZF Thailand is mapping out plans to open offices in Vietnam and Cambodia this year, its managing director, Sumate Jaito, has announced.

Jaito said after establishing a firm foothold in Thailand, his company, an affiliate of Germany's ZF Group, was eyeing markets elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Its expansion plans coincide with a Thai curb on the production of commercial vehicles, hitting the auto parts industry.

Jaito believed his company's products, with strict quality control from the parent company in Germany, could compete with others in Asia.

The ZF Group set up a representative office in Thailand seven years ago and expanded operations with the establishment of a CKD (complete knockdown) production line in Rayong town, southeast of Bangkok.

ZF Thailand specializes in making parts for buses and pick-up trucks. It holds around 50 percent of the country's agricultural and construction machinery parts market.

The ZF Group has its Southeast Asian headquarters in Singapore besides another production facility in Malaysia.

Source: Asia Pulse News Read more!

Sam Rainsy said people wanted social justice

Cambodia's opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, says his party will field candidates in a record 99 per cent of communes in this year's elections. The elections on April 1 will mark an important step in the development of democratic institutions in Cambodia.

But they will also play a crucial role in setting the tone for next year's national poll. Sam Rainsy, who is marking his first year in Phnom Penh since being allowed to return from exile, says he is confident the people of Cambodia will put their trust in his party.

The opposition leader told Radio Australia's Linda LoPresti that the Sam Rainsy Party is running on a platform of social justice."The people will react to a state of injustice," he said."They have lived in poverty for so many years while a few people have got very rich because of corruption."People are longing for social justice." Read more!

BCL Coffeeplus To Hold Cambodia Travelogue, AGM

Bandar Seri Begawan - The British Community Link (BCL) announced that this month's BCL Coffeeplus will feature a talk on Cambodia and its places of interest. The talk, which will be held from 9.30 am on Wednesday, February 7 at the Orchid Garden Hotel in Berakas, is to be followed by BCL's annual general meeting at the same venue.

BCL added that Jan Murphy will present a travelogue of the country and "show how some visitors help the villagers to change their lives".

Meanwhile for the AGM, BCL encouraged guests who think they can contribute or help to join the committee.

Admission to BCL Coffeeplus is $7, which includes refreshments, and stalls will be set up for guests to browse through. Guests are meanwhile asked to bring a book to swap. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin Read more!

Canadian Arrested for Sex Offence against 13-year old girl in Cambodia

The Future Group Calls for Investigation Under Canada's Child Sex Tourism
Laws

CALGARY, Feb. 2 /CNW/ - The Future Group has just learned that Richard Beaulac, a 35 year-old man from Quebec has been charged in Cambodia with the attempted rape of a 13 year-old girl, who was a street beggar.

The Cambodian Daily has reported that Beaulac entered Cambodia on January 1 and has been working in the tourist town of Siem Reap as an EnglishTeacher.

Beaulac allegedly picked up the 13-year old girl and three other female street children and took them back to his apartment at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, according to Sun Bunthang, provincial anti-human trafficking police chief.

According to the Cambodia Daily, Beaulac allegedly sent three of the girls away before molesting the remaining girl, and told police that he and the girl lay naked on the bed but denies molesting her. The girl is currently in the care of the Cambodia Women's Crisis Centre. Beaulac has been charged by the Siem Reap Provincial Court with attempted rape.

"We are calling on the Canadian government to investigate the serious allegation against this individual, and if they are substantiated to lay charges under Canada's child sex tourism laws," said Sabrina Sullivan, Managing Director of The Future Group.

Only one person has ever been charged under Bill C-27 and C-15, Amendments to Canadian Criminal Code criminalizing child sex tourism. That prosecution of Donald Bakker in Vancouver is largely considered accidental, since it only came out during the course of an investigation for offences in Canada.

"Child sex tourists cause irreparable harm to young children abroad and drive the multi-million dollar human trafficking industry," said Sullivan, "Canada needs to ensure that it is part of the solution."

For the full article from the Cambodia Daily, please refer to
www.thefuturegroup.org Read more!

ADB suspects graft in $27 mln Cambodian loans

01 Feb 2007 06:06:58
Source: Reuters

PHNOM PENH, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is investigating possible corruption in Cambodia's handling of $27.2 million of loans for rural development projects, its country director said on Thursday.

Arjun Goswami said ADB graft investigators were due in Phnom Penh in late March to chase allegations of rigged bidding for contracts that emerged after a joint bank and government audit last year.

"We are in the middle of the process and we should not jump to conclusions," he told Reuters, adding that the Cambodian government was aware of the probe.

The deals under scrutiny relate to loans granted to the impoverished southeast Asian nation from 2001 to 2006 for roads, sanitation and government training in three northern provinces, including Siem Reap, home to the famed Angkor temples.

Last year, the World Bank suspended $7.6 million in funding for three Cambodian development projects plagued by corruption and demanded misused funds be repaid.

International donors plough about $600 million into Cambodia each year, although the country remains one of Asia's poorest, with 30 percent of its 13 million people living on a dollar a day or less.

Cambodia ranked 131st out of 158 countries on Transparency International's 2005 corruption index.

Government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. Read more!

How Cambodia Becomes Economic Power

By Shin Chul-ho

On the first day of this year, I flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia, as part of a six-day package tour of Angkor Wat. Now I know that Angkor Wat has antiquities amazing enough to attract tourists from all over the world. But I witnessed a poverty-stricken country.

Cambodia is still an agricultural society, experiencing what Alvin Toffler refers to as the ``First Wave.¡¯¡¯

French colonial rule for nearly a century and a 30-year civil war may have hindered Cambodia¡¯s economic development.

Under the rule of Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge cadres slaughtered about 2 million of the 8 million Cambodians in the 1970s. It was a critical loss of human resources. Among the slaughtered were high-ranking government officials, businessmen and military officers that could have led Cambodia to be a far better place to live in than it is now.

I contemplated how the country could overcome its socio-economic difficulties and provide a better life for its people.

What they should do, above all, is drive away corruption.

The moment I arrived at Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport, I noticed that the airport stank of corruption.

To get a visa, visitors stand in either a $20 line or a $25 line based on whether they came to Cambodia on a business trip or on a vacation trip. People in the $25 line got their visas much faster than those in the $20 line. According to the regulations, $25 dollars buys a single-entry visa for business, and $20 buys a single-entry visa for tourism. However, 99 percent of the people in the lines were tourists. What's wrong with this picture?

The guide said that donations of money to schools by foreign charity organizations are distributed among teachers. He also said donations of school supplies such as pencils, notebooks and erasers are also distributed among teachers, who then sell the supplies to their students.
He said corruption is prevalent in every sector. With such severe corruption, no country can make progress.

Korea, too, must pass through the corruption tunnel as soon as possible.

Cambodia should also diversify its agricultural production. The economy is too reliant on rice yields. Cambodian farmers could raise cattle and poultry as Australian farmers do, and they could grow different kinds of plants. For example, the Dutch grow tulips.

Cambodians are blessed with a rich environment, so they should make good use of it.
Look around the world. The rapid destruction of rainforests and the factories scattered all over the world are causing the global warming. Water, air and land are being polluted. China's rapid industrialization is contaminating not only its own rivers, air and land but also the Yellow Sea and the air of neighboring countries.

I think skipping becoming an industrial society and focusing instead on information industry intensification would best serve Cambodia. Industrialization will inevitably lead to the destruction of the environment, the jewel of Cambodia. But information technology, especially software technology, results in huge economic gains with little pollution and little capital. India is an example of this.

When they have succeeded in creating a high-quality software industry, what will happen to Cambodia? A variety of their agricultural products will be exported to other countries, its well-preserved environment will attract tourists who not only want to see Angkor Wat, Bayon, Taprohm, the Tonle Sap but want to see the unpolluted environment. And per capita income will increase dramatically.

The Cambodian government must also address education. I had an opportunity to visit an elementary school. A volunteer teacher from England was teaching English. The teacher allowed us to look around the classroom. The students had pencils and notebooks. There were no textbooks, no computers, no storybooks, no video screens, no other teaching materials whatsoever. Only chalk and a blackboard.

Our guide talked about the poor conditions in middle and high schools as well. One book is shared by two or three students, and the student sitting in front of the book has to turn his or her head to read it. That's why many high school graduates write in awkward postures.

Wiping out illiteracy is the top priority in education. But that's not enough with the global competition. Highly trained and talented people are needed to build up a strong economy. The Cambodian government should invest in education, even though people are starving.

When the infrastructure, from hotels to transportation, is improved, agricultural reforms are made and a software miracle takes place, Cambodia will be called the second Singapore. Read more!

Cpac may open factories in Vietnam and Cambodia

BUSRIN TREERAPONGPICHIT

The Siam Cpac Block Co, the Siam Cement Group's building materials producer, is considering new factories in neighbouring countries, according to sales and marketing manager Pittaya Jantawichayasuit.

He said a feasibility study aimed to explore opportunities to develop concrete block factories to serve local markets and also supply SCG, Thailand's largest industrial conglomerate.
Models show off some of the more stylish applications of Cpac products at a company marketing event yesterday.

Potential markets are Vietnam and Cambodia, as well as the Middle East, with a likely this year, he said yesterday.

He said the capacity of a new factory must be at least 100,000 square metres, with a minimum investment of 200 million baht.

''Actually, we could go into the overseas market by exporting, but cement product margins are very narrow because they are bulky goods, which results in very high transport cost,'' he said.
Other Siam Cement affiliates have used a similar strategy, opening roof-tile and cement plants outside of Thailand in order to expand production overall and also serve those markets at a cost lower than that of exporting from Thailand.

''The countries where we have cement plants will be our priority in order to secure raw materials,'' Mr Pittaya said.

Siam Cpac Block is currently running at 75-80% of its annual capacity of 3.2 million square metres at its plant in Saraburi province.

For the domestic market, the company has set a 12% target for sales growth this year, well above the 4-5% estimate for the overall concrete-block market.

The company last year earned revenue of 870 million baht came from sales to the construction industry and directly to homeowners.

Mr Pittaya expects homeowners to account for more revenue this year, as construction-industry demand for concrete blocks for public projects becomes saturated in Bangkok. Potential remains in other centres such as Chiang Mai, Phuket and Khon Kaen, however.

The company has set aside a 20-million-baht marketing budget to educate homeowners about concrete as an option for home decoration in a bid to widen its user base.

The budget will go mainly to building an image via exhibitions and marketing events, similar to the strategy adopted by its sister brand, Cotto, which has successfully positioned its ceramic tiles as fashion and lifestyle products. Read more!

President Triet to visit Laos, Cambodia in February

10:06' 02/02/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – State President Nguyen Minh Triet will make official visits to Laos and Cambodia in February, Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Le Dung announced at a press briefing in Hanoi on February 1.

The President will visit Laos from February 5-7 at the invitation of General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao State President Choummaly Sayasone.

Dung said the visit aims to strengthen the close relationship and trust between the two countries as well as the friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two parties and states. Measures to boost economic cooperation will be discussed during the visit.

President Triet will visit Cambodia from February 26-28 as guest of King Norodom Sihamoni to bolster the good neighbourly relations and comprehensive cooperation with Cambodia, strengthen trust and closeness between the two countries' leaders in general and with the Cambodian Royal Family in particular, and expand bilateral cooperation.

(Source: VNA Read more!

Cambodia - Annual report 2007

Prime Minister Hun Sen took a step virtually unprecedented in the region of decriminalising defamation, soon after releasing a jailed radio boss. However threats and law suits continued against journalists investigating corruption.

Mam Sonando, director of radio Sombok Khmum (Ruche FM 105), was freed in January under international pressure, three months after his arrest along with other figures critical of the government. The head of state followed this up with a draft law to decriminalise defamation, which was quickly passed by parliament. This decision made Cambodia one of the very few Asian countries to stop imposing prison sentences for libel or slander. But Hun Sen publicly reminded journalists that they risked heavy fines if they attacked him.

Several suits were entered against journalists under laws inherited from the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) providing for one-year prison sentences for putting out “false news”.

The often partisan press faces competition from Khmer-language news programmes broadcast by international stations such as Radio Free Asia and Radio France International which are very popular in the capital and in the country’s cities.

Threats against journalists who probe corruption among high officials has never stopped. The editor of an opposition bi-weekly, was forced to flee the country after receiving a death threat in June. He had condemned the misdeeds of a nephew of Hun Sen. Five other reporters, including a Radio Free Asia correspondent, were threatened in 2006.

Government interference also extended to television. A news programme due to go out in August on Cambodia Television Network (CTN) was pulled after Hun Sen accused it of putting the country’s reputation in danger. Read more!

Cambodia: A tortured history and unanswered questions

Andre Vltchek
2/2/2007

It is hot and dusty. The stale air of the Cambodian capital is heavy with exhaust fumes. Traffic is chaotic. Street children and beggars besiege posh-looking French caf�s on the Sap River; tourists and international workers pretending to lead a normal life by sipping foamy cappuccinos are approached by amputees and men with gangrenous limbs.

A man in his fifties, approaching caf� tables with an extended hand, is missing an entire half of his face. There is a hole instead of his right eye and it serves as base for an enormous infected tumor which covers his entire cheek. Some beggars have no arms and no legs; their families or handlers bring them in the morning to Sisowath Quay, put a big plastic bucket for donations in front of their face on the sidewalk and let them rot in the unbearable tropical heat until the evening. More than 30 years after "Year Zero" and more than a decade after the "return to democracy," Cambodia remains in a league of its own - miserable, corrupt and compassionless.

Only the toughest and the most unscrupulous can "make it" and get ahead. There is hardly any social net to speak of; the savage insanity of the Khmer Rouge has been replaced with savage capitalism, but often with the same people in charge. "Abuse a child in this country and face justice in yours" proclaim large posters on strategic intersections of Phnom Penh; "Sex with children is a crime.

" The notorious "Kilometer 11" - the terrible concentrated area of child prostitution and sex slavery - was raided by Cambodian police several years ago, after international outrage and pressure. But dilapidated shacks packed with under-age girls are popping up all over the capital again, often controlled or at least frequented by officials and police officers who are, at least in theory, supposed to fight the heinous crime of child prostitution. In one of the terrace caf�s frequented by foreign experts, the atmosphere is relatively relaxed.

Men from the U.N. and E.U. drink beer, hand in hand with their local "second wives," unwinding after a tough working day in this chaotic capital. They perform diverse tasks in this country, which used to be marked by some of the worst violence known to humankind. Some are in charge of de-mining the countryside; others attempt to convince locals to turn over the weapons which are still in abundance, one of the reasons for the high crime rate.

Marijuana smoke lazily moves through the humid and stale air. After several years in Cambodia, these experts are tough and cynical - every day is a battle. To achieve anything in this country, one has to bribe and compromise. Polite speech has been fully forgotten; conversations are brutally direct and open. Common clich�s reserved for the public in the U.S. and Europe are targets of ridicule and open scorn at these informal gatherings.

"Khmer Rouge killing more than a million Cambodians? Impossible!" frowns one of the middle-aged Europeans who has been living and working in this country for more than ten years. "They had no capacity to kill so many people. Sure, between one and two million people died between 1969 and 1978, but that number includes 500,000 of those massacred by the U.S. carpet bombing before Khmer Rouge took over.""Most of the people died because of starvation and illnesses," he continues. "Furthermore, terrible massacres did not happen because of the communist ideology of Khmer Rouge.

It was not on that level. U.S. carpet bombing and Lon Nol's brutal dictatorship supported by the West pitched local people against each other. Killings were performed out of vengeance, not on ideological bases. Peasants went insane from enduring B-52 carpet bombings. Many were tortured, massacred and disappeared during Lon Nol's reign. Country folks hated city dwellers, blaming them for all misfortunes and horrors they had to endure. And most Khmer Rouge soldiers and cadres came from the countryside."Just half a mile from the caf� and the detached conversations of hardened expats, the Tuol Sleng Museum (Museum of Genocide), based in a former secondary school, speaks to the unbridled brutality and sadism of Khmer Rouge cadres.

No matter how many times one visits this place, it is impossible to stay calm and not feel outrage, sadness and tremendous sympathy for the victims. In an insane attempt to give structure to the savagery, Khmer Rouge documented each case, photographing all men and women detained right after their arrest and before the torture, then taking pictures of some after the savage interrogation.After Vietnam ousted Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh at the end of 1978, this torture center was converted to a "Museum of genocide" by the Vietnamese and East Germans, who were using their experience from setting up Auschwitz Museum in Poland.

They kept interrogation cells (originally classrooms) intact, with blood-stained floors, chains and shackles, as well as primitive machines for electric shocks. Thousands of black and white photographs of inmates eerily stare at visitors, their eyes expressing horror and resignation. One of the classrooms in the notorious secondary school known as "S-21" that was converted into a torture chamber during the Khmer Rouge reign. (Photo: Andre Vltchek)Some of the most terrifying images are those created by Vann Nath, a painter and former prisoner of S-21, one of the very few who managed to survive because of his talent and ability to draw complimenting portraits of Pol Pot and of officials who were in charge of the interrogation center.

After the Vietnamese invasion, Vann Nath transferred the most terrifying memories into canvases; a mosaic depicting the barbarity and insane brutality of interrogators - a mother whose baby is being assassinated in front of her eyes, a man whose nails are being extracted by pliers, a woman having her nipple cut off. But even Van Nath, in a conversation we had almost ten years ago, claims that Khmer Rouge killed around 200,000 people during its reign, a number which he also uses in his book "A Cambodian Prison Portrait: One Year in the Khmer Rouge's S-21" (White Lotus Press).

And among Khmer survivors, there is a consensus that the majority of people died not because of Communist ideology and not because of direct orders from Phnom Penh to exterminate millions, but because of the officers and local cadres in the provinces who ran amok, taking their personal vengeance on deported city-dwellers and "elites" whom they blamed for both the savage American bombing from the past, and for supporting the corrupt and savage pro-Western dictatorship of Lon Nol. There can be no doubt that the great majority of those who died during the Khmer Rouge dictatorship (between one and two million people) were victims of famines, lack of medical care and despicable living conditions.

A substantial number vanished as a result of the U.S. carpet bombing, a fact rarely mentioned in the mainstream Western media. The U.S. Air Force had been secretly bombing Cambodia using B-52s since May 1969. Facing defeat in Vietnam in 1973, savage carpet bombing began in order to support Lon Nol's regime. Historian David P. Chandler writes:When the campaign was stopped by the U.S. Congress at the end of the year, the B-52s had dropped over half of a million tons of bombs on a country with which the United States was not at war - more than twice the tonnage dropped on Japan during WWII.

The war in Cambodia was known as "the sideshow" by journalists covering the war in Vietnam and by American policy-makers in London. Yet the intensity of U.S. bombing in Cambodia was greater than it ever was in Vietnam; about 500,000 soldiers and civilians were killed over the 4-year period. It also caused about 2 million refugees to flee from the countryside to the capital.Like in Laos, tens of thousands of men, women and children lost their lives and limbs as a result of unexploded bombs and mines. The savagery of the bombardment, the displacement of millions of people, and resentment towards the corrupt pro-Western regime in Phnom Penh paved the way for Khmer Rouge's victory and the campaign of savage vengeance.

Choeung Ek, just a few miles south of Phnom Penh, was the execution ground now also known as the "Killing Fields." It is believed that around 40,000 Cambodians were murdered here, most by blows to the back of the head to save ammunition. The entire site is now filled with homeless children - as young as five - stalking visitors, begging for money or making outrageous sexual advances. Oblivious or indifferent towards the past, they grew up in this new and "democratic" Cambodia. Their only goal in the uncertain and brutal world is to feed themselves, and to survive by any means. It is not easy to find answers in Phnom Penh. Everything is politicized here; clich�s and fabrications are passed on as truth.

This is my fifth working visit to Cambodia. Each time I came here I realized that answers to my uncomfortable questions could be found only outside the capital. I hire a sturdy car and recommended driver and translator in one person, and we head south on Route 3, leaving this crowded and dangerous artery, going further south on 31 as far as it takes us, then turning left, towards Vietnam. This is not the main border crossing, not even a crossing which foreigners are allowed to use. There is no asphalt road here, just a dirt path with deep potholes, surrounded by rice fields, miserable villages and water buffaloes. Ours is the only car passing in this area; locals are walking or riding ancient bicycles. It is raining and the bottom of the car is scraping against the sand.

My driver is swearing, having no idea what we are doing in this godforsaken place. Then we come to the end; a lazy river, dormant town, the last border checkpoint with a sleeping guard - Prek Kres. Just a few yards further begin the houses of the first village in Vietnam. This is where the first skirmishes between Khmer Rouge and Vietnam began, and one of the points where the Vietnamese army invaded, most definitely saving further millions of Cambodian people from certain death. But this action was seen by the West as an invasion and occupation. The U.S. condemned Vietnam, demanding an immediate withdrawal of its troops and a return of the legitimate government - meaning Khmer Rouge - to power.

In the Cold War climate and from the point of view of its geopolitical interests, it was more acceptable for the U.S. to sacrifice further millions of Cambodian lives than to allow Vietnamese influence in the region. I have no problem finding Mr. Sek Cuuin, a mayor of Prek Kres. We sit down at the outdoor table of his house and he seems to be happy to share his memories with the strangers."This huge puddle which you see in the middle of the road is what remains of the U.S. carpet bombing", he explains. "We filled the hole, but when it rains, there is still a puddle there, I don't know why.

This area was heavily bombed during the war, by B-52s. If you enter the fields, you will see small lakes all over. It's what happens during the heavy rains. These lakes are bomb craters." We walk around the village. Barefoot children are staring at us. People are gathering, wondering what brought us here. Makeshift vehicles are parked next to the primitive jetty where a traditional merchant boat is being unloaded."There were always conflicts here," explains the mayor. "There were border skirmishes during Lon Nol's regime and after, when Khmer Rouge took over in 1975. We had 700 families living in this town; 400 were forcefully relocated. When Khmer Rouge entered, I just jumped into the river and swam for my life.

Most of the remaining 300 families tried to escape to Vietnam, and Prek Kres became a ghost town - an outpost for Khmer Rouge's army which began attacking Vietnamese villages across the border." I ask him about the Vietnamese Christmas offensive in 1978."The Vietnamese army crossed this border in 1979. No matter what they say now, almost everybody was happy, welcoming their troops. Those who survived and stayed in this town simply lined along the road, waved at Vietnamese soldiers and cried.

The entire area - entire country - was ravished; destroyed by Khmer Rouge and earlier by the U.S. bombing. Vietnamese saved this nation from complete annihilation. And when they took Phnom Penh, it was obvious that the mass killing and torture would stop. But you know what happened later; gratitude evaporated and nationalism gained ground. And the foreign countries insisted that this was not a liberation but an occupation. But you can ask anybody, except members of Khmer Rouge, how they felt in 1978 and 1979 - we felt liberated, we were saved and we suddenly realized that we might survive."I ask the mayor how he would compare Vietnam and Cambodia now.

After all, on paper, Cambodia is a success story, a multi-party democracy. He grins sarcastically."Yes, now we have many political parties. But you can't eat political parties; they don't fill your stomach. Everything here is corrupt. The Vietnamese government managed to give a much better life to its people. Especially to poor people, and in this part of the world almost everybody is poor. All I can tell you is that when we are hungry and when we are sick, we don't go to Phnom Penh; we cross the border and go to Vietnam.

They know we are Khmers but they don't care; they help us. They believe - over there - that if you are hungry or sick, you have to be helped, no matter what is your nationality. People there have a big heart."It is getting dark. I wish I could stay longer, but my flight to Bangkok is leaving early in the morning. We drive in silence, almost all the way to Phnom Penh. Leaving Prek Kres I pay closer attention to the craters on the road and in the rice fields. Almost all of the answers regarding recent history of this tortured nation can be found here, in this remote corner tucked between Cambodia and Vietnam.

But there seems to be not many who are willing to search for uncomfortable answers. (Andre Vltchek is a novelist, journalist, and filmmaker who has traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia. This article, along with others featuring his personal experiences while journeying in the region, will be published in an up-coming book, "American Asia.")

ZNet online Read more!

Nearly 500 Children Jailed In Cambodia

1, 2007 10:53 a.m. EST
Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Correspondent

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (AHN) - Cambodian rights group Licadho on Wednesday revealed fresh statistics from the country's prison system that show almost 500 children under the age of 18 are currently languishing in Cambodia's overcrowded prisons. The group said the child detainees were deprived of their basic needs and subject to physical and sexual abuse.

The report was compiled by Licadho in cooperation with the Cambodian Defenders Project and the Danish charity DanChurchAid. It said the exact number of children in various prisons in the country totaled 452, nearly double the figure in 2001.

There were also 37 children under the age of six, as well as 22 infants, living with their incarcerated mothers, where their basic needs are being ignored, the group said.

Licadho said in its report, "Children who are currently living in prison lack nutrition, provisions and education vital for proper development. In addition, children are subjected to physical dangers when housed with offenders who have committed serious crimes and are also at risk of mistreatment by the guards."

The report, a result of a four-month survey, comments on widespread undernourishment, corruption and sexual or physical abuse inside the prison system.

"Sexual assaults are likely to be seriously underreported, due to coercion, feelings of shame and other psychological factors," the report said.

"The possibility of sexual assault, rape or other physical abuse remains high, particularly in prisons where women are guarded by men."

Prisoners were only given an estimated 38 U.S. cents per day for their medical and food requirements. This minimal amount has resulted in a rising number of prison deaths, which doubled in 2005, the group said. Read more!

Peace Corps makes first trip to Cambodia

By JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Thirty young Peace Corps volunteers headed to Cambodia on Wednesday, marking the 45-year-old service organization's first program in the rapidly growing country.

The program was launched at the invitation of the Cambodian government, which was interested in volunteers who could teach English and support local instructors.

''English is essential,'' said Meng Eang Nay, of the Royal Embassy of Cambodia in Washington, D.C. ''It's important for people to find jobs, particularly in the private sector.''

The volunteers will also increase awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention and hope to branch out into other areas of need, like agricultural infrastructure development, he said.

Cambodia was listed as one of 12 ''hunger hot spots'' where the situation was ''extremely alarming'' in the 2006 Global Hunger Index of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The United Nations' World Food Program appealed for $10 million earlier this month to distribute food to about 1.1 million Cambodians in need.

Following an initial cultural training period, the recent college graduates will fan out into the Cambodian countryside and provincial towns, where they will live with host families, said Nathan Hale Sargent, spokesman for the Peace Corps in San Francisco.

Waiting to board their flight from San Francisco to Phnom Penh, some volunteers said they were aware of the comforts they were leaving behind.

''I took a hot shower this morning and knew it would be the last time in a while,'' said Jason Park, 22, from Totowa, N.J.

The volunteers said they were cognizant of the added responsibility that comes with being the first Peace Corps delegation to set up shop in a new country.

''There's a bit of trepidation because we're not sure exactly what to expect,'' Park said. ''But there's a lot of excitement and anticipation that's been building up for months.''

Some began learning Khmer in preparation for their trip. Emi Caitlin Ishigooka, from Long Beach, reached out to the area's large Cambodian community to find a tutor.

Kara and Sam Snyder, a married couple from Rochester, N.Y., also learned the basic of the language before emabrking on the 27-month commitment.

''Were feeling a lot of pressure since we'll be the first group there,'' said Kara Snyder, 22.
The volunteers join a large body of Peace Corps workers worldwide. Cambodia is the 139th country to partner with the Peace Corps, and the service organization has about 7500 volunteers currently serving in 73 countries. The last country added before Cambodia was Mexico, in 2004. Read more!

Cambodia's infamous motorbike taxi drivers to learn their lessons

Asia-Pacific News
By DPA
Jan 31, 2007, 5:35 GMT

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's cavalier motorbike taxi drivers, or motodops, are to be provided with a school to try to reign in their notoriously dangerous driving, an official said Wednesday.

Ung Chung Hour, director of the Land Transport Department of the nation's Transport Ministry, said media reports detailing litanies of dangerous and sometimes drunken exploits of motodops who understand little about road rules and care about them even less had prompted him to set up a school.

'The school will teach them how to drive for free. However, at the end of the course, they will have to pay about 10 dollars to sit an exam and receive a license,' Chung Hour said.

'The idea is to encourage them to do a driving course before they start their business, the same as in more modern countries. I will be very happy if the idea runs smoothly, and I have asked the government for financial assistance to get it started.'

At least one private company has also already donated chairs for the budding students and will provide the licenses for those who pass, he added, and he hopes aid organizations will also help.
Chung Hour has tailored his own course, including writing the lessons himself. The course will cover basic road rules as well as safety modules on issues such as effects of drinking and driving in a country where prosecution for the offense is unknown.

'I want to make a difference. I want to make an achievement to public safety that is remembered,' Chung Hour said.

There are no statistics for the number of motodops operating in Cambodia at any one time as they are not licensed and there are currently no restrictions on who can up take the occupation.
The streets of major towns and cities are filled with motorbikes offering the cheap door-to-door moto taxi service and it is a popular way for provincial people seeking work in the capital to earn an interim living after they arrive.

News of the course was met with indifference by motodops surveyed Wednesday, many of whom saw it as an additional tax and worried that time spent in the classroom would take away from time that could be spent earning money.

But the rapidly increasing road toll has become a cause of concern to the government as roads improve and traffic increases, and there is increasing pressure to improve road safety measures from both the government and concerned non-government agencies.

These concerns could be at least partially allayed by ensuring taxi drivers know the rules of the road, according to Chung Hour, who says his free course will soon be followed by tougher measures.

'The course begins in February. After six months or so, when we know how long it takes to teach, we will look at imposing fines for drivers who do not have a license,' he said. Read more!

Cambodia justice 'fails children'

By Guy De Launey BBC News, Cambodia

Human rights organisations have criticised the way children are treated in Cambodia's justice system.

They say there are hundreds of under-age prisoners in the country's jails and many of them are forced to share cells with adults. A coalition of local and international groups has called on the government to pass legislation to protect the children.

Conditions in Cambodia's jails are notorious.

There can be as many as 60 inmates in a single cell, food is scarce, and standards of hygiene are poor. Life is difficult enough for adult prisoners but human rights groups say it is unacceptable that children are sharing the same conditions.

Beatings

There is only one facility in the country designed for juvenile prisoners. The rest of the rising number of under-age detainees have to take their chances with adults.

The local rights organisation, Licadho, says that children have reported beatings from prison officials and fellow-inmates alike.

An official from the United Nations' children's organisation, Unicef, warned that the problem was getting out of hand.

Sandy Feinzig has also been working with the government to introduce a juvenile detention law and a new criminal procedure code.

''This year our hopes are to get these two laws passed, which could do a tremendous amount to reduce the sentences for children, divert them into projects, provide alternatives to sentencing, all of which will lessen the overcrowding in the current prison facilities,'' she says.

The need for reform is clear. This week local newspapers reported that a prisoner in a provincial jail died from a "hunger-related disease".

A government spokesman said it was difficult to justify spending more on food for convicts, when many public sector workers earned just $20 a month.

Story from BBC NEWS: Read more!

Russia to join OIL meal in Cambodia

Last Updated 31/01/2007, 15:07:54
Cambodia is a small Country( not a Kingdoom) and also a small piece of meal. Can a small piece of meal be shared by a group of Hyena? and who get the most, less, least or not at all? but when groups of Tigers and Lions joined in, who got more power to grabe?

Cambodia says Russia has joined a number of foreign powers eyeing Cambodia's petroleum reserves. The President of Cambodia's National Assembly, Heng Samrin, says Russian officials have expressed interest in oil exploration off Cambodia's southern coast.

The expression of interest came during a recent meeting of regional legislators. He says while Cambodia welcomes Russia's overtures, no firm agreement has been made. Two years ago, petroleum was discovered by US energy giant Chevron Corporation off Cambodia's coast. Since then, firms from France, South Korea and Japan are reportedly seeking exploration licenses. Read more!

Spanish Queen to visit Cambodia

Queen Sophia of Spain will pay an official visit Cambodia on February 8 and 9 at the invitation of Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry said the queen will and visit Spanish-funded projects and tour the famous Angkor Wat temple complex in the northern city of Siem Reap.

The ministry announced the visit the same day it announced Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Ray would pay a separate state visit to the king, on February 6 and 7. Calmy-Ray will also meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen, her Foreign Minister counterpart Hor Namhong, inspect Swiss-assisted repairs to the famous Banteay Srei temple at Angkor Wat and visit a children's hospital run by Swiss philanthropist Beat Richner, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Read more!