Cambodia's silk industry could face collapse: prince

Prince Pheanuroth warns that a drop in domestic silk farming and threat of declining imports could kill a vital industry trade

CAMBODIA'S silk weaving industry could face colapse, with supplies from Vietnam and China expected to dry up, Prince Sisowath Pheanuroth told the Post last week.

"We want the government and concerned NGOs to help expand the cultivation of mulberry trees and silkworms [in Cambodia] without delay," said Prince Pheanuroth, who coordinates the Phnom Penh-based NGO Cambodian Sector-Wide Silk Project.
Cambodia imports about 700 tonnes of raw silk a year from Vietnam and China, at a cost of US$28,500 per tonne, or $20 million every year - a 10 percent increase over last year, Prince Pheanuroth said.

But with large silk factories in China and Vietnam coming online, local silk producers may be starved out of feedstocks.
About 400 tonnes go to local manufacturers, while the balance gets exported to Thailand, he added.

"The import of large amounts of raw silk is not good because imported silk is poorer in quality than Cambodian silk," Prince Pheanuroth said.

The local industry has become dependent on the low-quality imports, he said.

"Vietnam and China ... have been focusing their silk industry on textile factories," he said.

"When demand increases in those countries, they will no longer be able to satisfy the Cambodian market."
The prince called for greater government involvement to prevent the decline of the silk industry.

"We know that Cambodia cannot compete in the silk sector because [Vietnam and China] have a much greater capacity for silk production. The government must encourage more silk production at home if it hopes to avoid shortages in the future," he said.

The prince said that prior to 1998, Cambodia had about 2,000 silk-producing families.

That number has fallen to 700 today as farmers turn to more easily produced crops or decide to sell their mulberry plantations - the principal source of food for silkworms - to capitalise on rising land prices.

Domestic farmers produced about 50 tonnes of raw silk per year during the 1960s, he said, but the turbulence of the 1970s and the civil war that followed effectively ended the manufacture and trade of silk.

A vital sector
Men Sineoun, executive director of the Cambodian Handicraft Association, said imported silk is vital to the sustainability of the silk sector.

He said the association, which comprises 43 NGOs and some 2,000 members, accounted for about $2.5 million of exports in 2008 to 16 countries in Europe, North America and Asia.
"Ninety-five percent of our finished goods use imported raw silk," he said.

"If there were no imports, we would face difficulties. Cambodia's silk market should be a priority because foreign markets still desire handmade products," he added.

Mao Thora, secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce, said Cambodia needs about 400 tonnes of raw silk per year to sustain the industry and called for greater investment from the private sector.

"Cambodian farmers can only produce about three to five tonnes per year," he said.
Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economic Association, agreed that private investment was important but stressed a greater governmental role in bolstering the sector.

"The government should encourage private companies to invest in this sector ... and encourage farmers through start-up capital, new mulberry plantations and an increase in silk worm farming," he told the Post. Read more!

Landmine hurts Thai soldiers near Preah Vihear

(BangkokPost.com) - Two Thai field soldiers lost their legs on Monday after stepping on a landmine in the lower northeastern province of Si Sa Ket near the Thai-Cambodian border area.

It was the same spot about three kilometres from the 11th century temple of Preah Vihear where soldiers from both sides clashed briefly last Friday.

Landmines in the site were previously dismantled and removed, and it is believed that new landmines could be activated in the area, according to a bomb rescue unit stationed in Si Sa Ket. One of the rangers lost a leg while the other lost both of them, he said.

After the explosion, more Cambodian troops were deployed to the border area.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, said he had talks with the Cambodian counterpart and everything is going well. However, he avoided talking about the details of their discussions.

Gen Chavalit said he and Prime Minister and Defence Minister Somchai Wongsawat will travel to Cambodia on October 13 to work out the Preah Vihear case.

“Thailand and Cambodia are neighbouring countries with close relations. There could be some minor issues, but they can be solved,” Gen Chavalit believed. Read more!

CAMBODIA: Coastal development threatens livelihoods

SIHANOUKVILLE, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - The beach looks idyllic with its white sand and seagulls but soon it will be populated with high-end resorts. Sophal, who requested his family name not be revealed, does not know what will happen to his home once the evictions begin.

“This entire area will be cleared out,” he said. “I don't know when, or why. They [the government] don't tell us anything. Just that a big buyer came and bought it.”

“Some powerful people in the government are taking all the land ... and soon we'll have nothing left,” he said.

Those 192 hectares of land were allegedly ceded to high ranking military officer Sar Soeung, who uses the space as private property, a report by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission revealed.

According to Cambodian officials, Sihanoukville, one of Southeast Asia's popular backpacker resorts, is poised to become the region's next big tourist destination.

To expedite the process, the government regularly hands land concessions to government-tied elites at the expense of poor residents, claims Cambodian human rights watchdog Adhoc.

“These concessions and evictions are mostly a problem of corruption,” Cherp Sotheary, Sihanoukville coordinator for Adhoc, told IRIN. “Most of the private investors who got concessions are affiliated with the ruling party, coming in the form of joint ventures with foreign companies.”

The Sihanoukville governor's office was not available for comment.

Rabbit run

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) announced on 13 September it had granted permission to the Cambodian Pol Cham Group to develop a five-star resort and golf course on Koh Tunsay, or Rabbit Island, reported the Cambodian English daily, the Phnom Penh Post.

But that project will require the eviction of 14 families, who claim they were compensated only US$900 when they demanded $20,000.

“In Sihanoukville, the fishermen and their communities depend on the environment to earn their living, usually by farming vegetables,” Sotheary told IRIN. “When the investments come, they clear the land and locals lose their income.”

Other islands have been ceded to British, French, Chinese and Russian investors, but residents claim the government did not inform or consult them about the purchases.

Sihanoukville governor Say Hak, however, guaranteed residents the right to stay with legal documentation under Cambodia's 2001 land law. The central Cambodian government also declared the coast and islands public property that could not be developed.

According to a 2008 report by Yash Ghai, the UN Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia, land laws are “regularly” violated “with impunity by influential individuals, companies and government entities”.
Read more!

Boat Journey to Battambang

Yet another early morning, the 5th in a row. Tonight I must sleep in!

by the way, I've really loved reading your comments. I'm not responding on this site, as it takes long enough as is, but have responded to those that asked questions by email. Keep 'em coming! If there is anything you are missing in my commentaries, please let me know (am trying to talk more about food now)

Maybe I left Angkor too early, but it is done. I took a traditional, wooden longboat on Lake Ton Sap and the Sangker River to Battambang. It was a traditional longboat, but had a motor and no toilet for the 7 hour journey! Luckily we stopped at a lunch shack on the way.

There were two levels to this boat, full sun on the top deck or shade at the water level for wimps like me. So my pictures aren't great, but this journey was similar to a boat trip I did on Inle Lake in Myanmar with houses on stilts, people in boats, and green floaty plants, so I was laid back today with the camera, which is good since it takes ages to load pictures here!

Best part is when the locals needed to board. Relatives or friends would paddle or motor them up to our boat and transfer boxes, bags, and babies as well as the other passagers to and fro. One of the other westerners commented on the children and how well behaved they were for a 7 hour boat journey.

If I ever get my pics up, there are some of a village. An old lady behind me told me to take pictures of it. Not sure which one it was. We had communicated earlier when I stopped her from sitting in some liquid.

So now I am in Battambang for the next days. Have a recommendation here for a motor driver from Albrecht's girlfriend (ex boss). He wasn't here when I arrived, but hope to talk to him tomorrow. Also want to do a cooking course at the restaurant I'm going to eat dinner in right now called the smoking pot (not sure if it has something to do with Pol Pot or not). I want to learn how to make that Amok Curry!
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Cambodia's higher education dreams confront reality

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — She has two years to go until graduation, but already Cambodian student Chhum Savorn is filled with a sense of dread.

The 21-year-old decided to major in finance, hoping she would acquire skills to help develop her country, which is one of the poorest in the world.

Instead, she thinks her education is nearly worthless -- classes are mostly packed with indifferent, cheating students and led by under-qualified professors.

"The low quality of my studies means that I can't help the country, and I'll even have a hard time getting a job that pays enough to help my family," she says.

A growing number of eager young Cambodians are finding themselves duped into a higher education system that suffers from weak management and teaching because it is geared more toward profit than learning.

As a result only one in ten recent graduates are finding work, a worrying figure in a country trying to rebuild after decades of civil war.

Cambodia's schools were obliterated under Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s when the regime killed nearly two million people -- including most of the country's intellectuals -- as it emptied cities in its bid to forge a Communist utopia.

But as the country rebuilds and the economy grows, it is inundated with institutions peddling low-quality education.

In 2000, there were ten post-secondary institutions in Cambodia. Now there are 70 private and state-run universities.

Most programs offered by those institutions are dismal, says Mak Ngoy, deputy director general of higher education at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.

"We are not yet satisfied with the current quality of our education," Mak Ngoy says.

"I think increasing the number of higher education institutions is a positive sign, but we are struggling with the hard task of strengthening quality," he adds.

Qualified university professors complain that many students rarely do their work and cheating is rampant.

A number of students are content to pay for a degree and do not realise the benefit of a good education, says Lav Chhiv Eav, rector of Royal University of Phnom Penh, the oldest and largest state-owned college.

"Some students are scared of studying hard and think what they need is any degree, not quality. The final result will be joblessness," he says.

Most of Cambodia's universities are small-scale institutions with limited of capital, poor facilities and little discipline.

So far, the education ministry has ordered the closing of four institutions that called themselves universities, but gave little education to students.

Five years ago there was an attempt to fix Cambodia's higher education institutions, with the formation of a national university accreditation committee.

The committee was formed to force institutions to adhere to strict education requirements, but the World Bank pulled its funding for the scheme when it became clear the body would not be independent from government control.

With little official oversight, the quality of many Cambodian universities has worsened, while the number of Cambodians seeking a diploma has shot up.

More than 135,000 Cambodians are currently enrolled in some form of higher education, says the education ministry, compared to just 25,000 eight years ago.

But only one in 10 recent university graduates have found work, according to the Economic Institute of Cambodia, as the country remains mired in poverty despite the double-digit economic growth.

Ma Sopheap, officer at the Asian Development Bank, says Cambodia will have trouble luring foreign investment if it does not start producing more qualified graduates.

"If the low quality of higher education continues, it will affect Cambodia's economic development," he says. "Then there is no way to reduce poverty."
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Cambodian and Thai commanders meet at site of border skirmish

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (AFP) — Cambodian and Thai commanders met at their tense disputed border area Saturday amid accusations that each side had caused a border skirmish that left three soldiers injured.

One Cambodian soldier and two Thai troops were wounded when units exchanged gun and rocket fire during a brief clash Friday near an ancient temple in the area.

In an attempt to cool tensions Srey Dek, commander of Cambodian forces in the area, met with his Thai counterpart, Colonel Chayan Huaysoongnern, on Saturday afternoon at a Buddhist pagoda in the disputed territory, said the Cambodian cabinet spokesman.

"The two sides called for the situation to return to normalcy," Cambodian cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan told AFP.

The foreign ministries of both countries issued formal letters on Saturday accusing the other's troops of trespassing and firing first in Friday's skirmish.

Cambodia's letter to the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh warned that "armed provocation by Thai soldiers could lead to very grave consequences, including full-scale armed hostility".

Later Saturday the Thai foreign ministry responded with its own letter, given to a Cambodian diplomat.

"Thailand protested on two points -- that Cambodian soldiers trespassed into Thai territory and that Cambodian soldiers opened fire first," a foreign ministry official said.

The clash came amid attempts to make progress in talks to resolve the decades-long border dispute.

The dispute flared in July after the Khmer temple of Preah Vihear was awarded world heritage status by the UN cultural body UNESCO, angering nationalists in Thailand who still claim ownership of the site.

That spilled into a military standoff, in which up to 1,000 Cambodian and Thai troops faced off for six weeks.

Both sides agreed to pull back in mid-August, leaving just a few dozen soldiers stationed near the temple, but the neighbours have continued to trade accusations of violating each other's sovereignty.

Phay Siphan said Thai prime minister Somchai Wongsawat was still expected to visit the Cambodian capital later this month to speak with Cambodian premier Hun Sen about the simmering border dispute.

"The talks between the Cambodian and Thai prime ministers on October 13 in Phnom Penh will take place as planned," he said.

During an inspection of the skirmish site Saturday, Cambodian deputy commander General Chea Dara said Thai troops had intruded more than a kilometre (0.6 miles) into Cambodia.

"Our troops are patient but they must protect themselves too," Dara told reporters.

Thai troops appeared to be keeping their distance from their Cambodian counterparts on Saturday but a Cambodian officer said the Thais had dug a fresh trench on disputed land.

"Digging a trench breaches an earlier agreement between Cambodia and Thailand," said Major Meas Yoeurn. Read more!

Protecting Cambodia's Treasures

The United States government and the government of Cambodia have agreed to extend their Memorandum of Understanding "Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological Material from Cambodia from the Bronze Age through the Khmer Era."

This extension, consistent with a recommendation made by the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, represents a continuation of cooperation that began in 1999. Emergency U.S. import restrictions were then implemented to help reduce the pillage of Cambodia's archaeological heritage and the illicit trafficking in such material.

This U.S. action is in response to a request made by the government of Cambodia under Article 9 of the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Cambodia is the first country in East Asia to receive the cooperation of the United States in protecting its cultural property in this manner.

The extended Memorandum of Understanding expands the scope of the original to include archaeological objects from the Bronze and Iron Ages. It specifically restricts the import into the United States of ancient Cambodian stone, metal, and ceramic archaeological material unless an export permit is issued by Cambodia or there is verifiable documentation that the objects left Cambodia prior to the effective date of the restriction.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has published a list of restricted categories of objects, amending it to include material representing the Bronze and Iron Ages. The restricted objects may enter the United States only if accompanied by an export permit issued by Cambodia or documentation verifying its provenance prior to 1999 and if no other applicable U.S. laws are violated.

The United States is also helping Cambodia protect its cultural treasures through financial grants provided by the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Cultural Heritage Center has recommended an award in excess of $957,000 to the World Monuments Fund for the conservation of the 10th century Phnom Bakheng Temple in Cambodia.

The United States is committed to working with Cambodia to preserve its rich and ancient cultural heritage.

Read more!

Charmed by the steps of the ancients in Cambodia

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge did their best to wipe it out. But Cambodia's historic dance is making a recovery of sorts

By Rob Crossan

Boramey Chhaychan is 23. She has been dancing since she was nine, and learning apsara – the ancient and almost extinct dance of Cambodia – for the past six years . "It takes a huge amount of concentration to be the best," she tells me as she smoothes down the tiny creases in her makot – the silk gown into which she is sown before each performance, in order to achieve the requisite figure-embracing fit.

"The body has to be soft and flexible at the same time, your fingers have to be soft, too. There's also so much bending involved if you are the lead dancer that you absolutely can't be fat either," says Boramey. The list of requirements goes on. The apsara dancer should have, according to instruction manuals, "a round body like the body of a red ant" and "the eyes must be oval and sharp with folds in the eyelids".

Assuming that their eyelids are blessed with the requisite folds, the apsara dancer can then take to the stage, accompanied by instruments including the kong thom, a horseshoe-shaped semi-circle of metal chimes resting on wood that the player sits in the middle of, taut drum skins called rumana and a fish-skeleton-shaped xylophone called roneat thung.

Tonight, after days of sporadic power cuts, electricity miraculously returns to light up the stage as Boramey begins to perform the ancient dance of the perfect celestial female beings of the Khmer kingdom. Her hips roll in slow motion, fingers rise coquettishly to the hips and lips, long thin fingers are outstretched, beckoning and then recoiling. But only the tiniest glimmer of coy sexuality is ever hinted at. The falsetto choir of voices of the dozen singers to the side of the stage wails as the drum, slow and steady as a heartbeat, begins to flutter and float. Boramey kneels on the floor, seemingly as brittle as a falling leaf, before rising like an uncoiling snake. Her bare soles and heels are just as expressive as the hands and arms; every limb creates a flowing narrative of shapes.

Boramey ends by joining both thumbs together in the centre of the chest – an expression that is circumspect, meditative and motionless.

This extraordinary dance dates back to the 12th century. Yet in the late 20th century Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge almost succeeded in wiping it out for ever.

Even now, it only just survives: "The locals don't really seem to care about apsara," laments Vang Metry, of the Apsara Arts Association. "We only really get visitors from overseas who come to see our students perform. I give away free tickets sometimes but still almost nobody from round here shows up. They'd rather go and see rock'n'roll, I guess."

The Apsara Arts Association, set up 10 years ago, is a remarkable creation. It is located in the district of Thmey in the west of chaotic Phnom Penh. The theatre is built on concrete stilts beneath a thatched roof. The sides of the theatre are exposed to the huge lotus plants that rest on the waters of the Pong Peay. This is a stagnant expanse that carries the weight of much of the neighbourhood's sewage; to Westerners, the first word of the area's name is spot on.

The 130 students at the apsara school range in age from four to 23. A significant number are orphans. Accommodation is provided for them within the school; they practise dance in the morning and study in the afternoon. It's not just the allure of rock'n'roll that is preventing any chance of apsara regaining ground in the popular consciousness. Fire destroyed the National Theatre in 1994. And the University of Fine Arts, where apsara and other traditional dances are taught, was sold off to a property developer last year. The faculty was moved far out of Phnom Penh on a dirt road that is regularly washed away in wet season, a move which has had dire consequences for student numbers.

An additional problem is that to be a lead apsara dancer you must be unmarried and a virgin. When one of the country's best new prospects performed in front of the tourism minister for Cambodia in 2000, he decided to marry her.

"He stole her from us!" claims Metry. Now divorced, Ouk Phalla still dances. But, due to the law of the apsara, can no longer play the lead in ancient stories such as The Churning of the Ocean Milk, which tells how apsara girls were created through a symbolic Brahmanist scripture.

According to myth, the apsara dancers performed in the sky. Their curvaceous figures grace the bas-reliefs of the Angkor Wat temples. The iconic towers of this ancient complex comprise Cambodia's most popular tourist attraction. Angkor Wat was once home to thousands of apsara dancers, who performed for Cambodia's kings during the 12th century, a time when the kingdom covered vast areas of what today is Thailand and Vietnam.

The dancers on the walls of the temples are naked, though dancers today are adorned in silk chorabab skirts and five-pointed crowns with red frangipani flowers sown on to the side with cotton thread to create the effect of a falling stem.

Performances continued in the dancing pavilion of the Royal Palace for moonlight shows until the Khmer Rouge seized power in the mid-Seventies. Pol Pot's murderous thugs began to exterminate anyone who they believed stood in the way of achieving a peasant agrarian utopia. That included the practitioners of apsara.

Anybody with any hint of intellectual merit was slaughtered by order of "Brother Number One", as Pol Pot was known. Judgments were made on terms as spurious as whether a person wore glasses. Veng was a dance instructor who was forced to leave Phnom Penh and work in the fields.
"I had to hide my CV," Veng tells me. "The Khmer Rouge asked me what my job was and I lied and told them I was a farmer. It was only by going into the fields and observing what people did that I didn't get killed. I watched the farming methods that everyone else was using and simply copied whatever they did. Somehow they never noticed that I wasn't a farmer and I avoided death."

After the regime was finally defeated by an invading Vietnamese army, apsara was considered a low priority when it came to rebuilding this most disturbed and abused of societies. It was only in 1995 that the first revived performance was staged, guided by Princess Boppha Devl, a dancer with the royal troupe in the Sixties. She studied the bas-reliefs at Angkor Wat to re-learn the 1,500 positions that masters of the dance must know.

As the light darkens and a post-show dance class ends with the students giggling as they try to maintain their difficult stances, Vang laments the problems of keeping apsara alive.

"It's not getting any easier. We have power cuts almost every day in this part of the city. The government doesn't support us in any way," she says. "We rely entirely on funding from foreign donors.

Culture is not a high priority for the government, which is a shame as this is such an important part of Cambodian history. A lot of the students here are now dancing in the tourist restaurants near Angkor Wat. I would love there to be a day when visitors would mention apsara before they mention Pol Pot. If this is lost, then a part of Cambodia is lost forever."

Traveller's Guide

Getting there

There are no direct flights between the UK and Cambodia. From Heathrow, Thai Airways (0870 606 0911; www.thaiairways.co.uk) flies to Phnom Penh via Bangkok, Malaysia Airlines (0870 607 9090; www.malaysiaairlines.com) flies via Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Airlines (084 4800 2380; www.singaporeair.co.uk) via Singapore.

The writer travelled with Audley Travel (01993 838000; www.audleytravel.com), which offers tailor-made trips to Cambodia reflecting themes including apsara. A 10-day itinerary visiting Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville costs from £2,045 per person, including return flights from Heathrow, transfers, tours and B&B.

You can buy an offset through Abta's Reduce my Footprint initiative (020-7637 2444; www.reducemyfootprint.travel).

Staying there

Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh (00 855 23 981 888; www.phnompenh.raffles.com). Doubles start at US$255 (£146), room only.

Visiting there

Apsara Arts Association, 71 Street 598, Phnom Penh (00 855 12 979 335; www.apsara-art.org). Perfomances take place most Saturdays at 6.30pm.

More information

British passport-holders require a visa. These can be obtained on arrival at Phnom Penh and Siem Riep airports or online at www.mfaic.gov.kh; $20 (£11.40).

www.tourismcambodia.com;00 855 23 216 666

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Five former KRouge claim innocence in trial for killing Briton

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Five former Khmer Rouge fighters told a Cambodian court Friday they were innocent of the 1996 kidnapping and killing of a British mine clearer and his translator.

The former guerrillas appeared in blue prison uniforms at Phnom Penh Municipal Court to answer charges of premeditated murder and illegal confinement, and could face life in prison if convicted.

They stand accused of shooting Christopher Howes and translator Huon Huot a few days after seizing the pair and other members of their mine clearance team near the famed Angkor Wat temples in northwest Cambodia.

All five suspects -- Khem Ngun, Puth Lim, Sin Dorn, Loch Mao, and Cheap Chet -- were arrested over the past year, nearly a decade after a joint investigation into the incident by British and Cambodian police.

Khem Ngun, who served under notorious Khmer Rouge commander Ta Mok, was allegedly the one who ordered the fighters under his control to shoot Howes and Huon Huot.

But Khem Ngun claimed the order to kill the prisoners came from deceased Khmer Rouge commander Khem Tem and was carried out by a soldier named Rin.

"Another Khmer Rouge soldier close to Ta Mok ordered the shooting of Howes in the head, and then I turned my face away and felt shock," Khem Ngun told the court.

Khem Ngun was serving as a major general in the Cambodian military when he was arrested in November last year. The other suspects had become civil servants.

At the time of the killings, the communist Khmer Rouge were battling government troops in the final years of Cambodia's drawn-out civil war.

Howes, 37, refused a chance to leave his kidnapped team of 20 mine clearers from the Britain-based Mines Advisory Group to retrieve a ransom.

While the rest of the team was eventually released, Howes and Huon Huot were taken deeper into rebel-held territory and killed.

Their remains were found in 1998, the same year Cambodia's civil war ended when the Khmer Rouge movement disintegrated.

The verdict would be announced October 14, said presiding judge Iu Kim Sri.

Cambodia is littered with millions of land mines and other unexploded ordnance from nearly three decades of conflict.
Read more!

Cambodian, Thai troops said hurt in border clash

Thai black clad soldiers is in a full force invading Cambodia at Preah Vihea Temple. The Notorious criminals are always trying to kill Cambodian citizens.

By SOPHENG CHEANG

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Soldiers from both Cambodia and Thailand were wounded Friday in a brief clash along their volatile border, officials from the two countries said.

Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said a Cambodian soldier was slightly wounded when Thai troops fired a grenade from their territory. He said Cambodian troops returned fire, with the "military incident" lasting less than a minute.

Thai officials initially denied knowledge of the incident, but a Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman later said Cambodian troops had encroached on Thai territory and had been the first to fire, wounding two Thai troops.

Tensions along the normally peaceful border between Cambodia and Thailand flared on July 15 after UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, approved Cambodia's application to have a disputed 11th century temple named a World Heritage Site. Friday's clash took place about two miles west of the temple, Preah Vihear.

A spokesman for Cambodia's Cabinet, Phay Siphan, said the incident began after Cambodian troops intercepted a trespassing Thai patrol. He said the Thai troops retreated in response to a warning from the Cambodians, but then fired the grenade.

Cambodian troops returned fire with AK-47 assault rifles, with the exchange of fire lasting three to five minutes, he said.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said Friday evening that the Thai troops had been patrolling in their own territory when they encountered the Cambodian soldiers.

"The Cambodian troops shot at the Thai troops first, wounding two soldiers. One Cambodian soldier was also wounded after the Thais responded," he said.

Lt. Gen. Wiboonsak Ngeepan, the regional army commander for northeastern Thailand, said it was unclear if the Cambodians intruded intentionally or had strayed into Thailand because "the area is dense forest."

Both countries have long claimed Preah Vihear, but the World Court awarded it to Cambodia in 1962.

After UNESCO approved the temple's listing as a World Heritage Site, Thailand sent troops to occupy the nearby Keo Sikha Kiri Svara pagoda, also claimed by Cambodia.

Cambodia responded with its own troop deployment. The two sides came close to a shootout on July 17 when Cambodian monks sought to celebrate Buddhist lent in the pagoda.

Troops on both sides raised their weapons, but no shots were fired, and the Cambodians eventually backed down.

Since then there has been a limited troop withdrawal from the area, and talks have been held several times on resolving the conflicting claims, but without much progress.

Before Friday's clash was reported, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh told reporters that he and Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat would travel to Cambodia on Oct. 13 to discuss the border issue with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

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Pol Pot ordered murder of British mine-clearer, court told

Trial hears Khmer Rouge leader had blanket policy to murder foreigners on grounds they supported the government

British mine-clearing expert who was murdered in Cambodia and his remains burned to hide the evidence was killed on the orders of the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, a court heard today.

The trial of five former Khmer Rouge cadres accused of the kidnap and murder of Christopher Howes, 37, more than 12 years ago, heard that the communist leader had a blanket policy to murder foreigners on the grounds that they supported the Cambodian government.

Howes was shot within days of his capture while leading a mine-clearance team north of Siem Reap - home to the Angkor Wat temple complex - after his abductors lulled him into a false sense of security by laying out a sleeping mattress for the night and giving him fruit.

His interpreter, Huon Houth, who was among the 30-strong team from British-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), was murdered a day earlier when his captors deemed him "no longer necessary" because one of the alleged killers spoke English.

The disappearance of the former British army engineer from Backwell, near Bristol, and Hourth remained a mystery for more than two years as Cambodia's civil war ground on in its death throes.

Investigations by a Scotland Yard team working with the Cambodian police eventually unravelled Howes' fate, declaring he was murdered after forensic tests on bone fragments found in a fire.

The evidence collected from witness statements in the two years after Howes' disappearance was presented at the Phnom Penh court today by former Metropolitan police anti-terrorism officer, Mike Dickson, now an advisor to the UN-backed Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal.

The men in the dock had lived freely in the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng until their arrest a year ago despite suspicions of their involvement in the killings. A deal to end the civil war in 1998 pardoned many Khmer Rouge cadres.

One of the accused, Khem Ngoun, 59, the former chief-of-staff of the one-legged Khmer Rouge army commander, Ta Mok, was a brigadier-general in the Cambodian army until his arrest.

Along with the others, Loch Mao, 54, a Khmer Rouge officer who became a civil servant, Cheath Chet, 34, Puth Lim, 58, and Sin Dorn, 52, the frail Ngoun faces life imprisonment for murder and illegal detention when the investigating judge, Iv Kimsry, delivers his verdict in 10 days' time.

In a marathon session the court heard today of the chilling last days of Howes and Hourth after their abduction on March 26 1996. Some of the de-mining team escaped almost immediately while all the others were released after Howes declined to abandon his staff to fetch ransom money.

Howes and Hourth were taken towards Anlong Veng. But in an interview with the British detectives, Khieu Sampan, the Khmer Rouge's nominal head of state, said that Hourth was killed in Kul village after Ngoun said the interpreter was unnecessary.

Howes was held in a school where Ngoun interrogated him, before he was taken out into the countryside to a road near the house of Mok, who passed the order to "solve the problem" and kill him.

Howes was taken in a white Toyota pickup truck driven by Lim, accompanied by four guards including Ngoun, Mao, and two others, Khem Tem and Soeun Rim, who subsequently died. In a statement to police before his death, Rim said Mao killed Howes with two bullets from an AK-59 rifle provided by Ngoun.

Both Ngoun and Mao changed earlier statements they made and maintained only Rim, who died in 2004, fired the fatal shots. Mao is adamant his weapon jammed and he could not fire.

All the accused argued they acted on orders of the Khmer Rouge's brutal "brother number one" and that failure to do so would have meant certain death.

But Lou McGrath, MAG chief executive who was present at the hearing, dismissed the defence.

"It's good to see this trial," he said. "But I think the defence that if you don't kill others you will be killed yourself is what leads to genocide. It's no excuse and I hope the judge decides that they will feel the full weight of the law."
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Gulf States' Aid for Cambodia's Cham Muslims Raises U.S. Concerns

Geoffrey Cain
World Politics Review

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- U.S. policymakers have raised security concerns about radical Islamic charities in Cambodia after delegations from Kuwait and Qatar promised $700 million in soft loans and investment for the country's embattled infrastructure. In an August speech, U.S. ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said militant groups are vying for influence over the country's Cham Muslims, and that Gulf states should "be careful" where the money goes.

Gulf delegates dismissed U.S. worries, claiming their interests in Cambodia -- garnering food security by investing in Cambodia's unused rice fields -- are economic, not cultural. But with $5 million of the loans earmarked to build Muslim institutions, the cultural element is certainly there. Pakistani ambassador to Cambodia Mohammad Younis Khan responded to the concerns over the funding by telling the Phnom Penh Post that Gulf states "simply like to help their Muslim brothers."

The loans are the latest demonstration of Middle East-Cambodia ties that began in 1991, when Cambodia's government was established by the Paris peace accords after years of civil war. At the time, Cham Muslims -- nearly wiped out by the Maoist Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979 -- had little left in the way of religious and moral authority. Islamic charities, some affiliated with militant Saudi Wahhabism, moved in to fill the void, constructing hundreds of religious schools.

The U.S., meanwhile, set its counterterrorism sights on Cambodia in 2003, after Muslim insurgents from southern Thailand allegedly tried to bomb three embassies in Phnom Penh and authorities made arrests at a Cham school where Riduan Isamuddin (a.k.a. Hambali), the mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings, was offered refuge. The ongoing insurgency in southern Thailand is also a source of concern, with some U.S. authorities fearing that Cambodian Chams might send students to the Thai south, as well as to Pakistan, for indoctrination and training.

But many scholars argue that the southern Thai conflict, like most Islamic insurgencies in Southeast Asia, is a local conflict, hardly a front in the global "war on terror" in which the U.S. need take serious interest. Cham scholar Agnes de Feo also argues that, unlike their Thai counterparts, Chams have shown little inclination to violence because they have no claim to an independent state against Cambodia. And they're unlikely to embrace a militant movement now that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has warmed up to Cham practices in recent years, calling for a Muslim prayer room at Phnom Penh's airport and offering significant radio airtime to Cham leaders.

Rather, the main threat in Cambodia, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller, is that its weak law enforcement and security capabilities allow extremists to use the country as a transit point for their operations. But Mueller's opinion, expressed at the January 2008 opening of the FBI office in Phnom Penh, doesn't quite match Mussomeli's repeated expressions of U.S. concern over Cham radicals under the influence of Islamic charities inside Cambodia.

Some analysts think the sudden surge of American interest in Cambodia could be a result of the growing influence of China, which eyes untapped markets in Southeast Asia and Africa to satisfy its thirst for resources. China has offered Cambodia more than $600 million in annual aid since 2005, topping all Western donors combined. On top of that, Chinese aid rarely comes with demands for democratic reform like that of Western counterparts, making it favorable for Hun Sen's scandal-ridden government. Cambodia has in return awarded Chinese companies billions of dollars in contracts to build dams that will power the Cambodian countryside, which, according to the World Bank, faces the highest energy costs in the world.

At a meeting last week in Washington between U.S. and ASEAN leaders (see Prashanth Parameswaran's WPR piece), Cambodian Foreign Minister Norodom Sirivudh summed up his view that Southeast Asia should not have to decide between the U.S. and China. With a growing U.S. security presence in the region, and Chinese aid flowing into Cambodia at an unprecedented level, the Chams could simply be a pretext for galvanizing U.S. influence in the Asian country.

Geoffrey Cain is a Phnom Penh-based contributor to the Far Eastern Economic Review and Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a U.N.-run news wire service. Read more!

PM calls for Cambodian workers in Thailand to return home

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has appealed to Cambodian workers in Thailand to return home, saying that labor markets in Cambodia are eager for workers and that wages have gone up significantly, national media reported Thursday.

"Wages in Cambodia are currently higher than in Thailand," Hun Sen was quoted as saying in the Phnom Penh Post.

"If they work (here), they will not be looked down on by (Thai) employers or have to work illegally," he said.

"The government will improve working conditions in Cambodia and strengthen labor laws and stability as well as guarantee investment opportunities," he added.

Some 18,300 Cambodians work in Thailand, and between 100 and 150 workers enter Thailand daily for short-term employment, according to the Ministry of Labor.

Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labor, said most workers who entered into Thailand illegally are being cheated by employment recruiters and are taking unnecessary risks by not having proper work documents.

Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand are working in the construction, agricultural and fisheries sectors, according to the Chiang Mai-based Migrant Assistance Project.
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Cambodia's genocide trial delayed until next year

By KER MUNTHIT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The start of the first trial at Cambodia's genocide tribunal is likely to be delayed until early next year because more time is needed to deal with an appeal for more charges against a Khmer Rouge defendant, officials said Thursday.

The news is likely to fuel further frustration among many Cambodians, who have been waiting for justice for nearly three decades after the Khmer Rouge held power in the late 1970s.

The communist group implemented radical policies considered responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

The U.N.-assisted tribunal is attempting to establish accountability for the atrocities committed in 1975-1979, and the first trial had been expected to start last month.

The latest delay was caused by an appeal by prosecutors to have additional charges lodged against Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who headed the former S-21 prison, the Khmer Rouge's largest torture facility.

"The chance to have a trial for Duch could be in 2009, early next year," said Reach Sambath, a tribunal spokesman, but he was also unable to give a specific date.

The tribunal's pretrial chamber set Dec. 5 for a ruling on the prosecutors' appeal, said Helen Jarvis, the tribunal's public affairs chief.

"So there won't be anything before that," she said, also declining to be specific when asked about a possible starting date for a trial. She had previously said the trial for Duch was to open in September.

Youk Chhang — director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent group researching Khmer Rouge crimes — was not happy with the delay.

"What a shame. They surely can prolong the trials but not the lives of the defendants, including Duch," he said. "The hopes of the victims remain scattered at this moment."

The 65-year-old Duch is the youngest of the five Khmer Rouge who have been indicted, and all have health problems.

In August, the investigating judges concluded their yearlong investigation into Duch's case, ordering the defendant to stand trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

But afterward the prosecutors objected, saying the charges were insufficient as they might prevent a full accounting for Duch's criminal responsibility during his tenure at the prison.

They said they wanted Duch additionally charged with homicide and torture — crimes under Cambodian national law — and also with joint criminal enterprise for actions that occurred inside S-21 prison.

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Cambodia wins support for oil, not rights

After Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte's recent visit to Cambodia, he told the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong: As Cambodia "works to strengthen democracy, improve public health, and increase respect for human rights, Cambodia can count on our support."

While in Cambodia, Negroponte announced the U.S. initial contribution of $1.8 million to fund the Khmer Rouge tribunal. He viewed the decline in violence in Cambodia's four national elections since 1993 as a "very positive development."

A day after his speech, the Voice of America reported State Department spokesman Sean McCormack' remarks: "We believe that the court (KR tribunal) is now capable of meeting international standards of justice, and ... the court has the capacity to respond effectively and appropriately" to allegations of corruption.

Two days before Negroponte's Hong Kong speech, the United Nations Human Rights Council, which held its 9th session in Geneva, reviewed on Sept. 15 the "Mandate of Special Representative of the (United Nations) Secretary-General on Human Rights Situation in Cambodia." Special Representative Yash Ghai wasn't present, but his written statement was read by Sima Samar, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan.

In my Sept. 17 column, "Human rights, development should be balanced," I wrote that U.N. Special Representative Ghai observed the "scant respect for the rule of law," shown by state authorities and those "well connected" with the regime, and that Cambodia's courts and the legal profession "have failed the people of Cambodia woefully." I noted Premier Sen's government wanted Ghai fired, and failing that, declined all cooperation with Ghai, and menaced to close down the human rights office in Cambodia.

In Ghai's statement, Ghai canceled his trip to Cambodia to review the human rights situation and to consult on the future of the mandate of the Special Representative in Cambodia.

The statement spoke of Ghai's warning in his last report, "there had been serious deficiencies in the general elections in July this year. Little progress had been made in other areas where human rights continued to be violated. Allegations of further irregularities in the management of the extraordinary chambers continued to undermine the good work of the prosecutors and judges."

Ghai's "reports, advice and recommendations over the past year" produced no "change for the better," and this "state of affairs might raise a question as to whether there was any point in the extension of the mandate" of the Special Representative.

Yet, Ghai urged the Council to extend the mandate, and "it would be very important" that his successor "should have the full support of the Council, the United Nations family and the international community," which in his statement Ghai said he could not claim to have received.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had not come to Ghai's defense, the statement charged. Thus, as read by Samar, Ghai "had tendered his resignation from the position of Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights in Cambodia."

On the same day, Sept. 17, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, called on the Human Rights Council to extend the mandate, and observed, "The systematic lack of protection of human rights in Cambodia is a consequence of impunity, the absence of the rule of law and the seriously stunted legal and judicial reform. The government -- through inaction -- continues to demonstrate its unwillingness to seriously address human rights."

Amnesty and HRW remind it was the 1991 Paris Peace Accords signed by the U.N. and 19 member states that recommended the Special Representative to protect and promote human rights. They say, "While Cambodia has experienced significant economic growth during the past 15 years, the government has rejected a rights-based approach to development. As stipulated in the Paris Peace Accords, economic development must go hand in hand with respect for human rights."

On the same page?
Can it be that the Cambodia described by Negoponte and the Cambodia described by Ghai and rights groups, are the same country? Opposition leader Sam Rainsy sees Ghai's departure as a loss to victims of human rights violations. Khieu Kanharith, the Cambodian Minister of Information, charges, "The accusation made by Mr. Yash Ghai is only aimed at creating animosity ... and this shows his despicable attitude and manner are unfit for the high role given to him by the UN."

I lamented the disconnect between governments preaching human rights and freedom and their actual support for authoritarian rules that suppress them. On Sept. 17, the VOA broadcast that Sen said he was "satisfied" with Ghai's resignation: "I have no need to curse him anymore."

Perhaps, here's something to reflect on: Are China, the U.S. and other countries drawn to supporting the Hun Sen government, which controls Cambodia's potential oil fields in the Gulf of Thailand and onshore deposits of minerals? Will oil bring wealth for the poor people, 35 percent of whom live on less than 50 cents a day, or a curse, if the 2007 95-page "Global Witness Cambodia's Family Trees," the Transparency International survey on global corruption, among others, are guides?

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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Cambodia: Cashew market crumbling

The dearth of domestic cashew processing plants means many farmers are abandoning the nut and growing more profitable crops: rubber and cassava. Faced with a stagnant market for local cashews, farmers of the high-end nut are switching to other crops, according to local agriculture experts. Without domestic processing plants to purchase cashews, farmers are forced to sell to the nearest buyer, Vietnam, which is one of the world's biggest cashew processors and exporters, according to Yang Saing Koma, president of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture.

Cashews in Cambodia are harvested mainly in the provinces of Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom and Ratanakkiri, which are near Vietnam. "Currently, the cashew nut market in Cambodia is very small, and what we export to Vietnam is just raw product so Cambodian farmers get a bad price," said Yang Saing Koma.

Vietnam imported about 150,000 tonnes of cashews from Cambodia and South Africa in the first half of 2008. The country has exported about US$850 million worth of cashews this year, according to a Vietnamese news report. Yang Saing Koma said that in Cambodia the industry would continue to decline unless local processing infrastructure was developed to provide Cambodian farmers a deeper pool of buyers.

Cambodia's only cashew processing plant, the now- defunct CAMAG in Kampong Cham, used to purchase a minuscule 150 tonnes per year, according to Tim Purcell, an agriculture specialist based in Phnom Penh with the NGO Agriculture Development International. A June 2007 report from the Economic Institute forecasted a decline in the domestic cashew industry.

The agency warned that by exporting 95 percent of its raw product to Vietnam, Cambodia was forgoing too much of the value-added chain for its cashew industry to remain profitable. According to the EIC report, the main barrier to investment in processing plants in Cambodia is staggering energy costs, which remain significantly higher than in Thailand and Vietnam. Farmers who once dedicated their fields to cashews are now growing rubber and cassava.

"Cashew nuts are only exported to Vietnam, there's really no local market. But with cassava and rubber, they are purchased by local companies at competitive prices," said Suon Dy, head of the Department of Industry, Mines and Energy in Kampong Cham. He said that at current market prices, one hectare of cashews yields around US$1,000 worth of product per year, compared with nearly $2,500 for rubber and cassava.

Global demand for rubber and cassava has climbed in recent years.
Cassava is used to produce ethanol, one of the main alternative fuels promoted by the global campaign against climate change. Natural rubber has also been increasingly prized, by China especially, following dramatic hikes in the price of oil, as it is used to make its synthetic alternative. Local processing conditions also favour the prospects for both crops: Cambodia processes about half the cassava it grows, and by law refines all of its locally harvested rubber.

Meas Sothearvy, head of the agriculture ministry's statistics office, said that while it was too early to tally nationwide yields for this year's harvest, inspections suggest there are significant declines in cashews. For 37-year-old Prum Chorn and others in the former cashew growing district of Memot in Kampong Cham province, the benefits of switching to rubber crops were overwhelming. "Cashew nut yields once a year and is bought at low prices from middlemen to go to Vietnam," he said.

"Rubber yields daily and is purchased at high prices from rubber factories within the province." Similarly, Ing Taingleng, 73, from Kampong Thom's Baray district, said he's following the lead of other farmers in the province and this year would replace half of his 20-hectare cashew farm with rubber crops. "The price of cashew nuts has not changed for several years now; it's still $500 to $700 a ton depending on the quality," he said.

"And we can only export to Vietnam. With rubber, the price is going up a lot and there is a strong market in Cambodia."
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Cambodia wants to discuss temple dispute at next meeting: Thai FM

BANGKOK, (TNA) - Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sompong Amornvivat on Tuesday revealed that Cambodia wants to raise a border demarcation dispute over Ta Muen Thom and Ta Kwai temple ruins for discussion with Thailand at the next Foreign Ministers' meeting.

Interviewed on the telephone after chairing the Informal ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New York, Mr. Sompong said that he had reported to the Meeting the results of the two rounds of talks between the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers on resolving the border tension between the two neighbouring countries.

Participants were informed that progress was made in the talks as both countries have agreed to reduce their respective military forces stationed in the disputed areas to 30 each and are working towards a further cut in forces.

He said Cambodian officials informed the meeting of their desire to raise the border dispute over Ta Muen Thom and Ta Kwai temples for discussion with Thailand.

It is expected the issue would be brought up for discussion when Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat visits Cambodia on October 13 at the invitation of his Cambodian counterpart Somdej Hun Sen.

"ASEAN members were satisfied when we told them that both countries understood each other and saw a need to adhere to the bilateral talks to solve the border dispute.

"The United Nations Secretary-General told the ASEAN Meeting that he had been informed of the progress in the Thai-Cambodian talks on the dispute.

"The UN chief also expressed a desire to see both countries attempt to settle the dispute through bilateral talks, not the UN Security Council," he said.

Mr. Sompong said no ASEAN members questioned Thailand's readiness to serve as ASEAN chair.

The Minister said he decided to join the meeting in New York to assure ASEAN colleagues of Thailand's readiness to organise the ASEAN Summit in December.

He added that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had agreed to visit Thailand on December 18 to attend the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok. (TNA)

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Cambodia golf courses aim to hit tourists

Phnom Penh (dpa) - Cambodia's efforts to attract high-end tourists by developing a world class golfing scene in the space of just a few years appears to have paid off, with a major regional golf tour company preparing to showcase the courses in Europe.

Golfasian, which is based in Thailand, said it would promote Cambodia alongside neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam at the International Golf Travel Market in Marbella, Spain from November 11-14.

Cambodia will be marketed as an exciting new regional golf destination at the event, billed as the world's premier golf travel expo and credited with making or breaking emerging hot destinations, it said.

At last year's event, neighbouring Vietnam won the International Association of Golf Tour Operators' World's Best Up-and-Coming Golf Destination award and has since reaped plenty in golfing tourism dollars. Cambodia is in the midst of a tourism boom and is keen to earn similar recognition in the lucrative golf tourism market.

"Golf holidays in Cambodia are a new introduction, yet pioneering golfers are finding it a fascinating country in which to play a few rounds," Golfasian says on its website.

"Cambodia doubled its number of luxury golf courses last year to four and hopes to have eight by 2010 in a bid to lure more high-end tourism from the fast-growing sport in Asia."

Golfing legend Nick Faldo's company designed a PGA-standard course in Siem Reap, the country's tourist hub about 300 kilometres north of the capital, where golfers are offered the chance to tour the world-famous Angkor Wat temple complex between rounds.

And Arnold Palmer Design Company, named after its famous founder, is currently building a 36-hole course for a new billion-dollar five-star resort in Bokor, 200 kilometres south of the capital.

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'Unnecessary' dam project threatens rarest wildlife

By Michael McCarthy, Environment editor

One of the world's rarest reptiles, the critically-endangered Siamese crocodile, is gravely threatened by a proposed dam in an unspoilt region of Cambodia, British conservationists warn.

Construction of the Chay Areng dam in the Cardamom mountains will wipe out a fifth or more of the remaining population of the crocodiles, which stands at fewer than 200 individuals in the wild, according to Fauna and Flora International (FFI), which is based in Cambridge.

It will displace hundreds of indigenous people from their homes, and do enormous damage to the wildlife in a valley which alone holds more than 30 globally threatened species of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians, ranging from tigers, Asian elephants and pileated gibbons to the white-winged duck, the yellow-headed temple turtle and one of the world's rarest and most prized freshwater fish, the Asian arowana.

Furthermore, says FFI, an economic assessment showed that the 120ft dam, which is being promoted by a Chinese power company, is not necessary for Cambodia's future electricity demand and is in effect surplus to requirements. FFI is calling on the Cambodian government to cancel the scheme.

Were it to go ahead, the Siamese crocodiles would be the most notable casualties of the project in wildlife terms. The stocky, 10ft-long reptile, which feeds largely on fish and snakes, is extinct over 99 per cent of its original range, with tiny remaining groups in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam apart from Cambodia, where the Areng river habitat is the most secure and significant breeding site in the world, harbouring between 40 and 50 individuals.

If the Areng river is dammed, says FFI, this fragile population will be seriously reduced or wiped out. The inundation will destroy vital lakeside nesting areas, shallow feeding zones, sandy basking areas along the river, and essential lakeside burrows used for shelter. The organisation also fears that the 1,000-plus Chinese workers who will be brought in to build the dam will begin poaching the other wildlife in the valley, saying that this has happened in similar schemes elsewhere.

The whole range of the Cardamom mountains in western Cambodia has hitherto been one of the best unspoilt areas of montane rainforest in South-east Asia, having been protected from exploitation for decades by the region's wars. FFI says it is "the untouched jewel in the crown of Asian biodiversity".

But now it is being opened up, especially by the Chinese, who are offering to build hydropower and other generating infrastructure for the Cambodians in exchange for a future share in the country's untapped natural resources, which include oil and gas. Many of the rivers of the Cardamom range have dams proposed for them, and one, at O'Som, is already going ahead.

FFI says its recognises that Cambodia needs more electricity and some of it will come from hydropower. But it says that a 2007 report, the Master Plan Study of Hydropower Development in Cambodia, commissioned by the Japan International Co-operation Agency and the Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy, identified 10 priority sites that would be sufficient to meet the projected national demand – and significantly, these did not include the Chay Areng.

"The Areng dam is unnecessary and surplus to requirements," said Jenny Daltry, a senior conservation biologist with FFI. "Hundreds of households of an indigenous people, the Khmer Daeum, will be displaced and have to move. These are people who have been there for hundreds of years and who really do live in harmony with nature and have set up their own protected areas in the forest, and six villages of them will go, and possibly seven.

"In wildlife terms, it will be a disaster. The crocodiles, which represent at least a fifth of the world's population in the wild, will disappear and there will be catastrophic damage to other wildlife.

"It is still up to the Cambodian government to approve or reject the proposal from the Chinese company and we strongly feel it should be rejected."

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Cambodian prince returns from exile

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodia's Prince Norodom Ranariddh ended 18 months in exile Sunday after his brother the king pardoned him for an embezzlement conviction.

In July, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that found the prince guilty of breach of trust and sentenced him in absentia to 18 months in prison.

The prince returned home from Malaysia following the royal pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni on Thursday.

A lawsuit was filed by his former supporters in the royalist Funcinpec party which Ranariddh led before being ousted from the party in October 2006. The Funcinpec party sued the prince for allegedly embezzling US$3.6 million from the sale of the party's headquarters in August that year.

The prince formed a new political party, the Norodom Ranariddh Party, which won two parliamentary seats in July general elections without him being present.

Over 100 supporters met the prince at the airport in Siem Reap province, home to Cambodia's famed Angkor temples, where he arrived from Malaysia, said party spokesman Suth Dina.

The spokesman said the prince planned to keep a low profile as he contemplates his next political activities.

Ranariddh and Sihamoni are sons of former King Norodom Sihanouk. Read more!