Charitable Elizabeth back for more PCA action

By Rebekah Mercer

Winning a satellite to get into the PCA main event is very difficult to do against huge fields of experienced pros, some with million dollar online poker bankrolls. Doing it once is very difficult. Doing it two years running is bucking all the odds -- especially if you're a woman.

Last year Elizabeth Bennett-Martin was one of only 14 women in the entire tournament and one of seven female online qualifiers. She won a $24 satellite to get there. Let me say that one more time -- one of 14 women in a tournament field of 1,347 players. Although an occasional player for four years, this was her first major event and netted her $40,000 for 25th place. She's back again this year, competing against a horde of internet whiz kids and seasoned pros. My money is on her to make it happen again.

I talked to Elizabeth about her two-time satellite win and her plans for the PCA. She's very excited to be coming back to the Atlantis to enjoy a week-long holiday with her family, although if it goes according to plan, they will be on their own for a good part of it. They will most likely be enjoying the pools and slides, the aquarium exhibits, and the endless activities at the Atlantis while she sweats it out in the windowless cavern of a poker room at the Atlantis. She plans to be there every day of her vacation for ten to twelve hours a day - if she makes it to the final table. She wouldn't have it any other way. She's a poker player, and she comes to win. But she also comes to give back.

A portion of her winnings from this year's tournament are designated for a charity which provides funds for education and housing for young women in Cambodia. The charity was formed through Bennett-Martin's law firm, Bennett Gastle P.C. in Toronto, along with the help of her firm's partner, Charles Gastle, and his wife Ruth. The focus of the charity is to provide educational assistance and living expenses to help young women in Cambodia attend law school, and escape a life of poverty. The Cambodian Legal Education for Women (CLEW) was formed to help the women who live in extremely deprived, cramped conditions and sleep on mats on a bare floor. The dormitory has no furniture or cooking facilities, other than hot plates. These women hope to become lawyers to assist a population where legal help is extremely rare (in 2009 there were only 538 lawyers for a population of over 14 million people). For more information on CLEW, see their web site here

Elizabeth plans to give a portion of her winnings from the main event to the charity if she cashes. In addition, she plans to play the Ladies Event at the PCA this year, and she has designated all of the winnings from that event to go directly to the charity. This is the first year for the Ladies Tournament, and Elizabeth is excited to be a part of the inaugural event and to participate in an event that promotes women in the game.

If you get a chance to chat with Elizabeth at the PCA, she will tell you more about the charity and maybe she will share a few secrets that helped her make it two years running. But I wouldn't count on the secrets part. She didn't get this far by giving away too much -- except when it comes to helping other women who are in need.

You can here more from Elizabeth thanks to this video interview with her at last year's PCA...

Read more!

With new year, Kingdom joins world’s largest FTA

A vendor sells vegetables in a Phnom Penh market. Officials hope a China-ASEAN free trade deal will boost agricultural exports.

Cambodia has until 2015 to drop tariffs under the terms of a major regional free trade deal that takes effect today, but the alliance’s likely impact on the Kingdom is still far from certain.

TODAY marks the launch of two major free trade deals in Asia, paving the way for Cambodia to axe the majority of tariffs on imports from China and countries in the ASEAN region by 2015.

As the clock struck midnight today, Cambodia became part of the newly formed ASEAN-China Free Trade Area.

Encompassing an estimated 1.7 billion consumers, the new free trade area sees the removal of duties on 90 percent of goods traded between the founding six Asean members and the People’s Republic of China.

From today, Cambodia – which joined Asean in 1999 – will gradually reduce its levies with China until most goods become duty-free in 2015.

Midnight also marked the launch of freer trade between the ASEAN-6 nations. More than 7,000 trade tariffs were lowered to nil, enabling 99.11 percent of all goods to cross the borders of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand for free.

As part of the Common Effective Preferential Tariffs for Asean Free Trade Area, launched in 1993, Cambodia will reduce many of its tariffs to 5 percent this year, before lowering them to zero in 2015.

Businessmen and officials throughout the Kingdom are considering the impact of the moves, which some predict could revitalise the agricultural sector by providing increased export opportunities.

Commenting on the China deal, Chan Nora, a secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce, said it was “a great achievement for us”.

However, some business leaders have questioned Cambodia’s ability to enter larger markets, given the limitations of domestic infrastructure and existing business models.

AT THE stroke of midnight last night, while the world was celebrating the dawn of a New Year, Cambodia’s business community ushered in an international trade deal eight years in the making.

The ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (FTA), signed in 2002, today removed trade barriers and tariffs between the six founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China on around 90 percent of all products, though it gave Cambodia an additional five years to open its markets.

As a newer Asean member along with Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar, it will gradually reduce tariffs in coming years before scrapping the majority in 2015.

The FTA will unite an estimated 1.7 billion consumers in the world’s largest free trade area in terms of population. It is the third-biggest in terms of value behind the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area.

Uncertain times
But with the nation’s entry into one of the world’s largest free trade networks, a sense of uncertainty lies among the Kingdom’s business community as to what the FTA means for Cambodia. Questions are being asked about whether the Kingdom can compete on an international scale with the Chinese, and whether Cambodia will be able to make the most of new export opportunities.

Figures released by the International Monetary Fund, using data from the National Bank of Cambodia, show that Cambodia is already
strengthening its economic ties with China. Its merchandise imports from China have risen every year for the last nine years, rocketing from just US$86.9 million in 2001 to $1.2 billion in 2008, accounting for 18.4 percent of total merchandise imports that year.

That figure was dwarfed, however, by the $4.74 billion in merchandise exports from other Asean countries, or 72 percent of all imports.

Merchandise exports to China have nearly doubled since 2001, from $16.7 million to $35.13 million in 2008, IMF statistics show, representing a significant trade deficit. Exports to other ASEAN nations grew from $76.1 million to $394.5 million over the same period, which is just a drop in the bucket compared with the $4.7 billion value of the Kingdom’s exports that year.

Leading government officials say that the new FTA can further cement economic links with China, widening the export market while giving consumers more choice as import duties come down, fuelling competition.

Chan Nora, secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce, highlighted the potential for the agricultural sector – which, according to the WTO, accounted for just 2.8 percent of Cambodian exports in 2008 – to capitalise on the FTA by broadening Cambodia’s horizons away from trade with neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam. “When it comes into effect, we will have more direct access to export our products, especially agricultural products, to the Chinese,” he said.

According to a 2005 report from the ASEAN Bureau for Economic Integration, when Thailand signed a bilateral FTA with China it saw durian exports rise by 21,850 percent, mangosteen demand rise by 1,911 percent and mango shipments rise by 150 percent.

Chan Nora says that NGOs and development partners can help improve the quality of the country’s products to comply with international standards.

But while leading interest groups also welcome the FTA, they have asked whether Cambodia’s poorly developed trade infrastructure will make it difficult for exporters to use the opportunity to muscle in to new markets.

President of the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture, Yang Saing Koma, said: “The FTA can only be a good thing.

Products which have a market for export include rice, soya beans and cassava. But our capacity to export is questionable.

“Cambodia is very limited. Our capacity to process goods is just one factor which could affect exports. There are others, such as our roads and our ability to supply produce of a high quality and standard.”

Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economic Association, said Cambodia needed to boost production of the type of goods that will be most required by China, singling out the agricultural industry as a key sector. However, he acknowledged it would not be a simple matter.

“I think we still don’t have enough ability to do this, due to the high costs of transportation, electricity and land conflict,” he said. “I think that businesses within the industrial sector will find it hard to compete with China, because they can produce products cheaper than us.”

These concerns echo those in the World Bank’s latest economic outlook report for East Asia and the Pacific, released in early October. The report’s lead author, Ivailo Izvorski, warned at the time that Cambodia was not well placed to benefit from trade with China. The Asian giant was mainly hungry for imports of commodities, parts and components for processing into finished products, as well as whiteware such as washing machines and fridges, none of which were sourced from Cambodia.

He said the only benefit to Cambodia would come as regional countries, like Korea and Japan, rose on the back of China’s continue growth. “As the rising tide lifts all ships, I think you can expect to see Cambodia benefiting from a return of tourism, a return of demand for garments, but I don’t think there will necessarily be any direct relationship between China and Cambodia.”

New opportunities
Despite these worries, many, even in the beleaguered garment industry – which has seen an annualised export drop of more than 20 percent this year – remain positive about a new relationship between Cambodia and the PRC.

Garment factories make up about 70 to 80 percent of the Kingdom’s 530 large industrial units, with the other 32,000 small and medium-sized enterprises mostly producing foodstuffs and textiles.

Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturing Association of Cambodia, said that most brands catering to the Chinese garment market choose to produce in China, but said that might well change.

“If the cost of production rises further in China, then maybe it will be a viable option down the road to produce in Cambodia for export,” he said. “We can no longer rely on just one market – the USA – which accounted for 55 percent of garment exports in 2009 and 70 percent in 2008.”

He added that an existing Early Harvest agreement with China, which has already made some goods duty-free, has paved the way for a positive relationship between the Kingdom and the superpower.

The FTA’s impact on the domestic market is also being considered. With China’s reputation for mass production of goods at cheap prices, some officials think a certain amount of protection will be needed as domestic markets adjust to a possible explosion of consumer imports.

Meng Saktheara, the director general in charge of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy’s small and medium-sized enterprise department believes that a law setting a quality standard for imported products should be introduced. He warned that local producers must make high-quality, cheap products to compete with goods from China.

“The negative and positive impacts of the FTA will not occur in one day. There will be time for both local producers and consumers to adapt.

“Nevertheless, it is very good for our economy. We all should be happy with this because we can make our economic voice heard on the
international stage,” he said.

And some Cambodian entrepreneurs may not see a difference at all.

Scott Lewis, chief investment officer at Leopard Capital, a private equity fund focusing on Asia frontier markets, acknowledged the FTA could make it harder for domestic industries to develop in future, but questioned that it would really change much in the way of trade across the border.

“Given how porous Cambodia’s borders are, enforcing duties, tariffs and trade restrictions are very hard,” he said.

“The only people who pay are typically foreigners using legal channels. For most, it is already a semi-free trade zone.”

Read more!

FTA with ASEAN comes into force

By Wang Qian and Zhang Jin


The world's largest free-trade area (FTA) came into being on Friday, an initiative that analysts said gives a shot in the arm for global trade troubled by rising protectionism.

From Friday, most goods traded between China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) attracted zero or little tariff.

The average tariff on goods from ASEAN countries is cut to 0.1 percent from 9.8 percent. The six original ASEAN members - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - will slash the average tariffs on Chinese goods from 12.8 percent to 0.6 percent.

By 2015, 90 percent of goods are expected to flow without tariffs between China and the four new ASEAN members: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Border traders were happy with the launch of the FTA, the world's largest in terms of population, 1.9 billion, and third largest by GDP, trailing the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area.

Dozens of trucks, mostly carrying dragonfruit from Vietnam, were waiting to be unloaded Friday morning at the Tianyuan Fruit Trade Market, one of China's largest markets for fruit imports, at Pingxiang Customs point in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

"The establishment of the free trade area is really good news," said Liu Yuzhen, who has been trading fruits for 16 years.

She sells more than 10 tons of apples, pears, oranges and other fruits to Southeast Asia everyday, and hopes her business will expand as the FTA will facilitate Customs clearance and reduce logistics costs.

Business leaders said the FTA would definitely liberalize trade.

"This will enable trade to flow more freely between China and ASEAN, it is a very good thing," said Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economic Association.

He said the FTA would also create more opportunities for ASEAN countries to increase regional trade.

"Cambodia can produce more products and export more to China's market," he said.

Experts have predicted the removal of trade duties will prompt China-ASEAN trade to grow 40 to 50 percent.

Trade between China and ASEAN declined 16.7 percent year-on-year to hit $165.7 billion in the first 10 months last year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

An ASEAN leader said the FTA is beneficial to all.

"We sincerely hope that all parties will act to ensure that the man on the street will benefit from these reductions in tariffs," ASEAN secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said on ASEAN's website on Thursday.

He added that the lower cost of inputs will allow the business community a wider choice of goods, and in the process, they will move toward becoming more globally competitive.

Beijing-based analysts said the FTA signals China's commitment to free trade although it has fallen victim to a rising number of protectionist measures taken by developed countries.

"China's efforts to establish the FTA is aimed at not only expanding overseas markets, but also promoting trade and investment liberalization, especially amid global trade protectionism," said Zhang Monan, an economist with the State Information Center.

The FTA - which follows similar trade links established between ASEAN and Japan and South Korea - "gives new vim" to world trade at a time when multinational trade talks are stalled, said Fan Ying, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University.

"The move shows China is willing to open its market although it is a victim of rising trade protection measures," she said. "The FTA will help economies recover from the financial crisis."

Deputy Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said last week that other countries launched more than 100 trade cases against China, affecting $12 billion of Chinese exports, last year. Both figures were double the figure from a year earlier.

With the FTA in place, Zhang expects economic integration between China and ASEAN to be strengthened.

She also said she hoped the Chinese currency, the yuan, can be more widely used in Southeast Asia. Read more!

Free-trade agreement between China, ASEAN grouping comes into force

A free-trade agreement between China and Southeast Asia comes into force Friday, consolidating a six-fold surge in economic activity over the past decade between countries representing a quarter of the world's population.

The agreement expands a limited 2005 trade area between China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), scrapping tariffs on about 90 percent of goods. By 2015, duties must be cut to no more than 50 percent on “highly sensitive” items, including ambulances in Brunei, popcorn in Indonesia, snowboard boots in Thailand and toilet paper in China.

China's economic clout in Southeast Asian countries has risen over the past decade as policy makers slashed tariffs on electronics, automobile parts and computer chips. Japan, India, Europe and the U.S. have followed China in courting ASEAN, home to investments from Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of computer chips, and Toyota Motor Corp., the biggest carmaker.

“This FTA is going to make a difference at the margin to some ASEAN countries but not others,” said Razeen Sally, a director of the Brussels-based European Centre for International Political Economy, a trade-policy research group. “Basically it takes down the tariffs but does little on all the non-tariff barriers where you would have much bigger gains to trade.”

China's trade with ASEAN has jumped six-fold since 2000 to US$193 billion last year, surpassing that of the U.S. China's share of Southeast Asia's total commerce has increased to 11.3 percent from 4 percent in that time, whereas the U.S.'s portion of trade with the bloc fell to 10.6 percent from 15 percent, ASEAN statistics show. During that time, ASEAN's trade deficit with China widened by five times to US$21.6 billion. The bloc reported a US$21.2 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year, down 12 percent from 2000.

The trade agreement would hit high-tariff industries in Indonesia and the Philippines more than other ASEAN countries, Sally said. Trade in parts and components, the “central artery” of China- ASEAN economic ties, won't be affected much because most of those tariffs are already near zero, he said.

Opposition to the trade agreement has been loudest in Indonesia, where the government has sought to placate concerns that industries including textiles, food and electronics will suffer. Indonesia should renegotiate the deal because the textile industry may see its domestic market share decline by 50 percent as cheaper Chinese goods enter the market, said Ade Sudradjat, vice chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association.

The government is setting up a team to monitor trade practices, Hatta Rajasa, coordinating minister for the economy, told reporters in Jakarta Wednesday.

Indonesia, ASEAN's biggest economy and home to about 40 percent of the bloc's 584 million people, has required Chinese exports of garments, electronics, shoes, toys and food to be shipped from designated ports with every container inspected upon arrival. China, poised to overtake Germany as the world's largest exporter this year, faces 101 trade investigations in 19 countries, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported this month.

To help its exporters, China has halted the yuan's gains against the dollar from July last year. In 2009 the yuan has remained largely unchanged against the dollar while Indonesia's rupiah climbed 15.5 percent, Thailand's baht advanced 4.2 percent and the Philippine peso increased 2.3 percent.

ASEAN includes Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Wide economic disparity has hindered the group's efforts to form a single market, as the purchasing power of the group's four richest countries was 10 times greater than that of the other members last year, according to statistics on the bloc's Web site.

Read more!

Small Muslim Sect Worries Over New Influences

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer


Toothless and balding, Bhann Tes sat on a wooden bed, writing Cham script in a handheld notebook outside a mosque on Udong mountain, some 30 kilometers from Phnom Penh.

The mosque, which looks more like a Buddhist temple, might not be recognizable to more orthodox Muslims. Nor would the practices of Bhann Tes, who belongs to a rare sect of Islam whose members say is in decline.

Bhann Tes, who is 76, travels to the mosque from his home, 20 kilometers away in Kampong Chhnang province, just once a week to pray. This was required by Allah to maintain a good mind, he said. To pray five times a day, as other Muslims do, was not necessary, he said.

“Allah did not tell us to physically pray five times a day, but only to keep our minds clean of bad thoughts, like wanting to steal others’ property, telling lies, or cheating others,” he said.

Bhann Tes belongs to the Imam San sect of Islam, better known as Jahed, who comprise an estimated 37,000 Cham Muslims and whose beliefs merge the teachings of the Quran with older traditions and customs like ancestor worship.

The small group is now facing a new threat, as money and influence from other Islamic groups, including those in Arab states, have begun drawing the Jahed under their influence.

“They consider us out of their group, but we follow the same holy book,” said Kai Tam, a revered Jahed elder. “They pray with body movement, and we just pray without it.” (Women, he said, are not required to pray at all.)

“I am worried that we may lose our customs and identity in the future, as some of our members have already lost their self-identity to join with the other groups for money,” Kai Tam said in an interview at his home in Kampong Chhnang’s Kampong Tralach district.

However, Sos Kamry, who leads the majority of Cambodia’s Muslims as a mufti, denied Jaheds were being lured by material gain or money.

“Those who have joined our group did it on a voluntary basis, especially after they returned from overseas studies or pilgrimages in some Arab states, where they witnessed the true practices of Islam,” Sos Kamry said. “They call themselves Muslims, but they worship our Lord a bit differently. They may not yet know how to do it fully, but when they understand it better they follow [us] because their practices exist nowhere else in the world.”

Emiko Stock, a French anthropologist who has studied the Cham for nearly a decade, said leaders of the Imam San community often refuse aid from other Islamic sects for fear they might lose their identity.

“For instance, if they accept aid from Arab states or other countries, they said they are worried that the way of practicing their religion would be changed, such as the observance of Mawlut ceremony and the prayers for their ancestor.”

Although Cambodia’s two sects of Islam practice the same religion quite differently, no clashes or mishaps have been reported in the Buddhist-dominated country.

Min Khin, the Minister of Cults and Religion, and Senate President Chea Sim each said separately at a Buddhist conference this week that Cambodia would maintain freedom of religion.

For worshippers like Bhann Tes, the differences make no difference.

“We are all walking toward the same light,” he said. “It’s just that the way we are taking is different. Who will reach the light first, let’s just wait and see.”

Read more!

Sam Rainsy Calls for Release of Two Farmers

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer


Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Friday he would abide by a court summons and return to the country if authorities release two people arrested in December over the alleged destruction of border markers in Svay Rieng province.

Sam Rainsy has had his parliamentary immunity suspended and has a warrant out for his arrest, following failure to appear in Svay Rieng court on Dec. 28.

He is facing charges of racial incitement and the destruction of property, for allegedly leading a group of villagers to uproot border markers in Chantrea district. Villagers there say they are facing the loss of farm land from Vietnamese encroachment.

Speaking to VOA Khmer by phone from France, Sam Rainsy said he would return to Cambodia “when the Khmer authorities release two farmers who have been in jail on Dec. 23 and return the land to those people.”

“I’m responsible for everything,” he said. “I pulled out the border markers. It does not involve those people.”

Sam Rainsy said the border issue was a political case that needed to be solved politically. “I will try to find a solution from the international community,” he said.

Koam Chhean, head of the Svay Rieng court, said Friday authorities had to hold the two farmers. “The law is the law,” he said. “Sam Rainsy understands the law too. Why did he say like that?”

Read more!

Laos, Cambodia To Discuss Border Markers

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer


Officials from Cambodia and Laos will meet in Vientiane next week to discuss lingering border disputes and potential trade agreements.

Cambodia’s delegation, led by Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, is expected to leave Tuesday. Hor Namhong will meet with his Lao counterpart, Thoungloun Sioulith.

Talks over two days will focus on “all fields, such as border issues, anti-drug smuggling, anti-terrorism, anti-cross-border crimes, trade, economy, education, tourism, investment and others,” said Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the ministry.

Cambodia and Laos have worked steadily to mark their shared borders, erecting 121 markers between 2000 and 2005. Negotiation is needed on a further 20 markers.

“We will push the Lao side to speed up the planting of the remaining border markers as soon as possible,” Koy Kuong said.
Read more!

Cambodian opposition leader slams court ruling

REUTERS, PHNOM PENH


An arrest warrant has been issued for the leader of Cambodia’s main opposition party after he ignored a provincial court order to appear for questioning, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Sam Rainsy failed to appear for questioning on Monday about an Oct. 25 incident in which demarcation posts were uprooted along Cambodia’s border with Vietnam.

A Phnom Penh court issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday, although it was not announced publicly.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan confirmed on Thursday that the warrant had been issued for Rainsy, who leads the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).

In an e-mail from France, Rainsy said he would not appear in court because the case against him was politically motivated.

“The court in Cambodia is just a political tool for the ruling party to crack down on the opposition,” he said. “I will let this politically subservient court prosecute me in absentia because its verdict is known in advance.”

Phay insisted the judges made their decisions free of political interference and said the warrant was issued only because Rainsy missed his court date.

“No matter who you are you have to appear in court, that’s the law,” Phay said.

Rights groups have accused the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of using the courts to crack down on opposition.

On Nov. 16, the CPP-dominated government voted to strip Rainsy of his immunity for the second time last year.

Rainsy faces charges of racial incitement and destruction of property for his alleged role in uprooting six border posts, which local farmers claimed were placed on their land.

Vietnam lodged an official complaint over the incident.

The countries are in the process of demarcating their 1,270m-long border, but farmers on the Cambodian side have claimed they are losing land as Vietnam encroaches on Cambodian territory. A group of villagers from Svay Rieng Province took their concerns to Rainsy, who is a fierce critic of Vietnam’s influence in Cambodian affairs.

Vietnam is a growing investor in Cambodia and the countries signed a memorandum of understanding at a forum in Ho Chi Minh City last Saturday, which will guide Vietnamese investments that officials said could top US$6 billion.

Read more!

Small Muslim Sect Worries Over New Influences

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer


Toothless and balding, Bhann Tes sat on a wooden bed, writing Cham script in a handheld notebook outside a mosque on Udong mountain, some 30 kilometers from Phnom Penh.

The mosque, which looks more like a Buddhist temple, might not be recognizable to more orthodox Muslims. Nor would the practices of Bhann Tes, who belongs to a rare sect of Islam whose members say is in decline.

Bhann Tes, who is 76, travels to the mosque from his home, 20 kilometers away in Kampong Chhnang province, just once a week to pray. This was required by Allah to maintain a good mind, he said. To pray five times a day, as other Muslims do, was not necessary, he said.

“Allah did not tell us to physically pray five times a day, but only to keep our minds clean of bad thoughts, like wanting to steal others’ property, telling lies, or cheating others,” he said.

Bhann Tes belongs to the Imam San sect of Islam, better known as Jahed, who comprise an estimated 37,000 Cham Muslims and whose beliefs merge the teachings of the Quran with older traditions and customs like ancestor worship.

The small group is now facing a new threat, as money and influence from other Islamic groups, including those in Arab states, have begun drawing the Jahed under their influence.

“They consider us out of their group, but we follow the same holy book,” said Kai Tam, a revered Jahed elder. “They pray with body movement, and we just pray without it.” (Women, he said, are not required to pray at all.)

“I am worried that we may lose our customs and identity in the future, as some of our members have already lost their self-identity to join with the other groups for money,” Kai Tam said in an interview at his home in Kampong Chhnang’s Kampong Tralach district.

However, Sos Kamry, who leads the majority of Cambodia’s Muslims as a mufti, denied Jaheds were being lured by material gain or money.

“Those who have joined our group did it on a voluntary basis, especially after they returned from overseas studies or pilgrimages in some Arab states, where they witnessed the true practices of Islam,” Sos Kamry said. “They call themselves Muslims, but they worship our Lord a bit differently. They may not yet know how to do it fully, but when they understand it better they follow [us] because their practices exist nowhere else in the world.”

Emiko Stock, a French anthropologist who has studied the Cham for nearly a decade, said leaders of the Imam San community often refuse aid from other Islamic sects for fear they might lose their identity.

“For instance, if they accept aid from Arab states or other countries, they said they are worried that the way of practicing their religion would be changed, such as the observance of Mawlut ceremony and the prayers for their ancestor.”

Although Cambodia’s two sects of Islam practice the same religion quite differently, no clashes or mishaps have been reported in the Buddhist-dominated country.

Min Khin, the Minister of Cults and Religion, and Senate President Chea Sim each said separately at a Buddhist conference this week that Cambodia would maintain freedom of religion.

For worshippers like Bhann Tes, the differences make no difference.

“We are all walking toward the same light,” he said. “It’s just that the way we are taking is different. Who will reach the light first, let’s just wait and see.”

Read more!

Poor Cambodians face eviction under new law: report

PHNOM PENH — Hundreds of poor communities in the Cambodian capital face potential forced evictions after parliament this week passed a controversial law, rights groups warned Thursday.

Lawmakers on Tuesday voted through a law on expropriations which will give the authorities legal grounds to seize private property for public development projects in Cambodia.

The law still needs to be approved by the senate and promulgated by King Norodom Sihamoni, but it has raised concerns from rights groups about a surge in forced evictions.

"The existence of a law on expropriation which was just recently passed... will create more negative effects on the poor people in the city," the rights groups said in a joint statement.

The statement said there were 410 vulnerable communities of urban poor in Phnom Penh, with 74 of them threatened with eviction.

"These (74) communities have already received notifications from the government authorities that ordered them to voluntarily move away from their homes with little compensations, the groups said.

The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, the Housing Rights Task Force, and the NGO Forum on Cambodia also said they had "deep concern about potential forced evictions of urban poor people from their communities in the near future".

The Cambodian government has faced mounting criticism for a spate of forced evictions throughout the country over the past few years at the hands of the army and police as land prices have risen.

Cambodia in September ended a World Bank-financed land-titling programme amid increasing property disputes and allegations of land-grabbing.

Land ownership is a controversial problem in Cambodia, where legal documents were destroyed under the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s and civil war that ended in 1998.

Read more!

Cambodia court orders arrest of opposition leader

By Jared Ferrie


PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - An arrest warrant has been issued for the leader of Cambodia's main opposition party after he ignored a provincial court order to appear for questioning, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Sam Rainsy failed to appear for questioning on Monday about an Oct. 25 incident in which demarcation posts were uprooted along Cambodia's border with Vietnam.

A Phnom Penh court issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday, although it was not announced publicly.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan confirmed on Thursday that the warrant had been issued for Rainsy, who leads the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).

In an email from France, Rainsy told Reuters he would not appear in court because the case against him was politically motivated.

"The court in Cambodia is just a political tool for the ruling party to crack down on the opposition," he said. "I will let this politically subservient court prosecute me in absentia because its verdict is known in advance."

Phay insisted the judges made their decisions free of political interference and said the warrant was issued only because Rainsy missed his court date.

"No matter who you are you have to appear in court, that's the law," he said.

Rights groups have accused the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of using the courts to crack down on opposition.

On Nov. 16, the CPP-dominated government voted to strip Rainsy of his immunity for the second time in 2009.

Rainsy faces charges of racial incitement and destruction of property for his alleged role in uprooting six border posts, which local farmers claimed were placed on their land.

Vietnam lodged an official complaint over the incident. The countries are in the process of demarcating their 1,270-metre long border, but farmers on the Cambodian side have claimed they are losing land as Vietnam encroaches on Cambodian territory.

A group of villagers from Svay Rieng province, on the frontier with Vietnam, brought their concerns to Rainsy, who is a fierce critic of Vietnam's influence in Cambodian affairs.

Vietnam is a growing investor in Cambodia, and the countries signed a memorandum of understanding at a forum in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 26, which will guide Vietnamese investments that officials said could top $6 billion.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)


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Cambodia’s ‘jungle woman’ speaking normally, dad says

AFP , PHNOM PENH


Cambodia’s “jungle woman,” whose story gripped the country after she apparently spent 18 years living in a forest, has begun speaking normally instead of making animal-type noises, her father said.

Rochom P’ngieng, now 28, went missing as a little girl in 1989 while herding water buffalo in Ratanakkiri Province, about 600km northeast of the capital Phnom Penh.

In early 2007, the woman was brought from the jungle, naked and dirty, after being caught trying to steal food from a farmer. She was hunched over like a monkey, scavenging on the ground for pieces of dried rice.

She could not utter a word of any intelligible language, instead making what Sal Lou, the man who says he is her father, calls “animal noises.”

JUNGLE WOMAN’

Cambodians described her as “jungle woman” and “half-animal girl” and since rejoining society Rochom P’ngieng has battled bouts of illness and was hospitalized in October after refusing food.

Sal Lou said late on Wednesday, however, that this month his daughter had started to understand Cambodia’s Khmer language and could even speak the language of his ethnic Phnong tribe.

“She is becoming a normal human being like others. She has been starting to speak out now — she speaks the language of Phnong,” Sal Lou said by telephone. “She can ask for food, water and so on when she feels hungry.”

The apparent breakthrough happened after Rochom P’ngieng’s hospitalization, when doctors gave her injections to treat a nervous illness for a few days, Sal Lou said.

VERY GENTLE

“She is very gentle and I am very happy with her progress,” he said, adding that her condition appears to be improving from day to day.

Sal Lou said his daughter had stopped trying to flee into the jungle as she had in the past.

“Even though we tried to take her into jungle, she wanted to stay at home,” he said.

The jungles of Ratanakkiri — some of the most isolated and wild in Cambodia — are known to have held hidden groups of hill tribes in the recent past.

In November 2004, 34 people from four hill tribe families emerged from the dense forest where they had fled in 1979 after the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which they supported.
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CAMBODIA Coadjutor appointed for Phnom Penh vicariate

PHNOM PENH (UCAN) -- A coadjutor to the country’s only Catholic bishop has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI.

On Dec. 24, the Vatican announced that Father Olivier Schmitthaeusler, 39, has been made coadjutor apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh apostolic vicariate.

The Paris Foreign Missions (MEP) priest was serving as Phnom Penh vicar general as well as head of the vicariate’s education committee when he was handed his new post.

Duong Savong, director of the Cambodia Catholic Culture Center, said he hopes Father Schmitthaeusler, in his new role, will help Catholics develop their faith and improve relations with other religions alongside Bishop Emile Destombes.

The coadjutor of a Church jurisdiction shares episcopal responsibility with the local Church head and may also succeed him. In August 2010, Bishop Destombes will turn 75 and will be required to request retirement according to Church law.

Father Werachai Sri Pramong of the Thai Missionary Society said the new appointment shows the Church in Cambodia is growing.

Kol Cheang, a member of the parish council of Our Lady of the Smile Parish here, said Father Schmitthaeusler is a good choice since he has good relations with local Catholics, people of other religions, as well as with local and national government officials.

“He has helped young people get an education and has built schools for poor people in the countryside.”

Father Schmitthaeusler was born on June 26, 1970, in Strasbourg, France. His father is a permanent deacon of Strasbourg archdiocese.

After ordination as an MEP priest in 1998, he went to Cambodia as a missioner. He then became a pastor in the Takeo and Kampot areas in the south of the country. Since 2002 he has served as director of the Catholic Education Committee of the Phnom Penh apostolic vicariate. From 2003-2005, he also taught Church history at the major seminary in Phnom Penh before being appointed vicar general in 2007. Read more!

Cambodia's dengue fever death toll sharply falls this year

PHNOM PENH, (Xinhua) -- The number of reported cases of dengue fever rose in 2009, but fatalities significantly fell from 2008 due to improved public awareness, local media reported on Thursday, citing health officials.

Ngan Chantha, director of dengue control at the Health Ministry, was quoted by the Cambodia Daily as saying that there were 11,625 cases of dengue fever and 36 deaths from the disease this year, compared to 9,245 cases and 65 deaths last year.

"We intervened by disseminating information through the media, spraying mosquito insecticide and training doctors and nurses to help dengue victims properly."

"People understand the disease and how dangerous it is, but they still don't change their behavior," he said, referring to the need to keep homes free of places where mosquitoes can breed.

Most of this year's dengue infections occurred in high-density areas in provinces including Kompong Cham, Kandal, Siem Reap and Kampot, as well as the capital Phnom Penh, Chantha added.

Doung Socheat, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, agreed with Ngan Chantha that this year's decrease in fatalities was due to improved awareness and public health education on how to treat the disease.

Public health authorities will concentrate on decreasing further the number of both dengue infections and fatalities in the coming year, Socheat said.
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Kasit defends record in office

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya has defended his performance over the past 12 months - particularly in dealing with the Thai-Cambodia dispute - insisting he will not resign from his post.

Mr Kasit yesterday responded to public criticism and polls that show he is "a weak link in the government" and that his ministry has performed badly over the past year.

Mr Kasit said he had good relations with all countries around the world - except one country which created problems because "some Thais became spies to undermine him". He was referring to Cambodia.

"I did not yield to the leader of that country because it would have meant losing what is in Thailand's national interest, especially the oil and gas reserves under the Gulf of Thailand," Mr Kasit said.

"It does not belong to any family or any group of people, not Thais or another country. It belongs to the 65 million Thai people. I will not allow one or a few families from any country to occupy this oil and gas reserve, and I will not quit my position.

"What I try to fight for is the right thing and I can explain everything I did. I think this government and I did everything right."

Mr Kasit admitted the weakness of the government and the Foreign Ministry was their poor public relations work.

"It is the responsibility of neighbouring countries, which believe in international rules and regulations and non-interference principles, to not sit idly by but to help orchestrate talks," he said.

The diplomatic row between Thailand and Cambodia flared up after Cambodia appointed ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as its economic adviser and personal adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The Thai government recalled its ambassador from Phnom Penh and Cambodia responded by withdrawing its ambassador from Bangkok.

Cambodia refused to extradite Thaksin when he arrived in the country on Nov10 to take up his post as adviser.

Phnom Penh authorities then arrested a Thai engineer working for Cambodia Air Traffic Services on spying charges for passing on details of Thaksin's flight details to the Thai embassy.

He was later granted a pardon by the Cambodian king.

Mr Kasit said Thailand's image among the international community had improved over the past six months.

"The international media has less comment on the Thai government and understands more about the role of the monarchy," he said.

He said the election scheduled for Burma next year would be another challenge for Asean.

If Burma was successful in its election, it would help strengthen the grouping and improve human rights issues, making the Asean Charter stronger.

"I think progress in Burma is an important [issue] and peace along the Thai-Burmese border [will improve the] solidarity of Asean."

If the election fails, it will be to the detriment of Asean, he said.

The minister said the ministry's core policy next year would be to emphasise cooperation with Africa and Europe as Thailand was seeking closer links with the two continents.

Africa will become an emerging market for Thai consumer goods and food resources and Thailand will help to provide technical assistance in agriculture.

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Preah Vihear resolution overturned

The Administrative Court has ruled against a cabinet resolution approving a Thai-Cambodian memorandum of understanding on the listing of Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site.

The court yesterday quashed the June 17, 2008, resolution on the grounds that the government of the day, led by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, had failed to follow procedures required by Section 190 of the constitution.

The section requires all agreements involving issues of sovereignty to be approved by parliament.

The memorandum was not scrutinised by parliament before it was signed by then foreign affairs minister Noppadon Pattama on May 22, 2008.

Thailand pledged in the memo to support Cambodia in nominating the Preah Vihear temple to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as a World Heritage site.

Attached to the document was a map of the overlapping border area surrounding the temple.

The case was filed by the People's Alliance for Democracy which campaigned against the listing of the Khmer ruins.

PAD lawyer Nitithon Lamlua yesterday said the group would submit the ruling to the National Anti-Corruption Commission which is investigating Mr Noppadon for alleged malfeasance in his handling of the matter.

He said Mr Noppadon had 30 days to appeal against the ruling.

PAD secretary-general Suriyasai Katasila hailed the verdict as a New Year's gift for all Thais.

The government should tell Unesco that Thailand no longer supports Cambodia's bid to list the temple, he said.

"The government must inform Unesco of the court's ruling as quickly as possible to put a halt to any activities which could affect Thai interests," he said.

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S. Korea: Low pathogenic H5N2 in ducks 29 Dec 2009

On a duck farm in South Korea low pathogenic bird flu type H5N2 has been diagnosed.
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The duck farm in Chung Chong-Namdo (Gobuk-myeon, Seo-san city) holds 26,800 duck of which 40 birds were found to be positive for H5N2. The source of the infection could not be established.

As part of the yearly surveillance programme, a member of the Livestock Health Control Association collected samples from a duck raising farm in Seo-san city and requested the test for avian influenza to the Chungchong-namdo Veterinary Research Institute (VRI) on 7 December 2009.

After it was positive by haemagglutination test, the sample was sent to the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (NVRQS) on 22 December. In the course of the confirmatory test, the isolated virus was confirmed as H5 avian influenza virus on 24 December and finally confirmed as low pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N2) by gene sequencing.

26,800 ducks raised in the affected farm were culled and 176,000 eggs kept in the farm were destroyed.

The whole procedure for burial and burning was completed on 26 December. Traceback investigation of epidemiologically related farms and enhanced surveillance on neighbouring farms are underway.

According to the OIE Animal Health Information Department H5 and H7 avian influenza in its low pathogenic form in poultry is a notifiable disease and the applied control measures have to take place (a.o. stamping out).

H5N1 in Cambodia
In a backyard flock in Cambodia the highly pathogenic influenza strain H5N1 was found.

In a flock of 1,216 birds in Ponhea Kraek 143 chicken were found dead and examined positive for bird flu. The remaining 875 birds were destroyed. Movements of birds in the area is restricted. Read more!

Rachel's mission to help children in Cambodia

By Emma Streatfield

A SWINDON woman will spend three months helping children in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Rachel White, of Harrow Close, Stratton has been accepted as a volunteer for a community project with children in Cambodia for the registered charity Globalteer.

Many of these children are orphaned or living on the streets.

The 25-year-old said: “It’s a completely different world out there and I hope I can make a difference.”

Rachel will head out to Cambodia on January 30 and return on April 12.

She will be working with Cambodia Kids, which is involved in various projects – a day centre for street children, a children’s orphanage and a free education programme for children.

Rachel will be assigned to help out on one of these projects when she arrives.

In recent years, Cambodia has seen decades of upheaval and conflict.

The radical communist Khmer Rouge party, under their leader Pol Pot, seized power in 1975 after years of guerrilla warfare.

Under his regime over the next three years an estimated 1.7m Cambodians died some from exhaustion or starvation, but many from torture and execution.

Today, Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world and relies heavily on international aid.

Rachel said the consequences of this poverty were being felt by the country’s young people.

She said: “Because the parents can’t afford to keep them, their children are put into orphanages so they get a better chance.”

She said she went to Australia on a gap year, but had always wanted to do some humanitarian work abroad.

So when she found out she was starting her new job in April, she decided to take the opportunity to look on the Globalteer website.

Globalteer is a not for profit UK charity that serves to help those in need. It places volunteers overseas to work on projects that need help, but in order to volunteer on the project donation money has to be raised.

This money will be used to help in the building of schools and provide children with meals to allow them to attend school rather than working or begging.

To raise the necessary funding, Rachel will be running or walking 200 miles in 20 days on a treadmill.

She has also organised a quiz for 70 of her family and friends at The GW pub, on Station Road, opposite the railway station on Saturday.

To donate to Rachel’s campaign email rachelwhite84@hotmail.com.

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Thai court cancels cabinet resolution on Preah Vihear temple

BANGKOK, (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Central Administrative Court Wednesday ordered revocation of a resolution passed by the Samak Sundaravej-led government, which approved the Thai-Cambodian joint communique supporting Cambodia's bid to list Preah Vihear temple as a UNESCO World Heritage site, Thai News Agency reported.

The Thai-Cambodian joint communique was issued in May, 2008, and the cabinet under then Prime Minister Samak passed the resolution approving it on June 17.

Nitithorn Lamlua, a lawyer of the People's Alliance for Democracy filed a petition with the court against then Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama for signing the joint communique without a parliamentary approval, which is required by Article 190 of the 2007 constitution.

There were some eight other lawyers, who joined the PAD lawyer, Nitithorn, in filing the petition with the court.

Nitithorn said he will forward the court verdict to the National Anti-Corruption Commission asking it to take legal action against Noppadon for malfeasance.

The two neighbors have also been engaged in a conflict about their undemocratic border area claimed by both sides adjacent to the ancient Preah Vihear temple.

Both countries have historically laid claim to the temple. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but the temple can practicably only be accessed from Thailand. Read more!

FM Kasit urges PM Hun Sen to consider Thai-Cambodian relations as priority

BANGKOK, (TNA) - Thailand's Minister of Foreign Affairs Kasit Piromya on Wednesday urged Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to show concern for better long term relations between the two kingdoms by not getting involved with convicted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Mr Kasit said as long as PM Hun Sen has cordial relations with the fugitive ex-premier and sets this amicable relationship as his standpoint in bilateral relations, Thailand cannot accept the condition.

"Neither I nor Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva have any personal conflict with Mr Hun Sen and Mr Thaksin," said the Thai foreign minister, "I have known Mr Hun Sen for over 20 years and know his style of working very well, so I don't want Mr Hun Sen to get involved with the convicted ex-premier for the sake of good bilateral relations."

Mr Kasit reiterated that Mr Thaksin is a fugitive, wanted by the Thai authorities, and that he has undermined Thai society and continues even now.

Ousted by a bloodless coup d'etat on September 19, 2006, Mr Thaksin fled the country over one year ago before the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions sentenced him to a two-year jail term for malfeasance in regard to the controversial Bangkok Ratchadapisek land purchase case.

The diplomatic row between Thailand and Cambodia flared up after the Cambodian government appointed the fugitive ex-Thai premier as its economic adviser and personal adviser to Mr Hun Sen.

The Thai government recalled its ambassador to Phnom Penh in retaliation, while Cambodia then withdrew its ambassador to Bangkok.

The Cambodian government also refused to extradite Mr Thaksin as requested by Thailand and arrested a Thai engineer working at Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS) on charges of passing privileged information on the flight details of Mr Thaksin during his first visit as advisor to Cambodia to a Thai diplomat.

The Thai employee was sentenced to seven years jail and fined Bt100,000 (US$3,000) but later was released following a royal pardon granted by the Cambodian king.

The Cambodian premier was recently quoted in foreign media as saying he is unhappy as long as Thai premier Abhisit and Mr Kasit are still in their posts. (TNA)


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