For NGOs working in Cambodia and functioning with institutional funds, funding applications are a recurring pain and invariably a source of stress. “Of course there are advantages in relying on institutional funding, especially when your activities do not make people cry”, a NGO director explains, anonymously. The drawbacks are all the procedures we have to respect – and they are quite heavy: accountancy, the need to follow actions which give some visibility to institutional partners. And then, we have to adapt to the particular way they speak and follow their line of argument, which varies depending on the trend: defending democracy and the rule of law, gender equality... Sometimes I think that if did all things perfectly, as I should, I wouldn’t have any time to establish the missions for which I tried to raise funds.” Parallel to this chameleon method, initiatives appear and generate modest funds and act as a safety valve for Cambodian NGOs. Here is a non-exhaustive review of some of them.
The doctor who plays the cello
Since 2000, Beat Richner, a paediatrician and cellist, has been giving concerts in Siem Reap twice a week. The goal is to raise money for the Kantha Bopha hospitals, for Cambodian children. In 2008, he directly raised USD200, 000 with his concerts. Indirectly, they generated donations made by tourists after their stay in Cambodia. “In the end, the spin-off is equivalent to 5 to 7 million dollars per year”, Beat Richner says. The artist Beatocello, the stage name chosen by the doctor, constitutes a rather important part of the annual budget for the functioning of the NGO (34 million dollars) on top of which come contributions made by Cambodia and Switzerland, each of them bringing in 2 million dollars. Kantha Bopha hospitals do not benefit from institutional funds but mainly depend on private donations, usually equivalent to less than USD500... This year, Beat Richner thinks ahead of the effects of the economic crisis through a support campaign launched among 90,000 reference donors: he is asking for 20 Swiss Francs (i.e. slightly more than 17 dollars) to ensure the functioning of hospitals. He is also preparing a series of concerts in his home country.
Selling bricks to buy walls
Apart from functioning problems, some NGOs are faced with nasty surprises. The organisation Mith Samlanh received a bad blow when in May 2006 the landlord announced that he intended to sell. The NGO, which looks after nearly 2,200 street children every day and tries to rehabilitate them in the state school system, in their own families or in society with a job, did not have any interest in leaving the premises, located in a tourist area where many street children live and work, and where the organisation’s restaurant welcomes customers (70% are tourists), and gives the NGO a large audience and good visibility. Their decision was made: they had to buy. But there’s the snag: finding 3 million dollars. ANZ bank surely gives out loans, but the interest rate, now as high as 10%, is prohibitive. Kerri Manika, who is in charge of communication for the organisation, had the idea of launching a campaign to sell bricks painted by the children of Mith Samlanh. In exchange for 50 dollars, payable via the Internet, donors see their names on the brick, which is then put on top of others, painted with the names of other supporters of the NGO. The result is a beautiful multicoloured wall. The campaign brought in some 25,000 dollars in 2008, according to land campaign fundraising manager Penny Tynan.
A thousand and one little initiatives launched by networks
At PSE Pour un Sourire d’Enfant , an NGO founded in 1993 by Christian and Marie-France des Pallières to help underprivileged children, the crisis has left its consequences. “Usually, we have 200 sponsorships to renew every year but in May 2008, we lost 500”, Pin Sarapich, director of PSE’s vocational training centre. The des Pallières couple, who drive all over France to find and encourage individual donations, had to double their efforts. Thanks to a method tested for years now, they managed to find strong back up from an organisation where many individual initiatives and unexpected donations come from. For example, Alex, an eleven-year old British boy, signed a contract with his parents, stipulating that he would receive a pound (1.4 dollar) every time he reads a book and sums it up for them. Between his reads and those of other students united in the project, Alex was able to gather up 11,000 pounds for PSE.
And there is also those who climb mountains in favour of the association, those who give the money they received as a wedding present… But initiatives also exist in Cambodia. While a Cambodian millionaire once offered a USD500 donation to PSE provided the moment was filmed on a camera, common people’s donations are more modest but are as efficient. PSE staff therefore decided to save some money every month for a year to help the NGO. Their efforts paid: they saved USD1, 200 every month. For their part, alumni organised evenings in aid of PSE. For the occasion, on April 10th this year, the Stung Meanchey PSE centre will turn into a massive night club and the money collected will fund the resettlement of families affected by the relocation of the municipal dump.
The trend is in auctions
In the wake of charity galas and concerts, auctions started appearing in Cambodia. The services of local and international artists are called upon and the money from their art works donated to an NGO. The Living Room Cafe, trying to stand out with its social role, was not a first-timer in that matter when on March 8th a cocktail party and an auction of artistic lamps were organised. Funds were donated to LICADHO in support of children living with their mothers in prison. The money will allow them to be in a safe place to receive education.
Different style but same good cause, SIPAR, an NGO which supports and encourages the creation of libraries in the country and develops the publishing of children’s books in Khmer, received nearly USD46,000 to open a big library and produce a documentary-book on the environment. The sum is the result of an internet auction. Indeed, IWC, the Swiss luxury watch-making company, has created with the collaboration of the Saint-Exupery Foundation, a series of watches to pay tribute to the works of author and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A one-off luxury platinum edition is on auction and the money will then be donated to a project for children, selected by the Foundation for its good reputation. Limited editions of the watch will be sold to collectors and enthusiasts.
At the heart of all those initiatives, word of mouth is an essential part of NGOs’ work.
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
How Cambodian NGOs try to deviate from the beaten track of funding
Trial on trial
The latest revelations about alleged misconduct and corruption at the Khmer Rouge tribunal have startled even its most jaded critics. Indeed, the nature of this dirty laundry suggests that the UN-backed tribunal is so deeply flawed that its very existence needs to be reevaluated.
Corruption allegations are unfortunately nothing new at the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC. Since 2006 there have been repeated calls by watchdog groups for an investigation into media reports that Cambodian staff and judges at the ECCC had to pay up to 30 percent of their salary to get and keep their job.
In 2008, several Cambodian whistle-blowers filed complaints with UN staff members alleging corruption at the tribunal. The UN carried out a review of these complaints, and in August 2008 sent a report directly to the Cambodian government. The UN has refused to make public the results of its review, and no details of the underlying allegations have been made public. The Cambodian government, predictably, dismissed the allegations out-of-hand as "unsubstantiated," and rejected the authority of the UN to investigate Cambodian nationals.
In January, the defense team representing Nuon Chea, "Brother No. 2," filed a complaint with the municipal court in Phnom Penh claiming that unresolved allegations of corruption violated their client's right to a fair trial. The complaint mentioned two senior Cambodian tribunal administrators - Keo Thyvuth, the former chief of personnel, and Sean Visoth, the head of administration. Predictably, the municipal court refused to act on the complaint.
The report of a delegation from the German Parliament that visited the tribunal in October 2008 raises serious new questions about the nature of the corruption, as well as what the UN knew and when.
In that report - available online at the Bundestag's Web site until apparently being removed on Feb. 25 - the delegates described a meeting with Knut Rosandhaug, deputy director of administration at the ECCC, during which he indicated that the UN had investigated Sean Visoth and "had come to the conclusion that he is guilty of corruption."
This is an extraordinary assertion, which, if true, goes to the very heart of the tribunal. Sean Visoth, director of the Office of Administration, is the most senior Cambodian administrator at the tribunal. In August 2008, he promised to resign if ever found guilty of corruption. He is currently on medical leave.
A presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of justice, and it would be inappropriate to rush to judgment on Sean and assume that the comments reportedly made by Rosandhaug - even if they were in fact made - are in fact accurate. The Bundestag report is hearsay and cannot be used as proof of the truth of the statements alleged to have been made by Rosandhaug.
Nevertheless, the allegations are extremely serious and must be addressed. To this point the Cambodian authorities have routinely dismissed as "unverified" all allegations of corruption that have been brought to their attention. But now the chief Cambodian administrator at the tribunal is implicated by name in the parliamentary report of a donor nation, and that requires clear, thorough and independent review by a competent investigative body.
One thing is clear: The recently agreed-upon mechanism to investigate corruption at the ECCC is woefully inadequate and falls far short of being the competent body required to instill confidence and adequately undertake this important task.
On Feb. 23, the UN and the Cambodian government announced that they had agreed upon parallel but autonomous national and international mechanisms to receive complaints regarding wrongdoing at the tribunal, which would apparently give the Cambodians power to veto any joint investigations of Cambodian staff or administrators.
A system where each side handles the complaints of its own staff has already been tried and has failed at the tribunal. The Open Society Justice Initiative, a nongovernmental organization, has criticized the new parallel mechanism as being merely a continuation of the failed current policy while doing "nothing to alter the de facto Cambodian government veto, which has stymied genuine investigations of corruption to date."
Can we trust Cambodian appointees to honestly investigate allegations of corrupt practices by senior Cambodian administrators? Surely not, given the perception of political influence and widespread corruption within the Cambodian judicial system.
What is urgently needed is a demonstrably trustworthy investigative mechanism - one free from possible manipulation by Cambodian appointees. Ideally such a mechanism should be independent, with judicial authority and with broad-ranging investigative powers. One option would be to hire an experienced auditing company to conduct a review, with a public report made to the tribunal's judges, containing recommendations for the filing of criminal charges in the municipal court if warranted.
The Bundestag report also suggests disturbing questions about what the UN knew and when, and raises the specter that the UN has once again been complicit in keeping secret the wrongdoings of senior Cambodian tribunal staff.
This would not be the first time that the UN has been accused of covering up evidence of Cambodian misdeeds at the ECCC. In 2007, the UN Development Program attempted, unsuccessfully, to keep secret the report of independent auditors that had found evidence of such serious flaws in the hiring practices at the tribunal that they recommended the wholesale firing of all Cambodian tribunal staff.
Given the history of allegations about corrupt practices at the tribunal and the level of skepticism and distrust evident amongst donors, civil society and monitors, surely a policy of full disclosure is called for? Leaked reports can seriously undermine credibility, and credibility is a commodity in short supply at the moment in Phnom Penh.
The problem is not so much the whiff of corruption but rather that the UN refuses to deal with it in a direct, transparent and credible way that enhances the credibility of the court.
John A. Hall, a professor at the Chapman University School of Law, in Orange, California, has carried out extensive human rights fieldwork in Cambodia.
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Monday, March 09, 2009
ADB, Japan Program to Boost Policy Making Skills of Civil Servants in Cambodia
A training program to help senior public servants carry out policy reforms that support the development of market economies has been launched in Cambodia today.
The Public Policy Training Program (PPTP) was established in 2007 by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to build up the capabilities of civil servants in Vietnam, Laos People’s Democratic Republic, and Cambodia who enact and implement government policy. It is funded by the ADB-administered Japan Fund for Public Policy Training which is financed by the Government of Japan. Today’s launch was held in conjunction with the Government of Cambodia’s Economics and Finance Institute.
The Program, which was initially rolled out in Viet Nam, is designed to equip government officials with the skills and knowledge to develop policies that help their economies’ become more market-oriented and integrated with global markets. The training focuses on economics and public finance, leadership, and managing government programs and human resources. It will also help officials become more effective in carry out existing government policy.
"At a time when economic circumstances are much more challenging, we hope that this targeted capacity development which will help improve effective use of public expenditure needed to stimulate growth and reduce poverty for vulnerable groups. We also hope it will help civil servants respond to the demand by domestic and foreign businesses for efficient public service delivery" said Arjun Goswami, ADB's Country Director for Cambodia.
It is expected that about 200 Cambodian civil servants will benefit from the Program over a two-year period. The first week-long training module will be held in Cambodia this month, followed by a session for 25 officials in Nagoya, Japan, at the end of March.
Attending today’s launch at the Economics and Finance Institute were H.E. Hean Sahib, Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Norio Maruyama, Minister of the Embassy of Japan, and Arjun Goswami, ADB’s Country Director for Cambodia.
ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members – 48 from the region.
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Cambodia hosts regional seminar on peaceful, sustainable societies
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia on Monday hosted a regional seminar on the role of parliaments in promoting peaceful and sustainable societies in Southeast Asia.
The political stability and the sustainable development would not have been possible, if there was a dearth of responsibility, willingness, and strong commitment of the people in the country for the cause of peace and national reconciliation and to join the support from international communities, said Chea Sim, Cambodian President of Senate, in the opening remark of the two-day long meeting.
After the war ended in the country in 1998, the Cambodian government made an effort to strengthen peace, security, social order and political stability in a bid to stabilize macro-economy and to integrate Cambodia into the regional and international framework, he said.
In the context of the post war society like Cambodia, matters of women, gender equity, human rights as well as education, culture, health and social work needed to receive special attention, he said.
"Even Cambodia is in peace, we have still faced with these matters," he said.
"We cooperate with the government to fulfill the obligations of our state in an extensive regional and international cooperation in the age of globalization especially in the battle against drug, cross border crimes, and terrorism," he added.
Lawmakers, researchers and policy makers from Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Vietnam, Australia and Switzerland attended the seminar.
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Cambodian PM to join ASEAN+3 meeting in Thailand
PHNOM PENH, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen confirmed on Monday that he will go to Thailand in April to participate in the ASEAN plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) Meeting.
"I will leave Cambodia for Thailand from April 10 to 12 for the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) plus Three Meeting," national television TVK quoted him as telling a pagoda-opening ceremony in Kompong Speu province.
The meeting will be conducted separately from the 14th ASEAN Summit because Thailand has some internal affairs to settle, he said.
"I will come back as early as possible to celebrate the Khmer New Year which falls on April 13 to 16 this year," he added.
The 14th ASEAN Summit was held in Thailand's central resort town Hua Hin during Feb. 27 to March 1.
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Sunday, March 08, 2009
Cuban Cinema Exhibition to be presented in Cambodia
Cuban cinematography became here this week one of the main cultural attractions, within the program of activities for the 50th anniversary of the Revolution in the Caribbean island.
Since evening there was much public filling the screening room of the Metahouse Culture House, the venue of the event, conceived like an event that includes movies such as El Benny, Memories of underdevelopment, Viva Cuba (image) and the documentary Nadando contra la marea (Swimming against the tide).
In the opening of the movie exhibition, the cultural attaché of the Cuban Embassy in Cambodia, Orlando Torres, highlighted the development of the seventh art and the movie industry in his country, with achievements of great impact also in productions such as news reports.
The Cuban diplomat also highlighted the International Movie School from San Antonio de los Baños in the province of Havana, a center that receives hundreds of students from different nationalities.
She also referred to the success of the International Latin American Movie Festival, which is celebrated every year in the Cuban capital and which is assisted by important personalities from Latin American and from all over the world.
In the opening ceremony there was much public including many Latin Americans living in Phnom Penh and it included the presence of the director of the Metahouse, Niko Mesterharm.
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Saturday, March 07, 2009
Trail of a Sex Tourist: Canada's limited success in pursuing pedophiles
Donald Bakker, a B.C. father, was the first Canadian convicted under the child sex-tourism law.W-FIVE takes an in-depth look at the unprecedented international investigation and arrest of Donald Bakker - Canada's first conviction under the law, and asks why Canadian authorities aren't doing more to catch its pedophiles overseas.
It's Dec. 2, 2003 in Vancouver's CRAB Park, a little patch of green tucked between the harbour and nearby railway tracks. Screams are heard from the bushes. A city worker taking a lunch break nearby calls 911. Vancouver Police are quickly dispatched to the scene.
Police find a hysterical woman running from the shrubs and a middle-aged man carrying a blue bag. That man is Donald Bakker, a 40-year-old husband and father.
Bakker is arrested and brought in for questioning. In the bag, police find a disturbing videotape of Bakker sexually assaulting the woman in the park and torturing prostituted women he had picked up on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Even more disturbing was video of Bakker sexually assaulting young Asian girls.
Sgt. Ron Bieg, a 20-year veteran with the Vancouver Police, couldn't believe his eyes when he reviewed the seized evidence.
"First of all you're just awestruck. You're just going, 'this can't be happening'," Bieg told W-FIVE's Victor Malarek.
Bieg led a team of more than 50 investigators to find the women in the videos. But the more daunting task was to locate seven Asian girls -- some as young as seven years of age -- which required dozens of officers and international help.
According to Bieg and Sgt. Benedikte Wilkinson, the biggest help came from Brian McConaghy. He's a former RCMP firearms specialist who now runs the Ratanak Foundation, a Cambodian-based charity that helps rehabilitate child victims of sexual exploitation.
Bieg sent the Bakker tapes to McConaghy, who knows Cambodia, its brothels, and has witnessed first-hand the trauma experienced by young girls sold to foreign pedophiles for sex.
It was McConaghy's deft eye that helped narrow down the location of the brothels where the tape was shot and where Bakker had paid the young girls for oral sex.
"There were the children who were speaking a combination of Vietnamese and Khmer," said McConaghy, recalling how he was able to find the brothel. "Khmer's the Cambodian language. So that's a big clue right there. Some of the kids had a thing called a Kroma which is a checkered scarf that's classically Cambodian."
On the tape, McConaghy also identified a Cambodian calendar from 2003 on the wall. It was another important clue for Vancouver Police, giving them a probable date for Bakker's sex-tourist visit to Cambodia.
The next step for Bieg and Wilkinson was to travel to Cambodia -- to the squalor and filth of the brothels -- in order to bring home the evidence that was needed to secure Bakker's conviction.
"It's squalor. The streets were dirty. There's garbage everywhere. There's sewage everywhere, you know, open sewage," Wilkinson told W-FIVE.
Inside one brothel they found clear evidence that this was where Bakker had sex with children. Smudges on the wall matched the video. So did photographs. Combined with the other evidence it was enough to secure Bakker's conviction under Canada's child sex-tourism law. Bakker eventually pleaded guilty to those crimes, and the brutal sexual assaults of some Vancouver prostitutes, Bakker is now serving a 10-year sentence.
Few successes
The world-wide investigation of Donald Bakker and his conviction was not case-closed. It unfurled a debate about why Canada isn't doing more to capture and arrest Canadians who have sex with minors overseas.
Bakker is one of only three Canadians to be convicted under the 12-year-old child sex tourism law, prompting some legal experts to suggest Canadian law enforcement isn't doing enough to investigate and bring pedophiles to justice.
Benjamin Perrin, who teaches law at the University of British Columbia, argues that the low number of convictions doesn't reflect the true number of Canadians seeking sex with children overseas.
"We know for a fact that Canadians are among this group of international sex offenders," said Perrin in an interview.
He obtained records through Access to Information requests that show between 1993 and 2008, despite few convictions at home, at least 156 Canadians faced local charges in foreign jurisdictions for offences related to child sex abuse and exploitation.
"Canada passed a child sex tourism law in 1997, saying basically you abuse children abroad, we're going after you," "What Canada did is pass the law and basically forgot about it," said Perrin.
Instead, as Perrin told W-FIVE, Canada seems to rely on other countries to investigate and arrest Canadian pedophiles offending overseas - in countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brazil and Mexico.
"We have a series of recent cases where the American authorities have actually been catching Canadian offenders in their own dragnets and having to charge them under U.S. law, trying to extradite them to U.S. courts for crimes these Canadians committed in developing countries for abusing children."
Leave it to Americans
On Dec. 15, 2008, American investigators arranged for the arrest of Canadian John Wrenshall, following an investigation in Thailand. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led the investigation into Wrenshall's activities. The Canadian had moved to Thailand after completing a prison sentence in Alberta for indecently assaulting eight young choir boys.
The 62-year-old English teacher was arrested, in London, England, on child sex tourism related charges, as he was trying to make his way his way back to Canada. He is currently awaiting extradition to the U.S.
To date, Canadian authorities have not initiated any charges against Wrenshall for his alleged offences in Thailand.
"I cannot think of any good reason why Canada should not have laid these charges and why we're foisting the investigative burden onto the U.S. taxpayers," said Perrin.
"Why are U.S. taxpayers paying to prosecute a Canadian sex offender for what he allegedly did abroad? He's our problem to deal with. If there's evidence against him, we should be prosecuting him."
Climate change a threat to Metro
By Alcuin Papa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Filed Under: Climate Change, Environmental Issues, Local authorities
MANILA, Philippines – Metro Manila ranks as the seventh most vulnerable area to climate change in Southeast Asia, a recent study said.
The study, titled “Climate Change Vulnerability in Southeast Asia” conducted by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) over a period of six months, listed Central Jakarta in Indonesia as the most vulnerable.
It is followed by North Jakarta, West Jakarta, Mondol Kiri in Cambodia, East Jakarta, and Rotanokiri area also in Cambodia.
The South Jakarta area came in eighth, the Kota Bandung area ninth and the Kota Surabaya area rounded up the top ten vulnerable areas.
Dr. Herminia Francisco, an environmental economist who authored the study, said these areas would be vulnerable to hazards like tropical cyclones, floods, landslides, drought, and sea level rise brought about by changes in the climate.
Francisco presented the findings of the study, funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) based in Canada, in a press conference Friday in Makati City.
She said the study was conducted to help affected communities as well as decision makers come up with ways to adapt to climate change.
Francisco said the areas were judged on their exposure to hazards, the large sensitivity of the communities there due to population density, and the low adaptive capacity of the community to climate change due to limitations on infrastructure, technology and poverty levels.
“We want to open the eyes of the public and decision makers on the effects of climate change so the allocation of funds could be specific to these areas. The resources could be directed to these areas to help the communities adapt to climate change,” Francisco said.
She explained that they used an index of overall climate change vulnerability for Southeast Asia and ranked the regions accordingly.
“Based on this mapping assessment, all regions of the Philippines, the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam, almost all regions of Cambodia, North and East Laos, the Bangkok region of Thailand and the West Sumatra, South Sumatra, Western Java, and Eastern Java areas of Indonesia are among the most vulnerable regions in Southeast Asia,” Francisco said.
The study also identified other areas in the country aside from Metro Manila as highly vulnerable to climate change.
These areas are Northern Samar, Benguet, Masbate, Batanes, Zamboanga del Norte, Ilocos Sur, Western Samar, Albay, and Lanao del Norte.
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A French Accent
By Lavanya Ramanathan
This month, Smithsonian Associates and the local Francophonie Committee celebrate the French-speaking world with a Francophonie Festival, a series of films, concerts, parties and a seminar with representation from Mali, Switzerland, Cambodia, France and other nations. Some of the scheduled events: Wednesday, the French Embassy screens "Seuls Two," Eric Judor and Ramzy Bedia's comedy about a relentless cop whose nemesis, a burglar, has been making a fool of him -- evading capture for years. With Kristin Scott Thomas.
Wednesday, March 11. $10; Smithsonian Resident Associates, students, Cinémathèque and Alliance Française members, $8. 7 p.m. La Maison Française, Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Rd. NW. For reservations, e-mail culturel.washington-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr.
Next Friday, Malian musical prodigy Mamadou Diabaté plays the kora at the Museum of Natural History's Baird Auditorium. A kora is the 21-string West African equivalent of a harp, and Diabaté comes from a family of performers and storytellers. $22; members, $18. 7:30 p.m. Friday. National Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
The festival wraps next month with a party dedicated to the Discotheque Underground on the Mall. (If that sounds familiar, there was a similar bash that sold out in 2007.) Swiss DJ Jay Style is joined by Parisian spin-derella DJ Evâa Pearl for a Euro-themed bash in the literally underground Ripley Center.
$30; members, $25. April 3, 9 p.m.-1 a.m. S. Dillon Ripley Center, 1100 Jefferson Dr. SW.
For tickets and details about all Francophonie Festival events, call 202-633-3030 or visit http://www.residentassociates.org/ (search for Francophonie).
The New Orleans-by-way-of-Sweden pop singer is even better to see than she is to hear: She has grabbed tons of attention as a one-woman band, playing everything from drums to dulcimer, pressing all the pedals and turning all the knobs -- often with bare, nimble feet. The rising musician, touring on the release of her latest album, "Hummingbird, Go!," is at Jammin' Java tonight. $12 at the door; $10 advance. 7 p.m. Jammin' Java, 227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna. 703-255-1566, Ext. 8, or http://www.jamminjava.com/.
The District
For Families Exploring
The Free Side Of Arabesque
The thousand-plus folks who saw K'Naan play the Millennium Stage last week already know: There is plenty of fabulous stuff to do at the Kennedy Center's Arab arts festival that doesn't require you to crack your wallet. Today, catch the lecture "Literature and the 'Real' Arab World" at 11 a.m. or hear "The Map of Love" author Ahdaf Soueif and other writers discuss creating Arab-themed literature in various languages at 4 p.m. Go tonight to see "Def Poetry Jam" writer Suheir Hammad's "An Evening of Breaking Poems," showcasing her Brooklyn/Palestinian style. Whenever you go, be sure to check out the exhibitions and the fantastic souk (market), filled with stunning, pricey lamps and plenty of less-pricey knickknacks from abroad. Free. Tickets for the author talks at 11 and 4 are available by phone or at the box office; the Millennium Stage show is at 6 and tickets are not required. Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600 or for a full schedule, visit http://www.kennedy-center.org/.
The District
Concert Kimya Dawson: Love Her Or, Well, Don't
There can, admittedly, be a cloying childishness to Dawson's music (her old band, the Moldy Peaches, annoyed some crowds), but every now and then her songs about video games and insecurities about hipster boys can hit the spot (for some people, anyway). We know this to be true because of the comeback the Peaches' limited oeuvre experienced, thanks to the movie "Juno." But we can't help but wonder: Are listeners ready to put away childish things? It'll be up to the crowd at Dawson's show tonight at the Black Cat. Tickets are $13. 9 p.m. 1811 14th St. NW. www.blackcatdc.com or 202-397-7328.
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Friday, March 06, 2009
Cambodian tycoon works on Asean reform
Written by STEVE FINCH
Royal Group CEO Kith Meng says Asean talks on integration are progressing, despite critics of the bloc's inaction
THE financial crisis and economic integration dominated talk at the Asean Summit in Cha-am, Thailand, which ended Sunday. While Prime Minister Hun Sen was the public face of the Cambodian delegation, behind the scenes it was the country's best-known tycoon that played chief economic adviser.
Kith Meng, as the Cambodian representative to the Asean Business Advisory Council (BAC) and president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, is driving the Kingdom's economic discussions on Asean and therefore plays a key role in developing a single market, the bloc's goal.
"The talks in Cha-am were very productive," the Royal Group chairman and CEO said by email on Thursday. "The aim is much greater economic cooperation and integration using the strength of Asean to weather the current global economic downturn and emerge together as an economic powerhouse."
As Kith Meng and others present in Cha-am acknowledged, the recent summit was perhaps the most important in the past decade, amid the current economic crisis that has begun to hit the region.
Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew said Thursday the city-state could experience a 10 percent drop in GDP growth this year, AFP reported, and Vietnam is forecasting its lowest economic growth in years.
Asean's export-driven economies are facing the biggest challenge since the 1998 financial crisis, analysts say, but at the same time Asean is beginning to see itself as a catalyst for a world recovery. Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij told AFP before the summit that Asean is "increasingly the focus of the rest of the world".
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Cambodia will play a central role in the development of some of these initiatives.
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With Asean aimed at a European Union-style single market by 2015, the question remains how the bloc can reach its ambitious target.
An Asean fund "to allow companies ready to go regional and global to have access to affordable financing and investment" is one such initiative planned, stated an Asean BAC press release following the summit.
An Asean joint venture company was also proposed that would focus on using the strength of the region in agricultural and biofuel production "to meet demand for food security and alternative energy sources".
"Cambodia will play a central role in the development of some of these initiatives, particularly around the establishment of an Asean fund and public-private joint ventures," said Kith Meng.
An Asean Green Line designed to streamline the movement and transport of goods within the region is being piloted between Singapore and Malaysia, with Singapore and Indonesia also planning to roll out the project. And an Asean-wide brand was also discussed at the summit.
"The initiatives coming out of the meeting will establish an integrated economic bloc of almost 600 million people in one of the highest growth areas of the world," said Kith Meng.
But there remain question marks as to whether the talk in Cha-am will result in concrete practice that can fend off the worst of the global economic crisis and lead to economic integration in the vein of the EU.
"The gathered leaders made a lot of noise about deepening the integration of their economies to minimise the adverse impacts of the global financial crisis. But they failed to come up with any concrete measures," said an Economic Intelligence Unit report this week.
Kith Meng insists that the Asean BAC meeting at the weekend "was the most co-operative and focused" thus far. He will now largely be responsible - at least on the Cambodian side - for proving the Asean doubters wrong.
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Low garment sales, poor tourism to hit Cambodia-IMF
PHNOM PENH, A slowdown in garment exports and a drop in the number of tourists could cause Cambodia's economy to shrink 0.5 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.
That is a big turnaround from the 4.8 percent growth the IMF had forecast in November.
"Garment exports are under pressure due to sharply lower retail demand in the United States and European Union," it said in a statement after an IMF team ended a mission to the Southeast Asian country. Garments are Cambodia's biggest export earner.
Construction activity and foreign investment were also slow as external investors cut back, the IMF said said.
The World Bank projected foreign direct investment of around $800 million in 2008 and has said it could fall "probably to below $600 million" in 2009. (Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)
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From the Foreign Press: Cambodia's oil resources Blessing or curse?
Waiting for the oil (and money) to flow
MANY countries have been afflicted by a "resource curse". Discoveries of oil or other mineral deposits are hailed as offering a way out of poverty. But hopes are dashed as corrupt officials pocket the money or squander it on grandiose projects. Cambodia, giddy at the prospect of an oil boom, hopes not to go the same way.
A recent report, called "Country for Sale", by a London-based NGO, Global Witness, points out that amendments to a 1991 law had the effect of placing the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA), the body administering oil contracts, under the direct control of Hun Sen, the prime minister, and Sok An, his deputy. It alleges that millions of dollars paid to the government to secure oil concessions do not show up in the official annual revenue reports. Meanwhile, unrestrained mining exploration has seen thousands forcibly evicted from their land in the north, and has damaged six of the country's 23 protected wildlife areas.
The discovery of oil and other minerals was a godsend to Cambodia. Despite foreign-aid donors' constant pleas for restraint, logging companies have largely exhausted the country's once abundant forests. Chevron, a California-based oil giant, at first estimated its 2005 oil discovery in the Gulf of Thailand at 400m barrels, enough to earn about $1.7 billion a year, against the government's budget last year of $1.2 billion. Chevron was awarded the largest exploration contract in the block thought to be most productive. But it has found that the oil is scattered in pockets and hard to extract. Despite the recent fall in the oil price, the government still hopes production will start in 2012.
It will be very welcome: aid still makes up half of the government's budget, despite a decade of stalling on anti-corruption legislation that donors want to see. The World Bank consistently ranks Cambodia in the bottom 10% of all countries for controlling corruption. Michael McWalter of the Asian Development Bank, who advises the Cambodian government on oil, argues that the CNPA is underfinanced and ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of the oil business.
In March last year the United Nations Development Programme and the Norwegian government jointly organised a conference to discuss what the government should do. The advice included the creation of an independent, transparent oil fund. This, however, was largely based on the experience of Norway, which has an effective system of checks and balances.
Cambodia does not, and Mr Hun Sen and Mr Sok An have still not come up with a coherent plan for managing the oil revenues. According to Global Witness, the government decided at a meeting with donors in October not to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international coalition that would require full disclosure of oil, gas and mining revenues. Rather, it agreed to endorse only the principles underpinning the EITI, making its rules non-binding.
Government officials have responded to the allegations by lashing out at NGOs. At a conference in February, Mr Hun Sen called NGOs' criticism of his oil policies "crazy". And he has already alluded to the prospect that oil revenues may diminish the influence of aid donors-though he denies they have much anyway, since Cambodia can always turn to China, a generous donor, which, he says, despite its might, treats its partners with respect.
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Eubanks returning to Vietnam, Cambodia to help children
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
A Mt. Sterling couple is moving to Vietnam later this month on a mission trip to help orphans overseas.
Enoch and Marissa Eubank are making the trip as part of Orphans Voice Ministries, an international adoption program that attempts to match parents in the U.S. with children from countries where adoption is difficult. They leave for Vietnam March 15, but will also spend time in neighboring Cambodia.
The Eubanks say God put in their heart to help children there.
“We felt, and God has confirmed for us, a call that we were meant to go there and help with those children,” Marissa said.
This is not the Eubanks first mission trip.
Last year they spent three months in Vietnam and Cambodia working at local orphanages and promoting Christianity in underground churches. Christians are sometimes jailed or suffer discrimination in communist nations.
The Eubanks served on previous foreign missions in Guatemala and Africa. Here in the U.S. they participated in the relief effort in Louisiana after Hurricane Rita.
That first mission to Louisiana inspired them to seek out more ways to help others and the trips abroad only worked to reinforce that, the Eubanks said “I felt I was doing God’s work and I liked that,” Enoch said. “That just kind of started everything. ... The hunger for that just grew. I saw people had a need all over the world.”
Marissa said her desire to be a missionary dates back to elementary school. That’s when a group of missionaries spoke to her class at Mapleton Elementary about their experiences in Africa.
Marissa said she liked the idea of making a difference in the world.
As an adult, Marissa became familiar with Tony Brewer, founder of Orphan’s Voice, while attending church at Mt. Sterling’s Fellowship Christian Assembly. Brewer soon hired her to help parents in the U.S. with the adoption process.
Marissa told Enoch about the calling she felt from God to take things a step further and become an overseas missionary.
Enoch didn’t object and accompanied her on their first mission trip together to Guatemala in 2004. Enoch, who has considered becoming a pastor, said he found the experience rewarding and it planted a seed for further spiritual growth.
“When God brought us together he grew that hunger for (mission work) between us. ...,” Enoch said. “We prayed about it and confirmed it in a number of ways.”
One confirmation of God’s intentions, Enoch said, came during a trip to Lexington before one overseas mission when Marissa was a bit discouraged. About that time a car passed with “Go Now Go” on the license plate, the same message Marissa had felt God telling her.
In Guatemala they worked at an orphanage and handed out food to those in need. They married the next year and participated in another mission, this time to Africa, in 2006.
Last year, in Vietnam and Cambodia, they helped coordinate adoptions with parents in the U.S. Enoch, trained to be a physical education teacher at Morehead State University, also played with children and taught them how to care for themselves.
The Eubanks said many of the children had nothing and lived in squalor until they were taken in at the orphanage.
The orphans often come from broken homes, where the father, the family breadwinner, is dead or unable to work. Some scavenged in local dumps for food and clothing, the Eubanks said.
If they were hurt, the Eubanks said, the children had access to no sort of medical care.
The missionaries bring food, medicine and other supplies to the orphanages. This is critical, the Eubanks stress, because both nations have no system of social services like we have here in the U.S. On their upcoming trip, Marissa says they will spend six months in language training so they can better communicate with people there before continuing with their efforts to spur foreign adoption and spread Christianity.
Enoch said living in Vietnam and Cambodia on a long-term basis will give them the time they need to make a lasting effect.
“We will be able to get settled in somewhere and not just get a foundation started on a building, pass out some clothes and it’s time to go home,” he said. “We started praying that God would show us a specific place (to serve God).”
They say they will receive financial support during their mission from the church they now attend, Jeffersonville Baptist. Donations can be sent to the church at 145 Ky. Hwy. 599, Jeffersonville, Ky. 40337. In the memo portion of the check you should note “Eubanks support.”
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Boom to bust in Cambodia
By Tim Sturrock
PHNOM PENH - Potential buyers at the entrance to the Grand Phnom Penh International City pass through a 29-meter-high, 42-meter-wide arched gateway topped with 18 life-size bronze stallions, only to arrive at a moonscape of bulldozed earth and ditches.
When the project was unveiled in 2006, it proposed 4,000 residential villas and apartments at a projected cost of US$500 million. The joint Cambodian and Indonesian developers' promotional material promised the convenience of a shopping center and an international school surrounded by the beauty of ponds and manicured lawns, as well as a golf course and driving range.
Of the 4,000 units in the original plans, only 21 villas will be ready by April, followed by around 100 more units by the end of the year, Grand Phnom Penh marketing director Nhem Sothea said. Only 138 units, including 44 shops, have so far been purchased.
The first phase was to include 500 units, and that goal is unlikely to be met, Nhem Sothea said. Most sales so far, with buyers paying $99,000 for 42-square-meter terraced houses or $138,000 for 92-square-meter townhouses, occurred before the global economic crisis hit late last year. No one has yet purchased any of the properties billed at over $750,000.
"The market is really bad," Nhem Sothea said at his on-site sales office. "The market is not really up to expectation. The future of the project depends on demand."
Grand Phnom Penh is just one of a half-dozen so-called "satellite cities" that property developers once promised would serve as suburban getaways for Phnom Penh's growing affluent and expatriate populations. But those plans, worth a combined $3.5 billion, were conjured when Cambodia's property market was booming; developers now say they may scale back or delay indefinitely their ambitions.
Banks have already restricted loans for real estate as economic growth has slowed and as property prices have dropped - in the city center by about 25% since last July, and in the outskirts by 30%. Cambodia's gross domestic product growth is projected to fall below 5% this year, a sharp decline from the heady double-digit expansion the economy averaged from 2004 to 2007.
The global crisis is taking a toll on Cambodia's main economic growth engines: garments, tourism and property. There were some indications of a property bubble even before the global economic and financial collapse. As local property prices soared, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) in mid-2008 restricted access to loans by doubling banks' foreign currency reserve requirement to 16% from 8%. The NBC also capped the amount of real estate loans banks could make at 15% of their portfolios.
The central bank in February repealed those restrictions in response to a rapid decline in the property market. An International Monetary Fund report last month said Cambodian banks and the NBC needed to improve management of risks and banking supervision to avoid failing loans, which it said appeared to be rising.
Bulls to bears
While developers insist that their projects remain viable and have secure financing, the assertions come against plunging demand and a short supply of lending to potential buyers. Sung Bonna, president of Bonna Realty, said that speculators a year ago were buying up real estate with hopes to sell it later to developers for a profit. "Now even in general property in the city center there is not so much demand."
He predicted that at the most, only 30% of satellite city units could be purchased by Cambodians and urged the government to make Cambodian real estate more appealing to overseas buyers. Foreigners are at present barred from buying condominium units in Cambodia.
Indications of a slowdown are ubiquitous. Along the city's Tonle Bassac riverside, billboards for the satellite city Diamond Island City, planned for nearby Koh Pich island, show a so-far nonexistent metropolis that looks as if it were rendered by utopian cubists or futurists.
When the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC) unveiled Diamond Island City in 2006, during the days of Cambodia's go-go property boom, the plan included a hospital, restaurants, a shopping center, park and series of homes, some with personal swimming pools, that ranged in price from $280,000 to $1 million.
Investment in the Koh Pich project could drop by one-third to $800 million from $1.2 billion, said Touch Samnang, the project's manager and architect. That would likely entail trimming the number of units from 15,000 to 12,000, depending on demand, which he said has been affected by the global financial crisis. OCIC is still building bridges to the island, yet no units are under construction. Touch Samnang admitted pre-sales have not gone as well as anticipated.
Of the 168 units planned in the project's $28 million phase one known as "Elite Town", buyers have purchased only 40% after more than a month of sales, he said. That's a huge drop over the past few years, when units at other OCIC projects sold out in weeks. Elite Town will be delayed at least six months or until mid-2010, and the entire project could be finished in mid-2017, about 18 months behind schedule, he said.
Asia is only too familiar with the damage that can be wrought by a property collapse, seen in Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Stephen Higgins, chief executive officer at ANZ Royal Bank, the country's largest, said he did not anticipate the same problems that Bangkok and other Asian cities faced in 1997 when hundreds of buildings were left half-completed when financing dried up.
"Where Cambodia is fortunate is that a lot of these project haven't been constructed," he said in an interview, nor did most property-owners in Cambodia have mortgages so the market has some residual strength.
The problem now is that so many projects attempted to take advantage of the property boom at once. Higgins says the financial crisis has acted as a correction in some ways, possibly stopping all the projects from happening at once and flooding the market. "It will take a bit longer but that is not necessarily a bad thing," he said.
In northern Phnom Penh, the cranes are still swinging at Camko City, a $2 billion, 120-hectare satellite project that originally boasted plans for 6,000 units. The new economic situation may force a rethink, according to Kheng Ser, a marketing counselor for South Korean project developer World City.
He claims sales at Camko have been better than at rival developments, with 80% of the city's first phase 1,009 units of apartments, small villas and houses sold at prices of up to $330,000. According to Kheng Ser, the villas and houses will be completed this month and the tower blocks by the end of the year. However, designs are not complete on Camko's much larger phases two and three, he said.
Even the country's best-known tycoons are scaling back their property development plans. Sok Kong, president of Cambodian conglomerate Sokimex, said that he would delay plans on a 218-hectare satellite city to be called Beong Chhouk Township, though he said a land dispute was the main reason for the delay.
"We drew the master [plan] a while ago," he said by telephone. "I have to delay three or four years." He said he wants to focus his financial resources on his $1 billion Bokor Mountain development in Kampot and another hotel project on Phnom Penh's Chroy Changva peninsula.
Hard-hit Koreans
Meanwhile, South Korean-financed projects have faced some of the heaviest cutbacks. The global economic crisis, which has hit South Korea particularly hard, has leveled original plans for a proposed $300 million, 953-unit Pharos Mekong satellite city on five hectares of the Chroy Changva peninsula, according to an e-mail from Kheang Piv, a marketing manager for the Korean-owned project developer BK Asia Pacific.
He wrote that after the global financial crisis began, Korean finance dried up and the company could not get the money it needed to move forward. The company planned to start construction in December, but pulled back in November, Kheang Piv said. "It is not the right time for us to sell such kind of luxurious, high-end apartments. Eventually, we decided to keep our project on hold till the desirable time," he wrote.
The International Finance Complex is perhaps the largest South Korean-backed real estate project in Cambodia to feel the financial pinch. Korean firm GS Construction & Engineering broke ground in June on the IFC's seven skyscraper mixed-use complex near the Tonle Bassac. But the entire development has now been postponed until at least 2010, and then only three of the original planned seven buildings will be built. The project, originally projected to cost $1 billion, has been winnowed down to around $500 million.
In September, Korean firm Booyoung Company shelved plans for a development on a more-than-100-hectare expanse of land near Russian Boulevard because of uncertainty in the market, according to Jong-seon Choi, general manager for Booyoung in Phnom Penh. "We stopped because of the financial crisis," he said. "It's very uncertain."
The economic situation has also stifled less ambitious projects. At the proposed 500-unit, five-hectare Dream Town near Phnom Penh International Airport, only 30 units have been sold and its 2012 completion date will likely not be met, said Kong Vannsophy, manager of the project's developer, Cambodia Priority Property Investment.
"If we rush and no people buy, we lose money," he said. "A lot of other projects are facing these conditions."
ANZ Royal Bank's Higgins said the risks have grown regarding demand for Phnom Penh's satellite cities because many are in remote areas. "You would have to expect that the downturn in the property market will have some impact in those projects," he said. "By definition you are setting up in a new area, whereas if you set up in Phnom Penh you know there is going to be demand for it."
He said ANZ will not likely loan money to borrowers seeking to purchase property in satellite city projects. "It's difficult to say. We should not have a big appetite for it. We want to see something built."
Tim Sturrock is a Phnom Penh-based journalist. He may be reached at timsturrock@gmail.com
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PM: Ex-chief of Cambodian military forces to become deputy PM
PHNOM PENH, Prime Minister Hun Sen has confirmed that former commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) Ke Kim Yan will soon become deputy prime minister in charge of anti-drug trafficking, said English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh Post on Friday.
"In the near future, General Ke Kim Yan will be appointed deputy prime minister, and he will be chairman of the National Authority for Combating Drugs," the premier told the closing session of the annual conference of the Interior Ministry here on Thursday.
Once on Tuesday, Tea Banh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense, told local media that "the government will send the request (of the appointment) to the National Assembly. When the National Assembly approves it, you will know."
If approved, Ke Kim Yan will become the government's 10th deputy prime minister.
The general has been without a position since being removed as RCAF chief by a Royal Decree on Jan. 22.
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Thursday, March 05, 2009
Viet Nam, Cambodia lift economic, trade ties
HA NOI — Viet Nam will boost co-operation with Cambodia, especially in human resources training in planning work in order to catch up with the global market economy, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
Speaking at a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Planning Chhay Than in Ha Noi yesterday, Dung stressed the necessity to boost co-operation between the two countries’ planning ministries in service of their economic development and trade.
On the agreements reached by Minister Chhay Than and Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc, Dung said the two ministries should increase the exchange of delegations.
Chhay Than expressed his thanks to the Vietnamese Government and people for their support for his country in the past, especially during the post-war reconstruction.
MoU signed
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on co-operation in planning and investment was signed yesterday in Ha Noi between the Cambodian Ministry of Planning and the Viet Nam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Under this agreement, the two sides will closely co-ordinate in building and developing plans, thus providing an advisory service to both governments. They agreed that regular meetings between high-ranking delegations would be vital to consolidating the relationship.
According to the MoU, the two countries will also share their experience in planning work by organising training courses. Workers in the Cambodian planning sector will be offered short-term courses thanks to non-refundable aid from Viet Nam.
The education and training sector will get priority in the countries’ co-operation, said Viet Nam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment. Last year, the Vietnamese Government provided VND90 billion (US$5.2 million) in non-refundable aid for Cambodia, including VND73 billion ($4.2million) for personnel training.
The 2008 two-way trade turnover reached $1.7 billion, an increase of 42 per cent against 2007. Cambodia provided favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses. Thirty-nine Vietnamese-run projects with a total capital of $211.2 million have been granted licences by the Cambodian Government. — VNS
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Crimes in Cambodia down 20% in 2008
PHNOM PENH, Crime occurrence dropped by 20 percent in 2008 over 2007, down to 8 an average day from 10, English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily reported Thursday, quoting official figures.
There were altogether 2,881 crimes committed in Cambodia in 2008, compared with 3,732 in 2007, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak.
Meanwhile, on average, less than one crime per day took place in the capital city in 2008, according to the national crime figures issued on Wednesday at the annual conference of the Interior Ministry.
There were only 351 criminal offenses recorded by police in 2008 in Phnom Penh, down from 357 in 2007, said the City Hall.
Considering the kingdom has a population of almost 14 million, it appears to be virtually crime-free, compared with countries with similar or smaller populations, according to the ministry.
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Norng Chanphal, a surviving child of S-21, pleads to become Civil Party at Duch trial
Ta Lorng, (Kompong Speu, Cambodia), 24/02/2009. Norng Chanphal, one of the four children who survived S-21.
Both his parents, Khmer Rouge cadres, were exterminated
A long and bumpy path in the Kong Pisey district, Kampong Speu province, leads to the small village of Taing Salath, where Norng Chanphal works. Kampot-born, Chanphal is a self-employed bulldozer driver. When we arrive on site, he decides to have a break, taking refuge under a tin roof to protect himself from the scorching midday sun. He is wearing a white shirt, stained with ochre dust, and frowns. He accepts to tell: he will, but only half-heartedly, and answers our questions with only brief sentences. He does not appear fully at ease with journalists and seems to want to avoid them.
His father, a Khmer Rouge cadre, was sent to S-21 as part of the purges organised by a regime governed by paranoia, and disappeared forever. His mother was in turn “invited” to go to Tuol Sleng to be educated there. She took Chanphal with her. He was then aged “7 or 8” years old – he does not know any more – and his little brother. He is unable to tell how long they stayed in S-21 for. Presumably, he eventually says, they were incarcerated shortly before the liberation of the capital by the Vietnamese troops on January 7th 1979.
“When we arrived [at Tuol Sleng], they ordered my mother to stand and hold in her hands a metal plate with a number on it, in order to have her picture taken, along with two other women. I was standing by her side. The guards then started insulting her, asked her for her name and drafted a statement, before sending her to the third building of the prison. My mother was gripped by fear and dreaded to be subjected to torture”, the 39 year-old qualified worker recounts, his eyes filled with sadness. The cries of pain of other prisoners and their desperate declarations of innocence stay forever etched in his memory. The day after, he and his brother were separated from their mother and placed in a room on the ground floor, amidst other children. They were never to see her again.
A child saved by the arrival of the Vietnamese troops
“Facing the imminent arrival of the Vietnamese troops, children were gathered together by the Khmer Rouge in a Jeep. As I feared my mother might not find me if we left, me, my brother and three other children went to hide under a heap of clothes which belonged to prisoners.” It is Vietnamese and Cambodian soldiers of the Kampuchean National United Front for National Salvation who discovered them several days after Phnom Penh was liberated.
In the year that followed the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime, the Vietnamese army looked after him, and he was then entrusted to the care of Keo Chenda, then mayor of Phnom Penh. “He [Keo Chenda] introduced me to Samdech Hun Sen at a ceremony at the Royal Palace, as a child who survived S-21. Samdech then asked him to send me to the orphanage in Kolab [in the capital] where I stayed for about ten years.” Chanphal has since got married and become the father of two little girls. As for his younger brother, he is now earning a living as a lorry driver.
A late and sudden decision
Still today, Chanphal does not understand why his parents were executed by the machinery of a regime they were part of. He always kept silent over his story. He only shared it with his in-laws once the marriage was celebrated, in 1996. “Recollecting that tragedy during interviews with journalists makes me suffer too much. When, one after the other, they ask me to repeat what I have been through, I lose my temper and anger mounts... It irritates me. This is why I decided to remain silent all those years. But now, the time has come for me to talk”, he says, with a weak voice. And to do that, he has the full support of his close relatives.
Tirelessly, he reiterates his will to testify “for victims, and especially for my parents, to get justice”. He explains that given the age he was at the time of events, he did not understand who the director of S-21 was. But after having enquired and followed the news about the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, he heard that it was someone called Duch. And it is when he visited the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), where he discovered a picture of himself, that he abruptly decided to constitute himself as a civil party – a decision he made of his own free will, he insists on saying – not long before the initial hearing of Duch. Chanphal assures he has evidence to produce. “I saw the tortures exerted at S-21with my own two eyes!”
Civil Party application causing quite a stir
To this day, the Trial Chamber at the Khmer Rouge court has not decided yet whether it will make an exception by taking the dossier in even though it arrived after the deadline, when Duch’s proper trial is due to open on March 30th. His lawyer, Mr Khan, insisted on the first day of the technical hearing, on February 17th, that his client be heard as a civil party. His request was supported by the co-Prosecutors, for whom such testimony could come as proof that there have indeed been children at S-21. When asked about what credibility should be given to the testimony of someone who was a child at the time of the events, which date back to more than thirty years ago, international co-Prosecutor Robert Petit answered, on the occasion of a meeting with the press on February 17th, that the Trial Chamber would be the one to decide on that, and added that “children testify every day before national courts all over the world”.
For their part, co-lawyers for the Defence questioned the authenticity of the video shot by the Vietnamese, in which children can be seen at S-21, “obviously without any emaciated faces after several days spent without eating”. The international co-lawyer for Duch, François Roux, made an ironic statement about that search for children incarcerated at S-21 and miraculously found a few days before the first trial before the Khmer Rouge court.
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S-21 survivors
To this day, only three S-21 survivors were known: Vann Nath, Chum Mey and Bou Meng – in a prison where more than 15,000 people lost their lives. In December 2008, the Vietnamese government handed out to the [tribunal www.eccc.gov.kh Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (EN/KH/FR)] a documentary film lasting about 10 minutes, with the first images shot in the bleak place after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. The authors of the film, who are Vietnamese, came to Cambodia mid-February to tell, at a press conference, what they saw in January 1979, and to talk about the children they discovered upon their arrival at S-21. Among these children, there was Chanphal.
Vann Nath, one of the survivors, has seen children of S-21 during his stay in the antechamber of death, he says. In the 1980s, he heard about the existence of Chanphal, a child who survived the same prison and was allegedly taken care of by an orphanage. He tried to locate him, in vain.
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Also on Ka-set
-Khmer Rouge Court: no money but smooth sailing at the 5th Plenary Session (02-03-2009)
-Trial of former Khmer Rouge torturer Duch due to open on March 30th (24-02-2009)
-Initial hearing prior to Duch's trial closes with debate on role of civil parties (19-02-2009)
-Initial hearing kicks off first trial at Khmer Rouge tribunal (17-02-2009)
-Vann Nath, survivor of the Khmer Rouge S-21 prison, determined to stand up for remembrance (27-08-2009)
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Cambodian rule weighs on Dreamgate’s RM200m debt notes
Writen by Joe Chin
KUALA LUMPUR: RAM Ratings has placed the A1/P1 ratings of Dreamgate Corporation Berhad’s RM200 million Commercial Papers/Medium-Term Notes Programmes (2007/2014) on Rating Watch, with a negative oulook.
The rating agency said on March 4 the Rating Watch reflects RAM Ratings’ concerns about the adverse impact of the recent changes in Cambodia’s gambling regulations, which are expected to have negative implications on Dreamgate’s credit profile.
Most of Dreamgate’s profit-generating technical support and management Services (TSM) concessions are located in Cambodia (as of end-2008, some 79% of its concessions were positioned in that country.)
RAM Ratings said it understood that the Cambodian government has issued directives banning its citizens from gambling.
At the same time, slot operators have been asked to remove gaming machines from entertainment clubs by June 2009. This means that all slot machines can only be located in licensed casinos and hotels.
About 1,500 of Dreamgate’s slot machines (or 30% of its devices installed in Cambodia) are affected by the ruling.
On top of that, another 1,900 of Dreamgate’s slot machines in Cambodia have been affected by a more recent directive issued in February 2009.
Now, even slot machines in Cambodian hotels are required to temporarily cease operations, pending a full review of their licences and compliance with the earlier directive.
“We understand that the management plans to relocate the initially affected 1,500 machines to Macau, the Philippines and other casinos under the Group’s stable in Cambodia; the exercise is expected to be completed by mid-2009. On the other hand, the fate of the other 1,900 machines remains uncertain at this juncture,” it said.
RAM Ratings said Dreamgate might consider relocating these machines to Macau and the Philippines as well, if the licence review stretches more than two months.
In 4Q FY Dec 2008, Dreamgate incurred a pre-tax loss of RM9.48 million, due to various factors that include slowing TSM sales, write-off of expenses in relation to club closures and higher operating costs arising from additional outlets; before the regulatory changes, Dreamgate had added 12 new outlets in fiscal 2008.
Given these disruptions to its Cambodian operations, the Group’s performance in FY Dec 2009 is likely to come under severe pressure.
“RAM Ratings is concerned about Dreamgate’s position going forward. Given these rulings, we opine that the Group’s businesses in Cambodia are unlikely to yield the same returns as before.
While we note that Dreamgate will be moving these machines to new TSM concessions in Macau and the Philippines, its TSM presence in these countries is still relatively small,” says Kevin Lim, RAM Ratings’ Head of Consumer and Industrial Ratings.
RAM Ratings said it was monitoring the developments vis-à-vis Dreamgate, and keeping in close contact with the management in the lead-up to our annual review of its ratings.
The ratings will remain on Rating Watch until the review is completed; this is expected within the next three months.
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PM welcomes Cambodian planning minister
The planning and investment sectors of Vietnam and Cambodia should increase the exchange of visits and share experience to promote bilateral cooperation in trade and investment, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
While receiving Cambodian Minister of Planning Chhay Than in Hanoi on March 4, Mr Dung affirmed that Vietnam is willing to help Cambodia train its officials in planning.
Minister Chhay Than said that his ministry wants to learn from Vietnam’s development experience and expand cooperation with the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, particularly in personnel training.
He thanked the Vietnamese people for their heart-felt support and valuable assistance to Cambodia during the past struggle for national liberation and the current process of national construction.
He conveyed top Cambodian leaders’ regards to Mr Dung and other Vietnamese Party and State leaders.
Earlier in the morning, Minister Chhay Than held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Vo Hong Phuc and they signed a memorandum of understanding to increase bilateral cooperation in planning.
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