England soccer great Bobby Charlton visits Cambodia on land mine mission

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: England soccer great Bobby Charlton arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday as part of a mission to raise awareness for the impoverished Southeast Asian nation's continuing land mine problem.

"We are going to try to teach young people how to recognize the dangerous mines that are still around," said Charlton, who is in Cambodia as a supporter of charity Spirit of Soccer, which helps children in land mine affected areas of the world through the development of soccer.

An estimated 4-6 million mines and other pieces of unexploded ordinance remain buried in Cambodia after more than three decades of armed conflict.

Charlton will to tour land mine areas in Battambang province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the capital Phnom Penh, said Khek Ravy, vice president of Football Federation of Cambodia.

Spirit of Soccer operates one of its two soccer coaching projects in Cambodia, the other is in Bosnia.

On Thursday, Charlton — who joined Manchester United when he was 17 — will meet with young Cambodian soccer players to discuss some techniques with them.

Charlton, 70, is one of soccer's best known identities. He was a member of England's 1966 World Cup winning team, the same year he was named European Footballer of the Year.

The Manchester United director said Cambodia should promote its soccer to as high a level as many of its regional neighbors.

"It's about time," he said. "Everyone's waiting for Cambodia. Vietnam, China, everywhere else is very happy playing football."

World governing body FIFA ranks Cambodia's national team at 169 out of 208.

Charlton visited Spirit of Soccer's Bosnian program in 2005.

Read more!

Bananas head for jungle in Cambodia

JETSETTING Jupiter Mines directors David Evans and Jeremy Snaith certainly get around.

The pair - dubbed "bananas in pyjamas" after inappropriate antics in first class on a flight to Abu Dhabi earlier this year - have turned their attention to the Cambodian jungle.

Through a private company called Indochine Resources - in which Jupiter is a shareholder - Mr Evans and Mr Snaith have gained rights to roam among elephants, tigers and leopards as they pick up rock chip samples in the ASEAN heritage-listed Virachey National Park.

One of their fellow Indochine directors is Robert Coghill, a fellow first-class passenger on the infamous Etihad Airways flight. He provided an affadavit in support of Mr Evans and Mr Snaith.
Last month their lawyer, Ross Hill, said he was "unaware of any connection" between Mr Coghill and his clients. But last night Mr Hill could not reach Mr Evans to confirm.

The fourth and final Indochine director is Chris Eddy, an Australian based in Dubai.

Mr Evans and Mr Snaith were on their way to Dubai when they were arrested at the Abu Dhabi airport. Mr Hill said the visit was in part to attract investors to Indochine. It is believed Mr Evans and Mr Snaith have both travelled to South-East Asia since receiving suspended sentences from an Abu Dhabi judge.

The Cambodia Daily recently reported Indochine - previously named Battle Mountain Minerals - had signed a memorandum of understanding to search for minerals in Ratanakkiri province.

A geologist at Perth's Great Australian Resources, which has exploration projects in Cambodia, said a MOU would allow a company to survey an area and take rock chip samples but the concession would have to be converted to an exploration lease before drilling could take place.

The World Bank has been pushing for the Virarchey National Park to be protected from mining, having provided $US1.91 million ($2.16 million) in loans and $US2.75 million in grants to an environment ministry program since 2000.

World Bank spokeswoman Pichaya Fitts said the Cambodian government was expected to pass a law imposing a strict ban on mining in core areas of the park later this year.

Because very little minerals exploration has been conducted in Cambodia it has been deemed a highly prospective region.

Oxiana hit 33 metres at 9.9 grams per tonne of gold at an exploration project there and its annual report said "field assessment of other areas and projects of interest is ongoing".

Acting Jupiter chief executive Rob Benussi said his company previously had a direct investment in some of the Indochine leases but had converted the holding to shares in the unlisted company. In its March quarterly report, Jupiter said it had invested $120,000 in seed capital.

Meanwhile, Mr Snaith has sold another $28,000 of Jupiter shares. Jupiter is holding a meeting to vote on ousting Mr Evans and Mr Snaith as directors next month. Read more!

New party launched in Cambodia possibly to weaken opposition force

The Human Rights Party (HRP) of some 10,000 supporters was launched here on Sunday, possibly with an eye to weaken the kingdom's opposition force, local media said on Monday.

Kem Sokha, 54, who was unanimously appointed the president of the party, said that HRP was formed in response to the needs of both local and overseas nationalists and democrats who want a political party which prioritizes the interests of the nation, not individuals, reported major Cambodian-language daily newspaper the Koh Santepheap.

"It is time for Cambodia to have a real fully democratic political party which has emerged from the people," Sokha said, adding that HRP's door is still open for those who have real willingness to improve the nation under the umbrella of true democracy.

Sokha told the crowd that the HRP has also been established to upgrade the living standards of the people and turn Cambodia into a society which offers equal choices and opportunities for every citizen in seeking their future.

The party elected former Prime Minister Pen Sovann, who in 1980 headed the People's Republic of Kampuchea, as one of its deputy presidents, along with Keo Remy, a former Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) lawmaker and Keat Sokun, former financial officer of the now defunct Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party.

English-language newspaper the Cambodia Daily on Monday quoted National Assembly First Vice President Nguon Nhel as saying that HRP can benefit the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) by weakening the opposition vote.

After the latest local election held on April 1, the opposition SRP surpassed the co-ruling Funcinpec Party and became the second largest party of the kingdom. The augmentation of SRP is widely thought to constitute a kind of menace to CPP, although it is now dominant in the government and the legislative bodies.

Source: Xinhua. Read more!

KDDI, Alvarion bridging digital divide in Cambodia, Vietnam

Alvarion has announced its collaborative work with KDDI to bridge the digital divide in Cambodia and Vietnam. KDDI promotes telecommunications and information and communications technology (ICT) services via its own specific activities, and also participates in the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) organisation.

APT’s main goal is to reduce digital divide and promote advanced services including internet access, e-learning, e-government and e-commerce as part of the pan-Asia initiative.

KDDI is using Alvarion’s solutions in Vietnam and Cambodia, to improve broadband data services to residents, schools and municipalities. Alvarion is supporting KDDI and working together to tailor solutions that are optimised for local requirements. KDDI is making use of Alvarion’s BreezeMAX in Vietnam, and BreezeACCESS VL in Cambodia. . Read more!

Cambodia reported to supply Tamil Tiger weapons

Cambodia is said to be a main source of weapons for Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers.

The defence magazine Jane's Intelligence Review says Cambodia is one of the most significant single sources of weapons for the insurgent group.

Cambodia's interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak acknowledges some weapons may still be getting to the Tigers, but says it is small-scale.

He says his governnment would like information to lead it to the offenders because Cambodia's people are victims of weapons and do not want people in other countries to suffer the same crisis.

Weapons from Cambodia filled Tiger arsenals in the past, but officials in Cambodia have assured the Sri Lankan government that the arms trade has stopped. Read more!

Khmer Rough' s Slaughter house of Cambodia

IF you have been to Cambodia in recent years, the chances are that you will have been to Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh. There is a savage irony in the fact that this former secondary school that was used as a prison and torture centre by the Khmer Rouge regime is now on the tourist trail.

In the mid to late 1970s, men, women and children arrived at Tuol Sleng, or SS 21 as it was codenamed, in the middle of the night and left only to be executed in what came to be called the killing fields. Now, men, women and children arrive in coaches and depart for lunch in their nice hotels, many of them shocked and chastened by what they have seen.

Visiting Toul Sleng is a brutal experience. It has been left more or less as the liberating Vietnamese forces found it in 1979. School buildings that look pretty much like any others of the era were crudely converted into a high security prison. Iron bedsteads that were used to transmit electric shocks still sit in the downstairs rooms and there are dark stains on the floors.

Upstairs is a long iron bar to which prisoners were shackled lying down and elsewhere, on the wall, is a signboard that tells prisoners how they must behave. Point 6 advises, “Whilst getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.”

Of the 20,000 people who passed through Toul Sleng’s gates, just seven survived.

Yet, for all the horror of the physical environment of Toul Sleng, it is the photographs of some of these 20,000 that haunt the visitor most. The Khmer Rouge were fastidious about keeping records and every prisoner was photographed when they entered the prison.

These black and white portraits are chilling. The faces are often expressionless, the eyes blank. These are the faces of the condemned, of men, women and children who surely knew that they were about to suffer indescribably and then die at the end of it. And for what? For a confession that they had been CIA collaborators, or sympathised with the Vietnamese or ? whatever their torturers wanted to hear, for not until there was a signed confession could execution release them from their torment. The fact that the confessions were wildly improbable and wholly made up was not important; what was important was the signed document.

It was these pictures that haunted photographer Nic Dunlop and, in turn, he started to photograph them. But it was the discovery of a photograph of Comrade Duch that began his obsessive search for the director of SS 21.

Armed with this photograph, Dunlop set off to find the man who had presided over the madness that was Tuol Sleng and The Lost Executioner is his account of the history of Toul Sleng, of his interviews with people who worked there, with one of the seven who survived and finally of his success in meeting Comrade Duch. It is a gripping, horrifying and important story.

At the beginning of the book is a photograph of Duch as a boy. He has thick black hair, neatly parted, and is looking directly into the camera. He is neatly turned out for what is clearly a studio shot and he looks slightly solemn as befits such a serious occasion, with just the merest hint of a smile.

The next picture, chronologically, sees Duch in standard Khmer Rouge attire, seated behind a microphone addressing an invisible audience. It is this photograph that Dunlop carried around Cambodia in his back pocket until, eventually, he was able to identify Duch in 1999 and get him to confess to his deeds as director of SS 21.

The Lost Executioner is a grim read but it is a story that needs to be told and needs to be listened to. It is fraught with questions and moral dilemmas. How did this almost cherubic boy become the man who could scrawl with impunity, “Kill every last one of them” on prisoners’ files and become “one of the worst mass murderers of the 20th century”?

How valid is it to claim, as many Khmer Rouge have done, that they did what they did because they were “just obeying orders” and would have themselves been killed had they not done so?

After being identified, Duch is imprisoned, but in the preceding years he had converted to Christianity and was known as a talented and compassionate aid worker.

Would it have been better for him to have atoned for his sins by helping others rather than languishing pointlessly in a jail?

And on a bigger issue, why have there been no trials of the Khmer Rouge leaders? Why was the West so blind to what was happening in Cambodia that it actually recognised the Khmer Rouge as a legitimate regime?

The Lost Executioner is a fine book that puts flesh onto the horrifying statistics that tell the story of the Khmer Rouge genocide, five years in which approximately two million people – nearly a quarter of the population – died. At one point in the book, Dunlop refers to Stalin’s chilling quote that one death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic. Thoughtful, reflective and compelling, The Lost Executioner brings home forcefully that this particular set of statistics is almost unbearably tragic. Read more!

Cambodian human rights activist launches his own political party

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A prominent human rights activist once jailed for criticizing Cambodia's prime minister moved directly into the political arena Sunday by launching his own party.

Kem Sokha, 54, unveiled his Human Rights Party at a well-attended congress, making it the latest political force trying to challenge the iron grip on power of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party at the next general election scheduled for July 2008.

The Sam Rainsy Party is the only opposition force in Parliament against Hun Sen, while the royalist Funcinpec party, which once was a significant rival, is a partner in Hun Sen's government and has been significantly weakened by its own internal disputes.

One of the goals of the Human Rights Party is "to raise the living standard of the people and change Cambodia into a society that offers equal choices and opportunities for every citizen in seeking their future," Kem Sokha said in an opening speech at his party congress, which organizers claimed was attended by some 10,000 supporters.

"We are confident that our party will achieve the greatest result from the upcoming election," he said after the congress formally elected him the party's president.

Kem Sokha has a long-standing reputation for advocating social justice and fighting against corruption and human rights abuses.

He used to be a lawmaker of the now-defunct Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party, one of the challengers to Hun Sen's party in the 1990s. After his party was dissolved, Kem Sokha joined the royalist Funcinpec party and became one of its senators before resigning the post to create the Cambodian Center for Human Rights in late 2002.

Some other well-known political figures joining Kem Sokha's party include Pen Sovann, former prime minister of a communist Cambodian government in the early 1980s; Keo Remy, former lawmaker of the Sam Rainsy Party; and Son Soubert, the son of former Cambodian statesman Son Sann, who founded the defunct Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party in the early 1990s.

Pen Sovann, Keo Remy and Keat Sokun, a former member of the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party, were also elected vice presidents of Kem Sokha's party.

Early last year, Kem Sokha was jailed for several weeks along with two other human rights workers, a union leader and a journalist on criminal charges of defaming the prime minister.

Hun Sen ordered their release following strong international condemnation. Read more!

Cambodia to present big events to attract more tourists

Cambodia will present big events late this year to attract more tourists to visit the country and help boost the economy and reduce poverty, said Tourism Minister Thong Kong here on Thursday.

"We will have night markets soon in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap province, home of the Angkor Wat temples, organize the Johnnie Walker Cambodia Golf Open 2007 in Siem Reap, conduct better celebration of the Water Festival than previous years in Phnom Penh, hold half marathon in Siem Reap, and join the World Culture Expo 2007 from Sept. 7 to Oct. 26 in South Korea," he told reporters at the half-year review meeting of his ministry's work.

Cambodia is also preparing to host the Angkor International Tourism Expo 2007 in Siem Reap in early October and the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asia Nations) Boat Racing soon in Phnom Penh, he added.

"These events can show tourists that our country is stable and peaceful to visit," he said.

The plane crash in June, which killed 22 people, had limited impact on the kingdom's tourism industry, as the government had worked hard in the rescue operation and the aviation companies will strengthen the control of their planes' quality, improve safety measures for tourists and adopt better flight routes, he said.

In the first six months of this year, Cambodia received 975,349 tourists, about 20 percent increase over the same period last year, and most of them were from South Korea, Japan, the United States, Vietnam and China, he said.

At the end of this year, we estimate to have about two million foreign tourists in all, he added.

Last year, 1.7 million foreign tourists visited Cambodia, harvesting over one billion U.S. dollars for national revenues.

Tourism is one of the three pillar industries of Cambodia. The Angkor Wat temples in Siem Reap, the clean beach resorts in Sihanoukville and the Phnom Penh city are travelers' hottest destinations.

Source: Xinhua. Read more!

Cambodia: Former Cambodian Police Chief Sentenced To 14 More Years In Prison

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: A Cambodian court sentenced a former police chief to 14 more years in prison for possession of counterfeit currency after he was slapped with a 26-year term for other crimes, a prosecutor said Thursday (July 19th).

Former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Peo, 49, was already serving a 26-year sentence after being convicted of several crimes, including ordering the assassination of a judge in 2003 and illegal possession of weapons, said prosecutor Sok Kallyan.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Chey Sovann sentenced Heng Peo on Wednesday (July 18th). His wife Ngin Sotheavy, 39, who is living in exile in Finland, was also sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison on the same charge.

Police seized US$30,000 in counterfeit U.S. currency in a raid of the couple's house in July last year, the prosecutor said.

Heng Peo was once in the inner circle of Cambodia's strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen.

After fleeing Cambodia in July last year, Heng Peo sought refuge in Malaysia, but was deported in December after losing a court battle to stay there while seeking asylum in another country. (AP) Read more!

Japanese company to invest in Cambodia for bio-diesel

A Japanese company will invest 800 million U.S. dollars in Cambodia to plant castor bean and refine castor oil into bio-diesel, company source said here on Friday.

The Biwako Bio-Laboratory Co., Ltd. from Japan will plant castor bean on 48,000 hectares of land in Kompong Speu and Kompong Cham provinces and then establish a factory to refine castor oil into bio-diesel which is expected to replace gasoline, said Mitsuo Hayashi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company.

"Now we are waiting for the result of the oil sample test in the laboratory in Japan. We want to know what kind of seeds will be planted to provide high turnouts," he said.

Some 48,000 hectares of castor plants will yield 100,000 tons of castor oil annually and 40,000 tons of bio-diesel after refinery, he said.

The company needs 500,000 hectares of land for the project in 20 years and the Cambodian government is now helping to find land, he added.

Mitsuo is among the 30 representatives of the Japanese delegation currently on visit to Cambodia. Kozo Yamamoto, Deputy Minister of Economy of Japan, leads the team to find investment opportunities here.

Japan is the largest donor country for Cambodia but has little investment in the kingdom.

Source: Xinhua. Read more!

S. Korea provides 30 mln USD loan to Cambodia to equip gov't IT system

The South Korean company Kisan Telecom Co. Ltd has signed an agreement with the Cambodian government to provide a loan of 30 million U.S. dollars for the public Information Technology (IT) system project in Cambodia, local media reported on Friday.

The loan will be used to equip the government's IT management system, including Internet access for government institutions in 10 provinces and cities of Cambodia, the Raksmey Kampuchea newspaper said.

The agreement was signed by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and Park Byung Ki, CEO of Kisan Telecom company, on behalf of both sides, the newspaper added.

IT system has become a key role in the whole society and Cambodia needs to have and develop IT system management in government institutions, Sok An was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Cambodia also needs more human resources for IT system management, he added.

This is the second time for a South Korean company to provide loan with low interest rate for Cambodia to equip the government IT system. In the previous time, a South Korean company provided a loan of 20 million U.S. dollars for the Cambodian government.

Source: Xinhua. Read more!

AP Exclusive: Former Khmer Rouge leader says he is ready to face trial for genocide

PAILIN, Cambodia (AP) - The top surviving leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, accused of genocidal policies that led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million of his countrymen, said unhesitatingly Thursday he was ready to be judged by an international tribunal.

«I will go to the court and don't care if people believe me or not,» Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue for the communist Khmer Rouge when they held power in the late 1970s, said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

He spoke a day after prosecutors in the tribunal examining the deaths submitted a confidential list of five former Khmer Rouge leaders they believe should be tried, along with the evidence to back the charges. Judges will decide whether to proceed with indictments.

«They didn't specify the names of the people, but I know I'm included,» Nuon Chea said at his home in northwest Cambodia near the border with Thailand.

Cambodian and international prosecutors submitted evidence including thousands of pages of documentation and the locations of more than 40 mass graves.

Now an ailing 82-year-old, Nuon Chea _ the former «Brother Number Two» in the Khmer Rouge, right-hand man to the group's notorious leader, the late Pol Pot _ has consistently denied any responsibility for the mass brutality.

«I was president of the National Assembly and had nothing to do with the operation of the government,» he said Thursday. «Sometimes I didn't know what they were doing because I was in the assembly.

Cambodian scholars dispute the claim, and believe he was an instrumental policy-maker.

The prosecutors said the acts allegedly carried out by the five unnamed Khmer Rouge leaders «constitute crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, homicide, torture and religious persecution.

«I had no intention to kill my people,» said Nuon Chea. «The tribunal shouldn't rely solely on the law but on intention as well.

Former Khmer Rouge leaders have usually denied knowledge of large-scale killings, despite a preponderance of evidence, most dramatically mass graves around the country.

They sometimes blame neighboring Vietnam _ Cambodia's traditional enemy _ for the killings. After a series of bloody border raids by the Khmer Rouge on Vietnamese villages in late 1978, Hanoi invaded Cambodia to oust the Khmer Rouge and install a puppet government, garrisoning the country for about a decade.

«There are two kinds of war, one to protect your country, one where you invade another country,» said Nuon Chea, in apparent reference to the battles with Vietnam. «I was trying to protect my country.

He said there were more police than usual stationed outside his small house since Wednesday evening's announcement of the legal moves in Phnom Penh, and he had to be careful about what he said.

«It happened 30 years ago and it's very difficult to remember. Some of them (tribunal members) never experienced that. They weren't there, how could they know what was going on.

Marcel Lemonde of France, one of the tribunal's co-investigating judges, declined to discuss when the suspects' names would be made public and when they might be arrested, though he indicated it could be soon.

«We are encouraged by the progress of the (tribunal) and look forward to the day when identified suspects are brought to justice,» said U.S. Embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle.

Ros Saroeun, a 53-year-old motorbike-taxi driver, reflected the opinions of many older Cambodians, commenting that «I am delighted they will be brought to trial, because they have caused the death of more than 30 of my relatives.

The late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998 and his former military chief, Ta Mok, died in 2006.

In addition to Nuon Chea, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and former head of state Khieu Samphan live freely in Cambodia but are in declining health.

Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch, who headed the Khmer Rouge's S-21 torture center, is the only former senior official in government custody.

His lawyer, Ka Savuth, said Thursday that he had been informed that his client was soon to be transferred from a military prison to the detention facility at the tribunal's headquarters, an indirect confirmation that he was one of the five suspects named by prosecutors.

He said Duch «welcomed the news and wished for his trial to take place as quickly as possible.

According to tribunal rules, the maximum penalty for conviction of crimes falling within its jurisdiction is life imprisonment.

Cambodia first sought U.N. help in 1997 to set up a tribunal, but it took years of tough negotiations before the two parties signed a pact in 2003 agreeing to hold trials.

Associated Press writer Ker Munthit in Phnom Penh contributed to this story. Read more!

U.S. supports Cambodia's bid to list Preah Vihear Temple as world heritage site

PHNOM PENH, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The United States has expressed support for Cambodia's bid to officially register the Preah VihearTemple as world heritage site and will provide aid for its development and management plans, local media reported on Thursday.

U.S. Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli here on Wednesday told Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Council of Ministers Sok An that the temple has to be officially registered as world heritage site even if there is opposition from the third side, press official for the Council of Ministers Phan Sithan was quoted by English-language newspaper Cambodian Daily as saying.

The United States will send a group of experts to Cambodia to help organize the development and management plans for the temple's official registration as world heritage site and also provide grant aid to support the plans, he said.

Recently, Long Visalo, deputy minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, told reporters that the world heritage committee of the United Nation's Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) asked Cambodia to organize the development and management plans for the Preah Vihear Temple after receiving the kingdom's request to list it as world heritage site.

The committee promised to decide whether the temple can be registered as world heritage site in early 2008.

The Preah Vihear Temple was built from the 11th to the 12th century on top of the Dorng Rek Mountain in the northern part of Cambodia next to Thailand. Cambodia secured its ownership of the temple in 1962, out of fierce competition with Thailand. Read more!

Local family returns from eye-opening trip to Cambodia

Julie Kirkwood

Between 1975 and 1979, Khmer Rouge guerillas in Cambodia set out to relocate the entire population into agricultural labor camps. In less than four years, roughly 30 percent of the nation's population was killed, either through starvation, torture or execution.

An entire generation of teachers, police officers and doctors was wiped out -- targeted along with foreigners, Christians and Muslims, and anybody who resisted.

Andover doctors Tom and Rebecca Hoerner knew this history when they arrived in Cambodia last month on a medical volunteer trip.

But it didn't hit home until they spent time in Phnom Penh hospitals.

"You don't see any 45-year-old doctors," said Tom Hoerner, an orthopedic surgeon with Essex Orthopaedics in Andover. "They don't have a core of mid-life experienced physicians to educate anybody else."

Rebecca Hoerner, a pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Cambridge Health Alliance, said she noticed the same thing.

"There are very few people my age in the hospital," she said.

The couple used two weeks of vacation time to travel to Cambodia through an organization called Health Volunteers Overseas, just returning this month.

Tom Hoerner spent his days doing rounds and operating on broken arms and legs at a free charity hospital in Phnom Penh and at a nearby state-run hospital. His wife visited hospital laboratories and gave the local doctors much needed advice on safety and techniques. Unlike the automated, highly efficient laboratories in the United States, these laboratories are operating at the level of an American lab in the 1950s, with a lot of the tests done by hand, she said.

"There are only five pathologists in the country for a population of 13 million people," she said. "They're starting from scratch. ... Their equipment is quite old. A lot of it is borrowed and donated."

The Hoerners brought their youngest daughter, 17-year-old Hannah. She volunteered at a nearby school, helping a class of third grade students practice English. She also helped her mother inventory laboratory materials and toured a pediatric hospital with her father.

Hannah said she found the Cambodian children to be curious, welcoming and giddy over small pleasures, such as blowing bubbles and singing songs.

She also found the medical conditions sobering, especially in the pediatric hospital where young children were fighting cases of dengue fever and HIV/AIDS.

"I didn't know what to expect going into it," Hannah said. "I'd never been to Asia, let alone to a developing country. ... It just impressed me how gracious the people were. They welcomed me so much."

Cambodia has been politically stable for nine years now, and it shows, Tom Hoerner said. Though the health care system is rebuilding from virtually nothing, he said he left with a great sense of hope and a feeling that he had seen a nation on the path to recovery.

"I think the Cambodians are going to be OK," he said.

Rebecca Hoerner said she went to Cambodia not sure if there would be anything for a pathologist to do, so it was eye-opening to realize how much the people in her profession could contribute.

She said it also made her appreciate her life at home.

"We take a lot for granted in this country," Rebecca said.

And though he was exhausted when he got back, he said the trip was rewarding, just like his trip three years ago with Health Volunteers Overseas to Vietnam.

"Any time you're not doing your usual job, it's reinvigorating," Hoerner said. Read more!

Former Khmer Rouge leader denies role in genocide

PAILIN, Cambodia: The highest-ranking former Khmer Rouge leader still alive denied on Thursday that he was responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians during the party's brutal 1975-79 rule, adding that he was ready to face an international tribunal.

Prosecutors in the tribunal examining the deaths submitted a confidential list Wednesday of five former top Khmer Rouge leaders that they believed should be tried, along with the evidence to back the charges. Judges will decide whether to proceed with indictments.

"They didn't specify the names of the people, but I know I'm included," the former chief Khmer Rouge ideologue, Nuon Chea, said in an interview at his home in northwest Cambodia.

Cambodian and international prosecutors submitted evidence including thousands of pages of documentation and the locations of more than 40 mass graves.

"I will go to the court and don't care if people believe me not," Nuon Chea said. "It happened 30 years ago and it's very difficult to remember. Some of them" - tribunal members - "never experienced that. They weren't there, how could they know what was going on?"

Seeming unperturbed, Nuon Chea sat clutching a walking stick, the legacy of a stroke, and complained of pain in his right leg as he spoke, while his wife served homemade iced fruit juice.

He said there were more police officers than usual stationed near his house since the announcement Wednesday evening of the legal moves in Phnom Penh, and he added that he had to be careful about what he said.

Now an ailing 82-year-old, the former "Brother Number Two" in the Khmer Rouge has consistently denied any responsibility for the mass brutality that engulfed Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge held power.

"I was president of the National Assembly and had nothing to do with the operation of the government. Sometimes I didn't know what they were doing because I was in the assembly," he said. "I had no intention to kill my people.'

Marcel Lemonde, a tribunal's co-investigating judge who is a native of France, declined to discuss when names of the suspects will be made public and when they might be arrested, though he indicated it could be soon.

A statement from the tribunal said the prosecutors - a joint Cambodian-foreign team - submitted 25 cases to the judges involving "murder, torture, forcible transfer, unlawful detention, forced labor and religious, political and ethnic persecution." All five suspects were senior leaders, it said.

Pol Pot, the late Khmer Rouge leader, died in 1998 and his former military chief, Ta Mok, died in 2006. In addition to Nuon Chea, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and the former head of state, Khieu Samphan, live freely in Cambodia but are in declining health. Kaing Khek Iev, who headed the Khmer Rouge's S-21 torture center, is the only former senior official in government custody.

Cambodia first sought help of the United Nations in 1997 to set up a tribunal, but it took years of tough negotiations before the two parties signed a pact in 2003 agreeing to hold trials. Read more!

Cambodia Town is now on the map

A stretch of Anaheim Street in Long Beach has the new designation, and its immigrant merchants are happy for the historic recognition.

By Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writer
July 18, 2007

Sithea San fled the killing fields in Cambodia as a teenager and found refuge in Long Beach, where she attended college, got married and bought a house.

Now, more than a quarter-century later, San finally has a place that she and thousands of other native Cambodians say they can call home.

A strip of Anaheim Street was officially named the nation's first "Cambodia Town" earlier this month — the most recent cultural designation in a county that is home to Little India, Little Tokyo and Historic Filipinotown.

City and community leaders say the designation not only will recognize the contributions of Cambodians, but also will help revitalize the neighborhood by attracting more businesses, visitors and tourists to the area. San and others are making plans to put up Cambodia Town signs and set up a business improvement district and are considering building a community center and a memorial to those who died under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

"Now we have the name," said San, chairwoman of Cambodia Town Inc. "Now we have to make it happen. We have the responsibility to make the place nice."

Long Beach, known as the Cambodian capital of the United States, is believed to have the largest concentration of Cambodians outside of the home country. Some of the first Cambodians in the United States were students who attended Cal State Long Beach in the 1960s as part of an exchange program. Waves of refugees followed in the 1970s as they escaped the Khmer Rouge regime, which took the lives of more than 1 million people. According to 2000 census figures, about 20,000 Cambodians live in Long Beach, but community leaders estimate a larger population.

Cambodia Town runs along the Anaheim corridor, from Junipero Avenue to Atlantic Avenue. There are already scores of Cambodian-run businesses on the street, including jewelry stores, restaurants, travel agencies and fabric shops.

At Monorom restaurant Tuesday, a lunchtime crowd ate Cambodian noodle soup while Khmer-language music videos played on a television. Owner Sopha Nhoung, who came to the area more than 20 years ago, said he was proud to finally be recognized.

"They have Chinatown, Koreatown, Thai Town," Nhoung said. "We've been living here for a long time. We deserved this."

Down the street at Angkorwat Art, Sopheap Samrieth said he signed a petition that supported the designation. But his main reason was to draw customers.

"It will bring more people here," said Samrieth, as he pointed out paintings depicting the ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. "It will generate more business."

The drive to get a Cambodia Town began in 2001, when a few community members began meeting to talk about the possibility.

The leaders brought the issue to the City Council last year. Some critics expressed concerns that the designation could lure more gangs to the area and that it would exclude Latinos and African Americans.

But Cambodian leaders argued that the title would help the entire city by making the street safer and cleaner and by developing the neighborhood into a regional destination.

Naming the area Cambodia Town would also highlight immigrants' cultural heritage and encourage youths to get involved helping their community, San said. In June, the city of Long Beach commissioned a survey that showed wide support for the cultural designation. On July 3, the City Council voted 8-1 in favor of naming the stretch Cambodia Town.

Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, who voted for the designation, said the new name is a welcome mat for Cambodians, as well as for others who want to experience something different in Long Beach.

"We are leveraging a very unique destination," she said. "What makes Anaheim [Street] different is this collection of shops, stores and businesses that happen to be mostly Cambodian American owned."

Not all of the businesses on Anaheim Street are Cambodian. Manny Caldera, manager of La Bodega Market, said the name wasn't important to him.

"As long as the business is good, it doesn't matter," said Caldera. His store caters to Latinos. "They can name it Cambodia Town or any other."

Veasna Kiet, 40, who runs Phnom Penh Express travel agency, said the new name makes him proud. "We live far away from our country," he said. "Now we have a hometown here." Read more!

5 defendants proposed in mass killings in Cambodia

BANGKOK: Prosecutors in Cambodia announced Wednesday that they had submitted to a special tribunal a list of five potential defendants in a long-delayed trial for the mass killings by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

Although the five names were not made public, the submission was one of the most significant leaps forward in a case involving crimes committed more than 20 years ago. It has been delayed by legal and political disputes for a decade.

Under the tribunal's rules, the evidence will now be studied by investigating judges who will then decide on any formal indictments.

"This is the moment the victims have been waiting for," said Youk Chhang, who directs a documentation center that has collected some of the strongest evidence. "This is a turning point toward justice."

The radical communist Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, when 1.7 million people were killed by torture, disease, overwork and starvation.

The Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998, and his military chief, Ta Mok, died in 2006, but a number of elderly former leaders are living quietly in Cambodia. Only one is in custody.

No Khmer Rouge leader has ever been brought into court to face charges for crimes that resulted in the deaths of as many as one-fourth of the population and left the country in ruin and trauma.

The announcement Wednesday said the prosecutors had submitted for investigation 25 "distinct factual situations of murder, torture, forcible transfer, unlawful detention, forced labor and religious, political and ethnic persecution."

It listed allegations that it said constitute crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, homicide, torture and religious persecution.

While names were not disclosed Wednesday, a half-dozen former leaders have often been mentioned as the most likely defendants.

They include Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue; Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, and Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister, all of whom were members of the Khmer Rouge central committee.

Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch, the commandant of the main torture house, Tuol Sleng, is the only major figure in custody, but not under the jurisdiction of the special tribunal.

The mandate of the tribunal is to prosecute senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge movement as well as those "most responsible" for the crimes. There is no limit to the number of cases that can be brought.

The prosecutors' announcement described the Khmer Rouge atrocities as a criminal enterprise with far-reaching political aims.

"These crimes were committed as part of a common criminal plan constituting a systematic and unlawful denial of basic rights," they said. "The purported motive of this common criminal plan was to effect a radical change of Cambodian society along ideological lines."

In support of their submissions, the prosecutors said they had transmitted more than 1,000 documents totaling more than 14,000 pages of evidence. Large troves of files have been uncovered over the years, some with meticulous records of tortures and killings.

The documents include the statements of more than 350 witnesses, a list of 40 other potential witnesses, thousands of pages of Khmer Rouge government documents and the locations of more than 40 undisturbed mass graves, the statement said.

The tribunal, set up jointly by the United Nations and the Cambodian government, is a complex balancing act between Cambodian and foreign judges and lawyers, and between Cambodian and international standards of justice.

It has been criticized by some human rights groups for falling below those international standards and leaving room for political manipulation by the Cambodian leader, Prime Minster Hun Sen.

Cambodian and foreign judges have teamed together at all levels of the process, with decisions carefully calibrated by a supermajority system intended to resolve disputes between the two camps.

The submission Wednesday was made by two co-prosecutors, a Canadian and a Cambodian, and is now in the hands of co-investigating judges.

The cultures and legal systems clashed earlier this year in a stalemate between Cambodian and foreign judges over procedural rules, and the atmosphere between the two camps was described by participants as acrimonious.

The dispute, which involved national pride as well as legal standards, was the latest of many delays since Cambodia formally sought the help of the United Nations in 1997 to set up an international tribunal.

Because of delays, one year has already passed since the tribunal was inaugurated and only two years remain on its mandate, budgeted at $53 million. Experts said that could be extended if progress was being made.

Earlier on Wednesday, the tribunal announced another step forward - the inauguration of a small, red-roofed detention building, ready to receive any defendants once they are indicted. Read more!

Happy Football to bring Cambodia's homeless teenagers to world arena

The non-governmental Happy Football Project has selected a team to represent Cambodia in the Homeless World Cup in Melbourne in 2008, which is organized by the European Football Federation, local media said on Wednesday.

"It is about small steps toward big dreams," Paraic Crogan, co- founder of the project, was quoted by English-language newspaper the Cambodian Daily as saying.

Khun Sokhrin, 37, coach of the group of homeless, orphaned, or otherwise disadvantaged children said he is not expecting immediate miracles from all the teams under the project.

Coaches from Inter Milan, current Italian football Serie A champions, have also committed to coming to Cambodia to give workshops to the Happy Football players sometime next year, said Sokhrin.

The Happy Football Project is one of a growing number of projects aimed at building a network of football talents in Cambodia, while providing opportunities to disadvantaged children.

Source: Xinhua. Read more!

Russia set to sign WTO accession protocol with Cambodia soon

MOSCOW, July 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia intends to sign documents on its accession to the World Trade Organization with Cambodia in the near future, a government official said Tuesday.

Russia signed a protocol on the conclusion of bilateral talks for its entry into the global trade body with Guatemala on June 26, with Vietnam on July 6, and now has to complete negotiations with Cambodia, and reach agreements with Georgia and Saudi Arabia.

"We have agreed with Cambodia and we'll sign all the documents in coming weeks," said Andrei Kushnirenko, director of the department for trade negotiations at the Russian Ministry for Economic Development and Trade.

Russia, the largest economy outside the 150-member bloc, expects membership to boost market reforms and ensure better transparency, while providing a secure business environment for trade and investment. Membership will also help the country diversify its economy, participate in projects to develop future common trade rules, and safeguard its interests.

Kushnirenko also said a new round of Russia's WTO accession talks with Saudi Arabia would take place in Geneva on July 23. Read more!

Cambodia issues directive limiting activities of Christian groups

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodia's government has issued a directive limiting proselytizing and other activities by Christians, officials said Tuesday.

Christians are not allowed to promote their religion in public places, or use money or other means to persuade people to convert, the directive says. It does not mention other religions.

"They can do any activity inside their institutions, but are not allowed to go door-to-door," said Sun Kim Hun, deputy minister of cult and religion.

He said the directive, dated June 26 but distributed Tuesday, follows similar proclamations in 1999 and 2003 and is a reminder to Christian groups not to conduct activities against the law.

There were fewer than 70,000 Christians and about 170 churches in Cambodia in 2006, according to government figures. More than 90 percent of Cambodia's nearly 14 million people are Buddhist.

Cambodian Buddhists are generally tolerant of other religions. But last year, about 300 Buddhist villagers, apparently angered by a rival faith within their community, razed a partially built Christian church.

The mob chanted "Destroy the church!" and "Long live Buddhism!" as it descended upon the unfinished Protestant church near Phnom Penh.

Also last year, a group of Christian worshippers was caught distributing candy and cakes to young poor people in the countryside and trying to convert them, Sun Kim Hun said. Such activities are illegal under the directive.

Nhean Song, a Cambodian pastor with the Union Church in Phnom Penh, said none of its 300 members has broken the directive, but he knows members of other churches have.

"We will follow the directive, we have no purpose to do anything against the Cambodian government," he said. Read more!