Thailand 'won't withdraw' from temple

Thailand denied on Saturday a statement by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that it had agreed to a proposed troop withdrawal plan from disputed territory surrounding the Preah Vihear temple.

Lt-Gen Wibulsak Neepal, commander of 2nd Army Region, said no agreement on troop pullout was reached in a Friday meeting between Mr Hun Sen and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan during the latter's visit to Phnom Penh.

"There is no agreement. The matter has been raised during the defence minister's self-introduction visit to Cambodia after assuming office,'' he said.

He said that a troop withdrawal proposal would be developed by a working committee set up to handle border demarcation disputes and that he expected an outcome soon.

However, the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission, which is working to resolve the outstanding issues, met in Bangkok this week without making any progress. The delegations could not agree on the name of a military team which will monitor the border area and on the name for the temple.

Lt-Gen Wibulsak stressed that even if a troop pull-out agreement was reached, Thailand was unlikely to withdraw all forces from the disputed areas. Those in charge of coordination would remain in place.

He also said troop withdrawal would not put Thailand at a disadvantage, saying the military has procedures to follow to uphold sovereignty.

Lt-Gen Wibulsak noted that the army was considering reopening Pha Mor E Daeng in Kantharalak district in Si Sa Ket province to tourists. The area was off limits following border tension.

A source said Saturday the Cambodian prime minister demanded Thailand pull its troops out from the disputed area along the border.

"We never agreed. If we do, it will not be easy to send them back in again,'' said the source.

Supreme Commander Gen Songkitti Jaggabatara said Saturday border disputes were raised during the meeting but no agreement was reached.

He said the issues would be worked out by joint committees set up to demarcate and develop the Thai-Cambodian border.

"But we do agree there should not be any incident in the border areas,'' said the supreme commander.

Gen Songkitti was apparently referring to clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops in October last year which left four soldiers dead.

Tension along the border flared up last July when Cambodia moved to have the temple of Preah Vihear listed as a world heritage site. Read more!

Cambodian leaders have squandered rich resources: NGO

Cambodia’s political elites have put the country’s economic future at risk by squandering its rich natural resources, an international environmental and anti-corruption group said yesterday.

A report released by London-based Global Witness said international donors had turned a blind eye to the widespread corruption, mismanagement and nepotism that has positioned political elites as the only beneficiaries of Cambodia’s oil, gas and coal reserves.

The report accused Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party of allocating contracts “behind closed doors” to members of the political elite and their families.

“The Cambodian government does not have a process for allocating resources outside of patronage,” Global Witness campaigns director Gavin Hayman said in a statement.

“The same political elite that pillaged the country’s timber resources has now gained control of its mineral and petroleum wealth,” Hayman said. “Unless this is changed, there is a real risk that the opportunity to lift a whole generation out of poverty will be squandered.”

The report called on the government to enforce a moratorium on further mineral and petroleum contracts and launch a review into the environmental, financial and technical credentials of existing contractors.

More than 75 companies, including multinationals Chevron Corp and BHP Billiton PLC, are currently working in Cambodia’s resources sector, and the report says some have already made undisclosed, upfront payments to the government.

“Companies need to come clean on what they have paid to the government to secure access to these natural resources or risk becoming complicit in a corrupt system,” Hayman said.

The report also called on international donors — which last December pledged a combined US$1 billion of aid — to use their funding as leverage to “demand new governance measures for the industries.”

It said that Cambodia’s mineral reserves could be the key to the country’s economic future and help end its reliance on foreign aid.

The group said its findings were based on fieldwork and interviews with industry insiders.

Global Witness representatives were expelled from Cambodia in 2005, and in 2007, the government banned the publication of one of its reports that accused a “kleptocratic elite” of illegal logging and corruption.

Government spokesmen were unavailable for comment yesterday, but Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem was quoted in the Cambodia Daily newspaper as saying that mineral-exploration licenses were subject to competitive bidding and open to all companies.

“There is no principle to charge any companies money before exploitation,” he said. “The company won’t pay before they find minerals.”
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Cambodian PM denies rumors of ruling party infighting

PHNOM PENH, The recent replacement of Royal Cambodian Arms Forces' (RCAF) commander-in-chief was not indicative of any leadership infighting of the major ruling party of the kingdom, said national media on Saturday.

Internal conflict of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) had nothing to do with the Jan. 22 decision to oust long-serving Ke Kim Yan, English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily quoted Prime Minister Hun Sen as saying.

Speaking to reporters here on Friday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the premier denied that there was any conflict, adding that whether RCAF commander-in-chief had been removed or not, CPP would be free of conflict.

"They say this removal was just to beef up Hun Sen's forces and weaken (CPP President and Senate President) Chea Sim's force. I would like to assert that, if we hadn't removed Ke Kim Yan, there would still be no problem inside CPP," he said.

"I would like to clarify things with the opposition who have endlessly commented that I wouldn't dare to touch the important army commanders, but when I removed him, you commented that it was the result of internal conflict of CPP," he said.

"I would like to assert that CPP doesn't have such a tradition of conflict on this issue, because this is the right of the premier to manage and control the military, police and other public administration," he said, adding that the removal aimed at "speeding reform" within the armed forces.

As the background of its reports, the Cambodia Daily said that "many have seen the abrupt removal of Ke Kim Yan as indicative of infighting within the leadership of the ruling party, with many rumors circulating about a behind-the-scenes battle between Hun Sen and Chea Sim." Read more!

Cambodia – potential market for Vietnamese products

VietNamNet Bridge – Neighbouring Cambodia has emerged as a potential market for Vietnamese products, according to the Industry and Trade Ministry.

The ministry said that there is a growing demand for Vietnamese products, mainly in steel, fertilizer, insecticides, pharmaceuticals, plastics, garment and textiles.

Biti’s footwear, Vinamilk dairy products and Vissan processed food have become the choice of Cambodian consumers instead of Chinese and Thai goods.

Moreover, Cambodian visitors to Ho Chi Minh City like to go shopping at supermarkets and have health checks-up at Cho Ray, Binh Dan and Gia Dinh hospitals. According to local tourism firms, each Cambodian visitor spends an estimated 850-2,000 USD during their visits.

Jumping at the chance, many Vietnamese enterprises have opened their shops in Cambodia. In 2008, over 150 Vietnamese businesses set up companies, representative offices and shops in the country.

However, the Vietnamese Trade Mission to Cambodia said that few Vietnamese businesses build long-term plans to develop this market.

Vietnam is currently the third largest exporter to Cambodia after Thailand and China while Cambodia is the 16th biggest market of Vietnam.

The country plans to raise the trade turnover with Cambodia to 2.45 billion USD by 2010.

In 2008, Vietnam earned 1.43 billion USD from exports to Cambodia, a year-on-year increase of 50 percent.
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CAMBODIA: Chevron Silent on Bribery Allegations

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Feb 6 (IPS) - U.S. energy giant Chevron is under fire for failing to disclose the amount of money it allegedly paid to secure rights to drill for offshore oil in corruption-ridden Cambodia.

‘’It is yet to respond to our detailed questions in a letter written to the company in October 2008,’’ says Gavin Hayman, campaigns director for Global Witness (GW), a London-based anti-corruption watchdog. ‘’It is not in favour of supplying information about what it pays foreign governments to secure rights for oil exploration.’’

Chevron’s attitude towards disclosure ‘’will be telling,’’ he explained in an interview, since such revelations will help measure the scale of ‘’under the table payments’’ involved in a country where a small and powerful elite has ‘’captured the country’s emerging oil and mineral sectors’’ for personal gain.

But disclosure about money paid to access the resource is only one part of the transparency and accountability equation. GW activist insists that the oil companies should also disclose what they would pay Cambodia once the revenue starts flowing.

Hayman made the comments following a launch here this week of a report by GW which warns of a corruption disaster as the South-east Asian country ‘’appears to be on the verge of an oil, gas and minerals windfall.’’

‘’Cambodia today is a country for sale,’’ reveals the 68-page report. ‘’Having made their fortune from logging much of the country’s forests resources, Cambodia’s elite have diversified their commercial interests to encompass other forms of state assets.’’

‘’Financial bonuses paid to secure concessions [for oil and mining] - totalling millions of dollars - do not show up, as far as GW can see, in the 2006 and 2007 revenue reports from the ministry of economy and finance,’’ notes the report, ‘Country for Sale’. ‘’Oil company contracts and information on concession allocations are a closely guarded secret within the CNPA [Cambodian National Petroleum Authority].’’

Yet what is better known is the presence of Chevron among the companies from Australia, China, Indonesia, South Korea and the United States that have been competing to secure rights to explore oil in the six blocks off Cambodia’s western coast.

‘’With the exception of Chevron, the government of Cambodia has not publicly announced the names of those companies to whom it has awarded oil and gas exploration rights,’’ states the report. ‘’Block A was awarded to U.S. oil company Chevron in 2002. Chevron’s activities in Block A are the most advanced of all oil companies currently operating in Cambodia.’’

GW estimates that oil will start flowing in 2011 and peak in 2021. Proceeds range from 174 million US dollars in the first year to 1.7 billion dollars when extraction peaks.

But GW doubts that such income from Cambodia’s natural resources will flow to those who need it most - the country’s millions still mired in poverty following nearly two decades of a bloody conflict and a brutal rule by the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.

Currently, over 35 percent of Cambodia’s 13.3 million people live in dire conditions, on less than one dollar a day. And U.N. reports have revealed that life expectancy is 58 years, while nearly a third of children under five years are malnourished.

Yet for a small cabal of political, military and economic elite, the period since the 1991 peace accords has been a journey on the road to immense - and ill-gotten - wealth. In 2007, for instance, GW revealed in a report that illegal logging in Cambodia by the elite raked in over 13 million dollars.

Such greed by the elite has not only raised the alarm that Cambodia is on the verge of becoming a kleptocracy, but it has been rated as among the most corrupt countries. In 2007, the global anti-graft watchdog Transparency International ranked Cambodia 162nd among 179 countries surveyed for corruption, making it the most corrupt country in Asia after Burma.

The ease with which the powerful few have filled their personal coffers stems from a lack of independent bodies backed by strong laws and resources to curb corruption. ‘’Any state that has weak anti-corruption institutions is not going to have proper level of oversight,’’ says Donald Bowser, head of the Cambodia office of the Mainstreaming Anti-corruption for Equity Project, funded by the development arm of the U.S. government.

‘’There are local concerns about the misuse of the country’s extractive industry for personal gain,’’ Bowser said during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. ‘’A civil society coalition has been formed to campaign against this form of corruption.’’

But such campaigns face a daunting challenge. The Cambodian government under the grip of an increasingly authoritarian Prime Minster Hun Sen has yet to implement strong anti-corruption measures that have been called for by the country’s foreign donors, who fund nearly half the national budget.

Activists like Hayman of GW also point fingers at international financial institutions like the World Bank for being complicit in the corrupt culture of Cambodia’s rising kleptocrats. ‘’The World Bank is particularly bad,’’ he charges. ‘’They have a bad track record of forgetting civil society to monitor all steps of programmes in Cambodia to ensure accountability.’’

However, the Bank thinks otherwise. ‘’The World Bank shares many of the concerns NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have raised about the government’s management of extractive industry in Cambodia,’’ it said in a statement released to IPS from its Phnom Penh office.

‘’Although the Bank has not been directly involved in extractive industries in Cambodia, our dialogue with the government includes discussion of policy reforms that will help to ensure that any revenue generated through extractive industries benefit the people of Cambodia,’’ it added.
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Fish-dependent countries face climate change threat: study

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — Climate change poses a grave threat to dozens of countries where people depend on fish for food, according to a study published Friday that said catches are imperilled by coastal storms and damage to coral reefs.

The WorldFish research centre identified 33 countries as "highly vulnerable" to the effects of climate change because of their heavy reliance on fisheries and limited alternative sources of protein.

Many of the group, which takes in the African nations of Malawi, Guinea, Senegal, Uganda; Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam in Asia; and Peru and Colombia in South America; are among the world's poorest countries.

"Low-lying highly populated countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia will face major inundations of crop land with rising sea levels and this will cause a loss of productive land and impact their economies badly," the study's lead author Edward Allison told AFP.

"As fish is central to many economies and diets, people in the tropics and subtropics will be affected as they have a limited ability to develop other sources of income and food in the face of such change," he added.

"The damage will be greatly compounded unless governments and international institutions like the World Bank act now to include the fish sector in plans for helping the poor cope with climate change."

Global fisheries provide more than 2.6 billion people with at least 20 percent of their average annual protein intake, the study said, citing UN data.

The report, prepared by the Malaysia-based WorldFish and a number of universities and research groups, said climate change threatened to destroy coral reefs, push salt water into freshwater habitats and produce more coastal storms.

It said that the 33 "highly vulnerable" countries produce 20 percent of the world's fish exports and that they should be given priority in efforts to help them adapt to climate change.

Two-thirds of the most vulnerable nations are in Africa, where fish accounts for more than half of the daily animal protein consumed and where fish production is highly sensitive to climate variations.

In South Asia, the report said potential problems including bleaching of coral reefs and changes in river flows as a result of reduced snowfalls present a danger to freshwater habitats.

Allison said the next step would be to investigate the impact climate change will have on these countries and the cost of adapting to the new environment.

He said a lack of data meant researchers were unable to include 60 nations including the tiny Pacific states of Kiribati and the Solomon Islands, and the military dictatorship of Myanmar, that were likely to be highly vulnerable.
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Cambodian, Taiwanese clubs team up for clean water

A US$22,700 water project is giving more than 350 households in northwestern Cambodia clean water from 80 hand-operated pump wells. Fourteen clubs in districts 3350, 3460, and 3490, which cover parts of Cambodia, Taiwan, and Thailand, and a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant have supported the effort.

Villagers using the wells, the last of which were drilled in December, previously obtained water from rivers and ponds. Less than 40 percent of rural Cambodians -- and less than 10 percent of the poorest half of the country's rural population -- have access to clean, potable water, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Planning.

Bunthai Prom, past president of the Rotary Club of Siem Reap Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia, which led the project, says villagers use the well water for vegetable gardening, drinking, and cooking. Households without well access received 80 water filters through the effort.

The project also taught villagers how to maintain the wells and educated them about the health benefits of clean water. The Siem Reap Angkor club provided training through radio broadcasts and direct visits. This month, the international sponsor clubs are holding a free medical service camp, which means that District Governor-elect Chin-Hsien Lee, of the Rotary Club of Panchiao North, Taiwan, and other Rotarians will spend a long day bouncing along remote roads to reach a dozen wells built through the project. When the driving becomes too rough, they will hike.

For the two-year-old Siem Reap Angkor club, which supervised a local drilling company's work during construction, the effort brought both challenges and rewards. "During the rainy season, we had difficulty transporting equipment to villages, but we all did our best," Prom says. "Our members are very committed."

The connection between clean water and child survival

Unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene kill 5,000 children under age five around the world every day, or more than 1.8 million each year. Eighty-eight percent of diarrheal disease is caused by contaminated water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene.

Globally, diarrhea kills more people than tuberculosis or malaria. Five times as many children die of diarrhea than HIV/AIDS.

The number of children who die around the world every year from diarrhea is equivalent to the number of children under age five living in London and New York combined.

For every US$1 contributed to water and sanitation projects, the expected return is between $3 and $34.

Sources: UNICEF, World Health Organization


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Cambodia to launch arbitration court later this year

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia's first informal court to resolve business disputes is moving forward for launch in 2009, with about 200 business and legal professionals already under training, said national media on Friday.

"A business dispute is not a good way to spend your time" and domestic and international disputes can be drastically shortened with an arbitration court, Renato Ganeo, manager of the training project, was quoted as saying by English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily.

Uncertainty, inefficiency and high costs in the judicial court system, not only in Cambodia but around the world, have led a number of countries to create alternative dispute resolution procedures that allow parties to bypass the formalities of the legal system, said Ganeo.

Mao Thora, secretary of state at the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, said that the ministry is completing a sub-decree to create the new business arbitration council, which will save business the time and money that courts absorb.

"It can be a big expense, going to the normal court," he added.

Nguon Meng Tech, director general of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, said that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is giving 500,000 U.S. dollars for the new National Center for Business Arbitration, which will be in Phnom Penh and cost about 1 million U.S. dollars to build. Read more!

Sokimex in line for black rewards

By Geoffrey Cain

PHNOM PENH - If Cambodia's much touted oil and gas finds in the past few years comes to fruition, Sokimex Group, the country's largest business conglomerate, is expected to be one of the bigger local winners. With top level political connections and a firm grip on local oil and gas distribution, the historically opaque and often controversial company will also face more pressure to publicly disclose its accounts and practices.

The World Bank earlier estimated the fuel find, made and managed by US oil giant Chevron, could entail 2 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Chevron has remained tightlipped about its in-house estimates and plans, and some industry analysts have deflated earlier high-end estimates, contending the fuel actually lies in hard-to-reach and scattered pockets rather than in one concentrated area. Exploitation is nonetheless expected to commence in either 2010 or 2011, though a recent tax dispute between the government and Chevron could delay drilling indefinitely, one analyst says. It's also unclear how the collapse in global oil prices - from a high of US$147 per barrel in July last year to its current level of around $41 - might have impacted on the project's economics and projected profitability.

None of that has so far dampened Sokimex's outlook. One Sokimex representative, who spoke with Asia Times Online and requested anonymity, said the company expects to benefit from a proposed scheme to export and re-import oil from the find. He said Sokimex also had plans to build an oil refinery to process the fuel. The representative would not divulge any further details about those plans and its not clear if the government is pressuring Chevron to process the fuel in Cambodia rather than at established modern refineries in Thailand or Singapore.

Yet the lack of disclosure is par for Sokimex's course: the company, which spans businesses as diverse as energy, tourism, aviation and property development, does not publicly release annual profit and loss statements. The homegrown company was founded in 1990 by rubber baron and ethnic Chinese entrepreneur Sok Kong, coinciding with the country's transition towards a free-market economy in line with the United Nations-sponsored Paris Peace Accords.

Sok Kong laid the foundations for the company in 1980s, when he supplied rubber tires to the Vietnamese army after Hanoi seized power over the country. He also exported the product throughout that era. Yet the domestic deals have sparked allegations the company remains close to perceived Vietnamese allies in the government, including Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Sokimex entered the petroleum business in May 1996 through its purchase of state-owned oil company, Compagnie Kampuchea des Carburants, which was then tasked with the import, storage and distribution of petroleum in Cambodia. The deal was part of the government's market-oriented privatization program, but raised further speculation of Sok Kong's close ties to Hun Sen's now dominant Cambodian People's Party.

According to the company's website, Sokimex is Cambodia's largest petroleum company with a market share of 40%. It boasts a US$15 million oil jetty with the capacity to handle oil carriers of up to 46,000 tons, five storage terminals, 184 petrol stations and a complex petroleum transport system that serves as the country's power "lifeline".

The site also says that "the main success venture that propelled Sokimex ... is petroleum" and that "Sok Kong's visionary mind coupled with his optimistic courage led him to dive into the petroleum industry without much hesitation." The site, however, fails to disclose Sokimex's recent profits, losses or average return on investments nor those of its various subsidiaries.

Privileged position

With its money-spinning oil assets and top government contacts, Sokimex has reached into a wide range of businesses, including garments, hotels, property development and even an exclusive contract to supply the Cambodian military with clothing and fuel. Sokimex is among Cambodia's big five oil and gas distributors, alongside international oil giants Total, Shell, and Caltex, as well as the country's other main local distributor, Tela Petroleum Group.

Industry analysts note that Sokimex has a proven knack for securing lucrative government contracts and believe that based on that track record the company could receive special treatment if and when the spoils of the Chevron oil find are realized.

Critics point in particular to the murky circumstances surrounding the concession Sokimex won to manage ticket sales to Angkor Wat, one of the preeminent tourist destinations in Southeast Asia, and its comparative ease in starting new businesses while foreign investors often have their new ventures ensnared in bureaucratic tape. The company also won government permission in 2006 to launch a domestic airline, Sarika Air.

Sokimex's lack of transparency, some contend, could ground future fund raising, particularly if the conglomerate does not substantially change its practices before listing shares on the country's new stock exchange, which is scheduled to commence trading in December despite the global economic downturn. Cambodia's economy is losing steam after years of breakneck growth, with gross domestic product projected to expand just 4.75% this year, the lowest level since 1998.

Sokimex representatives declined to provide this correspondent with basic revenue and profit figures for its oil and gas operations. Company executives who previously agreed to meet requested later that questions be sent via e-mail but failed to respond to queries. Follow-up inquiries made by telephone were met with one-word "yes", "no", or "I don't know" replies.

Cambodia's general lack of disclosure has raised concerns the country could go the way of Venezuela, Nigeria and Iraq, where major fuel resources have been squandered and pilfered by corrupt governments. The World Bank recently ranked Cambodia in the bottom 15% of countries on commitment to the rule of law and the bottom 10% for overall control of corruption. Transparency International downgraded Cambodia further in its 2008 Corruption Perception Index, ranking it the 14th most corrupt.

It's unclear, analysts say, if the government is trying to convince Chevron to process all or part of the fuel find in-country to help build up Sokimex's capabilities. The same analysts question Sokimex's ability to handle an energy bonanza, given that it has never run a refinery, lacks a pool of home-grown energy experts, and has no prior experience working with a find of this magnitude. "

The crude will probably be shipped to Singapore to be refined," said Michael McWalter, the Asian Development Bank's oil and gas adviser to the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority. "Any attempt to build pipelines, a refinery, or sell the oil in Cambodia will probably mean local companies will gouge prices."

Ou Virak, an economist by training and activist by profession, said: "They say they're planning to build a refinery in Cambodia, but they lack all expertise to do so unless they can hire expensive foreign advisors. It's political connections that keep them afloat, as they've demonstrated in their previous contracts that have operated without regard for the market."

Others see signs that Hun Sen's government, particularly after it consolidated power at last year's general elections, has started to put more pressure on Cambodian companies, including Sokimex, to operate with more transparency. They point in particular to Hun Sen's recent call to Sokimex and other oil distributors to sharply lower their prices in line with global trends or be summoned to a personal meeting at his offices.

Those concerns are widely shared. The United Nations Development Program held a petroleum conference last year to address how the government should best manage expected future oil and gas revenues. Delegates from the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority, Supreme National Economic Council, and Norwegian Petroleum Directorate discussed the possibility of establishing a sovereign fund to manage future oil revenues ethically and transparently for the national interest.

They also discussed the possibility of creating a professional, market-oriented national oil company, potentially modeled after Malaysia's Petronas. One year later, with questions and criticisms still swirling about the company's accounts and technical capabilities, it's not clear to most that Sokimex will emerge any time soon as an outward-looking and modern regional energy player.

Geoffrey Cain is based in Phnom Penh and a contributor to the Far Eastern Economic Review and Integrated Regional Information Networks, a United Nations-run news wire service. He may be reached at geoffrey.cain@gmail.com.

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Cambodian waste flowing into Vietnam via border

Waste management in Cambodia is unprotected by authority and flowing into Vietnam as trade business by land and water without any controlling are spelling corruption and illegal trafficking drugs and heroin.

VietNamNet Bridge – A huge volume of rubbish from Cambodia is running into Vietnam through border gates in southwestern provinces.

Most of the waste is coming into the country via the provinces of An Giang and Dong Thap. In these localities, dozens of tonnes of waste are transported by water and land each day.

At the Tinh Bien international border gate in An Giang province, we saw lines of trucks with Cambodian registration numbers carrying waste parked near the border-gate check point of Vietnam. Waste mainly comes from Phnom Penh and Ta Keo, goes along National Highway 2 of Cambodia to the border gate.

Vietnamese waste traders receive the waste at the border gate. They even pay in advance to Cambodian partners to collect waste, which includes banned things in Vietnam.

A Vietnamese-Cambodian said that in Thamau, Ta Keo province, Cambodia there is a spacious ground for waste, comprising used electronic products. This kind of waste is transported from Ta Keo to Chau Doc town, An Giang and then is distributed everywhere in Vietnam.

The chief of the An Giang provincial Customs Agency, Nguyen Thanh Tam, said: “Vietnam permits the import of some types of waste. Waste is checked at border gates and only waste that is allowed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment can pass.”

A customs officer at the Tinh Bien border gate said on average dozens of tonnes of waste goes through this border gate.

Yet, waste not only comes into Vietnam through the border gate, but on boats, which authorities can’t control. In An Giang, waste is transported from Cambodia to Vietnam along the Vinh Te canal and in Dong Thap province, waste boats run from Prey Veng to So Thuong, Hong Ngu, Tan Hong to HCM City. Some other boats continue to run down the Tien River to other locations.

According to Tien Phong daily, waste from Cambodia includes steel scrap, waste paper, nylon, plastic, glass bottles, used batteries, electronic waste, and pesticide containers, etc.

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Thai PM: Thai-Cambodian talks on ancient temple must continue

BANGKOK, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva reiterated on Thursday the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) talks would continue under the "existing framework" despite unfruitful results in the latest meeting on Wednesday in Bangkok.

Admitting that the Preah Vihear temple problem was "sensitive", Mr. Abhisit said negotiations between Thai and Cambodian officials would continue to resolve the border conflict over areas adjacent to the Preah Vihear temple.

The Thai-Cambodian JBC held a two-day meeting here, which ended Wednesday without making any headway as officials of the two neighbouring countries disagreed on the name of the surveillance group to be stationed in the area around the ancient temple and the official name of the temple.

Thailand proposed "the military monitoring group" which was opposed by Cambodia. They preferred to use the name "the temporary coordinating team" for joint operations in the 4.6-square-kilometre area claimed by both countries.

The joint meeting also had yet to settle on a name for the site, as Cambodia refused Thailand's proposed official name of the Temple of Phra Viharn instead of The Temple of Preah Vihear as Cambodia preferred.

The next JBC meeting is scheduled for the second week of April in Cambodia.

Reiterating that future talks on the problem are needed, Mr. Abhisit said negotiations on the problem, however, must be based on the peace process. It was not a problem if it took time.

Tension rose after Preah Vihear was awarded heritage status by the United Nations last year. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the 11th-century temple belongs to Cambodia, but the demarcation of the surrounding land remains in dispute.

Thailand insists on using the watershed as the border, while Cambodia maintains that demarcation of the area must be based on a map drawn in 1908. (TNA)

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UN wants accelerated farm aid to support Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, The United Nations asked donors on Thursday to speed up farm aid to help Cambodia increase rice exports, at a time when its important garment sector and tourism are suffering because of the global financial crisis.

Douglas Broderick, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told an economic forum that Cambodia had great potential in terms of its location in Southeast Asia but required financial support.

"A fertile agricultural sector produces white gold to set Cambodia apart and propel its economic growth," Broderick told the forum, referring to rice.

Cambodian officials said the government had lent private millers $30 million to buy rice from farmers to ensure domestic supplies but was seeking another $300 million to increase capacity for collecting, stocking and processing the crop.

Aid donors including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have pledged around $950 million in aid this year, and Prime Minister Hun Sen urged them to accelerate disbursements to help agriculture, on which 85 percent of Cambodia's 14 million people depend.

"Agriculture is important for sustaining growth and reducing poverty," Hun Sen told the forum.

Cambodia's total rice production is put at 7 million tonnes in 2008/09 (June/Feb) after 6.7 million tonnes in the previous harvest, and Deputy Agriculture Minister Chan Tong Eves told Reuters there was a surplus of 2 million tonnes for export.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the country shipped 450,000 tonnes of rice in 2007, when it was the ninth-biggest exporter in the world.

The UNDP is facilitating Cambodia's rice exports to a few countries in Africa, including Senegal and Guinea.

Hun Sen said the garment sector, Cambodia's biggest export earner, and tourism had been hit by the global slowdown, and that economic growth could slip to 6 percent this year from an estimated 7 percent in 2008.

Cambodia received 2 million tourists last year and garment exports totalled about $2.78 billion, with a drop of up to 10 percent expected for 2009, industry officials said. (Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)
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Thai opposition party members plan to meet Thaksin in Cambodia

BANGKOK, A group of 30 Pheu Thai Party's MPs are planning to meet ousted Premier Thaksin Shinawatra in the coming weeks, possibly in the border town of Koh Kong in Cambodia, local media reported Thursday.

The opposition Puea Thai Party is the incarnation of the People Power Party (PPP), which was established by supporters of Thaksin, after the PPP was dissolved by the Constitution Court in early December last year on election fraud charges.

"Thaksin's brother Payap is in charge of organizing the meeting," The website by The Nation newspaper quoted MP Sakda Kongphet as saying.

Fellow lawmakers wanted to meet Thaksin to exchange views on the political situation and Thaksin was likely to travel to a neighboring country such as Cambodia or Laos, said Sakda on Wednesday

He said Thaksin's phone-in to a party seminar on Monday had been successful in rallying MPs to support his political aspirations, including a planned comeback for the position of prime minister in two years.

The Pheu Thai Party was ready to help Thaksin grab power again, added Sakda.

It was the time for an all-out war, Saksda said, voicing optimism of a political victory guided by Thaksin and his family members such as his siblings Yaowapha, Payap, Yaowaret and Yingluck.

Opposition chief whip Withaya Buranasiri said Pheu Thai would launch 200 party branches nationwide next Sunday.

Thaksin was ousted by Thai Military leaders in September 2006, accusing him of corruption, keeping him in exile and controlling the country for an interim period until new elections in December 2007 did bring Thaksin's allies back into power.

Thaksin returned to Thailand in February 2008 to face corruption charges, but he later fled into exile again and was convicted in absentia.
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Cambodian Oil, Mineral Wealth Sold To Corrupt Elites-Watchdog

BANGKOK (AFP)--Cambodia's political elite has captured the country's oil and mineral wealth, putting its economic future at risk while international donors turn a blind eye, an environmental watchdog said Thursday.

London-based Global Witness said impoverished Cambodia has enough natural wealth to wean itself off foreign aid but international donors must do more to ensure the assets are properly managed.

In its new report entitled: "Country for Sale," the group said earnings from oil, gas and minerals were being "jeopardized by high-level corruption, nepotism and patronage" in allocating and managing the assets.

"The same political elite that pillaged the country's timber resources has now gained control of its mineral and petroleum wealth," said Global Witness Campaigns Director, Gavin Hayman.

"Unless this is changed, there is a real risk that the opportunity to lift a whole generation out of poverty will be squandered," he added.

The Cambodian government banned a previous damning report published by Global Witness on Cambodia's forests in June 2007, which claimed the same elites were illegally logging the nation's forests.

In its new report the group said oil, gas and mineral assets had been parceled out by a small number of powerbrokers surrounding Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials.

It also suggested that millions of dollars paid by oil and mining companies to secure access to the resources might be missing from national accounts.

"Companies need to come clean on what they have paid to the government to secure access to these natural resources, or risk becoming complicit in a corrupt system," Hayman said.

So far more than 75 companies are working in Cambodia's extractive sectors, the report said, including some internationally known operators such as Chevron Corp. (CVX) and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP).

Last month international donors pledged nearly $1 billion in development aid to Cambodia, their most generous aid package ever to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

But Global Witness said the agreements didn't go far enough in securing new governance measures for natural resources.

Cambodia expects to begin oil production of its offshore fields in 2011, following the discovery of oil in 2005 by Chevron.

The kingdom is sitting on an estimated hundreds of millions of barrels of crude - and three times as much natural gas - but it remains unclear how much of the black gold can actually be recovered.

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Cambodia to inspect its detention centers

By Lao Mong Hay

Hong Kong, China — A recent survey shows that over a quarter of the Cambodian population had been subject to torture in the 1970s under the Khmer Rouge regime. In the early 1990s Cambodia set out to prevent the repeat of this experience and adhere to the U.N. Convention against Torture and, in 2007, to the Optional Protocol to this convention or OPCAT.

However, Cambodia failed to honor its obligations under OPCAT and has been unable to create a national preventive mechanism within 12 months following its ratification of the protocol. The mechanism's main mandate is to visit places of detention and make recommendations to the relevant authorities to ensure respect for the fundamental rights of persons detained in those places.

Now, in a recent workshop in Phnom Penh on the implantation of OPCAT, the Cambodian government has pledged to put it in place in the next two years. In the same workshop, the prosecutor general of the Court of Appeal announced that he would soon exercise his power of inspection of prisons and police stations as conferred upon him and prosecutors of the Court of First Instance by a recently enacted code of criminal procedure. One of the aims of this inspection is to prevent torture or ill treatment of detainees.

Torture and other ill treatment are still used by the police to extract confessions not only to the alleged crime for which a suspect has been arrested but also to his previous crimes. Courts prefer to ignore claims of such treatment by accused persons to avoid the trouble of rejecting their statement to the police, ordering new investigations, and prosecuting the police officer(s) allegedly involved in the act.

Regarding the inspection of places of detention, it is not yet known what kind of methodology the prosecutor general will use to ascertain whether torture or other ill treatment is involved. Nor is it certain whether he will get full cooperation from the concerned officers although he has full disciplinary power over them. Besides, it is difficult to ensure that suspects detained in police cells or inmates in prisons who come forth with allegations of such acts will not suffer any retaliation after he departs following the inspection.

There are also serious doubts about his ability and that of prosecutors of the Court of First Instance to conduct thorough inspections of all police stations and prisons across the country as there are not many prosecutors and not all are allocated adequate resources for their prosecution task, let alone a particular inspection of a detention center.

However, these difficulties are a challenge to them in discharging their constitutional duties as members of the judiciary to protect the rights of Cambodians deprived of their liberty and held in detention centers.

Nevertheless, such inspections of places of detention should be welcomed and judicial officers should be unreservedly supported when exercising their authority. They should be allocated adequate resources for the task and given technical assistance to develop methodologies and other measures to ensure effective inspections to prevent torture and ill treatment of detainees. This will ensure respect for their fundamental rights.

Parallel to this inspection, the prosecutor general should propose amendments to the code of criminal procedure where suspects are informed of their right to legal advice, right to medical treatment and the right to inform family members of their detention, immediately after their arrest, which the present code fails to provide.

He should also issue instructions to all prosecutors of the Court of First Instance to be proactive in detecting torture or ill treatment when police bring suspects to be formally charged. These prosecutors should examine the body and the state of mind of suspects to detect torture, especially within the first 72 hours of their arrest. If they find any signs of ill treatment, they should promptly call for a medical examination, order a prompt investigation and prosecute the perpetrators.

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(Lao Mong Hay is a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)

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Cambodian King leaves for China for routine medical checkup

PHNOM PENH, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni left here on Wednesday for China for routine medical checkup.

He was seen off at the Phnom Penh International Airport by Senate President Chea Sim, National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Prime Minister Hun Sen, other government officials, royal family members and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Zhang Jinfeng.

During this trip, Sihamoni will look in his parents, former King Norodom Sihanouk and former Queen Monineath Sihanouk, who are having a rest in Beijing.

The couple went to Beijing last August for routine medical checkup and rest.
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No breakthrough at Thai, Cambodia talks

BANGKOK - Thai and Cambodian negotiators said Wednesday they had made little headway during fresh talks aimed at ending a border stand-off which erupted into a deadly military clash last year.

Senior government and military officials from the two nations, meeting in Bangkok, had hoped to make progress on border demarcation and reducing troop numbers in disputed land around Cambodia's ancient Preah Vihear temple.

Tensions over the long-disputed territory flared in July last year after Preah Vihear was granted United Nations world heritage status, and soldiers clashed there in October leaving four troops dead.

But as talks opened on Tuesday, the two sides locked horns over what spelling to use for Preah Vihear in documents. Although the World Court has recognised the temple as belonging to Cambodia, Thais call it Phra Viharn.

Speaking Wednesday after the latest talks ended, officials from the neighbours said they had agreed only to set up a working committee to look at the legal border issues and to begin mapping and surveying the disputed zones.

"We tried hard to find solutions in the interests of the two countries. We don't agree on some points which need to be discussed and clarified," chief Cambodian negotiator Var Kimhong told reporters.

Vasin Teeravechyan, head of the Thai delegation, said: "There are still some points that cannot be solved right away. We hope to find (solutions) in the next meeting, which will be held in the second week of April in Cambodia."

"One point is the name of the temple," he added.

The last meeting, in Cambodia's tourist hub Siem Reap in November, ended with officials agreeing in principle to reduce troop numbers at the border and form a task force, but there has been no concrete progress since then.

Thailand's defence minister is expected to visit Cambodia on Friday to discuss withdrawing troops from territory around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, which sits on Cambodian land just on the border.

The Cambodian-Thai border has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

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American, 75, charged with molesting Cambodian boy

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A prosecutor says a 75-year-old American man has been charged with sexually abusing four Cambodian boys.

Prosecutor Nuon San says the man has been charged after allegedly molesting boys aged between 9 and 13-years old. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

Police say Jack Louis Sporich was arrested Monday in Siem Reap, a major tourist destination 143 miles (230 kilometers) northwest of Phnom Penh.

Police say Sporich, who said he was from Chicago, Illinois, has denied the allegations.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles because of its poverty and lax law enforcement, but action against sex offenders has been stepped up in recent years.
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Thai-Cambodian JBC meets on border temple conflict

BANGKOK, Feb 3 (TNA) - Members of the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) met here Tuesday after a hiatus of over two months, with an aim of resolving the two nations' ongoing border conflict, especially in the environs of the ancient temple of Preah Vihear.

Meeting in Bangkok, Vasin Teeravechyan, chairman of the Thai-Cambodian JBC headed the Thai side, while Var Kim Hong, a senior Cambodian minister, led the Cambodian negotiators.

Tuesday's meeting was the first since the committee last conferred in Cambodia's Siem Reap province in November, when they agreed to speed to a survey and demarcate the area around Preah Vihear temple. Members of the two neighbours failed to reach agreement then.

The survey and border demarcation teams have moved from Thailand's Trat province bordering Cambodia to start work at Preah Vihear.

Mr. Vasin told reporters that the delegates discussed a possible additional team tasked to survey and demarcate the border. The new team will survey the area from Phusing and Kantaralak districts of Thailand's Si Sa Ket province, while the existing team will survey from Phusing district to Surin province.

The Thai chairman, however, said the issue has not yet to be settled pending recognition on the official name of Preah Vihear.

Cambodia insisted that the ancient temple should be officially recognised as the Temple of Preah Vihear, while Thailand preferred it to be recognised as the Temple of Phra Viharn, or Preah Vihear.

The unresolved issue, Mr. Vasin said, prevented the endorsement of documents from the last JBC meeting, which delays the border demarcation work.

Two Cambodian soldiers were killed in an exchange of gunfire with Thai troops along a disputed section of the border last July.

Tension rose after Preah Vihear was awarded heritage status by the United Nations last year. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple belongs to Cambodia, but the demarcation of the surrounding land remains in dispute.

Thailand insists on using the watershed as the border, while Cambodia maintains that the demarcation of the area must be based on a map drawn in 1908. (TNA)


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B.C. man died in motorcycle crash: Cambodian police

VANCOUVER -- Cambodian police officials say a B.C. humanitarian worker died of injuries from a motorcycle crash - not the violent robbery previously reported.

Cambodian authorities say Jiri Zivny was fatally injured after a moped motorcycle he was riding collided with another moped.

Mr. Zivny died Jan. 15 after being injured in the coastal resort town of Sihanoukville, where he was vacationing after doing aid work in Vietnam for the International Hope Society.

Officials from the society, based in the B.C. Interior city of Kamloops, have said Mr. Zivny, 46, died from injuries he suffered after being clubbed on the head by assailants who stole his cash and clothes and left him in a coma.

This version of events has been disputed by Sboang Sarath, the Sihanoukville governor.

"I want the [Canadian] websites to review the case and correct it, since it contaminates Cambodia's fame," Mr. Sarath told the Cambodia Daily newspaper in Khmer, the native language of Cambodia.

Cambodian police have even produced a witness to the crash. Teing Ngeoun, 24, claimed to be a passenger of the moped that collided with Mr.. Zivny's moped.

Ket Sopheak, chief of Sihanoukville's traffic police, has said he considers the case closed.

Mr. Zivny's colleagues at the International Hope Society said their understanding of his injuries came from Reid Sheftall, an American doctor who treated Mr. Zivny at a hospital in the capital city of Phnom Penh.

Monty Aldoff, a friend of Mr. Zivney's, said Mr. Sheftall told the society he believed Mr. Zivny had been beaten and his injuries did not appear to be from a motor vehicle collision.

But a recent article in Asia Sentinel, a web-based publication, carried interviews with other doctors who backed the Cambodian police's view of Mr. Zivny's death.

"His injuries were not unlike those of other motorbike accident victims," said Dr. Phak Dararith, in the Sentinel article.

"The swelling was internal," he said. There were no bruises or lacerations on his head that would indicate he had been struck by an assailant, he and other doctors at the hospital said.

The confusion over Mr. Zivny's death has left some of his friends wondering if they will ever find out what happened.

"No truth will ever come from this. It will remain a mystery forever," said Mr. Aldoff.

Lisa Monette, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, declined to discuss any details of Mr. Zivny's death, citing federal privacy legislation.

"We continue to give support to the family and are in contact with the local authorities who are responsible for the investigation," said Ms. Monette.

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